Sisterhood of Sin — 23 — Bush Bound

I come off the plane feeling refreshed but very disturbed by the dark fantasy that I just masturbated to. I embrace Margo as Mindy and Keri are herding their kids onto the other plane. Keri doesn’t recognize me at first but Mindy must be telling her who I am. I hear her say, “Oh, she’s pretty,” and I wonder at her sanity. She’s never seen me without my mask, but I haven’t had time to touch up my eye makeup since I took it off. “It’s good to see you, Cate.” “Just like old times, Margo.” The unfortunate reminder of our past rescue of Claire is heavy on my mind. “I should have watched Darlene better, or shot Mick.” “Maybe we shouldn’t have jerked his life out from under him. I mean the first time. I still feel guilty about that.” “I don’t think anything we could have done, other than leave Claire and her girls to suffer with him, would have prevented this. That wouldn’t happen on my watch. I’m afraid we haven’t see the last of him. He just can’t seem to let go. And now two more.” “I’m hoping we can negotiate a truce with these guys.” “Good luck. I hope we’re right about these women.” “What’s our final destination?” “We still haven’t decided yet. Denver just wasn’t working out and we still have to get some ducks lined up. Sorry about that.” She gives me another hug and we say our goodbyes. Mindy and Keri’s kids are adorable. The youngest is two and the oldest is six. Both are Keri’s girls, Kada and Kami. Mindy has one of each. Her five year old daughter Mina is almost as big as Kami. Her 3 year old son, Johan isn’t so adorable once we get in the air. Mindy gets the airsick bag to him just in time. When we get to Chicago, we deplane and a woman in a burqa is there to herd us onto yet another plane. I also see a woman who is obviously a bodyguard watching us. Mindy and Keri look wide-eyed at the steps we’re taking. I’m the last in line. The woman hands me a thick paper sack that’s stapled shut. “Hi, Cath.” “Kyra! Damn, girl, why all the mystery?” I giver her a big hug. “We’re still not sure on them. We don’t want to take unnecessary chances. We don’t want them to know about the black card sisters yet. By the way, don’t open this bag. A sister will take it from you.” “Where are we going?” “Where the pilot takes you. Try to rattle them. See what falls out.” When we get airborne, Mindy asks, “How will we ever pay this back?” “Mrs. Emerald’s picking up the tab.” “You’re charging her for all this?” “Charity is a trap that she wishes to avoid. This is her mess, her cleanup. At least that’s the way she sees it. It’s not that much to her. She’s got a head for investing. I ride her coattails there. But of course, all this charging and billing that we do is mainly just for record keeping and for recognition of potential for more responsibility. No good deed goes unpunished. The more helpful you are to our cause, the more opportunity to be even more helpful you will be offered. We are all sisters, we just recognize that we all need to be contributors and that contributors need to be rewarded.” “Oh. I think I understand. Mick’s her ex and she’s still a sister?” Astute observation. “She has a very special skill set.” kaçak iddaa “Like Keri. Something tells me you didn’t need Karl.” Another astute observation. “We prefer to keep couples together. There are exceptions when it’s clearly better for the children to be without a particular father.” “You needed me to get Wil.” “We needed you at your job as much as we needed Wil at his.” “And now you’ve lost both.” “We’ll salvage something, Mindy. Maybe we can help you find a substitute for Wil. If nothing else, you would make a beautiful pro.” “That’s… not how I want to make a living.” “Well, I noticed qualities that would have been useful if you had a husband, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what plays out.” She looks lost and I feel bad about not telling her more about the black card sisters, especially since she seems to think Keri is in a safer position with us, which may be true. Keri has a big mouth, and comes off as dim in conversations, but she is a whiz at her job. “So, where are we going?” “Debriefing, then the underground rail road. It’s better not to be more specific. It might seem a little like an interrogation. Don’t sweat it. Just tying up loose ends.” “He sounded so forlorn, and his first thought was for his parents. I hope the kids will still be able to visit them. And I want them to see my parents, too. I can’t help but think I could have handled Wil better. I neglected him. I never thought he would do something like this. Did he even have a gun?” “No, I’m beginning to think he was a patsy for Karl. His talk seemed like all bravado. He’ll be interrogated in Alaska, and he’ll get his chance to plead his case.” “Separately from Karl I hope. I mean, I think you’ll get more from him if you separate them. He follows the leader. That was me until…” …until Darlene. I’ve finally put that together with the info we gathered from the men’s session with me. He obeys the alpha bitch, which Mindy stopped being. Darlene, the black card sister who was both monitor and handler for Mick, seduced Wil and helped Karl recruit him into an organization that Karl joined because of his Lutheran-inspired self-loathing. A group that, like Mick, thinks women need to be dominated. That irony put them on a collision course with me, because I failed to make a safer deal with Mick. I decide that I can get no more from Mindy without it becoming obvious that I’m trying. Keri’s sleeping on the floor with a daughter snuggled on each side of her. I don’t want to risk waking them to pry into her thoughts.I email Margo to suggest that Wil’s ‘parole officer’ be a ball buster and to split Karl and Wil up. I suggest a smarter and more sensitive handler for Karl, to help him with his self-image problem, and to trick rather than coerce any intel out of him. I also ask her to hold off on grilling Wil. I think Barbie and I should be present for that. Sister Cate is available if he needs an alpha bitch. That leaves me alone with Marta, and with my concern for what happened in the back of the plane on the previous leg of this journey into uncertainty. She seems to grasp that I need to talk to her. “Is there something on your kaçak bahis mind, Ma’am?” “On the other plane… You seemed to know a lot about the reaction I had.” “I took a few courses while I was in the service. Personal reasons, but they helped my career, too.” “When I was in the back of the plane, I… it was disturbing.” “Like guilt or…” It’s difficult to get the words out, but I finally say, “Overly aggressive fantasy.” She looks at me with surprise, then quickly tries to cover that up. “Oh? Victim revenge?” Hearing it put into such a succinct term is somewhat shocking. I nod. “Sadism?” Hearing that word scares the shit out of me. I nod again. “Unusual, but not harmful unless it persists. Masochism would be worse. I’m not qualified to counsel you, but I’ve been through… a lot. I’m here for you. I’ll tell you if I think you’re crossing any lines that alarm me. I can understand a wider range of reactions to stress than most people. You should try to get some real sleep this time.” It’s dawn when we land and I’ve had about an hour of sleep. As the plane rolls to a stop, I see the red and white maple leaf flag of Canada and discover that we’ve landed in Ottawa. Why Canada? Safety comes to mind. Nobody will look for us here. Celine also comes to mind. As usual, the small private jet taxis to a distant terminal, far from the main airline terminals. We deplane and our luggage is loaded onto a cart. A man in a customs uniform boards the plane, presumably to search it, although I’m sure it’s just turning around to fly back to Margo’s territory. The cart is pulled into the terminal by another man. He’s in plain clothes, except for a jacket that indicates he is employed by the terminal service operator. We follow him and I discover Celine and another woman talking with a woman in a customs uniform. My joy at seeing Lini is dampened by the fact that I’m carrying a sack with absolutely no idea of its contents and I’m about to go through customs. We are herded into a room where we are supposed to be presenting passports and declaring anything we are supposed to declare. The customs agent points to me and says, “Please form a line behind Madame Blanc.” She takes the sack from me, pulls the staples out, looks inside, and passes it to Lini. “Welcome home Mrs. Blanc. I understand you have ancestors from Quebec. I hope your stay will be pleasant.” I recall Kyra’s words, ‘A sister will take it from you.’ A sister in the customs service for when Kyra sends something special to Celine. “I trust you have nothing to declare?” My gun stayed with my trench coat and mask, in Bethany’s care. “That’s correct.” The runaways pass through without problems next. No passports are shown. No ID’s are checked. None of them are searched. Marta steps forward last and gives a card to the customs agent, who reads it, glances around, and sends all but Marta out into the public space, closing the door behind us. Less than a minute later, Marta emerges. I whisper, “Damn quick for a cavity search.” I see only a hint of a smile. “Not for a change of citizenship.” Ah. I wondered how she would get past customs with at least one handgun in illegal bahis her possession. She’s now a licensed Canadian bodyguard. I ask Mindy and Keri to give me some privacy as I discuss next steps with our hosts. They round up the kids and take them to watch planes through the big windows. Lini introduces me to her bodyguard, Margaret, and then Marta and Margaret become inconspicuous as we discuss the plans. “Dan says that you like walleye and you’re not so crazy about pike. Kyra says you know how to flyfish.” “Fly-in fish camp? What a fantastic idea. I don’t have the right clothes for that.” “Ha! I found a way to get you into my pants.” “Oh, Lini, that was so bad.” “What? We look the same size. My pants might be a little loose. I even bought you some new panties that I would like to see you in.” She gives me an exaggerated wink. “Um, I don’t think I need special panties for a bush trip, but does this mean…?” “I hope so. I’m ready if you’re willing. I saw the video of your mission live and I was terrified, but when you pulled it off, I was just… I want to fuck you, Catherine.” “I’ve been wishing for that since that night in Chicago. Will we have privacy?” For the next few minutes as she tells me about the place, I doubt her sanity for planning to go fishing with such young kids, but the place is owned and operated by sisters and she says it’s set up for children as young as nine months. It was selected because it will help the kids forget the weird circumstances of the night flight. They’ll remember the sudden unexpected vacation in a strange and wonderful land, the bush country in the pleasant days near the end of Summer, when the black flies have died back and lost their sting. It’s time for Celine to meet Mindy and Keri. “Please, Cate, introduce me as Caroline Blanc. That way you can keep calling me ‘Lini’. It’s just a precaution. We want to watch and see if that name appears in the intel. It might be good for them to think you have a twin sister. We might have to cause some doubt about your identity in the future.” I don’t want to have any more doubts about Mindy or Keri, but I realize that the suspicious circumstances of their induction into the sisterhood might follow them for a long time. We fly out on a smaller twin-propeller plane to a remote town in northern Ontario where an old schoolbus picks us up and takes us to a lake. We wait our turn as fishing parties fly out to other lakes and finally, we board a large single engine floatplane. Forty minutes later, we land on another lake and pull up to the shore at a site that has seven small cabins and a large main lodge. “And this is all for sisters?” “Right up until moose hunting season. We can even do that sometime if we want.” “Wow. A moose hunt. Why didn’t I think of that?” “You would hunt?” “It must be something in French Canadian blood. I used to hunt deer in Wisconsin before I met Dan. I had to prove I could do what my brothers could do. A freezer full of moose meat would score big points with my twins.” I sense that I’ve gained some respect from her. “I’ll make it happen, Cherie.” The fish-camp is beautiful. The air is clean. The water looks very clear. The owners and guides, two married couples who seem more like a foursome, are very friendly. Lini and I share a cabin that could sleep eight. Lini insisted that it be the most remote.