CH37

"What did you say Alexis?" Kate stared at her not believing what she heard. Alexis twisted her head not believing that she had to repeat herself.

"Meow." I asked if you were pregnant.

"I heard that part clearly, I meant the part you said after that. The part about me being your mom," Kate clarified.

"Meow. Meow?" You married Dad. Doesn't that make you my mother?

Kate hugged Alexis tightly, kissed her head just between her ears, and blinked back her tears. She hadn't thought of herself as being Alexis's mother. Alexis was a cat. And a tiger and a child for an hour every 2 years. "Call me whatever makes you happy Alexis." She decided that whatever it was, she would adapt.

"Where are we going tomorrow?" She changed the subject. "Amasya Province. It's about 8 hours east of here by car or about 1-1/2 hours by plane, or instantly for us. It's about 2,130 square miles of space with a population of around 330,000. It's divided into 7 districts. We'll be down in the valleys traveling by foot with a few jumps from place to place to speed things up a bit," Rick explained.

"In that case I'm going to sleep since I'm going to be walking all over the place tomorrow," Kate said and began stripping for bed. Soon she was cuddled up close to Rick who was just as naked.

Come morning Alexis was eating her fish while Rick had Kate up against the shower wall lifting her legs up to wrap around him. "We need a condom." He stopped and started to release her. "My period is due in about a week. I'm likely already pregnant, so just fuck me. PLEASE!" Kate kept her legs tight around his body and felt him place his erection at her entrance as she moaned from the teasing. "Babe, please!" She was soon screaming out his name as she climaxed, her muscles squeezing his penis inside her. It took a few minutes for her to get her breathing under control; she loved making love to her husband.

She was dressing with the clothes in her bag as he teleported home with the clothes they had worn to get there in, intending to bring back more water to stuff into the void that their clothes left.

While he was gone, Alexis was eating her fish and Kate was thinking about the additional amount of Rick's swimmers that were now inside her. Their talk had left her less worried about being pregnant. Now she was actually hoping that if the broken condom hadn't gotten her pregnant, maybe this morning had. She had a week to wonder, not that her periods had come like clockwork even after the aliens had fixed her. She blamed it on stress.

Rick was soon back. "Where to first babe?" Kate knew they had a lot of ground to cover. "We'll start with the valley around Merzifon just off of E80. It has a road that leads to a coastal city on the Black Sea," he answered.

"And out of the Black Sea through Istanbul. Is Turkey or Russia behind this? Distribute enough drugs to do what? Force the US to push the button? That makes no sense," she said. If Russia wanted to survive a nuclear exchange, there had to be no exchange at all.

"Rick, the political base is in DC, not far from New York. Miami is close to NASA's launch site. Houston is home to Mission Control. They would never see the missiles coming if everyone was hooked on heroin or in withdrawal." She was trying to piece it all together. "No, that still wouldn't work. That leaves the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station under a mountain in Colorado. There's always someone around to push the button." She was running out of ideas.

"I think you are thinking too big Kate. Dumb it down just a little," Rick suggested. Kate tried to think. Cops, the Mob, the FBI, the DEA all lead them to heroin shipments which got them out here in Istanbul and soon to be deep into Turkey. "NO! …It can't be that simple. It just can't." She thought she had it. "Why not? There is only one thing in the universe that is older than this and even it requires it, at least they do now. People fight for it. People steal it. Do anything they can to get it. It's simple," he submitted.

She opened her mouth to say something only to close it again. "We're at the start. What happens determines if our planet turns into a radioactive ball of dust or not. Somehow heroin is involved in it. Let's go see what we can find." She picked up her backpack and started fastening herself into its frame, watching him do the same.

"Up Alexis," Rick told her and Kate watched her jump into his arms. "Let's go see what we can find." They both pressed the gem in their hands and vanished in a swirl of clouds.

Kate looked around and immediately liked what she saw. "It's nice, low rolling hills, lots of grass in this area. And it's comfortable out even. It feels like what? 73 degrees maybe," she stated. "I think we're too close to town. Let's head into the valley, that way," he pointed and they started walking.

The road they were on was a dirt road that showed signs of being used. She watched him kneel down to look closer at it. "What do you think?"

"It doesn't look like heavy traffic to me. Kilos of heroin, even if it's not processed yet, has weight to it. You said that container was loaded with it," he pointed out. "And if we're too close to town they wouldn't risk it, we need to get further out." Rick stood back up. "Ten miles that way," he gestured as she nodded in agreement and they disappeared in a whirlwind of clouds.

"This looks like a good place to look around. D795 is just a few miles east of here and Amasya Merzifon Havilimani is several miles northeast of here," Rick indicated and saw Kate's confused look. "Local airport. Big enough for an FBI jet," he clarified.

"No more dirt road," she pointed out as they began walking through grass with no rolling hills in sight. "I don't see any water or even a stream. Wouldn't it help to have water close?" she asked. "The closest lake is several miles west of here. Citli Goleti with the river Koseler Cayi. The closest villages are Cilti and Eymir," he offered, having done his homework with B5 before coming here.

"I vote we start there first before moving on," she said. He didn't see any reason not to. "Take my arm, we'll take the road between the two villages," he told her, since he knew where they were going and they were gone in a swirl of clouds.

"West looks too dry with hills. You said we need a valley for poppy fields. South on the road?" Kate suggested. Rick nodded and they started walking. "I've got binoculars in the top of my pack I think. Would you look for them please?" He knelt down so she could reach down in the top of his backpack easier. "Found them," she told him and buttoned his backpack closed again. "Good. You use them and direct us where to go. Please keep an eye on the road in both directions. We don't need any surprise company," he explained.

It took them a couple of hours to reach the bridge across the river and they hadn't seen anyone yet. "Babe?" Kate knelt down at the edge of the bridge, getting Rick to do the same. "Deep tracks. Something heavy has traveled this road a number of times. This bridge is probably the only bridge strong enough to handle the weight," he said thoughtfully.

She walked to the other side and used the binoculars to look around. "Looks like the village Citli is that way. Appears to be good sized too. Maybe a thousand people or so. I think I see a small road headed east just south of here. There's also a small tree line next to it," she commented. "Excellent, let's take it. We need wood if we want to have hot food tonight," Rick explained. "We could just go home tonight and come back after we eat," Kate pointed out a flaw in this camping out and cooking outdoors part.

"And pass up the chance to have sex with you in a semi-public space?" Rick surprised her and started walking south down the road, missing the look of shock on Kate's face. He didn't, however, miss Kate's sudden intake of breath and the hitch in her breathing. Eventually he heard her walking fast to catch up to him.

They reached the road with the small tree line. "It looks like the tree line is the rough shape of a fish hook with us being the hole at the top," she said as she looked through the binoculars. "There's a dust cloud headed our way from the village," she warned."Teleport into the trees off the road into the vertical portion of the hook," Rick told her and they both disappeared in a twist of clouds. Kate moved to the west edge and lifted the binoculars. "It's an old flatbed truck. It looks like it's on its last legs too. It's really moving though, and it's loaded with white bags. Lots of them actually." She watched it pass their position before going out of sight. They both waited to see if it came down their little road, but it didn't.

"It must be headed for Eymir I'm guessing. Cilti collects the poppy harvest, and processes it, where it is moved to Eymir for storage. If something happens to Cilti they still have the warehouses in Eymir," he speculated. She couldn't counter his thinking so she kept quiet.

"Back to the road and head east," Rick said and they stepped back out onto the road with Kate looking ahead and behind them from time to time.

There was a thin group of trees on the left side of the road. "Something hot for lunch?" he suggested since his stomach was growling. Kate nodded in agreement. "Where's the tip of the fish hook you talked about?" he asked as she pointed south. It turned out that there was a tractor road that took them right to it. He kept walking along the edge of the trees til the trees got a little thicker and decided that was as good a place as any and dropped his backpack.

"Any trees east of here?" he inquired, getting her to look. "Not many. If we go back to the road and go east I think there is a ditch with a clump of trees," she said. "That's good actually. If it is a dry ditch we can camp at the bottom and use the ditch to hide the light from our fire. We can get the wood we need from the trees." He liked it.

First they had to go hunting for dry wood lying on the ground with which to cook their lunch.

"My parents idea of camping was camping out back of the cabin they owned. It wasn't much and it was a little old and run down. Dad spent weeks out there with my uncle patching it back together. There was a big pond out back somewhere if I remember correctly. I haven't been there in years," Kate commented as she sat and watched Rick cook.

"My dad fancied himself a pro fisherman. He never caught a damn thing in that pond." Kate started chuckling. "It didn't stop him from trying though. That place really was in the middle of nowhere." She smiled. "How big?" Rick asked trying to get her to remember more. "The place was compartmentalized. Definitely not open concept. Living room, tiny dining room, equally tiny kitchen. Bedroom on the first floor along with the only bathroom. Two bedrooms on the second floor. My room was upstairs, first door on the right. Mom and dad took the bedroom downstairs.

I had to trudge up and down the stairs to use the bathroom or take a shower in the morning. I remember my dad pounding on the door trying to get me to hurry up and get out of the bathroom. I just kept doing what I was doing and he never came back." She was still confused about that. "He probably used the outhouse outside," Rick said since he had a good idea why Jim wanted in so badly. "We didn't have an outhouse. Just the one bathroom," she said confusedly. "OHh!" She finally caught on. "Oops." She scrunched her face and looked down at the ground while he chuckled lightly.

"You're memory is getting better," Rick remarked. Kate lifted her head and stared at him. It wasn't until he said something that she had noticed. "Yeah, but I was just a kid. I was in grade school."

"And camping here caused you to remember. Maybe that is how your memory will come back to you little by little," he suggested. "Yeah, maybe."

"Lunch?" He offered up her half. "Thanks babe." She would have settled for a cold lunch, but this was nice. He killed the fire to get rid of the smoke so that no one came out looking. "I thought we had a small stove with some fuel?" Kate questions. "I'm saving it for when it gets dark, that way we don't give off the light of a fire, even down in your little ditch." Rick explains.

"It looks like the valley starts here and goes east," she said. "And there has to be a way to cross that ditch of yours to get the product into Cilti, if one or more of the poppy fields is out there," he added.

"We should be ready to stop one of those trucks too. See if what's on it matches the sample we have at home," she remarked. "We only have supplies for a few days," he reminded her. "So we go home, load up, and come back here and wait for the next truck. Three containers filled with loads of heroin means there have to be lots of trucks," she replied. Rick nodded, agreeing. "Except that much heroin likely means they are getting it from other areas of Turkey in this province," he countered. "Still this is the one place we know about. Maybe a midnight raid in town?" she proposed. "Armed with a map from B5. I like it!" He was in. "It'll give Alexis a chance to walk around as a tiger. We can go home and get her several pounds of steak." He was liking this plan more and more.

"Meow." I like it. Alexis was in.

They packed it all up and went back up to the road with Kate using the binoculars. They hadn't gotten very far. "Babe is all of that…?" She was pointing. "A poppy field? Yes it is, and it's a big one too." It was on the left side of the road, right up next to it in fact. "We've arrived early since harvesting isn't for another 4 or 5 months. The opium they're after is actually in the skin of the large bulb. You cut it and it bleeds and collect it to turn into a drug. Inside that bulb are the seeds," he pointed out, showing just how much work went into it.

They continued down the road and found that the poppy field on the left side of the road really was pretty big. "They don't actually ever remove the plant do they?" she asked. "Not unless the plant is dead. You keep cutting the bulb over and over again. Come on, I'll show you something," Rick offered. He walked out into the poppy field a little and stopped when he found what he was looking for. "See all the black on the leaves below the bulb. That blackness is where the white colored opium has drained but not been captured."

"Bulb after bulb." Kate looked out into the field. "This is a lot of work." She couldn't begin to count the number of plants that were in this field. "This isn't enough is it?"

"This field likely wouldn't fill one of the pallets you found in that container. Let alone all three containers," he confirmed. Kate suddenly realized the scope of this was really, really huge. "Look for another field?" she questioned, getting him to nod his head. "We can teleport into the village before the sun comes up and do some looking around and then maybe north to the next village."

Rick got them back out onto the road, such as it was. "Anything?" he asked as she kept looking, using the binoculars. She put the binoculars down. "This place is dead. That one truck was as lively as it gets." She didn't know if that was a good thing or not. "Tomorrow will be more exciting." He smiled at her and continued walking.

They ran out of road since it teed there, however he saw the trees in the distance. "Is that your ditch?" He pointed across the field in front of them. "Yep that's the place."

"We can set up camp and gather firewood before looking around some more while the sun is still up," he said and started out across the field in front of them.

It turned out to be a ditch alright, if a 3 foot depression could be called a ditch. "It looks like it's been dry for a while now. Let's hope there isn't a flash flood." He worked his way down into the ditch and started looking for a good spot for the tent. An hour later they had the tent set up, a dry moat around it, sleeping bags unrolled, and their packs inside it.

"Firewood?" she asked. "Firewood." he replied.

"Keep a look out please, Alexis?" Rick asked and watched her work her way back to the top of the ditch. Kate, however, was looking at him questioningly.

"The tent is up, sleeping bags are rolled out and you're wearing far too many clothes. Consider this a trial run for sex in public for when we do it in Central Park," Rick said suggestively as he pulled Kate's top over her head. Clothes got thrown into the tent as they continued to kiss while standing naked in their ditch in the poppy fields of Turkey.

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Kate was lying on top of Rick after have her third mind blowing orgasm of the evening. "Sex in Central Park? Really?" she questioned as she kissed Rick's bare chest. "I have a plan, trust me. And in broad daylight no less," he confirmed. She lifted her head to look at him, but couldn't see anything that suggested he was joking. Kate put her head back down on Rick's chest and wondered just what he had in mind, because she was in for sex in a very public space, so very in.

"Babe may I ask a question?" she asked softly while kissing his bare chest. "Must be important if you think you need to ask for permission, not that you need my permission for anything," he said.

"Boy or a girl?" Kate asked. Rick opened his eyes wide. It wasn't a question he was anticipating. "I…boy I suppose, maybe. No real reason though. If you're asking, I suppose you have a preference." He rubbed his hand over her bare back.

"I don't even know if I'm pregnant yet. But I was thinking I'd like to give you your little girl back to you. I know you have Alexis, but it's not the same. But I would enjoy a boy too." Kate told him. "One of each then?" Rick suggested. Kate was silent as she thought about it.

"Mom told me she had 2 miscarriages before me. They were afraid they would lose me too," she told him. "That isn't going to happen to you, Kate. It literally isn't possible, unless you have a major injury to your abdominal region that B5 can't repair in time," he said reassuringly.

"A boy and a girl would be nice I guess. I'm still not sure I'm ready for the first one. We haven't even gone on our honeymoon." She raised up to look at him. "We are going on a honeymoon, aren't we?"

"I already have the place and I've sent in a request for availability and transportation. Even I've never been there before so it's going to be a surprise for us," he said. Kate smiled. "Where are we going?" She was dying to know, only to watch Rick shake his head. "Oh no, it's a surprise, but I think you'll like it. We need to solve this mission first." There was just the one major complication.

"Are we taking Alexis with us?" She didn't want to leave her behind, besides who would feed her? "Of course! This trip should be amazing and will blow your mind!" Rick was really hoping Kate would like it.

"I love you." She moved up his body closer and stretched out to kiss him.