Re: In the Junkyard II
In reply to The Marshall (msg # 12):
Once the man was done and the papers signed, picture taken, Schaeffer again looked full on to Rowan.
The hospital corridor bustled with staff and medical personnel but they were in a side alcove for visitors or other people who were waiting for those coming out of surgery.
"Rowan, my love... what happened down there... in the Down Below, that was no accident. I am talking about how the agent of the Combine turned those people into "Trogs", sent them at us, then sniped the gunners on the vehicles. He could have killed most of us but he did not, and he left a spent casing for us to find. He was toying with us.
"There is someone hunting me. Someone from my past. Also a soldier, also in the Bundeswehr, also a Ranger. He served here in the war, as did I. I do not understand how he came to be here, why he works for the Combine, or what he wants with me. Not just to kill me, although that perhaps is his eventual end. Perhaps he seeks to inflict maximum psychological torment on me, targeting my friends, interfering with my plans.
"This person... I believed it is my father, Joakim Schaeffer. I do not understand how it could be him, because he died over a decade ago. I buried his body myself, in the wasteland outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was definitely dead. Believe me, I have seen a lot of dead men."
Schaeffer's voice betrayed some anguish but his face remained almost as impassive as ever.