3 comments/ 17767 views/ 5 favorites Ferret Girl Ch. 01 By: TaLtos6 ***This is a 4-parter that I wrote a while ago. And since there are no werewolves or anything really fanciful in it, then the interaction of the protagonists sets this into the Romance category. It's relatively short and I hope, entertaining to the reader. There's a tad of what might be termed technical stuff in this one chapter, but that pertains to the vehicle - both in the literary and literal sense. Other than some of that, this is all uh, ... fictional. I'm sure that there likely are people with these names someplace, but in the context of this tale, the ones here are imaginary and all of that. I hope you like it. 0_o -------------------- Kate picked up her brand new little notebook PC and got up from her table in the crew and passenger lounge. She noticed the gaze of a few of the off-duty crewmembers on her, but it didn't bother her, because they didn't bother her. Most of them had been friendly and very helpful to her. Only one had bothered to give her a try. Even that had been only a half-hearted attempt, full of the machismo that she'd expected anyway, and she'd smiled at him for it. A girl of her size didn't get to hear things like that half as often as she'd have liked to. She'd reached out to run her fingers through his hair for a moment as she smiled. It was a gesture on his behalf, since she'd known that there were others watching to see the effect of the pass that he'd made. "You're a very handsome man and I've very flattered, Ricardo," she said genuinely, "but I really don't think that you've thought this through, unless you're just hopeful to get a little lucky. I'm on my way to a long job, and I have a lot to do to get ready for it. I don't have much time for luck like that with someone as nice as you." He'd smiled then, knowing the kindest brush-off that he'd ever experienced when he heard it. He took her hand and kissed it before walking away. It made Kate sigh after he was out of earshot. She was a lot taller than he was, not that it meant all that much to her here, but she'd seen the pale band of skin on his finger and she wasn't about to play that game, as good-looking as Ricardo was. It was a little sad though, she thought, as she considered the lost opportunity. She didn't know what was waiting for her where she was going and it had been a while for her. She walked out onto the deck and found as good a spot for what she wanted as she thought was possible here. She was very careful about it as she sat down on the huge hatch cover. The heat of the metal from the sunshine came to her through the seat of her jeans and she was glad that she'd thought of wearing them for this. Sitting on the hot hatch cover in her bikini would have fried her ass in a heartbeat. She opened the notebook and pressed the button to boot it. She looked around. There wasn't anything else to be seen out here, nothing but flat ocean as far as she could see. As she waited, she thought back to what had brought her to this place. With a smirk, she thought that what had brought her here was her whole life. This was going to be the strangest job that she'd ever taken. ----------------------------- Total blackness. It was what she'd woken up to with a sore neck, back, hip and if you counted all of the lesser pains, it was a long list. Kate Perkins tried not to move for at least the moment as she worked through her own personal inventory. She tried flexing her fingers and toes to start, nothing ambitious, and then she graduated on to the larger bits. Several parts and sections of her body reported back that they were in pain from things which were sticking into them -- oddly shaped and hard things poking into her back and such. Or maybe that was her back. She couldn't tell anymore. Kate thought back, remembering that she'd come to the museum open house to help out. The daughter of an old soldier, she'd been fascinated for almost all of her life with the type of armored scout car that he'd driven when he'd served. Her questions as a girl had brought only his gruff answers at first, along with a lot of shrugs as though there hadn't been much to it. But young girls have a way of wrapping their little fingers around the hearts of their fathers and he gradually came to tell her more as time went by. That's how she began to learn about the Daimler Ferret. She'd learned from him what a real ferret was. When she'd asked, he'd given her that shrug of his and said that it was an animal, a type of weasel. The Daimler Ferret was an armoured car; sort of a rather small tank, but with wheels instead of tracks. He'd thought about it then and smiled as he looked at young Kate. "I've never really spent a lot of time thinking about it," he said, "but now after all of this time, I see the reasons for the name. A ferret is a curious little thing, yeah? Always poking around, and it's quick in its movements. The Ferrets we drove in the army were used for recce a lot of the time, reconnaissance. They used us to poke 'round looking for the enemy. A Ferret has weapons, but it can't take on a tank -- well, the earlier ones anyway, and after bumping into the enemy, we'd have to dash away, screaming over the radio where we'd found them. Nowadays they've got satellites for that." His answers had both satisfied Kate and stoked her curiosity at the same time. Her father didn't have any photos of his days back then, but one day, they'd been out Christmas shopping for her Mum together and they'd wandered into a bookstore looking for the romantic novels that she liked to read now and then. They'd already bought her gift, but her Dad always had always liked to get her mother a few things at Christmas back then. Like a lot of married women, Kate's mother didn't think that she was particularly hard to buy for, and like a lot of married men who love their wives dearly, her father thought that his wife was very difficult to buy gifts for, so he always felt a little better if he had a few things for her just in case, actually frightened a little to trust in his own ability to get her only one large gift and know that the woman who meant so much to him would be happy. While Kate poked around the shop, her father's eyes fell on a small pocket recognition book about armored fighting vehicles, and with a quick glance through, he noted that the Ferret was well-represented, so he'd added it to his purchases and Kate had been none the wiser until Christmas morning. That little book instantly became his young daughter's most cherished possession though she drove him a little bonkers with her incessant questions and her Mum was a little alarmed that Kate wasn't all that interested in more feminine toys for a girl her age. The truth was that Kate could handle playing with dolls and such, and she wasn't terribly interested in guns, but Ferrets, well, ... She remembered sitting with her father and asking him questions like, "Why don't we buy one?" He replied that they weren't for sale to regular people and at 5 tonnes and up, they weren't really like a normal car and they drank petrol faster than she could drink her warm milk - which she ought to be doing so that she could get to bed. "Where's the windscreen, then? All I see is metal. I can't see the driver at all," she said. "Well if you could see him, then you could shoot him, couldn't you? And that would be the end of a Ferret." He pointed to her book, "The driver sits here, and up to a point, the metal skin is bullet-proof. If they're not in action, the driver can open a hatch right here to look out, but it's not like driving a regular car, Love. It's like trying to see through the screen of a telly that's never big enough. You can't see everything, but you can see enough to drive. If they're in action, the driver closes that up and then he sees through three little periscopes, here," he pointed with the end of her pencil, "there and there. The places to look out of then are even smaller, but they are fun to drive. The steering wheel slopes backward -- just in the opposite way that the one in a car does." As fate and luck would have it, when Kate was a teenager, she'd shelved her love of Ferrets in her room for a time. The books that she'd found gathered a bit of dust beside the plastic models that she'd built over the years. But her interest was rekindled at least somewhat the day that she'd been looking through a used book store and had stumbled upon a more or less complete service manual set for a Mark 2 Ferret and she'd scooped it up. She'd spent hours with her Dad poring over the manuals. It brought them even closer together and helped them both a little to get past their grief. Her mother had died of a sudden illness the winter before, and she still lived with her Dad, who made his living as an auto mechanic, and that had determined the next turn that her life took. His Katy loved to work on motorcars. She'd been in a coffee shop one Saturday, getting her Dad and herself sandwiches and cups of take-out tea when a young man had tried to pick her up. Kate was only mildly interested in the boy, but much more so in the army reserve uniform that he wore. They dated awhile, but it didn't last long. Terry kept trying to get into her pants, and that was rather nice to her way of thinking, but they were doomed from the start because of Kate's constant stream of questions, and from him, she learned of the reserve regiment only a bus ride away. When she'd asked, Terry had said that he was a tanker, and she took that to mean that he was in a tank unit. She found out about their next duty weekend and went to see for herself. To her surprise and joy, that unit was equipped with Ferrets, not battle tanks. She expressed an interest, and that took her love affair with the armoured car to the next level. She used her sweet looks to get to actually touch a Ferret, and that led to her career as an Army reservist. Because of her resume and the aptitude that she'd shown the recruiters, she became one of the very few females in an active role as a mechanic, after she'd indicated clearly that she wanted no part of the admin or clerical roles that they'd thought to offer her. Not long after her basic training was completed, the unit transitioned to the Mark 5 Ferret, the last of the line and the most advanced, though it was coming out of service with front line units. Kate devoured every scrap of information that she could get her hands on and after the Ferret was finally out of service a few years later, so was Kate. But by that time, she'd become something of an authority on all things Ferret. She was active in several re-enactment groups and had a line on where to get most sorts of spare parts for the things. Ferrets were highly sought after by collectors and somewhere in the process, most of their owners would end up speaking to Kate Perkins for her advice and technical knowledge. And that led to her part-time job at the museum out at the same base where she'd served so long. When she wasn't working at her father's garage, having long since gotten her license for it, she was wrenching on armored vehicles. The Ferret was long out of the inventory now, but the museum had several, one each of all of the important marks in at least presentable and displayable condition. Her personal favorite was the Mark 5, obviously. It was the last and best-developed of the line, beginning in service long after her father had left the army. Altogether, there had likely been very near to sixty models and variants of the thing. Some were flat topped, most had hand operated turrets where the commander could stand up inside and if things got sticky, he could work the machine gun there. The Mark 5 had a turret also, but it was low and flat, being an odd sort of shape. It had to be, since it mounted a remotely operated gun now as well as the sensor systems of the modern and continuously evolving battlefield. In the final model, the old Ferret had gotten its teeth at last, since it mounted a launcher on each side, and in each one there slept two Swingfire missiles. The Ferret still had to be wary of bumping into main battle tanks, but at least it could kill them now too. The museum had three examples; one on display, one for parts, and one operational one - 'Farley'. Farley had been out for the show on display both days of the weekend along with a few other fighting vehicles on the lawn. Kate had stood by Farley all day, dressed in surplus Army coveralls and answering questions about the Mark 5, where it had served, what its weapon systems were and what they were used for, the kinds of threats that it could engage and what it had to stay clear of on the modern battlefield - things like that. At the museum show that Saturday, every now and again Kate had fired it up and swung the powered turret back and forth, working the Swingfire launcher tubes up and down as she laid the cross-hairs of the sight onto one of the 'gate guardian' tank hulks off toward the base entrance gatehouse. Now and then, if she'd found that she had an audience which looked large and interested enough, she'd take out the remote sight unit and target other features in the distance while the folks watched the launcher tubes lock on from the signals of the handheld unit that they'd been slaved to. A woman had asked what the purpose for that had been back in the day and Kate had smiled as she explained. "The Ferret has always been used in a more or less reconnaissance or scouting role, and could never engage targets much more dangerous than soldiers out in the open. It could never survive a direct engagement with any sort of tank or heavily armored vehicle by itself. This version allows the Ferret to remain hidden out of sight, like behind a copse of trees or a low hill and from there, it could kill main battle tanks without revealing itself using its Swingfire missiles, and the Mark 5 Ferret normally carried four of those. This one has none in its tubes. The Swingfire missile has a range of 4 kilometres and is optically tracked via the camera in its nose. The operator flies the missile using this joystick on the controller here and it is wire-guided. The missile is capable of up to a ninety degree turn just after launch, allowing it to be launched upward from behind cover and then turning to ride its targeting signals to the target. It flies at a speed of 186 metres per second or well over 600 kilometres per hour, carrying a 7 kilogram High Explosive Anti-Tank warhead. Depending on where they were hit, main battle tanks of today might survive that, "Kate smiled, "maybe. Tanks built up to the mid 1980s would definitely be in trouble and would not want to engage a Ferret with Swingfire capability unless they knew that they had a first-shot advantage. Of course in a shootout out in the open, the Ferret would lose unless it got the first hit. For smaller and closer threats, the turret mounts an L7 Belgian-made 7.62mm machine gun which is remotely controlled and sighted and again, the one here is deactivated. The turret can rotate 360 degrees, and the main body mounts 6 smoke grenade launchers, three to a side to generate a smoke screen to hide behind. The tactic wouldn't work well on the battlefield of today because of the type of targeting systems currently in use, however there are smoke grenades available which are partially effective against infra-red radar and laser sighting systems. Ferrets have always relied on their relative high speed to survive, since they can run at 93 kilometres per hour on their large tires which have a "run flat" capability so that even if they are shot out, you can still get home. The vehicle is an all-wheel-drive type and while uncomfortable cross-country at high speed; it is about twice as fast as a main battle tank." "You certainly know quite a bit about Ferrets," a man said. Kate grinned, "Thank you. I used to work on them as a mechanic in the reserves and my father drove an early Mark during his service. That's how I fell in love with them," she said, "I have my own now. I call this one Farley Ferret and it belongs to the museum. My own is named Fanny, and I take her to shows. She's a Mark 5 as well," Kate smiled, "but Fanny is an Ex-Australian Army girl and she's in desert paint." "You own one of these?" the man asked, a little shocked. Kate had nodded, "I've wanted one forever and when I had a chance at one that I liked, I blew my savings account to bits. It's taken me two years to get her looking good and overhauled, but it's well worth it to me." Farley was kept in one bay of the shop undergoing restoration and was about 96% complete as a drivable example. Kate's job at the museum got her the use of its facilities and that allowed her to keep Fanny in fine shape. Kate had been the project lead on Farley's restoration. With her father's knowledge and advice along with her "wrench" background, she'd been a natural, and the curator's trust in her was absolute. --------------------------- So was the darkness around her. She reached for her left front pants pocket and jammed her hand in deep, looking for the thin LED flashlight there. Pulling it out carefully, she remembered what had happened, but tried not to think about it as she pressed the flat button to turn it on. She was sprawled uncomfortably in one place and jammed even more uncomfortably in a few others inside Fanny's interior. Kate wished once more that she was a thin little thing, but nature hadn't been that kind. She wasn't unattractive, she knew, but lanky people always seem to fit tight places like this better than the, ... well, her last boyfriend had called her "juicy". It had made her laugh a little at the time and she'd just left it at that. She'd complained about it once to her Dad, and he'd just laughed and told her that she was a beautiful young woman -- who just happened to be built for larger men, that was all. There had been a lot of her father's love in the statement, but like about anything that he said to her, it also contained a grain of truth. Kate might not be a thin little thing, but she was in fine shape, and she was fairly strong and stood an even six feet tall. Her reply to her Dad was that she was an Amazon and they'd just laughed about it together. "So is this your way of telling me that you fancy women?" he's asked, "I think there was supposed to be some of that to the legends." "Sod that," Kate had laughed, "I like men. I just can't seem to find many that I like, that's all." Her Dad had nodded, "I understand, Katy. But if you can stand a little advice from your old gaffer, you ought to maybe spend a little less time working under Fanny's bonnet and cast your eyes around, yeah? I can tell you that it gets harder and harder to find somebody every minute, the older that you get." After the show was over, Kate had promised to lock everything up, but she told her boss that she wanted to do a little work on Fanny and he'd agreed. So she'd changed out Fanny's oil and oil filter and had then gotten out her paint kit and had carefully applied a caricature of a humanish-looking ferret girl flexing the muscle in her bicep with a saucy wink onto both sides of the turret. Nothing large or garish, they were just a tasteful little touch indicating her pride in herself and her Ferret. She'd stood back to admire them, both sides, and had then gone to the lunch room to retrieve her small cooler from the fridge there. While she was at it, Kate looked around carefully and seeing no one about, she walked back to the service bay where Fanny sat and climbed in to lock herself inside, carefully dogging the hatches. Kate had a little ritual that had to do with Ferrets. A couple of years before, she'd been sitting in the driver's seat of the museum's Mark 3 and had looked down for some reason. What she saw made her reach for her little flashlight, and after a good look, she pulled out the seat to do a proper clean up job under it. She'd found an old condom just peeking out under the edge of the seat cushion, obviously used long before. Despite being a bit grossed out over it, clean ups like this were a part of her job. She just wondered about it, that was all. Ferret Girl Ch. 01 It must have been there for years, she thought, given how difficult it had been to get the degraded latex to give up its hold on the metal floor plate. When she'd pulled out the seat completely, she'd had to laugh - and curse a little. There were about ten of them there. The clean-up took half an afternoon and a bit of solvent to make it all look spit-shined. After that, she'd had to wonder about just how the hell you could manage an act like that in the close confines of a Ferret interior. It became a fun little pastime for her as she worked on other things. How does one enjoy a bit of a fuck in a place like that? But the whole thing, as rude and nasty as it had been, gave Kate another idea, and sometimes, when there was no one else about, she'd lock herself inside Fanny if she could manage it and have a bit of private fun. Well if you were in a bullet-proof metal box on wheels and no one could see or hear you, ... Since Fanny spent a lot of time at the museum, she preferred her own Ferret for it. If she was away at a show and it wasn't too cold, she'd found that she could camp out quite comfortably inside her Ferret. With a little thought, she'd configured an LED interior lighting system that drew very little from the battery. It wasn't as bright as the original one, but then that was for when the engine was running, this one was for when it was off. She'd bought a surplus military arctic sleeping bag and she'd be toasty in it, if a little cramped. It might not have room service, but it was fairly comfy and it was fun and cost her nothing. She'd lock up and sleep in a huge T-shirt inside the sleeping bag in a modified sitting/sprawled-out position. The downside to that was that sometimes, she'd wake up really cramped and knotted like today. The other downside was that she had no one to share this with. Ferrets were fun to Kate. If it was a normal weekend during the summer months, she'd pull one of them out into the sunshine and wearing the T-shirt and cut-off jeans that she'd brought for the purpose, she'd wash them. The "car wash" sometimes got her into some fun conversations with men now and then, but she was always mindful about her job. Sweet gigs like this just didn't happen very often. But once everyone was gone and she was alone with Fanny in her stall, Kate was inside and loving it. What had happened that day was that Kate had overdone it. She'd been working long hours at her dad's shop and then she'd kept right on working, preparing for the upcoming show. The power nap that she'd intended to have had lasted over four hours. She pulled her old laptop out of her knapsack and booted it up. The clock told her that it was after ten PM. That caused her even more trouble. She really had to pee, but she didn't dare to walk through the shop to use the toilets, since there were ultrasonic motion sensors there. But necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and Kate had come up with a plan. She was quick about it and took a couple of tissues with her when she peed over the floor drain. A moment with the shop hose and nobody was the wiser. She pulled out her cellphone. The museum curator answered on the third ring and Kate explained what had happened. "I'm a little trapped here, David," she said in embarrassment, "I can't go back into the main shop area because the motion sensors have surely come on by now and I don't want to have to explain it all to the base MPs when they respond to an alarm. I'm fine right here in the service bay area, and I've still got my cooler full of goodies to eat, so I'm alright. But I was supposed to be in that meeting tomorrow that you were talking about on Friday. I'll still be there, I just won't really be in um, business attire, if it's alright with you." Her boss was fine with everything and after making sure that Kate was definitely alright, he rang off. Kate shook her head to herself and looked for something to eat in her cooler. She read some of an ebook on her PC and after that, Kate Perkins did her best to find a comfortable position in the commander's position and tried to go to sleep. She thought about maybe getting back with William, her last boyfriend, but threw the idea onto the scrapheap after only a little thought. Bill suffered from an incurable condition. It wasn't fatal or anything, and there was a lot of help to be had on the subject and all. But in order to affect a cure, the patient had to agree that he suffered from it in the first place, and Bill had steadfastly refused to concede the possibility that there was even a problem. After a lot of trouble on her part to help, Kate had given up finally, knowing that without at least admitting it to himself, there was nothing that she could do for him and that he'd likely die with the condition, though by itself, it wouldn't kill him, while Kate herself likely would if she stayed with him. She'd been warned going in, she remembered. His own sister, her best friend, had told her of his ailment in no uncertain terms as she tried to wave her off. Now? Well, now, Kate knew that his sister had been right on the money about the incurable malady. Bill was an asshole. With that decided and with Fanny's hatches buttoned up, Kate set the alarm on her phone and eased herself and her arctic sleeping bag a little lower. She had a rough idea what her meeting with David would be about in the morning. She thought about some nice tropical scenery; warm beaches and palm trees as her hands began to tease her breasts. Before long, one of her hands slid down to begin a little work between her thighs as she imagined a pleasant little scene on a beach late at night. --------------------------- "I'm acting in a bit of a different role here today," David Markham said quietly as the two of them sat in his office the following morning. "I've received a request for a referral and frankly, both you and the museum stand to gain from it, though it would mean a bit of a change for you." "Well," Kate smiled as she worked on the breakfast that her boss had thoughtfully brought for her, "let's hear it then. A change is as good as a rest." The forty-three year old curator steepled his fingers together and thought for a moment. "As you know, Ferrets were sold to quite a few customers over the nineteen years that they were in production, twenty-five nations used them, past and present, though there are only nine current users." "Yes," Kate smiled, rolling her eyes, "and there were four thousand, four hundred and nine of the little darlings built in total. I know all of that, David. Please go on." He smiled, "Well I know that you're an authority, but I don't know if you're aware that the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis still has three Ferrets running supposedly, though I don't know which of the two islands they're on or anything. There were at one time many sugar plantations there and it was a large source of income to the Crown. Those days are long gone now and after a long period of decline, the island of St. Kitts is undergoing a bit of a revival as it shifts its economy toward tourism and other industries. But there are still a couple of semi-active plantations, though they're quite modernized, I'm told and there are other crops grown there as well, the sugar industry still being largely closed. One of these is still operated by one of the old families on the island though they grow other crops there as well, and they have expressed a serious interest in leasing the Ferret that you have named Farley from the museum and they wish as well to speak to you about hiring the services of you and Fanny. You would need to keep both units up and running and they know that you've got a military background and are familiar with small arms." He looked a little uncomfortable for a moment. "I've um, ... I've also told them that you did at one time cross-train into the military police role, so they'll want to talk to you about that as well." Kate almost swallowed her fork. "Alright, " she said, "this sounds a little bit funny to me, and I don't mean hilarious, though the morning is still young, I suppose. What do they want the Ferrets for? They're only good for a very few things, David. You can use them on a battlefield, or you can use them in support of a peacekeeping sort of role as the UN did, or, ..." She looked up. "You could use them to keep a local population under control, and if there's anything like that to this, I'm not interested, and I'll tell you that right now." He shook his head, "No. Nothing like that. They have a bit of a security problem that the local police can't really help with. They're offering to pay for the transport to ship both Mark 5s to the island and back at the end of it all, and pay your fare as well. They want to hire them for a period of two years, and your role will be to keep them running as I've said, as well as operate Fanny too. It'll be a busy thing, Kate, and there may be a bit of excitement to it all as well." His phone rang at that point and he walked to his desk to answer it. He had a bit of a nervous smile when he stepped back to the table. "There's a man here who represents the customer, a Mr. Morris. I'm sure that he'll be able to explain it a lot better. From the museum's point of view, other than a few insurance issues, this represents a lot of money offered for the use of one of our vehicles, and I'm certain that what they might offer you enough to at least keep your attention long enough to hear him out and consider, Kate." Everton Morris was a powerfully-built, middle aged man of African-Caribbean descent who looked only mildly interested in being there, but was obviously much-used to being sent on errands around the world for his employers. He shook Kate's hand, after giving her a bit of a surprised appraising look. David looked a little uncomfortable, "Ms. Perkins had already been hard at work this morning, Mr. Morris," he fibbed, "I neglected to tell her about the meeting today." Morris nodded and began to lay out the requirement. A few minutes later, Kate got her chance to ask the questions that were top of mind to her. "What are your needs here, sir?" she asked, "I'm trying to figure out why you'd need or want Ferrets for use on a plantation." Morris looked annoyed, "The plantation is a modern and well-run farm by anyone's standards with a highly skilled workforce, " he explained, "the property ends at the ocean's edge on one side and the other activities have nothing to do at all with that, but we've had troubles with drug runners using the property there to trans-ship. They pull a yacht into one of the coves and a few smaller craft come to them in the shallow water close in to shore. We are concerned that some of this product is at least stored on our property at best and produced there at worst. You can imagine that this is not desirable for the Cardington family to even be unwitting participants in this sort of thing. The police have tried to help, but have not been successful, or I should say that it hasn't even gone very well. At first, we'd notice and we'd call, but it took far too long for them to respond. These people are well-armed, better than the constables. St. Kitts is a small nation. We do not have the resources to do much about this. Now we have trouble getting the police to even come, and it's affecting some of the workers. They fear that if the police cannot do anything, it will only be a matter of time before they themselves are threatened in some way or another. We are not talking about regular farm labor here, Ms. Perkins, though there is still a little of that. Most of our workforce is skilled, and if they feel themselves or their families threatened, they know that they can find good work elsewhere, so it is important to us that they stay and feel secure. Mr. Cardington thought of using Ferrets to patrol the shoreline here and there. He'd seen the old Ferrets that are used now and then for civic celebrations, more as participants than anything else. He knows that those ones are very old and thought to hire newer ones. We wish to have them patrol the perimeter and act as a deterrent, once it becomes known that they are there." He leaned forward and looked at Kate, "We wish to have you there to train some of our hired constables to use the Ferrets. We understand that one of them is your personal property and we can understand that you may not wish to have someone else operate it, and therefore, we would hope to use your services in a constabulary role as well. Frankly, we think that you'd be the best driver and instructor that we could hope to find, and so we are prepared to offer you a two year contract and hope that the pay might be attractive enough for you to at least consider." And that was how Kate found herself on board a freighter carrying two Ferret armored cars to a small and beautiful Caribbean nation a month later. ------------------------ Earlier that day, Kate sat on the bunk in her cabin and opened a few of the boxes around her. Back in the day, Ferrets were navigated by the commander using topographical maps. Things were a lot different now. She didn't really know much about the island, other than what she'd found out online. That had looked nice, but she knew that she wasn't destined for any of the touristy places, and she doubted that much existed in the form of maps that she could get her hands on. So she'd thought of her faithful little GPS. Well that was fine, but it didn't work all that well inside a metal-skinned scout car. That also ruled out getting one of the windscreen --mounted models. So she'd gotten some PC-based map and trip planning software that came with a little USB GPS antenna and she'd bought herself a new notebook PC .Twenty minutes later on the deck, she was looking at her present position on the little screen, plodding along at 18 knots and not a roadway in sight. The choice of the notebook had been a natural for Kate; it had its own battery, so she could use it independently of vehicle power. It would be nothing to mount the little sensor and run a USB cable. She was traveling as one of a very few passengers on the same freighter that carried the two Ferrets, some spare parts and her tools in a shipping container, besides its more conventional cargo. It was a pleasant enough way to travel, but it lacked most of the amenities that one might expect on a regular liner. There wasn't all that much to do. The crew was interesting and very friendly, but she didn't reciprocate their keen interest in her, and she tended to spend quite a lot of her time in her cabin, planning out what had to be done on arrival. Other than the job that she was preparing for, there was another reason for her keeping more or less to herself. After a few days, they were a lot farther south and it began to get much warmer. Kate spent a bit of time in the crew lounge, but she found that she couldn't get all that much done as she sat at a table with her notebook transcribing things into a quick and hopefully meaningful training agenda on operating the scout cars. Before long, one or two of the crew would come over to try to engage her in conversation. Passengers were a pleasant diversion for them from the monotonous job of crewing a tramp freighter. Kate was friendly, but she kept her distance from the sailors politely after a point. There was another problem, and he was on his way over to her at the moment. Kate sighed in a little exasperation. Some people just can't seem to understand 'no, thanks'. This had been going on for days, but she planned to put a stop to it very soon. The next day, she was sitting in the lounge in the morning, just finished her breakfast when she was approached by one of her fellow passengers, a rather obnoxious man who liked to drink almost constantly. He'd come to Kate's attention because of his tendency to make some rather crude suggestions to her at intervals of about three minutes every time that he found her. Finally, he made his mistake when he'd suggested that they go to her cabin for the day. Kate looked up angrily and closed her notebook to put it into her bag. She saw a few of the crew looking at the two of them intently. "I have an idea," she said, "I think that we ought to make this a little more into what it really is-an unpleasant possibility." "How d'yer mean?" he asked. "Well like a lot of arseholes, you can't seem to take no for an answer. It probably stems from a mistaken notion that you have that you are attractive to someone like me. I find the thought of going to bed with you to be repugnant and I've told you so, but you keep bothering me. Let's arm-wrestle," she smiled at him; "You put fifty quid on the table here. If you win, I'm all yours, yeah? If I win, the fifty's mine, and you get to see what all of these men here think of you regardless." He stared at her. "Well?" she leaned forward, "Have you got the fifty, or does a big man like you need to ask wifey for the money?" He stood up and in a few moments, there was a pile of paper bills on the table. In a few moments more, there were a few more interested sailors in the lounge laying down their money in side-bets as well, and when they were ready, one of the men offered to call it. When the sailor had counted to three, Kate slammed the drunk's arm down before he could blink. She lifted fifty pounds out of the pile of bills, folded them, and put them into her shirt pocket. "See?" she grinned, "Your money feels better already. Want to make it two out of three? I'll want a hundred this time." The fool blinked at her, "A hundred?" "Yeah," Kate beamed, "Double or nothing. Come on, here's your chance to put a woman in her place. You win, you screw me. I win, I keep screwing you, and I can tell you, you're an absolutely wonderful fuck so far." The crewmen roared in laughter and it had the desired effect on the fool's pride. He agreed, looking determined. -------------------------- Two hours later, there was a knock at Kate's cabin door. She opened it and found a thin woman standing there looking absolutely miserable. "You're the wife?" she asked. The woman nodded, "Yeah, God help me, I'm the wife. I was hoping tha -- " Kate shook her head, "It's alright," she said, as she reached into her shirt pocket. She handed over a wad of bills held together with a rubber band. "It's all here, four hundred and eighty quid. I wouldn't take the coins that he offered me. Oh!" she said, remembering, as she reached into her jeans and pulled out a set of car keys to hand them across to the now wide-eyed and mortified woman. "Oh God, ..." "Look," Kate said, "I'm sorry if this embarrasses you, but your man's an ass and whether you know it or not, you've got a problem. He's been bothering me every single day since we sailed and I'm really tired of it now. I've already been to the captain over it and I imagine that there'll be some fallout over this yet. I don't need somebody like your husband ruining my trip for me the way that he has been. I just had enough of it this morning, that's all." The woman began to say that her Paul wasn't really a bad sort, but he had a lot of things on his mind. Kate didn't buy any of it. "There's no excuse for what he's doing. The fact that you're here proves what he is, doesn't it? He doesn't have the stick to apologize himself, so he sends you to try to get his money back, or worse, you're here to appeal to me as a long-suffering wife while he sleeps it off. I feel for you, but I've seen his kind before, and this won't stop him. I'm telling you that you'd better do what you can to keep him on a short leash, or I'll pound the snot out of him the next time that he so much as opens his mouth to me. The way that his arm feels will be nothing, trust me." Ferret Girl Ch. 01 -------------------------- A day later, Kate was in the lounge again when she noticed the atmosphere change subtly. There were only three of the crew there at the time, but Kate noticed it when they all glanced at her for a moment. Sure enough, the man was back, but this time, he was looking penitent. "I'm sorry for the way that I've behaved to you," he said. Kate ignored him and bought herself another beer. She brought it back to her table and sat down. "May I sit down?" he asked. "No," she replied and looked the other way. "Look, I'm trying to apologize to you," he said, "I want to thank you for-" "Fuck off," Kate said quietly, "There's nothing that you can say that'll give me back the days that I had the unpleasant thought of you on my mind because you'd find me wherever I went. You might have learned something nasty about yourself, but I don't really give a shit. I saw how humiliated your wife was when SHE had to come to me to ask me to give her back the money and the keys to your car down there in the hold. It's her that you ought to apologize to." He exhaled, and for an instant, she could see that he still didn't get it. She knew that he wouldn't. This was all just window dressing because his poor wife and likely also the captain had demanded that he do this, that was all. "Bloody hell," he said, his face becoming florid in an instant. Kate stood up and leaned in close enough to smell that he'd been using some liquid courage for this. "Stay the fuck away from me," she growled quietly. "Get this close to me just once more, and I'll rip your favorite wanking arm right the fuck off and beat you about the head and shoulders with the wet end. Somebody as worthless as you doesn't change his spots in one day, so keep your bullshit to yourself and leave me alone." He looked around at the very interested faces of the crew members and walked out. When the door closed behind him, the three crewmen applauded. Kate smiled in embarrassment and drank her beer in peace. The freighter called at the U.S. Virgin Islands deep water port of Charlotte Amalie and Kate was a little pleased to see the troubled couple leave. Two days later, she was on St. Kitts watching one of the dock cranes at Basseterre off-load the container with Farley and Fanny. From there, they were loaded onto a large flatbed trailer and hauled to the plantation. Kate was met by Mr. Morris who looked to be a lot more comfortable and almost friendly now and she was shown her quarters in a small house very near to the building that would serve as the garage and service area for the scout cars. Two days afterward, she'd been given the list of names of the people who had volunteered for training. She looked at the list and wondered about one name. There were names such as she might expect to see, some rather Anglo-sounding names and some Spanish ones which she thought probably fit with the past of the small island place. But that one name, .... J. Bandermann. That one kind of stuck out to her just a little. She shrugged and made a mental note to try to meet all of the individuals over the next few days. But first, she smiled to herself, first she had to learn a little bit about the place and where the roads and cowpaths were -- or weren't. ---------------------- Kate sat in the meeting room of the old house. From what she could tell, it had once been a huge dining room and the sheer size and length of the table bore that notion out. "I've completed the preparations to the scouts," she said, "Both are ready to go anytime, but for the matter of their armament. Have you gotten hold of another driver yet?" Morris nodded, "Yes. There were three applicants, but two of them have no experience driving anything like these vehicles. The heaviest thing they have experience with is Jeeps. One of the three has plenty of experience with armored vehicles, both wheeled and tracked, from armored personnel carriers to main battle tanks, but not with Ferrets. He is confident that he can learn." Kate sat up, a little interested, "Do you have any background on him? Where did he get his experience?" Errol Cardington looked at Morris. "We have someone like that?" Morris nodded, "Yes sir. It's the monk." Kate stared, "You have a tank-driving monk?" Morris shook his head, "His name is Bandermann. Jürgen Bandermann. "Kurgan?" she asked, "like in that old Highlander movie?" "No," Morris replied, shaking his head again, "His first name is pronounced as YOUR-gen." He smiled, "As far as the rest of it, well, you'll have to form your own opinion. They call him the monk. I don't really know why. He doesn't strike me as being very religious. I suspect that it's just a nickname. I can't really pull his file to show it to you without his permission, but he was in the German Army. I'll provide details that are relevant to you by tomorrow, Ms. Perkins. You said that you had a problem with the weapons?" She nodded, "Yes. I'm not all that excited to be rolling around with live weapons, but you know your business, I suppose, and I have experience. I was provided with two guns for the scouts. They're the correct type, but I'm not an armorer. I've never had to qualify on that type, so beyond mounting them, I can't do much with them. They're all gummed up with Cosmoline preservative grease." "I think that the monk may be able to help with that," Morris said. "From what I know, they're Belgian-made," Kate said. "This man was German Army, you said." Morris shrugged, "I think that he can likely handle it, and he's the type who can unravel mysteries rather well. Bandermann is a quiet man, but he says that he can drive and shoot anything and I am inclined to believe him. You asked for a certain type of man for a driver. Bandermann is our answer to your request. If you agree to try him out, I'll have him released from his normal shift rotation to help you." ---------------------- He seemed to be having just a bit of difficulty today. His fingers had been giving him a bit of trouble. Well it wasn't really a surprise, he thought, he really hadn't played in a year or so since he'd been here. But he'd been feeling the want of it and had searched all over until he'd found a guitar that he'd liked enough to buy. For no reason that came to mind, he was feeling a little more lost than usual and it came out in his playing on top of what he'd have expected at getting back into it. Lost. It was a very familiar feeling to him, he thought. Large and lost. He'd been a large, roundish boy, the butt of many of his classmate's jokes all through school. Since he was an only child, there wasn't anything in his home life that acted as a counter or sounding board for his feelings. His father was a truck driver who was most often away from home, and his mother was just stuck in her own world most often. So he was alone at home and alone at school. It didn't do much for his self-confidence back then. He got bigger as he grew older, but he also grew more and more introverted and shy. It was something that was still inside of him to some degree, though he could force himself past it, or even forget it for a time if there was a need to do that. There had been a road accident one day in the Swiss Alps and his father had died as a result. His mother had become even more distant. It was his uncle who'd saved him just after her overdose of sleeping pills. Cast into a new family dynamic, he'd just tried to hide, but his uncle would have none of it. "You might feel like one at first but you are not some stranger here," he said, "I know that you have always felt apart from everything. Anyone can see this by looking at you. But here you are family, yes?" The uncle and aunt's attempts at integrating Jürgen into the household were at least partially successful. There was more to be done, but the older man knew that a lot of the trouble lay in how the boy saw himself and so he thought of ways to improve the picture somewhat. That had led to the day where Jürgen stood holding a long flat cardboard box. If contained a gift from his uncle. The boy opened it and looked at something that appeared so foreign to him that he had no clue what it was. All that he saw were two rather odd-shaped handles and five fabric-covered rubber cords. "What is it?" He asked. Uncle Heinz chuckled, "You don't have any yet, but if you're not careful with this, you'll find that it's a very effective chest hair remover. This is a chest expander. This is the first step for you," he said, "Come and sit down, Jürgen. We will have a talk between men, you and I." His aunt laughed a little and said that she was off to visit a friend of hers for the evening. "I have no wish to hear any of this," she said, and she put her hand on the head of her sister's son and tousled his hair affectionately, "Try to listen to your uncle. You need to come out of your shell at least a little, Jürgen." His aunt and uncle had always been his favorite relatives, and though he felt like trying to hide under the floor tiles, Jürgen sat and listened as his uncle gently told him what was what. "I know that if I asked you and if you were honest with me and yourself, how you would describe your body would not be in perhaps very proud terms. We are all different, Jürgen, but I know that your own description would be too cruel and not very accurate. You see yourself as, ... well, rounder than you are. I saw how you worked at cutting the grass for me last weekend, and what I saw was that you are made more like me than like your father, and while I do not wish to take anything away from him, I can say that what you do not like about yourself may be changed. You are only fourteen years old. There is still a little time, but if you want more for yourself than what you think that you see when you look at yourself in a mirror, then you need to want it very badly and you need to speak up and tell me so." He chuckled to himself, "And you will have to at least listen and try to understand what I try to tell you." The adult Jürgen Bandermann smiled to himself as he remembered the first rude shock that had awaited him after he'd told his uncle that he'd do anything to change how he looked. "The first thing is one of the most important, "the man had said, "You can eat all of the food that you want, but you can't eat very much garbage anymore. That alone will help a lot, and the skin of any young person has enough trouble all by itself. Eating garbage will only turn your face into an active volcano field." So that evening began Jürgen's long journey. His uncle would only allow him to use the chest expander with one of the rubber bungee cords. "I know that you can pull this easily," he said, "but you cannot pull it two hundred times a day with only one and that is the key, Jürgen." His uncle got him started and waited patiently as the boy struggled and he helped him through the mountain of doubts. The chest expander was only the first step, because the boy could measure his progress by adding more bungee cords one at a time as he grew. As Jürgen grew stronger, he was given weight training, and Uncle Heinz was there beside him every step of the way. Two years later, Jürgen fell in love with martial arts and it began another phase that Heinz had planned, but under it all was that old gift. The paint had chipped almost all the way off the wooden handles and the cords looked pretty tired, but Jürgen still used the thing. No one laughed at him anymore, but there was still one effect of his early life left in him. He was a quiet and rather shy man. He was aware of the way that he looked, and had been pleased to find the different body that his uncle had said was in there, but Jürgen still had the shyness. The guitar had been an idea of his aunt's. "You can turn into Tarzan if you like, "she'd said with a smile, "but you need to have something other than what you have been doing in your life or you will turn into a stupid brute." Jürgen had no idea what she'd meant, but one night, she took him to a restaurant where the brother of a friend played often. Like anyone his age, Jürgen loved music, but he'd never heard anything like this, and almost before he knew it, he was talking lessons and enjoying it rather than hating the drudgery of playing scales and simple pieces as he began. He'd already learned the benefit of a little mental application. At seventeen, his uncle pulled him aside on evening. "Time to take stock again, Nephew," he grinned. "If you want to stay the way that you look, you will need to try to find some sort of occupation that will demand at least something physical from you every once in a while. Also, you are still a little too quick to withdraw from others. This might be the hardest struggle for you," he smiled proudly, "but look at how far you have come from where you were when you first came to live with us. You need something which forces you to interact now. It will be hard, but, ..." "I have always listened to you before, Uncle," Jürgen said, "what would you suggest now?" A week after his eighteenth birthday, Jürgen enlisted in the Deutsches Heer. He found life in the army to be satisfying enough, and so he'd stayed. It pulled him the rest of the way out of his shell and he liked the challenges that it offered. Whenever he'd begun to get to feeling a bit set in his ways, he shrugged and found more challenges. But every road has an end, and Jürgen wondered what life "outside" might be like. A few quiet conversations had gotten him some assurances that there was still a place for him if he chose to return within a set time, and so he'd taken two years off, and now found himself wondering why he'd done it. Almost a year had gone by and he was bored out of his mind here as a hired constable working at providing security for what amounted to a large farm on a small island with another year to go to the end of his contracted time. He sighed and went back to commanding his fingers to obey. He'd heard the talk that morning at the beginning of his shift meeting that the hired scout cars had arrived and that a driver was being sought. Previous experience driving armored military vehicles would be considered an asset and type-specific training would be available. Jürgen looked down as he noticed several sets of eyes swing towards him and there was a pregnant pause in the room. "What is the vehicle type and model, if possible, please," he said in his thick accent as he looked up, ignoring the looks. The shift commander looked down at his notes for a moment, "I'm not sure," he said, "what I've got here is Ferret, if that means anything to you." "Model please, if it is there," Jürgen said. "Why?" His boss asked, "What difference does it make?" "It makes enough difference to me that I would like to know," Jürgen said quietly. "There are three Ferrets on this island already. They are Mark 2s and they are very old. Have you ever seen all three of them running at the same time?" The commander stared for a second and then thought for a moment. "No," he said, "I can't say that I have ever seen all three running." "That is because they steal parts from one to keep another one running. If the ones that you are talking about are that old, I have no interest at all." "What I've got here is that they're Mark 5s, Jürgen. Is that new enough for you?" "Better," Jürgen replied. "Oh, and both of them are ex-Australian, if that means anything to a connoisseur such as yourself." "Even better," Jürgen smiled just a little, "I think that they were the last ones made and the last out of service. I believe that they had the best upgrades too." "Do you think that you could learn to drive them?" "Ja, "he shrugged, "I can drive anything. Is there a bonus if I take this additional work?" "No," his boss frowned, "Are you saying that you won't accept if you don't get a bonus for it?" "I didn't say that," he smiled, "I was just asking. Driving any armored vehicle in this climate only means sweat. Driving something old means that you sweat even more. A bonus means that maybe I can buy a fan," he grinned to some quiet laughter around him. Ferret Girl Ch. 02 ***The chapters in this are a little short on purpose, since the level of detail is a little thick, so I didn't want to make any reader's eyes glaze too badly. Kate the wondergirl wanders a little on the island and wonders why the agreed to it. 0_o ---------------- After getting her things squared away in her little cottage, Kate began to work on the Ferrets. It was the same dirty work that she'd always done, but doing it in this climate took some getting used to. Her long auburn hair stuck to her face and neck from the sweat as she worked. She tied it into a ponytail, and that had helped to keep it a little clean, she supposed, but she found herself thinking about just cutting it all off to be done with the trouble. By about six o'clock in the evening, Kate had had about enough. She wandered into her cottage and looked at what was in the freezer compartment of the fridge. She cautiously examined a frozen dinner, and after checking the expiry date, she just tossed it into the microwave. It came out alright, though it was nothing special. Kate didn't care. She'd spent a whole day at this, and now she decided that after the meal, she'd either go the whole bath route and head to bed, or, ... go for a little trip. ------------------------- Kate was back in the garage, sweating anew as she checked all of Fanny's lubricant and fluid levels. After asking for and receiving permission that morning to try to work out a single lap patrol route, as well as try to get her bearings, she was pumped. She opened the door and climbed into her scout car. She went through the pre-start list and a minute later, the starter ground out its whining song and the 6 cylinder engine was running as Kate booted her notebook and waited for the antenna to acquire a few of the Global Positioning System satellites as she kept an eye on the gauges relating to the engine and electrical systems. With everything up, she consulted the map that she'd been given and tried to relate that to what she was looking at on her PC screen. It matched up fairly well – in a "close enough for jazz" sort of way, so she tuned one of her radios to the security gatehouse frequency that she'd scribbled down and checked in, identifying herself and her intent to drive round the Eastern beaches road and then return. She released the parking brake and selected first gear. After grinding around the yard a little while, she set the brake and climbed out to lock up the garage, but after that, she thought about things. She'd planned to wash off the sweat and get cleaned up anyway after this, but now Kate decided that she just had to get out of the coveralls that were sticking to her, so after a quick shower back in the cottage, she walked out wearing a bikini top and a pair of cut-off jeans as well as her work boots. She carried her coveralls anyway, in the unlikely event that Fanny broke down. Clambering back in, she cranked Fanny over again and glanced at her map before turning out onto the main farm road. Twenty minutes later, she was idling along a pair of ruts headed down to a path that ought to take her along a few of the coves and beaches. There was still plenty of light left in the day and the drive proved interesting and not all that challenging to her, but she didn't mind a bit. She had new territory to explore now. The time wore away as she ground along the ruts, some of which were just about at the limits of what a two-wheel drive truck might be expected to be able to handle, she came up a low rise and stopped. She was looking at a little cove, a little bay which opened out onto the ocean, and there was the pale reddish glow of the oncoming sunset. Kate opened the driver's hatch and looked around. She didn't want to block the rutted path, since a lot of the skill of navigating something such as this with a regular vehicle depended upon one being able to keep up a bit of momentum. If somebody came along here where she was, they'd have to stomp on the brakes and they'd likely sink into the mud and sand for it. But there was a space in between a pair of trees, she decided, so she backed in there, a little surprised that the leafy overhang hung onto Fanny's turret by the sounds of it. She closed the driver's hatch, being careful not to let it bang and thought about the scene in front of her and almost gave in to the notion to open it up again, but there were already a couple of mosquitoes who'd made their entrance as it was. She didn't want to have to drive all the way back swatting and scratching. Kate sat admiring the little scene for a moment, and then decided to stay for a while. She turned off the ignition and just stared as the now-ruddy fireball of the sun began to sink toward the horizon. She unfastened her seat and shoulder harness and sat up to ease herself backward into the commander's position. Reaching up, she turned on the targeting camera to watch for a few moments and as a test. She was thinking about the next two years on this island. Kate had no expectations, but she did have a bit of a hope to maybe meet someone at least a little interesting here. It would be nice. She'd always been able to handle being a bit of a solitary soul, but, this out of the way spot on a small leeward island seemed to make her feel the want of a warm male body just a little more keenly, that was all. She was just thinking about shutting off the camera when she thought she heard the sounds of someone running. It was just barely possible to hear from inside and that was only because there were no other sounds beside the soft hum from the drive of her notebook. She had to listen carefully for a moment or two to be certain of it, but yes, someone was running along the dirt track in the woods along the shore, she was sure of it now. She slid down and dogged the driver's hatch, returning to dog the commander's hatch on the turret as well. She sat and wondered a little as the pace of the running slowed. Kate didn't know if the runner had noticed the armoured scout car or not. Maybe the sight of it had caused them to slow to a stop, she didn't know. She looked at the small monitor. She couldn't see much at first. The sun was now very near the horizon, and at this latitude, it almost seemed to be in freefall to someone from a more northerly latitude like her. She stopped down the camera to protect the sensor. As she looked, a little worried that she likely wouldn't see the runner, her jaw began to drop. She couldn't see all that well, since he was silhouetted by the sunlight, but she did like the shape that she saw. He was almost dead center in the screen and apparently oblivious to the presence of a five ton reconnaissance vehicle a little behind him in the trees. Kate couldn't have managed this any better to save her life, and it was just as well, too. She might have been able to get him centered a bit better, but that would have necessitated her rotating the turret a little, and that would certainly attract his attention from the whine of the transiting motor. He stood before her, about fifty feet away and facing the same sunset scene which had caused her to look. After a few moments, he walked to the water's edge and removed his shoes and running shorts before stepping in. Kate reasoned that her mouth must have already been open – at least a little – otherwise, she was sure that her chin would have hit the metal of the compartment with a bang. She had no idea who this was, but that didn't matter. He was gorgeous. She hit the record button to save this and she wondered if she dared to risk the slight sound that stepping up the magnification might make. She decided against it. He was almost too close for the optics anyway. Even so, Kate couldn't keep the grin off her face as she turned on the targeting reticule and almost laughed as she watched the crosshairs there in the screen, right over his sweet ass. The ground sloped a little and he sank in her view as he walked away, so she adjusted and bit her lower lip a little as she heard the soft whine of the camera as it angled down a little to keep him in view. Now that, she decided, was really nice. She almost yelled in her disappointment as he leaned forward a little to dive in. She watched him swim around the little cove for about five minutes, and opened up the camera a bit to compensate for the loss of light from the fading sunset. She was really enjoying this. But then she began to fret a little. Whenever he decided to step out, he'd just have to look up and when he did, he'd have to see Fanny's big front end there facing him and that would end the show for certain. She wondered what she'd do for a moment, but then she found herself chuckling a little. Other than feel a little embarrassed, what could he do? She had permission to be here, after all, and unless he had one really big-assed can opener, ... The moment came when he turned to swim back to the shore and Kate felt a little twinge of sadness in her chest. The light level precluded her seeing his face. She waited, holding her breath for the moment when he'd have to notice that he wasn't alone here. But it never came. He walked up the little slope looking down, and Kate could just see a little of his male bits, though in no detail at all. When he got to where he'd left his shorts, he turned to lean against a fallen tree trunk and look at the very slight bright spot there on the horizon which marked where the sun had gone. Kate stared, watching from almost a side-on view of this mystery man and she could swear that she heard it when she saw him draw a breath and sigh. He didn't know it, but Kate sighed then too. But he didn't pull on his shorts and leave. Kate gasped as she saw his hand reach down. She cursed under her breath because there wasn't enough light to make out what he was doing. Not that it really mattered, she thought. What he was about to do was bloody obvious. As the last of the sunset's gleam winked out on the horizon, she stabbed the camera controls to engage the low-light sensor array, and with that done, Kate Perkins relaxed a little and actually heaved a much deeper sigh herself. She could see pretty well now, though the image was monochromatic. He was standing there with his eyes closed as he pleasured himself. Kate wanted more than ever to nudge up the magnification just a little now, but decided against it again. There was the whine of the optics to think about, but also, if she did that, and the angle and everything worked out absolutely perfectly, she knew that she'd be looking at something far too large, and she wasn't interested in just looking at that part of him if she lost the rest in her viewfinder. What he was doing aroused her, but only when taken within the context of the whole. She sat and stared, completely transfixed at the sight of an awesome man, not forty-five feet from her, and absolutely naked as he masturbated. She might as well have been watching a male lion or something like that, she realized a little sadly. For damn certain, he was married or gay or there was something which wouldn't work out for her if she met him. She knew how her life ran. Something like this just wasn't for her. Still, she decided, it wasn't as though she had little pornos like this dancing in her viewfinder every day. And she was aroused, after all, completely locked away and safe inside Fanny. Her top was undone a few seconds later and her shorts were opened and pulled down a little not long after that. She might not ever be able to get something as nice as what she was looking at, but damn, ... Kate stared at his face in profile for a little while, wishing that she could make it out clearly. What she saw was plenty nice enough to want to kiss, and as her eyes drifted lower on him, she almost moaned a little more when her other hand found her slick wetness. She gasped when she saw him reach for his balls to caress them for a little while to help himself along. She wanted to whimper, but bit her lower lip. Kate normally wasn't a big fan of watching DVDs of naked men, but this was live, in real time. She did moan – just a little – when he'd gasped and she watched his semen fly as he came. It only looked like something light in a dark and grainy image in the dim light of the display, but that couldn't be helped. This system wasn't designed for this at all. She was lucky to be able to get anything here. She watched him work his penis a little longer and then he cleaned himself up a little in the water at the shore before pulling on his shorts in a bit of a hurry. He didn't even look around. He just ran off, as though he was embarrassed by what he'd felt the need to have done. If she could have, she thought, ... If only the gods could have smiled on her just a little, just one time, she'd have been able to open the hatch and walk over to him. At the very least, she suddenly wanted so much to kiss that face and thank him for what he'd done – even though it hadn't been for her benefit. She'd watched a very fine male masturbate and within the context of her mind, he'd done nothing wrong to her. He'd only done something which had fascinated her long enough to want to believe in at least one man again. She didn't know a thing about him, and she was aware that in real life, he might be just as much an asshole as William. That didn't matter to Kate. For just a few moments, the man that she'd watched could have been anybody. And as an 'anybody', then it was up to her to assign him a personality and so she did. She'd probably never see him again and it wasn't a fair comparison at all, but to Kate, there was now another man who was as even-tempered and as kind as her father – well, she smirked, this one was a dirty little thought and her Dad was just her father. Well yeah, Kate thought, her Mum had certainly made out alright in her choice of a kind man, from the sounds that she remembered hearing not infrequently from their bedroom, once she'd known what they were about. Kate saw him leave her field of view and she listened carefully to hear his footfalls receding away along the rutted path. She leaned back and moved her hips a little as she worked herself. It took a lot, but she stopped the recording before she slid her fingers inside herself. After her own loud and surprisingly satisfying orgasm, she reviewed the video, stepping through it quickly to be sure of what the camera had gotten. After that, she sat and thought about which way to go. Did she want to go on in the dark, or would it be better to go back? Since she didn't know what awaited her, she sat for a good twenty minutes before she cranked the starter and slowly idled Fanny out of her hiding place and headed on the way that she'd originally been going, pretty much as slowly as she could, wanting to give him the best chance to get ahead. When she couldn't see much of anything anymore, she turned on the headlamps. She saw no sign of the man, but she did see where his tracks had turned off the path on his way to somewhere. Kate sighed and ground on through the dark. ------------------------ Back in the garage, she shut everything off and climbed out to close up the main doors. Climbing back inside, Kate smiled a little. Fanny's interior smelled of her earlier arousal. She didn't mind it a bit as she pulled out the connector for the portable hard drive that she'd installed. After her bath and settled into her bed with a cup of tea, Kate booted her old laptop after connecting the drive. After copying the video, she erased everything from the portable drive and sat back to watch what she'd captured again. But this time, Kate watched the man more than the act, and she decided that she liked him, though she knew nothing at all about him and likely never would. That didn't matter to Kate one little bit. Now that she knew how she felt about him, she almost didn't want to meet him. Like this, living on her laptop hard drive, he was a handsome and really nice man who happened to be built like a tank himself and he was human enough to have needs. To her, he was an all-around great guy, and he'd stay that way and never change. It was better that way. When she'd met him, her William had been a nice guy too, ... before he's shown her just what an asshole he really was. Kate liked the man in her video as he was and decided that this was one bubble that she didn't want to ever burst. ------------------------ After another long day at work, Kate thought about checking out a little of the nightlife, but after a thought, she came to the realization that she was a ways away from any of that in terms of the distance involved. She decided to ask about hiring a car or something the next day. She was about to try to figure out how to get to the little canteen and restaurant in the place before it closed, since she was more than a little hungry now. There was a knock at the door, and opening it, Kate saw her saviour in the form of Corinne Morris, Everton Morris' daughter. They'd met briefly her first day at the large old house. Corinne was a gorgeous young woman a little below Kate's age, and she'd been wondering why Kate had been nowhere to be found for a few days now. "I was down at the company store and I thought that you might not know how to get there from here, so I've brought you your groceries." She pointed to the beat-up Toyota pickup in Kate's small driveway. Kate was astounded. "My groceries?" "Sure," Corrine beamed, "You're allotted some basic staples every week, since you're in one of the cottages. Help me get this stuff out of the truck, and I'll show you around a little." It turned into a far better evening than Kate had imagined, and after a lot of fun where she'd been introduced to far too many people for her to remember, they sat on the hood parked a ways back from the strand of one beach on the plantation's property and shared a couple of beers. The beach was almost deserted with not much going on. Corrine was mindful that Kate might not want to talk about work all that much, so she stayed away from the topic. "Is there anything that you'd like to know about things around here?" she asked. "Well yeah," Kate grinned over the neck of the bottle that she held before taking a sip, "Where the hell are all the gorgeous men around here? I've sailed a long way to get here, and I know that this is a job, but bloody hell, all that I've seen around here so far are married blokes, from what I can tell. Everyone here is really friendly, but –" Corinne grinned, "I don't think you'll have much trouble meeting men around here, the way that you look, Kate," Corinne grinned, "I've already heard some of the fascinated talk over Red Sonja, the lady with the tanks. I know they're not tanks, but that's what they say anyway. And as far as getting to know things around here, that's what I'm here for," Corrine laughed, "to show you how things are here. There are a few single guys," she said, "but most of the men here are married and live with their families, since they're here under long term contracts. A lot of them come here and once they get tired of flying back and forth home a few times, they bring their families, a lot of them. It makes the place a lot more like a little town all by itself. I like it. Kate admired Corrine's features and her long hair and the ringlets which hung far down her back and over her shoulders. "That's how I got here," she said to Kate. "Daddy got his job here and we moved here a year later. I was born in Kent, but I just grew up here, a transplanted island girl. My Mum was born in Jamaica, and Daddy is from London. They just traded one island for another and here I am." She looked at Kate and grinned, "But I think I know why you're asking. There are a lot of beaches, some here and of course, there are lots of them all over the island. The best places to meet guys are the bars, just like everywhere else, I guess. We can do that tomorrow, maybe. I can show you around the town too. I know most everybody – or I know their friends." Ferret Girl Ch. 02 Just then, Kate saw a lone figure running along the beach, just at the edge of the water, with a ball cap low over his face. She looked for a moment, and then she began to stare as she watched the man began to sprint, pounding along the sand as he went. The two women said nothing as they watched him go past, oblivious to them. He seemed to keep his gaze fixed on some distant feature of the horizon. When he was out of their sight – still sprinting, Corrine began to laugh softly. "He's just like a machine," she chuckled, "I've seen him go by here on his runs a lot of times and he always begins his sprint in the same place. I'll bet that if I put a piece of driftwood at the place where he starts to mark it, I'd find that he does that in just exactly the same place every time within a foot or so – certainly within one stride." Kate had to know. "Do you know him?" Corrine shook her head, "Not really. He works here, though. Security. He's been here for a year. Nobody really knows him. He just keeps to himself, a bit of a loner. Alright, he's really a loner. From what I know, he comes out of his quarters to pull his shifts, and then he goes right back. He speaks only when spoken to and not a word more. One day in two or at most three, he runs." "Hell of a body," Kate grinned, taking another pull of her beer. She wondered what was in the water here if there were men like this on the island. This made two of them that she'd seen. She wondered if they knew each other and then tossed the gay thought from her mind as well, seeing it as her being rather uncharitable toward someone she'd never even met. "Yes Ma'am," Corrine laughed, "but as far as I know, he's just the silent bodybuilder type and nobody gets to play with that. Hardly ever goes anywhere, never comes to any of the company parties or anything." "You never mentioned his name," Kate said as she turned to look at Corrine. "Ah," the other woman smiled, "I was wondering when you'd ask. I can't help you with much about that one," she said, "I don't know all that much about him, not even his name, though I suppose that I could just look it up. I've met him and he's alright – just really painfully shy. She raised her bottle and drained the last of it in two swallows, "It just so happens that painfully shy creeps me out." -------------------------- He was getting better. His fingers were giving him a little less trouble every time as he played and it was slowly getting to the point where he was beginning to enjoy it once again. He'd been pulled out of his normal shift rotation to meet the mysterious 'Ferret Lady' that most of the guys were talking about. He didn't know a thing about her, but he'd heard that the scout cars had arrived the week before as he slept, along with someone who was supposed to be a mechanic with knowledge of the things as well as being an instructor and driver. The rumor mill was abuzz over reports that this person was a stunning female, but he hadn't seen her yet. He turned the page of his old book on the table in front of him. He was looking for a flamenco piece to play that he knew that he shouldn't attempt yet. But he'd always loved it and so had his aunt. He began after a sip of his coffee. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet. He wasn't given a specific time to meet the woman that morning, but he'd gotten some sleep and he was shifting his biological clock a little for this. He still had some time, he thought. Just by luck, Jürgen's quarters were a little cottage not far from the garage where the scout cars were supposed to be. There was another building just like his on the other side of it. The little cottage had been one of the things that had helped him in deciding to accept this contract when it had been tossed into the deal as an incentive. After years in barracks, he just wanted to have the small luxury of a little privacy for a while. --------------------- Kate's eyelids opened just a little more as she sat at her little table with a mug in her hands. She'd been working into the evening every night for almost a week now and the coffee here tasted pretty grand to her. She'd been told that this Jürgen fellow had been told that she'd asked to meet him today, but until now, her shower hadn't had the desired effect. It was the coffee that was doing the trick. As she sat looking over her notes and the few excerpts from his personnel file, she found herself listening to some rather pleasant music coming to her a little faintly through the open window from someplace. The sounds of the songbirds were a pleasant background. She smirked to herself, she still thought of him as Kurgan from the film, though she hoped that his personality was a little less dark than that. She sighed as she read. What she'd been provided with meant little to her other than the dates. She shrugged, guessing that she could always ask him to elaborate. Morris had been correct, she decided. The other two applicants were pretty much just beefy cops who could drive a Jeep, though one of them had been looking pretty chuffed to be able to say that he'd driven a Humvee. Well, a Humvee wasn't anything like a Ferret – not anywhere even close. There wasn't much more to be gotten from them during her interviews with them. All that remained was 'the Kurgan' she smiled. She looked at his file again and stared at the photo for a moment. She couldn't understand why, but she'd noted over a little time that all ID photos – whether for military service or only for something as mundane as a driver's license all made the subject look like an axe-murderer to her. It was just stupid, she thought. She also wondered what the point was. Every single photo ID that she had didn't really look like her at all. Although the camera hadn't been kind to him, the picture did a lot to dispel her whole 'Kurgan' notion. She supposed that she'd been expecting a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Teutonic type. The man before her was fair-skinned, though tanned, but he had grey eyes and dark brown hair, the info said. Well, she supposed that it was hair. It was almost too short to tell, she told herself. For all she knew, it might have been painted on, it was so short. She sighed again tiredly. This was the last applicant. She supposed that she'd better get on with it, but if he was German and looked anything at all like his photo, he really hoped that he had a wider vocabulary than 'ja' and 'nein'. From the admittedly lousy picture, she rather doubted it. Her thoughts interrupted themselves when she'd suddenly thought about the flamenco guitar that she was listening to. It was rather nice, but who plays CDs like this at seven in the morning? Kate shrugged and decided that she couldn't sit around listening to music naked in her cottage all day. She'd have to get dressed sooner or later. She still had the problem of the guns in the crates to unravel. Kate chuckled a little. She almost wished that she could sit here all day – at least as long as the music lasted as she thought of a nightime scene where a man played the sort of music that she was listening to while a Spanish dancer danced along. The little daydream lasted a few minutes more and then the music stopped. Kate listened a little hopefully for a few more minutes, but apparently the CD had stopped. She sighed and got up to pull her not-quite-clean-enough-for-making-an-impression coveralls on and walked to head out of the door after pulling her boots on. She pulled the door open and jumped back in alarm. There was a large man in spotless and ... even ironed gray coveralls on her doorstep with his hand raised as though he'd been about to knock – since that was exactly what he'd been about to do. "Oh! Please excuse me," he said in as much surprise as she'd been feeling, "I was told that I had to meet with a Ms. Perkins here today. No time was given, but I thought it might be better if I came now. That way, you would still have time to interview the others. If you are Ms. Perkins," he added, a little hopefully. Kate gasped as she watched him blush instantly and wondered about it. Then she felt the beginnings of her own blush. It was him. He was the one who she'd seen in the gathering darkness there on that stretch of cowpath next to the jungle. She also knew that it had been him who'd she'd seen running. She felt a little like a perv here. True, he'd been wanking out there, but it was a natural act and as far as he'd known, he'd been alone in the middle of nowhere with no one to offend, while she'd been, ... Well, she'd been sitting in her Ferret while hidden in the trees, more or less. Worse, she'd not only watched him, she'd squished right along and even recorded the event for posterity and out of her own prurient interest. If there was a perv here, she knew who it had been. Before that little thought caused another shade of the blush that she felt to flame on, she looked again. He was, ... well, he was large, she thought, as she sifted his heavily-accented words. He had to go six-six. She was very surprised, until she remembered that his ID photo had likely been taken on his arrival, just as her own had been. But he'd been here a year now, so she guessed that he'd grown his hair a little. She noticed just a tiny white fleck of shaving foam on his cheek, close to the corner of his jaw. He'd obviously shaved minutes ago. "I'm Kate Perkins, "she smiled politely, hoping to take the shocked edge off of this meeting. Her eyes pulled back from his face and she saw again that he wore coveralls as well and it caused her to wonder. "And I think that you must be Kurgan?" Damn, she thought; that was getting to be a habit. She had to stop calling him that. His head tilted a little as he watched her discomfort for a second. He recovered first, shaking his head. "I am Jürgen Bandermann," he smiled a little uncertainly; "I was told that you are seeking a driver. Perhaps I am making a mistake. Who is Kurgan?" Kate shook her head, "Forgive me please; I don't know what's the matter with me today. I was up late working and I think that I've left my brain on the workbench. Would you like to come in? You've got it right; I'm supposed to interview you today. There are no others scheduled for today." She led him to the table. "Would you like a cup of coffee? I obviously need one and I've got enough for two cups or one IV, the way that I'm so fuzzy-headed this morning." He looked as though he didn't know how to answer the question, but she knew that he'd likely refuse politely, so she smiled, "Please do have one, Jürgen, so I don't feel so awkward." Jürgen smiled uncomfortably but he nodded, "Yes, please." "How do you take it?" She asked. "Oh, ah, a little milk would be fine." She asked him to sit. "I'm told that you were asked to give permission for me to see a few parts of your file, but from what I can see there, you gave permission for everything and I'm wondering if there might be some mistake here. I think that I only want to know about your experience." "I gave permission for everything," he said with a shrug, "I thought that it might help." He watched as she was busy pouring the coffee and the milk. The coveralls left a lot of her to his imagination, but even so, he liked what he saw. He didn't think that someone like her would ever give a man like him a second look. That was fine with him, since it had to be, he guessed. He could live with that. It was the distinct possibility that he'd trip over his own tongue that bothered the hell out of him at the moment. He resolved to try to speak carefully in order to hopefully avoid it. He also hoped that he didn't speak so carefully that she'd think that he was an idiot. Kate set a mug in front of him. "Well it's thorough and it's a lot to digest," she said, "but without understanding the significance of the words, it doesn't mean much to me, other than you were in the army." "Perhaps I can help, then," he said after thanking her, "I was in the Deutches Heer, the German Army for about seven years. After that, I applied for and was selected for service in the KSK, and spent almost another eight years there, specializing in transport and weapons. I have cross-training in communications and explosives." He stopped when he noticed that he'd said something that she didn't understand. "KSK," he repeated, "Kommando Spezialkrafte. Ah, perhaps it means something if I only say special forces." He shrugged, "Sorry." He looked a little embarrassed and wanting to take the conversation away from the macho way that he hadn't meant for it to sound, he tried to be more to the point of where her interest in him had to lie – if there was any interest there at all for her requirement. "What sort of weapons?" she asked, as though she expected to hear a specific list and hope to recognize a few in it. He shrugged, "Anything. I have experience with the small arms of many nations, Germany, Great Britain, American, Russian, Chinese, many types. But I think that you are interested more in what I can drive, no? I can drive most armoured vehicles, trucks, almost anything. I have never driven Ferrets before, but I know what they are, and I have always wished for the chance to drive one. I like the way that they look." Kate smiled, "Then I think that we ought to get on well. You know that in this role, you would be on loan to me and I would be your boss. I wanted to hear your feelings about that if I could." Jürgen shrugged, "I am afraid that I do not see the connection. If we are to work together, I would like to know if you have had any military experience yourself." He looked at her, "It does not matter to me exactly what or how long, but I would like to know if there is some experience, that is all. It would help if there is experience of some sort, because then I think that we might understand each other better." "I don't have anything like your background," Kate said, "Only seven years as an army reservist – working on Ferrets, mostly, is that good enough?" "Yes," he smiled genuinely, "that would be fine. I will wish sometimes to advise you, but any decision is yours to make, onbviously. I am only a constable here, but I was a Master Sergeant at one time." "Well, I was a sergeant, "she shrugged. "The level is not important," Jürgen said, "only the way of thinking is important. That is what I was trying to say, the way that the logic goes is the most important thing. The gender is not important at all." He looked a little more uncomfortable for a moment. "I must apologize," he said, "I did not mean to turn this around. I am here to answer your questions. I only asked because while I can see no difficulty in a command arrangement where you are the superior, I wanted to be sure that, ..." He looked a little helpless after a moment and fell silent. Kate smiled, "I know what you wanted to say. You wanted to be sure that it would flow properly, that's all, with no need to explain what was meant, right?" "Na Ja," he said heavily, rolling his eyes a little, "because I quite obviously cannot explain what I am trying to say today." "Well have some coffee and let's try to muddle through with our fogged-up minds then," Kate laughed a little, "I'm not sure what's wrong with me either, but it's a little frustrating for me – when it isn't just funny. Have you worked for female superiors before?" she asked. "Not in the KSK," he said, "but before that, yes," he said, "often enough." Kate began to explain to him what a Ferret was in a little detail, half-expecting to see his eyes glaze over. She knew that almost everyone else in the world didn't share her fascination with them. But he surprised her, asking questions often or asking for clarification on a point here or there. Good Lord, she thought, he was even asking her about technical details. She found that she liked it whenever he did that. There had been many times when she'd been with her friends and had joined in when one of them had made a particularly bad attempt at a German accent for comedic effect. Now, she found the way that he spoke a little fascinating, so she asked what sort of vehicles that he'd had experience with, both the glean a little more about him as well as just to sit and listen to him speak. She found it a pleasant surprise – he sure had the build, but he didn't sound like the star of a few of the action movies that she'd seen long ago. Far from it and he was anything but wooden in the way that he spoke. As he talked, she pulled her view back from his face. He was quite obviously a clean individual. As he made a few gestures with his hands to illustrate a point in what he was saying, Kate noticed that his hands were strong-looking and that his nails were clean. "You mentioned that you have experience with weapons, Jürgen," she said. "I don't know much about the specifics of the reason that the Ferrets are wanted here for this, but I've been given a pair of L7s to be fitted to them, so I guess that this is at least a little serious." "Ja," he nodded with a bit of concern, "even more than they might have told you. I have read the reports. There was almost a predictable progression to it. When the constables were first called, they took so long to get here that the drug runners were all gone by the time that the police got there. But my guess is that they were noticed, and the next time that the police were called, they responded a little faster and tried to arrest everyone by waving their pistols. They were met with automatic weapons and two constables were killed. Three were wounded. The police were not very quick to come after that." He shrugged, "though they learned a little at least and came with submachine guns themselves. But it is always too little and too late to even see what was happening." He looked at her for a moment. "Did they say anything to you about becoming one of the constables on the farm security force?" "Yeah," she nodded, "it was mentioned. I'm supposed to go to be sworn in the day after tomorrow." "Well, I can say that you will be authorized to use deadly force if you are fired upon," he said, "but not before. So you see, this is very serious. The management does not wish that their people are put in any danger, and they want these drug people out of their hair. You will be issued with a sidearm and a G-3 submachine gun, both in 9mm. The pistol holds nine rounds and the G-3 holds thirty in the magazine." "What do you know about the L7?" she asked, "I'm hoping that you're at least a little familiar with them. I wasn't in the armorer section. If we ever had to arm up our Ferrets, some blokes would toddle over from there and I'd help to mount them and take them off afterwards. I've never had to qualify with them." "It is a squad automatic weapon," he said with a shrug, "and it has also been produced for many uses. They have a reputation to be solid and reliable. I know it quite well." "Oh thank God," she said, obviously relieved, "The ones I've got are packed in heavy grease and will need complete disassembly before they're fit to use. I was really worried about that." "Keine Problem," he smiled, "I can do this for you." "What was the first part of that?" she asked. The second word had sounded like 'problame' to her. "Oh," he said, still smiling, "I'm sorry. It means 'no problem'. "Don't be sorry," Kate smiled, "I wouldn't mind learning a little German if some of it rubs off on me." The truth be told, she admitted to herself, she wouldn't complain too much about anything of his rubbing on her. -------------------------- Kate hadn't told him, but as far as she was concerned, he had the job unless he showed a willingness to aim one of the Ferrets at a building or something. Their interview had carried on after he'd suggested that he clean the weapons for her if she was fine with it. Ferret Girl Ch. 02 Out in the garage, Kate watched the way that he stopped to stare a little at the two armoured cars for a moment. She waited and said nothing while he walked around them looking. Finally, he stopped and looked down as he shook his head a little. "What is it?" she asked and he looked over at her with a wide grin, "I heard that these had been hired and that they were on the way. The rumors move the way that they always move through a group of people anywhere, and so, I listened at every step, of course. Then they were here, but no one had seen one." He turned, "I have always liked these. But I only ever saw them in a museum once, and they were a lower mark than these. You have worked a miracle if you were the one who kept them going." Kate nodded, taking the compliment at full value, "I did have help, Jürgen, but I can say that if it comes down to who did the most, then I have to take the credit there. The one on the left belongs to the museum that I work for. The one on the right is mine." He tried not to stare when he'd heard that, but he did turn to give Fanny another once-over and he turned back then, grinning and pointing at the Ferret Girl motif on the side of the turret. She asked him and he laughed in admiration. "Do you like it?" she asked and he laughed again with a nod, "Ja naturlich, I mean uh, yes, naturally." She showed him to the long crates and they got started. He had the lids off the crates in no time and just set to it after asking her if she had the mountain of rags that the job would require. As he worked, she made a few trips back into the house to keep up with their combined need of caffeine. He kept up a simple running monologue as he instructed her. When he was done with the first, he looked around and chuckled, finding that the other gun had come with a bipod. It was still covered in grease, but that was no trouble to clean off and then he sat back on his heels and admire the machine gun as it sat on the floor of the shop. They looked at each other and he smiled. Kate looked at the weapon and then back at Jürgen, "This one's for me to do, right?" He shook his head, "No, I will do that one too." But his expression changed to one of surprise a moment later as Kate set to it. She knew what a look like his had said. Her watching him had been a bit of a test to see if he could do this. Now he was setting her an unspoken test as well. She didn't mind. "I may need you for a little help in case I've forgotten anything," she said with a smile that intrigued him, "this sort of thing requires repetition to really learn well, and I've only seen it once, haven't I?" He nodded and got to his feet for a clean rag to wipe his hands better. He watched her intently as he walked around to get a better look now and then while he sipped his coffee. "I need more coffee," she said from her kneeling position with the thing spread out now cleaned and ready to be assembled. Jürgen brought her the mug and a rag for her hands. She shook her head a little. "No, just hold it for me while I sip it, if you wouldn't mind, Jürgen. I'm afraid that I'll forget something important if I stop now." With a nod, he fed her sips of coffee whenever she asked and twice he had to grin when she raised her face to look at him with a drop of coffee on her chin. He got it with the rag each time and she thanked him. She almost had it the first try. Jürgen was astounded. "Stop there," he advised, "that pin is reversed. Like that, it will fire only once and then jam." He showed her where she'd gone wrong, and she nodded. "Really well done," he grinned, "I was at it for more than an hour my first time with this type. I had the book and everything – and I also reversed that pin." "Thank you," she smiled, knowing the compliment was genuine, "I wanted to try now because if I'm in charge. I'm supposed to be able to – " He held up his hand, still smiling, "Of course. I understand," he said. She corrected her error and it went like butter after that. They locked up the weapons and she led him back inside the cottage. Ferret Girl Ch. 03 ***This one's not long, but it sets the stage for Chapter 4. ------------ In her kitchen, Kate was doing her best to get the stubborn grease off her hands with a rag. "This stuff is almost as bad as molybdenum grease," she said, "We'll never get it off before next week. Whenever you think that you've gotten it all, there's always more." She was reaching for the dish soap when Jürgen took her hand in his. She stared as he examined it. "Do you always use this to get grease and oil off?" he asked, "This is much too hard on your skin. Wait a minute, please." He still had a rag with him and he was wiping his hands as he walked out. Kate felt a little silly standing like that as she waited. When he came back, he set a tub of margarine on the counter and peeled off the lid. Opening her cutlery drawer, he selected a spoon and scooped out a large dollop. "Here," he said, "work this into your hands really well over the drain." She tried it and the grease came off in almost seconds. She only really had to concentrate on her cuticles after that. "I feel like an idiot," she laughed a little, "I never thought of this. Thank you." "Butter would be the best thing," he said, "but it is more expensive, and I always feel as though I am being wasteful using it." She looked at him with a playful little grin. "Did you grow up on a farm or something?" "No," he smiled as he produced a tube of odourless gentle hand cleaner. He squirted a little onto her hands and he worked it into her cuticles for her so that she wouldn't leave a mess on whatever she touched before her hands were clean, "I'm just cheap." "There," he said, smiling, "And now your hands smell like popcorn at the movies. I like it." She just had to know. "Why? Is that an erotic smell to you or something?" "I don't know, Kate," he laughed, "maybe it is. I have always wondered why perfumes are not made to smell like food. I don't think that I could resist a girl who smells of popcorn." "Well I know one thing," she said, "Unless you're a complete loss at driving, I'd say that you've got the job if you still want it, Jürgen." "Thank you," he smiled, deciding that he liked Kate a good deal. "I'd offer you a beer to celebrate the auspicious moment, "she laughed, "but I haven't got any to offer you." "I have some," Jürgen said, "but it is a brand which contains quinine. You will most likely not like the bitter taste, and anyway, I have a better idea. We can go into the town. Come on, I have a car." She looked at him in a little shock. "What? Like this?" she asked, indicating their state of dress. He only looked at her with a very small smile and it made her laugh. Neither of them were exactly wearing finery, but at the same time, there wasn't much more than a little dust from the floor on the knees of their coveralls. "Even here, there are garages," he smiled, "what do those people wear if they are reasonably clean and wish to go for a bit of lunch? I know a little place where many working people go. Other than my size and your beauty, I think we will be able to pass the minimum requirements." She laughed again and took his arm, remembering all of the times when she'd gone for tea when she'd been in the shop and working, "You're right – and I suppose that we ARE working." He led the way to where he parked, around the other side of his cottage. "Why would you drink a beer that has quinine in it?" she asked, "Why not just drink bitter, if that's what you like." "This is like a tradition with me. I don't like it," he smiled a little grimly, "I'm only used to it. I drink it whenever I am in a place where malaria is a possibility and if it is available, nothing more. I like to have a beer now and then, even if it tastes like shit." "I got a shot for malaria before I came," she grinned. "I did too," he said, just as grimly as before. "I do not think that I could explain it to you, but try to think that I come from a place where they tell you that work is good for the soul." She shrugged, "Sounds like a load of shit to me." "I think so too," he said, "but if you only hear it spoken the right way while you are cutting the grass, it can last a lifetime." They turned the corner of his cottage and Kate stared for a moment. Then she laughed, "Jürgen, this is yours?" He looked over at her, "You don't like it?" She laughed, "I love it. It's very ... " "Please do not say that it is cute. I hear that all the time." "Um, I think it's very retro and utilitarian." She was looking at an ancient Citroen 2CV, a little thing that seated two regular people and had a roll-back canvas roof. It had a tiny little engine that made – at best – 12 horsepower. "Much more entertaining to hear. Yes," he nodded, "I bought it so that I had something to drive around here in. I'll sell it when I leave. It didn't cost me much and –" "I know," Kate laughed, "and you're cheap." He nodded and opened the passenger door for Kate and she got in and tried to situate herself. "My head almost brushes the ceiling," she chuckled, "I don't know how to break this to you, Jürgen, but in case no one has ever told you, you're a large man. A very attractive one, I'll grant you, but a large one nonetheless. And in case you're eyes aren't working well, I'm a rather –" "Yes," he smiled, "you are a lovely woman. I know this. My head touches the roof too. That is why I always roll the top back. I just leave it on when I park it overnight." Kate heard the compliment, but she wondered if the poor engine could haul the two of them. When he had the roof panel rolled up, he got in and started the motor. For a little thing, she thought, the engine sure sounded hopeful. When he reached for it, Kate saw that the gearshift lever stuck straight out of the dashboard and looked something like the handle of an umbrella. He backed out into the drive and they were off. "You know," she smiled, "I'm thinking that we'll look like one of those circus acts where a little car like this pulls into the arena and about twelve large clowns get out." He looked at her for a moment, "Really? Twelve in a car like this?" "Yes," she laughed, "it's an old bit that's been done by circuses forever. A little car rolls in, drives around the center ring of the circus a few times and then comes to a stop. A door opens, and one by one, an impossible number of clowns get out, one after the other." He started to laugh and Kate liked the sound. "What's so funny? I mean, it's hilarious when you see it happening, but –" "I was thinking that I need only one or two more cars like this then," he said smiling, "I could make a fortune if I started up a bus line. I wouldn't dream of having a little car like this in Europe, though there were many of them there at one time when I was a boy," Jürgen said, "but here on this little island, it suits me fine for the little driving that I need to do. It is easy to find a parking spot – even easier today with you along, Kate. If we find a little parking spot that we like, we only have to get as close as we can, and then pick my little car up by the bumpers and put it wherever we like." Kate grinned at him, "Or if we can't find anything else, we could always just carry it to the bicycle parking and stand it up on one bumper and then lean it up against the rack." "Exactly," he laughed. Kate was enjoying this. Though she was a bit tall and was certainly not what one would call lithe, she was well-built and rather statuesque. It hadn't always been what she wanted necessarily when she was out and about to stand out in a crowd as she often did. When she was out with her friends, she just always drew attention. But here with Jürgen, she thought that for once, she wasn't the tallest tree in the woods. He was even taller than she was and it was obvious to her that he made no bones about his size. They walked along a street in the sunshine and stopped now and then to look at something or other in the stalls or the storefronts. Kate did her best to ignore it, but she found after a time, that her hair was becoming a distraction, the way that it always stuck to her neck and shoulders. At one point, Jürgen made a comment about it, saying that it looked lovely to him in any light, and that he even liked the way that it was sticking a little wetly to the side of her throat. "Thanks for the compliment," she smiled a little before it turned to a frown once more as she reached to un-stick the hair from her throat, "but though it took me ages to grow this to where I wanted it, well that's back there, and I'm going to be here for a while, I guess, so ..." She'd already seen a barber's stall and she looked at it now. Even the chair was in the shade and the man looked to be just finishing his lunch. Jürgen blinked when he found her gone and looked over. Those coveralls might hide a lot, he thought to himself, but even so ... He smiled as he found a street vendor and bought a couple of cans of Coke. "Is there any waiting list?" she asked the barber and he shook his head with a huge friendly smile and gestured to the chair. She outlined what she really wanted and he looked a little surprised, but then he told her that he could do that for her, so Kate settled happily into the chair. Jurgen watched it all and bought a third can before he walked over. He opened a can for each of them and the barber was pleased at the gesture. "I hope that the heat does not cause you to do anything drastic," he said quietly as he looked off down the street to sip his own drink while holding hers. Kate reached out to take the can and took a long drink from it, since the barber was looking for the tools that he wanted for this. She thought about it. She'd as good as made up her mind anyway to have the mane off and a much shorter cut out of a desire for a little less fuss and a lot more comfort. She'd already lost her patience over the past week over trying to keep her hair out of the dirt and unsnagged and dry from the showers that she took even more of now and .. Then she had a different thought. A couple of times now, she'd seemed to notice that he'd said things which might be interpreted as very gentle challenges – or they might not have been. Whatever they'd been, she'd enjoyed them. She was the sort of girl who was used to doing what she wanted in many ways and always had been. She thought about him in that regard and she saw that there hadn't been any sort of veiled judgement in the things that he'd said. She didn't understand it completely, but she liked it in him for some odd reason. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. "I've changed my mind," she told the man. Jürgen hadn't been paying that much attention right then. He'd been thinking that he really liked his new boss - and for more than her amazing looks. He was surprised at many of the things which he'd learned and for what she'd been able to do, he respected her already. He just wondered just how the hell he was going to get up the courage to ask her out one of these days, if it came to that, but he knew that he'd like that if it ever got there. He smirked at his feet as he thought that through and decided that he shouldn't in a work situation and even though that made him a little sad, it also eased the pang for him in a way because he supposed that to remain in their roles assured that the best job would get done - and it kept him safe behind his fence. Then he noticed the buzz of the clippers and looked over. Kate was sitting in the chair looking at him in the mirror, waiting to see his surprise. Most of her long, lovely hair was already on the floor. She was only a tiny bit disappointed. He made no big deal out of it at all; he just smiled and nodded once. "I suppose that this might be called drastic," she said with a loud sigh, "but keeping it looking half-good here is just beyond me. The heat where there's no breeze just finished it for me." She looked away to watch the man work for a moment, "I know what I am and how I look, Jürgen. I've heard that some of the others call me the Ferret Lady. Well I want something a lot more comfortable now and I don't give a shit if they call me Red Sonja, I guess that I'll look the part for the job, anyway." The barber stopped before he got to the clean-up part of hand-clipping with scissors and keeping a watchful eye out for the odd hair which had escaped and chose this moment to stand up in a last bit of defiance, he reached for his drink, so Jürgen handed Kate hers. "It doesn't matter what I think," he said, a little sternly. Kate bit her tongue a little because she suddenly knew that she'd had just a tiny little hope that he'd like it – since it did matter to her what he thought, a little anyway. "But if you are interested in my thoughts," he smiled as he leaned down to look at her in the mirror from the point of view there next to her head, "I think it looks striking and suits you very well." Kate beamed, since she really couldn't help it and in only a few more minutes, she was done and standing to look at herself in the mirrors which were hung in a few places. She knew that the pomade was going to drive her a little nuts, but he told her that it would only be needed until her hair got the drift and just stood up on its own. "Would it matter to you what I thought?" she smiled. Jürgen was perplexed instantly, remembering the nature of their roles and wondering just how badly he might have overstepped them. He nodded cautiously. But Kate only smiled and reached for his shoulder – though she so wanted suddenly to reach for his cheek. "Good," she grinned, "Then you're next." He laughed for a moment and then he nodded and sat in the chair. ------------------- Jürgen was done in even less time, and they walked off together toward the little eatery that he'd mentioned. It took them only minutes to order and be served and Kate decided that she felt as though she just might have a hope at this. "I really love your hair, Kate," he said quietly and when she turned, she saw that his smile had managed to escape whatever restrictions that it was normally held to. It looked far more heartfelt – not that it hadn't before. Now it just looked to her like Jürgen was enjoying himself. Kate expressed her thanks and wondered how to go about getting just a little something started, but then her thoughts were brought back to the moment and she looked at him again. "Pardon? I must have missed what you just said, Jürgen." He blinked and she saw his furious blush as he looked down. Kate decided that if there was one look about him that she didn't really care to be looking at in public, it was this one, so she drew up her own courage and reached over. "Come on, Jürgen. It was my mistake and rudeness to have missed what you said. We're both here in what looks to me to be a strange and serious business. I know that it's probably nothing to you, but it's something to me, and , ... well, I'm spending a really enjoyable day with the first man that I've met in such a long time who is really interesting to me." He looked up and she nodded, "I'm being very serious. Actually, I'm kicking myself to have missed it. I can see that you're a man who doesn't think that he has to fill the air with words. I don't mind that, but to have missed something you said, ... " She sighed, "Please stop feeling stupid. I heard nothing – but I'd so like to. What did you say?" He looked troubled for a moment, but then he shrugged, "I only asked if I could rub it once." Kate didn't get it and she guessed that her expression said as much. "I meant your hair, Kate," he smiled shyly. Kate laughed and leaned forward, "I knew that I missed hearing something good. Please, Jürgen, rub it all you want to." He reached out and she felt his hand graze the tips of her auburn flat-top and after that, he seemed to open up to her like a stallion who'd held himself aloof – until you managed to get past his defenses and found the hopeful horse who'd stood behind them the whole time. Their lunch finished, they walked back to where they'd parked. They were about to get in when they heard the squeal of tires out in the street and then a yell. It was Corinne Morris and she held up her hand and told them to wait right there. The speed and deftness with which she parked that thing amazed Jürgen and he said so as they watched it. A few moments later, and she was running over to them with her long and lovely hair flying behind her. She stood with her mouth open and then she laughed and clapped her hands together once as she expressed how she liked their haircuts. "I love it!" she cried as she came nearer, "But what possessed you to do it, Kate?" Kate shrugged, "I gave it a go for as long as I could stand it, Corinne, but today, I finally got tired of it all. I don't know how you can keep your long hair looking good. And I couldn't take the heat under it anymore." "Maybe it's a bad time to tell you now," Corinne grinned, "since it's far too late, but you could have gotten a cornrow, you know. A lot cooler like that. But this is marvelous. You two look like a set or something. What are you doing here, besides getting lighter?" Kate shrugged with a smile and a look over to Jürgen, "I finished the interviews and, ... well, Jürgen gets the job." Corinne nodded, and now wondered why she'd had such trouble remembering his name, "Well I don't know about the specifics, but I'm very glad to hear it. Congratulations, Jürgen." "Thank you, Corinne," he smiled and she laughed again. "This is even worse for me. I've always had trouble over your name, and I don't know why, so I'm sorry. Still and all, I think that it's good news. How long before you think you'll be ready to patrol?" Kate blinked, but Jürgen had it as he smirked, "I still need to have my real driving test. What do you think, Kate?" "No more than a couple of days," she smiled. "Can I tell my father that?" Corinne asked, "I think what's needed most is a little peace of mind." "Then tell him three at the outside and that I'll contact him the day after tomorrow for a short – I hope – spell on the range. He told me that there was one here. I'm not bothered about the other things, but I think we'll need about an hour to get the L7's sighted in after we get them mounted." Corinne nodded and said that she had to go. She was on her way on another errand, she said. "I've left you a little surprise in your courtyard, out behind the cottage," she smiled as she walked away, "I hope you like it." As they got into the little car again, Kate chuckled, "I think it's a sign that I've just been working too hard, I guess. I didn't even know that I have a courtyard out behind my cottage. I'll have to look for it now." Jürgen nodded, "I have one too and they said nothing about it. I only found it by accident. You know the little door on the wall at the back of the kitchen? That leads to the courtyard. I was here three months before I found it and I had to spend two days out there to get the overgrown plants tamed." "I thought that it was the hideaway ironing board," she said with a blink. "No," he said, "there is no ironing board. Just a little doorway that I must inhale to get through if I turn sideways. If you need an ironing board, you can borrow mine any time." Kate nodded, but she was struck by something from the conversation earlier. From the way that Corinne had seemed to look at them, and the way that she'd acted, it seemed to Kate that it was just a little like the young woman saw them as a couple in a way. It was a pleasant thought, she allowed, but she shrugged it off all the same. She'd have been happy to have made a friend out of him, still not wanting to burst the bubble in her mind. Ferret Girl Ch. 03 "I was thinking," she said after a while as they reached a little closer to the outskirts, "This whole who's in charge thing might be all wrong, or not necessarily the best thing. Between us, you know the ground here, and you've got more experience in tactical situations than I have." "Perhaps not," he nodded, "but I will advise you if you ask. I see no problem at all, Kate." It was a comfort to hear from him, but she knew that she wanted a bit more than that, and her want had nothing to do with their roles during the workday. "How did you ever come to own a Ferret?" he asked, "I think it must have been an accomplishment to do even that." Kate looked over, pleased to have something to talk about and she began to tell him. He listened attentively right through the boring bits and Kate was impressed that his eyes still hadn't glazed over. She had a slightly mischievous little thought then. "I suppose that the original thing was a fascination of mine with the vehicles that my father drove back in his day, "she smiled, looking at the countryside, "And then again, there's that other thing." Jürgen looked over, "What other thing, Kate?" She smirked, "I don't know if I'm right, but, ... I think there's something about driving a bit of a beast like that. You feel safe and protected in your own little rolling castle, somehow. I've seen a lot of Range Rovers rolling around back home, and more often than not, they're driven by rather wealthy women, so I think that my personal little fetish over having one is just the logical extension of that." Jürgen thought it over and he could see it from that angle. He'd never tell her, but he'd also seen what a rocket-propelled grenade or light anti-tank rocket could do to dispel that sense of security in a heartbeat as well. "Anyway," she smiled at him, "I know that I do like to hide myself away in mine sometimes. If there's no one about, and I get to feeling just right, it's very pleasant. At those times, I can feel just a little, ..." "Safe?" he asked and she nodded. But what she'd really wanted to say was randy. They were passing a long pasture right then, she guessed, and she saw a few horses. They'd caught her eye because there were the first ones that she'd seen in her time here. She guessed that was because whatever cultivation there must be which was done on the island, there couldn't be all that much of a place in it for horses anymore and she said it. Jürgen agreed, looking for a second, "It is a sad thing to me," he said, "I like to see them, though I would have no idea of how to care for them or work them, and I think that those ones there need to be worked." She looked again and noted that the animals were large draft horses and she nodded. "Sometimes, I feel as though I can identify with that kind." He looked over and she smirked, "Well, if we use the allegory, "I'm not exactly a racehorse, am I?" "Perhaps not," Jürgen smiled, "but then, I am not one either, and there is still a lot of beauty to something like that," he nodded as they drew nearer, "I feel just the same way, a lot of the time." She asked him if he'd mind it if they pulled over for a minute and he nodded while she reached into one of the cargo pockets of her coveralls. "I've just remembered that I've been feeling my little camera banging against my leg all day. I might as well get in a little scenic photography to send home to my dad." They stopped and got out to lean on the car and watch for a little while as a pair of the animals stood grazing not too far off. Kate took a few photos and then, since she knew that the memory card in the camera was almost empty, she began to shoot a video and set the camera down on the hood of his car to just let it roll. "I'm pleased that we seem to be able to get along this well," she smiled as she turned, "I've been wondering for the past few days just why I agreed to do this, I mean other than as a way to get paid for driving my Fanny around." It brought a look from him which caused her to laugh and shake her head, "No, 'Fanny' is my little pet name for my Ferret." Jürgen chuckled, "I think I like it both ways, to be honest." He sighed, "I have been wondering the same thing. I wanted to see what was outside for someone. I have always worked in a military setting. There is nothing wrong with that, but I think that I just wanted a better look than just over the fence. I took this job and after a year of it, I regret it now. I have had only one day where I can say that it was worth the trouble to even get out of bed – and before this, I would have said that I am a man who likes to spring out of his bed in the morning and face the day to see what it brings, each one." "What happened on that one day?" she asked and he grinned. "It is not over yet, that day." It made her smile and she nodded, "Well, I didn't need a whole year to get bored. I've only been here a week and if it wasn't for the need to keep my fingernails dirty, I think I'd already be regretting my choice, though I must admit that this one day has been very nice." He was looking at the horses as she spoke and Kate was admiring his part-profile for the moment. She liked his looks. There had been a few times in her life when she'd found herself thinking of settling over the way that a man looked. His appearance might not have been the most pleasing to her, but then again, she knew that a woman of her height likely couldn't have everything. Kate had reasoned that it was one of the many other reasons why she'd never found the one man for her. Besides, having to settle over his looks, there had always been other things to settle over and the combination had been the deal-breaker in her mind every time at some point. Jürgen stood there, squinting a little due to the sunshine and the fact that he'd forgotten his sunglasses as well while she was thinking this over. He kept his face the way that it was as he noticed something that he wondered about mentioning to Kate. He liked her. That was plain to him easily. He just liked her and she wasn't the only one who was pleased. But right now, he was watching as the stallion out there nuzzled and licked the mare and even though he was just a boy from a rather large town – or a rather small city – depending on one's point of view, he had a thought that – Kate was still looking at him, a little pleased that he hadn't noticed her glance for the moment. He was polite in a way that she liked without being painful about it in any way once she'd gotten to know him a little and she could see that he was meticulous in his cleanliness. That went a long way with her as well. She couldn't see it well enough for her tastes like this certainly, but she also loved that body. She saw his slightly embarrassed smirk just at the same time that she heard the slapping and the several deep breaths that she'd heard and she turned to see that the stallion – and she hadn't his gender before – had now mounted the mare and they were carrying on in front of God and everybody. "OHhhw," she moaned and looked over to see Jürgen laughing a little. "What's so funny?" she asked, laughing herself. He pointed toward where she'd been standing, "My boss is a pornographer." She did something rather unusual for her and she nodded with a smile, but the sound of the cars as they passed caused her to pick up her camera and ask him to get them out of there. "Let's get going, Jürgen. I know those two are only having fun and doing what comes naturally, but I don't like the thought that the people in the passing cars think they're looking at a couple of perverts who'd film something like this – never mind stand and watch." As he pulled away, Jürgen said, "I thought that I saw the beginning, but they just began far too fast for me to find a way to tell you." "It's alright," she chuckled, "I'm not going to try to hide under the mats on the floor – which there aren't any of." Mats are weight," Jürgen said, "My little motor has enough work as it is with only me." Kate nodded, looking into the little screen on the back of the camera, "Well that guy's little motor is working just fine back there, from what I see here. As a matter of fact, I'd say that his little motor was working wonders for her little motor now that I'm on the subject." She was a just a little sad over having to leave. She'd never seen anything quite so, ... well, ... it had been a little inspiring, she admitted to herself. She turned the camera off and slid it back into her pocket. "Did you erase it?" Jürgen asked and she shook her head, "Certainly not, my friend. You never know when I might be feeling the want to have a peek at that one long and lonely night. I don't even know if they sell pornos here. This might be all that I can get." Kate grinned at the way that she made him laugh over it. He even had to wipe a tear from his eye. "It was too bad that I noticed when I did and that I heard the cars. I'll never get to see the way that it ends now," she grumbled for his benefit. "I've never had the chance to watch something like that before," she said as she looked out over the landscape, "It would have been a little nice to see the ending." "I think that it ends in a bit of a moment," he said, half-seriously, "I've never seen that either, but I guess that must be how it goes." She looked over at him and nodded, "I think so too. I don't know if horses can speak to each other." She looked out of the passenger window again, "I'd bet that she'd want to thank him somehow. She was looking pretty thankful to me." Kate didn't see it as Jürgen looked over, but he'd heard her quiet comment – the one that she hadn't thought that she'd actually verbalized, but he'd heard it all the same. "Big girls don't get a lot of reasons to look that happy." Ferret Girl Ch. 04 ***This is the final chapter. I hope it hasn't been too hard to follow. With everything in place for Kate and Jürgen, I can now take the reader to the ending in one hopefully enjoyable go. This was never meant to be a long romancy thing. Rather, It's more of a little tale where two people find a lot for themselves in a very short time, so I've kept it a little brief, since there was too much deep stuff in the first chapter, I think. 0_o --------------- Their attention was drawn by other things during the drive and before long; they were grinding up the rise to their quarters. "Your little motor seems to be struggling a little, Jürgen," she smiled, "I can get out and walk from here. I don't mind." He shook his head and selected a lower gear like lightning, "No, Kate, I was just pre-occupied with something. The fault lies with the idiot driver; not with the car and certainly not you. I think that I have made the wrong impression on my new boss over this." "Forget it," she laughed as she shook her head, "As I told you in our discussions earlier, the gearshift on a Ferret is just a little different from even this. It's more of a pre-select than a proper gearshift, so you need to be thinking a bit ahead. The number of times when I've stalled because I was daydreaming aren't worth remembering. And by the way," she smiled over at him, "I'm expecting to feel just a little satisfaction when you do stall out a few times, so please be sure not to disappoint me too much." Corinne's surprise turned out to be a large polyethylene children's wading pool which had been tossed over her courtyard fence and there was a box of Antiguan beer in front of her door. While Jürgen puzzled over the manual that she'd handed him, Kate wasted no time in getting the box inside and into her little fridge. Right after that, she ran out to her little courtyard and dragged the pool out of the plants where it had landed and over to the shade of the single large tree there. Then she found the hose to begin filling it in a little glee just to have something nice to sit in and cool off later. ------------------- While Jürgen sat in the driver's position inside Farley and tried to get a feel for the layout of everything while reading the manual which Kate had provided, he looked back when she climbed aboard rather carefully. "Here," she said, handing him a notebook computer, "This goes over there where you can see it now and then, and you'll find the power connector already there along with the USB plug for the GPS antenna there next to the right side port. I'm also trying to decide on just how much the roles of the crew ought to be split up. In service with the Royal Army, it was always the commander who dictated where they ought to go and when, since he was the one who had the radio. But since we're not looking to go bumping into the Russian Army anywhere out here, I've been thinking of just allowing the driver to do all the navigation. That leaves less of a commander in the back seat and more of just a gunner- slash-radio man, in case it ever gets to that. What do you think?" "I see it," he said, "but I do not know yet how busy I will be driving, so I can't say with any certainty." The only thing that she didn't like about the layout of the crew positions --and it had never occurred to her before now was that she couldn't see his face from where she sat. "Well that's fair," she nodded, "And I think we'll need a little time to figure that out, so hook up the notebook and start up so that it gets a little power and then we'll wait until the GPS has a chance to acquire signals. We'll take the notebook inside tonight so you'll have lots of time to get used to the software." He had it booted in a minute and was looking at a dot in the Caribbean in another minute. She told him how to zoom the map a little and then how to open the GPS dialog. While she'd been doing this, Kate was keenly aware of her position in leaning forward like this to reach past him and the way that it brought her breasts forward to press against his back. She didn't say a word to him, and he said nothing of it, though she knew that there was really no way around it and she could even admit to herself just how much she liked how it felt to her. She even wondered at herself for the way that she had to fight off the urge to kiss his cheek or something. It was absurd, she thought, but it was there all the same. "Alright Jürgen," she smiled, "Take us for a little spin around the yard. I don't mean to sound like a right twit right now, but try to bear in mind that a speedy and incorrect turn here could adversely affect the property value, a five tonne Ferret being what it is and all." He nodded and selected first gear and then kicking the actuation pedal just as the manual said, they were off and grinding along slowly. "Try for second," she said quietly and he nodded. There was a bit of a lurch, but they were fine for the most part and with her gentle words to him, they rumbled their way down the road to where they could turn around. As they whined a little on the way back up, Jürgen felt the hair rising a little on his neck to hear Kate's voice from right beside his ear. "Take us home, Jürgen. It's a little early, but as far as I know, this must be breakfast time for you for the past while. I can't offer anything much other than frozen dinners, but I think my new driver and I have earned at least another meal together." He nodded, feeling the way that she was bent over to be able to speak to him like this. A couple of times, a little bump or a slight jog would bring her cheek against his and neither of them wanted it to stop as he looked ahead at the road. "I can do a little better for you, I think, Kate," he said quietly just so that her cheek had to remain there to hear him, "I do not know about you, but I have trouble living on that stuff -- other than as a snack. I have a grille and if it is not being presumptuous with my new boss, I would like the honor of cooking a dinner for you. I have potatoes, green beans and some sausages -- if it is not too much of a stereotype. That is about all that I have to make a proper meal out of until I go to market again. Oh," he smiled and she felt it against her cheek, "and I have an onion. I could fry that up as well." Kate sighed. A real meal and not only something that some food factory had thought might sell in little amounts that might be fine for people just a little thicker than twigs but not for people like them. She wasn't fat -- and even she could say that to herself a lot of the time. But she wasn't five-two either, not even close. She'd had two at a time before and wondered why she felt guilty afterward AND was still a little peckish. "Jürgen, you fine piece of Germanic horseflesh," she grinned and actually gave in to her desire to kiss his cheek for the briefest moment, "Take us home. I'd absolutely kill for a meal like that." She sat back up and looked around them to be sure that he allowed enough room for the mirrors that she'd mounted. "There's no shame in admitting what we are, my friend. I think we're almost related in some ways. My ancestors were Saxons, you know. That's not far off at all, is it?" "No," he grinned, "Unless it is wartime. Then I am related to a Hun or something like that, if not a cavebear, maybe." "Not to me," she said as she reached down and patted his shoulder, "not to me." Given the way that they'd spent the day, it was almost unspoken between them and the first thing order of business was their showers, each in their own little cottage. They met again as Jürgen was getting the grille hot and keeping an eye through the doorway on the pots sitting on the stove. ------------------------ Kate didn't think that there would have been any way that Jürgen could have possibly improved on the admittedly simple meal, but he did. He'd mashed the potatoes and laid the fried and unbattered onion rings over top of them. She was sure that to him, it hadn't been a thought, but to her it was just a really nice touch and the sausages ... Kate was in heaven over something so simple. He was still sounding rather cautious every once in a while, though overall, he'd opened up a lot to her and wasn't anywhere as stand-offish as he had been at the outset. There still was some of it, though. "Listen," she smiled over her plate at him, "I want to get something straight between us, Jürgen." He looked over and sat up a little, setting his utensils aside as he prepared to listen to her. "It's that," she said, pointing just a little impolitely, "You're even impeccable in the way that you're sitting there right now. I do appreciate it, Jürgen. Don't think for a minute that I don't, but, ..." She sighed heavily, "I'd like for you to know something. Whether or not you're aware of it, you've made a friend in me today. I like you quite a bit and it's a gift that we seem to get along so well together. I know that you're often painfully polite in your dealings with other people because I guess that's just the way that you were raised." He blinked at her. She nodded, "And my considered opinion is that you were raised very well, I might add. I just, ..." she sighed again, "I'd just like to see you without the starch every now and then, Jürgen. I'm sure that you didn't have the starch when you were with your friends back home all the time, did you?" He shook his head and shrugged, "But here, I am with my superior and --" "And nothing," Kate smiled, "This isn't a staff dinner. I know that we've got our roles down. When we're on the clock, I'm your boss - as ill-suited and inept as I feel to be the boss of a professional soldier like you, Jürgen. While you've been trying to find the roles and loosening up enough to make me laugh, I've been struggling over my words to you because I'd never want to insult you. Christ, the best that I've done is play at being a soldier and a grease monkey. It's far from the KPK or XYZ or whatever you were, and I --" "KSK," he smiled, "but I understand, I think." "Well good," Kate growled a little, "Because we're not on the clock now," she said as she got up and stepped over to her refrigerator. "When we're on our own time, I'd much rather spend time with you as a friend than a boss, alright?" She had her head in the fridge and she knew that he was looking at her cut-off covered ass and that was far past fine with her. She just couldn't think of a way to use it as an illustration with which to drive her point home any better without sounding crude or she would have. His eyebrows rose when she placed a bottle in front of him -- just at the right side of his plate in the perfect place for formality. "There," she said as she turned to search for an opener until she heard the hiss as he twisted the cap off. "Oh," she said in surprise, "I didn't know it was one of the twist-off sort." "It wasn't," Jürgen said as he inspected his palm, "I thought that it was as well." She chuckled once she saw that he wasn't injured, "I suppose that they're all twist--off for someone like you." "More or less," he smiled, "and thank you." "Do you want a glass?" she asked. "I thought that you were telling me in your way to be less formal," he said. "Well I was," she began, "but -- " "Then I do not need a glass," he smiled, "or a coaster, since there is no tablecloth and the tabletop is plastic -- or even a tablecloth, correct?" "Yes," she nodded as sternly as possible, in as close as she could come to his way of speaking, "Nott eefen a tablecloss, mein Herr." Then she laughed as she found herself sitting on his knee. "Thank you," she sighed, "this is much more like the way that I am with my friends." He took her bottle and ripped the cap off that one too. "So," he said as they looked at each other, "I think that you are trying to tell me that you have the same struggle as I have -- where I find that I have made a friend and yet I have no wish to ruin something over how to behave." She nodded, "I've been having the same fight all day, Jürgen. Could we please just find a place for us in this to be what we want to be? I'd really like that. I so love to spend time with you." He nodded, smiling shyly in that way that seemed to be able to melt her and she kissed him for it. "So when we're on our own time," she said, "I don't want to be the 'Ferret Lady' or 'Red Sonja'. I just want to be Kate. And I don't want to think of you as Jürgen the mighty warrior or --" "Jürgen the what?" He laughed, "What am I?" "Bloody hell," Kate muttered appreciatively, "this beer's not half-bad, is it?" He knew that she was trying to tell him to ignore what she now thought to have been a stupid thing to say to him, which it wasn't, he considered as he tried to see things from her side of it. It had been more of an uncomfortable compliment which she now regretted having said, so he pulled her a little closer to him and waited while she drew another sip from her bottle. He watched her eyes looking over toward him as she did and when she lowered the bottle, she looked at him in a little uncertainty, "What?" she asked. "Put the bottle down, please, Kate," he said very quietly. Her eyes never left his as she attempted it but he could see that she was going to miss the table, so he helped, and then they looked at each other. "May I say something?" he asked and Kate nodded. It took him several seconds to compose his thoughts and then he pulled her slowly so that their cheeks touched and he was looking over her shoulder. It gave him a view without her in it and that gave him the separation that he needed to speak as he enjoyed the very soft bristle of the side of her head against his own. "Please remain like this for a moment," he whispered. "It feels so good to me to hold you this way. I wanted to say that I agree with everything that you said about the horses that we saw. I feel so strongly about the little bit of sadness which I heard in your voice because I often feel it too." He lifted his head and kissed her ear softly for a moment before he put his head back where it had been and sighed. "But, ..." Kate began, "but I think that a man your size must get a lot more chances, Jürgen," she whispered, "Don't you?" He exhaled and settled against her with a very satisfied little groan. "You might be correct, but I have never felt comfortable with most women. To me, it feels like I am -- at best and to use your little movie -- only the stallion which they want for a time, and I always feel out of place. Here with you, I have found a friend in a mare who is closer to my size and has the same feelings which I have. I am almost paralyzed most of the time because there is always the feeling that I am about to overstep the fence, and --" He felt Kate begin to pull her head back, but he just held her and asked to be allowed to finish, so he felt her relax against him again with a soft sigh. "Also," he almost whispered, "I am a little terrified at what I see that could be, and I do not want to ruin what might be a chance." He felt her arms tighten around his neck as she squeezed him more for a moment and then she relaxed a little. "I don't think that you could ruin anything right now, Jürgen," She whispered, "I might talk a good game about our roles, but I feel just like you do. My only advantage is that we're both facing our struggles in my language." She kissed the side of his throat softly and then she drew her head back. "I hear you. We both know what we are, and I hear you. I've never had a boyfriend who was taller than I am. Even the one who was the same height as me was lighter -- well, if you subtracted his stomach. But you don't have that and you're taller than I am, and there's no bloody way that we're even close in our weights. For the first time in my life, I'm with a man who is heavier than me and not fat at all. I know what you are, Jürgen. Since we're here like this, I'll admit to having a hope that I've found my stallion in you, so I'm every bit as frightened that we've gotten a little close and I'm just as terrified for the same reasons." She shook the feeling off then and drew her head back. Jürgen was looking at a more confident-looking Kate now, though he was aware that some of it at least was a front. "So," she smiled very slowly as she looked up and he watched her eyes as they made the trip up his face to rest on the hair on his head. "Please Jürgen, can I rub it a little?" He nodded with a smile and waited as she moved her arm, but it never made the trip to his head and he gasped for a brief moment and then relaxed as she reached against the material of his shorts and began. Kate wasn't surprised at all at the first glance that she'd gotten of his shorts earlier. It had been something that she'd kept as an internal reaction, but she'd wanted to roll her eyes then. Even here, after-hours and in a freaking tropical paradise, Jürgen was wearing fucking khaki shorts - which even had belt loops -- and a zipper and everything. It had caused her to look toward his feet and she was at least a little relieved then to see him barefooted. She hadn't been absolutely certain at the time, but she had a thought that if he'd been there in socks and sandals out of ... Well, that might have been the only deal-breaker that she could imagine and it would be temporary, lasting only long enough for the time that she would need to get them off him and to extract a promise that he never wear anything like that unless he was going to a tropical funeral or a bank. She kissed him and put quite a lot into it because it was the way that she felt for him. As she sighed and tried to keep the moans out of her voice that she felt, she kept thinking of the lonely man who she'd watched for several enchanting minutes as he'd worked himself in a moment of lonely need. She gently pushed the scene from her mind as she opened her mouth and teased his open with her tongue. From the instant that their tongues touched, Kate found herself with another distraction. She was now thinking of the horses in the pasture. She could see that large shaft on the stallion as it slid powerfully into and out of his mare while he slapped against her haunches and it made holding onto and caressing the shaft there in her own hand such a joy to her. She remembered the moment when she'd seen the mare turn her head to look back at her male and Kate would have sworn on a stack of bibles right then that she could attest to feeling what was spoken in that look. That big girl was happy and thankful and Kate knew it. It was something that she'd longed to feel all of her adult life -- to have a male her own size -- one that was the same sort of creature that she was. It was a moment of joy, to be sure, but Kate knew that it was so much more as well because she could feel it in her own breast right now. It was knowing that she had her stallion, and not for only the moment. Kate pushed that thought from her a little reluctantly, and then the lonely and beautiful man was back in the sunset scene. Well this was that man. Kate finished up that one kiss and pulled back to look into the gray eyes for a moment. Jürgen blinked at her and they smiled so slowly at each other that Kate wanted to lunge at the handsome face all over again with a whimper that she knew was just ... just there waiting to be let out. He watched her smile turn just a little mischievous then and she spoke so softly to him. "Smell my face, Jürgen. Tell me what you smell." He wondered about it, but he did move his face forward and begin to sniff as he dragged those sweet lips against hers. "What, ... oh fucking hell," Kate groaned, "What do you smell, Jürgen, and be very, ... honest with me." Ferret Girl Ch. 04 He went on sniffing and then he smiled softly, and Kate felt her own grin beginning. "A little, ... " He sniffed again, "a tiny little bit of, ... onion and, ... bratwurst, Kate, but it does not smell bad or anyth-" She kissed him and slid her lips against his with a tiny chuckle, "Bratwurst and potatoes and a little onion and oh my fucking God, Jürgen, please tell me that these are erotic smells to you, you mighty Teutonic beast, you." He chuckled then, "Actually, I do not come from -- " "Never mind that, "she hissed, "Just tell me that it arouses you before I run over there to the counter and slather margarine on myself if you think you'd like that better. If I had popcorn here right now, what I'd do with my buttered fingers shouldn't even be talked about." He laughed and Kate loved it as she laughed too. She let go of him and stood up in front of him as she slid her cut-offs down and stepped out of them. "I would, you know. You can bet your reserved and polite -- and bloody gorgeous ass, I would." He watched as she pulled her long T-shirt over her head and slowly sank to her knees. "Stand up. Jürgen. Please stand up for me. I want those shorts and that shirt off you right this second." She didn't have to tell him twice or even hesitate and she looked up at the magnificent male that she'd seen in that postcard sunset. Jürgen looked into her green eyes and he was lost for a moment, but Kate reached for his legs then. "I want to say something, Jürgen. I don't even know if a mare can do what I want to do right now for my stallion. If they can't, then I pity the poor dears. I've never done this the way that I now feel that I can't do in any other way, so please bear with me." She brought her face to his genitals and pressed her forehead against the underside of that lovely fat rod with a sigh as she softly kissed and licked Jürgen's scrotum for several minutes, groaning and whimpering softly as she did. She couldn't explain it to even herself, but she knew that she needed to feel the heat of it against her face. She licked everything so much that she felt that she ought to stop now and then, but she heard his soft hisses and they encouraged her. As she pressed her face against the underside of that hard thing, she loved the soft slickness of that skin on her cheek as she slowly kept on, licking and sliding, until she was near the end and it was only then that she took it in her hand and drew it toward her a little to slip her tongue into the bit of skin which still covered it. Jürgen gasped at the sensation and he laid his hand so carefully onto her head, feeling the short hair and groaning as she moved the foreskin back and slid that wonderful thing inside of her mouth. They both groaned and he felt her hand as she caressed his muscular flank and he didn't need to even think about it. He just knew where her other hand was, because she began to move a little there on her knees before him. It didn't take more than a few minutes because that was about as long as Kate wanted this to last with her knees on the linoleum like this. The fact that he responded to her desire for the length of this interlude came to her in as much of a thrill as anything else about him. She wasn't a mare and she knew it. It was just a pleasant comparison, that was all, but she also knew then that she had what it took to get them to heaven in their way, just another sign of his perfection to her as a mating partner, that was all. So simple. So much. When he came, she was ready and she took almost everything. She'd wanted to try for his second-last squirt onto her cheek , but she missed it and had to settle and she didn't mind a bit. She'd had her little orgasms and she knew that they had all night. What was more important to her was what she was trying to tell him with it. She sat back and looked up again along that long hard body and she took the slightly softening organ from her mouth. Jürgen looked down at her wet face and he smiled, since it seemed the only thing that he could do without feeling stupid. His eyes grew a little larger then as he watched her work a little more from him onto her lips before she slid her soft and lovely tongue over one lip and leaned a little so that he could see her as she looked up, sliding the head of him over her face. She lifted up then and took him back in as she reached up to touch his chest and slide her wet fingers down over the ridges of his rock-hard abdomen with a sigh. He could smell the juices that she was leaving as her mark on him and he knew it for what it was. When she looked up again, she kept the wet end of him against her lips and spoke so very softly to him. "In case you need to hear it, stallion. I want to be the mare for you. I don't give a shit about when we're working. Just be good to me and I'll be good for you." Jürgen nodded then and he reached down to help Kate up. She didn't really know what he was about to do. She had a thought then that she should have had a dishtowel or something handy for this moment so that she could wipe her face. William had made a big deal out of not wanting to kiss her after she'd sucked his cock for him, not that she'd ever really done it that often or put anywhere near as much into it for him. She gasped a little when Jürgen embraced her and held her tightly against him. She looked down a little, but he leaned his head down until she got the idea and raised her face to him in a little wonder. He looked only a moment. It was all that he'd wanted -- to look at her face and then she felt his kisses and his cheek against hers as he did it while never taking his lips from hers. When the moment was past, Kate threw her arms around him with the whimper that she'd felt hanging in her throat and wanting to be let out for all of that time and she hugged him with everything that she could put into it. He chuckled softly into her ear, "I have never had the thought that I might be a stallion before today. But for a mare like the beautiful woman that I hold feels herself to be, I find that it is a very nice thought." She let go of him and took his hand, "Where do you want to go, Jürgen? I just know that your bed is made and crisp and clean and all. I just got up this morning and now I wish that I'd made it. The way I feel right now, you could have me right here on the floor, but -" He chuckled quietly, "So then it might smell of this fine body a little? Lead me then. That is what I want now." In her bed later, she looked up at him as he held her, not quite on top of her and only speaking in low whispers as they worked out what they wanted if this could be made better. Kate was already feeling his semen as it left her and though she had no desire to become pregnant at the moment, the feeling still came to her with just a tiny touch of regret. With any other man, it had been all that she could do not to jump up and wipe it off for the tickle that she felt and the way that it kept reminding her that someone had um, had her, as it were. The way that she felt now, she'd have carried it around all day as long as she could feel that it was there just a little bit now and then. She still didn't want to get pregnant and she was so thankful now that she'd arranged to get extra months of her prescription from her quack, but she did so like this feeling -- just as the gentle reminder that it was and the tiny little regret that it was leaving her to a degree. She wondered if it was this way with draft horses. The next time that they did it, Kate was thrilled that Jürgen asked her if she wanted to try to approximate the horses as much as their bodies would allow, so she nodded and knelt in front of him, facing away so that he could mount her. This had never been a position that she'd liked before for the way that she had to present her ass out there along with her sex for the man. William had sealed a lot of things for himself the very second time that he'd slapped her ass. The first time that he'd done it was when she'd asked him not to do it again. Kate knew that a lot of women even liked that a lot, but she didn't. It just reminded her that she was a big girl and as far as that went, she was too big that way. But Jürgen had shown himself to be better. He'd taken a lesson from the stallion, it seemed. Before he'd allow her to present her ass to him, he'd held her down and the things that he'd done with his tongue had raised him in her mind to rather near the level of a god with a lower-case 'g'. Even as she'd lain there, a weak and sloppy mess, his hands told her so much in the way that they moved over her body and she moaned and lolled around like a happy cat for the attention. When she felt that she had the strength for it, she'd mentioned something to him a little shyly as she'd caressed his head while he'd suckled at her breasts and lamented that he had but one mouth for her. "I've been thinking," she sighed to him, "and I think that if that girl horse out there in the field could even have orgasms as often and as wonderful as you've given me tonight, well, I don't think that she would have any way to let her big boy know about it. For all that I know, he might not even care all that much and I have a pretty strong doubt that he'd stop or even slow down if she did. I'm sure that he'd just keep on banging her until he was done himself, and the way that I look at it, well, it's his right to do that, since he's claimed his mare and all. That's the way that I think it is with them. Once a stallion chooses a mare in nature, it's because only the best would get a shot at her and that one would likely try rather hard to kill any others who even stood a little close. So this time, Jürgen, that's what I want to do with you. You just go on until you're finished in me and never mind my plaintive little noises, alright?" He blinked at her for a moment, but he could see that it was what she wanted for this and so he nodded. Well, it wasn't all that quiet between them that time. Kate bucked back against him feeling freer and wilder than she thought that she ever had when making love with anyone. She just leaned forward on her elbows and looked back at him whenever she could while Jürgen did his best to rut into the mare that she wanted to present to him. Kate loved the slap of his body against hers and she moaned and even growled to him down low in her throat. She did feel her orgasms and when each one came to her, she tried to steady herself, knowing that her stallion wouldn't stop and would continue to plow her right through whatever she felt. She even raised her head and cried out -- long and soulful wails to him, but as each one passed her by like little waves when she'd sat on a beach as a girl and watched them slip past her toes, she reveled in this all the same, and that wonderful Germanic beast kept railing her on and on and on. The words slipped out of her once, even though she tried to catch the phrase but was too late. She turned her head to look at him again, a little hopeful that it hadn't been said too loudly or that maybe he'd been too lost in his pleasure of her to notice it. As she'd looked back, Jürgen had said nothing out of his consideration for her feelings and he'd just laid one of those strong hands on her flank and caressed it even as he slammed into her and went right on doing it while the other held her hip so that she couldn't get too far away. She knew it when he came, from his sounds and the sudden seizure of her hips with both strong hands so that the male side of the species made certain that every drop of his seed was passed to the female. He held her a little rigidly and thrust in small strokes again and again, perhaps eight or ten little thrusts held for a moment at the end and Kate knew somehow that she ought to show him a little of her gratitude then so she'd mewled a little to him each time to let him know. She'd just had an orgasm not long before, but that was alright to her. They stayed like that until he slipped out of her and then Kate eased herself down onto her front and Jürgen proved to her again just how different he was when he carefully and slowly laid down on top of her, taking care not to put much of his weight on his female. "Thank you," she heard the hoarse whisper as it came to her over her shoulder and Kate smiled. "Thank you, Jürgen, darling. I hope that I've been good for you, because if I have my way, I think that I'll be wanting a lot of that from you -- that is, ..." "Shh," he hissed, "I heard what you said, Kate. I want that too and I am willing to try very hard to make it so that we might, go on from this, ..." He stretched to bring his face a little closer to hers without having to stretch too far, but it didn't work, so he moved a little and eased his hips and his genitals onto her ass and leaned down on those arms and hands of his as he hung his head down and nuzzled against her ear and cheek a little. "Liebling." Kate blinked for a moment. "That's not the same as 'darling', is it Jürgen? I mean, it's something like that, but -- " He chuckled softly and nuzzled her ear a little more, just shy of the point where she'd have to flinch as she saw him in the dresser mirror, a huge man who now looked down at the large and statuesque girl he'd just mated. "It is much the same thing," she heard him say softly, "but I tried to put something more into it." Kate rolled the front half of her over to face him, though the rest only made the trip partially. She looked up and Jürgen was smiling softly. "Well, I could think of no other words which you might have ever heard and understood. All that I have ever heard Englanders say about my language is that it is so ... guttural, when their own carries the very same root and origins. We laugh about it all the time." "Lieb-ling?" she asked. "You will need practice to get the sound, my love, but you almost have it," he smiled even more, clearly delighted that she was beginning to understand, " 'Liebe' means 'love' and the rest is a form to pass the emotion on to one person from another who one loves. Kate," he whispered into her ear so very softly, "I have never seen a woman more beautiful than you. In my life, I have never known anyone even close to you. The most magnificent woman in the world, and she speaks to me of herself as though we are horses. I understand all of the reference and it is just as erotic to me when I think of you, but we are past that now for a little while and still I am here with you. And you wish now to struggle over German?" She spun farther under him and grabbed what she could to pull him down, "I don't bloody care, Jürgen, my fine and mighty lover, I'll work on it later, if you don't mind. Just hug me and I'll be fine." "We are not horses now?" he asked with that same soft and mirthful soft smile. She shook her head, "No. We're two people who fit together really, really well, though one of us tries to help the other one to speak a little better." He kissed her very softly again and then he reached out his arm to stretch for a moment before he brought it back and held her with it as well, "I have never looked down on anyone who has trouble speaking. I suppose that I can learn to be more patient with you, Kate." He thrilled to hear her peal of laughter and he thrilled even more to feel her wrap herself around him in her joy. ------------------------- The morning was hot. Stupid-hot, Kate thought as she made a pot of coffee and stepped outside in her coveralls. She went right back inside. Far too stupid-hot to be wearing coveralls. She put on her bikini and then the coveralls, leaving them unzipped and the sleeves tied around her waist. It did feel a little better. She came back out a minute later with a pair of full mugs to find Jürgen sitting in a bit of shade with the notebook on his thigh as he worked to familiarize himself with it and the mapping software. He looked up and Kate almost swore for the way that a little of the coffee had slopped over her fingers. She did manage a smile, though. She couldn't have helped it to save her life. He was sitting with his coveralls unzipped and the sleeves tied around his waist. She held out the mug for him, "It's not bloody fair," she glowered a little, "I can't do that without some sort of top on like this." He nodded and thanked her for the coffee, "Well, you could, but not while we are on the clock. As it is, I don't think that I can even make a comment, Kate, other than to agree with you." He looked off into the distance, "If it weren't for that, I think that I would make a fool of myself." Kate tilted her head, wondering where he was going with this, "How do you mean?" He didn't look back at her for a moment. He just sipped his coffee and then after a second, he just said, "I think that I would look ridiculous begging like that, don't you?" Kate was back to being herself right then and she laughed. "What is on the schedule for today, Chief?" he asked. "More driving today," she said. "First, we've got to go for a little petrol and then, it's off to the uncharted wilds with us to find a few circle routes. I hope that you had a shower this morning. It's bound to get hot shut up inside Fanny all day in this heat." He nodded, "Ja," He got up to go inside his cottage and emerged with his sidearm and his G3 and a few magazines. She looked over at him as he emerged after stowing them inside. "We are security," he said, "this vehicle is not armed yet, but the job is still there, I think. When you call us in, tell them that we are training so that we get no calls. I think that would be best," He looked at her, "Or?" Kate nodded. She had no argument to make. She did look at him and stare when she noticed the towels that he'd draped over the seats in consideration of the heat. He shrugged with a smirk, "I have looked through the manuals that you gave me. I saw nothing which related to a drain to allow sweat to run out." They drove off to get fuel down at the company fuel station and then, after a quick call-in to the security gatehouse, they were off with Jürgen driving. Long before they reached one of the beaches, they saw a pair of joggers trotting through the already palpably thick air. "I'm not all that enthusiastic to want to run in this, but I suppose that I ought to get back into running while I'm here," she said, "Would you know of any good, um, safe places to run, Jürgen?" She watched his head turn a little as he looked out of the open driver's hatch, "By 'safe' I think that you mean a little private as well?" Kate chuckled, "I might at that. Anyway, I think you know the plantation property pretty well, so if you wouldn't mind cutting me a little slack while I get back into it, I think that I'd love to run with you." He agreed and they kept on until they were in what to her was largely uncharted territory and she noticed the way that he was a little careful as he drove them along through it, never revving the engine and keeping things at a slow plod. She told him where to stop for their lunch break and she opened her little cooler to share the sandwiches that she'd made for them. He looked back at her and his mouth opened in surprise to see Kate sitting there with her coveralls open and down around her ankles. Her top was off and her bikini was undone. As he looked with a smile, she pushed the front part away to expose her closely-trimmed red bush to him as she settled herself with a sigh. "Do you want to rub it a little, Jürgen?" By their own admissions to each other later, neither one had thought that it was even possible to fuck inside a Ferret. It had taken a long time for them to get situated, and most of all, it had taken a great deal of sweat in that hot metal shell which cooled only slowly, parked in the shade as it was. Ferret Girl Ch. 04 But they did get it done and they laughed about it in his bed later that night, agreeing that it had indeed been an accomplishment. Kate wasn't sure how she ought to feel about it, but on the way back, they'd actually parked in the street and she'd waited for ten minutes while he did just a quick bit of shopping so that they'd have something to eat for dinner. While he was gone, she stood outside in her coverall and listened to a lot of comments and questions. She didn't think about it, but the episode only added to the legend a little. The next morning, they were at the company range and after a bit to get familiarized once more with the same small arms that she'd trained on long before during her own national service, Kate was sworn into the security service for the farm. After that, they got Fanny's L7 sighted in, and they sat eating lunch under a tree before they left for another bit of trailblazing. They were doing the same thing along an unfamiliar stretch, just idling along and trying to get used to the new route when he spoke. "This path here leads to a beach which is fairly private," Jürgen said, "It is used sometimes by -" He stepped on the brake and they coasted to a stop. There in front of them, they could see a boat tied to a fallen tree at the shoreline, even though it appeared to have been pulled up a little. Out of the cove some distance, they saw a yacht. Kate turned on the recorder as she swept the viewfinder over the scene, stopping every few seconds as she zoomed in on some detail or other. There were men trotting to the boat and there were what looked to be a pair of lovers there on the sand, both of them looking to be lost in what they were doing. The men were finished with whatever they'd been doing and three of them now turned to make quiet little remarks to the last man, who was still went on fucking the woman a little slowly. It was clear that they'd have liked him to hurry it up. The spell was broken when the three noticed the sound of the idling Ferret and they called over in alarm. The man looked over in surprise and shock as he pulled out of the girl and ran for the boat which was already untied and slipping out. He was aboard on the second try and the paddles were out as he tried to start the small outboard motor. As the motor started and was slammed into gear to accelerate the boat out of the little cove, the naked and quite beautiful woman on the beach looked over, jumped to her feet and ran after only a quick and hurried attempt at grabbing her few belongings as Jürgen lurched them forward again. The girl gave up then and ran off with only her shorts and top in her hands, but she did look back just once and it was enough. Two of the men in the small craft reached down and came back up with weapons and in another moment, Kate began to curse as she heard some of the rounds patter along the vehicle's skin. "Fuck this for a lark!" she seethed and reached to rip back the cocking handle of the long gun in the turret. She slid back down and selected the gun on her systems. "Nobody shoots the paint off my Fanny." Jürgen heard it, but decided that now was not the time. He grinned to himself anyway. She laid the reticules onto the yacht where she now saw more armed men. She waited only long enough to see the sparkles which told her they were firing. "A little closer, Jürgen," she said a little loudly, "We've been fired on. That's all I need, I think." As Jürgen slammed the driver's hatch closed and the Ferret moved forward, Kate tried a short burst to see where the impact point would be in relation to what she saw on the screen and liking it, she began to drill into the yacht, which had now turned and was pulling away. There were still skitters against the outer shell and she gave the small boat a little of her attention, trying for the outboard motor. She cursed and fumed as the odd spent casing from the gun escaped the catch-all bag and landed on her to burn her if she didn't notice it right away. It must have worked; she thought, as the boat settled forward onto its bow wave and slowed. The men were not in sight now, trying to hide in the hull. Kate switched back to the yacht then and shot the shit out of at least one inboard with several bursts. Her reward was the steam and smoke which began to envelop the stern of the craft which still limped away slowly. After several seconds of silence, Jürgen reached for his submachine gun," Keep the gun on the nearer boat." He said. With that, he was out of the hatch, striding to the spot to retrieve the few things that the girl had left behind. After that, he walked to the one article that one of the men had fumbled with and dropped over the side in his shock at being seen. One of the men in the small craft raised a weapon and Jürgen warned him to put it down and raise his hands. The man fired anyway, and Kate found herself scrambling to get her turret turned that way. Jürgen didn't flinch. He only walked forward and returned fire in two bursts. The rest held up their hands then, the ones who could, at least. "Call it in," he yelled to Kate, who now sat numb in her shock, but she did as he asked and less than five tense minutes later, there were half a dozen security officers on the scene, one of them the head of overall security with more constables on the way. With back-up there with them and looking around, ordering the men to come to the shore, the security chief made the call which would bring a police watercraft to arrest the men on the yacht. ---------------------- There was silence in the meeting room as several people watched Kate's footage through the projector. When it was done and had begun to loop to the beginning, the chief of security shut it off. There was still a long silence before Corrine Morris spoke up. "That wasn't me," she said, a little nervously, "I was in town then. That wasn't me!" Her father reached for the plastic bag that had lain hidden out of sight in a briefcase until then. "These are your sandals," he said heavily, "and this is your wallet." "But I lost my wallet in town yesterday and -- " Morris pointed to the now blank screen and said, "Do you really think that I wouldn't know your face in any crowd, never mind all alone and naked on the sand? Do you believe that a father wouldn't recognize the tattoo on his own daughters shoulder? The one that I've hated to see on your skin since it was done?" He slammed his fist down on the table. "Must I really ask Ms. Perkins to prove me right with a close-up of that?" Everton Morris sighed in a bit of quiet shame for a moment and then he looked up, "Almost all of those men worked here. I was able to identify them myself from the video, Corinne. The ones on the yacht were strangers. All of them have been questioned and every one, ..." He exhaled heavily, "Every single one pointed to you as the leader of this ring, the part which was here." He looked down again for a moment and then he looked up once more. "Police constables were wounded the first time that they tried to arrest anyone, Corinne. Men were killed for this business. I've had to give widows and children my condolences and now I find that my own daughter --" He looked down, "And one man dead from the yacht and another from the boat. Such a waste." Kate had been silent for all of the time, wondering why she felt like the guilty one in this. This had been what they'd been hired and brought for -- the worst possible case, she realized, but it had been an eventuality that had always been there in her mind. The looks that she'd been receiving from Corinne had only made her feel worse. Kate had felt terrible from the start, since it had all made her feel as though she was being forced to act against someone who had been a friend to her, but there is was all the same. Morris managed to hold his rising voice at that point and just looked away. He glowered at Kate and Jürgen as though he wanted to hold them responsible for this shame, but he his gaze passed by them after a moment and stopped at Errol Cardington. His hands lifted from where they'd been held knit together as he raised them slightly, "I have nothing more to say, Errol, other than to try to express my deepest --" Mr. Cardington nodded and then turned to look at the head of the island's constabulary and he nodded. Corinne was led out of the room in cuffs. "I think that your response was a little heavy-handed, Ms. Perkins," Morris said in an accusatory tone. That was it for Kate. She saw Jürgen looking as though he was about to speak, but she pre-empted his reply, now that someone who hadn't been there was passing his judgement. While she'd had to sit in that hot tub with the knowledge that without Fanny's tough metal hide, this would have likely ended far differently. "A bloody good thing that I didn't have a Swingfire then, if that's your attitude, Mr. Morris," she said quietly. "They're not legal to own privately and they've all been scrapped as far as I am aware. Otherwise, I'd have removed the whole yacht in one go." ---------------- He watched as a beefy-looking tourist tried to strike up a hopeful conversation. Kate knew it for what it was and she was still friendly, though after a time, he saw her shake her head, still smiling as she pointed over in his direction and the conversation ended with the man walking away after a long glance. Kate walked away from the stall and back to where Jürgen watched his wife's fine body as it came to him in that thong bikini and looking like a pleased goddess. Which was pretty much what she was to Jürgen Bandermann, he readily admitted to himself. He reached out to take the slush drink that she held out to him. He was aware that she still had little issues with herself, but none of them came from him. She was stacked and built like the proverbial brick shithouse and that body could make any man come to a few quiet hopes in a heartbeat if his knees could even hold him up that long. That sort of thing was like a donkey looking as longingly as he wanted at a fine Percheron mare. He didn't really care about any of that beyond the slightly humorous thought of it. What was important was that Kate knew that to him, she was everything that he could ever want, and he never stopped showing it to her. Besides, he thought, Kate had stood in the same place far more than once when he'd been approached by women himself, though his side of the conversations were shorter than theirs. He thought it ironic, not that it meant much to him. Once it had become widely known who they were and that they were together, it as almost as though he was now not seen as so much of a silent, hulking brute. He took it as a sign that she was rubbing off on him. He liked to think of it that way and he knew that what he'd just watched was just a hopeful pass. It happened fairly often to Kate. But none of them could even turn her head and he'd never give her a reason to ever doubt him for a second. They began to walk together down the pebbled path, nodding and returning the greetings which were offered to them as they went. "You do know what they call us, don't you?" she smiled over at him for a moment. He sipped his drink for a second before he smirked, "So? I have seen these movies and I don't care what they say." Her close-cropped auburn head turned to look at her husband for a moment, "I can't believe that it's finally over," she said as she walked. He snorted quietly, "I need to know what you are referring to, Kate. Do you mean the long drama in court, or do you mean the extensions to our contracts which we were given? I'm afraid that I don't know what you mean at all." Kate giggled a little and began to imitate him, "I mean everysing. Ze court appearanzess, ze exdenshins, ... " She sighed then as she dropped the act, "I mean everything. It was nice of Mr. Cardington to keep us fed while I arranged for a ship to transport the Ferrets and us back with them. All that we had to pay for was the difference in the container size so that we could take our little Citroens along and I'd never leave them here, not after all of the fun we've had with them. Why, I want to restore them if I can as good as new and if I can't -- " "I know," he smiled, "they would make lovely planters." Kate sighed, "I love it here, Jürgen, but I'm not going to go through another hurricane season." "It's not as bad as that most years," he said, "but I know what you mean. I just hope that I can find a job in England." "Are you uncertain about things?" She asked and he nodded, "Not about us, but a little about everything else." "Well don't be," she said, trying to sound like his boss once more, "We've only got days to wait for the ship to dock and then we'll be off on another round of adventure. I have some measure of faith in my man. I just have to try to get used to the European winters again, that's all. You have four months left and if nothing works out, then I'll go with you and you can teach for that alphabet soup group that you were in, in the army in Germany. I know I can turn a good coin if I sell Fanny -- especially since she's seen action in her time. I don't have a sodding clue, but I'll do my best to make you a good hausfrau somehow." They'd had their troubles out of the entire incident and its many repercussions. Corinne's arrest had only created a vacuum which was quickly filled, but with the Ferrets armed up and on patrol in two shifts, it was a lot harder to move goods and a lot easier to come across the perpetrators whenever they tried. There had been more arrests, but with one of the Ferrets on-scene, or even the threat of an appearance after a radio call, there had been no more gunplay. Jürgen doubted if the activity had even ceased completely, but it was no longer their problem. The contract was done and Kate had been able to help Mr. Cardington to procure more modern equivalents. Not Ferrets, but it was what could be done. The training had fallen to him and it had been worth a lot of cash as well. In the middle of it all, Kate and Jürgen had come apart for a short time, but that was in the past as well. Neither of them ever expected to meet anyone like the one that they'd found -- or wanted to, for that matter, and so they'd just met one evening and said nothing until after they'd finished making love until they just couldn't anymore. After that, it was just the laughing knowledge of what they had and every other thing was forgotten between them and about a week after that, Kate became Mrs. Bandermann. A week after the container had been loaded into the hold, Kate joined her husband at the rail of the slow freighter which was taking them home. It was not lost on her that they were at the moment, sailing AWAY from the sunset. "I have been thinking," he said out of the blue. Kate laughed, "I've seen that old advert on the television. It's not even funny out here on a ship like this." As he looked at her quizzically, she just put her arm around his waist and looked up, smiling, "All right. Tell me then, what have you been sinking about?" He didn't get it, so he went on, "I think that you should do what you need to go into this Ferret and armored vehicle business as much as you can. I saw that there was at least some good money in it when you helped to get the parts for the old Mark 2s there. You do what you can, and I will always help you and I will find some work somehow, so we can stay in England. I have no wish to see you as a hausfrau at all." She hugged him tightly and gave him a delighted little grin, "That's what I love about you, always sinking about me. But I don't want to get into anything like that old argument again between us. Let's just get there and see and then we can sink about everysing, ja?" He looked at her, knowing that she'd been having him on in her gentle way. "I can manage French or Russian if you like, Kate. Are there any of the Slavic languages that you would like to hear? How about Swedish or, ... I know, Mandarin! No, Mongolian, ... with a very polite German accent, of course!" She backed away in fear of him a little, "Please, no. For God's sake, not that!" ------------------ END