The Prize Rules

*****

There'll be a few things happening in this chapter, though all of them are at least during the same couple of weeks and I present them here in order, so that ought to be a bit of a relief to some.

U-161 is on its way to its prime mission objective while Ullmann quietly fights off his desire to murder Wilhelm just out of wanting to rid the world in general and his crew specifically of one particular idiot.

There are a few surprises for a pair of sleepy little island harbours as well.

0_o

*****

1942, nearly midnight, Florida

Eden was in her bed. Well, it wasn't HER bed specifically. It was just a bed in a building designated to house American service people on "TDY" or temporary duty, the sort who passed through where she was on their way to somewhere else. It was clean, though it looked pretty antiseptic from her point of view.

She wouldn't be here long anyway, she thought, from her vantage point in the bed. She'd be picked up in the morning and taken to where she was to go so that she could present herself and begin the process of taking a ship which she didn't want and deliver it to where they both had to go.

That was the simplest way that she'd found to think about it. She tried not to think of how it could be sunk in a storm or a collision with another blacked-out ship in the dead of night as they both travelled to different places during the war. The truth be told, Eden was far more concerned over something like that occurring during her watch, because she wanted no part of being here.

She looked around in the darkness lit only by the base streetlights coming in through the plain, bland curtains. By luck, she was the sole occupant of the all-female building.

Her hands began to move over her body under the blanket and she sighed softly.

She didn't want to think about the blasted boat that Robert had gotten which would probably be a poor choice for what was really needed. She'd already been bothered over the stupid thing for days to this point, so right here, alone in her bed far from her home it wasn't worth another thought.

She licked her fingers and began to tease her labia a little, her fingertips swirling only once in a little circular motion just barely touching her clitoris every time. Her other hand found its way to her breast to caress it before she got down to business.

She wasn't thinking much of anything at the moment, though a stray thought did come to her of Hans-Joachim out of the darkness. She found that she hadn't thought of him in a long time and wondered where the thought had come from.

It didn't matter, she told herself. She wasn't in the mood to go over that old set of memories at the moment – though she did have the thought to see if she could find someone to replace those memories with – or at least keep them down in her mind. She hadn't seen the man in years and she knew that she'd never see him again, so why hang onto the thoughts?

She thought about a few of the men that she'd see now and then around the island on her rides taking messages here and there and she began from there to think of a trio of men who were making a go of resurrecting an old and abandoned farm which was way out near the coast.

She'd gotten a little confused one day because she'd missed a turn on one particular route that she very seldom rode. She realised it very shortly afterward and was retracing her steps after getting turned around when she'd seen them working from the road.

As she was on her way past, one of them walked to the fence and waved. Eden glanced at her watch and saw that she was still miles ahead of her schedule, so she stopped opposite him and they chatted over the fence for a little while. As they talked, the other two drifted over and Eden had been surprised.

The three of them were very unusual to her – and all three of them were a little magnificent to look at, working as they were with no shirts and covered in a slick sheen of sweat. One of them was a black man; with skin so dark that Eden thought that it surely matched Cora-leen's exactly, because that was what struck her just in that instant. The second was quite obviously Chinese in his origins and the third was Indian and both of those two had hair longer than she'd ever seen on a man in her life, even if they both kept theirs in pony tails.

It didn't matter to Eden very much, but as they all talked after one of them came up to the fence with a cup and an immense earthenware jug of cool water and a cup, the strangeness of their tale came forth.

They'd met in jail.

They'd been there for three different reasons and were all serving a bit of time, but they'd all known that they needed to do something different and change their lives somehow; since petty theft and other assorted ways to make a dishonest living sure hadn't been working out for any of them.

What they were doing now was bitch-hard work and it was lonely out where they were, but it was already keeping them fed at least and they were working for themselves. It had been a pleasant half-hour as they chatted and they were obviously happy to meet her, though they wondered about her uniform and what it was about, since they'd seen her riding past a few times before.

As Eden rode off that day, she couldn't help thinking about how good those three looked to her. She'd told Cora-leen about it that evening and shown her on her map.

And Cora-leen had ridden by the next day and met the trio as well.

That night in Eden's bed, they'd had a lot of fun wondering as they'd lain together. A lot of people just naturally seemed to gravitate to others of their own kind, but the three seemed a little different and Cora-leen had the beginnings of an answer.

"They were like that too, but I found out that each of them were in with a bad bunch. If they hadn't met each other and compared things between them, they'd never have had the idea that they'd come to – to try making a different life to get away from where they all knew they'd end up," she said.

Then Cora-leen had told Eden of a fantasy that had come to her as she'd ridden on that afternoon. She'd had to get hold of herself, she told Eden. "I almost rode straight off the edge of the road to the next post, the one with the road hanging out over the sea."

What she'd thought of was getting something started out at that old farm and both of them doubted that it would be very difficult to do, after all. "If I can make it happen," she'd grinned, "then I'd want alla them."

Eden had chuckled when she'd heard it, "You should stop being so shy about things with men," she'd laughed. "You want to be the girlfriend of three men. How would you do that? Which one is to be your first conquest? Have you decided?"

"You don't think that I can do it?" Cora-leen asked.

"I'm not asking IF you can do it," Eden had laughed, "I'm asking in what order."

Cora-leen had laughed herself then, "I don't need to have an order for what I'd want. I'm meaning that I'd want alla them – at the same time."

Eden's eyes had widened then, "You're serious?"

Coraleen had nodded, laughing again, "Why not? I have three holes, you know – the same as you."

After their soft laughter, they'd suddenly stopped laughing as they looked at each other and after that, they couldn't keep their hands from each other. It became a particularly memorable night to them both.

As it was working out, it was the easiest thing to do, once they'd decided that they'd both want to do it. Cora-leen made up her mind and Eden had been very close to just deciding that she wanted to begin as well – when Robert had come up with this task for her and now she was hundreds of miles away.

She thought of the night after they'd first talked of it. They'd taken a shower together "to save on the water", since they sometimes did that. After the wash, Cora-leen had gotten carefully up to stand with her feet on both of the edges of the tub so that her legs were apart and she'd carefully hung onto the shower nozzle.

Eden had gone to her knees and began to love Cora-leen with her mouth as she caressed her bottom with her hands. After a little time at it, Eden had stopped and wet her fingers with a little oil and then began to work at Cora-leen's anus as she went back to her licking and sucking. When the time was right as she'd judged it, Eden pressed her middle finger in deeply and Cora-leen had to hang on as she'd shaken and moaned.

They'd had just enough time to switch places and then it had been time to get washed again as quickly as they could before the last of the hot water ran out.

In bed that night, they'd tried something that they'd never done before and made love with their legs scissored while they'd pushed and rubbed their mounds together.

"It a good thing that we both get so wet, my love," Cora-leen had gasped out as she'd lain with Eden's leg over her front while she caressed it, "If not for that, we both mighta come to be on fire from the way that we do it so hard."

It had been good for a quiet chuckle from them both and after thinking for a time; they'd both decided that they'd do it together. When things were right as they judged it, they'd both ride out one fine day and fuck all three of their fine new friends until nobody could move anymore.

After that, Cora-leen had gotten up and turned herself around and they'd hung onto each other in the darkness trading soft kisses and deciding that it had to be done one day soon.

By the time that the memory had played itself out in her mind, Eden was driving her fingers in and out of herself feverishly, bucking her hips until she came so hard with her head pressing back into the pillow and her hips held up and her thighs quivering with the fingers of her left hand jammed inside herself while she stroked and squeezed her clitoris in just the right way with her right thumb and index finger.

–––––––––––––––-

1942 near Pensacola Florida

The Americans had been incredulous at the thought of a young woman along on the trip to ferry CG-4995 from northern Florida to the harbour at Port of Spain. It was believed at first that there had been an error in the transmission of the orders.

But it was a young woman who appeared before them, there to inspect the ship and to aid in getting it to it's new home port.

She pointed toward the window overlooking the harbour, "If that is to be Trinidad's ship, then it is my task to guide her into the gulf and the harbour of her new home at Port of Spain. Before that, your crew must navigate her as I am sure that they know their business."

The rest had been a tense meeting, but Eden got her way and the following day, she was shown to the cutter and a small cabin aboard which she could use.

And of course, once there, she met the crew which was to ferry the ship to Trinidad – so the round of disbelieving stares began all over again as she stood before them with her briefcase and one small suitcase.

As she looked around, she could tell that it wasn't the latest thing – though it had been kept up very well and she thought about a few things. The afternoon before, she'd requested and been given specifications and a brief history of the type in US Coast Guard service for her to read.

It had been built for the US Coast Guard in New Jersey back in 1927. She also knew that it had been re-engined in 1936, the six cylinder engines replaced with eight cylinder ones which fit the old mounts and gave the thing another three knots.

It was still only thirteen knots, she told herself.

If anyone had asked her, she'd have wanted a destroyer which could make 30 knots and give a good accounting of itself, since it was all that there was going to be in their waters for a warship – other than a slow motor launch for a patrol boat. But she was here to do her best with what she'd been given in her tasking, so she wanted now to just get on with it.

She looked at her watch and hoped that the stares faded away sometime during the morning. She wanted to get this started while these men seemed content to stare and say nothing to her.

"You may call to check if you'd like," she said to get their attention, standing at ease in her khaki slacks and military blouse as they blinked at her and she saw their eyes drift to the sidearm that she wore on her belt, "but I am the one who was sent for this and I know the waters around Trinidad because I've sailed and worked on them since I was nine years old. I work for the government of the island.

I am sorry if my being a woman is the cause of the expressions on your faces, however I was selected for a number of reasons."

She nodded once. "The most important reason for your purposes is that I know where all of the shoals and shallows are – and I know the best way into the single deep water passage into the Gulf of Paria.

I also know what isn't on the charts."

"And who are you there?" an officer, a Lieutenant Harris demanded, "I mean, what's your job there on Trinidad? I can only see that badge and from here, it looks more like a policeman's badge to me."

She looked at him, her expression cold since she'd have expected at least a little less rudeness, "And do you have a name, Lieutenant?"

She stressed the British pronunciation, so it came out as 'LEFTenant'.

"Where I am from, two strangers usually begin with a little more civility than I am being shown today."

"I'm Bob Harris," he said as though he didn't see the need to speak to her very much, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"

"My name is Eden Chang," she said in a similar tone, "I am a lot of things, and I am not a police officer. I am attached to the constabulary in some ways which allow me to perform my duties in as fluid a manner as I need to do them. I am a military attaché for the government. Back home, the job is called Special Inspector. If you'd read the dossier which was provided, you'd know that my rank is equivalent to your own, Lieutenant Harris."

"I did read it," Harris growled, "and I did check. I was told that you're here to ride along. I don't have to like it. I just don't see the need."

"If you read the dossier," Eden snarled right back, "then why the hell did you ask who I am? Do you see any other people around here with the same uniform as I am wearing?

As an answer," Eden shrugged, "from a personal view, I didn't see the need that I be sent here either. But I was, and I was told that I was here to inspect the boat as we go, learning what I could.

And when we arrive, I am to guide her in, so that my boss won't have to suffer the embarrassment of looking at her as she sits stranded on a mud flat because the commander of the ferry crew elected to ignore the help that was sent to him and instead use the charts on the way in.

It happens fairly often – usually to those who have never been there before."

She looked the bridge over for a moment and said, "I was told that there have been some changes made. Something not long after the start of the war."

Harris nodded and told her that she was correct, and that while it had originally been designated as a WPC or patrol craft, it was now designated as a WSC.

"And what does that mean?" Eden asked, refusing to accept only the alphabet soup.

The man looked a little annoyed, "It means that she's a sub chaser, Ma'am; used to look for and hunt down submarines which might be trying to sneak into United States harbours. Once they're found, they're depth-charged and after they're forced to the surface, they either surrender or the crew shoots them up with the three inch gun out there on the foredeck."

He smiled a little smugly then, but Eden decided to go with it for her own purposes.

She raised her eyebrows as she said, "Oh, thank Heavens. I thought that the racks back there were to roll drums of bootleg alcohol into the sea. That is what these were originally built for, is it not?

To hunt down rum runners off the coast of America during your Prohibition years?"

Before he could make another remark, Eden went further. "And has that happened? That a German submarine or more than one has crept into American harbours?"

He didn't answer, but to Eden, he didn't need to.

She looked down with a smile as she held up a finger, "Oh, wait ... you'll tell me that you're not allowed to discuss such things with an ally as backward as Trinidad, right?"

She looked out of the window and for a moment, the busy military harbour scene faded from view and all that she could see was empty ocean. She saw herself in the same place on CG-4995 as it sailed on at 8 knots far away. She had an idle thought for a moment that in a different time, it would be a nice thing to have – once the depth charge racks had been torn off and thrown away and a trawling rig put there in their place. It really was a bit of a beauty.

Without the deck gun or the racks ... or even the trawling rig, it would be a dream to sail 3500 miles on, if it might take her to ...

She cleared the daydream from her mind as she turned back.

"I've just had a thought," she smiled in an obviously feigned way, "In order to ... well, chase a submarine, I think that first you'd have to know that there was actually one down there somewhere. Does this ship have ASDIC?"

The man's eyes opened a little in surprise that this woman would even know what that secret was. "I'm not at liberty to discuss –"

Eden nodded, "So she only has hydrophones then or at best, a very old ASDIC set. I'll be sure to pass it on to my boss when we get to Port of Spain.

And we are still at the part of the tale where you do not believe that I am really here, so blink all that you like. I am not going anywhere.

And you may ask again if you think that you need to, Lieutenant, but I am to be shown all of this ship's dirty little secrets – and that includes how she is fitted out to chase submarines – assuming of course that she can actually find one first.

So I intend to learn just what this ship's 'sub chasing' abilities are, whether you are 'at liberty' to tell me or not.

Lieutenant, I may look Chinese to you and I am by a lot of my blood. But that is as far as appearances go. I am a Trinidadian, sir. Most of us are a mix of many things. As an example, my father is not Chinese. He was born in Germany and he had a lot to do with submarines during the last war.

And you'd best believe that he taught his daughter well.

So I know a thing or seven about U-boats – more than enough to cause me to fear their appearance in the waters around my home.

It seems to me that many people back home share a thing or two in their outlooks with most Americans – that a U-boat cannot get to this part of the world to threaten it.

I follow the news as much as I can and that is far closer than most people. I know the editor of the newspaper in Port of Spain and I learn of things which aren't printed because they aren't of interest to regular people and so they wouldn't sell newspapers."

She stepped forward and looked directly into his eyes from less than six feet away.

"I know that U-boats have been seen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence more than once. I know that mines have been successfully laid by U-boats in at least two major American harbours – one of them a very large and important naval one, and those are the only ones that I know about, so there might have been more. But I also know that those boats were operating at the extreme edges of their range and could not stay long.

I know that the slowest of the German Navy's submarines – the ones used for little more than training and coastal patrols – they can also do 13 knots on the surface. They do not have the range to come here.

But the ones in the wolfpacks ... I know that they CAN come here, Mr. Harris. They just need a little help from a disguised support vessel on the way. And I have heard rumours of a new type which has a range of eleven thousand miles and needs no support ships at all to be able to come all of the way here easily and those ones can manage more than eighteen knots on the surface.