NationStates Jolt Archive

Molly smiled. "What will you do...? They probably want to kill me," she said, still sniffling. She sat down against the wall.

Jason weighed his options. Certainly, he could shoot the lieutenant, and probably half a dozen other Canadsteiners before they could kill him through his body armour. Given Canadstein's neutrality, he probably had more experience in battle than they did, even if he rarely fired his weapon and snuck around.

Nervously, he lowered his G36. "What is the damn problem?"

---

Trent and Tyrone split up in the woods, looking for a road they could take to the nearest town. They would be harder to track separately, and they had to get out of the country or find some way to let General Kaselev know that the infil was a flop and to send reinforcements. They also had to assume that the rest of the team, including each other, had been killed in action or taken prisoner.

"I will make sure that they harm you in anyway. Molly all you have is cooperate with us. Are you willing to make that decision?" Taylor as put his arm around Molly.

---

"Just put down your gun soldier." The lieutenant demanded.

Every true Canadsteiner in the Military would have complied, but this Corporal was either stupid, stubborn, or a foreigner. The men were leaning on the latter of the three. The soldiers formed a circle around the Corporal. Most of their weapons were aimed at his torso, which would do no real damage, but a few were aimed directly at his head.

---

The interrogator came back a short while later with a file labeled with Susan's name. It took a while to break into the Kahanstani's secure computer, which was third rate compared to Canadstein's one, and to find the right woman. But they had found all the information they need. Everything that was public and some private was within the file about Susan's life.

"Now are you going to talk, Susan?" The interrogator asked.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Molly.

Jason stuck his weapon in the ground, barrel first, his hand still on the stock. "Just answer the question."

Susan shook her head. She seemed surprised that the interrogators knew her real name; Kahanistan, being a nation constantly at war, had far superior information systems to Canadstein, which had not fought a war in over 100 years.

---

Road, two hours' walk from Moltke

A lone black male in a drab forest green shirt and trousers stood at the edge of the road, waiting to hitch a ride into the nearest town. His rifle was hidden under a clump of dirt; if he were surprised before a ride showed up, he would have access to it; otherwise it could lay abandoned for years before it was found.

"That still needs to be decided. But you will do whatever my officers tell you, right Molly? I need you to promise to me that you will do that. If you agree, then I will assure you that nothing will happen to you." Taylor said as he got hold of her hand, and looked directly into her eyes. "Please Molly this is the only way."

---

"So you deny that you are Susan Canton? Because this women sure does look like you." The interrogator said as held a picture of a woman that looked like Susan in front of her.

---

"We know that you are a foreigner. You stick out like a sore thumb among us. So just back away from the weapon with your hands on your head, and you will not die. How does that sound?" The lieutenant stated with a cold tone.

---

A pickup truck stopped in front of the black man. In the back of the truck was a slew of supplies and a gun rack, with two rifles. The man behind the wheel was definitely a hunter. He had grown a beard that would fit in perfectly with the Civil War era facial hair. Dirt was on his body from the last hunting trip, which he was probably coming from. An immense odor came from his body confirming that he hadn't taken a shower within the span of the last few days.

"So where are you going stranger?" The hunter asked with a wide grin.

"So that's what this is about," said Jason. He had heard about the terrible things the Doomani did to their prisoners... crushing digits, electrical shocks, flayings. The Canadsteiners might not be as open about their crimes, but General Kaselev seemed sure that something unkosher took place in secret. He certainly knew more than some run of the mill corporal.

"I think I'd rather die than be tortured to death while you try and extract information from me. You probably have an idea of who I am and where I'm from already, so I'll spare you the trouble. I'm a Kahanistanian soldier. You probably also know what we want - proof of your government's culpability in the terrorist attack on General Sklenova. So, we have a dilemma..."

"You can provide me with the documents I want, and our government will decide how to handle the results. Or, you kill me, I don't report back to General Kaselev, and two weeks later you have an entire division turning this place upside down looking for me."

---

Molly shook her head. She couldn't make a promise without knowing what it was, and she'd spilled enough of her guts already... "What if they want me to do something terrible to my comrades?"

---

Susan nodded. "That is... one of my aliases as well," she said. "My original name is Claudius Lucius Nero. I'm a Decurion in the Imperial Doomani Legions. I've been working as a spy in the Kahanistanian military, which deployed me here. My mission is different from theirs; upon hearing of the biological weapon used to attempt to assassinate General Sklenova, a known hater of Catholics and Communist infidel Satanist, I was instructed by Caesar Himself to obtain a sample while maintaining my cover, even resorting to abominable transsexuality; war knows no rules."

She didn't know how effective her cover would be. A transsexual Doomani? It was amazing the things a desperate mind could come up with.

"Good luck breaking into the Doomani computer core. It's thoroughly isolated, unlike the rusting tin cans the infidels use in Kahanistan, where any fool can look up anything on a high-ranking officer from her bra size to a pathological fear of corn flakes."

---

"Nearest town," said Tyrone. "I got lost on a camping trip, need to find my way home... way down south. Figure I can find odd jobs in town and save enough for a ticket out of here."

"How about neither? We could just forget that this ever happened. Of course if you do go missing then how would the rest of the world view it? A bunch of Kahanistani soldiers invading neutral Canadstein. That would just dig your nation deeper into a hole. Do you want war? Your country is in such a poor state, that even a neutral country could destroy you. Are you willing to do that? The only problem is that there is no proof. You Kahanistanis are just trying to condemn us for a crime, in which we had no planning." The lieutenant said as he looked at the Corporal.

---

The hunter let Tyrone in then dropped him off at the nearest town. The two was St. Cecilia. It had a population of around 200 people. They rarely ever got visitors and the sight of Tyrone was surely strange. The local police officer when up to the black man.

"Sir, what is your business here?" The police officer asked.


--

"Molly we are not going to hurt your friends. We just want you to help us identify them. I have heard stories of the capture of some woman a couple of nights ago. Once you promise to me that you will just obey my officer’s orders." Taylor replied. He looked at Molly. It was going to be hard to persuade her. A choice between betraying her nation or living. Taylor just hoped that she made the right decision.

---

"Okay...Claudius, then you admit that you are spy for the Doomani. I highly doubt that. I bet it is a bluff. You are a horrible liar Miss Canton. You need to work on that. So why are you here?" The interrogator asked once again.

"There is proof," said Jason. "General Kaselev said that there was proof of your government's involvement, but it was being kept secret. Of course, he doesn't expect you to admit it, and neither do I. But we want to uncover it, without loss of life if that is possible. The machine gun fire was merely to distract you while I crept in, took the documents, left, and reported to General Kaselev."

"I could arrange for a meeting with him and a member of your government. He is a reasonable man, for a member of Kahanistanian Military Intelligence. He would not risk war if he did not have a very good reason to suspect your involvement. He knows the risks, as do his superiors."

---

Molly shook her head again and continued crying. "I can't. I can't agree to something I don't know. I'm not cut out for this... they really sent me over here because I speak French and they said that there are a lot of people here who speak French."

---

Tyrone gave basically the same case he had given to the hunter. "Got lost on a camping trip... then a bear made off with my supplies and I'm hoping to find some way to make a few marks. Get myself a ticket back home, down south."

---

Susan, or whoever she was, just shook her head. They were just going to keep asking her the same question no matter how she answered if they didn't like the answer. She decided to take a risk.

"You wouldn't have a Doomani embassy here, would you?" If they did, she was up shit creek. If they didn't, they'd have to find some way of getting her shipped out of the country, and she'd have to somehow escape or divert the plane to Kahanistan...

"There is no proof. I know this and every Canadsteiner knows it. Honestly your bluff sucks. But on the other hand you have committed a crime. You have unlawfully trespassed onto a Canadstein Restricted Facility. Do you know what that means? You are going to jail. So step away from the gun NOW!" The lieutenant shouted with a serious tone.

If this Corporal did not comply, then he would be shot. He was trespassing onto restricted government property. That was just unacceptable. The men leveled their guns at the Corporal. They would shoot him within second of the give order. Jason really had no choice. Either comply or die.

---

"Molly...why are you lying to me? Do you trust me?" Taylor asked with a worried look on his face.

Why did she just change her story. There was no point. Was she lying or not? Taylor wanted to trust, but she was the enemy. How could he trust the enemy? But there was something about her. Something that words could not contain.

---

"So where do you come from?" The officer asked.

---

"Does that matter? You have just committed a crime against our government. No government is going to help you. Miss you are within our nation. We have different rules. Rules which keep our nation safe. We have prospered while nations like Kahanistan have been left in ruin. You have threaten our nation's safe. A thing that many people hold dear to their hearts. So cooperate or rot in a jail." The interrogator said.

OOC: I am going to be gone from November 1st to the 4th.

Jason pointed the gun at his own head. "If you want the information from me, you will send me to the Embassy and we can talk there. Otherwise... the information dies with me."

---

Molly shook her head. "They thought they would need a language specialist. When they didn't need one, they put me in another role. They had me distract the security."

---

Susan shook her head. "It is for the best. The Inquisition would not show mercy to me for having been captured."

---

Tyrone looked at the cop. "You wouldn't know it. Some little town on the southern border, about the size of this one."

"Sorry but we sent your embassy packing once you kicked our citizens out. So give up. But if you want to die, then pull the trigger. No skin off my ass. Of course we will have this all on tape. We had no actions in our death. You committed suicide on your accord." The interrogator said.

---

Taylor grabbed her cheeks and made her looked directly at him.

"Do you trust me, Molly? Do you trust me with your life?" He asked once again.

---

"So what major city is around it." The officer asked to Tyrone.

---

The interrogator left the room. He was through talking to Susan. She would crack eventually. It would just take some time. Two men entered the room and gave him a sedative. Shortly she was back within her cell.

Jason didn't want to die, but he felt it preferable to torture. He reached into his pocket as he slowly lowered his weapon, popping a pill into his mouth as the G36 slipped from his hand. He would not bite down until he was actually subjected to torture.

---

Molly continued crying. "No," she said. "I don't want to sound racist... but your culture is all about following orders. If you are ordered to kill me, I think you would do it without a thought. If you are ordered to torture me or my comrades you will do it."

---

Tyrone shook his head. He had heard that cops in other countries were suspicious of blacks. One did not see this kind of racism in Kahanistan, at least not officially. Sure, there were your Ku Klux Klanspeople and your Black Panthers and Muslim terrorist maniacs, and every other religious whack job under the sun for that matter, but they were very much in the minority there.

He also had not looked at a map of Canadstein besides the one on which Kaselev had marked suspicious sites, and that wasn't exactly rich in detail on cities. "The capital." If his memory served him, that was pretty far south.

The men soon rushed Jason. One of them stealthy poked him with a syringe. Within a minute he was out cold. The lieutenant ordered that he be taken to the one of the holding cells. The cell was exactly like Susan's. It was dark and had a metal chair in the middle. He was strapped down to the chair. Once the door closed there was no more light.

---

"Molly....please...I don't want you to get hurt. I would never hurt...you. Even if it meant not following orders. Just please..." said Taylor as he started to cry.

Suddenly the doors slammed opened as two men entered the room. Both were young privates. They just stood there. Why was there a citizen inside the base's walls? They looked at Molly, then back toward Taylor.

"Taylor what are you doing? Is she one of those damn attackers? Isn't she? You are trying to protect her?" One of the privates asked.

Taylor stood in front of Molly. He wasn't going to let them touch her.

"She is my problem. So I will deal with it. Okay?" Taylor replied. "Just tell your officer that we caught another attacker. What happened outside?"

"The enemy outside the base scattered, but we did manage to check one. He was dressed up as a Corporal. His disguise apparently sucked. So he stuck out. He gave up and is in a cell. But you better take care of that problem." The other private said.

They both soon left after that. Taylor turned around and looked at Molly. He held both of her hands and sighed.

"Molly..." said Taylor weakly. "You must choose now..."

---

The police was not racist, but very cautious of strangers. This rural towns were very tight knitted and were saw strangers or outsiders as an unknown. They were simply scared of the unknown. Also it was rare to find a black in Canadstein. They only made up a scant 1% of the population.

"Are you stupid. The capital is in the east. I am taking you to the police station for furthering questioning. Something seems a little out of place. Also can I see some identification?" The cop asked.

Molly reached into her pocket and pulled a cyanide capsule. "Don't worry... I won't bite unless they want to torture me or my friends." She popped it into her mouth and held it there.

"Until that happens... I'll listen to you."

---

"Don't have any ID on me," said Tyrone. "My driver's licence, my passport, everything... washed down a creek when a bear stirred up my camp site."

Although he looked large and powerful, and generally bore a menacing expression, he was not nearly as aggressive as he looked. If the officer insisted, however, he didn't trust his training to resist their interrogation enough to subject it to a baptism in the field yet.

"Well, we're pretty far up north... not that I was ever good at geography." He'd just flunked his first Field Test in Basic Canadsteiner Geography 101.

---

Fort Nehemiah, near New Masada, Kahanistan

Lieutenant General Igor Kaselev stepped outside of his small office to stretch his legs, catch a breath of fresh air, get a drink, and maybe get into a Krav Maga sparring match; Rachel Levitt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was coming to talk to him about important matters, and she was ex-military and had a hair-trigger temper. She was also close to Nadia; she was probably going to be furious with Kaselev for letting her get kidnapped and injected.

No sooner had he cleared the threshold of his office than he bumped into a full-figured woman a foot shorter than him, in her late 30's or early 40's, with butch-looking reddish-brown hair cut in such a way as to make her look like a stereotypical lesbian. She was dressed in a form-fitting knee-length dress which emphasised her generous curves.

"Sit down," she ordered. She extended her hands and pushed Kaselev backwards. Taken by surprise, he walked backwards into his office. The bitchy redhead sat down in the chair opposite his.

"Sit down!" The general sank into his chair. He was angry, though his expression didn't change. Nobody barged into his office and barked out orders to him - not even the Defence Minister or the President. (They tended to give orders to him in the form of a phone call, email, or typed letter; more important ones merited a personal visit, but none of the confrontation that characterised this encounter.)

"General Kaselev, what were you thinking, not having Mason shot when he showed up on the base with Nadia?" the woman screeched at him. At this time, the general realised that this must be Rachel. He had never met her, though he had seen her in photographs and on the news, and took some time to recognise her face to face.

"There is a warrant for him for breaking into the Defence Ministry, there's talk around the base that he tried to rape her, that he raped a girl with a lobotomy, that he beat Nadia... and you let him anywhere near her? Then, you just blindly jump onto the National Police theory that she was grabbed by Doomani collaborators, piss away Joe Muhammad's tax shekels hunting slave traders, and never even look at the obvious motive until someone who just tried to kill you spills the beans? Honestly, we lost the war because of intelligence idiots like you. What we should do is procure something like a Sariel, some stealth bomber not in our usual arsenal, and bomb those Canadsteiner black sites with salted bombs, spray enough caesium-137 and cobalt-60 to guarantee brain cancer to anything with a brain, which does not include you, and then tell them that if they send terrorists here again, the next bombs will be on their civilian food and water supplies, their hospitals, their nurseries, everything. They want to fight dirty with us, we can tell them we'll fight dirty too."

General Kaselev rarely showed emotion, but now he was furious. This woman had pushed him around, sat him down, and gave him a dressing down in front of anyone within earshot. He wanted to shoot this woman so badly it wasn't funny. "Mr. Mason at that time opposed a Defence Minister who would have ethnically cleansed this country of millions for their religious views. I saw no reason to stop him from seeing a woman whom, to the perception of all around, he was quite apparently in love with. When he kidnapped her, I, not being close to her at all... I merely drop into the base and show intelligence and warnings... assumed he had befriended her in order to lower her guard and sell her to the Doomani for billions of shekels, as the National Police did. I have a team in Canadstein currently attempting to obtain confidential files from a suspected black site. So far, they have not contacted me, so they must have found something."

"And been killed, or captured, or tortured to death!" Rachel screamed. The memories of the operatives killed in Clandonia by the Whyaticans was still fresh in her mind. "You're only lucky they haven't fought a war in 100 years, or they could crush us in our condition!"

Mara came up behind Rachel as she was yelling at Kaselev. "General, they're going to take Nadia out of her coma, the virus dropped below detectable levels and they gave her a last massive antiviral dose. Nadia's mom and Andrea are already there."

The three rushed down to the infirmary. Katriana was sitting in a stool next to Nadia's bed, holding her hand. Andrea sat next to her, her hand over Nadia's forehead. Mara took a seat opposite Andrea, and Kaselev next to Katriana. Rachel walked to the head of the bed as the doctor injected Nadia with a stimulant to wake her.

Nadia stirred to find six people around her. "Uhhhh..."

"You were out for two and a half weeks," said the doctor, a thin, short old man. "Dr. Francisco Martinez, Colonel, Republic Guard," he introduced himself. "We were sure you wouldn't make it... your friend here recovered a week ago."

Katriana broke down in tears and squeezed Nadia's hand. "Nadia... I was so scared. I thought you were going to die... I thought when Mara came, she was going to tell me you were dead."

"Miles is dead," said Mara, smiling. Mara was not normally the type to smile when she was giving notice on someone she thought was dead. She truly hated him for what he had done to Nadia and Andrea. "You won't have to worry about him ever again. He died of his wounds when the snipers shot him. He ran off, but without medical treatment, he bled out within hours, slowly and painfully." She was still smiling widely.

"Well, it seems your friend gave you the good news," said Rachel. "Who is she, anyway? She's pretty."

"Thanks," said Mara. "Colonel Mara Fulton. I've been a friend of Nadia's for about a year now. I saw her through her relationship with Miles." She reached over Nadia to shake Rachel's hand.

"Rachel Levitt, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nadia and I go way back, we met in the military almost 10 years ago. Different as night and day, but at the end of the day... we're like the wild, crazy sister and the calm, sensible one. We're so close our periods used to be in synch."

"Rachel..." said Nadia, embarrassed. She looked in the Minister's direction.

"Yeah, I'd have to agree, too much information," said Mara. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Definitely too much," said Katriana. "Especially around her mother."

"Too much," said Andrea. She bent down and kissed Nadia on the cheek. "But... I'm glad you're doing well." Her emotions were beginning to return, but she still lacked extreme emotions like passion, love, or hatred.

"Quite," said Kaselev.

"Say, how would you like to have a party at my place?" asked Rachel. "We can have all kinds of fun now that you're healthy again, and we can drink till we puke... you and... General Kaselev here can celebrate your promotions to three stars. You could come too, Katie." She looked at Katriana.

"I might... but I'm too old for this," said Katriana.

"I do not... attend social gatherings," said Kaselev.

"I'd go," said Mara.

"Sure, come along, Mara. Who's your other friend?"

"Andrea," said Andrea. "I'll come if it's OK."

---

Two days later, the party took place at Rachel's apartment in downtown New Masada. There were booze, fireworks, drugs, pools, hot tubs, and tables where people could gorge themselves on cake and ice cream, every variety of meat that could be found in Kahanistan, and tons of fruits and vegetables.

Rachel seemed to have invited anyone she could find in her cell phone list who knew Nadia and would come. Crowds of people from their military days were there, as were a few younger enlisted and one young man Nadia recognised as a troublemaker in her flight class, sixteen-year-old Cadet Peter Browning. He was sitting next to Rachel in the hot tub, lip-locking with her and exploring her body. A large bottle of cheap vodka sat next to them.

Nadia was introducing Andrea to her mother, who had come upon them stuffing their faces with falafel and washing them down with huge glasses of white coffee. "Andrea, this is Katriana Naslieva, my mother. Most of her friends just call her Katie. Mom, this is Andrea Rhodes."

Katriana looked at the pretty woman. She seemed to be trying to focus on something on Andrea's face.

"Mrs. Naslieva?" asked Andrea calmly.

"A cousin of mine was lobotomised, back in the 40's," said Katriana. "I wanted to see if you had an ice pick scar."

Andrea pulled her eyelid down. Sure enough, there was a scar where the Whyatican lobotomist had inserted his tool of destruction.

Mara walked up to Nadia. "How old is Rachel?" she asked.

"40," said Nadia. "41 next May. Why?"

"Well, she's in a bikini in the hot tub, making out with a guy who looks about 16," Mara replied. True, Kahanistan was liberal about teen sexuality, but people tended to talk when there was a big age gap. "And she came on to me, asked me to come in and get drunk with her, have a threesome."

Katriana just shook her head. She had advised her daughter not to associate with Rachel since she had first told her of meeting a wild, crazy woman in action years ago.

"It's not a crime," said Nadia.

"Nadia, he's one of your students from the Academy. He heard of the party. I heard them talking and you came up in conversation. She was talking about how you were active with the Communist Party and all... and he knew who you were from the Academy."

Nadia rolled her eyes. "Well, that's... that's Rachel for you." She sat down, unwilling to cope with this shit. Nadia and Andrea sat down, and Nadia started nursing a wine glass. She wanted to enjoy this party before she assumed her new duty as commander of an entire fleet of aircraft, and submitted her paperwork to the Communist Party expressing her intention to run in the next election for President.

"Molly...I don't want you do die." stated Taylor. "Why do you want to die? You obviously don't trust me, so why should I trust you? For all I know you could stab me in the back right now. You could just be playing me..."

---

"Good for you. You actually answered that correctly, but I am going to have to lock you up until I can properly lock you up." The officer said.

Once the pair got to the station the cop locked the stranger into one of the many empty cells. St. Cecilia rarely ever had any criminal activity. Many a few drunk drivers a year, but nothing major. The cells looked like they hadn't been used in a couple of months, but were far better than whatever they had in Kahanistan.

The cop came back a little while later with a two cups of coffee. He handed one over while he sipped on one. Canadstein was starting to become cooler as each day passed. Fall was upon the people of Canadstein.

"So what exactly is your name stranger?" The cop asked.

"I don't want to die," said Molly. "I just don't want to be tortured, or see my friends killed or tortured. I want to see this whole conflict resolved."

She looked at Taylor. "The only weapon I have is my sidearm. It's under my body armour. I'd have to reach in to pull it."

---

Tyrone nodded. "Tyrone Gordon." He hadn't thought not to give his real name; it wasn't exactly going to ring a bell even if they knew he was from Kahanistan. That alone wouldn't make him a terrorist.

"Then can you give me your weapon and body armor? You will have no need for either once you go are handed over. Plus it will make the process a whole lot easier." Taylor said as he looked at Molly.

There was a hint of pain within his eyes. They showed the emotions that was deep within his soul. He wondered why he cared at all about this Kahanistani woman, who had trespassed and tried to steal information from Canadstein. Taylor shook his head, and extended his arm, waiting for the bod armor and gun.

---

The cop shook his head, then walked off and let the stranger drink his coffee alone. He went to his desk and did a little search on the Canadstein Citizen's Database. Typing in the strangers name, he then did a search. There was no match. So who exactly was the man behind the bars. Things suddenly got strange. The cop returned to the cell.

"So Mr. Gordon, what exactly were you doing in the woods?" He asked.

Molly pulled off the thick civvie shirt over her armour. Underneath was a thin white undershirt, the only thing separating her body from the armour. Her weapon was inside a concealed holster within the armour - a difficult place from where to draw it in a tight situation, but useful for slipping into a dangerous area... like a base filled with soldiers who didn't want their country's nefarious deeds to leave the base.

She handed the equipment to Taylor. It was a modified Interceptor vest with a .50 Desert Eagle inside.

"When I am... handed over, what will happen to me?" she asked.

---

Tyrone spoke calmly. "Camping. Hunting." He figured the military would not have told the civilian police anything that could threaten the secrecy of the base.

"Hopefully you be returned back to Kahanistan along with your comrades. Or maybe even offered a chance to stay here. Honestly I do not know." Taylor said as he set her body armor off to the side. "Please follow me now."

---

"So Mr. Gordon I couldn't find you in the database. Are you lying to me? Who are you really." The cop asked.

Molly walked alongside Taylor. She still wasn't sure whether or not to trust him, but if he went back on his word, there was always the poison pill...

---

"I'm not a citizen. I wouldn't be in your database."

Taylor lead her through a maze of hallways, which went deeper into the ground. The slope was almost unnoticeable, so most people would think they were still above ground. But slowly they went into the labyrinth known as "Moltke". Soon Taylor stopped in front of a cell. He had already informed the higher ups about the surrender of Molly, and where to take her.

A guard was staying near the door, which was already open. The cell was much different than the cell's of Jason or Susan. It actually looked livable. There was a toilet, bed, even a small book case, filled with different kinds of books. Taylor looked at her and nodded at her. Then he walked off. The guard shut the door behind her. Once inside she would notice a small door where food would enter. Though all she could do for now was wait.

---

"So where exactly are you from? It seems a little too coincidentally that you would lose your papers and be a foreigner. But wait...I thought you said that you lived here. Are you an illegal immigrant?" The cop asked as he pulled up a chair and sat in front of the cell.

The cop had nothing better else to do besides question this stranger. Plus he needed to find who exactly this guy was actually. He could hold him for being an illegal immigrant, until he found out his identity.

Molly sat down on her bed and picked up a large, interesting-looking book. She waited for whatever was to happen to happen.

Beats the Halls of the Dead, I guess... or the Sanguinarium. The Halls of the Dead was the most feared torture chamber in Automagfreek, if not the world. She was still unsure of what was to happen to her...

---

Tyrone nodded. "I guess you could call me that. I came in without papers and stuff. I'm from Kahanistan. The place is a shithole, Doomie bastards nuked it to hell, they're trying to rebuild, but there's a lot of political infighting over how to reform the economy, and the common people suffer. I don't want to go back to that place, but I figured immigrating legally wasn't an option what with the diplomatic fuss over those girls being grabbed."

It just so happened that Molly picked up a newly revised version of Canadstein history. The book detailed up to murk prehistoric days to present times. Many would find it boring except for the most serious and avid historians. Though the only other books were by some Russian authors.

---

"Well I am going to have to call in somebody from the government. I am sorry, but you can't just illegally cross into the border. You will probably get sent back to Kahanistan." The cop said as he started to get up.

Soon enough he was on the phone calling Border Services about his little problem. After talking for a bit, then explaining what had happened the cop got a solution. Someone from the Border Services would be over early in the morning to take the illegal off his hands. The cop was just glad to get rid of Mr. Gordon.

Molly looked through the book for a few minutes, then got bored and stuck it back on the shelf in disgust. She lay down on the bed, her taste in literature not expanded to the foreign stuff available to her.

Tyrone seemed to take the news of being sent back to Kahanistan well enough. Good thing I didn't say I was from Doomingsland or some other shithole country.

A single man watch the hidden security camera within the cells. He could see that Susan and Jason were out cold, of course the effects of the sedatives had not worn off, but Molly was wide awake and seemed to be reading. The guard found it kind of odd how Molly was reading in a situation like this. Most people would be cursing or yelling. He took a sip of his coffee and continued to watch.

---

In the morning a man from the Border Services came to St. Cecilia's police station. He was John Hay. A normal run of the mill desk worker. Some local had complained about finding some illegal in their town, and wanted someone to check it out. So the Border Services had sent Mr. Hay. John frankly didn't want to drive five hours to get here, but it was all part of the job.

John walked up to the cell and banged on the bars to wake up the sleeping Tyrone.

"So Mr. Gordon I am going to get some information about you. So what is your name, birthplace, birthdate, current residence, and country of origin?" John rattled off as he sat down in chair facing the cell. In his hands were a clipboard and pen. He was ready to take some notes.

"Tyrone Anthony Gordon," said the man behind the bars. "I was born in Najaster, Kahanistan, on the 4th of June, 1971."

"What exactly were you doing in Canadstein, Mr. Gordon?" John asked.

"Looking for a place to work. I came in with camping gear, figuring I'd need a few days to get my survival skills back in order... in case I couldn't find work as fast as I'd hoped. Also gave me some experience hiding, especially from immigration officials." The man smiled. "I figure with the shekel inflating this badly, even a good wage in Kahanistan probably doesn't equate to much more than two or so of your marks an hour."

"What was your former job?" John asked as he scribbled down some notes.

"I was a soldier in the Kahanistan Republic Guard," said Tyrone. "Needless to say, with the... depopulations, we no longer have the population base for a large military. A lot of us soldiers are out of work. It's hitting the officers too, but higher ranks are being promoted to restock the General Staff."

"Why Canadstein?" He asked.

"Well, you guys are... neutral," said Tyrone. Bullshit. "I figured I'd be less likely to have my home invaded by the Doomies again. Those Catholic bastards murdered my mom and dad and my Uncle Rastus... most of my close family, actually. If I'd moved to Allanea, or Questers, for some sick reason... I'd just be caught up in the next war."

"How about your countries' view that we tried to kidnap one of your Generals? Why would you want to come here?" asked John. "Personally I think it is bullshit."

"Anyone who gets rid of Commies is fine by me," said Tyrone. Of course, he didn't like Communists - but he couldn't hate the person honoured for destroying Kraven. There were always political extremists in every nation.

"So when did you come to Canadstein?" He asked.

"A few days ago. I figured we were going to end up in another war, and get invaded. General Kaselev... he's probably going to want to dig up info on your government, and if he doesn't find it, he'll want to turn this place upside down looking for it. He'll get Kahanistan invaded again, and I didn't want any part of it. I'm not worried staying here, the Kahanistanian military, for all its failings, doesn't generally target civilians - the public doesn't have the stomach for it, even if we had the troops to invade. But we're used to our enemies targeting civilian populations."

"So your country is on the verge of invading our country? That is hilarious. Invading a neutral country. I wonder how other countries will view that. By trust the government enough that it will protect our nation. I still think that we could beat back an invasion, even though our soldiers are not battle harden. At least our soldiers are not the bottom of the barrel. They have chosen to fight for our country." John stated as he looked up from his clipboard. "Of course I hope war does not come to our nation."

---

Early in the morning the door to Molly's cell. Taylor entered the cell and crept up beside Molly. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep. He tapped her on the shoulder.

"Molly it is time to wake up." He said quietly.

"I'm going to kick your ass." Tyrone was a big man, over six feet tall and quite strong. "Come in here and say that about my country."

---

Molly stirred groggily and put an arm around where she heard the voice. She sat up and looked at Taylor. "Oh. How's everything?"

"Hahaha funny come from a criminal. You have illegal entered our borders. Do you have any idea what kind of time you could serve?" said Mr. Hay nonchalantly.

---

"I had a goodnight sleep. How about yourself?" asked Taylor.

Tyrone snarled and delivered a vicious kick... to the toilet in his cell. His massive foot dislodged the metal jail-cell toilet from its fixture and moved it nearly a metre from its original position. It was probably good for the Canadsteiner's health that he did not enter the cell to insult him.

He then sat with his back against the wall and sulked. It was not likely that they would be able to get him to talk anymore.

---

Molly nodded. "Me too. It's about the only good time I'm having." She sat down and smoothed out a spot next to her, as if motioning for Taylor to sit next to her.

"Well Mr.Gordon you might be in Canadstein for a long time." Mr. Hay said as he got up from his chair. "So get comfortable."

Soon afterwards a report of the detainment of a certain Tyrone Gordon was sent to the Kahanistani. Basically it asked if Mr. Gordon had any crimes against them, and stated that he was being held for now.

---

Taylor sat next to Molly and looked at her.

"Are you hungry, Molly?" He asked.

Official Statement of the Free Republic of Kahanistan

Mr. Gordon has no criminal record with us. Why is he being held?

As far as we are concerned, Mr. Gordon is an innocent man and may return to Kahanistan if he so chooses, unless he has formally renounced citizenship, and we have no documentation of that.

Signed,
Rachel C. Levitt,
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Marcus Octavius Cassius,
Minister of Justice

---

Molly nodded. "I'm scared," she said. She placed her arm around Taylor and looked into his eyes. "What's happening to the people who were with me?"

Official Statement of the Federal Republic of Canadstein

Mr. Gordon is being held for illegally across the border and not having the right documentation, in this case the absent of them. He faces crimes for across the border, but a judge just might deport him. Until then he is a criminal and must be treated like one.

Signed,
John Hays,
Border Services


---

"They are fine. You are going to see them in a little bit." Taylor said as he put his arms around her. Then he brought Molly closer to his body. "How about we get some breakfast before that? You look like you are pretty hungry."

Taylor needed to get her mind off of her friends for now. He felt like he needed to comfort her. In a way he felt sorry for her. She was a captive in a stranger country, and pretty much had to cater to their whims.

Official Statement of the Free Republic of Kahanistan

We hope that he is deported rather than incarcerated. As much as people wouid like to leave our nation, and we let them, we would rather he were back here than rotting in a prison cell.

Rachel C. Levitt,
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Molly smiled. "OK." She wrapped her arms around him. She was scared, alone, and emotionally vulnerable.

"What've we got?"

John Hays returned to Gordon's cell and banged on the bars to get the prisoner's attention. Something was a little odd about this situation, but John just wanted to get this guy off of his hands. He had already told the cop someone else from Border Services would pick him up and back the prisoner to the capital.

"Well it seems you are not a criminal. But you are still going to the capital to get processed." John stated. "You actually may not get jail time, but a shift kick in the ass back to your country."

John had a wide smirk as he said that. He didn't care anyways. This was going to be the last time he would ever see this man.

---

Taylor looked into her eyes and felt a little pain. He had no idea what she was going through. The Canadsteiners were basically using her. But Taylor hoped that something good came out of this. If Molly cooperated, then she would be offered to stay here. In fact they wanted Molly to betray her friends, but that would take some time.

"Well what do you want?" Taylor asked with some care.

"I'm pretty low," said Molly. "Usually when I'm like this I stuff myself on chocolate. But I don't think you have any of that here, it's kind of expensive. Do you have beer? I'm 20, so I'm legal in Kahanistan. I don't know what the drinking age is here."

"Actually chocolate is pretty easy to come by here. Molly, I will get you whatever you want. But are you sure you just want chocolate and beer? It is kind of time for breakfast and that would be one odd breakfast." Taylor said with a smirk on his face.

Molly shook her head. "OK, for dessert, then. Waffles and strawberry syrup will be fine. I don't normally eat bacon because I'm watching my weight. I only gorge on sweets when I'm really depressed. Milk's good."

Taylor looked up to the camera and wondered if the guard had gotten the order. Right now it was a high priority to make Molly collaborate, which meant pleasing and comforting her, and trying to find more information about this little Kahanistani team. Taylor just sat there looking at Molly. He wondered how she felt, but was too afraid to ask. Over the last few months he had gotten better talking to women, but it was still a challenge.

But then the awkward silence was broke up a door opening with a tray. The tray had a giant plate with a massive helping of waffles. Off to the side was a syrup dispenser, a couple of chocolate bars, and two bottles of Yukon Gold, a local Canadstein beer.

Taylor got up and retrieved the tray for Molly. Carefully he maneuvered over to Molly and sat the tray in her lap. He then returned to her side. This awkward silence needed to really broken.

"Molly what did you do before you were called up? Since you said that you were a reservist." Taylor asked.

"I was a hairdresser," said Molly. She squirted large quantities of the syrup on her waffles. "I went to college at Kahanistan National University before the evacuation of the capital, too. I studied French education. I was going to teach French."

The girl dug into the waffles. "Do you drink?" she asked.

"Sometimes." Taylor said as he looked down at Molly with a wide smile. He put his arm around her and brought himself closer to her. Now he could feel the warmth of her body. Was he going attached to her? Taylor didn't know, but knew that he shouldn't get involved with a prisoner. "So what part of the Army were you part of?"

"I served in the infantry when MassPwnage bombed us, back when we were in the Middle East. Back then, if you were a reservist and you were called up, you were given a rifle and sent up there. I don't ever want to see what I saw there again." Molly forced another waffle down her throat and opened one of the beer bottles.

"Cheer?"

"Well it doesn't matter now. You are safe here, Molly." Taylor grabbed one of the beer bottles and opened it. He raised it up, then looked at Molly. Well he wasn't suppose to drink on the job, but it would help Molly come comfortable. Taylor took a swig. "So anything you want to know about me?"

Tyrone merely sat in his cell, bored, waiting for the flight. "You know any other countries that would take a poor nigga from Kahanistan?"

---

"Why are you being so nice to me?" asked Molly. "Are you acting on your orders, to avoid an international incident... are you trying to get me to do something for you... do you like me for some reason?"

She raised her bottle after finishing the last of her waffles. "I suppose I could ask why you joined the military. This is supposed to be a neutral country, not like Kahanistan, which gets into fights at the drop of a hat. Now... if General Sklenova recovers, and the doctors thought she would when I left... if she has, she's probably running for President now. I like her, as a politician, and as a soldier. She won't let slavery or genocide happen under her watch. But she doesn't have any economic sense. She doesn't realise that if she stops foreign investment, she's destroying the country's economy. I think she would be better as a cabinet minister, maybe a diplomat of some sort. I hear she's close friends with our Foreign Minister, and she's batshit insane."

"Because maybe I don't know I care about you..." Taylor said, then he quickly took a drink of his beer. He really didn't want to response anymore, and this was the easy way out. It was way too early in the morning to drink.

"Well I joined the military because I believe it is every citizen's duty. Even for a country which hasn't fought a war in over 100 years. We all owe something back to the government which protects. So I decided to join. Of course my parents didn't approve. They wanted me to see my schooling for something." Taylor said as he put the beer down. "See Molly I come from old money, and my parent expect me to follow in their footsteps. Maybe I will one day, but right now I am merely Private Taylor Halls."

"We don't have a lot of old money in Kahanistan. Accumulation of wealth is generally discouraged, even high-ranking generals and government officials are not rich. Most of the rich people in Kahanistan are crime lords and businesspeople with lots of foreign contact."

"Most people in the military have their schooling be for something. Almost all generals have master's degrees, or did before we started promoting mid-ranking officers left, right and centre and getting rid of those we couldn't. Some even have Ph.D.'s. Education is considered very important for military officers."

Molly chugged the rest of her bottle, about three-quarters of it. "We did this all the time in college, and in military hazing rituals, when they haze the reservists who are activating to toughen them up."

"Well college was very different for me. You could say the exact opposite I wanted to please my parents, so I immersed myself with my studies. It seemed all I did was do work." Taylor said, but he was partially lying. Yes he wanted to please his parents, but he was also running away from something, a girl. But Taylor rather not remember it. "But studying did pay off. I got my Master's in Law. Though it doesn't serve much use here. Maybe sometime in the future."

"Master's in Law? How old are you?" Molly asked. She was only 20, and had but two years of college.

"So you never got drunk in college? I remember showing up to calculus class roaring drunk and hearing guys tell me they wanted to lay tangent (http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/everybody_loves_a_math_joke.shtml) to my curves."

"Myself? Oh...I am only twenty-two. I skipped a couple of grades..." Taylor said with a smirk on his face. Then he nice long swig of his beer.

"Got more booze?" asked Molly. "I'm feeling a little better now." She put an arm around Taylor.

"You ever been to Kahanistan?"

Taylor paused for a second. Should he tell Molly about his brief stint at the embassy in Metzuda and how they kept Nadia as a captivate for a while? Also that he was one of the men to kidnap General Malakov. For now it would be better to lie. Taylor shook his head trying to communicate no.

"Sorry I haven't." Taylor said as the door open. A couple of beers were put into the room. Once again Taylor got up and grabbed them all. He set them all on a nearby table, except for one. Taylor returned his spot and handed the one beer over to Molly.

"You should come one day. Best not admit your nationality until the furor dies down. 'Course, if General Sklenova becomes President... well, she's not one to hold a whole people responsible for their government. She doesn't even hate Doomani. 'Course, if you come into Kahanistan preaching Doomanism, that's what we call their version of the Catholic religion because it's becoming politically incorrect to bash 'Catholics,' she'll probably find a way to throw you out as a dangerous alien."

Molly popped open one of the beers and sucked on it suggestively. "So, what do you think of her politics?"

"Honestly I couldn't tell you. I don't keep up with other countries politics." He replied.

Molly nodded. "I see. So..." she looked around, then took another drink. "Are there bugs in this room?"

"Why would you want to know if there are bugs in the room?" Taylor said as he eyes shifted around the room. There was indeed bugs, but Taylor wasn't suppose to tell. His eyes moved back to her.

"I was... interested in my privacy." Molly smiled enticingly and finished off the last of the beer.

"Besides... I don't want people watching me take a shit. Or shower."

Taylor thought for a moment and thought of a way to tell her. What would it hurt anyways? It seemed like Molly was going to cooperate with them. Plus if she ran were would she go to? The nearest town, St. Cecilia, was pretty far on foot, and that would give enough opportunity to re catch her.

"What do you think?" Taylor said with a devilish smile.

"I think you wouldn't mind seeing me naked, and you wouldn't mind showing me to your friends there." She was apparently half drunk by now - even a more experienced special forces officer might have trouble escaping in that condition.

"Well...Molly I wouldn't do anything that would hurt you." Taylor replied as he turned a bright red.

He was obliviously embarrassed by what Molly had said. But a part of what she said was true. Taylor thought that Molly was beautiful, but he had to remember that she was also a prisoner and threaten Canadstein's security, for now. Getting up, Taylor took another swig of the beer then grabbed the others. He didn't need Molly getting drunk. Deposing of the trash and finishing off his own beer, Taylor returned to her side.

Molly could still tell that she'd embarrassed Taylor. "I'm sorry." She placed her arms around him gently. "What are the women like in Canadstein? In Kahanistan, we tend to be more liberal about sexual matters. We don't even have laws against public nudity in a lot of places."

"Canadstein tends to be on the more conservative side. See public nudity is banned throughout the country, except for a few beaches. We tend not be public at all with sexual matters. But Canadstein women are like any other women from any country." replied Taylor.

"I see. So... what should we do here until our government comes looking for us?" Molly figured that if General Kaselev didn't get the proof he wanted about the nefarious activities of the agents, he'd send someone to look for them... once he got rid of the other stuff on his plate. He knew where he'd had them dropped, and he knew where the suspicious site was that he was having them investigate. Their failure to return had to mean they had found something...

"I guess wait or until we hand you back over. Though we will try to stop a incident from happening. Honestly I don't think it will look good if some Kahanistani soldiers were captured in a neutral country. Some people might view that as a declaration of war. But the case is going to be different with you Molly. You can either stay here or go back to Kahanistan, if you help us." Taylor said.

General Kaselev waited in his office. He had heard from the Foreign Ministry that Master Sergeant Gordon would be returned to Kahanistan, but had received no confirmation from the Ministry that he had arrived yet. He also knew that he had to talk to him if possible to get more details on this base, as he was sure now it was a base.

He wanted to simply ask the government of Canadstein what was holding him up, but having the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence ask about someone was a pretty big tipoff that he was more than an illegal border crosser. He would simply have to wait until the Foreign Ministry let him know that Tyrone had returned.

In the meantime, he had to get the proof on their government that they had tried to abduct and murder General Sklenova. He needed their government to admit its crimes. Kaselev briefly considered a bombing raid on the base, but if any of their operatives were being held hostage in there, he might kill them. Besides, the bombing would destroy the records Kahanistan hoped to obtain. The Canadstein government had not commented on the insertion, which was probably a bad thing - rather than try to get concessions from Kahanistan, they were more likely to secretly execute the prisoners.

Kaselev knew all about secret executions. He had made several attempts over the last few months to try to dig up evidence on the Amestrian secret execution policy (denied by their government, but widely believed in Kahanistan) but his superiors had overruled him every time. This time, he was closer to the top, and it was his people, not foreign insurgents, who were the alleged victims of secret executions.

He decided on simple bribery. First, however, he needed to contact a soldier he thought he could bribe before he could offer one...

---

"Help you how?" She figured the others had given in as easily as she had - she had no idea of the terrible conditions in which they were held.

Mr. Gordon was processed in the capital and a file was created. If he was ever caught within Canadstein again, then he would definitely serve jail time. Usually first time offenders were deported. After his information was collected, Mr. Gordon was taken to a local airport and on the next flight out of the country. The rest of his journey would have to be on his home.

---

"Help us identify. Tell us why you are here. We want to information on this operation. We want to know who the mastermind is." Taylor replied as he looked at Molly. "If you help us, then have the choose to stay here. That is partially because your country might disown you, but you will be in such a better place."

"I would have thought you knew. This came from pretty high up the ranks, from General Kaselev himself." Kaselev's identity was hardly secret; he was one of the greatest heroes of the Doomani occupation, and before that, the Kraven wars. He had also sent the Canadsteiners an angry letter in which he outlined his belief that Miles was a "Canadsteiner terrorist and assassin."

---

New Masada, Kahanistan

Tyrone Gordon arrived in General Kaselev's office twelve hours after his deportation.

"What have you found?" asked Kaselev.

"Nothing much. The base has some guard towers, a garrison of around fifty, and a fence. They're pretty wary of civilians, the journalist cover didn't work and we ended up in a firefight. Corporals Hargan, Horst and Canton were captured. Captain Roman and I split up, I was found in St. Cecilia and deported as a border crosser. I don't know what happened to Captain Roman. He may be dead, or he may have escaped. Did he make it to Kahanistan?"

"No," said Kaselev. "Master Sergeant Gordon... your comrades are most likely dead. Their government has not contacted us, and I believe they more likely have decided to quietly dispose of the infiltrators. By now, they probably know we are involved, if they have tortured our comrades. We cannot assume they are ignorant. On the upside... I thought you would like to know. General Sklenova and Colonel Rhodes have recovered from their infections. It is sad that three, possibly four, of our brave men and women probably will not."

"So, you think they're having that bug tested on them?"

"Probably. For now, we don't want war... we cannot survive another military engagement. But that base needs to be destroyed. A stealth bomber will not work... they know who has the motive to bomb them."

"You can't be thinking of leaving them, can you?"

"They are probably dead, if they have been infected. If not, they have likely been executed as spies. But... this cannot continue. I will need a list of personnel at that base."

"Why?" asked Tyrone.

"I intend to contact one among their ranks who is disgruntled. I will offer a bribe... in exchange for information regarding the safety of our operatives... and the truth about their interest in General Sklenova." Kaselev accessed a terminal and began to pore over lists of Canadstein soldiers, looking for those whose records were blurry near the present; they likely had classified assignments near secret bases.

Taylor stole a glance at his watch once Molly was finished talking. It was time, but he wondered if Molly would be clear enough in the mind to identify her comrades. Well he was about to find out. He got up and took a hold of her hand.

"Molly it is time to get down to business. We are going to see the other people we captured. Remember what you have agreed to. Are you going to keep that agreement?" Taylor asked.

"As long as they aren't being mistreated," said Molly. She let Taylor lead her.

"I assure you that they have not been touched." Taylor was telling the truth to his extent. He had not known that Susan had been drugged multiple times and been beaten.

Taylor led Molly through maze of tunnels on a predetermined path. He backed tracked a couple of times to make sure that Molly never got a good idea of how big the place was. Suddenly Taylor stopped at an unmarked door, and opened it. Leading Molly inside there was a row of four chair and a large one way mirror.

Seating in the chair was older looking man. He looked to be in his late fifties and early sixties. His hair was thinning and a bald spot was already apparent. Though what really stood out was his eye, those green eyes. His eyes glowed with the same kind of power that fire gave out. The man got up and shook hands with Molly, then addressed himself.

"Hello I am Daniel Rand." stated the old man. "Well lets get down to business."

Taylor led Molly to one of the chairs. Once they were all situated, a door in the interrogation room. Two men dragged in Susan Canton. She was still under the sedative, so there be no real action from her. The men put her in the chair and strapped her down, in case the sedative wore off.

"So Miss Hargan tell us about her." Mr. Rand asked as he pointed toward Susan.

"She looks mistreated," said Molly. "Out cold... but there is little I can tell you about her anyway; I don't know her very well. Her name is Susan Canton, she's a Corporal in the Kahanistanian military like me, and she's 36 years old. She's a lesbian if that helps. The only thing I really know about her military record is that she has training as a military journalist, a reporter for wars we get involved in abroad."

Molly looked at Taylor, thinking she had been lied to. She seemed to be very suspicious.

"Well that also correct to the information we gathered, but we also found some information that might interest you and your government." Mr. Rand stated as he handed over a file about Susan.

The file had the confession of Susan that she was a spy for the Doomani, and she was in fact a man named Claudius Lucius Nero. If Molly needed more prove, a disk was included in the file of the confession. Located in the room was a small tv hooked up to a dvd player, if Molly did wish to view it.

Taylor came up beside her and started to whisper into her ear. Honestly he did not know that Susan was injured. No one had told him. Now he wondered if Molly would believe him at all, just because of the high command hadn't told him everything.

"Molly...I didn't know"

"My God... a Doomani? Whoever this person is... they're damned good."

She seemed to be willing to believe Taylor, at least for now. It wouldn't surprise her at all if this government was hiding the worst of its misdeeds from Joe Grunt. "But even a Doomani... is entitled to certain rights when taken prisoner." True, her own government had brutally killed enemy POW's in the last war, but she hadn't been involved in that, and it had been more of the government turning a blind eye to atrocities in the field than in actually ordering them.

"I find that hard to believe. A Doomani wouldn't give that kind of sensitive information no matter how badly you tortured one." This may or may not be mere propaganda, but it was widely believed in Kahanistan that the soldiers of their most feared enemy underwent torture in their training. "Especially one under such deep cover as to masquerade as a female... but at this point... I can't be sure the others haven't been mistreated, too."

---

General Kaselev pored over a list of Canadsteiners who had worked at the Embassy when he and the Foreign Ministry had had it expelled. It wasn't much, but he had a list of soldiers he could contact and offer bribes to in exchange for information. Now, he had merely to find one who was willing to take a bribe in exchange for giving him more detailed information on that spot he had dropped operatives on. Of course, this assumed that at least one of them had been assigned previously or subsequently to a classified location. The likelihood of this increased with rank, but so did the likelihood of them volunteering useful information go down.

His immediate superior, General Ahmed al-Junab, Director of Military Intelligence, suggested simply asking the government to openly offer a $50 billion reward for information about the base to any soldier willing to volunteer it. Kaselev believed this approach would expose his operatives' nationality and trigger a flood of false information the government would end up paying for.

Instead, Kaselev had one of his underlings make phone calls to each of the soldiers on the list, starting with the privates, for whom a phone number could be found, and feeding each of them a different story; one was a college student interested in the intelligence community, one was a human rights lawyer, one worked for the International Red Cross or such similar organisation, one was a member of a free speech group that supported freedom of information. This was so that if someone decided to squeal to their superiors instead of taking the bribe, which could be deposited electronically through secure channels after the information was verified, the superiors would think it was more than one group, or otherwise be unable to track the information seeking back to Kahanistan.

A typical call began with the operative identifying as a member of XYZ Organisation, giving a phone number, then if the soldier called the organisation to check using the number they had been contacted with, Intel would cut in on the transmission and answer the line, "confirming" all was in order.

"We just thought that your government might want to know. Molly, we know of your country's hatred for the Doomani." Mr. Rand said with a cold emotionless voice.

Soon afterwards Susan was dragged out of the interrogation room. A few minutes later the same two men entered, but dragged Jason. Obliviously Jason was under the sedative because his body was completely limp. Though his sedative was going to wear off in the next few minutes. They wanted Molly to see that no physical harm had been done to him. Jason was strapped down into the chair, then Mr. Rand looked at Molly waiting for a response.

---

Every single man they called gave no information. On their first day of basic training they had given an oath to never betray the state or the king, and almost every soldier had kept to that tradition. Soldiers were told to never talk about military information, especially classified information. No amount of money could sway them. Obliviously they were not in the army for the money, but to preserve the Republic.

"Is he a Doomani too?" asked Molly. She seemed only half serious; she was still unsure as to how to react to the news about her comrade. She had seemed nice enough.

"No but we haven't fully interrogated him yet. So tell us about him." Mr. Rand said as he looked icily at Molly.

"Don't know him that well either. Corporal Jason Horst, age 23. I don't know much more about him than that he's a member of the Special Combat Service, he's special forces... done infil missions before, you probably figured that already."

---

General Kaselev was surprised that nobody would take him up on his offer. He had to assume that not the whole military was like this... there was a weak link somewhere and he had to find it.

The general ordered that the search be widened to include any Canadsteiner whose service record included Kahanistan. Someone had to know something about the government's interest in General Sklenova.

"Miss Hargan what were you suppose to do here?" Mr. Rand asked as Jason started to wake up.

---

Only a dozen men had served on the Army Embassy Guard in Kahanistan, and most of those men had been reposted at another embassy. But with the reason threats from the Kahanistani government, it was clear that Canadsteiners were not going to work with them, even if a load of money was involved. To Canadsteiners it was sicken that a country had such outlandish claims against a neutral country.

What Molly was supposed to do was what she had done - it would not jeopardise the mission to explain.

"I just distracted the guards while the raid took place. The gunfire was a diversion. We don't want to kill anyone. Kaselev said he wanted proof of your government's intention to kidnap General Sklenova."

Jason stirred. He was still very groggy from the sedative. He figured that those bastards had tortured or drugged Molly. He left his eyes closed so as to hide the fact he was awake, for now...

---

"Not one lead...?" General Kaselev asked as the intelligence lieutenant quaked in fear. Kaselev had a way of giving people the creeps. "I have authorised that every Canadsteiner with a record involving this nation be contacted... I have raised the bribe from one million to one hundred million dollars... and you tell me that of the..." Kaselev remembered the figure, "two hundred and sixty-four Canadsteiners we have contacted, not one... not one, has yielded any information?"

Lieutenant Yusuf al-Kobrisi worked up the courage to speak. "General. The Canadsteiner culture is one of following orders without question, like the Nazis. It is not surprising no one has volunteered information."

"Even among the Nazis, there were those willing to try to kill Hitler," said Kaselev coldly. "This nation's reputation rests on finding enough evidence to force the Canadsteiner government to admit its responsibility. We will be seen as Austria-Hungary making demands of Serbia for killing the Archduke if we cannot produce this proof. Circumstantial evidence does not suffice in the eyes of the international community, Lieutenant Kobrisi. I am not about to see this nation plunged into another destructive war, in which world opinion will not be with us."

"Yes, General." The officer stopped trembling. "I will find it."

"You will have assistance from a member of the diplomatic corps, Colonel Fulton. She is currently on vacation attending a... martial arts tournament. I will email her, so she will know to meet you when she returns. I trust she will not fail me." The general had a tendency not to be tactful, and this was how he generally talked when he was angry. Not raising his voice, but still enough to freeze the blood of whoever had aroused his wrath.

"Why is this General Kaselev, so intent on finding this 'information'?" Mr. Rand as he scribbled down some notes.

Once all the interrogations were done, then all the work would be complied together. Finally a team would gather to conduct an investigation into the matter. Hopefully they would get to the bottom of it, and cut of any loose ends. But right now Mr. Rand had to deal with the collaborator.

"He believes that the terrorist who attempted to kidnap General Sklenova... was a member of your government," said Jason. Kaselev had said as much to the Canadstein Foreign Ministry shortly after the rescue.

"He spoke with her after the ordeal. She identified the man who kidnapped her as a Mr. Miles Mason, Canadstein Intelligence Agency. He believes Mason to be dead, but he wants your government to admit its responsibility. Only when he is assured your government will take responsibility and no longer sponsor terrorist acts will he recommend to the Foreign Ministry that your embassy be allowed to return."

This information was not exactly secret; the news media offered three main theories as to the abduction. The first was the Canadstein connection: General Sklenova had personally identified her abductors as Canadsteiners. She would have little to gain by framing a neutral government. The second theory blamed the Doomani. They could easily be blamed for a terrorist act against Kahanistan and try to deflect the blame, and the Catholics had become the Kahanistanian equivalent of the Jews in pre-WWII Germany, blamed for all the nation's ills. This was often presented as an anti-Catholic conspiracy theory, though many mainstream politicians supported it. The third mainstream theory was that the Allaneans had done it, not wanting to let one of their "allies" go Marxist simply because their people were voting in droves for a Communist general for President.

Mr. Rand just shook his head and tried to keep himself from laughing. He could not believe the words that were coming out of Jason's mouth. That was most outlandish claim he had ever heard before. Why would the Canadstein government want to kidnap some General from some rat hole country? Canadsteiners would never try to compromise their neutrality, just to get hold of some silly General. Lucky Daniel wouldn't have to listen to this nonsense for the time being.

Two men entered the room. One of they carried a syringe. Jason was going to sleep for a while. The needle entered his skin, along with the sedative. Within a minute he was out cold. The two men undid the straps and took him back to his cell.

"Sorry about that little outburst from Jason. Let us carry on with business. So were these all of your teammates?" Mr. Rand asked.

Molly did not seem interested in talking much more. Kaselev had briefed them on what these scum had done to Nadia and Andrea while they were captive.

"Now I know," she said. "General Kaselev said you did the same thing to General Sklenova. Whenever she came to, your agent injected her again and she passed out."

"What are you trying to imply Miss Hargan? That we actually tried to capture one of your generals. Honestly that is utter garbage. Who are you with? Us or them?" Mr. Rand said as he pointed to the chair, where Susan and Jason had been strapped down.

Molly was furious. She certainly had not expected that these people would admit to their crimes. No... she was mad about her friends being held hostage, and now she was 100% convinced that General Kaselev was telling the truth - what had he to gain by doing otherwise?

"Yes, that is what I'm saying. This is exactly how she was treated while in the hands of your terrorist. And that is probably the same kind of drug, too." It had the same effect on Jason that Kaselev had described the drug having on Nadia... though Molly only heard this second-hand through Military Intelligence and a result of Kaselev's debriefing of Nadia.

"What should we do with her Pvt. Hall?" asked Mr. Rand with no emotions.

Taylor looked at Molly, then back to Daniel. What should he do? Help destroy the infiltrator or help this poor girl. He knew that state was above all, but was it above a human life? God only knew what would happen to Molly, if Taylor said to take her back to her cell. Or had this all been a ruse? Had Molly played on his emotions to make sure that some poor sap defended her.

"Molly...who are you with?" asked Taylor sheepishly.

"I... want to see justice done. Nobody else needs to be hurt. I... want to know that your government... isn't going to send in agents to act against our government."

Molly felt terrible. Taylor seemed to really like her, and she just wanted to give General Kaselev the information he wanted. It wasn't like he was the one who had kidnapped Nadia.

"Answer the question Molly...them or us?" Taylor asked once again.

"I'm a loyal soldier of Kahanistan," Molly replied. "I suppose you'll want to kill me. After all, we're probably on the brink of war now..." She seemed sad, but still willing to follow her beliefs - which did not include selling out her comrades.

"Miss Hargan you have already betrayed your friends. What will your government think of you when they find out? If you do not work with us, then we will leak it to your media that you were a traitor. Do you want that? For your family name to mean dirt. We will go to lengths to make that happen." Mr. Rand stated coldly.


Taylor went up beside her and grabbed her hand. Did he actually feel something for her? He had grown feelings for her over the last few hours, and couldn't stand her get hurt.

"Please...Molly..." Taylor said weakly.

Molly merely shook her head. "And what will it look like...? Merely a smear from the same people who have committed state terrorism against us? For what reason? Why do we have to be in conflict? Before you put agents in Kahanistan, we were having problems with extreme nationalists, problems we could have solved with the democratic apparatus, but your interference only solidified their position."

"Now... I don't even know that we'll be able to stop the Nationalists from taking power in the next election. (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=542678) Their candidate is a moderate, not anti-Catholic... but still wants to increase the military and become more self-reliant on arms. The Nationalists still enjoy widespread support, and your removal of General Malakov... only made them stronger."

"The only problem is that your government has no real proof. Why else would your government send you here and by what you have said? Our government has stated that they are just outlandish claims. Also that Kahanistan is just looking for another fight, from what? A neutral country. So if you even attack us, it will ruin your public image dearly." stated Mr. Rand with no emotions. "Our government doesn't give a damn who takes over. Just another country on the decline. Too bad..."

Taylor just stood to the side and said nothing. It would just be better. He had grown feelings for Molly, but she was against them. Only if...

Mr. Rand pushed a button in the room, and two men entered. Daniel stared at them and they knew what to do. They grabbed Molly forcibly and started to carry her away.

"Take her to room 246." Mr. Rand said with a evil grin.

Taylor looked away as they took Molly away. This might be the last time he would ever seen her. The men took her down a new path, and ended up at room 246. Before the men entered, they injected her with the ever so famous sedative.

Once Molly would wake up she would find her self in front of dozens of tvs. Each of them playing a violence from her country, but interspersed were images of peace within Canadstein. Her eyes were forced open so she couldn't close them, and her head was fixed in place so she couldn't look away. Molly was strapped down to a bolted chair. It was the beginning. Mr. Rand looked on into the room with a wide grin.


OOC: Molly wouldn't know that Malakov was taken down by Canadsteiner agents. Our government still probably think that the Kahnistani Anti-Nationalist Front (KANF) did the whole thing.

General Kaselev knew that things had gone downhill for Malakov around the same time this Mason showed up - the same Mason who had worked with Nadia and then turned on her. For a seasoned intelligence officer, it was no major leap in logic for him to deduce that Canadstein was involved.

Kaselev, as a communist, was no fan of Malakov. He had opposed him before, mainly over the Catholic issue, but supported keeping him around, figuring there was no way the Senate would sign on for extreme measures against the Catholic population, not with roughly five to ten percent of the population being demonstrably anti-Catholic. However, he did support his nation, and he did believe that there were ways of dealing with him within the system. (He tended not to trust statements that came under torture, and would have preferred that the general be prosecuted for something there was evidence of, or publicly discredited.)

As such, the accusation against Canadstein would find its way into briefings he would give to anyone he would send against them.

Molly rolled her eyes in toward the back of her head. The only way to stop that would be to literally nail them to the back of her skull. She had already seen much of the violence on TV, even fought on the front line in the Pwnage bombings, but to her it was simply resistance. One must never yield control, and if one briefly loses it, must struggle to take it back to the extent possible.

The Canadsteiners knew that Molly could do that for so long before she would tire. Images flowed from violence to ones with peace. This would surely mess up Molly's mind within the next couple of days. To see all the hate and violence, but then the peace and harmony in Canadstein would destroy her spirit. Hopefully the Canadsteiners could rebuild it into something more useful.

As the hours wore on, the Canadstein National Anthem started to play. The violent images, mostly of Kahanistani soldiers killing innocent citizens, and were replaced by peace within Canadstein. For the next straight twenty four hours it was an endless loop of the national anthem. Soon enough...

---

During the twenty four hours, a major operation was underway, to return the two captives. The prisoners were put aboard a submarine, then whisked off toward Kahanistan. When the sub finally made it to the coast, they went to the surface. Off in the distance they could see the twinkle of the cities near the ocean. A team was assembled to go ashore and "return" the prisoners.

Once the job was finished the team returned to the submarine. It was as though they were never there. But they did leave a mark in the form of Jason and Susan.

An old man drove along the beachside road in remote northern Kahanistan. He had seen no civilisation in hundreds of kilometres, and did not expect to. The old man was mulling over what to do with the rest of his life when he suddenly slammed on his brakes to avoid running over a man and woman.

SCREEEEECH!!!

The car came to a screeching halt as the couple, for that was all the old man could assume, approached his car. He lowered the window a crack and clutched his GLOCK 17. For all he knew, these could be robbers or members of some weird cult.

"Sir." The man spoke. "Can you take us to New Masada?"

"New Masada, eh...? Well, ain't got nowhere else to go... hop in! You'll have to ride in the trunk, though... can't be too cautious, an old man like me. You could be robbers, or terrorists, or Canadsteiners."

Jason and Susan saw fit not to tell him where they had come from. They complied - they didn't exactly have a lot of choices in this isolated, uncivilised area. They rode along to New Masada, the capital of Kahanistan.

---

Molly broke down crying after twelve hours. She knew that the presentation was propaganda, that Kahanistanian soldiers killing civilians or POW's was a rare aberration to the way a typical Kahanistanian soldier thought, but could no longer bear to watch her countrymen nailing captured Doomani and allied troops to Stars of David in crucifixion fashion or terror bombing Northfordian and Kriegos cities.

Even though Molly was crying the images steady got worse. They wanted to annihilated her spirit and mind, so they could rebuild from the ground up. Molly was going to be their new toy for the time being. The Canadsteiners were teaching her the first of many lessons. That Kahanistan was a country filled with violence, and that Canadstein was the exact opposite. Slowly they were going to make sure that she was loyal to their cause. To the King and President. All in due time.

General Kaselev read over a file on Tenuria (http://www.forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=542553), the next location of possible Kahanistanian military intervention. He was interrupted by a knock on his office door.

"Enter," the general said, pressing a switch on his remote to unlock the door. A bedraggled man and woman who looked like they had not bathed in weeks stepped in.

"General Kaselev," said Jason, "what became of Captain Roman and Master Sergeant Gordon?"

"Gordon returned a few days ago," said Kaselev. "Roman... I have not seen. What have you discovered about the base?" In actuality, Captain Roman was still sneaking around in the woods and farmlands, trying to get out of Canadstein by stealth, not as trusting of the locals as Tyrone had been.

"It's a torture centre," said Susan. "They assumed I was a spy from the start. They smacked me around, they kept us under control with sedatives..."

"How did you escape?" asked Kaselev. "And what of Corporal Hargan?"

"We... found ourselves on a beach. We don't know how we got here. We didn't even know where we were until we were picked up by an old man with a gun." Gun ownership was almost universal in Kahanistan.

"So they... just released you. I assume this means they could not find any reason to think you were spies...?"

"Well, given that Trent and Tyrone laid down fire to get us in, and we snuck in... I think they just don't want a war with us."

"Very well," said Kaselev. "I will work under the assumption that Captain Roman is missing in action, and Corporal Hargan was secretly executed before they realised they might provoke a heavier response. I will also have to have you two quarantined, in case you were infected with a biological weapon. The debriefing will have to wait until then..." Kaselev pressed a button to call security. "We have a potential broken vial," he said, using the code word for a disease outbreak. "Recommend sealing."

Within minutes, Jason and Susan were rushed to a quarantine unit in Fort Nehemiah by security guards in full-body NBC, and Kaselev's office was hosed down with every manner of antiviral and microbicide in the biological attack arsenal.

---

"Turn it off... just turn it off!" Molly wailed. She summoned all her strength and forced her eyes shut, jerking her head up and down to wrench it in a direction away from the TV. "I don't want to see any more!"

Molly's head didn't even budge an inch. Her head was fix securely into place. The same situation was with her eyes. Her eyelids were forced open. There was no looking away from the images. But now something happened within the room. TVs suddenly changed to images of Kahanistani troops raping innocent people. In the background the Kahanistan National Anthem could be heard. Everything was going according. They were forty-eight hours in, and there was still another forty-eight left.

We were born in the fire, fundamentalism was rough,
we were raised in the desert, where the heat made us tough,
Ave libertas!

- First stanza of "Born in the Fire," the Kahanistanian national anthem.

The anthem described Kahanistan as an interventionist nation, opposing repression, tyranny and genocide. The scenes of renegade, undisciplined reservists and militias raping Catholic girls were completely at odds with the ideologies espoused in the anthem.

For Molly, it was either close her eyes or go blind (the eyes do not tear properly when held open and end up drying out), and the only way to force her eyes open was to pin her eyelids to her skin (and simply have the pins dislodged.)

If the Canadsteiners used more extreme measures, such as stapling or suturing, eyelid damage could bring blood into the eyes. At this point, it didn't matter much. After sixteen straight hours, it was hard enough just staying awake as the sounds blurred together.

---

General Kaselev had military doctors run numerous tests on Jason and Susan to determine if they had been infected by a biological weapon. After the scare with Nadia, he wasn't about to lose two operatives, and certainly not risk an outbreak that could derail Kahanistan's recovering situation.

After five days of "torture", the men finally let Molly get some sleep. They knew that she was on the brink of collapse and almost near blindness. Molly needed to be kept alive and in a healthy condition. This meant not being blind or insane. Lucky Molly was neither. Once she was soundly asleep, doctors did a full medical check up on her. No real harm had been done. When the doctors had given an okay, it was time to initiate the second stage.

---

When Molly would wake up, she would find herself oddly refreshed. It had been four days since she finally gave into sleep. During those four days, a special team of Canadsteiners had worked on Molly. When she was in a dream like state, they had implanted memories within her mind. Memories such as her being a loyal Canadsteiner citizen, and detesting the Kahanistani government, also memories of her childhood in a small peacefully Canadsteiner town. They were going to make Molly believe that she was Canadsteiner, and that she had infiltrated the Kahanistani government as a special forces Corporal.

Molly woke up. She would be in for one hell of a surprise whenever Kaselev and company figured out that she was still alive.

"I feel sick... what's happened?" She was confused from all the memory modifications and her brain was still adjusting to the changes inflicted on it.

---

After a week of intensive quarantine, it was deemed safe to allow General Kaselev to talk to the infiltrators and debrief them, as long as he wore a germproof suit.

"Well, you are probably clean," said Kaselev. "We don't know if you were damaged in ways we cannot see, so we administered stem cells and antivirals. Right now, we need to know... Corporal Canton, did your video equipment survive the insertion?"

"It was confiscated," said Susan. "They probably destroyed it after they figured out what I was going to pick up on it."

"I'll talk to the Canadsteiners," said Kaselev. This is getting ridiculous. We're about to go to war, over... what, actually? Canadstein was not exactly up there with Doomingsland, Tenuria, or Automagfreek as a top human rights violator. Then again, neither was MassPwnage, most of the Questarian Commonwealth, or a lot of Kahanistan's other enemies. In fact, Canadstein was a "neutral" nation... but then, why had it inserted agents around the time Malakov fell, even if he were not a threat to their interests?

The whole mess was confusing, even to such a well-trained and experienced intelligence general. Talk to the Canadsteiners he would indeed.
---

I find the current situation between our nations a serious point of concern given our relative positions.

The Government of Kahanistan believes your intelligence agency behind a terrorist attempt to kidnap two of our officers, and that your government was involved in opposing General Malakov, our former Defence Minister. These are not the acts of a neutral nation.

Further, your government asked us for proof of your involvement in these acts, and then confiscated the proof to suppress it.

As we speak, two of our agents are in Canadstein, one missing and the other presumed executed by your government; if our presumption is correct, that would hold negative consequences for relations between our nations. I would like to speak, in a neutral location, with an official from your government with the power to resolve the differences between our nations.

Signed,
Lieutenant General Igor Kaselev,
Deputy Director, Kahanistan Military Intelligence

From the surroundings Molly could tell that she was within a hospital. Everything was white inside and clean. It was like any other hospital. A doctor was checking on another patient, when he noticed that Molly had spoke. The doctor quickly came over.

"Oh...Molly it is good to see you that you are awake. You just had a little bump on the head and have been out for the past five days. Lucky that man was there to call an ambulance." The doctor said as he pointed toward a young man.

A young man in his early twenties sat in a chair reading a magazine. He looked up from his magazine and smiled at Molly. The man was obviously in the military by what he was wearing, a flecktarn BDU of the Royal Canadstein Army. The man got up and made his way over Molly.

"Yeah...I found you out in the woods, when I was doing my morning jog. It seemed like you hit a branch or slipped and fell." The young man stated with a devilish grin.

---

Somehow the letter went all the way to the President, Henry Harper. President Harper had no idea what this Lieutenant General Kaselev was talking about. Henry would never order anything that would comprise the neutrality of Canadstein, something that the citizens would not like. Though the odd thing was that Issac Hall, Director of the Canadstein Intelligence Agency, did not have to report to the President, so Henry had no real control of him. For all Henry knew this General Kaselev could be saying the truth. Henry needed to find out.

Over the past few weeks your country has shown aggressive behaviors toward Canadstein, for absolutely no reason. You have claimed that we have tried to kidnap two of your officers and overthrow another, without any real proof. This is a great insult toward Canadstein.

Now you claim that we have executed one of your agents and another is loose within our country. This agents have illegally entered Canadstein. I could see this as an act of war, but this would lead to many deaths. I would rather avoid any blood to be shed.

So I would like to get to the bottom of this whole fiasco. I will agree to meet with you, and only you. As for the meeting place it is up to you.

Signed,
Henry Harper
President of Canadstein

Molly smiled weakly at the young man. "What's your name?"

---

Since you say a location of my choosing, I am tempted to suggest my office, but that would be inappropriate given our respective ranks.

As a gesture of courtesy, I will come to your office if you deem it appropriate.

Signed,
Lieutenant General Igor Kaselev,
Deputy Director, Kahanistan Military Intelligence

Kaselev figured that if the Canadsteiners decided to assassinate him, or detain him, they wouldn't be able to deny it this time, and Kahanistan would be justified in responding with military force.

"Taylor Hall. And how about yourself?" The young man stated as he extended his arm toward her.

---

That seems fine to me. I will await your arrival. I hope your journey is without any problems. And may peace return between our two nations. God Save the King!

Signed,
Henry Harper
President of Candstein

President Harper hoped that this talk would resolve any problems. But he still wondered if all this accusations were true. Honestly he had no idea what his intelligence agency was doing now. Henry only called upon the Agency when he needed some intelligence on a certain country. Their information was exact and to the point. Surely that was the only thing they did?

"Molly Hargan." The girl smiled widely. "So... when do you think I'll be ready to be released from here?"

---

Kaselev boarded a flight to Canadstein. Of course, since few planes in Kahanistan went to Canadstein any more, he had to stopover in some backwards Third World piss hole before continuing with his trip.

The airline food sucked balls and tasted like creamed slugs boiled in mud. Kaselev dared not guess what it was; it didn't matter much. He had eaten far worse on missions when his MRE's ran out.

The general landed in the Canadsteiner capital. He was a tall, well-built man in his late 30's, clean shaven with short dark brown hair, cold blue eyes and a large nose, and dressed in the full black military uniform of Kahanistan Military Intelligence. He wore the rank insignia of a three-star general and several high-level medals. The only thing missing on this mission was his sidearm, and he was confident he would not need it, nor the international incident that would undoubtedly unfold if a high-ranking officer were arrested trying to sneak a weapon into the President's office. The only thing he carried with him was a large briefcase detailing the accounts of General Sklenova, Colonel Rhodes, and the other Kahanistanian officers and soldiers who had had encounters with Canadsteiners.

If anything did turn ugly, he, like his agents, had a black belt in Krav Maga, plus he was 6'3" and weighed 200 pounds. He was more than a match for anyone foolish enough to try to kidnap him.

"I think either today or tomorrow. That is what the doc told me. But probably until once the doctors feel that you are physical fit enough. You sure did have big bump on your head. What were you doing around in the forest?" asked Taylor as he grabbed a chair and sat down.

---

Once General Kaselev got of the plane he was flanked by two men. They soon frisked him and lead him straight to an unmarked car. Everything seemed to be in order. The car went straight to the Presidential House, without any mishaps. No one would know that General Kaselev was within the city. The darted past the gate and parked. Immediately afterwards the two men lead General Kaselev into the house.

Walking through the many corridors they finally stopped at one door. One man opened it while the other walked inside. The officer was fairly big. Bookcases flanked most of the walls, while the remaining wall space was covered by past President's portraits. A medium size desk was in the middle of the room. A chair sat behind it, while four chairs were in front of it. Sitting behind the desk was Henry Harper. The President was in his late-fifties. His hair was a gray, but was starting to turn white. His deep blues examined the General.

Then Henry went back to his work. The man lead General Kaselev, then returned, out of sight, to the door. He was going to make sure that General Kaselev didn't try anything fishy. In case something did happen he had his M9 to rely on.

Henry finished writing something down, then looked up at General Kaselev.

"Hello General Kaselev. I am President Harper. I am glad that you have agreed to come to my country. I hope that we can work out the difference between our two countries, but let us get down to business." President Harper said with a serious tone. He meant business.

Molly looked up. "I don't remember. I don't have a lot of memory now, I don't remember what I do. Maybe it'll all come back to me."

---

"Lieutenant General Igor Kaselev." The tall, imposing man extended his hand to the President before sitting down.

He laid his briefcase across the President's desk. It contained documents, statements from people who had been held by the Canadsteiners, and those who claimed to have been harassed or threatened by them.

"What do you remember, Molly?" Taylor asked.

---

President Harper looked over each paper meticulously. The facts would tell him everything he needed to know. But as he read each paper, he could not believe what he was reading. It had to be all fabricated. How could Canadsteiners do such acts as this? It couldn't be real. Or could it? Henry reminded himself that he needed to keep an open mind.

"So General Kaselev what do you want? Honestly I see that here is prove of wrong doing, but how do you know that they were Canadsteiners? It is hard for me to believe that a citizen of Canadstein would commit such acts." stated Henry with the utmost care.

"Not much," said Molly. "Just... seeing you before. You look familiar. Do you go out with me?"

---

Kaselev's facial expression did not change. "You might wish to keep a closer eye on your intelligence service. General Malakov claims that in the weeks leading to his abduction, he was harassed by a Canadsteiner agent called Miles Mason who worked with General Sklenova. After his arrest, trial, and conviction, he received a two-year prison sentence, which he is still serving. He has recently been moved to a proper facility, and claims to have reestablished contacts with his political supporters in the Anti-Catholic Party, who have informed him that the K.A.N.F. has not committed any further acts and he therefore suspects Canadstein."

"General Sklenova claimed... that while working with Mr. Mason, she was briefly held captive in the Embassy by Canadsteiner agents who wanted her to help remove Malakov. She is no supporter of his policies, nor am I. We are members of the Communist Party. Over the next few weeks, she grew close with Mr. Mason emotionally, even introducing him to her mother. She says that her mother told her Mr. Mason would be a good husband for her. She only became concerned after Mr. Mason did not take her lack of interest in him well; she felt close to him, but believes that he wanted marriage or closer relations."

"Later, she says she was betrayed when she and a friend of hers from the base, Lt. Colonel Andrea Rhodes, accepted an invitation to a dinner date with Mr. Mason and a man named Mr. Chester Kent. Their drinks were drugged with a sedative and they were kidnapped. I personally participated in the rescue efforts. A biological agent was found in their bloodstreams when they were rescued, and we administered intensive drug treatment regimens to both women."

"Mr. Mason and Mr. Kent, as General Sklenova identified the men holding her hostage, were each wounded in one shoulder by police snipers. We believe them to have died of their wounds without medical treatment after they fled. During the hostage standoff, General Sklenova was shot once through her right leg, the bullet entering and being extracted from her left thigh. Colonel Rhodes was shot three times, once in each arm and once in the centre of her chest, between her lungs, narrowly missing her aorta."

"After this incident, our President, Dr. Khalid bin Abdullah al-Omari, condemned the interference with our nation. Your Foreign Minister demanded proof, and I replied personally that there was no doubt that this was a terrorist act, and sent five agents to Canadstein to infiltrate a far northern base. Three of the agents have been returned to us; their commander is missing, we believe he has either been captured or is still at large, and one who was captured and not released; we are presuming she was executed until we see evidence to the contrary."

Kaselev did not alter his facial expression or intonation as he spoke. "Intelligence is, by nature, a clandestine affair. You asked me earlier what I want. What I want is assurance from your government that your intelligence agency will cease destabilisation efforts in Kahanistan, and return the body of Corporal Molly Hargan, in its present condition, that is, living if she still is, and in return, I can ask the Foreign Minister to recommend allowing your embassy to return. However, she is close friends with General Sklenova. I cannot see her looking beyond her personal feelings about the situation; she will require persuasion."

"As for your citizens who were illegally deported... they will be allowed to return after the next election, when al-Omari loses. The other candidates will not threaten their positions by such a blatant violation of our Constitution. I am no politician, but this I can assure you of."

"No, but I have seen you around the base, though this is my first talking to you up close." Taylor said as his cheeks turned a deep scarlet. He was slightly embarrassed that Molly asked if he was going out with her. “I have always had a hard time speaking to women, especially ones as beautiful as you.”

---

“Keeping an eye on my intelligence agency is hard. Their Director doesn’t even have to report to him. Basically they are a separate entity from the government, but somehow get government backing and money. Honestly they could do stuff without ever even bothering to tell me about it. Past Presidents have trusted the Director enough to make the right decision, but if all this information is correct, then Mr. Hall has broken this trust.” replied President Harper.

“But wasn’t it a good thing that Malakov was taken down? From the reports I received he was going to lead your country into another war. This General Sklenova was herald as a hero for her actions; of course it was never really know that this KANF had committed the actions. Maybe your government wanted to hid it that a rebel group took down such a vile man.”

“Now with this General Sklenova and this ‘Miles Mason’, you say that a Canadsteiner agent used her as a hostage, then another tried to kidnap her, along with a friend. Well all the ‘evidence’, if you would like to call it that, is just based on her word. What if she is lying? Have you ever thought of that? For all she knows these men have could have been Doomani. Did they ever show any real proof of being Canadsteiner? I will lead my own investigation into finding this ‘Miles Mason’ and ‘Chester Kent’. To me it seems a little too perfect in you favor.”

“Wait…so you illegally sent in Special Forces members into this country? General Kaselev do you want war? Honestly do you think your country could last that long against Canadstein? Yes we may not have much real war experience, but the military has been training and training in case a war does break out. Your country is on the brink of destruction. A war would only annihilate the remains of it. And now you want the return of two agents? How do you think the world will view this? This would further make Kahanistan’s image falter. But I do not want war, though I cannot return these two agents. They are probably dead in some forest, rotting away. They were enemy troops…sorry but I cannot fulfill that demand. As for the other demand, I cannot control the agency. They do whatever they want. Though I can persuade the Director to make sure that no operations occur in Kahanistan.”

President Harper still did not believe the accusation put forward up General Kaselev. All they had was a bunch of evidence based on people’s word. That was barely even evidence. There was no proof that Canadstein ever had a hand in these actions. But General Kaselev did bring up a good point about the agency.

Molly smiled. "Well, you can talk to me, at least while I'm here."

---

Kaselev sat back, listening to the President. "Given Mr. Mason's relative shortness of stature to the average Doomani, and the lack of overt brutality generally practiced by soldiers of that nation... I find it hard to believe he is Doomani. Now, I am not racist, and do not believe in broadly applying racial stereotypes... but subtlety is not the way of the Doomani government."

"General Sklenova grew over a period of weeks to like and trust Mr. Mason, and he identified himself to her and her associates as a Canadsteiner. She remembers him turning, injecting her with sedatives to keep her under control, et cetera...

"As for General Malakov, who also saw Mr. Mason... Now, I do not like Malakov. He was going to expel the Catholics, he was going to build troops up for war, and he wanted to punish every nation that had wronged him. The parallels with Hitler are uncanny, if one replaces 'Jews' with 'Catholics.' But we were holding our own investigation, and if he really was tortured during his captivity, then much of the evidence against him could be thrown out on appeal."

"We have been unable to find records on these men, and your government denies having them. They may be destroyed or obscured, or edited to the point where we cannot find them. As for sending in special forces... no, Mr. Harper, I assure you we do not want war. I believed it the only way we could obtain evidence that your government had committed wrongdoing."

"I report to the Director of Military Intelligence, and from him to the President. We are not the autonomous entity that your intelligence agency is. I would say that this should be the turning point that forces your government to assert control over its intelligence networks, cutting off their funding if necessary. They cannot operate without government funding, and will accede to whatever demands you place on them, namely, to require their Director to report to the President, and preferably the Senate in major cases such as where national security is at stake."

"It is, of course, unfortunate that I will have to return without Captain Roman and Corporal Hargan. May I send a unit to search the area for their bodies? These would be uniformed troops, openly identified as our soldiers, probably no more than fifty in number."

"Alright." Taylor said as he smiled back at Molly. "So why did you decide to join the army, since I have seen you on the base in uniform?"

---

"Yes, he may have identified himself as Canadsteiner, but what is stopping anyone from claiming they are Canadsteiner? I mean right now I could claim that I am Kahanistani. Would you have any proof that I am a Kahanistani citizen? No. You would have to trust me. It seems General Sklenova grew to liking Miles and trusted him to much. She believe what he said, but he manipulated her like a puppet."

"As I have said before, I will try my hardest to find this Miles Mason and Chester Kent. If they are found, then they will be handed over to your government, to face their crimes against them. Also I will take care of the Intelligence Agency on my on. There are many within the government, who want to take the Agency down, but past Presidents have simply ignored them. Maybe it is my time to act. But do not worry about it General Kaselev."

"Finally I will permit you to bring a unit of soldiers to find your men, but it will have to be very secretive. I don't want the public finding out about this. Your men will be flown into a military base up north, but will not be able to search any government facilities. They will be only able to search forests and the surrounding areas. Also they must not be armed, no guns, knifes, any form of a weapon. Of course their advisers will be armed. For every five there will be one Canadsteiner soldier watching them. Is that agreeable?" stated President Harper.

Molly raised her head to think. She remembered wearing a Corporal's rank insignia... she was 20 years old, so she had probably joined when she was 18 or 19.

"About a year and a half ago," she said. This was probably close enough to the truth. "And you?"

---

Kaselev nodded. "That is possible. But General Malakov wanted to have Mr. Mason shot on sight if he appeared near the Defence Ministry. He certainly has no liking for him. He believes him to be Canadsteiner. He also does not like General Sklenova. She is a leftist, peace-oriented politician, he is far-right and extremely militaristic."

"Your conditions... they will require that every soldier I bring be made fully aware of them. I may be able to assemble several dozen soldiers willing to adhere to these conditions, but any hint of betrayal... the failure of these soldiers to return home, for example, will negate the progress we have made here today."

"Oh I have been in the military for about a year now. I was on embassy guard duty, before I was sent here." Taylor replied.

He could tell that Molly was having trouble remembering everything. It must have been from the remnants of her Kahanistani life. The doctors had successfully erased most of it, except the past year. They wanted Molly to remember that she had infiltrated the Kahanistani military. As time progress the Canadsteiner memories would become dominant in her memory. Only a matter of time.

"Molly can you tell me what else you remember?"

---

"General Kaselev that seem agreeable. But I want your soldiers to be loyal to you. I don't want this story getting public. It would just worsen things between our two countries. But what will happen if these two agents cannot be found?" asked President Harper.

"I remember spending time in Kahanistan. I remember that I was born and raised in some small town. I can't remember the name of it. I remember that I'm 20 years old and spent at least the last few months abroad. I don't know much about the rest of my life. Do you know anything else about me?"

---

"If they cannot be found, we will want to widen the search," said Kaselev. "I could post wanted posters of them, say they're wanted for crimes in Kahanistan... and to report them to your authorities, who can 'extradite' them home. Our Constitution forbids the use of capital punishment, so we would want a criminal returned home to be tried rather than executed abroad."

"Honestly I don't know anything. That bump must have made you lose your memory. When we get back to the base, someone will help you regain your memory. I hope that it isn't that extensive. Maybe all we have to do is make you look at your personal file. It could make your memory come back." said Taylor with a concerned look.

There were some holes within her memory, but once she got back on the base those would be filled in. Every week she was going to be ordered to have a doctor do a full medical evaluation, because of her memory loss. She would be put asleep the whole evaluation, during which the holes would be filled. Molly was going to be 100% Canadstiener.

---

"That seems acceptable. So it seems this little talk is over, unless you have something else to say?" asked President Harper.

Molly nodded. "OK. I'll do that."

---

"Very well," said the general. "If this operation goes well... I'll ask Miss Levitt to allow your embassy to return. I will wish to accompany the troops who will search for Captain Roman and Corporal Hargan. Many of them are soldiers I have served with for years. They will trust me if I say it is safe to go in under your conditions. There will be fifty of them."

"Molly, is there anything I can get you before I leave?" asked Taylor as he got up. It getting close to his time for guard watch duty. If he wasn't back there soon, he would have to face the consequences.

---

President Harper said his good-byes to General Kaselev, once their little conference was done. His country was now on the road to recovery with Kahanistan. Hopefully Kaselev would find his two agents, if not, then Henry didn't know what. He just hoped that the public never knew about it.

"Can you stay with me? I don't want to be left alone."

---

Kaselev nodded. "I'll assume you want someone to escort me back to the airport... I'm not familiar with this city."

"Well I have to get back to duty. If I am not there, then I will be in some deep trouble. Is there anything else I could do for you?" asked Taylor as he stopped dead in his tracks and turned back around.

---

President Harper pointed toward the men standing near the door. Then he returned back to his work. The man lead him back into the hallway, where Kaselev was soon joined by another guard. The two men walked through the building, until they stopped at a door. Once opening the door, it revealed the outside world and the driveway, where a car was waiting. The two men walked General Kaselev to the car and entered it. Once coming to the airport, they opened the door and went directly past security with General Kaselev. They were going to wait with him, until his flight left.

"It's OK," said Molly. She lay back down on her hospital bed. "Just... come back to me when you're finished."

---

Kaselev sat at the airport, not speaking unless spoken to. He waited for his flight to take him home, where he could assemble his unit to search for his soldiers.

"Okay." responded Taylor before he left.

Once he returned to the base he wrote out his report on Molly. She seemed to think that she was always Canadsteiner and thought that she was having memory lost. Everything was going according to plan, but the next few days would be the most important. In the next couple of days she would be regaining her Canadsteiner memories.

Upon finishing his guard detail, Taylor rushed back to the hospital. In his hands he had the personal file of Molly Hargan from the base. The file had been made a couple days earlier, and had been built upon Molly's Kahanistan file, of course a few details had been changed.

Taylor sat down in the chair facing Molly, and put the file in her lap. The file included everything that a personal files should have. It detailed where she had lived throughout most of her life, Crescentwood, until one year ago, her school career all the way from grade school to college, her current military career records, everything that was in a Canadsteiner file.

"Here maybe this will help jog your memory." stated Taylor.

Molly looked over the files. The memory started coming back to her... but there were memories in a foreign country, too...

The school records seemed to fit - she'd taken French, history, basic mathematics, and English and French grammar, and joined the Army sometime in late 2005. She also remembered the imposing face of a large male officer in his late 30's... always in black... she got the impression that this man was evil. He gave her the creeps when she remembered him.

---

The wait passed uneventfully and General Kaselev boarded the flight home. Upon his arrival, he contacted Mara and several other officers and soldiers he had worked with. Kaselev would have liked to bring mostly soldiers he knew personally, but most of them had been killed or disappeared in the Doomani wars.

Mara suggested bringing one of the three soldiers they had back to Canadstein as a guide, but two of them were still being quarantined as possible infectious disease carriers, and the third had a file as an illegal immigrant. They would have to search with just the interrogation files of the three soldiers. Mara would join the search team; she wanted to know what evidence they had on Canadstein.

"Molly what do you remember?" asked Taylor with a quizzical look.

"I remember... vaguely... going to school, here, joining the army... I remember a man, an officer. He's big, he's... cold, distant, he's evil. I think he has something to do with Kahanistan."

---

Five days later

Kaselev, Mara, and two other officers from Kaselev's Academy days, Colonel Bret Forbes and Brigadier General Aaron Zall, discussed the operation in the Lieutenant General's office.

"This will be a simple search and rescue operation," said Kaselev. "We will bring search dogs with us to find two officers, Captain Trent Roman and Corporal Molly Hargan. The dogs will be muzzled at all times when not being fed, as they could be seen as weapons if one of them attacked a Canadsteiner. They will sniff out wherever they are. We are going in unarmed as the Canadsteiners will not allow us to have weapons."

"Let me get this straight," said Mara. "They get to have weapons, and we don't? It'll be a turkey shoot if this is a trap."

"If this is a trap, every M.I.R.V. in our arsenal will systematically destroy Canadstein's military capacity, and we will occupy their nation until such time as they are capable of forming an accountable intelligence agency. On the other hand, Canadstein has every reason to cooperate; they will be allowed to return their embassy here if the operation goes well. I believe it is safe to trust them when they have this incentive to work with us."

"Very well... I suppose it's worth it. I just wish I could have killed Miles myself," Mara replied.

"Mara... I see how you feel. Right now, someone else is likely suffering the same fate, and you have a chance to help him or her." Zall did not tell her that they could not enter government facilities. She would find that out when she got to Canadstein.

Colonel Forbes was holding Mara's hand. He seemed to like her, but his mind was focused on something else.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We can't go into government facilities," said Forbes. "But... the soldiers we will be working with are part of the regular military, not the Agency. The Agency doesn't report to the government. It's not that their government was lying to us, it was that they honestly didn't know. Their President told General Kaselev that he'd try and put a lid on their power."

"Well, it's OK if the President says so..." said Mara, still unconvinced. "I'll go along. I'll never trust their government, but as long as you think it's OK..." she looked at General Kaselev, "I'll go with you."

The meeting finished about two hours before the flight back to Canadstein.

"Maybe he had to do with your mission in Kahanistan. For the past couple of months you were ordered to infiltrate their military. So maybe this mysterious man was starting to catch on. Actually that mission just ended a week ago because we thought that your identity had been comprised. Whoever he is, he isn't going to hurt you now." Taylor stated. "I will make sure of that."

Molly looked deep in thought. The man in her memories did not seem like he wanted to harm her... No. He was a representative of Kahanistan, he had to be. There was just something about him that was evil... it wasn't that he was violent, or genocidal, or anything of that nature. It was more that he represented an evil state.

"Maybe... he does. What did we dig up on their military?"

---

The C-130 carried fifty soldiers with full gear (except weapons) - food, water, tents, hygiene items... and ten large, ferocious beasts with leather and metal muzzles on their mouths so they would not bite the Canadsteiners. These were the search dogs who would look for the two missing soldiers.

About 300 kilometres from Canadsteiner airspace, Kaselev requested permission to land at the nearest Air Force base.

"I really don't know. I found out about your little stint in Kahanistan by reading your file. Sorry about that, but I have not idea what information you gathered in Kahanistan. I bet it is classified intel now. I rather not worry about that kind of stuff. I am but a simple guard." Taylor said as he looked at Molly.

---

The C-130 was soon flanked by two F-16. The two fighters escorted the cargo plane to Falkenhayn Air Force Base. Falkenhayn AFB was a small sleep military installation. It had a totally of five F-16s, two C-130, and an assortment of attack and transport helicopters. Only around four hundred people were stationed there. It was the closest AFB near the border in Northern Canadstein.

Once the plane had landed the Kahanistani could see three M939 Trucks and two jeeps. Lined up were ten soldiers of the Royal Canadstein Army. They were all dressed up in their flecktarn BDUs and each held a SIG SG 550. One of the soldiers departed from the rest and went up to General Kaselev. He gave a salute then addressed himself.

"Hello General Kaselev. I am Lieutenant Conrad Helfrich of the Royal Canadstein Army. If you may, order your men to board these vehicles. Of course every five Kahanistani soldier will have a Canadsteiner accompanying them. We might figure out teams later, but we have no time to waste." Lt. Helfrich stated.

He turned back around and gave off a deafen whistle. The Canadsteiners soldiers soon loaded up within the trucks. The jeeps were meant for any officers. So Lt. Helfrich walked toward the lead vehicle, a jeep.

"OK. I'll ask someone else," she said. "Or find it when I get back to the base."

---

Why the rush? Kaselev had a bad feeling about this... "Board the trucks. We can figure out what the deal is later. Remember, we are safe, they will not do anything to us here."

The general stepped up to Helfrich's jeep and climbed in. "What is with the sudden rush? You seem insistent on immediacy. These people have been in the woods for weeks. A few minutes more will mean nothing."

"Molly why are you so interesting in finding out? What is done is done. All I know is that you successfully completed the mission. You got what we needed, then got the hell out of Dodge." commented Taylor.

---

"We are on a schedule. That is all you need to know." Lt. Helfrich stated.

Once the men were aboard each driver gave a signal. Lt. Helfrich started to the engine then zoomed out of the Air Force Base, without stopping. They were going straight into the forest. Hopefully this convoy wouldn't be seen or noticed by the public. This whole operation was going to be kept on the down low.

"Just don't feel comfortable with missing memories," said Molly.

---

Kaselev nodded curtly. He was used to being thrown into situations he knew little about as a young soldier, but not as a lieutenant general. He eyed the officer, as if expecting him to try something funny. He waited for the jeep to get to the wooded areas near Moltke, where he had dropped the agents.

"Well it was probably because of this bump." Taylor said as he tapper her forehead, where a bump had formed.

---

The jeep suddenly veered off the main road and into a dirt road, which lead into a heavily forested area . The convoy traveled for the next ten miles, until Lt. Helfrich stopped the Jeep. The other vehicles followed suit and stopped too. The Canadsteiner soldiers jumped out of their vehicles and lined up. They stood attention and walked for further orders. Lt. Helfrich walked over to General Kaselev.

"General, line your men up into groups of five. I will assign a Canadsteiner soldier to each group. Then you get commence your search of the area." said Lt. Helfrich.

Conrad turned about and waited with his men. He looked on at General Kaselev, waiting for him to comply with his orders.

Kaselev complied. He was not happy about taking orders from someone about eight ranks below him, but he was on their land, after all. He personally took command of four inexperienced soldiers and one search dog. Mara took over with a more experienced group. Within two minutes, the ten groups of five were each under an officer of at least the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and each had one search dog, plus any search dogs the Canadsteiners might have.

All that was needed now was to make sure their Canadsteiner escorts got along with the groups.

"Do you remember your experience in Kahanistan?" asked Taylor.

---

Lt. Helfrich's squad was composed of one sergeant, one corporal, and seven privates. All of the men were loyal to Canadstein and would kill the Kahanstani in minutes if they tried to betray them. Each man was informed that the Kahanstani were trying to find two people, but that was about it. The High Command thought it would be better just to keep them somewhat in the dark.

While General Kaselev divided the groups into fives, Lt. Helfrich carefully watched them. He wanted to find out how these Kahanistani acted. Slowly he found out which soldiers he wanted to pair with the Kahanistani groups.

Once General Kaselev was done, Lt. Helfrich divided his own men into the Kahanistani groups. The men started to travel over to their groups, and introduce themselves. Conrad was personally going to watch over Mara's group. He walked over and extended his hand toward her.

"Lieutenant Conrad Helfrich, I will be your Canadsteiner adviser while you are in this country." stated Conrad. "So where exactly are we going to search for your comrades?"

Meanwhile Frederik Wessel, the sergeant of the group, walked over to General Kaselev's group. Lt. Helfrich had told him personally to keep an extra careful eye on the General. Kaselev was the only real threat within the group. The rest of them were bumbling idiots.

"I am Sergeant Frederik Wessel. You will be following my orders for the rest of the time you are here. For the time being I outrank your little General here." said Sgt. Wessel.

Molly nodded. "Some. Most of the time I was in the reserves. I was inactive until the last Doomani war. Most of that time I cut people's hair."

---

Mara smiled and extended her hand. "Colonel Mara Fulton. I know I look a little young for a Colonel." She looked several years older than she actually was, but she wasn't even 30, so she was still fairly young for her rank.

"Kaselev said that the two soldiers were most likely near some secret base, one out in the woods, if he wasn't captured. The other one, we think she was captured. I think the woods and swamps around here are the best areas to look."

---

Private Tom Jacobson looked at the Canadsteiner sergeant. General Kaselev was much larger than him, and looked like he could kick his ass. However, he seemed uninclined to do so.

"Little?" said the soldier. "You blind?"

"Enough," said Kaselev. "We aren't here to start a fight. Right now, saving our comrades is more important than your pride."

"Ah...it doesn't really matter now. You are back were you belong Molly." commented Taylor.

---

Conrad had risen through the ranks to be a lieutenant. Getting promoted was a lot harder in the Canadsteiner Military. Unlike the Kahanistani, they didn't have a problem with their personnel dying in wars. So it was rare and far between to get a promotion. Conrad was in the his late twenty and in the last six years he went from being a private to a second lieutenant.

As he shook hands with Mara he smiled. He remembered that he was suppose to treat these Kahanistani with respect. The High Command didn't want them to get offended and cause some trouble.

"There are no swamps around here. Honestly I don't know where you get your information, but this forest is a lot like the Black Forest. It is a wooded mountain ranger. Here let me show you." Conrad replied.

He pulled out a map, as he put the sling of the rifle around his shoulder. Placing the map on the hood on one of the jeeps, he pointed to there position right now. There was the surrounding areas, including St. Cecilia.

"We are right here. Just tell me where you want to go, Colonel Fulton, and I will try to bring you there." Lt. Helfrich said in a military fashion.

---

"Wow...I was being sarcastic." Sgt. Wessel said to the young private. Then he turned to General Kaselev. "You better keep your men under control, or we are not going anywhere. Now where exactly are we going?"

Mara gritted her teeth. Is half the intel we have here wrong? "We should search the woods. If anyone's been here in the last three days, the dogs will pick them up."

---

"The woods around your base. We think that's where our captain is, anyway. Now, all we need is a scent for the dog." He held a musty old T-shirt in front of the dog's nose. "The dog will lead us."

The other squad leaders had everything from used underwear to dirty socks to old sneakers to give the dogs to sniff. They, too, would locate Captain Roman, at least, though some of them were looking for Molly.

The Canadsteiner soldier and their groups each headed a different direction into the forest. As they walked through the forest, either the Canadsteiner adviser was in the back of the group or near an officer. They were going to keep an eye on their counterparts. Hopefully this whole operation would be a cake walk.

---

"So why did you decide to come on this mission, Colonel Fulton?" asked Conrad as he lead them through the forest.

"Well... my friend suffered at the hands of a member of the Agency," said Mara. "A couple friends of mine, actually." She considered Andrea a friend, too. "But I was told that the Agency does not report to your government, or to the people. I have nothing against the Canadsteiner people. But, the Agency, I can never forgive."

Mara sighed. "Especially if they are torturing or experimenting on a citizen of this country. I don't know what you think of our soldiers... but nobody deserves to be tortured, except perhaps Doomani or Freekish officers. They practice it too intensely to deserve any scruples. My baby... lost her father to a Freekish soldier."

"Well that is if you believe all the claims set forth by your country. I cannot believe that the Agency would do such acts. They were there to keep an eye on the world. The Agency was to keep our government informed, but if your claims are correct, then they have misused their powers." Lt. Helfrich stated.

"Kahanistanian Military Intelligence does the same thing," said Mara. "But they report to the President, and to the Senate. General Kaselev can't, for example, smuggle a nuclear device into Urbs Doomanus, or assassinate the Freekish Supreme Warlord, and the government not know about it. If an Intel officer tried something like that, they'd be publicly court martialed. We can't even keep aliens in test tubes without having to disclose it to the government. That's to prevent abuses from going on, like torture or a renegade agency that does what it likes."

She held the sock in front of the search dog to sniff. It barked and led the way forward.

"Well it is the exact opposite for us. The Agency is pretty much a separate entity from the government." Lt. Helfrich said as he followed the dog.

Mara nodded coldly. That was exactly why the Agency had been able to get away with grabbing Nadia. She wanted to switch the topic of discussion.

"So, why did you join the army? It's not like Canadstein sees a lot of wars. Kahanistan gets a lot of them, though... if Admiral Jenkins takes office, we won't see all this intervention all over the place. He'll probably do something about the anti-Catholic movement, too; it's already becoming politically incorrect and the Nationalist Party's been forced to distance itself from that faction in order to maintain credibility as more than a hate group. A few bad apples like Malakov and Nikolatos... and the whole barrel threatened to sour."

"I joined the army because I had nothing going for my life. I was in a fairly good paying job, but I yearned for something more. So I thought of repaying back the government, in the form of military service. But honestly I had no clue and it was tough at first, though I got my rut and since then it has smooth sailing." Conrad replied. "How about yourself?"

"Me... I joined as a military police officer. I'd always felt there was just so much corruption in the higher levels, that someone needed to sort it all out. When I got in, I ended up being moved around a bit, did a stint in Intel. Didn't like it much, too much secrecy for me. Found myself in the Presidential Security Detachment. I'd been there for several years when I decided I needed a change of pace. Officially, I'm a member of the diplomatic corps now, but I'm between assignments, so I tagged along here."

The massive dog began to bark loudly and ran as fast as it could with a 110-pound woman holding onto its leash. Mara fell flat on her face, still holding the leash as it dragged her screaming toward something it smelled.

Conrad ran quickly after Mara. He didn't want any of the Kahanistani, especially a woman. Running as fast he could, Lt. Helfrich quickly caught up and lunged straight at the dog. With most of his strength he brought the dog. Then he looked at Mara, as he held the dog down.

"Colonel Fulton are you alright?" Conrad asked as he extended his hand toward her to help her up.

She struggled to her feet. "Mara will do," she said. "I'm fine... but the dog's caught something." The dog was continuing to bark frantically as well as it could through its muzzle. It was big and straining to get out from under Conrad to follow its nose to whatever it had smelled.

Conrad released his hold on his dog, and watched as it continued to follow the scent. Getting up Conrad went over to Mara and helped her get up. He looked over her and made sure that nothing was broken or she had any serious cuts. Once the check up was over, Conrad followed the trail of the dog with Mara.

"Something really made that dog go crazy." He said to the group.

"Yeah..." said Mara. "And I think I know what it was..."

A man in tattered clothes sat with his back against a tree. Flies swarmed around him, and it was difficult to tell whether he was dead or alive. A 350mm serrated combat knife was held loosely in the man's hand, and a sniper rifle lay several metres away from him. He bore numerous wounds over his body, which were largely infected and being licked by the numerous insects which crawled over him.

Mara swallowed hard, then walked up to him...

Conrad put his hand in front of Mara, and stopped her. His eyes just looked at her first for a second. Lt. Helfrich was going to let her get near him. For all Conrad knew, this man could have been a crazed hobo, that is if he was still alive. It sure didn't smell like he was alive. Conrad slowly approached the man, but his SG 550 leveled and pointed at the body. This man was armed and could still be alive, so he was still a threat.

"Sir...are you alive?" Conrad called out.

The man groaned softly. Mara brushed Conrad's arm aside and sat down next to him.

The condition of the man struck Mara all of a sudden. Where his left eye had been, a maggot-encrusted scab was now. He grunted again, apparently delirious from his wounds, infections, and probably dehydration.

"I think this is Captain Roman," said Mara. She brushed his hand gently and he feebly attempted to grasp her hand. "What happened?"

"Ehhhrrrrr..." the man groaned again. His head tilted to the left and several maggots fell off. In the direction his head tilted was what appeared to be the carcass of a grizzly bear, swarming with flies. Roman fell on his side, very weak.

"A bear," said Mara. "The bear must have attacked him. He managed to kill it, but it seems it gave almost as good as it got. This man needs medical evacuation, immediately. He needs to be rehydrated, have his wounds treated, and convalesce for months when he gets to a hospital. I just hope Corporal Hargan's all right."

Conrad just stared in horror. He had never seen a person in such a horrid state. Immediately he got on a radio and called in for a immediate medical evac. The helicopter would be there within the next five minutes. Conrad wondered if this Captain would last that long. This Captain seemed like he was on the verge of death. If that helicopter didn't come soon, then he would be dead.

"Mara, I just called in a helicopter to bring him to a hospital. Jesus..." Conrad said as he got a closer look. He stopped himself from puking, but gagged a little bit.

---

Within minutes a Black Hawk was hovering aboard the area. A stretcher had been lowered into the forest. Conrad helped the Kahanistani carry their wounded Captain onto it. Once he was securely strapped down, the strectcher was pulled back up the Black Hawk. When he was inside the helicopter, it flew back off into the direction of the AFB.

Conrad just stood there immotionless as the helicopter flew off. Never before had Lt. Helfrich seen such carnage before. He knew that the Kahanistani Captain only had a slim chance of living. The Captain would have to fit overwhelming odds, and if he did live, somehow, then he would never be the same man.

Needing to rest for a while, Conrad ordered the Kahanistani to take a fifteen minutes break. He wandered off a little bit and sat down on a fallen tree. His rifle and helmet were resting against the rotting wood. Conrad took in a long breath, then took a long drink of his water.

Mara dropped her backpack. It was about fifteen kilos, but it felt like over a hundred had been lifted from her shoulders. She looked at Conrad and put her arms around him.

"I hope that Hargan's all right. She's a small girl, around five... four. She wouldn't be able to fight off a bear attack." Then again... she's probably captured... but if she escaped into the woods... "I... don't think she has a lot of survival training."

Captain Roman wasn't a big guy, either; it was only his combatives training and the fact he had a knife on him at the time that saved him, and even he had sustained near-fatal injuries. Molly wouldn't stand a chance.

Conrad looked at Mara for a moment, then sighed. He hoped that he would never have to see something like that again. Hopefully they would find this Hargan alive, but there was always the case that she would end up dead. Once the break was up Conrad called the troops to form up again. He was pretty quiet once the march started up again. Obliviously that incident had shaken him up pretty badly.

Mara was a little shaken, too. She had seen combat, so she was a little less affected, but it had gotten to her. The other soldiers in the squad were more visibly affected; one of them threw up repeatedly and another clutched a rosary around his neck and began praying to Jesus.

When she calmed down, Mara radioed to General Kaselev to let him know one of the soldiers had been found, badly injured, and medevaced. Kaselev would want to see him when or if he recovered from his injuries sufficiently to be debriefed.

The dogs were then given old socks to track Molly. Little did Kaselev know that she was effectively Canadsteiner now, and her scent hadn't been in that forest for weeks. The dogs and soldiers continued on their wild goose chase...

A couple of hours later Conrad noted the storms clouds off in the distance, and they were heading this direction. It was time to make camp, before they were soaking way. Plus it would be good for all of them, if they called it a day. For practically the whole day was wasted on a wild goose hunt.

"Alright men. Time to make camp."

Within fifteen minutes, Lt. Helfrich had his tent assembled and supplies unpacked. He hoped that the Kahanistanis prepared for sleeping in the woods. Seeing what they carried, it seemed like they hadn't brought any tents or any other form of shelter. Conrad guessed that they would have to improvise.

The Kahanistanians had sleeping bags with them, but they were flimsy and of poor quality; they needed to save weight for MRE's, dog food, radio equipment, et cetera.

Some of the tougher soldiers, like Kaselev, stayed outside, exposed to the elements. They were able to save weight for other essentials this way. The general sat with his back to a large tree, too big for someone to slip around and cut his throat. He kept an eye out for bears and the like; if he spotted one, he would call out so a Canadsteiner could shoot it, or throw a rock at it to drive it off.

Mara carried her sleeping bag next to Conrad. "Is the tent big enough to hold two?"

Lt. Helfrich looked up and felt a small rain drop rain his face. As soon as he wiped his face, it started to drizzle. Off in the distance he could see the lighting and hear the thunder. Once he noticed that Mara was coming over, he walked over to meet her. She didn't like she had found a spot for the night, and the rain was steady getting worse.

"I think I can make enough room." Conrad stated.

He was suppose to treat the Kahanistani with some hospitality, to show that all Canadsteiners were not bad. This was definitely a way. Conrad opened the flap and let Mara enter. Once they were both inside the flap was closed once again. Lt. Helfrich held up a finger telling Mara to pause for a second. He moved over his stuff to make enough room for Mara's sleep bag. It was going to be a tight fit.

Conrad sat down on his sleep bag and started to strip from his clothes. He knew that he needed to dry out his BDU. Once his cloths were hanging from the rope, running across the ceiling, he started to prepare his MRE. Conrad particularly didn't like eating them, but at least he had food. Looking at the package he saw that he had Chili & Macaroni. Not too bad. He prepared his meal, then ate in silence.

Mara was fairly small, slightly above average height and very slender, so she didn't take up a lot of space. She laid her sleeping bag out next to her backpack, which contained granola bars as well as MRE's; she packed more than she thought she'd need just in case. She nibbled on the bar while climbing into her sleeping bag.

When she was finished, she crouched inside, and over the next few minutes pushed her wet, dirty clothes out the hole of the sleeping bag. When she was laying in it stretched out, only her head and shoulders were visible.

Once finished eating, Conrad got into his sleep bag and decided to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a very long and cold wet day. It was something that he wasn't looking forward too. Outside the rain was now pouring. The Kahanstani were surely going to be soaked once dawn came around. Around 2:00 the rain stopped, but it got very cold. The ground started to develop ice. Conrad woke up and noticed that he was very cold. Looking over to Mara, who was sleep, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Mara are you cold?" asked Conrad.

"A little," said Mara. "Given that I'm in a crappy sleeping bag in the nude. I don't have as much insulation as a lot of people do. Yeah, I'm cold."

Mara smiled in Conrad's direction. She could see out of a slight gap in the tent four Kahanistanian soldiers in sleeping bags, stacking themselves on top of each other like firewood, alternating being on top every few minutes as they kept watch for bears or other dangerous wildlife.

"Well since we are both cold, how about we get closer to warm each other up?" Conrad said cautiously and with the utmost care. His cheeks turned red as he said this, though they might have been red because of the frigid temperate. "I mean if you want to...I am not trying to force this on you. I just want to make sure that we are both physical ready for tomorrow."

Mara nodded calmly. Kahanistanian women were generally more liberal than women from most of the rest of the world when it came to such matters.

"Since we're going to be in such close quarters... why not tell me a little about yourself?"

Taylor spent the rest of the day with Molly. He was getting to know more about her, and keeping an eye on her for the project. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Molly thought that she had always been a Canadsteiner. The project was deemed a success. Though Taylor still had feelings from Molly before she was Canadsteinerized. He was going to try to take things slowly with her. Before he left, to go back to the base, he asked one more question.

"Molly...why did you want me to come back here?" he asked.

---

Conrad moved over and got closer to Mara's body. Then he practically clung to it. He could feel the warmth radiating from her body. It was a reassuring warmth. Something that made him feel happy. He looked at her, as he put his arms around her.

"Well what do you want to know?"

Molly smiled. "You seem to like me. I'm lonely here, I just feel something's missing. I feel like I've woken from a coma, or some sort of weird nightmare... I don't know how to explain it."

---

Mara looked into Conrad's eyes. "Are you... married, or in a relationship?" she asked.

"Do you like me, Molly?" asked Taylor.

---

"Neither. I haven't had time. For the past four years the only relationship I have had is with the military. Officer training had taken up a lot of my time." replied Conrad. "How about yourself?"

"I think so," said Molly. She smiled warmly. "But my memory is still a little hazy. Most of it's coming back to me, but I don't remember if I had a relationship. I'd hate to end up hurting someone."

---

"No, not now," said Mara. "I have a little girl, she's two and a half years old. I... lost her father when the Freeks invaded about two years ago. I don't like to think about what must have happened to him. Anyway... I finished officer training about six years ago. I'm only 29. I'm... I guess, a product of us losing so many officers in wars." She seemed sad.

"That seems like a good idea." Taylor said.

He wondered if Molly did have a boyfriend back in Kahanistan. If she did, then he would never see her again. His heart would probably be broken, that is if he existed. Molly Hargan of Kahanistan would be MIA forever, but Molly Hargan of Canadstein life had just begun. Hopefully Taylor would be part of that life. He kissed her cheek and smiled warmly at her.

"Well I should probably get back to the base soon. I don't want them thinking I went AWOL." Taylor joked. "Anything you want me to do for you, Molly?"

---

"In Canadstein Colonels are much older and not as beautiful. The usual Colonel is in his mid-forties. I guess most of our officers don't die because of old age, but just retire. I am grateful that I have never seen a war." Lt. Helfrich said. He decided to change the subject. "Why have you stayed in the military?"

"Not really," said Molly. "I'll be here until the doctors decide to release me."

---

"Thanks," said Mara. "I stayed on... mainly because I felt like I had something to protect. It wasn't until recently that I decided I needed a change of pace, went into the diplomatic corps. Between assignments I'm pretty free, most of my assignments involve things like negotiating with friendly military commanders, or handling low-level discussions with military-oriented governments. Sometimes I'll get a short-term assignment to another country as part of an embassy contingent, but that's the exception more than the rule. As long as I have something for me in the military... I'll be there. Hell, another war and I'll be a general before I'm 30."

Mara smiled cynically at her last remark. Kaselev was 37 and a three-star general. It was looking far from unlikely that someone like Mara could hold a similar rank by the time she was 37.

---

While most of the Kahanistanian soldiers were sleeping, General Kaselev himself and the four soldiers with him, as well as another squad, patrolled around the area. Kaselev had located a large, heavy stick he could use to kill snakes and scorpions if they posed a danger, though larger threats like bears (or worse, lions or tigers) would require the aid of an armed soldier to bring down.

"Molly, hopefully you will be released tomorrow. All we can do is just wait." Taylor said before leaving.

The next day Taylor arrived at the hospital and arrived at Molly's room. She was silently sleeping. Molly looked so peaceful. Taylor grabbed a chair and watched her. He didn't want to wake her up. So he patiently waited for her to wake up.

---

"Well I am in charge of a platoon in the fighting infantry, even though we have never fought in a war. Most of the time we just make sure we don't lose our skills that we learned in Basic Training. But we don't have the fear that we will die in a war. The looming threat of death on the battlefield." Conrad said slowly.

He just laid there quietly and looked at Mara. Conrad held her against his body. Slowly his head impulsively moved closer to hers. Then suddenly and unsuspectingly he kissed her. Passion raged within Conrad's soul. As their lips interlocked, Conrad pushed Mara's body closer to him.

Molly woke about three hours later. "You're... still here." She smiled. "What have the doctors said now?"

---

Mara was surprised at being grabbed all of a sudden, but did nothing about it. She had brought protection with her, just in case, but it was probably buried under three feet of granola bars and four-year-old MRE's. She smiled softly.

"This... is pretty fast."

"Nah...I got here about three hours ago, but I didn't want to wake you up. You looked so beautiful and peaceful. I didn't want to spoil that." Taylor said with a warm smile. Then he bent over and kissed her cheek. It was so soft. "The doctors said that you can go now. You just have to collect your belonging and sign some papers."

---

"Well do you want to take things slowly?" said Conrad as a devilish grin appeared across his face. He kissed Mara again, but this time slowly and with even more passion.

Molly nodded. "Let's go. Let's get out of here." She smiled warmly.

---

"It isn't that," said Mara. "I just don't want to get pregnant. I already have one little girl." She rummaged around in her backpack and found what she was looking for. "Shouldn't be a problem."

Taylor held out his arm to help Molly. Molly hadn't walked on her own two feet in the last ten days. It was definitely going to be difficult for her to walk, but with some regular walking it would return to normal in a few days. Off the side was a large plastic zip lock bag containing all of Molly's belongings, including her cloths. As Taylor helped her up, he grabbed the bag with his other arm, and lead her to a nearby bathroom. Once at the door of the bathroom, he stopped and looked at her.

"Do you think you can make it the rest of the way?" asked Taylor.

---

Conrad just smiled, then got down to business. Early the next morning Conrad woke up and found Mara naked beside her. The last couple of hours had been pure bliss. He inched over and kissed Mara. Then he laid his hands on her bare chest, then quietly closed his eyes.

"Probably," said Molly. She took about two steps before falling to her knees and continuing to drag herself the rest of the way. Next to the door she fell over and went prone.

---

Mara woke up and pulled her spare uniform and clothes out of her bag. She sat up and got dressed. When she had finished putting her underwear on, she noticed to her shock that the four men she had spotted through the gap, who had been stacking themselves on each other for warmth outside the tent about twenty metres away, now had binoculars.

Taylor rushed over and picked Molly. She was ready to walk yet. It was too big of a step. As he held Molly in his arms he looked down at her, and smiled.

"I will help you the rest of the way."

Slowly he walked into the bathroom, but first calling in first to check for other women. It was all clear. He kicked open a stall, then he sat Molly down on a toliet. Taylor rushed over and got the zip lock bag and return back to Molly. He set the bag down in her lap.

"Here now it is up to you." Taylor said. "Just call me when you are done."

---

Conrad had already finished putting on his BDU, when he noticed that Mara was staring at something. She was staring into the outside from a small crack. Changing his view, Conrad saw that four were men with binoculars were looking into their tent. This made him steaming mad. They had probably jacked off and watched while he had sex with Mara. That was just disgusting. Grabbing his SG 550, he fiercely opened the tent flap and ran over to the man. Before the men could get up he pointed the rifle at them.

"What are you men looking at?" He asked as he turned off the safety.

Molly took half an hour to get dressed, and when she finally came out, her trousers were on backwards and her shirt was inside out.

---

The soldiers had not been allowed to bring their weapons. Two of them, the ones on the bottom, including the one who was holding the binoculars, lay quaking in terror. The man on top was quicker, and jumped up and ran for his life into the woods. The one in the middle simply froze.

Kaselev spotted the confrontation and saw the man run off from the man with the gun and came over to where three soldiers lay in mortal fear.

"What happened here?" he asked the Canadsteiner officer.

"Do you need some help? It seems today for you is backwards day." Taylor asked as he tried to keep himself from laughing. He thought it was kind of cute.

---

"General Kaselev, your men were looking into my tent with those binoculars. You tell me what is wrong with that." Conrad stated in a cool manner.

He lowered his rifle, then put the sling around his shoulder. Now wasn't the time to get brash and make a decision he would regret. Off in the distance, Lt. Helfrich could see Sgt. Wessel watching Kaselev's group, but still keeping any eye on Kaselev.

Molly nodded. "I guess. I'm still feeling funny today."

---

Kaselev looked back at Conrad. "Does this justify the threat of lethal force, Lieutenant Helfrich? I wouldn't think so, unless you were up to something untoward, something you desperately want concealed from us. Given Colonel Fulton's presence in your tent, I would say that such is most likely not the case."

Unless... he decided to kill or harm her. But the soldiers would have swarmed the tent, or alerted me, if he had. More likely...

"What you do with her is between you and her, as long as she is not harmed. What my officers do in their personal lives is none of my concern." He nodded to the young man with the binoculars.

"You could have easily been killed, had I not been here, Private Sampson. Who is your commander?"

"Colonel Aharon Schultz," said the private. "He just ran into the woods."

Great. We find one missing soldier and now have another.

"General, he'll be bear food. He'd been smoking some of the plants that he found here. We've got to save him."

"Agreed. I would hate to have to tell his family he ran scared from a Canadsteiner. Let us find him."

"What feels funny?" asked Taylor as he helped Molly put her cloths on the correct direction. He tried not to look when she was only in her bra and panties, but did turn a scarlet when he caught a peek.

---

"I know General Kaselev. I was overreacting. Frankly I don't appreciate peeping toms." stated Conrad as he looked at the pile of men. He simply shook his head at them. Disgusting.

Most Kahanistani soldiers seemed to lack simply discipline. To Conrad it seemed like they could do anything they wanted. What kind of soldiers wouldn't report an officer if he was smoking some mysterious plant? Him being under the influence could have cost them all their lives. That would simply be unacceptable in the Royal Canadstein Army.

"Okay I will take the rest of these group out to find this Colonel. So get up boys because you are in a for a long day." Conrad said as he pointed toward the other three men. "Kaselev, we will radio in once we find him. You should probably searching for the other person."

Sgt. Wessel lead Kaselev and his group the other direction. Conrad didn't want Kaselev getting involved. Once Mara was out of the tent, Conrad quickly disassembled it then got his gear ready. He went beside Mara, as she watched the rest of the group get ready.

"Well that went horribly. Now we have another man lost. I just don't like people to watch when I make love to a woman, but I lost control of my angry." Conrad said when he put on his helmet. "But otherwise than that, this morning was good, actually excellent."

"I just... feel weird. I guess I have to get out."

---

Kaselev and his squad had a carrion dog, one originally trained to sniff dead bodies out of bombed-out rubble during wars. Although the general was convinced Molly had been captured, and if he failed to turn her up in 24 hours, he'd ask about the base, he decided to eliminate the possibility she was dead and rotting in the woods, in which case the carrion dog would find her body.

Mara came out of the tent, in uniform. She assembled a squad and began to clean up the Kahanistanians' "camp," more accurately a collection of sleeping bags, small fires, and MRE wrappers that could attract bears.

---

Colonel Schultz had run about two kilometres into the forest. Catching his breath, he picked some jimson weed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimson_weed), rolled it into a cigarette, and began to smoke it. He was scared shitless of the Canadsteiners, and needed anything to make him less scared.

"Wait I a second. I have a plan." Taylor said before running out of the stall and bathroom.

He return a little while later with a wheelchair. This way Molly felt that she had some independence and wouldn't have to depend on Taylor so much to get around. Taylor carefully picked her up and placed her in the wheelchair. Once securely in, Taylor wheeled her out of the bathroom.

"Hopefully this will be much better than me having to carry you. I will make sure that at the base you get special treatment for walking again. Alright?" Taylor said.

Going out into the parking lot, Taylor stopped at a jeep. It was painted in a military green and even had a military license plate. He picked up Molly and placed her in the passenger seat. Then quickly rolled the wheelchair back into the hospital. Taylor can running back and entered the jeep. After starting the car, Taylor drove straight out of the parking lot.

When the jeep came to a stop, Taylor handed the remaining items of the zip lock bag. The bag contained driver's license, a photo, some Canadsteiner marks, and a cell phone.

"Here are your other personal items. Didn't want you to lose them." Taylor said.

---

Lt. Helfrich stepped away from Mara and looked at the three peeping toms. How could such men be accepted into an army? The Kahanistani must have been desperate.

"Get into a line once you are done cleaning. That means you too Col. Fulton." Conrad said harshly.

The cold morning air was a delight to Conrad. It reminded him of his childhood when he used to ski practically everyday during ski season. The coldness made him feel alive. Conrad stood and watched the Kahanistani do clean up, but he seemed to have his eye especially on Mara.

Molly went back into the base. Her brain was still adjusting to the whole change in her memories, to forgetting her old life and integrating a new one all in one fell swoop.

Physically, she was probably going to be as good as new within a few days. Emotionally... well, it would be one hell of a shock when, or if, she was found.

---

There was relatively little to clean up, so the soldiers were lined up within minutes. Kaselev was still a mile or so away, letting the carrion dog lead him and the group.

---

Schultz was experiencing the terror of his life from the jimson weed. He ran screaming at the top of his lungs through the forest as if possessed, abandoning his backpack and running terrified through the woods.

Taylor drove into the base and helped Molly get situated. He instructed her of the workings of the base, her daily schedule, and who her CO was. Once that was over with Taylor said his good-byes then got back to his own daily routine. He was going to have to make up for lost time.

Getting his gear on, Taylor rushed to the front gate. His counterpart was there waiting for him. They talked for a bit, then Taylor was all alone. He wondered if giving Molly false memories was the right thing to do. Only time would answer that question.

---

Once the soldiers were lined up, Conrad was about to address them, but then heard the scream. Quickly his head turned toward the direction, from which the scream was emitted. He knew that he needed to make this short.

"All right I don't want you men to be peaking into my tent again. Now let us go find this Colonel Schultz." stated Lt. Helfrich, before he ran off into woods.

That dumb Colonel was going to get himself killed if he was under the influence of some drug. He was more likely to fall down a bloody mountain, then get torn up by some bear. The only problem that if there was a bear, then he was going to have unload a whole clip into the bear. The bullets were meant for humans, not a huge bear. It wondered the bullets would even do anything.

"Mara, why the hell was he smoking? I mean especially on a operation like this. Who in their right mind would do that?" Conrad asked as he lead her through the forest.

"Don't ask me," said Mara. "I don't know him that well, we just met on this operation. He struck me as an idiot, but not that kind of an idiot... well, I don't know what he was smoking that could have flipped him out like that."

One of the peeping toms pointed to some weeds. "Locoweed. That's what he was smoking."

Mara lowered her head into her hands and shook her head. "Jesus Christ... that's bad... let's go after him before he goes off and gets himself killed. Hopefully we won't need the carrion dog to find him."

Conrad eyed something that didn't blend with the foliage. Suddenly he stopped and turned directions. Coming upon it, Conrad saw that it was the Colonel's backpack. Picking up he looked at it closely. It didn't have any blood marks, so that was good. Lt. Helfrich threw the pack over to Private Sampson.

"You have the duty of making sure that doesn't get lost?" ordered Conrad. "Can you follow that?"

He didn't even wait for a response, as he was walking away Conrad spied a trail. That idiot was walking and dragging himself all over the place. Conrad just shook his head and followed the trail. He hoped that this moron wasn't dead. It might cause an incident, but this was the worst case scenario.

The private picked it up, though he was now weighed down and useless in combat even if he did have a weapon - he had no hands free to use one. He noticed a burnt piece of cigarette paper and vegetation.

"Looks like he had another toke while he was out here. Kaselev's going to be mad when he finds out."

"Do what you want with him. Doesn't really matter to me. You can either turn him in or let him be." said Conrad as he continued to follow the trail.

After another kilometre, they found him. He was passed out, covered in puke, and had evidently gorged himself on the numerous mushrooms in this part of the woods. Probably hoping to get high, he had instead stuffed his face with poisonous toadstools and was very ill. He would be dead within minutes from that amount of poison if he didn't get to a hospital, post haste.

"Shit... this guy's dead meat. We've got to get him help," said Mara. "Can we get a medevac here?"

'Not again' thought Conrad as he came upon the body. This was the second Kahanistani that was going to have to be air medevac on this mission. Conrad sat down on a stump and put his hand against his forehead. Grabbing his radio he called in for a immediate air medevac. Within minutes a helicopter was hovering over the sight. Colonel Schultz was brought aboard and at the hospital within ten minutes.

Conrad just stayed on the stump. He hoped that Colonel Schultz made it through along with that Captain. But he also cursed the stupidity of Schultz. Was he out of his mind? Conrad took a long drink of water, from his canteen, and looked out toward the next hill.

"Let's let General Kaselev know," said Mara. "We found him. We can concentrate on Hargan now."

Mara was pretty sure that they weren't going to find her in these woods, and in another 19 hours, Kaselev would have to ask about the local bases. He had a good rapport with the government, but he'd have to know about Agency black sites...

Conrad turned toward Mara and sighed. His attention was now off the the next hill.

"Can't you just tell him on your radio?" Conrad asked, as he looked at Mara.

He was pretty sure he saw a radio from the night before. The problems seemed to be growing as the hours went by. Conrad wouldn't be surprised if someone died next. They were getting lucky so far, but this luck wasn't going to last forever. It was only a matter of time.

"I was talking to the radioman," said Mara. Her radio operator was already on the horn with the general.

"We found him," said the soldier. "We've just got to find Hargan and get the hell out."

The radioman continued to talk to Kaselev for some time, before signing off and turning to Conrad.

"Kaselev said that if we don't find Hargan by 2200 hours, he'll ask to widen the search and talk to your superior. Nothing bad, but he doesn't figure you have the authority to give him what he thinks he'll need."

"What does 'widen' the search mean?" asked Conrad as he took another drink from his canteen.

"He'll want to search outside the forest, and he'll want to talk to someone who's authorised to give him access to what he thinks are Agency black sites. He doesn't think she's in the woods anymore, he thinks she was captured, probably some time ago, as either the bloodhounds or carrion dog would have gotten her by now."

"I am pretty sure the President doesn't want any Kahanistani in government facilities."

"Me too," said Mara. "That won't stop him from asking. Kaselev wants to be reasonable. He will accede to whatever terms your government dictates, whether that means being escorted, not being armed, letting Canadsteiner soldiers handle the more sensitive areas... you don't think it was his idea to send us here without our trusty combat rifles?"

---

Captain Trent Roman lay in his hospital bed. He had been rehydrated upon arrival, and his infections treated, but it was still very much touch and go; the maggot infestation in his head wound meant he had a brain infection, and that would require specialised treatment and antibiotics that could cross the blood-brain barrier.

He stirred, his right eye opening slightly. Try as he might, he could see nothing through his left eye, but did not know he had lost it - or much of anything, for that matter. He didn't even know if he was in Kahanistan or Canadstein. He was very weak still, debilitated by infection and several days of subpar nutrition.

"No, but most Canadsteiners would see that as an invasion. You would have never been let in."

Mara shook her head. To her, invasions were more numerous affairs, with thousands of soldiers storming across their territory, burning things, raping women, and laying claim to their land. Kahanistan had no desire nor strength to lay claims abroad; they were merely interested in getting their soldiers back, or at least their bodies so they would know what had happened to them.

"You're probably right. I don't think the government would have negotiated on that position. Kaselev takes our safety very seriously. He must already trust your government."

"Well I trust all of you. I highly doubt that you are going to try and kill me. Both of our countries are trying to make things status quo again. Hopefully with this mission that can be completed." Conrad said. "President Harper is a good man. He is trying to lead this country into a new age, but also trying to keep it neutral. I just hope that we keep that neutrality. So far he had done a good job."

"We don't like neutrality, for the most part," said Mara. "If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. We tried neutrality in the Questarian - Gholgothic War, and look where that got us. We were invaded and pushed right into the arms of the Allaneans. Some even wanted us to join Gholgoth, or sell out and buy Doomani arms. Even the Allaneans do, now... sickening."

"I'm not a communist by any stretch, I tend to be more centrist. But no President of Kahanistan will authorise a Doomani arms contract. The Nationalists don't want to get in bed with the enemy, the Communists don't want to sell out their ideals, the centrists don't want the worst of both worlds by pissing off both sides."

"Sounds like they fight more with themselves then their enemies. Thankfully that doesn't happen to much in Canadstein. We have many different parties, but they all want to create a better and bright Canadstein." replied Conrad. "But on the topic of neutrality, it has served us well. Other countries know that we will walk the thin gray line. We have done so for the past 137 years, so I guess they believe that we will always be neutral. Who do you believe is going to run the Presidential Election in your country?"

"I think Lieutenant General Sklenova will win. I personally don't like the idea of her taking over, she'll mess up the economy pretty bad just when most of us have houses now, she'll regulate businesses out of wanting to invest. She wants to stop the income inequality that's growing, but I don't know if that's possible, or even wise at this point. But she's a popular general with the troops, and she's a well-liked politician. I know her well, but I just don't agree with her outlook. On the other hand, the Nationalists will just get us invaded again..."

"Her heart is in the right place. She just doesn't understand economics beyond Marxist-Leninist theory and Communist philosophy. Our best hope is if she's able to secure relations with a larger Communist nation like TWSP, because relations with Allanea will go to hell very fast if she's elected."

"So a person with old ideals coming into a world that is rapidly changing?"

"Pretty much. We'll probably be safer from foreign invasion, at least. How much longer is it before 2200 hours?" The dogs had still not picked up anything interesting.

"The best of luck to your country though." Conrad then looked at his watch. "About 11 more hours. I think it time we restart the mission. We have rested enough for a while."

"Yup," said Mara. "Let's search on the other side of that river." She remembered what she had heard about the canines' search for Nadia, where canine crews had crossed rivers when they thought that their quarry had crossed to wash off their scent.

Conrad simply nodded his head and screwed the cap back onto his canteen. As he got up he put on his helmet. It was time to get back to work.

Mara stepped into the river with her gear. The river was cold and muddy and damp. A few times her head went under when she stepped in a mud hole and had to be pulled up by a taller soldier.

"Crap," said Sampson as he pulled her up for the third time. "I wish we'd brought life jackets, or an inflatable raft."

"I wish I had my bathing suit," said Mara. "But Intel didn't know there was a river coming through here."

Conrad would have liked to see Mara in her bathing suit, but it wouldn't have left that up much up to the imagination. Reluctantly he got into the water. The water was ice cold. Once fully in the water, he watched the Kahanistani waddle across the river, as he attempted too. Slowly but surely he made it across. Though once he had made it across to the other side he was soaking wet.

"Well it seems like we are going to be soaking for the rest of the day." Conrad said with smirk.

Mara and the rest of the crew made it out. A couple of guys had lost their bags, but everyone was still alive, and the bags contained more food and equipment than the soldiers would need. They would do some hunter or survivalist a world of good.

"Yeah... I'm dripping wet. Well, the dog's all right, and up and sniffing." The dog led the way while the soldiers looked for traces of Molly. They figured they were about six klicks from the site Kaselev had dropped the infiltrators on, not that the dog would lead them there, if she had been moved days earlier...

Conrad followed the dogs, along with the rest of the Kahanistani.

Mara got a radio transmission from General Kaselev. She picked up the radio.

"Colonel, it's 1945 hours. In about two hours I'll have to talk to Lt. Helfrich's superior. What have you found?"

"Nothing, General. We're on the other side of a river, about nine kilometres from where we were camped. Lucky we didn't lose the radio, but we've lost a lot of gear. How hard can it be to find one girl in this forest?"

"Impossible if she isn't in the forest, and I do not believe she is. Can you give me the name of the Lieutenant's superior, and ask him to put me in contact with him if we find nothing before 2200 hours?"

"Sure. Conrad... who is your superior officer? General Kaselev's interested in speaking with him."

"That would have to be Colonel Königsmarck." replied Conrad as he started to set up his tent. Soon afterward he set up his belonging insides, he started to make a small fire. The sun was dropping in the distance. Conrad could tell that it was going to be a cold night like last night.

Mara sat down with the radio. "You'll want to talk to Colonel Königsmarck. I don't know how far you'll get, but that's all I could get."

"Very well. I'll call back in two hours. In the meantime, I'll make for your position. I estimate I'm around fifteen kilometres from you, so it should be... about four hours." Kaselev had gone about forty hours without sleep, and he was starting to tire.

Mara went into Conrad's tent, climbing into her sleeping bag and pushing her wet clothes out. "Do you... like me?"

"What do you think?" asked Conrad, as he threw an extra t-shirt and pants at Molly's sleeping bag. Obliviously they would both be too big for her, but it was Conrad's way of making sure she was alright. He grabbed his MRE, then sat near the fire. Helfrich looked at the three peeping toms and just shook his head.

"So tell me about yourselves." asked Conrad in between a mouthful of his tortellini. "I knew that we started out on a bad foot."

Mara pulled on the clothes; they hung off her body like a tent and would have afforded a wonderful view of her cleavage if she'd had any. The men introduced themselves.

"Private Stephen Sampson," said the youngest man. "I... I'm a survivor of the Battle of North Freetown, and I fought the Doomani and Northfordians at the Northford Line during the last war. I was wounded twice and nearly killed by Doomani gas. I'm 21 years old, have a B.A. in Greek literature, and I translated archaeological finds before I went into the army."

"First Lieutenant Thomas Maxwell," said one of the men. "33 years old, commissioned shortly before the Doomani invaded us in the Negev. I have a B.S. in economics and worked as a school teacher until war broke out. My left hand is a prosthetic. I got it commanding an infantry platoon, a Doomie soldier stabbed me with his Gladius Doomanus and I blocked the blow, it went right into my wrist, tore up all the tendons and stuff, got infected and I ended up losing my hand."

"Corporal Hugh Frank. 27 years old, joined during the Freekish invasion. I have a B.S. in physics and worked for the missile defence system as a contractor until I joined. They had enough scientists, I guess, so I ended up in infantry."

Conrad looked at each men. They weren't so bad after he gotten a little about them. Place them in any other country and you have never know that were Kahanistani. Though it did amaze Conrad how each of them were so diverse. You had a teacher, archaeologist, and a defense contractor. But now they were in the army.

"I am Lieutenant Conrad Helfrich," said Conrad. "29 years old. Joined the army because I wanted to give something back to my nation, plus I was bored with my life. I felt like I wasn't fulfilling anything. The days wore on and nothing. Maybe boredom set in. I have a B.A. of Engineering, but I specialize in the field of aerospace. I worked for the private sector for a while."

"How about yourself, Mara?" asked Conrad before he took of his coffee. He poured a cup for Mara and handed it to her.

"I guess some of you don't know me that well," said Mara. "Colonel Mara Fulton. Also 29 years old. I have a M.A. in political science and I joined up six years ago. I used to be the commander of the Presidential Security Detachment, but now I'm part of the diplomatic corps, between assignments."

Mara took the cup and sipped. "I joined up because I felt the military needed to come to grips with its corruption problems, I originally joined as a military police officer. The only real combat action I've seen is when Kraven attacked the capital at the end of the Freekish war, and when I was forced to fight when I wanted to get out of a Transylvanian military base that was locked down. I had a bad feeling about the transports, they seemed to not remember where we wanted to go, and they were friendly with the Doomies... a bit too friendly, it turned out. Everyone who boarded the planes was murdered in the arena..."

She took a few breaths and took another drink. "That was probably the scariest fight of my life, except for the time I went into the sewers, mistook General Kaselev for Miles Mason and jumped him, and almost got killed."

Mara's radio beeped. "Speak of the devil..." It was Kaselev.

"It's 2200 hours. Is Lt. Helfrich there?"

"Yes... you still want to talk to his superior?"

"Yes. Hand him the radio."

Mara passed the radio to Conrad. Kaselev spoke.

"Lt. Helfrich, this is General Kaselev. I'd like to speak with Colonel Königsmarck. Can you put me through to him?"

"Alright Kaselev. Just a second." Conrad stated as he reworked the radio. He got onto Colonel Königsmarck's private channel. "General it is all yours."

"Colonel, this is General Kaselev. We've searched for 48 hours straight, and we've failed to find any trace of Corporal Hargan. With your permission, I'd like to enter one of your government's bases I suspect of being an Agency black site. I'd be alone and unarmed, and you could escort me to ensure I do not attempt to steal confidential documents. I believe Corporal Hargan was captured at the base."

Meanwhile, the three Kahanistanian soldiers were talking to Mara and Conrad. "I thought you were going to kill us earlier," said Frank. "And had the general sent in the other direction so he wouldn't see it. If General Kaselev weren't there... anyway... do you drink?"

"Know what the answer is going to be General. I cannot allow you to enter any government facilities. It is part of the agreement, and I am going to follow every single part of it. So there is no way you are getting in. If you do try, then you will be arrested, then immediately deported back to Kahanistani." responded Colonel Königsmarck with a rasp voice.

"I wasn't going to kill you. I was just trying to scare the living crap out of you three." replied Conrad. "To answer your question sometimes. Depends on the occasion."

"I do not respond well to threats, Colonel. I have seen far worse against the Doomani. However, I am a man of reason... what if I asked a Canadsteiner soldier to go in, and report information to me? I will not be the one entering the base, but I will still know if the Agency is up to anything untoward."

"We already know people have been detained and tortured there. Right now, we want to know if one of our comrades is still there... we wish to repatriate her and anyone else who might be detained there."

"A Canadsteiner soldier will be acceptable, but I see no indication of a base near your location." Königsmarck remarked as he looked at a map of the surrounding area. "Go ahead and look, but you are not going to find anything. You are just on a wild goose hunt."

---

"So why were you three men looking into my tent?' asked Conrad finally.

"Well..." said Sampson, "it was Colonel Schultz's idea. He'd been smoking... I think it was marijuana, he's got a habit of smoking what he can find. I wouldn't know for sure, the only pot I've seen is in cigarette or brownie form in drug stores."

"Anyway, he at first thought she'd gone in to be warm, but then... he saw something, maybe an outline or something, maybe a gap... pulled out the binoculars and passed them around, talking about how he wished he had the scope from his sniper rifle to get a better view."

"Well now it is all in the past. You can't really do anything about it. Though I don't want you boys to be peeking into my tent tonight. Alright?" Conrad said as winked at them.

Maxwell shrugged. "'K. I'll be under that tree way over there. Think he's going to pull through? That was an awful lot of toadstools and crazy plants..."

---

General Kaselev turned to the Canadsteiner sergeant. "Mr. Wessel... it looks like you'll be doing something for us."

"Honestly I really don't know. I do know that the doctors will try their best to save him. All we can do is hope." Conrad finished off the rest of his coffee. "He is going to need all the hope he can get right now."

---

"What do you want from me?" Sgt. Wessel asked as he stopped polishing his rifle.

"I want you to go into a base I suspect of being an Agency black site," said Kaselev. "They will deport me, if I go in. I'll provide you with a spy camera. I believe that Corporal Hargan was likely taken in by the Agency. I want you to find her, her body, or documentation that she was moved or executed."

"I am not going to be a spy against my own countrymen." Sgt. Wessel stated as he went back to cleaning his rifle.

"Don't you see the situation, Mr. Wessel?" Kaselev asked calmly, showing no emotion, his voice cold. "The Agency does not report to your government. They do as they want, without regard for international convention, without regard for whether or not it will start a war, without regard for the laws of your own government."

"They almost started a war with us by kidnapping two officers and trying to destabilise our government. This isn't about spying against your countrymen, it's protecting your countrymen from doing something stupid again and this time starting a war. The next nation they pull this with will bomb you, and if your nation does something like this to our nation again, then there will be war."

"Do you think I care? The agency can do whatever they want. Maybe they will help me actually use this rifle for its intended use." Sgt. Wessel stated as he put a new magazine into his gun.

"War is not as exciting as you think it is. I have served in more wars than I care to remember. I have fought as a resistance leader, seen people I have served with for years flayed alive in the streets and nailed to crosses to bake in the sun while the crows rip their eyes from their sockets. I have seen women have their stomachs sliced open and Kraven fetuses implanted in their uteruses. I have seen Pwnagian soldiers smiling and giggling while burning civilians alive with flamethrowers. We have sustained so many losses that a woman of 33 is now a three-star general."

The general still showed no fear, nor change in tone of voice, as the man loaded his weapon. "You are eager to go to war now, but I have seen men like you break down in tears when they get their first taste of battle, unable to shoot, unable to kill, cracking under the shock and horror of the mutilation of their comrades. Many of them want to surrender, but surrender to the Doomani is an admission of weakness to them, an admission that you do not deserve to live, a submission of your body to be cruelly tortured to death over days of inhuman barbarity." He continued leading his carrion dog and the rest of the squad toward Mara's position.

"Did you honestly think that speech was going to change my mind? You have no idea who I am or what I am capable of. Well good night General." Sgt. Wessel stated. Then he grabbed his rifle and entered his tent.

---

As soon as the other men were asleep, Conrad got up and sat next to Mara. He put his arm around her and sighed.

"How do you feel about me?"

Kaselev nodded and walked off. He did in fact hope to get through to this young man, but it seemed he would have to use another Canadsteiner for this. He figured he was about half an hour from Mara's position. Wessel would be safe; he had a weapon and could protect himself from wild animals. Kaselev just had his brute strength, and possibly a club if he saw the animal soon enough. He and his squad walked up ahead, fording the river.

The general was strong enough to carry two of the large packs through the water, putting them inside the sleeping bag of a soldier who had volunteered his.

---

Mara shook her head. "I don't know. I think we should get to know each other better. I like you, but I don't know that we have a chance at a relationship. We live thousands of kilometres away, and I never know where I'll be sent. Do you have a problem with dating a woman with a child?"

"I will do anything to keep this going." Conrad said, before he kissed Mara. This was the first time that he had ever loved a woman. Many times he had gone on dates, but they were never the right women. But Mara was different in Conrad's eyes. Conrad did have to remember to take things slowly.

"Do you want to get some sleep Mara?" he asked with a eager grin.

Mara nodded. "I'm kind of tired. Let's go to sleep."

---

Kaselev and his crew came up out of the water. They could see the camp not far away and trudged toward it.

Conrad lead Mara into the tent and got into his sleeping bag. He wondered if tonight would once again lead to a night of passion. Only time would tell if he was correct.

Mara lay down in the tent in her loose clothes. "Both my uniforms are drenched... I'm going to smell pretty bad by tomorrow."

"Aren't we all? I don't think anyone is really going to care. I mean since everyone is going to smell, there is going to be no room for complaining. Once this mission is over I am going to take a long hot shower. Maybe it will help remove a layer of this dirt." Conrad took of his BDU and got into his sleeping bag. Once in he looked over at Mara.

"Do you really want to have sex with a woman that smells like she's been living in a garbage dump? Anyway... I suppose we could just sit around and talk." Mara pulled her wallet out of her backpack, next to her can of Uber-strength Bear Spray. It had a few hundred marks in it, credit cards... and pictures.

She showed Conrad a photograph of her with her little girl. "This is my daughter, Kathy. She was about a year old when this was taken, she's two and a half now." Kathy was small, but had plenty of baby fat and a wide smile. The little girl was dressed in a T-shirt and shorts and was greedily chewing on a candy bar.

"Makes no difference to me." Conrad remarked as he looked up into the ceiling of the tent. Though his attention was soon diverted by the picture that Mara was showing him. "Sure looks like a pretty girl. She is still at that age were she has some innocence left. Might I ask what happened to her father, I mean if you are up to."