" . . .one thousand bottles of beer."

I woke up cold, very cold. My front was warm, my back was not. Tae Jae was snuggled up against me. I stretched the kinks out of my body.

"Is something wrong?" Tae Jae said, yawning.

"No." I looked at a watch that wasn't on my waist. It felt like midnight. I looked up in the sky and saw the big dipper just above the horizon. If it was indeed midnight, we had to be near the Tropic of Cancer. I shivered, we had to be just inside the Morocco/Sahara desert border. "North is that way, and Casablanca is that way." I said pointing.

"How you know, Karen-san?"

"I was out in the Sahara Desert five years ago. Training."

"Training?"

"Yes, I'm an agent."

Her eyes widened. "You are, like BOND?"

I grinned, "No, not quite. I wish I was." I smiled. "I wish I had him."

"Had him?"

"Yes, make love. Sex, so'ng."

She nodded her head vigorously, said, "I, too, wish I had him." and laughed.

I smiled and shook myself. The cold air was still cold, and it didn't look like it was going to get any warmer standing around. I told myself, five years ago, I would never come back to this frozen hot spot. Hot as hell during the day, cold as the south pole at night. I spent eight weeks learning to survive in a place like this, and cursed my instructor every single minute I could spare. I looked up again. The moon was low, the sky clear. "Let's get going." I crawled out from under the jeep, Tae Jae followed. She grabbed the blankets, folded them and placed them back in the jeep. I placed the garbage of cheese and bread with the wine in the back seat also. Tae Jae got in the seat and I started up the engine. I left the lights off, the moon was bright enough to drive by. The gas gauge read one-fourth. I hoped that and the five gallon tank of gasoline would be enough. Walking in sometimes one hundred thirty-six degree temperature is not my idea of a picnic. The sand alone can cause blisters. I took the parking brake off and headed in the direction I guessed Casablanca should lie. If we were just outside the border, Casablanca would be over six hundred miles away. I wasted three-fourths of our gas trying to get some distances between us and the clan of Don Juans.

The air was chilly and crisp. Our journey was long and lonely, but we were free. If the jeep had enough gas, we could make it to Casablanca by morning, otherwise we would have to finish on foot. A prospect I had serious misgivings. I turned to Tae Jae. "Do you know the song one thousand bottles of beer on the wall?"

She shook her head.

I started singing. I figured she would join in once she had an idea of what I was trying to accomplish.