Chapter 23

It was after the four left hand turns that Barbara actually had to say something, “you’re lost.”

“Yeah but,” Jake replied, “I’m also trying to loose our two friends behind us.”

“Us being lost doesn’t mean you’re ever going to get them lost,” Barbara replied with no small amount of frustration.

“Oh,” Jake replied whimsically, “so you did notice. Maybe you noticed who they are, too.”

Barbara sneered at that. Then it suddenly hit her and she gave Jake a very nasty stare when she asked, “how did you know about that?”

“Well,” Jake replied with a shrug as he made his second right hand turn at the next corner, “you kind of shot their car up right in front of me at WMD’s.” Before she could express her surprise he then added, “and after that, well, I kind of mugged ‘em.”

Barbara exploded, “you did what!?” Then she sunk in her seat and slapped her forehead, “oh god we’re dead.”

“So what’s the big deal here?” Jake asked her as he hit a straight stretch of road and stepped on the gas, “after what you did, I didn’t figure they’d miss their wallets all that much.”

“I sent a message,” Barbara told him. “You made it personal! Why in god’s name would you do something like that?”

Jake kept it simple since he was preoccupied with both a high and low speed chase, “I wanted to ID the bastards. I figured their driver’s licenses was the easiest way.”

“You could have asked me, you jack ass,” Barbara snapped just before having to use both hands, and the seat belt, to keep from being slammed into a window on a tight turn.

“Oh yeah,” Jake grumbled, “right. Like you would even have brought the whole thing up in the first place.” Jake noticed another car that was behind the one tailing them. It was doing it’s best to keep up as well. He sighed, “shit, they called for reinforcements. We need to do the same.”

The new revelation surprised Barbara greatly. She did not bother being subtle now. Instead of using a mirror she turned to look and, she hated to admit, Jake was right. There was another car that was doing all it could to make the insane turns that Jake was. It made no sense. Barbara knew these guys, if not personally, she knew what they were like. This was a vendetta and if those guys called their buddies for help they would loose face. It was something they would never do!

It was when the second tail tried to pass the first one that Barbara realized something was not only wrong but, very wrong. The first vehicle, with the two Canadian thugs, tried to force the second car off the road. The four guys in the second car did not take that lightly. One of them, in the back seat, stuck a small machinegun out of his window and opened fire. His shooting was wild and largely ineffective. It was only a matter of seconds before the Canadians returned fire with their own automatic weapon. It was considerably larger.

Barbara, with a slack jaw, blurted out, “who the hell are those guys!”

“Oh great,” Jake grumbled, “we got people killing each other over the privilege of killing us!”

After thinking about it for a second, Barbara said in a very unsure tone, “maybe they’re here to help?”

Another shooter from the second car opened fire on Jake and Barbara. Sparks flew from the trunk and Barbara was sure she was dead. When she managed to take stock Barbara realized that the bullets did not go sailing through the car like it was paper. She gasped in relief, undid her belt, and got lower in the seat as she said, “on the other hand, maybe not?”

Barbara pulled out her weapon and flipped the safety off as she tried to steady herself from the violent high speed turns that Jake was making. He saw her and said, “put it away! There’s already enough bullets flying. We got bystanders around and we don’t need to be adding to the lead in the air.”

“We can’t just sit here and take it,” Barbara growled at him.

“We’re not,” Jake replied as he tried to get his bearings with a landmark or two. He was trying to do more than just make them a hard target to hit. He was now trying to get somewhere a little more specific. The hard part was finding the damn place. He explained as he could, “when you shoot you better have a plan first. Just shooting because you’re being shot at is always a bad plan cause it means you don’t have one.”

“I do have one!” Barbara yelled back as a bullet went sailing through the back and front windshields, “it’s called not getting killed!”

“That’s an objective,” Jake told her, “not a plan. I’m following Special Forces rule number twenty seven.”

Barbara gave some serious thought to hanging out her window and giving back some of what they were getting. Then she heard another round impact the car. It made a strange noise that she could not quite place. She put that aside and realized, they had bigger guns and more of them. Again, she did not want to admit that Jake might be right. In the end, it’s not why she didn’t fire back. Barbara just decided that her idea was physically impossible after giving it careful consideration. One wrong turn, of the kind they were making a lot of, and she would be so far out the window that she would be on the ground.

Maybe she would give Jake’s plan a try, “and what’s rule number twenty seven?”

“When the bag guys got…” Jake saw his turn and took it, “when they got a bigger gun, you go and find one even bigger.”

“Oh god,” Barbara swore under her breath, “we’re going to die.”

“We need more firepower and I know where to get it,” Jake told her just before exclaiming, “there they are! Now put that damn gun away!”

Barbara peeked up over the dash board and saw what they were heading for at high speed. She realized Jake was right and quickly hid her weapon in the dashboard. It was not going to do her much good anyway she went. She was not even sure that anything she did now would do her any good. She told Jake, “hope to hell you know what you’re doing.”

“I have no fucking clue,” Jake told her. “All I could come up with on short notice. I just kind of figured this is the only thing the damn Wehrmacht is good for.”
Jake slammed on the breaks and swerved his vehicle right into a spot behind a German armored personnel carrier. Jake did not waste a second raising his hands in surrender after he put the vehicle in park. He urged Barbara to do the same and she quickly complied. No one had to tell Barbara to do it since the German soldiers were already buzzing around in alarm, probably from hearing the distant gunfire, and six of them had surrounded the car no sooner than it stopped. Their big and mean looking assault rifles were all pointed at the inside of the car.

The good news was what Jake had hoped. The German’s were not turning the car into so much Swiss Cheese. Then Jake heard the chain gun on the armored troop carrier bark out with a rapid succession of thumps. This was quickly followed by another rapid succession of thumps mixed with the sound of ripping metal and breaking glass. Then came a small explosion and Jake could even see the flash without looking in that direction.

A hail of small arms fire erupted after that but, ended just as quickly. Jake was not sure if they got the second pursuing car or, for that matter, even the first.  Now he was only worried about the grenadiers surrounding him when, in German, they ordered, “out of the car, now!” Those orders were followed by many more as Jake got out of the car. He spoke back to the German’s in their own language but, they did not seem to be listening.

Jake also got to see very little of what had happened in the firefight. During the shooting, he was behind the cover of the armored vehicle and, at the time, it was right where he preferred. Now, all that was left were sounds of a burning car and Jake wanted to assess the damage. The grenadiers would not let him. They hustled him off like they would any prisoner and, when the blindfold came off, he was sitting in a field tent with a few guards who cared not to talk with him.

His apprehension was a little relieved when they finally brought in Barbara. One of the guards left her a fold out chair and she promptly sat.
The look on her face made Jake wonder if this had been such a good idea. She was almost as silent as the guards but, then she finally let out, “remind me to never follow your plans anymore.”

“Hey,” Jake protested, “I got you out from under that…”

Barbara snapped, “we were not, EVER, going to discuss that again! Remember?”

Jake crossed his arms and pouted, “I think I’d rather have an interrogator for company.”

The man walking in the tent, covered in field gear and battle uniform, commented on that in his accented English, “that can easily be arranged Major.”

Jake groaned, “oh not you again, Hochstetter. My day just keeps getting better and better.”

The German Abwer man came to a position of parade rest and, Jake figured, it was not a sign of respect. It was probably due more to the man’s deep seated habits. His words bore this out if nothing else, “I am not amused Major Barton.”

“Yeah,” Jake replied in his own cynical way, “and I’m not a prisoner. I’m treaty personnel and…”

Hochstetter cut him off, “you are free to go.”

Jake stood up, grabbed Barbara’s arm, and then nodded to the man, “tell the Fuehrer I said hey.”

As Jake pulled Barbara to her feet, the guards all raised their weapons and pointed them right at Jake. Hochstetter then added, “only you Major Barton.”

“She’s with me,” Jake protested. Then he went on to add, “she’s an official of the Colonial Government and…”

“She’s not covered under any treaty obligations signed by the Federal Republic of Germany,’ Hochstetter added finishing his sentence again. “Agent Reilly, from all that I can tell, was at the center of an attack on members of the Three Hundred and Twenty-First Panzer Grenadiers and, under the specifications of the accords, we are well within our rights to defend ourselves.”

Jake rolled his eyes, “meaning?”

Hochstetter shrugged and whimsically added, “I was planning on shooting her.”

That got Jake a nasty look from Barbara, “way to go Barton.”

Jake slapped his forehead, “what do you want Hochstetter?”

The German came right out with, “Who were those men shooting at you?”

“I don’t know,” Jake was just as quick to answer. “If I knew those guys they probably wouldn’t be shooting at me.”

“I don’t know Barton,” Barbara added, “I know you and that’s exactly why I want to shoot you.”

Jake ignored the comment and then looked Hochstetter in the eye, “you didn’t bag ‘em did you?”

“I’m asking the questions here,” Hochstetter let it be known.

Jake went right on, “or you splattered their guts and now they can’t talk. Oh wait, a little of both maybe?”

Hochstetter pointed at Barbara but asked Jake, “do you want me to shoot your friend?”

“Go ahead,” Jake replied. “You heard her. It might make this place a little safer for me.”

Barbara, unlike Jake apparently, did not think that Hochstetter was bluffing. She blurted out, “one of the cars had two members of the Canadian Mafia in it. They were on a vendetta against me. We don’t know who was in the second car.”

“I see,” Hochstetter seemed somewhat satisfied with the answer, “and I suppose this vendetta is because they believe you were behind the murder of one of their leaders. Is this not correct?”

“Conner is just missing,” Barbara said. “It’s very well possible he’s not dead. He could have all sorts of reasons…”

“He’s dead,” Hochstetter replied with an air of certainty. “It would seem you colonials aren’t so good at keeping up with current events. His own security detail was killed to a man and replaced.” Hochstetter gave Jake a very serious look when he said, “and I believe American agent provocateurs were responsible. The very same American agents who are now sowing the seeds of discontent amongst the people of this colony so that they will rise up against our presence here.”

Jake pointed to himself, “oh and you think I’m one of ’em?”

“Major,” Hochstetter replied in something of a snort, “you are an elite member of the US military and you just provoked a lethal force encounter with the military of the Federal Republic. What am I supposed to think? I may not be able to arrest you but, you can be assured, we will be taking this matter up with your consulate.”

“Oh yippy,” Jake replied sarcastically, “they just love me over there.”

Hochstetter nodded to one of his sergeants and the guards cleared the tent. Then he looked at his two detainee’s and said, “or you can tell me what is really going on.”

“Why Major,” Jake replied, “I have no idea what you mean.”

Hochstetter did not get angry with the sarcasm and, in fact, Jake had noted that the guy seldom got angry about anything. He was a cool customer and, in his line of work, that made him dangerous. He smiled at Jake warmly and replied, “this all has something to do with a certain young lady by the name of April May. The girl you are currently sheltering at your station. The girl who sells real estate, quite unsuccessfully I might add, for a company known as PBS.”

Barbara felt her jaw hit the floor, “how did you know that?”

“It is my business Agent Reilly,” Hochstetter replied as he produced a couple of phones, “these are yours, no? I could take them back to the airfield and have our cryptologists decode them but, it would be easier if you just told me what it is that you found at the palace that seems to be of such great interest to so many.”

Barbara nearly choked, “what?”

Jake’s eyes narrowed and he became serious, “you already knew who it was in those cars. Ok, tit for tat here Hochstetter, you let us in on them and we’ll give you copies of everything we got.”

“Very well,” Hochstetter nodded amicably. “They worked for a security firm called EAS.”

Barbara became very worried at the sound of that, “Early Actions Security?”

Jake looked to the woman, “you know ‘em?”

“Yeah,” Barbara nodded, “they specialize in putting street thugs in three piece suits.”

“Oh please Miss Reilly,” Hochstetter added, “you know them better than that.” Then the German major saw the confusion on Jake’s face and laughed, “it tickles me every time I discover exactly how in the dark you American’s really are.”

“Why don’t you go practice your sieg heils you sausage slurping kraut,” Jake snapped.

Instead of getting angry, Hochstetter became reflective and then replied, “that’s actually an interesting picture when you think about it. At any rate…”

“You didn’t tell us what we really needed to know,” Jake said cutting the man off. “Who hired them?”

“I told you exactly what I promised,” Hochstetter replied very stern like. Then he added, “and if you hold out on your end of the deal then

Agent Reilly gets to stand briefly in front of a firing squad and,” Hochstetter actually smiled before he went on, “you Major. We will give you your weapon back and it’ll accidentally discharge.”  

Jake grumbled to Barbara, “let him see.”

Twenty minutes later, Jake and Barbara were back at their car, now parked far away from the scene of the fight. For the first time, Barbara got a good look at the trunk. There were several large holes in the sheet metal and one of the break lights was gone. Jake came up behind her and solemnly asked, “don’t tell me. We don’t have the money in the budget to fix that, do we?”

“I was thinking more like,” Barbara replied, “we should be dead.”

“Maybe,” Jake replied, “for a minute back there, I thought old Hochstetter was seriously considering the shoot first policy. What gets me is this. Why does he care?”

Barbara lost her train of thought for a moment and then asked, “what do you mean?”

“If he already knows about April,” Jake answered, “then it has to be because she’s rapped up in something that’s important to the Germans.”

“That is,” Barbara replied. She could only think of one word that fit here, “stupid.”

“Something’s on them real estate papers that he’s interested in,” Jake told the woman with absolute certainty. When they were both in the car and on their way he told her, “so as near as I can figure it, we keep on going right to where we were going, to start with.”

It seemed Barbara had something else on her mind, “what’s in the trunk, Jake?”

“You called me Jake again,” Jake replied, “you do realize I am keeping track and, I suspect, I have enough fingers to do it.”
Barbara would not be misled, “those bullets should have tore right through the trunk, the back seat, and then us. What did you do to my car?”

“Hey,” Jake replied, “we’re on a case here. Can we please focus?”