Chapter 85

Present – Jens and others – many months later at the cabin

So many things have happened these last few months it's hard to remember them all but since I am the leader of this rag-tag group of misfits I will try.

First and most disappointing - we never did find Ben. Heck, we never even came close to finding Ben! It was like he fell off the face of the Earth.

Next I got Stacy out of our hair by hacking into her satellite system and telling it Ben and his friend headed away from the Continental Divide trail, diverted over the mountains and went toward California. I laughed my ass off because she fell for it hook, line and sinker and was now going to California. I even had the system show me where she was, hacked into it on a daily basis and moved Ben and the woman he was with even further away. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

The cabin was finished and we moved back inside just in time for Masha to have her baby girl which she named Viktoria. OMG! She was so cute and made me wish that Ben and I could have children – I now have a plan for that if I ever catch up to Ben. Ivan was a fantastic big brother to her: He loved to hold her and sing to her in Russian. I almost forgot, and this is interesting, his pictures of Ben and the wolf lady went back to looking like a child's stick drawing. And the pictures he had already drawn that looked so realistic somehow disappeared.

Both Zarika and Yasmeen were back at the cabin, as much as I disliked it. I couldn't bring it in my heart to send them away, not after Ben had saved both of them. Zarika wasn't bad since she worked out like crazy and had taken an interest in the bow lessons that Todd was teaching. On the other hand Yasmeen sat in her room, listless most days. Something that she wouldn't talk about happened to her in Denver. I didn't spend much time with them so I don't know more.

Only one of the prim reapers (my nickname for Mira and Ira) was here and thank God it was Ira, the one who wasn't obsessed with Ben. I could tell Ira was head over heels in love with Todd but he seemed immune to all her advances. As I mentioned before, Todd is teaching a bow class which Ira, Zarika and Alexi are taking. That reminds me, Alexi lost a bow contest to the new girl who showed up named Safia (where they came up with these crazy names I will never know) and had to serve her breakfast in bed for a month. I'm not so sure that he served her only breakfast and not something else! Safia and Mira left (thank God) for some mission that Mira had to finish but which I wasn't privy to.

With the cabin finished Liz and Bernie started to plan their wedding – the lucky dogs! I had hoped that my wedding to Ben would have been the first wedding at the cabin.

An untold number of teams were scouring the country for the bastard Mike - including Daddy and Hammer! But like us looking for Ben, they didn't have any luck finding him. It was tempting to have my teams look for the fucker after what he did to me and everyone else. But my focus was finding Ben and finding him as soon as possible!

Daddy was still embracing the Scottish side of our family and to indulge him I sometimes wore a skirt in our family's plaid. I made the mistake of calling it a kilt only once and was promptly informed that on women it was a skirt.

Thom, Inga and the TSIFFTS team with the medical plane left on a mission to find Megan, the drug Lord and mother (who Megan broke out of the hospital). I hadn't heard anything at all from them so I guess they were having about as much luck finding their quarry as we were in finding Ben.

Jack complained like hell when I let the TSIFFTS command center leave until he saw the cabin's hidden command center in the basement. It was like the TSIFFTS command center on steroids plus I had a crack team managing it. The group was lead by Gretchen from the computer store (remember her from Walker?).

Samantha was away doing news stories wherever there was news.

Linus was still running our field team looking for Ben while Maria was here working as my girl Friday. I forgot to mention, she stopped drinking because she was pregnant.

Geez, I almost forgot the most important person – Mabel! She cooked our excellent gourmet meals everyday – it was all I could do to keep from getting fat.

I complete morning PT and yoga with the team that is here. It is funny as hell watching Maria trying to perform some of the asanas (yoga poses). She wasn't skinny before she got pregnant and now – well she was big, really big. I shower, grab a quick breakfast and head to the hidden command center.

I walk into the basement storage room, move up to the electrical panel, open it, and flip off a certain series of circuit breakers. The wall slides away, I walk into the command center and smile because everyone is already hard at work.

Gretchen looks up, smiles at me, holds up a piece of paper and says, "Jennifer, you might want to look at this. It's a listing of campsite reservations for Glacier National Park. There's one really strange sounding name on it."

There have been so many false alarms that I didn't even bother heading in her direction. Instead I just ask, "What's so strange about the name Gretchen?"

She smiles at me and answers, "Well it sounds sort of Russian but I'm not sure and hoped you would check it. Also, he rented a whole campground on top of a mountain just for himself."

I wave my hand and comment, "Sounds like someone with more money than brains, but tell me the name anyway."

My heart practically stops when she answers, "The dude's name is Erast Petrovich Fandorin."

I dash beside her and demand, "Let me see that report."

She hands it to me. I read it, but can't believe it and announce, "Erast Petrovich Fandorin, we have finally caught you!"

Gretchen asks, "Is this Ben and if so how do you know this is Ben? And why would he choose to show up now and in all places, Glacier National Park?"

I hug the report to my chest because it's the first news of Ben since he left the cabin and answer, "I am sure it is Ben! Erast Petrovich Fandorin is a fictional character in a series of books written by Boris Akunin which Ben loves. As to why he suddenly appeared in Glacier National Park, I have no fricken idea. Perhaps he's doing this to tease me right before he enters Canada."

Gretchen gives me additional information, "Jennifer, he's rented the campground for a full week so I don't think he's planning on leaving anytime soon."

I reach over, slam my fist down on the klaxon button and yell over the sound of the horn, "This is not a drill, we have finally found Ben..."

Present – Ben – many months later at Glacier National Park

Destiny and I are sitting on a couple of rocks enjoying the sunshine. It's been a long cold winter traversing the Continental Divide Trail. Many had said our trek was impossible in the winter. I grin at her and she says, "Ben, there were times I thought we would have given up."

I continue the grin and answer, "Whatever I do, I never give up. All someone can do once they give up is bitch and I've known some great bitchers in my time. With some it's a passion, with others an art but it's one thing I will never become."

Destiny smiles her peculiar smile, the one that reminds me of the wind blowing in a grove of aspen trees and asks, "Well Ben, we've reached the end of our journey together and it's my time to leave. Have you decided yet?"

I knew this time was coming and I really dreaded it. But I had learned all there was to learn from Destiny and my life needed to take a new turn or perhaps return to a road once traveled and too quickly abandoned.