“Are you certain you don’t want me to track down that dancer for you?” Felix teased his friend.  “I am certain I could get her name.”

Hans half-glared back before taking another sip of his beer.  “Nein.”  

“Fine, fine,” Felix laughed.  “But you can’t blame me for trying.  The way you kept glancing at her.”  It would do his friend good to relax for a while.  The war would still be waiting tomorrow.  

While Captain Dietrich did not begrudge his men their distractions while off duty, he felt it was inappropriate to engage in an intimate relationship while he served on the battlefields.  Not just for reasons of honor but also good sense.  That didn’t mean he could not look though.

He glanced at the side door the woman had disappeared through; and the dancer had been compelling.  With the high neckline and full length gloves her outfit could not have been described as immodest.  But at the same time, the form fitting cut of the dress and sheerness of the fabric had left absolutely nothing to the imagination.  

She had been graceful as well.  The lacey black fan a tease as she peered over it with pale blue eyes that the smokey eyeshadow had only made more striking.  Curly black hair cascading down her neck and over her shoulders.  

Swirling the golden liquid, Hans raised his glass before taking another drink.  Those eyes.  Suddenly, it hit him and he choked, spewing the beer across the table.  Immediately he shot to his feet, ignoring his friend’s grumbling as Felix tried to brush off his wet shirt.  

“Troy!”

“What?”

“That was Sergeant Troy!”  Almost in response to his thoughts came the sound of a large explosion.  Dietrich cursed, yanking his luger from its holder as he bolted outside.  There he was treated to the unforgetable sight of Sergeant Sam Troy.  Dress hiked up to her thighs as she ran barefoot across the hot sand.  

“Troy!”  Hans attempted to line up a shot only to leap backwards as one of those accursed jeeps roared onto the scene, spitting bullets.  A jolt of fear going through him as Felix appeared in the open doorway.  Scrambling over, Hans managed to yank his friend into cover in the nick of time, the frame disintegrating in a hail of splinters.  “Stay down!” he snapped.  

Glancing back, Dietrich was unsurprised to see Troy swing up into her usual position on the second jeep.  Her fifty caliber adding to the chaos as he desperately tried to pretend he had not caught a glimpse of her undergarments.  

A few minutes later it was all over.  The Rat Patrol disappearing in a cloud of dust.  The scene of destruction was all too familiar to anyone who dealt with the Rat Patrol.  His eyes flicked to the left, giving his friend a concerned once over as Felix staggered up to him.  

“That was Sergeant Troy?”  Felix asked in disbelief.

“Ja.”

His friend still appeared baffled.  “Sergeant Troy?”

Now it was Dietrich who was puzzled.  “Surely you knew the Sergeant was a woman.”  He had been stunned the first time he had met his nemesis face to face.  But that had been a long time ago.  Nowadays it was common knowledge among the soldiers of the Afrika Corps.

“Well yes.  But,” Felix seemed to be struggling for words.  “I wasn’t expecting,” somewhat helplessly his hands came up, tracing a feminine figure.  Far from the hulking broad shouldered he-woman he had imagined.  

“Ah,” Hans clicked his tongue, looking woefully in the direction his foes had made their escape.  “I am never going to get that image out of my head,” he bemoaned.  The Captain could only hope the memory of Sergeant Troy all dressed up would not serve as too much of a distraction in future encounters.