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Amy stood helplessly with her arms
raised high over her head as the squad of Germans
approached. She was acutely
embarrassed at having been caught completely off
guard. She should have posted
sentries, but had been so close to breaking camp that she thought it was
unnecessary.
“Germans!” The very thought of them almost made her wet
herself. Her last experience
at the hands of the members of the Third Reich had been far from
pleasant. She had been the subject
of a viscous gang rape. It had
taken her months to recover from the ordeal, and she still bore the psychological
scars of the event.
She knew however, that showing any weakness to the enemy would place her
at an even greater disadvantage.
And so she feigned indifference at their approach – or at least
as much indifference as she could muster with her hands raised above her
head.
“Good afternoon,” said Steiner in only slightly accented
English. His command of the language
was one of the reasons he had been chosen to lead the
expedition.
“
“No,” said Amy, lowering her
arms. She had been surprised
by the tall German’s use of English, and his friendly tone, but she
decided to put on as bold a front as she could
muster.
“
Steiner smiled disarmingly. He
was entranced by the vision that he saw before
him. Amy Miller was a most beautiful
woman. Her thick shoulder length
red hair blazed in the bright tropical sun, framing a face of exquisite
loveliness. A pair of brilliant
emerald green eyes glared at him from under her wide-brimmed
hat. Despite the fact that she
was clothed in a khaki shirt and pants, there was no disguising the perfect
figure that was hidden beneath.
“Most impressive,” thought Steiner to
himself.
“My mistake, Miss Miller. I
hope that my men and I did not frighten you too badly. We did not realize
that it was your camp we had
encountered.”
“Like Hell you didn’t!” retorted Amy
hotly. How could this German
expect her to believe such a bold-faced lie?
Steiner was a bit taken aback.
Amy’s beauty had momentarily dazzled
him. He had not expected such
a vehement reaction from one so
beautiful.
“You come out of the bush, screaming and hollering, from two directions
at once and try to claim it’s a
mistake? This is an act of
banditry.”
Amy continued her attack. She
could see that the handsome German was quite taken aback by her aggressive
stance. Perhaps she could bluff
her way out of this predicament.
“We are in British territory.
You are in violation of the laws of his majesty King George
VI. How dare you attack a British
subject in this manner?”
Steiner felt the blood rushing to his
head. This was getting a bit
out of hand. This redheaded spitfire
was acting as if she had him under
arrest!
“Enough!” he shouted.
“You are in no position to tell me what to
do. Raise your hands
again.” He emphasized the
order with a movement of the muzzle of his submachine
gun. Stepping close to her, he
snapped open her holster and removed her
pistol.
Amy slowly raised her hands again.
She didn’t have much choice.
But she continued her protests over what she called Steiner’s
“Outrageous behavior.”
Steiner turned to one of his men.
“Escort her to one of the tents and place a heavy guard on
her. Take three
men. I don’t want her making
a break for it.”
He did not order Amy to be tied up.
It did not occur to him that there was any danger of a woman assaulting
a man successfully, especially a woman so heavily
guarded.
He strode into the center of the camp.
All of the black porters had fled into the forest, leaving Steiner
and his men in complete control.
“Tell Herr Klein to bring up the rest of the men,” he
ordered. “We will camp here
tonight.” A few minutes
later the rest of the German column entered the camp
area. Apparently Klein had not
waited for news of the success of Steiner’s sortie, but instead had
followed up without waiting for
orders. Steiner was annoyed,
but he masked his discontent. He
went over to meet Klein as the fat man came puffing up the
trail.
“Well, Steiner, was it a success?” gasped Klein wiping sweat from
his eyes.
“Oh, yes,” replied Steiner
offhandedly. “We captured
the camp quite easily. Fortunately
your assistance was not required.”
The last comment was aimed at the fact that Klein had repeatedly avoided
any situation that even hinted at danger.
“The blacks have all fled, and we captured the white
woman.”
“Ah yes!” said Klein in a manner best describe as over
eager. “Did she tell you
anything?”
“I haven’t had a chance to question her
yet. She is being held prisoner
in one of the tents. I will escort
you there.”
Amy allowed herself to be marched away.
She noticed that the Germans escorting her did not seem too
alert. They were much more interested
in ogling her backside and checking out her jiggling breasts as she walked
than they were in guarding her.
Quite obviously they thought of her as a helpless
female.
She kept her hands on the back of her neck as she
walked. It was best to lull them
into a false sense of security and she could accomplish that by simply
cooperating and acting cowed. Sure
enough, she noticed that by the time they reached the tent
three of the Germans did not
even have their rifles trained on her any
more.
Amy waited until they were almost at the tent before she made her
move. She pretended to stumble,
dropping to her knees. Without
thinking the two Germans on either side of her reached down to grasp her
arms. The action placed their
heads within easy striking range.
As she was pulled to her feet, she struck hard with her elbow, smashing
the German to her right between the eyes.
With a cry of pain the man staggered backward, dropping his rifle
and clutching his shattered nose.
Then without stopping she pivoted and struck hard with the palm of
her hand, striking the guard to her left in his solar
plexus. There was a clearly audible
“Whoosh!” as the air was driven out of his
lungs. Gasping spasmodically
the German dropped to the ground desperately trying to draw
breath.
Now only the two men behind her were
left. So quickly had she dealt
with the two men in front, however, that the other two had not yet reacted
to her. Amy gave them no time
to recover. Her right foot came
up quickly, smashing the testicles of one of the men against his
abdomen. With a scream of pain
he collapsed writhing on the ground.
By this time, the last of her adversaries was beginning to bring his
rifle to bear on her, but he never got the chance to finish the
action. Amy’s left foot
caught him just under the jaw, knocking him utterly
senseless. The entire affair
had lasted less than five
seconds.
Taking only the time it took to pick up a rifle and a pouch of ammunition
off one of her victims, Amy bolted into the
tent. She did not stop in the
tent, however, but dashed through it and out the other
side. Anyone watching from a
distance might suppose that she was still in the
tent. Keeping low, she used the
tents to screen her as she headed for the edge of the
forest.
“Did you tie up the prisoner?” asked
Klein.
“No, I didn’t think it necessary to bind a helpless
woman. I think four armed guards
are more than enough to prevent her from
escaping.”
“I hope you are right, Herr Steiner,” replied
Klein. “I don’t think
that this woman is as helpless as you think she
is.”
Steiner did not comment. Klein
seemed to know more about this British expedition than he had let
on. The two men moved off in
the direction that Amy had been taken.
Suddenly, from up ahead there came a series of
cries. “What the Hell is
happening?” thought Steiner.
He quickened his pace, actually breaking into a
jog.
Staggering toward him was one of the men who had escorted the redheaded
Britisher. Right behind him was
a second with blood streaming down his
face. “Herr Steiner!”
gasped the first man. He seemed
to be having trouble breathing.
“She attacked us! She
has gone!”
“I told you so!” trumpeted Klein before Steiner could ask what
was going on. “You should
have tied her up to prevent her
escape.”
“Make a proper report,” said Steiner, ignoring Klein’s annoying
commentary. “Exactly what
happened?”
Both Steiner and Klein listened quietly while the man gasped out his
story. Steiner was both amazed
and chagrined. He had clearly
underestimated the capabilities of the redheaded
woman. He should have done as
Klein suggested.
“She cannot have gone far as yet.
If we go after her right away we might catch her,” said Steiner.
Pointing to Amy’s winded escort he turned to Steiger, who had followed
Klein and himself. “Take this man with you and another twenty men and
go after her. Don’t take
any packs, just water. You will
be able to move faster that way.”
“Yes, Herr Steiner,” replied Steiger running
off. In a couple of minutes he
was back, leading a score of men.
They headed off into the forest.
Steiner surveyed the forest into which Amy had
disappeared. He knew that there
was a chance that his men might catch up with the redheaded woman, but he
also knew that if she showed as much resourcefulness as she had already shown,
the actual chance of finding her was quite
remote. Still, there was a
chance. His trained eye noticed
that the forest Amy had headed into covered the sides of a steep
hill. It would be very difficult
for anyone to force their way up that hill as it was likely that jungle growth
on the sides of the hill would be quite
dense. As a result, the redhead
would be forced to keep to the lower part of the
hill. Steiner took out his field
glasses and swept the terrain with them.
“Yes!” he said aloud. He
had a plan.
“Kruger!” Steiger called.
Next to Steiger, Kruger was the best man he
had.
“Yes, Herr Steiner,” said Kruger as he came running
up.
“Collect about five men and come with
me. No packs, just water
bottles.”
“Yes, Herr Steiner.”
Within a minute he was back, five men trailing behind
him.
“Follow me.” Steiner
headed toward the edge of the clearing at right angles to the direction that
Amy had fled. He found Klein
puffing along beside him.
“You have a plan?” inquired the fat
man.
“Yes, the terrain and vegetation will funnel Miss Miller down the side
of that forested hill. If we
go up this side valley we may be able to head her off, provided we move fast
enough. Can you keep
up?’
“Of course I can keep up!” snapped
Klein. He was becoming irritated
at Steiner’s constant digs.
By now they were entering the forest.
Now only time would tell if Steiner’s plan would
work.
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