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.