But the man had no self-confidence, no pride that he,
Warren Benson, could do something, merely by putting his
mind to it. O.E. wanted to light some sort of fire under him.
He hoped the man didn't burn easily.
O.E. was still wondering about Warren when his new
cell phone rang. The one he bought that didn't reveal his
full name, so he could use it to talk to Rebecca. She was the
only one who even knew the number.
"Hey. What's up?"
"I'm up. Well, I will be soon. Up in the air, that is. Like I
told you at the hospital, I'm heading to Moscow tomorrow."
O.E. could gladly sit there and listen to her talk. "Tell
me everything."
Rebecca chuckled. "You want to hear the saga? Well,
let's see. . . I leave at 7:00 tomorrow evening, fly all night,
and get dumped in the Moscow airport around noon on
Friday. I will sleep on the flight, thanks to the numbing
effect of three gin and tonics. Still, I can assure you, the next
day will be hell.
"Meetings start that afternoon. They run right up to a
banquet dinner and continue after that until the middle of
the night. I'll get back to my room around 3:00 in the
morning and pass out. The good news is that I'll still have
twelve hours to get to my plane on Saturday afternoon, so
I'll finally have plenty of sleep."
She paused briefly. "The bad news is that the return
flight is the longest afternoon on record. It departs soon
after lunch and gets home before sundown. We're talking
about ten hours of setting sun! That's hard to sleep through.
Even worse because I'll already have slept enough. So I'll
probably sit there and stare at the sun for the entire trip.
"I'll get home Saturday afternoon, nicely tan on one side
of my face. For the first time since I've left, I'll be released
from my trip adrenaline and collapse until Sunday. Now
doesn't that sound wonderful?"
I've done things like that. O.E. thought about the
squeezing he had done when he was selling his software,
years ago. Endless flights squeezed in a coach seat.
Interminable banquets, squeezed between some of the
most boring people who had ever walked the Earth. And
dreadful meetings, trying to squeeze money out of
reluctant clients. He had real sympathy for Rebecca, and he
ached to give her a squeeze.
"Sounds great. Who translates?"
Rebecca laughed. "I do. I speak Russian fluently. That's
why they send me."
Damn, woman. You are amazing. Wasn't it enough that
she was sexy and sharp? A former gymnast and a lover of