Chapter 8: Back to the USA

The next morning I woke in a semi-groggy state. I rolled on to my side and winced. That brought back the unpleasant memory of Andi driving her elbow into my ribs. I would need to visit the medic the embassy had sometime before my flight. Otherwise, my trip home would be in agony.

I got up, passed on the shower and just brushed my teeth and did the other things I did normally to start my day. I gingerly dressed wincing at lifting my arm to put on my shirt. Sitting down and putting on my shoes was painful. Bending over to tie my shoes caused me to expel my breath from the pain. I had no one to blame but myself. I needed to learn to curb my tongue. Leaving my room, I stopped to ask the Marine guard the way to the infirmary. The guard was kind enough to direct me to the infirmary.

I went down two floors on the elevator and followed the direction I had been given. I was lucky the infirmary had just opened and I did not have to wait. I explained I had injured my side last night and I was having some pain issues. The nurse had me lift up my shirt to examine the injury. She just chuckled.

“Someone met with an elbow last night and from its location and size I would say it was done by an angry female,” she said.

“You are good,” I responded. “I teased the wrong female last night. And she popped me a good one.”

“I don’t think you busted any ribs but that bruise is a good learning experience for you to never do that again,” the nurse added.

“I am going to give you some ibuprofen for the pain. I will also apply an ice pack; it will be a few minutes.”

“Thank you for the ibuprofen,” I said.

The nurse went to get the ice pack and returned. I did not feel like breakfast so I skipped that and went to lay back down in bed until it was time to pick up my suit. Several times, there was a knock at my door and I ignored it.

Just before noon, I got up and went down to the tailor’s shop. I knocked and waited a few seconds and Simon met me at the door.

“Would you like to try on your suit, Dr. Mercer?” asked Simon.

“Not unless you think there is an issue with its sizing. I trust you to do your best,” I answered.

“Thank you doctor, your kind words are very much appreciated,” Simon said proudly. “I also am including a dress shirt and tie for you.”

“Simon, you are my tailor for life. I will never trust anyone but you in the future to make sure I look good.”

I must have embarrassed the man because he turned red and smiled.

“When you come back, Dr. Mercer, I will be honored to fill that role,” Simon said, humbled.

“Simon, I teach at the University of Chicago in the USA. If you ever decide to emigrate to the USA, look me up in Chicago. We could always use an excellent tailor like you there.”

Simon shook my hand and handed me the suit already in a bag and an additional one containing a blue Oxford shirt and a red paisley tie. The man did know how to make his clients look good.

I took my suit back up to my room and hung it up to not get it wrinkled. I placed the shirt and tie on top of my packed flight bag so I would not forget them. Then I went down for lunch on my own. I was in no mood to deal with Andi. I did not see them in the cafeteria, so I quickly ate a light lunch and made my way out to the small park behind the embassy building. I spent time sitting under one of the trees, just enjoying the sun and the isolation. It was not quiet because of the city around the embassy, but I enjoyed the solitude. I stayed there for two hours and decided it was time to head back in. When I came up the elevator and walked on to the floor, the marine guard on duty looked relieved.

“Sir, I am under orders from Miss Andi that I am to keep you on this floor even if I must shoot you,” the Marine guard said, which is his Mississippi draw. “You had a lot of people worried.”

I smiled and said, “I have been out in the park behind the embassy building, enjoying the outdoors.”

I went on into my room, shut the door, the door, and locked the door. I stopped to take another dose of ibuprofen and laid down for a while. We would have to get ready to leave soon.

I must have gone to sleep because I woke up to someone pounding on my door and hollering, “Damn Doc, wake up and open this door.” It was Randy.

I slowly got up, made my way to the door, and unlocked it. Randy pushed his way into my room and turned, looking at me with his frustration showing.

“Where have you been? We searched the embassy high and low, and no one knew where you went.” Randy said it angrily. “I have had to deal with a very upset Andi all day, and if you know what’s best for you, You will apologize to her. She has been a nervous wreck all day. This mission is winding down, as you disclosed last night. She was sure you were going to do something stupid. That was some heavy shit you lowered on us last night.”

“My mental state is fine. I am at peace with what I had to do, so you must not worry about that. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my day looking at these four walls until we had to leave, so I went down back to the park where we were last night. I vegetated under a tree for a couple of hours. I am surprised none of you decided to check out there,” I stated.

“Toadie did send out a search party there to look for you. Evidently, they didn’t do a very good job of looking.” Randy replied.

“Where’s Andi?” I asked. “It is getting close to the time we need to get ready to go catch our flight.”

“Plus, I want to grab a meal before we go. All they have on those flights is nuts and soda.”

“OK, I’ll go get Andi, and we will get ready. You know there still will be hell to pay for upsetting her,” Randy smiled when he answered.

I left my door open because I figured Hurricane Andi would blow through here at any time. I wanted to prevent any damage to the embassy from the storm.

I was right about the storm surge; it hit about ten minutes later. She wanted to know where I was all day. I did not join them for breakfast, and I was not there for lunch either. Then the rain started to fall, and she was crying, almost sobbing.

I explained that I was fine and that she did not need to be worried. I went to the clinic that morning to check on my ribs, as I was sore. Then I picked up my suit and had lunch. Afterwards, I spent some time at the park behind the embassy building, enjoying the sun and the solitude. She seemed to accept my explanation and told me to be ready for supper in ten minutes because she was not letting me out of her sight until we left the USSR.

Supper that night was quiet and uneventful. We dined with Walter, the Gunny, and a few others that I did not know or forgot who they were. We would be winging our way back to the USA in less than three hours. We had fun sharing a little about our careers and our families. I did tell about me skipping out on my own wedding. Everyone got a laugh out of that except Andi and a female Marine at the next table over. She shot daggers at me with her eyes. I made sure she was not behind me the rest of the time we were there in the embassy.

Gunny stopped me in the hall as we were heading for the elevators. He said for me to look him up, as he was doing special duty tonight and wanted to make sure everything was loaded onto the plane himself. There was a concern for security, he said, giving me a wink. I made sure that when we left, he had a nice envelope stuffed with some of the communist hood’s cash in his possession. We would have our toys when we got back to the USA.

Nine PM rolled around, we had gathered everything up, and we had an escort of six Marines in civilian clothing acting as security and extra hands. All our things were loaded into the van, and we left the embassy grounds.

Forty minutes later, we were at the airport, inside a hanger maintained by the US State Department. Gunny made sure everything was in the cargo hold and sealed it using a diplomatic seal. I went to shake Gunny’s hand, and at the same time, I gave him the envelope for his troubles. He smiled, came to attention, and gave me a salute. I returned it as best as I could.

The three of us went up the ramp into the jet for the diplomatic flight and found our seats. Andi made sure she was sitting beside me. I was sure I was going to get an earful all the way to Washington from her. Along with the three of us, there were several state department and diplomatic employees heading back to Washington. Like our flight over, the crew was male. On this return flight, we went from Moscow to Iceland, where the plane refueled and restocked. We had a one-hour layover for the plane to refuel. The three of us got out and walked the terminal over. There is nothing worse than leg cramps, and there is no place to exercise to relieve the cramp. We got to the jet with ten minutes to spare. The airport security would not let them pass back into the secure area until we showed them our diplomatic passports.

We found our way back to our seats and fastened our seat belts. A few minutes later, the jet was airborne and heading toward DC. Our arrival was still on time. I was looking forward to seeing Karen once again. I wondered, and I was actually worried about how Karen and Andi would get along. I was hoping Karen would not go all Berserker on me when I explained to her that Andi was short for Andrea and that she and I were very close during the mission. I was so dead.

The steward passing out drinks interrupted my silent suffering. Our choices were soft drinks, fruit juice, or coffee and tea. I remember reading somewhere that sleep and hydration were the best things to combat jet lag. After downing my juice, I laid my head back to relax. The next thing I knew, the change in jet engine noise made me aware that we were getting ready to land.

Andi welcomed me back to the land of the living. She said my snoring kept her and Randy awake, so they just talked about things across the aisle for most of this leg of the trip. Roughly eleven hours after we left Moscow, we were making the final approach to Andrews AFB. I wondered who would be meeting us once we landed.

The plane taxied up to the VIP terminal, and we waited impatiently for the hatch to open so we could exit the jet. We made sure we gathered all our things and made our way to Jet’s exit. We went down the passenger ramp and made our way into the terminal. Even though this was a diplomatic flight, we still had to pass through customs. The customs inspectors asked to see our diplomatic passports, and after a brief inspection, we sailed through customs with no problems. I went over to the baggage claim area and waited for our bags to be unloaded. It was not long before our bags appeared. I grabbed my suit bag and flight bag. I was getting anxious until I saw the sea bag the gunny had held for us. Some enlisted crew members went to retrieve the sea bag until I told him I would get it. I explained that it contained some specialized gear from a recent mission, and I did not trust it to be out of my sight. The crew member would have fainted if he had known that there were three machine pistols, three Makarov pistols with holsters, and a Walther PPK, not to mention the wad of American and foreign currency big enough to choke a horse inside the sea bag.