Jessica and cast return with more adventure. The Texas Ranger returns as well. Five uneventful years later Jessica and Ricky thought they put their problems with the law and the drug cartels behind them. The business of drugs and murder never stops and never forgives no matter how far one moves away. Jessica's friend was killed by those people. As Jess was holding Linda, who was covered in blood, the trained sniper inside her returned. Maybe he had never left!

Jessica Reloads

by Barbie Lee
Copyright 2013

Edited by Catherine Linda Michel, posted with permission from the Author, Barbie Lee.

My name is Jessica Sarah Rabbit. My husband is Ricky Daniel Clawson. Although Ricky isn’t a plastic surgeon you might say he made me the woman I am today... and I love him with all my heart for who I am.

I knew he was feeling remorse for what he had built. “It isn’t your fault.” Ricky was lying in bed beside me. I was running my fingers through his chest hair drawing circles.

He turned his head to look at me. “It is my fault. I shouldn’t have ever designed the damn thing. I said I never wanted to turn the next atomic bomb lose on humanity. I think I have.”

I leaned over and kissed him on the brow. “If you designed a gun would you blame yourself for those who are killed, or would you be thankful for those whose lives are saved by the same weapon?”

He stopped frowning as he studied my eyes. “I love you Jess. You always seem to know what to say to keep me from beating myself up.”

“Then prove how much you love me.” I leaned over and bit him on his left nipple. At the same time I slipped my left hand down between his legs. And received instant results. I knew exactly how to turn my man on and get satisfaction.

“You’re gonna pay for that.” Ricky wrapped me up in his arms and rolled over on top of me.

I dug my long fingernails into his butt and raked up his back. Not deep enough to break the skin but he would be wearing red streaks up his backside the rest of the morning.

“YOW! YOU BITCH!” Ricky’s eyes closed to squints as he closed in for the kill.
==========

Texas Ranger James Daniels was looking at the poster on the inside of his locker. She was a beautiful long legged red head, almost wearing a purple glitter dress. The picture was one of several that had been sent from Acapulco, Mexico when an APB had been put out on her. That was five years ago when she made the FBI most wanted list for getting into a gunfight with two Federal agents. That day was still as fresh in his mind as if it happened yesterday. He gave her a ride home only an hour before the gunfight.

Two agents tried to engage and stop her as she and Ricky Clawson were picking up something from an industrial building. It turned into a one sided gun battle. The agents didn’t get a single round off. Their bodies might not have been shot up but their egos certainly were. Egos aside, they lived to tell the tale of doing something very few people managed. They pointed their guns at Jess and lived.

Rumor claimed it was the Philadelphia Project where time travel was possible. James had no idea what Jess had retrieved but it sure wasn’t the Philadelphia Project unless it could be done on a computer storage drive. James looked the building over after the shoot out. It was a dummy lab.

Jessica, Ricky, their car, the two who helped them and their car all disappeared within minutes after that. It was as if the earth opened up and swallowed them. James glanced at the pictures of the two who had helped Jess that day. The pictures were from security cameras in the industrial complex where the firefight took place.
The two figures were wearing black and had black ski masks. There was no mistaking they were women.

He knew Jessica had been trained as a sniper and was better than just good with a gun. She proved that by killing four men in a shootout when they tried to kill her. That wasn’t counting the six men in Mexico who James knew without a doubt had met the same fate. Although they didn’t have her gun for ballistics tests, the rifling matched on the bullets they dug out of all ten men. Those two mystery women had to be in the same league as Jess. Yet searching through military discharge records showed no women snipers coming out of Afghanistan or Iraq. Where had they come from?

“Captain wants to see you.” A hand was laid on James shoulder before the man turned and walked off.

As James walked into Henry Millman’s office he was thinking of his old captain, Frank Nordstom, who at one time occupied this same office. Frank had finally retired three years earlier. Said he was going fishing the rest of his life. He died six months later.

Henry held out several bulletins. “Someone said you were still looking for your girl.”

“Uh” James took the bulletins and leafed through them. Even though it had been five years since that eventful day, everyone in the Ranger station still referred to Jessica as ‘his girl’.

What James was holding were suspected sightings of Jessica and or Ricky Clawson. The locations varied, but most were in Russia and the Ukraine. Several were obviously in more moderate climate taken with a telephoto lens. The couple were on a boat. Then there was a really close up of Jess standing up looking back at the photographer. She was wearing, if one could call it that, a string bikini. She was pointing a rifle with a big telescopic sight on it at the photographer.

James shook his head as he laughed at that last picture. He could just imagine the photographer peeing in his pants when that picture was taken. There was no doubt it was Jess in the picture. They had to make her an honorary Ranger. That girl had more Texas grit than any person he had ever met.

============

“They killed him.” Tears were leaking out of the corners of her blue eyes. She was wiping them away with the back of her fists.

I pulled Linda in and held her as she struggled to contain her tears and her emotions. “I wish I had been there.”

“Oh Jess, they killed him…, there was nothing I could do…, I’m going to make them pay.” She hugged me in a death grip, trying to make life go away as she cried on my shoulder.

“No you won’t. We will make them pay.” I stroked her hair and rubbed her back as I let her cry out her pain on my shoulder.

Linda and I, along with so many others, were trained as killers by our various governments. I had no idea what others felt. To me it was a job. I didn’t like it, I didn’t hate it. Trained killers or not, we still had emotions and feelings and tried to live a normal everyday life after we quit the killing.

Many like us didn’t make the transition back. They carried their guilt or whatever with them until it ate them up. They usually died from trying to drown their memories in alcohol and drugs. Others simply pulled the trigger when the end of that gun was pointed at their own head.

Linda made the good transition and married Dimitri. For the past three years I don’t think I had ever seen a happier couple. They both had been to the edge of life and returned, determined to take everything in stride. Some old enemies never forget nor forgive. Linda and Dimitri had left the yacht an hour earlier to go shopping. They were ambushed by four men in a little wine store. Dimitri saw them coming and shoved Linda out the backdoor as he shielded her with his own body.

I pieced the story together after Linda had made her way back to the boat. After shooting Dimitri the men ran. Linda hadn’t run after Dimitri shoved her out the door.

Those like us never stop carrying a gun. We know death is always stalking us too once one becomes a killer. By the time Linda pulled hers out of her purse and got to the front of the store the four men had disappeared. She held Dimitri as he died in her arms before she made it back to the boat. She was covered in his blood. I held her as she cried. I had no idea who the men were or who had sent them. I was determined they would all pay. The sniper had come back. Maybe he had never left!
==========
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” The man threw the paper down on the table. “I send you to kill the bitch and you shoot a guy instead?”

He turned to look at the man across the room. “Are you a fucking idiot? Now she will be ready!”

“My men tried Padrone. The man got in the way.” Javier didn’t dare look up as he studied the floor in front of his feet.

Raul glared at Javier. “You follow the woman off the boat and shoot the man. Why didn’t you blow up the boat and kill them all? That way you would have known the bitch was fucking dead!”

Raul stood up and looked out at the forest. “If you weren’t my cousin I’d have you shot. Where are the men?”

“They have already returned Padrone.”

“Make sure that bitch doesn’t follow them back. If any of our men at the airport or docks lets her slip in I’ll have them shot. Is that understood?” Raul turned to study the man across the room.

“Yes Padrone.”

“Get out of my sight. You make me sick.” Raul turned his back on Javier.

==========
I didn’t put in the call to Serena expecting her to join us. I wanted her to know about Dimitri and be extra cautious. She was still very active as a government agent. I figured she would be busy on a case somewhere in the world. Serena showed up the next day with information she had already gleaned from her sources.

“Mexico” Serena was looking at Linda.

Linda’s eyes glazed over as she searched her memory. She shook her head. “Mexico? I don’t remember Dimitri doing any work there. They move there?”

“Wasn’t Dimitri they were after. Word in the underworld is they were after a woman.”

Her eyes were misting up again before she wiped them away. “I didn’t do any work there either.”

“They claim the woman killed a drug lord and five of his lieutenants. The man’s brother took over the business and put out the hit.” Serena turned her attention toward me.

My emotions went to high alert. “Where did this happen?”

“Acapulco.”

“The six men I killed in Acapulco. Oh Linda, I’m so sorry. It wasn’t you and Dimitri they wanted. It was me.” My heart sank as I knew I was responsible for Dimitri’s death and Linda’s pain.

Linda looked up with sheer hatred in her eyes. It wasn’t me it was directed at as she looked off across the water. “It matters, but it doesn’t. I’m not blaming you. It is the business we are in. Not your fault. They never quit. There are too many. Forget it.”

I knew better. Linda wasn’t going to forgive nor forget. “When do we start?”

She looked at her watch. “I have to get resources and men in place. Fourteen days.”

Serena nodded. “I’m in. I know some of the guys working in Mexico.”
=========
I was wearing a red, blue, and yellow pokadot dress with a really low cut neckline. The hem of a full skirt was cheerleader short. A bright yellow scarf was draped around my neck and hung loosely across my left breast. I had it pinned in place with a big gaudy, silver and gold broach. My long red hair was pulled over my right shoulder and draped suggestively across my right breast.

I had half a dozen flashy bracelets on my left wrist and that many more on my right. My ears were sporting silver and gold big ol dangle earrings. Brightest red high gloss lipstick and overdone glitter blue eye shadow. My eyes were outlined with enough eyeliner to make me look like a raccoon. My long lush lashes didn’t need help but I added false ones to extend them even more.

I had dark smoky nylons with a seam up the back. My stiletto five inch red heels finished my ensemble. If anyone looked they could tell I was wearing a black lacy corset under the dress and the nylons were held up with garter straps. The girls along the pickup strip would look like also-rans compared to me.

People going and coming through the terminal were giving us a wide berth. Ricky was holding me in his arms. “I don’t want you to go. Please don’t do this.”

I kissed him on the lips. “You know I have to. This isn’t Linda’s fight. It’s mine. Dimitri happened to get in the way. Linda was always there for us when we needed her. You know we wouldn’t have made it without her help. Friends don’t leave friends behind.”

Ricky took a quick breath as his lips quivered before he got his emotions under control again. “I know.”

He pulled me in and gave me a life squeezing hug. “God do I know. I have two happy instances in my life. One when we were growing up together. The other has been the last five years.”

He held me back to look into my eyes. “I’m not going on without my bestest friend. Anything happens to you, I will call it quits also.”

Reaching up I cupped his chin with my right hand and kissed him on the lips. “Don’t you even think like that. The world needs you to finish what you started.”

The water works welled up in the corners of Ricky’s eyes before he pulled me in. “I need you. Bring yourself home in one piece.”

“I promise. My flight is going to leave without me.” I turned and walked to the Paris Air boarding desk.

Two older women were looking me over in disgust. One of them rolled her eyes. “Well I never. We don’t have such trollops in America.”

Giggling I couldn’t help myself as I gave her a wink. “You probably won’t ever either because you don’t have the body for it. But as sure as there are Black Eyed Susans and little colts born in the spring, I’m from Texas.”

Both women looked shocked clear down to the souls of their feet. The one who had mouthed off was sputtering. “well!”

I reached up and touched the side of my face in a salute. “Howdy ma’am. Yuh’all ever get to Texas look me up. I’ll introduce you to some of my friends.”

They both turned and scurried away as fast as they could.

Looking back I blew Ricky one last kiss.

He was laughing and shaking his head.. ‘I love you’ was whispered in silence.

After deboarding Paris Air I headed to the baggage claim area to wait on luggage. Heads from both sexes were turning as I sashayed across the terminal, letting my hips roll with each step. Chewing my gum and popping bubbles, I drummed my long red glitter nails on the wall as I waited for my big yellow suitcase.

A man reached over to lift a suitcase off the luggage carousel. He yanked it up and fell over backwards into me. He turned around and dropped his suitcase. He reached out to grab me for balance. “Por favor senorita.”

My hand went to that big ol' red patent leather glamour bag with all the bling on it. One of the curly designs on that bag was knife sharp. I waited for any hand tricks from the guy before I popped the ornament loose for a weapon. If his hands came up with a knife, needle, or a gun he was going to be very dead. Nothing was forthcoming. His eyes got big as saucers as he realized what he had grabbed for balance.

“I gave the guy a big ol' smile as I fluttered my eyes. “Watch where your going honey. If you want to cop a feel you got to pay for it.”

He backed up, his eyes rapidly blinking in shock. Pointing at a wedding ring, he was shaking his head before he grabbed his suitcase and scurried away.

Customs was fun, as the last thing they had on their mind was anything I might be carrying into Mexico. “Miss Lucenda Brown?” The guy was looking from my passport up at me and back at my passport and up and…,

“You got it sweety.” I gave him a wink and licked my lips.

“What is your intensions…, purpose of your visit/” He was still working on the name.

“A little R and R, sugar. You know a girl needs a break from work too. It isn’t all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Girls feel the same way. You know what I mean?” I looked down between my breasts.

The guy was beyond help after that trick. “Okay, do you have anything to declare?”

“Whyy’ yes. I do declare it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day. Don’t chu think?” I licked my left fingers and wiped an imaginary smudge off my right breast.

The guy was looking at my right breast. “How big…, How long are they…, you plan on staying.”

“Oh a week or two. I’m in no hurry to get back to my usual job.” I did a little shimmy as if to straighten up my skirt.

He never took his eyes off my breasts as he reached down picked up the stamp and stamped my passport... on the wrong page. He shoved my things to the side and never said another word.

I rolled my right wrist, all my bracelets jangled as I pointed my finger at him. “Oh aren’t you the one.” I gathered up my things and headed for the exit and a taxi.

A man in a business suit was walking into the terminal looking behind him as I was walking out. He bumped into me and my purse got heavier. His head snapped around. “Watch where you’re going you stupid whore.”

“Up yours asshole.” I didn’t hesitate as my hand went inside my purse. My fingers wrapped around an old friend. I headed for a taxi pulling my suitcase behind me. I knew they wouldn’t have time to gather their forces and come at me yet. It didn’t stop me from wishing they would. My friend and I would make them pay dearly from this point on. I slid into the taxi. “Holiday Inn”.
=========
“She tried to disguise herself as a prostitute.” Javier was standing in the doorway.

Raul turned to look. “You’re sure it’s her?”

“Si Padrone, there is no mistaking this one. She has long red hair.”

“Well this is a welcome surprise. Get six men and bring her to me. I am going to make that bitch pay for killing my brother.” Raul smiled as he thought of all the things he was going to do to the bitch. Maybe even keep her around as a pet.

Javier was smiling to himself. He was going to make up for the mistake they had made in Italy when they didn’t kill her. Maybe Padrone would let the men enjoy her before he killed her?
============
There was a double knock on my door. I stepped over with my back against the wall and reached out to my side to open the door with my left hand, my fifty in my right. Linda, Serena, and four men walked into the room carrying luggage.

Linda and Serena came into Mexico via a locally registered fishing boat. Normally no questions would be asked by the authorities as it came and went... hopefully our escape plan when this mess was finished. The authorities also had no interest in looking at ice chests of fresh fish carried in from the boat.

One of the men was the guy who had slipped me the gun when he bumped me before I got in the taxi. He was looking at the fifty in my right hand. “When Maria told me that was what you carried I thought she was lying.”

Maria was one of the several names Linda used. Nodding I walked across the room and laid it on the table as I finished removing all the bling off my body. “It’s my serious work tool. Think they will try tonight?”

“We will know if they do. The cameras in the hotel are now ours.” She watched as one of the men unsnapped a suitcase and set a monitor and computer up on the table.

He flipped it on. It came to life as views from different cameras rotated through the monitor even before he plugged it into the wall outlet.

Serena stepped up and started typing on the keyboard. “We will want only a few of those cameras. The ones at the front and back entrance will be on that list. The one in the parking garage watching who comes into the hotel will be a third one. The last two will be at each end of the hallway.”

She smiled as she brought up the parking garage camera. “Damn that was quick. Unless I’m mistaken they are already coming.”

She pointed toward seven men getting out of a dark van in the parking garage. “Carlos, you recognize any of them?”

One of the men stepped up for a closer look. “Javier is bringing six of his death squad with him. That’s him, second from the right.”

Linda opened up another suitcase and started handing out twenty two caliber handguns. Then she started passing around what looked like oil filters. Everyone was screwing them onto the end of the pistols. The four men left the room to take up positions at each end of the hallway.

She looked up at me with hate in her eyes. “That bastard Javier is mine. I recognize him. He was there when they killed Dimitri. He’s mine. You can have him if I miss.”

I almost laughed. “You... miss? Sure and there is no Santa Claus and Christmas.”

We watched the monitor as Javier stopped by the front desk. One of the clerks leaned over. He was talking to him as he handed him a card key. I’m no lip reader, but I don’t think Javier had to ask which room I checked into. I put that clerk on my list.

Linda’s crew waited until Javier slid the card and was pushing the door open. He was stepping into the room as his men dropped behind him. The thud of bodies hitting the floor came into the room along with Javier. They didn’t all go down. One pushed into the room behind Javier holding his side still not understanding what happened.

I heard a soft pooft as Serena nailed him in the head. He fell into the back of Javier pushing him off balance and finished up face down on the floor.

I heard a pooft, pooft from Linda’s gun. Javier grabbed his right arm with his left hand and tried to bring his gun up. There were two more pooft, poofts as Ignacio’s left hand turned bloody where he was holding his arm. His gun slipped from his fingers and dropped to the floor. His mind was finally starting to understand he wasn’t in control of the situation. “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? YOU’RE DEAD YOU STUPID BITCH!”

Linda took a step closer. “I know who you are you bastard. You killed my husband, you piece of low life shit. I want you to apologize to him when you see him.”

There was a soft pooft. Javier fell where he stood.

The men were dragging bodies into the room. Serena headed to the bathroom She came back carrying two towels ringing wet and a handful of dry ones. I helped her wipe up blood off the carpet in the hallway. When we finished we had a dozen bloody white towels. The carpet wasn’t clean but no one would suspect it was more than wet unless they got down for a close look.

The attack had thrown my timing off. I headed for the bathroom.

Linda was the only one waiting as I stepped out of the bathroom. She nodded. “That will work.”

My hair was black, my skin a dark olive, my face, neck, arms and the back of my hands looked like aged wrinkles. The gel Linda had supplied shriveled up and wrinkled after it was applied to the skin.

“You ever put these in before?” She held up a case with contacts.

“No.”

“I’ll help. Sit down in the chair and tilt your head back.” She was fishing a contact out of the case.

“It feels rough.” She had slipped the contacts into my eyes.

“Blink a couple times and they will slide around until they are where they need to be.” She was holding out the little gun in my direction. “You want him, or is he mine?”

“I got this one.” I took her gun and slid it into the fold of the loose fitting ragged dress I was wearing. “Can you tell?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ll wait in the parking garage. Older beat up brown Chevy on your left as you walk into the garage.

I looked at the stains on the carpet where the bodies had been. “Room is a mess. Think they will charge me extra for cleaning?’

Linda laughed as she headed for the door. “Wouldn’t count on it.”

“Jess.”

I stopped as I followed her out. “What?”

“Old women shuffle when they walk.”

“Copy that. Thanks for the heads up.” Hunching over, I started taking smaller steps and dragging my feet as I shuffled to the elevator.

I got off the elevator at the second floor and took the stairs to the first floor. The guy behind the check in desk was watching me slowly shuffle across the lobby. As I passed in front of his desk I raised up my right hand. A scarf was covering my hand and the gun. There was a soft pooft, no louder than a soft sneeze. A dot appeared in the middle of the guy’s forehead. He went down like he was going to look for something under the desk.

I wiped my nose with my scarf and covered my face as if I didn’t want to share my germs with the rest of those around me. No one paid any attention except to give a filthy old woman a little room.

“We will never get all of you. Maybe the ones who are left will think twice next time?”

Linda was waiting by the car. “The men have left to take care of the cocaine labs. There is a warehouse at Municipio de Acapulco de Juá¡rez holding almost a half billion dollars worth of drugs. It will be last on our list as we leave.”

“Okay. You know this is my fault. You and Serena don’t have to go along.” Looking at the dark van I didn’t have to imagine the bodies piled up inside.

“Oh yes I do. Javier was only doing what Juan ordered. I still have a debt that needs to be paid back.” She opened up the car door.

It was then I started wondering when it would end? We kill them, they come back and kill us, so we kill them, and it repeats. It would never end as long as someone was standing. Were we making a difference? I decided thinking too much was what dragged others into the bottle and drugs after they finished. They tried to justify the killing in their minds where there wasn’t any. It was a job. Do the damn job and move on.

Serena was our driver. She was wrinkled and had a ragged scarf over her gray hair. Her brown dress was old faded and tattered. She was wearing granny glasses. Her automatic was by her right leg. The silent twenty two was in her lap. When Linda slid into the seat she had two rifles by her left leg. One was an automatic. The other was her sniper rifle with a night scope and sound suppressor.

I climbed into the back seat. My rifle was by my left leg. I pulled my fifty out of my purse and laid it on my lap. The pistol Linda loaned me was by my left hand. It was the perfect gun for close in discreet work. For knock down power I wanted the fifty in my hand. Only the highest class bullet proof vests with ceramic tile could withstand the fifty. Those vests were hot and heavy. Not that many wore them. Even those vests wouldn’t stop a second bullet after the tile had been shattered by the first bullet.

Several police cars and a military truck passed us as Serena drove out to the villa. With Serena hunched over the steering wheel driving like a little old lady, they didn’t even give us a second look.

It was past midnight as she pulled into a side street several blocks from the villa. There was a lot of open ground between the walls of that compound and the housing addition surrounding it.

Linda took a look with the infrared spotter scope. “Two men on the roof. I can take them out from here. Two men by the front gate. I’m guessing there will be more guarding the front of the house and only God knows how many around back or inside the house. There are two cameras by the front gate. I see one on the north wall and…, one on the south wall. There are two more by the front of the house looking down. Six cameras. I can handle those too.”

She turned around in the seat to look at me. “Are you sure Jess?”

Nodding I opened the car door, stood up, and picked up the bottle of tequila. I poured it on my left shoulder and down the front of me. Slinging my rifle under my left arm, I draped my ragged shawl over it. “How do I look?”

Serena shook her head as she smiled. “Terrible.”

I laughed. “Thanks, you know how to make a woman feel good inside. Wish me luck.”

I headed up the road toward the villa humming some off tune and swinging the vodka bottle in my left hand. “Yeah, granny will take care of you” I mumbled under my breath.

The two guards at the gate never even went to high alert as I stumbled up the road toward them, humming and swinging the bottle. Every now and then I’d stop and tip the bottle up as if I was going to take a sip, but it was empty. I’d look in the top shake my head and stumble toward the gate again, humming some little ditty.

“Go home grandma.” One of the guards shouted at me in Spanish as I closed in.

“He said go home grandma.” Serena translated to me in my earpiece.

I held the bottle up and shook it like I wanted more. The two guards laughed. There was a soft pooft pooft as I brought up my right hand. They crumpled where they stood.

The two guards on top the house disappeared, one, two. I knew Linda had taken them out. As I kneeled down I dropped the small caliber gun and brought my fifty up out of my bag hanging on my left shoulder. The two guys by the front door were starting to realize not all was well. They were both slammed back up against the house as the bark of my fifty woke the neighborhood.

Two more were coming across the roof of the house. Linda dropped them. The guy coming around the left side of the house looked like he ran into a truck. He fell over backwards as my fifty served him notice. I brought the fifty over to focus on the guy coming around the right side of the house. There were chips of rock flying as his bullets sprayed the wall beside me. He was slammed back into the house.

Glass was breaking as the security cameras died. I dropped the fifty and brought my rifle up. I didn’t have that long to wait as the guys at the back wall came running along on top of the wall. The one on my right showed first. He tumbled off the wall and plowed face first into the grass. The one on the left met the same fate.

Linda focused on the power line transformers. They arced and sparks flew everywhere as she put armor piercing bullets into them. The neighborhood went dark.

Serena backed the car up to the gate. Retrieving a chain from the trunk I hooked it into one side of the gate and the other to the trailer hitch on the Chevy. “Okay.”

Serena gunned it. The Chevy ran out the length of the chain, the rear end jumped up into the air as the chain was stretched out. The gate was pulled out of the wall hinges. It flopped over on the ground.

Lead was peppering the rear of the Chevy. Flash fire was coming from way back inside the dark house past the front door. Linda focused in on him and dropped him.

“Think that was him?” I was looking toward the house.

She shook her head. “Only the help. He’s still in there.”

There was a roar as a vehicle started up in the garage. He didn’t bother raising the garage door. He busted it down as he drove through it.

Linda put a bullet through the front window where the driver was setting. “Bullet proof glass, meet armor piercing bullet. You lose.”

The Humvee never turned as it ran straight into the wall. Rocks flew out of the opposite side of the wall as the front of the Humvee crumpled and the rear bounced up in the air. The rest of the wall collapsed down on top the Humvee.

It was going to be impossible to see who was driving unless we wanted to dig it out from under the rock. “Think that was him?”

Sliding out of the car Serena pointed a launcher at the open front door. I was thinking RPG. There was the whoosh as it launched inside the house. Then the inside of the house lit up as fire spread everywhere.

“Napalm grenade?” I didn’t believe it after I said it.

“Phosphorus. We better go. The Federalies are going to be swarming this place in minutes. We wore out our welcome.” Serena was motioning for us to get into the car.

Linda nodded. “She right. If it wasn’t him we will come back another time and finish the job. Grab your gear and let’s go.”
============
From four blocks away we were looking at a warehouse with a couple guards lounging around in front of it. Serena was looking through Linda’s night scope. “If they stop the car outside it won’t do the job. Get it inside before it blows up and all the chemicals and fumes in that place will finish up for us. The fire will be so hot they won’t be able to put it out or save anything.”

“I’ll take the car down there.” Linda grabbed the driver’s door and racked it back. It was sprung open and wouldn’t latch shut again. “Can’t be too careful.”

Serena laid down on the ground with Linda’s rifle. “I got the one on the right.”

“I guess that makes the one on the left mine.” I walked across the street. I didn’t want Linda and the car to get between me and my target.

The two guards went to high alert as the old Chevy came down the street toward them. Linda stopped about a block away. When they brought their guns up, Serena’s and my rifles barked at the same time. The guards went down.

Linda wedged the gas pedal. The engine was screaming as she slammed the lever down in drive and bailed. The car was burning rubber as it leapt forward headed straight for the warehouse. It crashed through the doors into the warehouse.

Linda flipped the switch and pushed the button on the remote at the same time. There was an explosion where the warehouse shook and then a secondary huge explosion where tin and sheet iron was flying everywhere as a huge fireball rolled up into the night sky. The buildings around the warehouse either collapsed or were blown off their foundations. Every window within a ten block radius was shattered.

I put my arms up above my head as I flattened out on the ground. I could feel the heat and blast as it blew past me carrying sheet iron along. “Linda?” I was praying to God she wasn’t hurt.

“Let’s go.” Serena was on her feet loaded down with weapons. Linda’s rifle and her own automatic rifle along with pistols.

I scrambled to my feet and grabbed up my gear. We headed for the warehouse that was no longer there. To get to the dock and the boat we had to go past the warehouse.

Linda was slowly struggling to her feet as we walked up beside her. I was looking her over for cuts. ”You okay?”

She nodded as she took her rifle and pistol from Serena.

“Can you talk?” She didn’t look in that good of shape.

She shook her head and motioned toward the dock.

Even though the dock was four blocks away from the blast, every boat there was missing all their windows. That included our own escape boat. It couldn’t be helped. We couldn’t stick around. I was dropping the bowlines as Serena started it up. Minutes later we were headed out to sea.

I got Linda down in the cabin and laid her down on one of the beds after pulling off the top blanket and dumping the glass off of it. She wasn’t okay. Her eyes weren’t really focusing. I suspected a concussion. She had burns on all her exposed skin on the back of her neck, legs, and arms. She had been lying face down or it could have been a lot worse. I treated her the best I could with the first aid kit. I covered her up with a blanket before heading up to the cockpit.

“Linda is in pretty bad shape. She needs a doctor.”

Serena glanced in my direction and then focused back out into the black ocean ahead of us. “We can’t go back. The Federalies and Policeia will be pulling everyone in. Their graft money went up in flames. Anyone not connected to either camp is going to be suspect. If Raul was in the truck back at the house a full blown turf war will already be heating up. Instead of going back let’s kill ourselves now. Be less painful than having pieces of our body cut off a little bit at a time. They go overboard when they get their hands on a woman to butcher. They will slice your breasts off while you watch.”

She focused in on me. “Linda knew the risks. We all did. Keep going out and the percentages will catch up with you sooner or later. Do what you can. It is a four day run up the coast to get to the states and a safe house.”

“She won’t make it for four days bouncing around in a boat.” I looked at the radio and turned it on. There was chatter coming across every now and then from other boats talking about the fireball in the sky.

I flipped channels until I found the one I wanted. I hoped things hadn’t changed since I was in service. “This is Betty One twenty two fishing boat calling for a land line.”

About a minute later the call was answered. “What do you need Betty One. We are the Silver Slipper out of Anchorage down here for a little sun and fishing. We have a satellite phone. Can we help?”

“You sure can Silver Slipper. Would you call Ricky Ronald Chavenski in Paris, France? He is staying at the De Gaul. Tell him Jess still loves him but could use a little help. Contact me back on channel 112 out of Acapulco.”

“You got it Betty One. Anything we can do to help?”

“Thanks Silver Slipper, it would be most helpful if you would contact Ricky.”

“Moments later our radio came alive again. “Betty One this is Equinox, we are a scientific trawler. Do you wish to declare an emergency?”

Serena nodded yes. “That’s one of ours.”

“That is an affirmative Equinox. We have one soul on board who is very sick. I wish to declare an emergency.”
===========

The Gulfstream G550 landed in Paris for fuel and a change of pilots. Ricky was one of those pilots who climbed onboard as soon as we stopped by the hangers. He wrapped me up in his arms and gave me a long kiss. “I can’t begin to tell you how worried I have been. What’s the prognosis with Linda?”

He looked at the stretcher on top of the cabin seats. Linda had IVs in her arm. She was leaking fluids out of her burns as fast as the IV was putting them in. Sterile pads were covering most of her body. The man beside her shook his head no. Serena was holding Linda’s hand, same as she had done for the past ten hours.

It was no longer possible to contain them. The tears were coming like summer rain. “She’s dying. She has a concussion. They have her in a medical coma. Ricky you got to save her. You saved me. She saved both of us. Please Ricky…, save her.”

Ricky stared at her for long seconds and took a deep breath. “Jess, she hasn’t been mapped. If we move something we won’t really know if it is going back where it belongs. Besides I’m not sure what messing around in the brain area will do. We both know they have been killing people inside that machine. They haven’t told us as much. Are you sure Jess?”

I cried as I pulled Ricky in and laid my head on his shoulder. “Try, for her sake. She would do the same for us if the tables were turned.”

Thirty minutes after touchdown we were airborne again. The copilot came into the back and motioned toward me. “Ricky wants to talk to you.”

Ricky turned to stare at me after I settled into the copilot’s seat. “Love your hair.”

Reaching up with my right hand I fluffed it. I hadn’t changed it since dying it. “Think I’ll leave it black.”

He nodded. “It sure changes your looks. Tell me how it went.”

Looking at the stars I took a deep breath. “The touchdown went as expected. I checked into a hotel. Raul sent his men to take me in or kill me. Whatever. We didn’t give them a chance to explain. Serena’s men took five of them out before they walked into the room. Serena and Linda took care of the other two. We paid Raul a visit at his villa. I think we got him, but not sure.”

“It was when we went to take out his warehouse things went wrong. Linda drove the car down and bailed before it went into building. There was an explosion from what was in the car and then hell erupted. Ether, acetone, gasoline, lacquer thinner, drugs, were all packed inside that building. Our sources told us that much. What we didn’t expect was the amount of flammable chemicals Raul had there. I strongly suspect there was also gunpowder, dynamite, ammo, and other explosives. Maybe some C four the way that thing went up.”

“Even lying on the ground Linda was too close. She received burns over most of her backside, along with a concussion. After that our escape plans had to be changed. I knew she wouldn’t make it to the safe house. I called for help on the marine channel. There was a Russian research, spy ship close to a hundred miles from us. They heard the call. They sent a chopper to pick us up and take us back to the ship.”

“The Equinox was there to track a US aircraft carrier fleet. It seems the Equinox received word to keep a watch on us. They couldn’t intervene if the Federalies had stopped us, but anything that didn’t expose them was permissible. It helps to have a government covering your back even if they aren’t allowed to do it openly.”

“That was when Linda received the first of real medical attention. Serena asked them to arrange to fly us home. The Federalies were going insane back in Acapulco, so our friends devised a plan. Because they are a research ship they had biohazard gear onboard. Six of us suited up in bio suits, Linda was put in a containment vessel. Which wasn’t really because they didn’t have one. It worked, as the Federalies didn’t want to get close to us as the word was, whatever our patient had was highly contagious. One of the crew rigged up a sprayer filled with water, green food dye, and Lysol. He walked along spraying everything after the chopper delivered us to the airport.”

“From the ship’s computer, Serena had logged into the airport registry and did a search of the aircraft listed at the airport. She found several, along with this one, with long enough legs to fly from Mexico to France. Two of the guys on the ship said they had flown similar aircraft so they joined our team. We walked over to the hanger where the plane was parked The police and Federalies couldn’t put enough distance between us as we carried Linda from the chopper to the hanger.”

“It helps to have the right friends. We topped the tanks off in Cuba before making that leg across the pond. The guys figured it would be slicing it pretty thin to try and make it all in one jump from Mexico to France.”

I had to smile as I got ready to tell Ricky the rest of it. “This plane? It belonged to Raul, our drug lord. No one at the airport questioned us when we rolled it out and took off. I guess they were still thinking about their cash cow going up in smoke. Mass hysteria works to one’s advantage, provided you aren’t part of the hysterical crowd. They might start putting the pieces together in a week. If questions start coming up about where his plane went, no one will know. The Equinox will claim none of their crew knew. They only gave us a lift from our boat to the airport.”

Ricky nodded. “Okay, get Serena up here on the radio. I need the lab scrubbed of all the extra equipment they put in there. The way they are using the machine it is killing people. The lab was designed for one person to operate the different fields as one person was held in stasis inside the capsule. They allow two or more people in there monitoring the controls and the harmonics which, along with the gauss fields, are disrupted. Each individual is a walking electrical field. One extra person or piece of equipment disrupts the whole system.”

“They keep trying to use it for something it was never designed for. I was afraid this would happen when I built the damn thing.”

We landed in Tuapse three hours later. Thirty minutes after touch down Ricky was standing at the controls of his machine. The glass cylinder was slowly dropping over Linda’s limp body. It was after it had closed and raised back up Ricky turned toward Serena and me. “I need you to leave now. There is nothing you can do in here. Your bodies disrupt the fields.”

Wiping the tears I gave Ricky a kiss. “You can do this Ricky. Linda has the best cure in the world taking care of her now. Someone told me as much so many years ago.”

Ricky wrapped his arms around me as he kissed me. “This is the reason I built this machine. Let’s pray it works. Give me time to see what I can do. Anyone tries to come through that door before I come out, you shoot them.”

Slipping out of his arms I backed up and headed for the door. “Come on Serena. She’s in good hands now. Ricky will fix her.”

Serena looked at Ricky. She tried to say something and it choked in her throat. Her lips were trembling as she gave Ricky a wink, turned and walked out.

I couldn’t help thinking we might be cold blooded killers in our profession. In a way it made us love and hang onto those we love even more passionately than normal people. We knew the value of life, even if we didn’t hesitate to take it when circumstances called for retribution. I guess we were in the same class as drug dealers who indiscriminately killed.

I pushed the thought aside. That kind of philosophical thinking would drive one to the bottle or looking down the wrong end of their own gun. I’ll just hang onto the idea we are the good guys and let it go at that.

I closed the door to the lab behind me. “No one goes into that lab until Ricky and Linda come out.”

Serena nodded. “Ten four, message received, understood”
============

“You pick up the latest coming up from Acapulco? Damn big bloody mess. Bodies scattered all over town. It wasn’t the civilians that got in the meat grinder this time. Seems as if Raul made the wrong people mad. He and several of his men made that one way trip to the morgue.” Henry was standing in front of James' desk. He laid a stack of bulletins in front of James.

James nodded as he picked up the papers and started scanning through them. They were pictures of bodies in different locations. Several were pictures of a vacant lot and damaged buildings around it. He let out a whistle. “That was one big blast.”

Henry frowned as he looked at the picture James was holding. “Knocked out all the windows for ten or twenty blocks around. They said the fireball could be seen fifty miles out at sea. Intel said it was one of Raul’s distribution warehouses. Estimates are a half billion dollars of merchandise went up in smoke. Those kind of loses would put most poor nations out of business. Hopefully it will do the same for the drug money cartel Raul and his brother had built.”

James flipped to the next picture. Charred ruins in the middle of rock walls. “I take it this was his house?”

“Was is the definitive word.”

The next picture was a Humvee buried under a pile of rock. “And this?”

“That is our drug lord Raul. When they finally dug him out from under the rock he was dead. Shot in the head through bullet resistant glass.” Henry waited for James to look at the next picture.

James turned the Humvee picture aside and stopped as he stared at the picture that was under it.

Henry reached down and put his finger on the picture. “Tell me that isn’t HER.”

James stared at the picture of a red headed prostitute taken from security cameras at the airport. “How many know?”

“So far? You and now me. I had my suspicions until you confirmed them. What do you think made her go after Raul after five years? Was it because he put her on his death list? I mean five years after the fact? That’s cold even by professional standards. Why now after all this time?”

Taking a deep breath, James looked to see if there were more pictures of her? Shuffling through dozens of other people pictures taken at the airport revealed nothing else. He was holding the only one sent. “Maybe she got tired of looking over her shoulder? Maybe Raul got sloppy in his life and let cracks appear in his guard? I really haven’t a clue. Any guess is just that, a guess.”

A smile crept across James face as he thought of it. “I bet that other drug lord, what’s his face, out of Columbia has his ass puckering up about now. He put a hit on her too. If he was smart he would bail and disappear. They aren’t smart though or they would never get into the drug business.”

Henry got a serious look on his face. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s a killer. I suggest you keep that uppermost in your mind.”

James held the picture up and turned it toward his captain. “She hasn’t killed anyone here in the states that wasn’t trying to kill her first. Those two FBI idiots? They don’t count. She gave them a spanking and bruised their egos. Those she killed in Mexico, and that includes this last batch, if she was in on it…? Out of our jurisdiction. If the Federalies put out a bulletin on her then you can start preaching to me about who is righteous and doesn’t have dirty laundry in their closet.”

“She’s only doing what we wish we could. Someone is sending drugs to our country and spreading murder and torture. We know who is doing it, but we can’t touch them because we might offend our neighbors.”

James stood up and tossed the papers down on the desk. “Hell if it was up to me I’d make her a Ranger. She would fit right in except she’s too damn good at what she does. While we wish we could, she goes out and cleans the shit hole. You know, as well as I, when the Rangers first formed half of them that signed on were cattle rustlers and horse thieves. Who better to catch horse thieves and cattle rustlers than the ones who were doing it first?”

Henry shook his head. “You get to have an opinion, I don’t. Off the record I agree with you. Officially, if she gets in our sights she is to be arrested and held for questioning. That warrant the FBI has out on her is to be honored no matter what we think. Do we understand each other?”

James nodded as he looked at her picture. “Perfectly. I want you to understand me. I will not arrest her under any circumstances. I know without a doubt she would never kill me no matter what, even if it meant she was going to die. That gal is Texas through and through. She is everything Texas has always stood for. I don’t know where she came from. I'd bet my life it was one of our own government agencies.”

Slowly a smile crept across Henry’s face. He turned and was walking away. “I’d fire you for insubordination except if she comes in our door, I want you between me and her.”

After his captain left, James was thumbing through the photographs from the hotel security cameras where the seven bodies of Raul’s men were found along with a desk clerk. He stopped when he came to the picture of Jessica checking in. He laughed as he studied the picture of a prostitute. Her checking into a motel and eight dead bodies wasn’t a coincidence. “Darn woman, eight more reasons I never want to piss you off.”

He almost missed the picture of the old black haired woman leaving the hotel. James studied it for several minutes. “That’s her. I’d bet a month’s salary that’s her.”

============

It was twenty nine hours and sixteen minutes later when Ricky opened the lab door. He looked used up. He nodded back over his shoulder. “She needs fluids and electrolytes put back in her body.”

“RICKY!” I grabbed him as he sagged in my arms.

Serena was headed into the lab. She pointed toward two medical assistants who had been on standby. “Come with me. Bring a stretcher.”

“Serena, careful how you handle her. I moved a lot of tissue around to replace the damaged tissue. Her skin is like a cheese cloth right now until it fills in the holes. It will tear real easy. Be gentle with her.” Ricky managed before he looked up at me, closed his eyes and…, We went to the floor with him in my arms.

“Oh Ricky..., MEDIC! I NEED A MEDIC AND A STRETCHER NOW!” I screamed back down the hall.
==========
Ricky opened his eyes. Across the room was a Mexican lady in a nurse’s uniform. “Uh…, Miss, where am I?”

“She doesn’t understand English.” Came from a Mexican doctor as he walked into the room.

“What thu hell…?” Ricky was staring at the doctor.

“Your friend brought you in, said you got sick on the boat. You were dehydrated and needed rest. Funny, but she didn’t look sick at all. If you’re feeling better you can leave any time you like.” He pointed at an old sombrero , poncho, and ragged pants.

Ricky got to laughing. “Oh shit, you scared the hell out of me there for a minute. I thought the Mexicans had captured us while I was out of it. JESS, YOU MINX! GET YOUR PRETTY LITTLE BUTT IN HERE!”

That got me to giggling so I gave up hiding in the hallway. I bounced into the room. “Had you there for a minute didn’t I? Admit it I had you.”

Leaning down I gave him a kiss. “How you feel?”

“Used up. How long was I out?” He was looking at the IV in his arm.

“A couple days. Linda is down the hall. I checked with Serena. She hasn’t come out of it yet. All the vitals are good. You did it Ricky. You and your machine did everything you wanted it to. You have to convince them to use it the right way, for healing people instead of trying to make a super race with it.”

He reached out for my hand and then squeezed it. “They won’t listen Jess. I told them as much when we were building the damn thing. They showed Linda and me the door when neither of us would experiment on people with it.”

He sighed as he looked at the IV. “Unplug me and get me out of this place. And I ain’t wearing no poncho when I leave either. Where’s my clothes?”

The grin was impossible to contain as I walked into the hall and brought it back. I held it up. “For you sweetheart.”

Ricky’s eyes closed to slits as he glared at me. “You better be insinuating you are going to be wearing it for me.”

“Oh no darling. I think turn about is fair play. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. You slip into this little number while I make sure we still have reservations at the club.” I dropped the dress across his bed. It was a copy of the dress Ricky had for me that eventful night. A purple glitter dress.

Ricky grabbed me when I laid the dress on his bed. He pulled me in and laid a big one on my lips. “You’re a vixen. You slip into that dress while I find some clothes. We’ll go out to The Garage and melt the place down.”

Shaking my head I laughed at him as I straightened up. “You are too weak to be nightclubbing. Next week when you have rested.”

He reached down and pulled the IV out of his arm. “Jess, please…, now. I worried myself sick when you headed off to Mexico. It made me realize how fragile life really is. If we are still around in five years let’s look back and remember tonight when we went out. I want to hold the woman of my dreams in my arms, knowing all the men are wishing they were me. If we don’t have one more night, we had this one.”

That brought the tears. Ricky was right. I was positive I was living on borrowed time. One doesn’t kill a drug lord and expect to live. Someone always wants to even the score. “Of course. I don’t have the jewelry. I’ll see if Serena has some or knows someone who has.”

My hair was black. I never found time to change it back after returning from Mexico. The long dangle earrings, necklace, and bracelet were rhinestone not diamond. I didn’t find a tiara. The five inch heels were white as I couldn’t find a pair to match the dress. There were no beauty parlor makeup tricks but I managed to do it right myself. I had five years of training to get it right and I did. There was no boob glue, so latex was the substitute for holding that dress in place on my breasts.

Walking out of the bathroom I stopped in the doorway, raised my right arm way up and put my hand on the doorframe, shifted my hips to the left, and dropped my left hand down on top my hip. “You like?”

Ricky stopped and stared for a half minute or more. “I love you Jess. More than words will ever be able to say. Not because…,”

“You designed me?” I finished, knowing what he was trying to say.

He nodded. “That too. I don’t know how you do it, but this is what you always were. Even as Tom you were a beautiful person, although I never thought of you in that sense. You can take any situation and not only accept it, but make it better as you make it yours. I don’t know how you do it. There is only one like you. As Tom you were my best friend. You never changed. You’re still my best friend.”

Walking over to him I put my arms around his head. I pulled him in for a kiss before I gave him some space. “As kids we always ordered two burgers and split the fries. Let’s go split whatever they are serving at that place.”

Ricky laughed as he pulled a franc from his pocket. “I thought we were going Dutch. I’m broke. You have any money?”

Looking him in the eyes I pointed down in front of myself. “Just where do you think I would be carrying it in this dress? Don’t bother trying to get any change out of the piggy bank either because it’s empty. If you’re so cheap I’m positive I can get some gentleman to buy me a burger.” I gave a little wiggle as I pushed down with my hands over my hips.

Ricky reached inside his coat and pulled out his billfold. “Wait, I came into unexpected funds. As long as it’s only a burger I think I might have enough.”

Picking up my clutch I reached out and took his hand. “Well then Mr. Money Bags, let’s go see if you have enough funds. If you don’t we will flip a coin to see who has to wash dishes to pay for the meal.”

Ricky reached around my waist, pulled me in and let his hand slid down to the top of my hip as he walked me to the car.
==========

Ernesto Escobedo was thumbing through photographs of dead bodies. “Why is that fucking bitch not dead? She walks in, kills Raul, and walks out. What the hell were his men doing? Screwing off some where?”

He pointed to the floor in front of him. “Five hundred thousand. I want that whore standing here, begging for her life. I’ll pay any man who brings her to me five hundred thousand. Before I’m though she will be begging me to kill her. BRING ME THAT BITCH!”

“Si Capitan.” The man bowed as he backed out the door.

Ernesto threw the photographs across the room. “Damn bitch wants to be a whore, I’ll make her a fucking whore.”

He picked up a shotgun. “I’ll jam this up her ass and make her beg for more.” Turning, he aimed and shot one of the photographs lying on the floor.

Seven men came running into the room, automatics at the ready. Ernesto nodded. “Good. Make sure that bitch is dragged in here without any weapons.”
===========

Lorrie was coming into the Ranger station as James was leaving. She held up some papers. “Thought you might be interested. They are turning up the heat on your girl.”

James took the papers. There was a fax from Sheriff Bradford in Gray county asking for help with cattle rustlers. “Business is picking back up with the price of beef going up.”

He flipped to the next sheet. A half million dollar bounty had been put out by the drug cartel for the capture of a woman known as Jessica Rabbit. One hundred thousand paid if she was killed.

“For that kind of money I’d bring her in myself.” He looked up at Lorrie. “They have any idea where she is?”

Shaking her head, Lorrie looked at the bulletin. “Who knows? James, it isn’t looking good for her. The FBI want her. The drug cartel want her. I heard by the gossip mill the CIA wants her for information she might have about the drug cartels. With that much pressure she isn’t going to last.”

James handed the papers back to Lorrie. “Yeah” He headed for his pickup. “Damn Red why couldn’t you be a Ranger like Lorrie. I’d guard your back.”
============

It wasn’t because we were waiting for Linda to heal up we stayed in Tuapse. Our friends wanted…, served notice, Ricky was to stay and run his equipment. Ricky had done something they only guessed at when they were running it. He rebuilt someone who was given a twenty percent chance of survival.

“No you can not be in the room with me while we use someone as a test case.” Ricky was explaining to them for the umpteenth time as a five women and six men crowded around the controls.

“Your bodies disrupt the fields. This isn’t rocket science. It is much more delicate than that. Here you make a mistake with someone in the chamber and they die. No cameras, no electrical equipment, not even battery operated ones. That is what human bodies are. You generate energy and mass by chemical reactions from the food you eat. That in tern changes into electrical fields every time you move a muscle, think, or even at rest.”

“We either discuss this with everything shut down or we talk about it in a class room. What we don’t do is put someone in the chamber and watch them die as pieces are helter skelter removed and replaced because the fields are disrupted.”

Ricky looked at each person as he put his left hand on the control panel. “This is NOT a miracle machine. It CAN NOT make something from nothing. It DOES move living cellular tissue around. It can remove tissue but it CAN NOT make new tissue. You CAN NOT make he men or wonder women in this machine. There is NO addition factor in this equipment, only subtraction. You want he men? Send them to a training camp because this equipment will never make one.”

He sighed as he turned his attention to the chamber. “Let me tell you what this machine can do, now that I have explained what it can’t do. It can remove lesions, moles, scars, birthmarks, skin cancer, even deep tissue cancer. It can remove bone cancer, diseases of all kinds, and reshape physical features to a limited extent. It is a go slow process. You must map each individual before doing anything to make sure you aren’t moving bone cells into tissue cells or the reverse. Stay away from the brain unless you are removing tumors or cancer. Every part of the brain is there for a purpose and it isn’t for us to be playing with. You want to play with the brain, go get your medical degree in brain surgery, but not here.”

Ricky turned his attention back to the men and women. “I believe everyone here has heard what my wife does for a living. You kill any more people inside that chamber and I’m going to start handing out names.”

Linda awoke after the forth day. Serena had returned to work after Linda came out of her coma. I took over for Serena in the hospital after she had left. Linda was looking at her arms. “I can see through my skin.”

“Yeah, Ricky took good tissue and moved it where you had been burnt. If you look in the mirror you will look like one of those see through models doctors use.”

She didn’t look amused. “That’s going to take some getting use to.”

“Boy do I know. Enjoy it now because your tissue will rebuild. You will be a new woman by this time four months from now. Ricky said you are going to have the smoothest, prettiest skin of any woman. Just don’t get close to anything rough or sharp in the meantime. Your skin is tissue thin right now and very delicate.”

Linda reached up and felt the back of her head where all her hair was gone. “Is this permanent or will it come back?”

I reached over and took her hand. “The fire from the blast singed all your hair off. Ricky said he can put it back if you will step back into the chamber. He really was exhausted after taking care of the worst problems you had. If you want to wait it will grow back naturally without any help.”

She turned her head and looked up at me. “Speaking of the blast. Did we do any good?”

I nodded. “That was him in the truck. Your sister’s sources said we took out a couple billion inventory counting everything. From the millions he had stashed in his house, the warehouse, his airplane, we ended one drug dealer’s cartel.”

Linda’s eyes got just a tad bigger. “She tell you?”

Shaking my head, I smiled. “No. The way she cared for you, the similar mannerisms you both have, becomes apparent after being around both of you as long as I have.”

She got more than serious. “Have you told anyone?”

“No. In the business you two are in that would be a death sentence. Leverage for those who would use that to draw the other into a trap.” I studied her eyes. “I’m guessing those you work for don’t know?”

“We were five and four when we were separated. Both parents were murdered. Years later we were recruited by the same agency since we were both orphans. We got to comparing notes on the jobs where we worked together and figured it out.”

Now was my turn to get serious. “Dimitri died because of me. I’ve become toxic poison to everyone who gets close. You can’t be near me from now on. I tried to explain this to Ricky and he isn’t having any of it. He said if I left him for that reason he would turn on his machine and step into it ending it all. I know him and he really would.”

“I think of you as the sister I never had. We must go our separate ways. Those that want me dead don’t care how many die in the process.”

Linda reached out, took my hand and squeezed it. “Hon, we are in the same business, you and I. You can’t push me away because you think I might get hurt. Five years ago I saw a woman who could take everything life throws at her and never flinch. I still haven’t figured out where she came from. My best guess is she was forged in the fires of hell and purified in God’s kingdom.”

“There is safety in numbers. Our business calls…, demands we don’t run away but meet them on our terms when possible. That bastard Raul received our message. We will keep on sending the same message as long as we are standing. My government wants you to come and work for the Ministry of Defense. I told them about you. I honestly think you have become the pinup poster in everyone’s locker in the arms storage building. “

That made me laugh. “I’m not Russian.”

Linda laughed with me. “Maybe not, but you’re still a woman. You think guys care what nationality you are? Did you forget what they use for thinking with when they are looking at a woman?”

Laughter rang down the hall as Linda and I gave it some thought.

Ricky and I spent months around Tuapse as he tried to teach the staff what to do and not do with the machine. His frustrations were plain enough as it was evident they wanted more out his equipment than it was capable of.

It was a little over six months after we had returned with Linda. He came into the house the government provided us and flopped down in the recliner. “I give up. They killed someone again last night. They don’t understand the machine can’t rearrange a whole body.”

Walking over, I sit down in his lap and put my arms around his neck. I gave him a kiss. “What do you mean it can’t rearrange a whole body? Are you telling me I’m not here?”

“Jess…,” He looked me in the eyes with as much seriousness as I had ever seen. “I…, we were working with an unknown. I think I figured out why you weren’t killed inside that thing. For months we moved your cells around as the cancer was stripped out. There was a time factor in between each event before you went back in. Think in terms of fluffing up... what? Uh... flour I guess. Or maybe you can relate to digging up the ground with some of that big equipment you used to operate. It takes awhile to settle back down and get firm again. I believe that was what happened. Because nothing was actually locked back down at the time, everything was allowed to shift without disruption of the cell walls.”

He put his arms around me and gave me a life squeezing hug. “Oh Jess, I’m so sorry. It seemed like a fun idea at the time. To think how close I came to killing you like they are doing now scares the snot out of me. We fools want to play God and someone ends up paying a price.”

“And if nothing had happened to the lab and you tried to change things back?” I was wondering if Ricky was thinking the same thing I was.

“Probably would have killed you. I strongly suspect molecular bonding would have been disrupted one too many times. Jess, please forgive me.” He lowered his head.

I put my hand under his chin and raised his head so he would have to look at me. “I did that five years ago.”

“Let’s go look at the home place. I think I’m homesick. When can we blow this place and make like a couple tourists in the states?” I slid off his lap to fix his dinner.

He stopped and grabbed me around the waist, pulling my back into his chest. Leaning down he nosed through my hair and nibbled along my neck, getting a mouthful of hair for his efforts. “Give me a week to notify Serena we want clean passports. What country do you want to claim on yours this time?”
===========
Miss Lucy Snider flew into Tacoma, Washington with her marketing manager Bryan Cross, of Cross Industries, to check lumber prices and deliveries with West Fraser. One of the top lumber mills in Canada. The purpose of Mr. Bryan Cross' visit was to get a firm delivery date for five million board feet for his client, China Limited. From there they flew to Oklahoma City.

He leased a Cessna 172 at the airport for the purpose of looking over Oklahoma for the prospect of setting up a manufacturing plant.

=========

James was scanning the horizon looking for any sign of rustlers. “This country is so up and down they could hide a couple thousand head a mile away and we would never find them.”

Matt took off his hat and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Did that sheriff have any ideas? I mean he lives up here and we are guessing where those rustlers might be holding them.”

James wiped the sweat out of his eyes. “If he knew he wouldn’t have asked for help from the Rangers. Let’s go.”

They climbed back into James' pickup. “There is a place over in Oklahoma I want to look at. We can come back and try again after we find some place to eat a bite.”

“Oklahoma? You thinking of buying some land or what?” Matt turned the AC vents to blow on his face.

“Just want to look at a place. It isn’t for sale that I know of. Belongs to someone, a Ricky Clawson.”

“Ricky Clawson? Never heard of him. What does he do?” Matt was finally starting to cool down with the AC blowing in his face.

“He builds interesting things.” According to the feds. James silently thought to himself.
==========
Ricky landed the plane in the pasture a couple hundred feet from where he grew up, in his parents house.

“Do you think you could find one more gopher hole to bounce over?” I was still holding on for dear life after he had stopped.

“Everyone is a critic. You think you can do any better, you fly this thing.” He was already sliding out of the plane after shutting everything down.

“Tell Walter to drag a harrow across the pasture before next time and knock down the gopher mounds.” I climbed out and was walking with him toward the house.

It was older I remembered. “Looks smaller than I remembered. Think they will let us sleep in the barn like we used to?”

Ricky shook his head and laughed. “You forget how big those rats were? I’ll sleep in the plane if we are spending the night.”

“Hey that plane isn’t safe either. If memory serves me right they were big enough to carry that plane back to their den and serve you up on a wing for supper.” I was standing on the porch. The front door had a hasp and lock on it. It looked like it had been broken into several times.

Ricky looked at the lock. “I didn’t tell Walter we were coming. Best word wasn’t spread around. I doubt the government has taken us off their come and sit awhile invitation. I could kick it in. Looks like that is the normal way to get in.”

“Don’t bother. I doubt anything is left inside. Once the two legged rats start carrying things off they don’t quit until there is nothing left to carry. Think anything is in the barn?” I looked out across the field to the barn.

“Besides Walter storing his hay there? I doubt it. Let’s go look.” He took my hand as we headed toward the barn.

“I hear a motor.” I hesitated.

“Probably one of the neighbors saw the plane land and coming to check if it was engine trouble or something.” He stopped and looked down the driveway.

“Ricky it's a sheriff or law. I see lights behind the grill.” I slipped my hand inside my purse and wrapped my fingers around the .357, wishing it was the fifty.

“Easy Jess, remember who you are. If they ask questions we are only looking over the place, as it came up in a realtors listing. Relax. There is nothing here to steal and we certainly aren’t going to be hauling off hay in an airplane.” He put his arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze.

“Oh shit!” My heart went up in my throat as the driver got out of the pickup.

He smiled from ear to ear as he looked at me. “Hello Red.”

“James.” I nodded in agreement.

“Ricky, how you been? We haven’t been introduced but I would recognize you anywhere. What you two doing in this neck of the woods? You plan on fixing up the old place?” He looked over at the house.

“Ranger.” Ricky acknowledged.

Matt had climbed out and was standing there looking lost as he studied the two people James was talking to.

“Red, you still carrying one bigger than mine?” His smile got even bigger if that was possible.

“Not this time. Customs and all, you know how it is.” I waited to see what he was going to do. There was no way I was going to shoot a Ranger, I eased my hand out of my purse, knowing I was going to prison.

The other Ranger got a serious look on his face as he stared at me. “Red? Is that the woman? That’s her! Shit that’s her!”

His hand was going for his gun.

James looked over at him and shook his head. “If she didn’t like you we would already be dead. Keep your hand off that gun. If you pull it and she doesn’t shoot you, I will.”

I couldn’t believe it. I waited to see how this was going to work out.

James curled up the corner of his mouth as his eyes danced in amusement. “Expecting trouble?”

That pulled me back five years to a trade show. Was he wanting to reminisce that first time? “In play.”

“Hope those troubles don’t come along then.” He turned toward Matt. “Let’s go see if we can find those cattle rustlers.”

James reached up and tipped his hat. “Ma’am, Mr. Clawson, been a pleasure.”

He started to turn around and then hesitated. “Jessica, keep your powder dry. Ernesto Escobedo is a drug lord in Columbia. Those four men you killed in Dallas were his men. He put a half million dollar bounty on your head if they bring you in alive to him. A hundred thousand for proof of your death. I wish you would give some serious consideration to joining the Rangers. I know forty Rangers who wouldn’t hesitate to take you on as a partner.”

James turned and headed for his pickup.

Matt was standing there pointing at me and looking at James. “But, but, but…,”

“Matt, get your butt in this pickup or count on a really long walk home.” James slid up into the seat.

“Ranger?” Ricky was looking at James.

“Un huh?” James waited before he started his pickup.

“Thanks. Those rustlers you are looking for? About five miles north is a canyon. There are four semis, several pickups with stock trailers, temporary chutes and around two hundred head of mixed breed cows. Saw them when we flew in. I don’t think they all came from the same ranch. I didn’t count them but I would guess there are about ten or fifteen men.”

James nodded. “I’ll check it out. Matt let’s go.”

“James, how much back up do you have?” I had a hard time understanding him heading into a group of rustlers with only two of them.

“We are it. If the semis are there they are loading them up to ship them out. They will be gone in an hour or less.”

I gave Ricky a quick kiss. “I’m going too.”

“Jess?”

James needs all the help he can get. Two of them against ten or fifteen men is terrible odds. I’m going to even up those odds just a little.”

I waved at the pickup. “James wait.”

I opened the passenger door. “Move it over Ranger.”

He didn’t quite know what to do. “You can’t come. You aren’t…,”

James looked at Matt and laughed. “You’ll never know. Jessica hold up your right hand.”

I held up my right hand.

“I don’t remember all them words, but do you swear to uphold the law?”

“I do.”

He handed me his badge. “By the authority granted to me by the constitution of Texas I swear you are a Ranger. Get in.”

“But, but, but…,” Matt was sputtering as he slid over.

James shook his head as he started up the pickup. “He’s a little green yet. Hasn’t had to shoot or kill anyone either. Thanks for the support Jessica. I really was scared knowing Matt could freeze up when it counted.”

“A Ranger scared? Yeah, and there is no snow in Alaska. What is the plan? You have an extra gun? My .357 has a three inch barrel. Not that great in accuracy at anything over fifty feet.

James reached under the seat and pulled out a carbine. “This do?”

Looking it over after Matt hesitantly passed it to me I nodded. “Two Two Three”

He reached under the seat and came up with a clip. “Forty rounds.”

“Ricky said there were possibly fifteen of them.” I took the clip and slipped it home.

James took a quick glance in my direction. “You want Matt to remove twenty five bullets?”

“Well it is a lot of extra weight to be lugging around if there are only fifteen of them.”

Matt’s mouth was moving as he was silently adding and subtracting. He stopped and looked from me to James and back to me and back to James. “You’re putting me on. Fifteen men, fifteen bullets? Yeah right.”

James was laughing. “She killed four men with four bullets in a moving car at a deflection angle.”

Matt’s head snapped around to stare at me. “He’s joking isn’t he?”

I shook my head. “It was only one in the car. The others when they bailed.”

He looked down at the carbine and his eyes got bigger.

“Why don’t you tell Matt about that last bunch in Mexico a few months back?”

I glanced at James. “You heard?”

“Jessica you left dead bodies all over town. That kind of news gets spread round. Why you think Ernesto is pissing in his pants now? Half a million dollars for a hit is a lot of scared.”

The kid slid over and gave me a little more room. I guess he decided he was riding with the Grim Reaper. I didn’t know whether James was relating these stories to scare the kid or to give him courage he had backup?

When James drove over the rim and followed the road down into the canyon, everyone down there went to high alert. James drove up like he was on a Sunday drive and stopped a hundred feet from the cattle pens.

I gave James credit as I slid out of the pickup. They were loading livestock into the trucks.

I gave a nod towards Matt as he slid out. “Stay behind the door. It will stop most bullets unless they pull out rifles. Then I suggest you get behind the pickup.”

James slid out of the pickup. “Howdy. See you’re loading up. You moving them to another pasture?”

One of the men nodded. “Moving them up north. Had a rain up on the other place and better grass.”

James was looking at the cattle still in the pens. “Got papers? Who you working for?”

I was looking at the guy in the cab of the back truck. “If he reaches into that sleeper and comes back with a gun in his hand, he’s dead.”

“Now there’s no need for that. We got papers. I’ll get them.” The talker for the group was headed for one of the pickups.

“Mister, I’m going to give you the same warning I gave the other guy. You reach into that truck and come up with anything besides papers in your hand you won’t live to regret it.” The guy was looking and acting like he was ready to fight it out.

James gave a chuckle. “I’d listen if I were you. She killed four men a couple months back.”

I would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so tense at the moment. Months? Okay, was James talking about Dallas or Mexico?

The guy in the truck decided to go for it. He ducked down and came back up with a glock in his hand. Blood splattered all over the cab of the truck as the carbine woke up the cattle. The other guy dove for his pickup. He was behind the door when he came up with an AR. I put two rounds through the door. The guy fell over backwards like he had been hit by a truck.

I shook my head. He was stupid. No pickup door was going to stop a two twenty three bullet unless one of the bullets hit the window roller mechanisms inside.

James focused on the others who looked like they were ready to run.

“Matt, it is time to pull your gun.” Out of the corner of my eye I could see it was still in his holster.

He was shaking as he pulled his gun out.

“Matt, take a deep breath. The others are scared to death of dying like their two friends just did. They gave up the fight. Don’t shoot anyone. It’s over. All you need to do is hold them here and call for help. Now get on the radio and call it in.”

James glanced over at me. “Glad I brought yuh. Okay, everyone line up over here against the bank. Anyone has any funny ideas, think about your friends who had that same stupid thought.”

It was more than forty minutes before the first sheriff car pulled in. Then slowly it turned into a flood of sheriffs, deputies, and highway patrol cars, pickups, vans. I dropped the clip, emptied the chamber, and put the carbine back under the seat after the first car showed up.

James walked up to the pickup. “Stay put in the seat. You happened to come along. Clue me in before we get tangled up in our own web. What name are you using now?”

“Lucy Snider. Ricky is Bryan Cross.”

“Lucy Snider, Bryan Cross. Okay, I’ll have a talk with Matt. After what you did saving his bacon I doubt he will give you up.” James got serious. “Jessica…, thanks. We would have been the ones lying there if you hadn’t come along. My job isn’t as black and white as everyone wants to believe. If I had called it in before checking if these cattle were stolen and they weren’t, it would have been a big waste of everyone’s time.”

I handed James badge back to him. “Glad you let me come along for the ride Ranger.”

I called Ricky up on the cell phone. The connection was terrible. Whether it was because of the remote location or the canyon I had no idea. “Ricky can you hear me?”

“sssss clik ssssssss Jess sssss” Came back.

“Be a little late. Everything is fine.”

“I ssssssssss clik sssssss late.” Was all I could make out.

“YES I WILL BE LATE I LOVE YOU.” I had to giggle after I hung up. If a connection is bad why is it human nature to want to shout as if that would make it better?
============

James was called into Henry Millman’s office. Henry was waving a piece of paper in his hand. “What is this?

“What do you mean what is this? I deputized her. It’s all there in the report.”

Henry turned and glared at James. “Do you have any idea the problems this is going to cause? It isn’t bad enough you had her. But then you make her a Ranger? What the hell was going through your mind? Had you been drinking?”

Henry looked over at Matt. “And what were you doing while all this was going on?”

Matt hung his head in shame knowing his career was finished before it started. “Sorry sir.”

“SORRY! YOU’RE SORRY! No you aren’t, but you will be before the butterfat is out of the cream. Do you two idiots have any idea how much hell this is causing me? I got a call from the governor. He congratulated me on hiring the Princess as a Ranger. I bet his wife told him after she remembered the name from the society pages. He has no idea what kind of convoluted mess this is. He will when it all boils to the top and he finds out she’s on the FBI’s most wanted list.”

Henry threw the paper down on his desk and pulled his hair straight up. “Rangers are recruiting from the feds most wanted list. Yeah, that is going to look great for the Dallas Morning News headline. I’m getting hell from HQ out of Austin over this already. Can you imagine what it is going to be like around here when the papers pick it up?”

He turned and glared at James. “Of course you brought her in and she is in one of the holding cells waiting for the FBI to come and pick her up. So why isn’t that piece of paper on my desk. Or did you conveniently forget to do the paper work on that part?”

James opened his mouth. Henry pointed at him. “Don’t you dare say one damn word. You’re both suspended until I figure out what to do with you.”

Matt started to pull his gun out of the holster to lay on the desk.

Henry glared at him. “What the hell you think you’re doing? I said you were suspended. I didn’t say for you to turn in your badge or gun. You’re still a Ranger. You’re required to carry your weapon at all times whether in uniform or not. Or didn’t you understand that part of your instructions when you signed on?

Henry waved toward the door. “Both of you get the hell out of my office. Go write some parking tickets, or play like crossing guards, or catch some more cattle thieves.”

“By the way, word is you two stopped one of the biggest operations in a twelve state ring. Good work. Now get out of my sight.”

“I can’t begin to wrap my mind around the fact there were over forty lawmen around her and no one brought her in.” Came from the office as James and Matt closed the door behind them.

Matt caught James by the sleeve after they left the Captain’s office. “What is going to happen to us?”

James turned to look back into the office. “Does it matter? Was she worth it?”

Matt nodded. “Yes. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. It was worth it.”

James smiled as he focused on Matt. “She’s probably the best person you will ever meet in this screwed up world of good guys and bad ones. I don’t know who she works for. She was a Texas Ranger for a little while. The brass will kick and scream and throw a hissy fit. They will finger point the blame at everyone but themselves. All said and done, in the still of the night when they tip up that drink, they will know it was the right thing to do.”

He put his arm on Matt’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go write some traffic tickets.”

Matt looked confused. “But we are suspended.”

“That was so the captain can cover his ass if the heat comes down too hard. We really aren’t officially... yet... and probably won’t be. Come on Ranger. I know where some guys usually hang out dealing drugs near a school.”