"At ease, Sergeant Moffitt," Commander Boggs said. He gestured to the chair that sat opposite his, with the desk between the two chairs. "Please sit," he said, while taking a seat himself. Moffitt pulled out the chair and sat down. A flicker of confusion flitted through him. That he was meeting Boggs by himself was odd enough, but the commander had never offered any of them a chair during their short meetings.

Which meant, perhaps, that this wasn't going to be over shortly.

"You're probably wondering why I don't have the rest of your patrol here," Boggs said. He leaned forward slightly. "You'll understand all that in time. Right now, we need you and not them. That's the short version of it. The longer one will be a little harder to explain." He sighed. "We don't want you to discuss this meeting with anyone. Especially not Sergeant Troy or the other men. You'll understand that soon too."

"We?" Moffitt said.

"The High Command and myself."

So the High Command was involved in this. They rarely, if ever, got tangled up in the Rat Patrol's affairs, since Boggs knew more about the way they worked and what they needed to do than anyone else. HC would be over their head if they tried to assign most individual missions.

Moffitt's fingers played over the arm of his chair, silently drumming in erratic patterns. It was a habit, born out of nerve-wracking missions, interrogations, and worry about the unknown. And if HC was in on whatever mission he – and apparently not the others – was being given, it was most likely high risk, high danger.

Sometimes he wished that he wasn't so qualified for every mission they threw at him. But being able to speak both German and Arabic fluently, as well as having an excellent understanding of the North African desert, made him the Patrol's go-to man for much of the undercover work. He'd gone on those missions more times than he could count.

"Sounds important," Moffitt said.

"It is, sergeant. It is. High Command has fully briefed me on your mission, and now I'm to relay that information to you. We expect you to act on it at once, since we can't afford to lose any time on this matter." Boggs folded his hands and lay them on top of the desk, holding down a few papers that had been fluttering in the overhead fan's draft.

"We've known for some time that the Afrika Korps are planning a major offensive, one last push before we end this campaign. If they're successful with their attack, the campaign will go on indefinitely, and everyone knows that we need to finish this and move on to Italy. If we don't, this war will come to a stalemate, just like it did the last time."

Moffitt nodded.

"Needless to say, getting our hands on the information that the Krauts have would be a huge advantage. There may be nothing in writing yet, besides a few personal notes, but if we had a man inside, a man they could trust, he would be able to pick up enough to give us the edge. The mission would be difficult, dangerous, and maybe even deadly, but it needs to be done. The success or failure of this mission could change the entire outcome of this war."

He knew what was coming. He knew it. They'd ask him to disguise himself as a German officer, someone who could mingle around with other officers at German headquarters. He'd done it before, several times actually, and while undercover work wasn't exactly the easiest work in the world, someone had to do it. And he was probably the most qualified man they had for quite a wide radius.

Boggs looked directly at Moffitt. "You've probably guessed this by now, but High Command has chosen you for the mission. You have one objective: gather information about the Korps' offensive, getting physical evidence when possible in the form of charts, notebooks, and other documents."

"Who will I be going as?" Moffitt asked, keeping his voice neutral. His thoughts were tangled at the moment – he would need a few moments to collect them and figure out how he would work, the answers to questions he would be sure to be asked, and so on – and he didn't want to be probed with concerned questions or lead them to doubt his capabilities in regards to the mission.

"Yourself, sergeant," Boggs said.

Moffitt opened his mouth to speak, but Boggs stopped him.

"We need to you to defect for this mission. It could take several weeks and a disguise is hard to keep up for that period of time. You'll still be lying to them, but at least you won't have to impersonate someone you're not."

Actually, Moffitt was sure he'd be doing just that, since he'd never once have even thought of defecting, but he said nothing. Boggs continued. "If the Germans think that some of our own are going over to their side, becoming scared that the Allies will be defeated, they just might be a little more boastful about what they plan to do. And we can use that boasting."

Moffitt nodded again. He understood High Command's reasoning, even if the whole concept was against his nature. In times of war, trickery was the name of the game.

"This entire mission has to be kept secret. We need to make the Krauts believe that you really have gone over to their side. If everyone on our side knows it's a trick, there won't be any waves made about it, and the Germans'll get suspicious," Boggs said. "So beside me, you, and certain members of the High Command, no one will know. And once you turn traitor, so to speak, everyone will be talking about it."

So there would be no telling Troy or Tully or Hitch. Moffitt was already regretting the mission – and he hadn't even started – but there was nothing to be done about it. And what would happen when he got back? If everyone thought he was a traitor when he got back, would any steps be taken to prove his innocence? He knew that many times in war, the spy was punished or even shot by his own side when he returned, just to make the deception complete and completely fool the enemy. He was sure HC wouldn't go so far as to have him executed, but they could kick him out the army.

Then he stopped that train of thought. If he was successful, thousands of lives would be saved and the Germans would be pushed back into Italy. In comparison, his worry about whether or not his war time reputation would remain unsullied seemed trivial. Not to him, of course – he still didn't feel comfortable with the whole thing – but for the greater cause, he would do it.

"We're giving you a month to gather the required information. When the month is up, we'll send in a squad to get you out and bring you back here so you can give us what you've got. It'll be a quick operation." Boggs sat back in his chair. The papers fluttered up a little once again. "You'll tell the Krauts that you're fed up with being captured and doing all the dirty work for your commanding officers. That you want a change, you can see that the Allies will fail, and you want to defect and you have valuable information and skills that they can take advantage of. Is that all clear, sergeant?" Boggs finally asked.

"Quite clear," Moffitt said.

Boggs nodded. "You'll start tonight. Dismissed, sergeant."

Moffitt saluted and walked out, his head spinning. He had a lot to think about before night fall.