Chapter Twenty-Five
Lack of Communication
Cologne, Germany
04:03 CET
5 Hours Remaining
Rose could feel blood on her face but forced herself to ignore it as she pushed herself back off of the floor. She turned her head to see Jenna was standing defensively in front of the other woman who Rose could only assume was Jenna's sister going by her age.
"Bleib zurück!" Jenna's eyes narrowed as she held the broken lamp in front of her, the broken bulb glinting under the ceiling light.
Rose slowly put her hands up so it didn't seem like she was making any sudden movements and got to her knees, remaining in that position. She looked directly into Jenna's eyes and shook her head. "I am not a threat," Rose said despite the fact that Jenna very likely couldn't understand English which was proven as Jenna shook the lamp again in a particularly ferocious manner. Rose couldn't help but admire the fact that Jenna was visibly standing up for herself and her sister. Then she wondered whether Jenna would have been planning on attacking the men with the lamp had she not come in.
Sparing a glance at the two men Rose saw that both of them were still out – in fact, it seemed like they had both fallen asleep. Not too surprising considering the state they were in. She turned back to face Jenna, "Do you speak English?" Rose gestured to her mouth with one of her hands.
"Nein…" Jenna said, her meaning clear enough. She glanced back to her sister who was shaking visibly, clutching her knees. "Wanda, ruf die Polizei." The sister, Wanda, looked up at Jade with wide eyes. Jenna glared at Rose as if to tell her not to move before turning around and kneeling down next to her sister, placing the lamp down and placing a comforting hand on the shaking woman's shoulder. "Bitte."
Rose remained on her knees with her hands up. She had no desire to frighten the Weissler sisters nor give them any reason to mistrust her. The only problem was this language barrier. If only she could somehow get Sam up then they would at least be able to communicate. Jenna finished whispering to her sister and turned around quickly as if expecting Rose to have done something. Jenna noticed the pistol Rose had dropped and quickly kicked it to the side of the room.
Smart, Rose couldn't help but think, before frowning at Wanda who had pulled out her phone and was no doubt dialing the police going by the word 'Polizei' Jenna had spoken moments before. Police would make everything a lot more difficult. Jenna was walking over to the other side of the room, apparently trusting that Rose wasn't going to move. She quickly opened a cupboard and fished out two pairs of trainers. Rose watched with interest as Jenna turned back around and pulled the laces out of each trainer. She harshly pulled the wrists of one of the drunk men together and tied the lace around tightly as a form of mock handcuffs.
She repeated the motion with the second one who let out a sleepy grunt before walking over to Rose. "Not necessary…" Rose said, shaking her head at Jenna. She raised her arms even more to try and indicate this to her. "No, uh, nein," but Jenna was having none of it. She roughly grabbed Rose's arms behind her and wrapped the shoe-lace tightly around her wrists. Rose could feel the material digging in. IF she had wanted to she would have been able to get Jenna to the floor but she didn't want to do anything that would break what very little fragile trust there was. Certainly, attacking Jenna would not help anyone, so she had no choice but to let Jenna tie the laces together and step back towards her sister.
"Wir werden auf die Polizei warten. Alles wird gut, Wanda. Ich verspreche," Jenna said is a reassuring tone, kneeling next to her sister and stroking her hair as if she were a child. Jenna's eyes flicked back and forth between the two men and Rose with an analytical eye.
Jenna was doing her best to remain strong for Wanda but she found it particularly hard to keep her cool with the three strangers in her room. True, the two assholes were in a drunken sleep now and the strange lady hadn't moved from her position, but Jenna felt like that could all change at any time. Yet Wanda didn't want to move so that meant she had to stay where she was until the police turned up.
She rubbed at the blood on her upper lip absently as she sat next to her sister, cursing herself for being so stupid. The only reason the three men had managed to get into their home was because she had dropped her backpack when they had confronted her. If she had only kept a better grip of it then none of this wouldn't happen.
As expected, Wanda had been extremely worried when Jenna hadn't come home on time and she had insisted they sleep together. It wasn't a surprise to Jenna – when Wanda got worried or scared, she often insisted to sleep with Jenna as if they were children. Jenna didn't mind too much and quite frankly it had been a blessing in disguise that they were in the same room when the three men had arrived.
Jenna had tried to defend herself and her sister but the men who so drunk and belligerent they wouldn't listen at all and she had received a punch to the nose in response. Things were starting to look quite dire until the strange woman had come in and knocked them out as if she were some kind of super spy from the movies – she even had a firearm, something that scared Jenna immensely. She disliked firearms with a passion, ever since her father's had misfired in their youth and carved a hole not two inches from where Wanda had been sitting at the time.
The police were on their way but Jenna couldn't help but wonder yet again about this woman. It seemed she spoke no German and she could recognise English even if she didn't understand the language. But the woman had saved her and Wanda, right? There was no sign of the third man so that meant he must have been disposed of as well… and the woman was still looking at her with those eyes of hers!
Jenna let out a frustrated sigh and stood up, gently prising Wanda's hand from her own. Wanda murmured a word of dissent but she was still far too scared to put up a fight. Jenna walked in front of the woman and spoke, "Warum?" Jenna asked, beckoning to the men.
The woman simply shook her head and repeated the strange inflections that probably meant something along the lines of not speaking German. Jenna decided a different tactic and pointed to herself. "Jenna. Jenna Weissler."
Eager to try to converse in a way they could both understand, the woman immediately responded with, "Rose Milano." The woman named Rose smiled encouragingly and spoke a word, "Friend." Jenna had no idea what that meant and frowned. At least they knew each-others names. An invader wouldn't give away a name so quickly, would they?
Besides the fact that the woman had immediately fallen to her knees and put her hands up meant something but Jenna couldn't figure out what. Rose had dispatched of her attackers and didn't provoke her even after Jenna had hit her with the lamp…
She heard the distant sirens and made a split decision. She moved behind Rose and pulled at the laces, untying the hands of the stranger. "Gehen," Jenna said, beckoning to the door. "Gehen!"
Rose looked up at her with surprised eyes and tilted her head as she heard the sirens as well. She let out what sounded like a curse before reaching into her pocket. Jenna stiffened, a flash of worry that Rose was reaching for a weapon running through her like electricity, but Rose only pulled out a cell-phone. She pressed a couple of buttons and then handed it out towards Jenna. She tapped the number and then her wrist and Jenna understood this to mean call that number later. "Sidd… Harth?" Jenna said slowly and Rose nodded with a smile, tapping her wrist again. Then she put her hands together in thanks and disappeared out the door and back down the stairs, leaving Jenna holding the phone and wondering if the evening could get any stranger.
Rose was not satisfied with leaving Jenna Weissler like that but with the sirens of the police getting louder she knew she had no choice. Being caught by the police wouldn't help anyone and at least she had managed to give her name to Jenna as well as her phone. She hoped Jenna had understood what she meant to call her later. If she called Siddharth then they'd be able to get Sam as a translator.
She stepped over the sleeping man in the porch and hurried over to the Tepee, where Siddharth and Sam were waiting by the passenger doors, looking quite concerned.
"How did it—" Sam started but Rose shook her head.
"No, get on your bike, follow us. We need to go. The police are coming. Jenna is safe at least. I've given her contact information… I just hope she'll use it." Rose climbed into the driver's seat as Siddharth and Sam looked at her, perplexed. "Come on! The police are on their way and we cannot afford to be questioned by them. That would make Evrard know our location easily. So stop gawping and come on!"
Siddharth and Sam needed no further provoking. Sam pulled on her motorcycle helmet while Siddharth clambered back into the passenger seat of the Tepee. Against her best interest but knowing she didn't have a choice, Rose pulled away and started down the opposite way the sirens were coming from, knowing that they had to head to Berlin and hope Jenna would call them. At least they knew where Jenna lived – that meant they could come back after meeting everyone in Berlin and try again.
At least, if it wasn't too late by then.
