Chapter 4

The next morning Mike was the first to awaken. He was holding the beautiful golden girl in his arms. When he kissed her cheek softly, he instantly felt her fingers start to move on his body.

She moved her head and kissed him softly on the lips. “Good morning, darling,” she whispered. “How does your leg feel?”

“It’s fine, honey. I want to make love to you, but I’m scared. We have to go through a small town to get to the pickup point. There’s sure to be a garrison there, and after your fun yesterday they’re bound to be very twitchy. Can you wait?”

She looked at him with her love showing in her eyes. Never having seen it before, Mike didn’t recognize it for what it was.

Kelly said, “I’ve been used and abused for a year, Mike. You can have me any time, but I’ve had enough of a workout that I can live without you for a few hours.”

She grinned and rolled out of the blanket. “I stink. On the other hand, any German still around here now wouldn’t smell too good, either. Let’s get rolling.”

Kelly got up and put on the clothing that had been hidden for her. “Where did all of this stuff come from?”

“I don’t know, but I assume it’s the German underground. The system works pretty well. We avoid direct contact. If we’re taken, we can sing like canaries, but we know nothing. Similarly, they don’t know anything that’s dangerous to us.”

Kelly was wearing a peasant blouse and skirt along with a jean jacket. She stuck the automatic in the waistband at the small of her back. Mike continued to wear his uniform knowing that Allied uniforms were well-made and were being worn by people on both sides of the line in Germany. He picked up his staff and they started down the road.

When they reached the edge of the town they were challenged by sentries. Mike answered them in German and it seemed that they had been cleared to pass. They started to make their way towards the center of the town when a Russian officer wearing the insignia of the KGB appeared with four men.

He smiled a very cold smile and had them seized. One of his men searched Mike and found his automatic. They were immediately placed under arrest, taken to the town hall which had been commandeered as the local headquarters, and then down to a room in the basement for questioning. Kelly was still wearing her hair in braids which were now hanging below her shoulders. When they reached the cellar they were taken to a central area set up for questioning prisoners.

The Russian introduced himself in German as Lieutenant Krepkin. He asked what they were doing in the town. Mike tried to act like he was suffering from shock.

He had trouble speaking and sounded feeble minded. His act didn’t work.

“We will get the truth,” Krepkin declared. “Young lady, take off your clothes!”

Kelly acted frightened but was secretly elated. She still hadn’t been searched. She took off her clothes with the appearance of reluctance. Actually, she was just being careful not to drop her automatic or allow it to be seen. Soon she was naked and cowering, trying to cover her breasts and loins with her arms and hands.

One of the guards grabbed her and lashed her to a large post in the center of the room. Her arms were wrapped around the post and her wrists were lashed together on the opposite side. Mike was tied to a chair.

“You will tell us what you are doing,” Krepkin said to Mike, “or this woman will be whipped until you do.”

Tied to the post, Kelly could see nothing. She prayed Mike would not lose his nerve. She heard him again say he knew nothing. She could hear a whip uncoiled. It cracked across her shoulder blades and she screamed. A second stroke, and she screamed louder in abject terror.

She babbled in colloquial German, “Hans, tell them! You must tell them. Tell them anything!”

The whip struck her again, and she appeared to faint. She just hung limply on the post suspended by her bonds. She had been screaming as the lash cut into her, and the scream was cut off as if with a knife. Krepkin looked at her and then at Mike. Sweat was pouring off his face. Krepkin went to Kelly and slapped her face. Her head just lolled as if she were a puppet without strings.

He tried to question Mike who just babbled. Finally, he decided to try the whip on him. He regretted that the fräulein had fainted. If she had continued to scream, the man might have talked. He motioned to one of the three guards in the room to cut the girl down. The guard took his knife and sliced through the ropes holding her wrists. Freed from the post, the girl fell limply to the stone floor landing on some of her clothing. Krepkin focused his attention on the man. He called the guards over to lift the man up and tie him to the post. The fourth Russian, the one who had wielded the whip, was coiling it up to get ready for his next victim.

Kelly had been watching through nearly-closed eyes. When the guards’ attention was focused on Mike, she slid her hand into the skirt and drew out the Smith & Wesson. Fortunately, she remembered, it was a double-action automatic. It wasn’t necessary to cock the slide before firing. Still face down, she lifted her head and saw the Russians were concentrating on Mike. The weapon fired once, twice, then three more times in rapid fire.

Kelly stood up, grabbed a knife on the floor, and cut Mike’s bonds. Then she calmly picked up her clothes and started getting dressed. Mike was shaking his head in amazement. “Before you put on your blouse, honey, let me take a look at your back.”

She went to him and turned around. There were the three welts across her back with blood flowing slowly from the cuts. “They’re fine, Mike. I’m glad you took your cue from my screams in German. How did it sound, by the way? Do I get an Academy Award nomination?” As she spoke, she was checking the bodies on the floor. All four Russians were dead.

Mike got out of the chair and limped around to look at them. Each had at least one 9mm bullet hole in his head. The man wielding the whip had two. Kelly winced slightly as she put on the jean jacket.

“What about noise?” he asked. “What if we have to fight our way out?”

“We won’t,” Kelly replied. “I’m pretty sure this room was used at least as far back as the Third Reich by the Gestapo, and possibly before that. It has all the earmarks of being soundproofed so screams wouldn’t disturb the good burghers in the neighborhood. If screams aren’t heard, my automatic won’t be, either. Shall we go?

“By the way, Mike, let me handle getting us out of here.”

They climbed the steps and opened the door. A guard posted at the door just looked at them curiously. As she was opening the door, Kelly was speaking over her shoulder, apparently to Krepkin down in the dungeon. She was speaking perfect idiomatic Russian. “Yes, Lieutenant. I will give your regards to Major Vishinsky in Langenhagen. Yes, Lieutenant, I will instruct the corporal to give us a pass out of town. Goodbye, Lieutenant.”

She turned to the guard and said, “Lieutenant Krepkin does not wish to be disturbed!”

Kelly marched up to the corporal at the desk and said coldly, “Two passes, quickly. We’ve been delayed too long already.”

The corporal quickly scribbled two passes. Kelly took them, gave him a cold nod and started striding for the door. Meanwhile, Mike was scrambling with his walking stick, trying to keep up. They went down the street to the check point at the other side of town where Kelly gave a guard the passes and a curt nod. She and Mike continued walking down the road.

When they were well clear, Mike looked at her in utter amazement. “Kelly, would you like a job? Now I’m being very serious. Would you? You speak fluent idiomatic German and perfect Russian. After being beaten with a whip you calmly draw your automatic and put bullets in the heads of four armed men. We can use you in our little group, if you have any interest.”

He looked at her and added, “By the way, you did it again. All your bullets were in the head. I thought you were going for larger targets ... like bodies?”

Kelly grinned and replied, “Come on, Mike! We’re talking a 9mm, not a .45. It doesn’t have a hell of a lot of stopping power. On the other hand, few people do a lot of walking around with a bullet in the brain. That’s where they went, isn’t it?”

Mike just shook his head and nodded. “By the way, you scared hell out of me. You were screaming as you were being whipped and then you collapsed. The next thing I know shots are fired and all the bad guys got suddenly dead. What happened?”

“Remember my painful education? I’ve been beaten more times than I can count. It was every day for months. This guy wasn’t the kind of expert we had at school who could wrap the whip into a girl’s cunt, across her nipples or into her kidneys. Mike, I’ve been abused by experts. This was really almost child’s play. I don’t mean to make light of it: it doesn’t tickle. On the other hand, I’m not in such bad shape, either.”

They continued to walk along the road. First they passed a copse of trees and then came to a field on the left side of the road. “This looks like it, Kelly.”

They clambered over a fence with Kelly giving Mike a hand. There they found a place where hay had been cut and raked but not gathered. Mike thought it was probably the point in the hay cutting when the Russian armored columns came sweeping through.

When they were across the field Kelly asked, “How’s your leg, Mike? You seem to be getting along all right.”

“It’s fine, honey. By the way, what do you think about my offer? Do you have any interest in working with us until this mess is over?”

She looked at him and then put her arms around him. “Mike, I will, assuming your folks want me. There are two conditions, though: First, I would like to see my parents which fits in with the second: I only want to work with you, and you’re going to be out of commission for a while. You’re going to tell me that’s impossible and I’m going to say it’s not, and if it really is I’m staying out.”

She looked at him and he saw her beautiful eyes tear up. She pulled his head down and kissed him softly on the lips. Finally, she pushed away and asked, “Mike, how are they getting us out of here, and when?”

He looked at his watch and said, “They’re getting us out in a chopper. It’s one that can be silenced almost to a whisper. It’s due here in about one hour.” He found the flashlight that had been hidden for them to use to signal it.

She smiled and said, “The timing’s great. It gives us time for you to make love to me. It seems to be the least you can do since I blew up a bridge, an armored column, and saved your ass in town.”

Kelly gathered up some of the cut hay and piled it up to form a bed. She kissed him and pulled him down on top of her. Mike took her blouse off and ran his fingers over her bare breasts. Then he heard her make little mewing noises as he continued to caress her. He slipped off his pants and lifted her skirt for access to her loins. His finger slipped in and found her little love button which he touched as gently as he could, remembering what she had told him. He could feel her body shudder as his finger made contact. Her vagina was already running rivers.

Ignoring the pain in his wounded leg, he knelt between her now widespread thighs. Her fingers grasped his throbbing member and he heard her making soft sounds of pleasure as she guided it to the mouth of her vagina. She lifted her pelvis and positioned his cock. Then she wrapped her legs around his hips and gently pulled him towards her. She was so well lubricated by her vaginal fluids he slid right in to his full length.

She could feel him inside and said, “Mike, I could die happy right now. God, you feel good inside me!” She started to roll her pelvis and use her vaginal muscles to squeeze his cock. Suddenly her head started to thrash from side to side and her pelvis took on a life of its own as she had an orgasm.

Mike tried to relax as her passion slowly ebbed. He was on top of her and bent over to kiss her lips. As his lips made contact her eyes opened and she responded with her tongue probing his mouth.

Mike started to stroke in and out slowly. She looked at him and smiled softly. “Please don’t stop, darling,” she said. “It feels so marvelous!”

He continued his long strokes in and out of the warm, moist glove enveloping his sex. Kelly came again, and yet again. Finally, with a scream she exploded bringing him with her. He could feel a flood of fluid forcing its way past his cock and spilling over them. He collapsed on top of her as she held him tightly and felt the last spurts enter her vagina.

Mike heard her whisper softly, “Thank you, Mike. That was wonderful ... the best ever. Maybe there’s hope for me yet.”

Then he grabbed a jacket and pulled it over them both to ward off the chill. He could see her doze off in his arms.

They remained there until Mike heard the characteristic sound of a Blackhawk helicopter running in its quiet mode. He got to his feet and pulled Kelly up with him. Grabbing the light, he aimed it at the helicopter and flashed the recognition signal. Taking her hand, he led her towards the middle of the field. The chopper landed quickly. Its already-low noise level was reduced to near-silence when the pilot throttled the engines back to their idle position.

Mike saw the waist hatch open and saw a door gunner in position at his minigun. He hobbled up to the chopper and gave the recognition phrase.

The crewman at the door said, “Welcome, Major Callahan! Glad you made it back. I’m sorry to hear about Captain Johnson. I understand you have another passenger for us.”

Mike smiled and waved for Kelly to join them. She came running up. “This is Kelly Jackson. She’s the other person you came to pick up. When we get back, there’s going to be a very interesting story to be told. Where are we going, by the way?”

“We’ve been told to get you back to England. Get aboard, and we’ll get the show on the road.”

He gave Kelly a hand up and then helped Mike in. They found jump seats and fastened the seat harness. The crewman spoke into his intercom mike and the noise of the engines increased.

Moments later the helicopter lifted off, tilted forward and started picking up speed and altitude. When they reached 1,000 feet, the pilot cut off the mufflers to increase the available power. The Blackhawk was one of the fastest helicopters in the air. Moments later they cleared the front lines, moved over the Rhine and then across France.

Before long, they reached the English Channel at the Calais area. Soon they were over the Kent beaches in England heading toward London. When they came over a country farm property surrounding a British manor house, the pilot set down at a marker on the lawn. “You’re here, Major. Do you need a hand?”

Mike shook his head and extended his hand to Kelly who had been sleeping, although he couldn’t figure out how she could possibly sleep with all the noise. She blinked and smiled at him sleepily. She took his hand and he helped her up, but remained bent over to keep clear of the equipment hanging from the roof. Mike stepped out of the chopper being careful to put his weight on his good leg. He lifted her by the waist and swung her down to the ground.

Kelly grinned and poked him in the arm. “Now that we’re safe, Mike, are you showing off for the girls? That leg needs attention, honey. Please don’t push it.”

He used the staff she had cut for him and they went off in the direction of the house. A uniformed aide — a young Army first lieutenant — came running over. He saluted, still on the run. Kelly saw Mike smile wryly and return his salute.

The officer said, “Major Callahan?” Mike nodded and he introduced himself, “Sir, I’m John Hughes, aide to the colonel. He asked me to get you to his office as soon as possible.”

Kelly stepped in front of Mike and said, “How do you do, Lieutenant. I’m Kelly Jackson and I’ll make a deal with you: I’ll go see the colonel and you will send for an ambulance to get Major Callahan to the hospital.”

She had shaken Hughes’ hand and smiled, but when she mentioned the hospital her voice was cold as ice. “Now!”

Mike was amused and impressed by the command presence in her voice. Hughes jumped and saluted. Kelly was amused as well. It was obvious he had no idea what a Kelly Jackson was but she acted important. The lieutenant took a radio from his belt and spoke a few words into it. A few minutes later an ambulance pulled up the driveway nearby and two attendants ran over with a stretcher. Mike waved the stretcher away and started limping over towards them.