Free Survivalist - 15.5 - Mid-Wake by Jerry Ahern Page A

hair, even dressed similarly to you. A brother perhaps? He fought like no man I have ever seen. He was brave in the extreme. And because of that I will tell you this. Comrade Major Kerenin will have your woman, wife or not. That means that whatever befalls you, you will die in the last. Use this information for whatever value it may hold to you.” He turned and walked away.
    “Michael,” Rourke almost said aloud. His son. He closed his eyes for an instant. Despite Michael’s abilities, and Paul’s as well—despite anything, there would be no help coming. He opened his eyes.
    The guards were moving toward him and Natalia and Rourke waited. Thev arestured for them to move ahp.ad.
    toward Kerenin and the three seated men. Rourke moved ahead, his eyes focusing on each of the faces in turn. They all seemed piteously alike, dour-faced, balding, paunchy. All that was missing was for one of them to hold his hands over his eyes, the other his ears, the third his mouth. The heels of Rourke’s combat boots clicked on the marble or marble-like floor, Natalia’s boot heels clicking more loudly.
    Both of them stopped a yard or so before the triumvirate.
    A woman entered from the right, an officer dressed identically to her male counterparts, her hair nearly as short as theirs. She stood at attention. She was told to stand down and to translate both the remarks of the triumvirate and the remarks of the prisoners.
    Kerenin began to speak, the woman looking to Kerenin for the assent to translate. He nodded and she began the unnecessary exercise. “You are both charged with multiple counts of murder, espionage, and crimes of intent against the Soviet people. Since the evidence against you is so overwhelming, there is no purpose in entering a plea. Have you anything to say in your behalf?”
    Rourke stepped a pace forward. In German, the woman picking up the translation, he began, “My wife and I were walking along the beach. She went on ahead. She was set upon by soldiers under the command of this man. I came to her rescue when I heard sounds of battle. We were subdued, then kidnapped and taken aboard one of your vessels, where my wife and I were both subjected to threats of violence and forced to disrobe for unnecessary and demeaning searches of our persons. We are German citizens on a peaceful mission of exploration in search of remaining pockets of civilization following the great war between the Russian people and the people of America. We come in peace, seeking only knowledge. We were armed only for our own protection against whatever unknown dangers lay before us in our quest.”
    He stopped in order that the female officer serving as translator could catch up. He continued then. “We were
    both given intensive training in the means of self-defense and in various other skills needed for long-term survival. We encountered the Chinese, whom I presume to be your enemies. They had spoken of warriors raiding their cities, and I presume your people are of whom they spoke. We have no taste for warfare, my wife and I. We have come in peace. You are evidently possessed of great knowledge here. You are fortunate indeed. If you wish to make formal contact with the German people, we would be honored and the contact could serve to the mutual advantage of our peoples. If you do not, we ask only to be allowed to return to the surface, reunite with our few comrades, and continue our explorations in peace, someday returning to our loved ones in Germany, to our colleagues. You need have no fear that by some means any slight knowledge we may have obtained of your civilization here would eventually work to your undoing. No power on the surface of the earth could reach your homeland, nor certainly pose any threat to your homeland whatsoever. Please let us return to the surface in peace.” John Rourke fell silent.
    The man at the center of the triumvirate looked to Kerenin as the female officer completed her translation. The man spoke. “Comrade