Chapter 3

The newly outfitted Warrant Officer Heidi was assigned to a seat in a second class compartment. It was designed to seat eight passengers on opposing benches with four on each side. The seats were quite comfortable in her inexperienced estimation, but the first class accommodations were reserved for actual commissioned officers. The enlisted swine and the maverick warrant officers were not considered in that category.

Heidi knew that most of the warrant officers in her acquaintance were former enlisted with non-com experience and she did not fit into that “long in the tooth” category. Still, the rank gave her official standing in the NATO sense of pecking order, and she only had to keep her mouth shut to carry off the assignment. Her security clearance was top notch and she had even been cleared for Special Compartmented Intelligence status only on a need to know basis.

Strangely, the German Federal Police were checking travel documents on the rail transportation system because the European Union considered rail traffic a high risk domestic weakness and a loophole in the anti-terrorist efforts inside the united Fatherland.

There were only six passengers in her compartment, and she was able to place her backpack on the empty seat next to her.

The signs posted in several languages specifically stated “NO SMOKING” but the well dressed civilian male on her other side lit up a long thin cigarette with a flourish that dared anyone to raise an objection. Heidi couldn’t care less because she was used to her fellow students smoking like fiends in all places that forbade smoking with promised dire consequences if they were caught. She had never taken up the habit, but she rather enjoyed a bit of secondary smoke both with ordinary cigarettes and with the stronger funny cigarettes that seemed less offensive to the younger generation.

Opposite her, a pair of nuns sat reading their prayer books. They were on their way to the main convent located in Brussels and were both quite sun-tanned from spending a year in Africa tending the newly converted flock in a church sponsored outreach program.

The civilian man smoking was traveling with what was obviously his secretary. She was not young and not old. She was at an age where the bloom is starting to come off the petals and her facial wrinkles were starting to give her still attractive face lots of character that revealed her age to any male looking for feminine companionship. Such fellows were fussy about things like age or weight or any one of the many negative criteria the pussy hounds considered essential disqualifications for their prey.

The only other passenger in her compartment was a man wearing the uniform of the German Special Forces. It was not well known outside of the city of Berlin because the members were in the anti-terrorist squad and they were considered ruthless in their behavior not unlike the original Hitler bodyguard with fealty only to the Fuhrer and not to the Wehrmacht high command. Of course, there was no existing Third Reich or any “leader” of the Fatherland to command that sort of respect any longer.

He looked closely at Heidi in her American Army uniform with her warrant officer insignia. The fact that she wore no decorations told him she was relatively new to military life and her look of naïve innocence made him doubt her ability to defend anyone.

The German officer had more than a few rows of ribbons on his chest and his arms showed his time in service and combat duty to constitute him to be a career officer and not there just for a few years and a quick return to civilian life.

Just then, the Federal Police customs officers came into the compartment to look at their travel documents. The young man that looked at Heidi’s papers noticed her German name and asked her in German if she was traveling for business or pleasure. She responded to him in her high-class perfect German, and he chatted her up for a few minutes in his native language.

Rudi, The German Special Forces officer offered Heidi his German language newspaper and spoke to her in German asking her where she learned to speak German so well.

She accepted the newspaper because she needed something to do with a long trip in front of them. “Thank you, Captain, you are too kind. I was taught German by my grandmother. She insisted I speak it correctly because grammar was especially important to her in the old ways of things.”

He smiled at her and said, “Sometimes the old ways are better than the new, my little one.”

Heidi was thrilled to hear his crisp language in what she considered her native tongue. It was almost as if he were making love to her with his words and she felt that tingle between her legs that told her to be careful because she might do something that she might regret later.

He invited her to join him in the observatory car in front where passengers went to pass some time just watching the scenery as it flashed by on both sides of the fast moving train.

Smoking was allowed there, and they catered the passengers with mixed drinks or the popular German beer or wine in increase the sense of ambiance that made the conversation seem more sparkling than in the regular compartments.

Rudi and Heidi were in the first row of seat at the head of the train and only the engineer inside his locked compartment next to them could observe them in their seats, so they had relative privacy from the other passengers.

Heidi was startled when Rudi reached out with his hand and cupped her rapidly beating breast. She had been sort of expecting him to kiss her on her lips and the more direct route straight to her nipples was instantly successful because it meant that her acceptance meant that she was considering giving him a chance to advance further on the baseline than she had gone before. Almost as an afterthought, Rudi bent over and kissed her full on the lips giving her deep sweeps of his tongue inside her willing mouth.