You . . . like Karl?” Linda asked.
Yeah, he’s a character. Told me last night I was the first woman he’d ever met for whom he really had any feeling. I asked him what in the hell he meant by that. He told me to Suche dein Herz.’ Whatever in the hell that means.”
It means, ‘search your heart.’ ”
You speak German?”
Yes. I can get by in the language, although I’m a bit rusty in it.”
Tammy swung her gaze back to the swamp. I hope they’re O.K.”
Yes.” Linda’s reply was gently stated. So do I.”
Search your heart,” Tammy said softly. Wow!”
Crazy son of a bitch!” Jon yelled at Karl. He was clawing his .45 from leather. What in the hell . . .?”
Contain your violent actions,” Karl said calmly. And look behind you before you start hurling insulting epithets in my direction.”
Jon looked. Two dead Links were slowly sinking into the sluggish waters. He looked back at Karl and slowly removed his hand from the butt of the .45.
I thought—”
I know what you thought,” Karl said. I was watching their wake, waiting for them to surface. I chose not to tell you about their approach; you’re so excitable in such matters.”
Well . . . thank you, Karl.”
Don’t become maudlin, Jon. It’s disgusting!” He waved a hand. Proceed, steersman.”
An hour of daylight remained before they gave up their hunt and headed back to Despair.
You know, of course, we’ve been watched all day?” Karl spoke over the roar of the inboard.
Yes.”
Why did you not engage them?”
Because . . . they did not attack us.”
The two men exchanged glances.
Jon said, I’m in somewhat of a quandary . . . with my emotions. So kindly leave me alone and let me work out the solution to the problem by myself.”
The German smiled. Surely you’re not implying I have ever interfered in any of your mental musings. Why I am the epitome of silence. A veritable sphinx in my ability to—”
Oh, shut up!”
Wearing a hurt expression, Karl was silent the remainder of the trip. Upon docking, he told Linda, He is an impossibly rude fellow. Surly at best. Do something with him; attempt to teach him manners . . . if possible.”
Jon gave him a dark look and told him, in the language of his youth, to go somewhere and commit an impossible act upon his person.
Karl jerked a thumb. You see? He has the disposition of an aroused pit viper.”
I don’t want to talk about it,” Jon told her.
Of course, dear. Whatever you say.”
Don’t patronize me!”
I wouldn’t for the world.”
They lay in the dark silence for a time. She put her soft hand on his flat, hard belly and felt him stir at the touch.
She let her hand rest where it lay, although she was filled with desire and wanted desperately to slide her hand downward and grasp his maleness; to feel it fill and swell under her hand.
The scent of her arousal filled the darkened room and she could feel his breathing quicken as her sexual aroma reached him.
This is much better than talk, anyway,” he said.
Her reply was to slide her hand downward, her fingers encircling his maleness. She stroked him, sliding the foreskin over the swelling glans.
He pulled her closer, bending his head, stroking her skin with his hands. His mouth found a nipple, sucking it to almost painful tautness. His mouth traced wet patterns down her belly and she was forced to relinquish her grasp on his hardness. His tongue licked at her mons veneris, bringing gasps of pleasure from her as it entered the satin darkness of woman.
She entwined her fingers in his hair and pressed his face against her.
He brought her to a first shivering climax with his tongue and finger and then shifted in the bed. She opened her mouth and took him, the head of his hardness almost too large for her to take orally.
It was sixty-nine, the juices flowing and boiling in each of them as they performed the ultimate act of love between man and woman.
Then, with a movement so swift it seemed to her blurred, he shifted and took her brutally, a little pain mixed with the pleasure.
She cried out from surprise and the sudden ache of his penetration. There was no gentleness to his attack, only the abruptness of his intrusion and the hot plunge of him sinking inside her.
Bastard!” she hissed, her breath hot on his cheek. His chuckling infuriated her.
Inches of hard maleness were not all that filled her; a rage swept over her, a determination to meet him and beat him on his own ground, in his own fashion.
This, then, would not be love-making. This would be fucking.
So be it.
Her hands found his buttocks and brought him inside to his zenith, with her unable to suppress the moan that escaped her mouth as he filled her. Her hips slammed upward, meeting his stroke, finding the rhythm and holding the mercenary to it.
She mashed her mouth to his, bruising not only his lips but her own. You’d better be able to stay with it, hero!” she said in a gasping hiss.
I will,” he replied in that calm assured manner of his, and that angered her with a burst of fury that was almost overpowering in its intensity.
And she went on the attack, lunging at him, both of them combatants in a battle that would have only winners and no losers.
Once, at the conclusion of a long slamming stroke, he slipped from her, and he seized that opportunity to position her, with sheer strength, on her belly, feet on the carpeted floor. She thought for one panicky moment he was going to penetrate her anus, and she fought him. But when she felt the hard hotness once again slide into her wet sheath, she relaxed, although this position was not one she preferred. She felt . . . undignified and out of control of the situation.
Thought I was going to the back door, eh?” He softly laughed at her. I might . . . later.”
Never!” she hissed at him.
His laughter, soft but slightly derisive, enraged her, but pinned as she was, she had very little movement allowed her.
Let me up,” she said. I don’t like it this way.”
His silent reply was to stroke her satiny buttocks with one hand while keeping her pinned to the bed with his other strong hand. He pumped in and out of her, flesh slapping against flesh.
He patted her buttocks and said, Perhaps I’ll have this for dessert.”
She cursed him, in French and English.
He laughed at her. Tantot ... tantot, ma cherie.”
Don’t now-now me, you son of a bitch! Let me up!”
He kissed her on the neck.
She suddenly lunged forward on the bed, slipping his grasp. Crouched there on her knees, breasts swinging and heaving from anger and exertion, she swung a balled fist at him. To her surprise, she connected with his jaw.
Oww!” she shouted; her left hand grabbed her suddenly aching right hand. You hurt my hand!” she yelled at him.
Jon shook his head free of bright little stars and grabbed her. I am so sorry my jaw struck your fist,” he said. ,
She looked down at his swollen maleness. The excitement seemed to have a Pinocchio effect on him. He was larger than before.
Positioned between her legs, he lunged, penetrating her to his fullest. She bit him on the shoulder as he rammed inside her, his blood staining her mouth, her blood spotting the sheets.
Sudden climax shook her with an inner turbulence that was unlike anything she had ever experienced in her heretofore limited sex life. Her tears were wet and salty on his bare shoulder as yet another climax ripped through her, close behind the tremblings of the previous climax. She did not know why she was crying, only that this sexual act was the most filling—literally—and satisfying she had known, and she did not wish it to ever culminate.
Now, Jon,” she whispered.
And as abruptly as he had been brutal with her, he bec
ame gentle, the act becoming loving, the long strokes filling and the withdrawal as near to heaven as she had ever been.
She reached between his legs, to gently caress his testicles, cupping the knotted sac in her soft hand, almost feeling the juices boiling under her touch.
They came together: one long, tearing eruption mutually shared. Some invisible softness ripped within her, and she knew then, without doubt, this stubborn man softening inside her was all she wanted, all she needed, and that he needed her.
After a time dozing in each other’s arms, they rose to shower together, playfully soaping and touching and caressing. Once she bent over to retrieve the bar of soap and he inserted one finger in her anus.
Oops!” she said, gasping at the intrusion. Quick Cajun anger reared up in her as his soapy finger worked in and out of her. Then she relaxed her sphincter muscles and found the sensation to be mildly pleasant.
Dessert.” Jon laughed.
For you or for me?” She groaned the question. It was a curious mixture of feelings, not at all unpleasant, but quite unlike anything she had ever experienced.
For the both of us,” he replied.
She reached behind her and grasped his hardening penis. That made up her mind. No way,” she said. Forget it, Buster!”
He laughed and removed his finger, then pulled her to him, turning her, her breasts and crotch against his hard, soapy body. She lifted one leg and his maleness once more penetrated her.
She sighed, closing her eyes. That’s the place,” she said. Good.”
You’re very welcome, dear,” he responded.
She kissed him. You are a rotten bastard, Jon.”
But of course,” he agreed. Would you have me any other way?”
She exercised her right to reserve comment on that.
Chapter Seventeen
Frightful noise you two created last night,” Karl said. He sat at the kitchen table, stirring his coffee. I always thought you had more discretion in sexual matters. You’re always disappointing me, Jon.”
Jon grunted.
Did you muddle through your problem after you and the lady concluded your seemingly never-ending session of slap-and-tickle?”
But Jon would not be needled this day. Drink your coffee and let’s get moving. I intend to finish this mess today.”
But I haven’t had my breakfast!”
I have field rations on board. We’ll eat them.”
Karl fixed him with a long baleful look. You truly possess the palate of a hog!”
Using the running lights and the twin-mounted spotlights, Jon roared through the darkness of morning just before dawn.
He wondered where Sheriff Saucier was this morning.
He thought he knew.
But he hoped he was wrong.
You idiot!” Karl roared over the howling of the engine. You’ll crash us!”
No, I won’t. We’ll stay in the bayou on the edge of the swamp for a couple of miles. Then cut in. I know where they hide, now.” He slowed the powerful engine to half-speed.
Karl glanced back at him, a smile on his lips. You do, eh?”
Yes, you big fat Kraut . . . and so do you and Walter. You have for several days.”
Karl neither admitted nor denied the charge. His eyes flicked to the large box Jon had carried on board. What is in the crate, Jon?”
Guess.”
High explosives.” It was not a question.
Give the man a cigar.”
It was lighting in the east. It was going to be a glorious day—for death.
Whose death was up for grabs.
When did you put it all together?” Karl asked, more relaxed now that some light was visible and his crazy mercenary friend was not steaming ahead at flank speed.
After about the sixth find of the Links’s escape holes. You were too cool about them, Karl. Last night, after Linda went to sleep, I consulted the map I made yesterday and then the map you made—”
Karl sputtered his outrage. That map was in my ... my ... Aktenmappe!”
I know it was in your briefcase. Still is. You snore a lot, you know that?”
Thief!”
Jon grinned. Tammy certainly has pretty titties, doesn’t she?”
Leave Tammy’s titties out of this, you . . . you . . . sex maniac!”
Me? You’re the one who subscribes to girlie magazines, not me.”
I? Not I, Jon. Besides, I only subscribe to them for comparison of various female anatomies.”
Bullshit!”
You probably stood at the door, listening and playing with yourself, as well.”
Don’t try to change the subject, Karl. The compass points indicate a central location, don’t they?”
Karl folded his arms across his chest and said, Thieving lout!”
No Name Island, right, Karl?”
The contents of a man’s briefcase should be as private as what he has in his . . . his ... Unterzeug!”
I’m not in the least interested in what’s in your underwear, Karl.”
Karl called him several vile names, including a sneaky voyeur.”
Jon stopped at the first exit hole they had found. With deft, sure hands, he fixed the charge of plastique and inserted the timer. They motored a few hundred yards away. The swamp shook from the explosion.
One down.” Jon grinned.
Schweinehund! Destroyer of science! Ignorant savage!” Karl roared at him. Have you no feelings of obligation for the coming generations? You’re destroying the greatest scientific find in modern history.”
I said I’d leave some alive, didn’t I?”
Am I to take the word of a sneak thief?”
It’s that or nothing, pal.”
Karl turned and looked straight ahead, his jaw muscles bunching in anger. Perhaps I should have shot you yesterday. At least knocked a leg from under you.”
Oh, shut up!”
Jon blew a dozen of the openings, blocking the Links’s escape. Karl was silent during the entire operation. He looked up only when No Name Island came into view. A sad smile creased his lips. He pointed.
Look, Jon. See what you have wrought.”
Jon nosed the boat onto land. He got out and walked to a line of dead Links—among them, several human women. They were lying on the ground, holding hands.
They were all dead.
Jon knelt down, inspecting the dead. He could find not one single wound on any of them. I wonder what killed them?”
They took their own lives, mercenary.” Karl’s voice was harsh. He pointed to a bark container of red liquid. Poison, probably. They knew you were coming after them. They chose to take their own lives. My, how very proud you must be on this day.”
Jon rose to his feet. I’ve had just about enough of your moralizing, Karl. I told you I was not going to kill the normal Links. They killed themselves. Now you get off my back.”
Go, warrior,” Karl sneered. Go earn your blood money and prove once again your manhood. Kill them all. Kill the little babies and the women. Maybe then you will satisfy your blood lust.”
Like your people did in the concentration camps?” The words tumbled from his mouth before Jon could control the awful damning flow.
Karl paled. He raised the muzzle of the AK slightly. I should kill you for that, you pig! It is not I who is the barbarian here this day.”
Jon shook his head, disgusted at what he had said to his friend of almost thirty years. He watched Karl lower the muzzle of the AK.
We appear, old friend,” Karl said, embarrassment. on his face, to be speaking words we really do not mean. I cannot blame this on you. I know you would have let live any who did not attempt to harm you. I am truly sorry for my words spoken in anger.”
I, too, am sorry, Karl.”
They shook hands and then embraced, as true men are not ashamed or embarrassed to do in any emotional moment. Karl stepped back, and looked more closely at the line of dead.
A moment,” he said. He removed his leather gloves from his
back pocket and slipped them on. He walked to the boat and got a small medical bag. He took out a cotton swab and carefully peeled back the lips of a dead Link, taking a sample of drool from behind the lips.
He rose, looking at Jon. Perhaps you were right all along, Jon.”
What do you mean?”
It appears the madness has spread.” He took another swab and took a sample from a human female. The same drool. He held out the stinking end of the cotton-tipped swab. Perhaps it is only in this clan. I hope so. But I’ll wager they are all infected here.”
That’s why they killed themselves?”
We’ll never know for sure, but keep that thought in your mind, old friend.”
I shall.” He looked around. I wonder where the babies are?”
A rock whistled past Karl’s head. A small boulder. Had it struck the German, it would have killed him.
Jon spun, the M-10 at combat-ready.
A young Link stood beside a huge old tree. He howled at the men and beat on his chest like an ape. He picked up another rock and hurled it at Jon, the missile barely missing the man.
The Link was gone before Jon could get off a shot.
There can’t be more than a half-dozen of the young maddened ones left,” Karl said. Go, warrior,” he urged. Satisfy yourself that you are still the man you once were. The Link has offered you a challenge. Take it. Let the beast go out as you would want to go—fighting. I will be here, inspecting the dead.”
Jon grinned and ran to the boat, slipping into his combat harness, buckling and strapping himself in. Keep the home fires burning, Mother!” he said to Karl.
You idiot!” Karl returned the grin. Get out of here.”
Now the game that Jon loved so began; the stalk, the hunt; the hunter and the hunted; pitting his skills against those who were fighting on their own home ground.
A warrior’s game, worthy of anything Valhalla and its mighty gods could offer a man.
A game of life and death.
He had loved it all his life.
When he knew he was coming to this island, after carefully studying the maps early that morning, Jon had dressed in full battle dress. Jump boots, camouflaged battle trousers and blouse, black beret. The same type of beret he had worn when fighting with Mad Mike in the Congo, in the fifth Commandos.
A Crying Shame Page 23