Sunday, January 24, 2010

The two strangers in suits, accompanied by the XO, came for Kim, while we were drinking our third cup of coffee. It was shortly after 9am. "Well it is time to go pay the piper," she suggested more to them than me.

"I hope the price is enough, since Jason most likely is already dead."

"That was mean spirited, but at least it is honest. You don't seem to care about the bigger picture." Kim said with irritation in her voice

I looked hard into her eyes and said, "It's hard to see the bigger picture, when you are dodging bullets."

"Yes, or when your family is going to be tortured."

"Exactly, we all do what we have to do and it makes us who we are." I admitted.

"So, we won't say goodbye?"

"No we won't say goodbye." I looked away as she and the spooks left the cabin. "I thought it was a pretty good performance. It should have been, since there was a lot of true emotions in our charade. She and I had not agreed on much except that we were private people. As such we didn't want anyone to know what had happened in the cabin with the blue door.

I left the compound less than an hour later. My drive was much longer than hers I'm sure. Even without drugs, I had that drugged feeling, so it was a long drive home. The pickup truck had a throttle from an electric scooter. It was hooked to a servo motor, which regulated the trucks throttle linkage, It was my only concession to being without a full right leg.

That day driving was a little more dangerous, since I kept the throttle on cruise. I had a hard time keeping my mind on the drive. I made it home in about five hours, so there was still some sunlight as I entered the shack.

I had chills again by the time I got inside. I was glad that I had used the payment from the book tour to change the heating system. The wood from my friends tree was about to run out and the paycheck was burning a hole in my pocket, so I had a propane heater installed where the wood stove once sat. The salesman wanted to put in a furnace until he saw a picture of the place. After that he felt lucky he had convinced me to spring for the blower model. Needless to say the instant heat was welcome.

I didn't even turn on the water, I simply fell into the bed and drifted off to a troubled sleep. I slept until early morning. I felt much better when I finally left the bed to start my day. I decided that, since the room was warm I would bath. Bathing in the shack was something that required some effort, so it was not to be taken lightly.

I heated the water in a large electric tea kettle. When I say large, I mean about half a gallon capacity. From experience I knew that the proper mix was one teapot of boiling water to one gallon of tap water. I mixed it in a red plastic dishpan. I quickly refilled the teapot and started it heating again while I sat on a small infants plastic wading pool. I used a soapy wash cloth to scrub dirty and dried sweat from my body. When I finished, the teapot would be whistling again.

With a fresh gallon and a half of water I rinsed my body and my hair. I would then towel my hair and my body, before I put on my leg in order to empty the large plastic tub of water out the rear door. Three gallons of water did the wash and rinse, while not being too difficult for disposal.

That first morning home, I took care of my bathing, then I went to the cafe for breakfast. Kim crossed my mind a couple of times that day. Jason seemed to be there as well. I didn't spend much time feeling bad about Jason, but I still hated to be on a mission when men died. It just felt wrong somehow.

I spent the day banging around the Internet, since I still didn't feel up to doing anything taxing. I slept like a baby. Off and on all day is what I mean by that. Each time I woke I felt better, I fully expected to be back to normal the next day.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

I almost never slept with my prosthetic lower leg attached, but I had the night before. I felt comfortable enough to remove it once the medic left. I had been certain all the night before, that I would not have time to replace it before I puked all over the place. Also I was just plain exhausted from the effort to empty my stomach and bowels. I just didn't have the strength to remove, then replace the leg every time I had to go to the bathroom.

After I removed the alum and spring steel foot and calf, I slept even better. I wasn't sure, if I would be getting out of bed for the next ten hours. I might not have, if left to my own devices. I wasn't of course. I heard the moans and knew exactly what it meant. Someone was getting lucky. I couldn't believe anyone would choose to screw in the room with a dying man. Okay that's an exaggeration, but why would anyone come to my cabin to screw.

The answer was simple, no one had. I could tell by the blue light that it was both dark outside, and that the room was being lit by the television. The sounds were coming from a DVD running in the player. I looked up to see a man and woman engaged in sex. Not just plain sex, but acrobatic sex. I supposed that it was possible that the swamp thing commander had sent someone to share the cabin.

I looked around wondering who it might be. I saw the small figure stretched out on one of the other less than twin bed sized bunks. At first I didn't recognize the figure, then I couldn't believe my eyes.

The North Korean scientist was lying quietly watching the acrobatics. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked.

"Watching porn of course. Surely you recognize it."

"Of course I recognize it as porn, but what are you doing here?"

"The commander said that I would be as safe here as anywhere else. He said to wake you if I got nervous. He didn't mention the DVDs to me. I wonder if he knows they are here?"

"Trust me he knows everything that goes on in this compound." I began putting on the leg as I spoke to Kim.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm getting dressed," I replied.

"I had no idea that you were missing your leg."

"I'm not just the foot mostly," I replied. Once I had the leg and my pants on, I walked into the compound and to the bathroom. For the first time since my return from the Cuban trip all I needed was to urinate. It was a good sign, I thought.

When I returned to the cabin, Kim was still watching the porno movie. I found the refrigerator had been stocked with a dozen cans of sprite. I looked around and found the box of soft ebars on the coffee/microwave counter.

I found the ebars to be as tasty as I remembered. I never knew all that was in them but I had a good idea that there was peanut butter, raisins, dark chocolate, cooked rice, powdered milk and probably the toe of a newt. I knew damn well that a person could live a few weeks, at least, on nothing but those bars. The bars were made in the kitchen by the swamp thing chef.

I think the only difference between the soft bars and the crunchy ones was that instead of cooked rice the crunchy bars had rice krispies in them. Both were good for the field. The soft one were in a foil pouch. I tore off the end and squeezed it out like toothpaste. It was a hell of a lot better for me than toothpaste.

I sat down on my bed and looked up at the TV screen. I wasn't surprised by what was going on, but I was surprised that the Korean woman was watching. Not just watching she appeared to be in a trance.

"Is this the first time you have seen porno?"

"Not the first, but one of the very few times."

"Ah, so what do you think?"

"I think that Korean men do not have that size appendage."

"Neither do most Americans. It's just guys in those movies. If your tool is long enough you don't need talent, I would think."

"True, they don't seem to be on a par with serious actors. But I must admit this is entertaining."

"Would you like for me to leave?"

She looked directly at me and said, "That is the furthermost thing from my mind right now."

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

"How you doing?" the question came from the in house medic.

"You woke me up to ask me how I'm doing. Doc your bedside manner needs some work." I waited a couple of minutes to figure it out before I answered the real question. "Well I'm awake and I don't want to rush off to empty my stomach or my bowels so I must be better."

"Good, do you think you could eat?"

I cringed at the thought. "Not just yet."

"The real reason I came was to tell you Michael is closing the kitchen. If you want anything speak up."

"If I get hungry, I'll make a sandwich."

"Be careful walking around this place in the dark."

"Hell Doc, Oscar won't shoot me."

"There is an out going team in the compound, remember?"

"Yeah?"

"Security is high, so stay inside. They should be gone sometime after midnight."

"Okay, then have them send down some sprite and some of the soft Ebars. I think I can sleep till midnight."

"Okay, take another round of the pills before you go back to sleep."

I stumbled across the ten yards to the bathhouse right after the medic left. I sat on the toilet as I urinated, just in case. I knew on thing for sure by the time I got back to the bed, I was not in any shaped to take on a team of well trained men. Especially since they would have been in better shape even without the virus. That being the case, upon my return, I took inventory of the cabin and it's small refrigerator.

If I happened to wake up enough to look for entertainment, there was a digital TV, big enough for the whole cabin to watch. It sat on top of the apartment sized refrigerator in one corner of the room. There was also a desk with a computer sitting in the opposite corner of the same wall.

It was empty Inside the refrigerator, except for three cans of beer. The sight of the beer caused my stomach to tighten. I knew that I was days, not hours away from being able to consume that. Even worse, I had given up drinking while doing my time in the joint. Unlike men in real prisons, I used the time to work on my body and soul. Well more on cleansing my body, than on cleansing my soul.

On the computer desk also resided a small box of DVDs. Swamp Thing had stocked the place with educational and patriotic DVDs. Over the years the occupants of the cabin had added others. Most left by accident, some left because the owner never came back to reclaim them. There were some classic movies in the box, and a hell of a lot of porno movies.

Even that small amount of movement wore me completely out. I fell back into the bed and immediately passed into the darkness. There is something comforting in sleep when one is not well.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

During the final thirty minutes of the drive, I struggled to hold down that last greasy burger. I thought it might be a touch of bad chow until I realized that I was feeling chills. Chills that no one else seemed to notice. It was at that point that I knew it was some kind of bug. Since there was a new strain of flu going around, I expected the worst.

They opened the van's rear door just in time to save the interior. I didn't make it to the bathroom, but I did make it away from the pavement before I lost my last meal. I felt the world begin to spin a little as I began to empty my stomach yet again. I also shivered hard and shook. It was an altogether bad feeling.

I managed to get off my knees without any help. That was probably a good thing since it was unlikely that any members of my little band of cut throats was the sympathetic type. I made it to the bathroom by the office before I began to lose fluids from all my orifices.

I was suddenly a very sick old man. I thought I might be headed for an imminent death. No one came into the bathroom for a long time. When someone came in, it was the staff medic. He wasn't a doctor but I trusted him with my life. He had actually had it in his hands on at least one occasion. His tourniquet both cost me part of my leg and saved my life.

"Ricky are you alright?"

"I've been a hell of a lot better."

"Do you think it was something you ate?"

"No, I've got chills. I think it is some Cuban germ. They probably have a whole list of nasty shit."

"Yeah, did you cut yourself down there?"

"No, but I probably got a mosquito bite while laying in the sand on that sand dune."

"I guess that's possible, but it is awfully soon after the event. More likely something you came in contact with before you got here even."

"Could be." I turned my attention back to the toilet bowl and made yet another contribution.

"I got some stuff that will help with the nausea and the shits. Do you want it in a shot or try to wait till you are empty."

"Let's hold off. I'm scared to death of needles. What I really want is to lay down somewhere."

"There is a team in the big cabin, so go on down to the blue cabin." I nodded after I managed to stand.

The cabins were named for the color of the front doors. The cabins had three quarter walls with the top forth being nothing but glass. Originally the glass had been screen wire. They had never been insulated or had any heat until Swamp Thing bought the camp. They were still pretty much nothing to ewrite home about, but they did have heat and air conditioning. As a boy scout retreat they each held ten kids. Each small cabin was setup for four men after the Swamp Thing renovation.

To get to the bathroom one had to leave the cabin and walk to the bath house in the center of the compound. I counted the steps as I rushed to empty my bowels yet again. I had to walk fifty one steps to get to the bath house door.

I went back and forth from the cabin to the bath house all night. The overt symptoms ended before down. I managed to get to sleep about half an hour before the medic came with the pills. I washed them down with a Sprite. After giving him a blood sample I fell sound asleep.

Friday, January 15, 2010

We were less than a hundred miles from the Swamp Thing compound when Gloria spoke, "You do know she is faking?"

"Faking what?"

"She speaks english."

"Yes I know,' I replied silently.

"Since she speaks english, and pretends that she doesn't, I am a bit concerned."

"Gloria honey, I hate to break it to you, but you are already dead. There isn't a lot that should worry you."

"Not so, if she gets you killed, what happens to me then?"

"I never thought of that," I whispered.

"We need to know what is going on."

"For now we just watch and wait. It will all be over soon."

We were forced to make on last stop for gas. Kim went to the ladies room while I stood outside the door. I had decided hours ago that baby sitting her was all show. She had nowhere to go and knew it. She didn't want to go home, so it was us or the long sleep for her.

One thing had been bothering me and I decided that it was time to clear it up. The bathrooms were down a dead end hallway, so we probably wouldn't be interrupted. I pushed my way into the ladies room. I picked her from behind while she was washing her face. I pushed her against the wall and began putting pressure on her neck.

"Now you are going to answer me or I am going to strangle you. You might not understand this but it is important for you to know what I know, and then to answer a question for me."

She nodded. Just as I had thought, she understood every word.

"I know this whole thing is a sham and that's fine. I know why you did it and I can't fault you for it. What you have to know is that I know there had to be a shoot out for you to sell the kidnap story. What I want to know is did you call the security police or did the one of those who came for you."

"I don't know who called."

"Then you are going to die in this stinking bathroom," I applied more pressure to her throat. The look of panic told me she was ready to tell me anything to save her life. "So who was it."

"It was me."

"You got at least three men killed. Was it worth it?"

"You probably think I am a terrible person but yes it was worth it. I could not stay and if I just left everyone I know would have been killed. It was a selfish thing, but yes it was worth it."

"Just so you know, I am pissed. I am pissed because that could be me in that hospital in Florida. Other than that, I can understand."

"Can you forgive me?"

"I don't do forgiveness. God and I have a deal, even though we both kill people only he forgives."

"Will you tell the others?"

"No, but you tell me who knows you planned to do that?"

"None of your people know. I don't think any of them will figure it out. They will know only if you tell them."

"Then you better keep an eye on me from now on. If some of these guys knew that you set them up, they would kill you."

"I know. I thought you were going to do it."

"I try not to kill unless I'm being paid."

Friday, January 8, 2010

Once more I should have felt safe since we were on the fishing boat. The idea was to hide in plain sight. Instead, we simply traded one threat for another. The real Cuban navy gunboats might appear any minute. Even the old Soviet era fighter planes were a possibility. I could only hope that we were under some kind of air umbrella. I had a pretty good idea that the drones were hovering overhead. A drone in international airspace was entirely different from a man with a gun in Cuba. The government of the United States didn't want anything to do with that.

There was one other possibility. Swamp Thing had just kidnapped the doctor and planned to sell him to the highest bidder, which would of course be the United States government. As far as I personally was concerned, the government supported mission was preferable. Those drones and the air umbrella being the only real advantage.

Everyone, except the Doctor and the mission commander, sat huddled along the deck rail. Those two, as well as the Captain of the fishing boat were huddled inside the blacked out pilot house. Thank God it was a warm part of the world. That kind of mission in Alaska would have been a killer.

I stayed on edge for the whole time that we were in the Gulf of Mexico. I took my first full breath when we were pulling into the fishing dock outside of Fort Meyers. I was glad to see land fall, even if it was still dark. The dock had a few of those lights which stay on all night. Those, I suppose, were to try and keep the drunken sailors on the pier as opposed to walking off into the Gulf by accident.

The captain or the Mission commander seemed to have called ahead. There was an unmarked ambulance waiting at the end of the pier. Jason was still hanging on, probably proof that only the good die young.

The Swamp Thing van was right where we had left it. Why wouldn't it be we had been gone less than 24 hours. It seemed like a lot more, but it was actually a quick raid. It hadn't gone without a hitch, but it was at least over and most of us were unharmed.

I hadn't expect what happened next. "Rick, I want you to baby sit our Rocket Scientist." I would have expected the mission commander to have done that personally. I nodded my agreement. The small guy, who had been wrapped in a blanket, came to life as we all stood to leave the boat. The blanket slipped and I realized that the North Korean Scientist wasn't a man at all, but a slightly past middle aged woman.

"I didn't think it was possible, but I like this even less now," Gloria said.

"Don't let your Arab bitch side show. It isn't a pleasant thing to see." I was happy that I could say it without getting my butt kicked. Ghost just don't have a way to cause living people real pain. She might drive me insane, but she lacked a left hook or a trigger finger.

The woman thing came into play every time we stopped for gas or food. The Scientist would ask to use the toilet. Her English wasn't very good, but she spoke a lot more English than I did Korean. From the start I figured that I was chosen, since I was the so called expert on unconventional weapons. All our armament was locked away in the under floor gun safe. It was all licensed and legal we just didn't want or need the attention of four heavily armed men, a woman and a ghost ridding around the south. After the scientist's sex was revealed, I figured it was punishment of some kind.

The real problem with Kim, a name I gave her, was that she had to be accompanied to even public rest rooms. I had to knock on the door to be sure that it was empty. I didn't watch her go but I did check the restroom after she finished. I wanted to make sure she didn't leave one of those, help me I'm being kidnapped, messages scrawled on a mirror in some filthy bathroom. The bathroom ordeal happened five times. Two stops were for gas, three for food of different types.

If we hadn't had Kim in tow, we might have stopped at really nice restaurants even though we wore clothes more suited for fast food joints. We did eat in greasy Mc's once, and in a pancake house once, finally we pulled through a Wendy's for burgers and shakes a final time just a few miles from Swamp Thing's compound.

I had been a little surprised that the CIA or whoever the finally stop for Kim was, hadn't been waiting for us on the dock. I wasn't surprised to see the three black cars with Government plates in the compound. Those kids of cars showed up often in the Swamp Thing compound.

Only the mission commander and Kim went into the office to meet with the Suits. The rest of us went off to bed in the dorm. I was glad to be rid of my charge, but something gnawed at me as well.

"What?" Gloria asked as she sat on the edge of my bed starring at me.

"Kim was entirely too docile. She had to have been in on it."

"If she was in on it why didn't she just walk away, why the kidnapping plot."

"Most of the top people who serve the government are told that their families will be killed if the leave."

"Would they really do that?"

"They have done it many times as a warning to others. Killing them serves no real purpose except to prevent others from defecting."

"So your government made it look like a kidnapping?"

"I think so?"

"So your highly Moral Administration was willing to trade one of theirs for her family?"

"It would seems so."

"Would you have gone if you had known that it was a sham?"

"I did it for the money so of course. It would have been nice to avoid hanging out in ladies rooms all day, but sure I would have done it anyway."

Monday, January 4, 2010

Getting the black unsinkable rubberized boat away from the shore should have made me feel safe, but alas we are talking about an island. It seems that every ten yards there is some kind of water craft available to the security police. I admit that it took them a few minutes to come after us. We were running the outboard motor as fast as it would go, but it wasn't fast enough.

I spotted the pursuit boat more than 300 yards behind us but closing fast. In the black duffle bag we had a half dozen LAW missiles. On a slow moving tank they might be the cat's meow, but on a fast moving boat I doubted they would ever strike the target, Nonetheless I handed Eddie one then told the generic thug running the motor to make a hard right turn.

"You guys need to stay away from the back wash of these things." I said it but knew that each of them knew to get as far away as possible, which wasn't very far at all in the rubberized boat.

The LAW is a contact triggered rocket. Very much like the old bazooka. The law just has a disposable fiberglass tube, instead of a giant water pipe. It is lighter and easier to store than a Russian RPG, but that's about the only real difference. Yet again I made sure no one was behind us. When we came abreast of the pursuit boat, we both fired at it. I had no idea that we would hit it, and we didn't. What I hoped for and what did happen was that on impact with the water near the boat the LAW's explosives detonated. It caused the pursuit boat to lose interest. It didn't stop or turn back, but it did slow down. I think the captain knew that if he got too close the law would sink his boat. In a poor country like Cuba no one wanted to be responsible for losing such a valuable item.

"Nice shooting," I said to Eddie even though we didn't kill the boat, we took it out of the equation for now at least.

"Thanks Rick," After he said that he turned to the mission commander. "That is a call you should have made." Neither Eddie nor I were known for our tact.

The run out to international waters took about twenty minutes. The whole time Jason was bleeding. He would have been screaming were it not for the near lethal dose of morphine someone gave him. Not only did we all scramble on board the fishing boat, we pulled the black landing craft up as well. Once on deck we tossed a canvas tarp over it. The profile under the tarp looked a lot like a hatch cover. I expected Jason to be dead before we reached land. He was still oozing blood, and had to be running low. Just like a car, he was about to seize up. The closest thing to a medic we had started a plasma drip on him, but we knew Jason was on his way out. Someone was about to be rich for few days. Swamp Thing had mission insurance on everyone. I expect that it was written through he CIA. Regardless of who footed the bill, Jason's beneficiary was about to be a million dollars richer.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

For the next ten minutes I sat silently begging the team to get a move on. I held my breath and prayed. My prayers were not answered. Before the rear door opened I heard the sound of gunfire. The distinctive sound of an AK 47 filled the night.

Since it came from inside the hotel, I could only hope it was from our guys not the Cubans. I let out my first breath when the rear door opened and three people came running outside. Two of them were part of the extraction team. They seemed to be leading a third person. My guess was that El Doctore would be sleeping in either an American bed, or a watery grave. It all Depended on how fast the Cubans got their act together.

As soon a the three man team was on the patio, I began a making a mental countdown. The rear guard should be out any minute. Sure enough the came on the run. I quickly slot out all the lights. The patio area was ceased to exist in the darkness.

I pulled on my night glasses just as Eddie said, "There are men coming around the corner." I had already thrown the sniper rifle aside. The scope would be a nightmare anyway. Eddie began pouring fire into the group of men women or children coming around the building. In the darkness there was no way to tell who we were shooting at. The only people I kept track of were our guys.

"Heads up we are coming through." The voice belonged to Jason. The words were just out of his mouth when we began taking fire. I had known all along that it was just a matter of time before someone spotted and zeroed in on our muzzle flashes.


Jason spun around, then fell to the ground. "Eddie get him to the boat, I'll make some noise."

"Let me check to see what he needs first," he suggested.

"Hell no drag him. If he dies he dies, but we don't have time to check him. If pulling him kills him, then so be it. We are not going to die on this piece of shit island."

I poured all the fire I could toward the building. I just unloaded the mags to keep their heads down. After a few minutes head start, I headed for the boat. I jumped over the sides of the rubber and canvass covered foam sides of the boat. The outboard motor was already running.

Eddie was shooting blindly into the dark. I took the magazines from Jason's pack and joined him. There was sporadic fire from the beach but nothing even came close to us. At least not as far as I could tell.