Halt

[Thor's Hammer]

"Kapitan, I want all the information that your innovative techniques might extract. We need to root out these capitalists.""

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

"Da, Herr Colonel," I answer half dejected, half with pride in response to the Thornbrunner's compliment at my efficiency; and his tone of restraint and investigation. Sometimes he seemed to waste time on investigation, before loosing me to elimination of threats to the state. With that I give a slight salute and turn to leave, my hand slipping into my pocket, absently feeling the thin stilletto there, and comforted by the weight of the Luger under my arm.

"Farlien," I call over my shoulder getting one last look at the Slavic perfection Thronbrunner was dallying himself with. Shutting the door and wandering down the hall to the beergarden I smiled to myself, Thornbrunner's new bunny does not speak English, and it is good for hersake that he does not speak Russian. Her insult had fell upon ignorant ears. I wondered if I would run into her again, this could lead to an interesting diversion.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

Arriving at the village inn I enter and scan the room as I pick my way through the throng that has gathered I overhear a young blonde woman speaking in English to a man at a table. Her accent is slightly German, his is not English, nor American; interesting. I push on to a corner booth, with my back to the wall I pull out a newspaper and observe the couple over the top of the page. I can not hear thier conversation clearly, but I am trying to gage how many possible consirators there may be at this point. A waitress comes by and I order a schnapps as I light a cigarette and go back to my paper, wondering to myself how loud the treacherous blonde girl would squeal when I get the chance for an interview with her.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Colonel Thorbrunner

"Da? Da?" Hinkle, supposedly a good German speaks Russian? Perhaps he is not all he appears. I have not had much contact with him before. His German seemed a bit stilted, but I attributed that to his supposed Bavarian upbringing. 'Can the Soviets planted a spy to watch us?' I held back a flash of anger and focussed on the tasks at hand...

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

Natalia's long slender finger traced sensuous patterns across my forehead. Just for a split seconds I a most wish this scene was true and not a roost. Her beauty was undeniable. But the cobras beauty hides its' deadly strike. I causally search the square again for the promised back up. None! Have the Yanks hung out to dry again like at Arnhem? Will I be a bridge too far? My hand gilds to Natalia's thigh as my fingers trace delicate patterns through her cloths. Just two travelers becoming friends.



"I have a place, down the road, where we can discuss things more privately. It is secure, and there are no tricks. I promise."

Natalia's voice is soft and sultry I lean close my lips brushing her ear.

'We are on our own."

There's no one to cover our backs. You lead the way.

I give Natalia a longer kiss and our lips part slowly. I stand. Taking her hands in mine I draw her to her feet. I give her my best Canadian lost puppy dog look.



" Lead the way, I place myself in your hands my dear."

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

I wait a few seconds as they stand up and leave, then I toss some coins on the table as I set my quickly drained schnapps glass next to it and cooly step out into the street. I spot them and follow there movements by watching their reflections in storefront windows from the oppisite side of the street.

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

Natalia and I walk down the street arm in arm. I hold her close. We talk. She laughs. I babble on half in tourist German and half in English. We stop under a street lamp in front of a butcher shop. I Turn to her I encircle her trim waist with my arms. Natalia's around my neck. We kiss. Our lips part. I backed her up to the building and gave Natalia a Passionate Kiss.

My eyes are not on Natalia's but the plate glass window behind her. I scan it left to right and back again. I almost missed him. We where being followed. It was the man from the Inn, the one with the paper. I wasn't sure who he was. German yes, police, counter intelligence, petty criminal, or just some guy out for a stroll I didn't know. All I did know is he was following us.

I broke our kiss again and whispered into Natalia's ear. "We are being followed." She through back he head and laughed.

"You are a naughty boy. Natalia will have to punish you for that." We kissed again.

I had to hand it to her she was good. Never missed a beat and was with me every step of the way.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

As, I watched thier reflection in the window of the candy shop, I noticed the foriegner's eyes upon my back. "Damnit," I hissed internaly as I pulled a cigarrette to my lips. I stepped down the street to the next shop and continued with my ruse, trying to get them to make a move. Lighting my cigarette, I replace my lighter to my pocket and leave my hand there on the thin hilt of my stilleto.

 

[cgraven]

A hard way to make a living

McCloud bent over as if he where kissing Natalia's neck and whispered his instructions to her. She giggled. He drew back gazing in to her eyes.

Then he kissed her and kissed her hard and rough. McCloud slipped a hand up under her skirt and between Natalia's legs and gave her a rather nasty pinch in a very private spot. He had given the girl no warning of this.

Natalia's reaction was swift and natural as she slapped McCloud across the face with all the strength she could muster. Natalia stormed off leaving him standing alone on the street.

The blow stung like hell. It looked real because it was real, as where the rest of Natalia's reactions, but she was a pro and would follow instructions. McCloud rubbed his jaw and checked for lose teeth. He turned and walked towards the stranger taking out a pack of Players . He put one in his mouth as he patted his pockets for a light.

"Got a light buddy"

"I guess the lady wasn't as friendly as I thought."

Damn this was a hard way to make a living.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

"But of course," I say in English turning and taking my first close look at the foriegner. His farce of setting his traitorous wench on her way was quite amusing, I admired that in an enemy. As I took in his face with my ice blue eyes I snapped twice at my lighter, once opening its cover and once spinning the wheel on the flint to light it as I held it to his cigarette. Why not, I may be granting one of his last requests.

I snap my lighter closed as he lights his smoke, dropping it and my hand back into my pocket casually, "Interesting how when you are whispering in thier ears, they are all smiles. Yet, when a man turns to the purpose at hand they react so inapropriately, is it not?" I ask in a freindly manner tossing my head in the direction of the rapidly retreating frauline. I see his eyes widen as he inhales the fumes and I add with a laugh, "You should try to be more forceful, lest they will all slip through your fingers, my freind."

 

[cgraven]

Keep your friends close and you enemies closer

McCloud watched his advisory closely taking in every little detail. As he bent to accept the offered light he notice the slight line in his coat pocket. Too small for a gun most probably a knife.

"You should try to be more forceful, lest they will all slip through your fingers, my friend."

"Oh that forceful thing is alright for the Yanks, but it ruins our reputation, that we Canadians are so terribly nice." Abroad grin broke out on Bill McCloud's face.

"Thanks for the light" " The least I can do say thanks is buy you a Beer."

Bill could at least keep this one off Natia's tail for awhile. He knew that there would be others about. His kind traveled in packs.

It was just like Sargent Major Bontemps said in train all those years ago.

"Keep your friends close and you enemies closer"

OOC: Need female and mail agents allied and Germany PM me.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

His offer to buy me a drink was only a way to let his assistant escape without a tail, but I had no choice. "Of course, a beer in Germany is not something to be missed," I answered smoothly in a cloud of smoke, gesturing to the beergarden back down the street. My right hand still in my pocket, I figureed he must have realized that I was armed. But it did me wonders to feel the weight of the Luger under my left arm and the slim line of the stilletto in my pocket.

His words admitted that he was not American, Canadien, that is the accent. My mind raced as we walked trying to link his face to the dossiers of Canadien operatives in Europe. "What brings you to the fatherland? Buisness?" I asked in a friendly manner.


OOC:
Yes, we do need more operatives here, for both sides. Faith, where is that Russian hussie, who likes to distract intelligence officers from thier duties?

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

I had a grudging respect for this young man. He was professional and cool. I know I had caught him off guard twice by doing the unexpected. I could see the wheels turning in his head shifting from American to Canadian. But that was going to be his problem. The East Germany, the Russian, everybody kept and eye on the Yanks, Brits, The French, and each other. They had all written the Canadians off after the war, and that was just fine with us. It made it easier and safer.

"I know what you mean about the beer. My outfit served in this area at the end of the war. The 22nd Royal Canadian Engineers"

Bill rattled on like any number of veterans who had come back in recent years trying to recapture their youth or put their ghosts to rest.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

I repressed my bristling at his remarks as a conqueroring hero. My father had been denied to me due to efforts of men like this. His inevidable liquidation would be more of a pleasure than I could have hoped for. I nodded at his veteran's tale and politely sipped at my beer.

He paused for a moment and I injected, "So, you were part of the occupational forces? Or did you meet the Russians in Berlin?" Having been weaned on tales of my decorated father, and his ill-fated political philosophies. Whenever I had operated abroad in the west I had endured many such conversations. They all had the effect of boiling my blood. I pulled heavy on my beer, watching his reactions.

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

No! When I say I served here I mean I was a POW at the camp outside of town. Went into the bag June of 40. Taken at Dunkirk. Out of the thirty in my unit that went in four of us came out. I came out in Stvastapole.

Bill took a long drag on his beer.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

Interesting. He was a tenascious adversary, to have survived the camps. I had an immiediate respect for one who had survived the mechanical brutality of those years under that doomed regime. "An unfortunate consequence of war, let me buy you another." I said motioning to the innkeeper and not letting my eyes off the cagey Canadien at my side.

I lit a cigarette as the beers were placed in front of us. "I must appologize for your fate at the hands of the National Socialists regime. We, Germans, are much more civilized today," I offer in way of appology to his fate.

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

Bill finished that long pull on the beer. When his young advistary order another beer he nodded consent to the waiter.

Hinkle took out his pack of cigarettes, Russian, but that is not what caught his eye. It was the lighter. A zippo , not only that but a WEST POINT zippo.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

I seen his eyes fall upon my zippo. The West Point acid etching on its surface had caught his eye. I pretended not to notice, and offered a Russian cigarette to the Canadien. He must have wondered where I had picked it up. That was a long story, one I loved to relive in my mind like a cinema. The impulsive American who had thrown my lighter from that train in Brussles one night and failed to kill me. When I was done with him I had lit his corpse on fire with it and it wound up in my pocket ever since.

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

OOC: As much as I like writing with Swash we do need a few more roles filled or Hinkle and McCloud shall surely kill each other out of a misplaced sense of duty or they will run off to sea to become modern day pirates leave behind all that they knew. Any other possibility is not even worth considering.

So all you old hands give us a hand. For you reader's that sit on the side or you new writers here is your chance to jump in and write in the service of "King and Crown".

cgraven

 

[Guest]

spotting Hinkle at the bar...

Getting out of Thorbrunners, office had taken longer than I expected. Shaking my head I realized I’d probable never understand these Germans. Even though I was under the Colonels command, my first duty was to the motherland. The communiqué I had received said there was a mole. Until that threat was eliminated, I trusted no one. Not even our illustrious commander. The Russian operative that I had assigned to follow Hinkle had reported that he was meeting with an English-speaking foreigner, and they were apparently on good terms. I needed to see them together myself…

Signaling Boris to keep his post I enter the village bar, it took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dim interior. There they were, standing at the bar. I needed to hear this conversation…pulling the pins from my hair I let it cascade down around my hips. Unbuttoning the top few buttons, I revel a good amount of cleavage. I approach the bartender

“Vodka…."

 

[faith]

lol...that was me...

ooc...you two are doing great!

 

[Swashbuckler]

Hinkle

Sipping my beer and watching the cagey Canadien I nearly miss the entrance of the Slav hussie. My eyes quietly take her in as she advances on the bar, her hair down, she has definately became more comfortable. It must be true, how the Russians keep from freezing to death through their endless winters...

"Excuse, my freind," I say standing up from the Canadien's side and heading for men's room. I hear the Russian boldly order a vodka as I grow near her, scanning the room I note her poorly concealed muscle near the door. As I pass behind her I whisper without stopping, "Spy with beer."

Keeping my marks under surveylance with the aid of the mirror behind the bar. "I must find out where that damned girl has gotten off to," I think to myself in frustration. We should seize the Canadien as soon as he makes a move. I stop near the mens room door and begin speaking to a man sitting at a table, asking him directions in soft German while watching the Canadien's movements. As well as the two Russians, though I am much more interested in the revealed cleavage in the mirror than her back up.

 

[cgraven]

C.G.

OOC:
Faith,

Thank you. It is kind of fun playing with poor Swash's mind but not very erotic( no offence Swah old man.). Nice fellow but just not quite my type. Devilish laughter!!!

Hope you and your special guy had a pleasant romantic weekend.

C.G.
ps

Your mail box is full so the world now gets to see this.

 

[cgraven]

McCloud

We fenced with words. We both had each other pegged. A deadly game of cat and mouse. I only prayed this gamble would give Natia the time she needed.

There was a sudden hush in the bar. I only knew of two things that could cause it. The Volks Police had arrived or a pretty woman had just entered. Casually I lifted my eyes to the mirror, Hankle's eyes where there also a spark of recognition flash in them for an instant. If I had been slower I would never seen it. But it was enough to put me on my guard.

"Excuse, my friend," Hinkle said and head towards the Lou.

She came in hair to the waist gliding to the bar every man's eye was on her.

"Vodka" a simple word impeccable High German. But that was the problem. Low German was spoken among the people. Her dress was East German, but her bearing was Russian.

'I'll get that for the lady" I called out to the bar tender in my tourist German.

 

[Guest]

Damn...

I school my exspression to show nothing. I had wanted to see how Hinkle interacted with this man. Did Hinkle leave solely to cover his tracks? Is he the double agent? I must keep my guard up with him.....

Looking toward the man seated at the bar. I accept the Vodka. Sitting on the stool, crossing my legs, I swivel so that our legs are a almost touching. I had heard his order to the bartender. His German was...adequate. The accent was wrong...English maybe...Hell it could be American, Canadian or Australian...they all sound the same to me.

Taking a cigarette from my case I wait for a light. Sizing him up I was only sure of one thing. He had military training. It always shows through. The question now is wether he is ex or present military.

Damn Hinkle for leaving me out on a limb with this man He'd indicate this was our spy. But that was all the info he'd passed to me. Hell, "spy with beer" was not a lot to go on. With grim amusement I can't help think that discription could fit everyone in this whole forsaken country.

Time to play nice...

"So how do you like our little slice of heaven here?"