Chapter 67

Present – Ben, Destiny and Ivan - At the cabin – about a week later

I smile at Destiny as we watch the greenies start packing up and preparing to leave. Then I assume the ready position behind my ever faithful Barrett fifty caliber because I'm concerned they are going to try to take the hostage Marines with them - that would earn them another ass whoopin. They begin by cutting the Marines loose and letting them just stand there. They next roll Jens out of the CSH and begin to tear it down. Destiny comments, "Ben, you should be happy since you've won."

Once I realize they aren't taking Jens or any of the other Marines away I move away from the Barrett, grin at her and correct her statement, "No we won. You were as much a part of this as anyone else. I couldn't have done this without your help."

She smiles and continues, "And you accomplished all this without killing any Special Forces or even Mike."

My grin turns to a frown while I complain, "Yeah, the greenies didn't even deserve the shit I gave them, but Mike is still a different story."

Ivan excitedly interrupts, "Unca Ben shoot heliwhopters again like times many before?"

I grin at Ivan and answer, "We'll let them go this time because the bad men need them to leave."

Ivan frowns and continues, "Too bad. I like seeing the smoke and fire from the heliwhopters when you shoot them. Unca Ben, you and Lady really puff and huff and blow the bad men away."

We both chuckle at one of Ivan's favorite sayings then Destiny comments, "Ivan, we will finally be able to take you to your mother and father."

Ivan begins to fidget and asks, "When we go, when we go?"

Destiny holds his hand and answers, "Once all the bad men leave in the helicopters we will take you to your mother and father."

I correct her again, "Destiny, you mean you will be able to take Ivan to his mother and father..."

Ben's last answer concerns me so I inquire, "Ben, what are you talking about?"

Ben gives me the answer I was afraid he would give me, "Destiny, I'm not taking Ivan to Jack and Masha - you're going to do that. My job here is over and I need to get out of here."

I have been arguing with Ben this last week on how he needs to reconnect with Jennifer. But the harder I've argued the more resistant he's become. I complain, "But I thought we were leaving together?"

Ben laughs and states a fact, "Destiny, we both know that you can take Ivan to Jack and Masha and still catch up with me with no real effort on your part."

That fact is true. I could give him several days head start and still catch up with him. I grin at Ben and challenge, "So does this mean you believe I am a Shaman?"

He laughs and answers, "I don't know what the hell you are so I'm not saying you're a Shaman; and I'm not saying you're not a Shaman."

It's my turn to complain, "Ben you should become a politician."

Ben glares at me and whines, "That's one of the worst insults you could give me."

We watch as some of the released Marines walk over to Jennifer. Next, the last of the Special Forces board the helicopter, it starts up and they are gone.

I smile at Ivan, who has been the best boy he could be this week, and say, "Let's take to you to your mother and father."

Ivan takes off running down the hill as I turn to Ben and promise, "I will see you in a few days."

He grins and answers, "We will see about that. If you can find me then I might actually believe you are a Shaman."

As Ivan and I run down the hill, I see Stacy Summers, her two horses and the bear I had met earlier in the week, they are also near Jennifer.

Ivan begins to yell, "Mama, Papa!"

I see his parents begin to run toward him and know he will be fine so I divert toward Jennifer.

Present – Jens, Stacy and Destiny - At the cabin – about a week later

I can't believe it! The fucking Special Forces roll me out of the CSH then began to disassemble the whole thing. The doctor who was treating me comes over and advises, "Ms. Donaldson, we have to leave however you should be fine until you can get more treatment."

I turn my head and notice not just the CSH is being disassembled, the whole camp is virtually gone and the Special Forces are loading into the repaired helicopters. I say repaired because my Ben began blowing the hell out of the Chinooks every time they landed. I guess he raised enough hell with them they finally called it quits.

Some of the Marines who have been released gather around me, then a woman rides up on a pinto pony and shouts an order, "I want my medic over here to take care of Jennifer Donaldson immediately."

She looks a little familiar but I'm not sure where I've seen her before. She gets off the horse comes over to me and introduces herself, "Jennifer Donaldson, I am Stacy Summers and I am partially responsible for getting the bastard Mike and the Special Forces to leave. Now, how are you feeling?"

Ah, now I know who the hell she is: She's the girl that Ben traveled with for a short time in Texas. I glare at my antagonist and demand, "First, what are you doing on my land and second what the hell do you mean you are partially responsible for the Special Forces leaving?"

She smiles at me and replies, "Jennifer Donaldson, I am not here to compete with you and I hope we can be friends. I came here because you needed help. Some of you were trapped in the tunnels and I brought in the crew to excavate the tunnels. I do want to apologize for enabling Mike to take advantage of my efforts to capture you and the others in the tunnels. I simply didn't realize how ruthless he was. Now to answer your second question, I made a lot of calls to Washington and even put my government contracts with the military in jeopardy to force them to recall the Special Forces to Fort Carson."

She continues with her smile, holds out her hand and asks, "So what about it, can we be friends?"

I remember something my father taught me about keeping friends close and enemies even closer so I fake a smile, shake her hand and offer, "Thank you for all your help..."

Jennifer's handshake and smile seemed a little to practiced to me, then I figured it out: The sneaky bitch was doing to me exactly what I was doing to say: Yes, she was 'keeping me closer'.

Samantha runs over and asks, "Stacy, it's good to see you again. Were you able to complete your mission?"

Shit I wish she hadn't asked me that! I prepare to reply 'not no, but hell no' which isn't a lie (we never did catch Ben) when we are interrupted while Wojtek yowls and takes off like his ass is on fire. Then Patches and Bo become very skittish. They did this before a couple times when we were looking for Ben and I didn't really understand their reaction. Then I notice a beautiful lady walking toward us. She has the most incredible hair I have ever seen, literally flowing down to her waist: It literally glows in the sunshine.

She walks up, looks at Jennifer and tells her, "Ben sends his all his love to you..."

I have to fight laughing when I walk near Jennifer, Stacy and Samantha. The bear recognizes me, even in my human form, yowls and runs away. And the two horses also recognize me and are uncomfortable. Yes, this isn't the first time we met since I had confronted the three of them several times when they were tracking Ben. A well-timed snarl and making the hair on my back stand up was enough to send the bear running. I had contemplated what to say to Jennifer when we first met and decided to tell her the truth no matter how hard it would be for her to accept.

She glares at me and angrily confronts me, "What the hell would you know about Ben and if he loved me he would be here right now!"

I smile at her and explain, "I have been helping Ben for almost a month: First I helped him to know what was happening here, then I helped to get him here, and I finally helped him to fight the Special Forces. And while he isn't here with you right now, I can assure you he most certainly still loves you very deeply."

Jennifer looks me over and scoffs, "That's funny since you sure don't look like a warrior. And if Ben still loves me, he has a funny way of showing it."

I laugh and counsel, "You of all people should know better than to judge a book by its cover. And I was there encouraging Ben to connect to you."

Stacy interrupts, "So you're telling me you're the one that helped Ben and were part of the team we heard the Special Forces complaining about?"

Jennifer interrupts with a question, "Wait, you've heard about her?"

Stacy answers, "Well, I've heard many things about the person that was helping Ben, but I can't believe it was ... was ... her."

I finally get a chance to answer, "Yes, it was me and I can show you Ben's bunkers to prove it. That reminds me, someone needs to go into the bunker and turn off the GPS jammer and the spectrum warfare module before they arrive."

I can tell Jennifer still doesn't believe me when she glares at me and demands, "Who the hell are 'they'."

I nod at Stacy and answer, "Stacy hired a contracting firm to come and repair the entrances to the tunnels and to start to repair the cabin. She also has temporary trailers coming to be used as housing while the repairs are completed."

Stacy almost explodes as she demands, "How in the hell did you know all that? It's a secret!"

My plan works as Jennifer begins to argue with Stacy. I notice some people approaching that I don't want to encounter so I say, "You two can work out the details between yourselves as I need to be leaving. By the way, you need to be very careful because Mike left some traps for Ben and me. Make sure not to use the port-a-potties and be careful with the tunnel entrances and the entry ways into the house."

I turn and quickly walk away before they arrive. I once again fight laughter as I notice the bear watching me from his hiding place under a pine tree...

Present - Mike – In hiding – about a week later

Son of a bitch! I knew it was going to be bad when the stupid Captain let Stacy Summers escape, but I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be this bad. This mission wasn't just the worst mission I had ever commanded; it was an embarrassment right from the start.