Rise of the Death Walkers (The Circle of Heritage Saga) (26 page)

Irma breathed a sigh in relief and looked at her mother. I did too and saw a smile on her face. Maybe this would not be so bad after all.

Irma got up to go and help her mother with dinner and I spoke with her father and brother some more while the two ladies worked. After about five minutes her father stood up and waved me to follow him. We went on to the balcony and he turned around and spoke to me. "What are your intentions with my daughter?" He was all business now.

I swallowed my heart and calmed my breathing. "Sir I intend on asking her to marry me with your permission."

He looked at me in surprise and said. "So you want to marry my daughter and take her back to America? You have only known her for two months."

"I realize this sir but I love your daughter more than anything in the world. No, I am not going back to America I intend on staying here." I sipped from my beer and waited for him to respond.

He drank from his beer and looked at me a long time. "How can I be sure this is the case Jason? I have only met you the first time today." He challenged me.

"Sir, in my tribe to this day a man's word means the same as anything put on paper. I would dishonor my family if I went back on any verbal agreement I made. My grandfather would hunt me down, take me into the woods and break several trees over my back." I said honestly to him.

"I like your grandfather already." He grinned at me. he thought for a moment and looked at me again. "You will give me your word you have no intention of taking my daughter away from Germany?"

"Yes sir. On the honor of my family my intention is to marry your daughter and once I get out of the military, return here to Germany and live the rest of my time with her here." I held out my hand to him and he grasp it firmly and shook it hard once.

"Good then you have my permission Jason." He lifted his beer bottle and struck it against mine. "To future family." I drank the toast with him and he asked "When do you plan on doing this Jason."

"I wanted to do it tonight before dinner in front of the family, sir." I pulled out the ring I had brought along and showed it to him. "If this meets with your agreement."

He reached out and grabbed me in a bear hug. "Let me talk to Rosa first and since you do this now you can call me Papka." He released me and said. "Promise me you will make my girl happy."

"That much I can swear to Papka." I nodded in confirmation.

"Good you go to Irma and Sascha and I will talk to Rosa." He turned an went in the house and snagged my future mother in-law from the table and dragged her in the back room.

Irma looked up when I walked in and asked. "What's going on." I shrugged and she continued to set food on the table.

I walked in the living room and talked to her brother for a while. He asked several questions that made me think that the only thing he knew about Indians came from old westerns. Irma's mother and father were discussing things rather loudly in the back room and it sounded like they had shifted to Russian.

Although German in nationality, her whole family had been caught behind the border in Russia when the second world war treaty talks had made major changes in the borders of that time. Irma had explained this to me in the second week we had known each other. Her family had petitioned for close to forty years before they had been allowed to return to Germany. Irma had actually been born in Russia and returned to Germany with her parents, grandmother and some aunts and uncles in the seventies. I now knew whatever Russian Irma still remembered but her parents had been speaking it so low I could only catch bits and pieces.

Things grew quiet and they came back out. I looked at her father and he nodded at me and then I saw her mother nod and noticed there were tears in her eyes. I cleared my throat and stood up. "Irma." I pulled her up and held her hand. "You know how I feel about you." She nodded and I went to my knee and pulled out the box with her ring. "I am asking this in front of your mother and your father would you do the honor of becoming my wife?" I handed her the ring.

She stood there for a moment in shock not sure what to say. She had a look of terror on her face. She looked at her mother and her father. I didn't see what they did my eyes were only on her and I had stopped breathing. "Oh. yes Jason I would!" She started crying when I slipped the ring on her finger. The next moment the whole family were around us and I was getting hugged and kissed by her mother.

Her father insisted on turning the meal into a engagement celebration. Before I knew it, more members of the family were in the apartment. I met her Uncle Eugen and her cousins and her grandmother. When they were all busy celebrating I leaned forward and whispered. "I think I surprised you a little there didn't I?"

She grinned at me and nodded. She had a glow about her and then asked. "When?"

"I think your mother was planning on a spring wedding and its only right to let her handle all the details since you are her only daughter." I squeezed her hands. "Talk to her and let me know because I am ready whenever you are."

I managed to stay sober by alternating between coke and beer with the occasional schnapps her father would slam down in front of me. Her brother grew tired and fell asleep so Irma showed me where to carry him and I laid him down for the night.

When we finally left for the night there was no problem with Irma going with me. Her father promised to deliver the rest of her stuff over the next day. I let Irma drive and asked her to head to the river so we could sit in the starlight before we went home.

We were sitting on the bench when Irma suddenly asked. "Jason, what do you think Katie would think of all of this?" She sat looking at the ring on her finger.

My mind went back to my grandfather’s letter and I said."Katie would want me to be happy Irma. I know if she had ever met you she would like you right away." I held her hand in mine and turned to look into her eyes. I sang the song she had liked so much before but this time my voice was lined with the love I felt for her.

I saw tears in her eyes when I was finished. "That's so beautiful Jason."

"Your father told me tonight he was planning on breaking ground in the spring on your family's new house. I told him I would help him as much as I could." I caressed her cheek and kissed her softly on the lips.

She got a worried look on her face and said. "But the house and the wedding all in one year will be too much for them."

"Your father is one smart cookie Irma." I laughed. "He already had all the money set aside for your wedding because he figured it would not be long before you met the one you want to be with. And don't forget, I am not exactly lacking when it comes to that either. There is still a lot of money in the bank." That was a bit of an understatement on my part. Through smart playing the past couple of months I had managed to turn my pay from the first year and the bonuses into close to three hundred thousand marks. I had watched the market for currency exchange and played it very well. I knew it would not last very long but as long as the dollar/dm market fluctuated as much as it did I would play it for all it was worth. I still banked more money than I actually used every month because of hazard pay, jump bonus, my standard sergeants pay so it would only grow more.

She noticed I was thinking hard and asked. "What are you thinking about?" I told her about what I had done and she looked at me in shock. "Where did you learn to do that Jason?"

"I sat and thought about it the first week I was here when I was watching the currency market values. I took a chance and it paid off." I shrugged. Money was never an object with me because I didn't use much myself. I had always gotten by on very little.

"You do realize that you actually have enough to buy a decent house right now?" She asked me.

"Yes but I have four more years in the Army and we have a very good place where we are. The car was given to me as a bonus so I really don't have much going out. I want to let the money work and when I get out of the Army, I will build us our house." I stroked her hair and thought to myself. This is if I can survive the odds of the field I had chosen. I knew the next four years would put me in more dangerous situations than Irma could possibly imagine. Irma shivered next to me and I removed my coat and gave it to her.

When I placed it on her shoulder she said. "But you will get cold Jason."

"Not when I am this warmed by your love." I joked. I stood up and flexed the shoulder where I had been shot. It was still stiff. "I need to get up early and start working out again before this shoulder gets the best of me." I held out my hand to her and said. "Let's go home love and get some sleep."

She placed her hand in mine and grinned. "You think you are actually going to get any sleep tonight?"

"Are you trying to wear me out before we get married woman?" I asked jokingly.

"I am going to try that's for sure." She laughed at the expression on my face.

I lead her to the car. Some second instinct made me glance to the left of the stone path we were walking. "When I get you to the car. I want you to get in and lock the doors." I said in a low tone to her. She look at me with a frightened look on her face and nodded. "Don't open it unless you see me at the door." I opened the driver's side for her and helped her in. I walked to the other side of the car and made as if I was going to get in. Instead of getting in I circled around to the rear of the car and stayed low as I scanned the woods on the other side of the road.

I could see one form trying to stay out of sight near a bush but could not locate the other right away. I cleared my mind and reached out with it to scan the woods for a life form I could use. I found an owl in a tree and tried using its eyes to find out how many were below. From the looks of things, there were only three so I moved out quickly from behind the car and skirted toward the water's edge. I moved intentionally into the light of the moon to draw them away from the car.

I had no idea what they wanted but I could only guess they may be members of the group we had taken out in Africa. When I moved across the gravel road into the woods I knew all three were tracking me and trying to block me in. I spotted the first shadowy figure settling into position near a tree I would have to pass if I continued on. I reached into my pocket and pressed the button on the locator I carried with me. I would have to play cat and mouse with them for the next fifteen minutes because that was the closest man I had in the field.

I doubled back and moved low in the grass that grew near the graveled road. I reached ugly number one without him seeing me and grabbed him in a chokehold, cutting off the air to his lungs until he passed out. The would hold him for about twenty minutes. Ugly number two was peering up over the log he was laying behind not thirty feet away from me. I could tell he was not very well trained because you never looked over an object you always stayed low and looked around each end. I cursed myself for not carrying a weapon with me. I searched around for something. I found a fist sized rock on the edge of the road and turned back to find ugly number two. Stupid was still peering over the log he was behind. I let loose with the stone in my hand and heard a thud it struck Stupid in the temple and a second thud as his body hit the ground.

This was a calculated risk because I was hoping to draw out ugly number three. It worked because I could hear a low voice in the woods. "Manfred? Did you get him?"

I kept my voice low and stayed behind the tree I was near. "Yeah I got him." If I worked hard I could keep my natural accent from coming through. I looked at my watch. Twelve minutes had passed since I pressed the locator.

Stupid number three was moving noisily through the woods and when he passed the tree I was behind, I jumped him and rammed his head into the ground. "Who sent you?" He made no sound so I turned him around. "Shit." I cursed. Stupid number three would have to land on a branch in the ground and it would have to hit him in the eye and puncture his brain. I cursed again.

"Sergeant?" I heard from the road.

I knew that voice. "Johnson did you draw the short stick tonight?" I walked up to him and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Yeah Serge. Mary is starting to hate me." he looked around. "What have we got?"

"Three local nationals. Two DOA, one will be coming to in a few minutes. Make sure you secure him and get a cleanup team in here." I waved in the direction of the woods. "They are all gift wrapped for you. Call Blake and wake his ass up if you must. He was supposed to stay on top of this. We knew they had cells here and he should have warned me they were in the area."

"You handled them hand to hand? Why weren't you heeled?" He asked astonished.

"I would have looked stupid carrying a piece to my future in-laws while proposing to their daughter don't you think?" I looked toward the car and could see Irma looking out the window with frightened eyes.

"Yeah I guess so." he admitted. "Let me call this in. I will handle things from here Serge. And congratulations." He added.

"Thanks, and give my apologies to Mary when you get home." I walked to the car and Irma had a relieved look on her face. I motioned for her to unlock the door and slide over. "Are you ok love?" I asked.

She nodded at me and whispered. "What happened?"

"Old business Blake should have taken care of. I should drive up there and rip his head off for this." I complained.

"No you shouldn't!" she said quickly. "Jason do you have to be in such a dangerous job?"

"I have no choice, love I am in this for four more years." I wondered if there was a way to get the heck out of what I agreed, but could not find any. I started the car and drove away. Just before I turned off the back road to the power plant I spotted the helicopter coming from the direction of Karlsruhe.

Irma was silent on the way home and I knew she might be having second thoughts about things. I stopped in our driveway and I got out to open the door for her. We went in the apartment and she turned to me and asked. "Jason is there any alcohol in the house? I suddenly need a drink."

This was new for her. In all the time I had known her I had never seen her drink anything alcoholic. "I think there is still a bottle of brandy in the bar from when Blake was in this apartment." I went to the bar and she sat on the couch. I poured her a couple of fingers high in a glass, walked over to her and handed it to her. "Are you beginning to have second thoughts about saying yes to me today?"