September 8, 1776
The stomping of tired men filled the air as the Revolutionary Army proceeded to Manhattan Island. General Washington was desperate at this point, he needed intelligence. If the American army fought against the British now, the fight for independence would be lost.
Eventually they reached Manhattan, a small town, but still more important to the cause as the soldiers began to stop and rest.
Washington took the meeting hall building, a simple two story, numerous windows, and dead center of the small town.
A soldier was standing in front of the meeting hall building, a man with his blue and red jacket along with his work shirt inside, though the whiteness brought out the dirt. His trousers were even more dirty because of the marching.
The man approached the temporary HQ and looked at the wooden door before entering it discreetly. A hall greeted him with a few guards standing by a door into a room. Only Washington and his most trusted officers were inside. The soldier could overhear the arguments, but he could not enter the planning room because of the guards standing by.
"We need to wait to let Howe slip up. We are not in the best shape to fight the British Army!" An officer voiced as the man heard a slam on hard wood.
"This is not the time to wait, patience has its limits. We cannot determine if Howe will slip up, there is no way of knowing where General Howe will make his mistake."
The man from earlier approached the door before the guards eyed him questionably.
"Who are you, state your rank, boy."
The man in question saluted before stating his rank.
"7th Regiment from Connecticut, Lieutenant Nathan Hale, sir." He stated while one of them nodded his head at the mention of the regiment.
"Connecticut Regiment, you've seen some action in Long Island, haven't you, boy?" The guard grinned as Hale seemed to inspect the man. There was considerable amount of dirt and blood on the man's blue and red uniform.
"Not as much as you, sir." Hale stated in a respectful tone before turning to his attention to the voices behind the door. "Sir, I wish to enter and volunteer for my country…if the General needs assistance, I'll help."
"We must confiscate your musket and pistol, Lieutenant, protocol established by the general. You can keep your officer's sword, I doubt you could do anything with it inside with all of them having swords." The guard stated before Nathan handed over his standard musket and pistol before the other guard opened it up for him.
Nathan entered, seeing the nice room of the building. It adorned pictures on the wall, detailing either the nature of the colonies or the victories in the last war. A large table was present in the middle, a few men including Washington himself, stood around with a few maps of New York and Manhattan Island.
"General Washington?" Nathan Hale announced his arrival as the officers' bickering halted with a new person. Washington looked at the soldier as he was called.
"Who are you, son?" Washington asked seeing as how Hale was only twenty-one. He was relatively young for a soldier in this army. But, Washington still showed him respect for serving his country.
"Lieutenant Nathan Hale, 7th Regiment of Connecticut, General Washington!" He soon saluted him, Washington was his idol, a figure that he would gladly follow. He looked up to Washington completely humble with meeting him.
"What is a Lieutenant doing here? What do you want, farm boy?" One officer said as they were meeting and this Hale had interrupted.
Hale licked his dry lips as he mustered enough to say something. "Sir…I wish to aid you in any way possible. I heard your shouting sir. If there is anything I can do…I'll volunteer immediately." Hale boldly stated as he heard the officers whispering before Washington approached Nathan.
"Lieutenant Hale, what do you know of spies?" Washington asked before the officers began to mutter again.
Hale raised an eyebrow before looked at the General. "Sir, a spy is a- "
"Drop the formalities, just call me Washington or George." The General stated with a chuckle, finding it quite amusing. The leader of the Revolution didn't want to be called by honorific names.
"A spy, Washington, is someone who gathers intelligence and delivers it back to the one who assigned them the mission." Nathan said as he felt a chill run up his spine as he remembered what they did with spies. "And…. they hang spies because it is an illegal way of waging war." He said, looking at Washington to see if he was satisfied.
"Yes, Mr. Hale, but we are going to break several rules of warfare. We are outnumbered, out-manned, and severely outgunned. Morale is low now, and we are blind." Washington began to move as the officers seemed to just follow him with their eyes.
"The British think we are nothing more than unruly colonists and they underestimate us." Washington looked back at Hale and the officers. "I'm not going to fight the British on their terms. They are on our home, the home that we fought over. Those boys out there in this town are men who went out of their way to fight for their country."
Washington approached the map as he looked down at New York. "We're going to play dirty, spies for intelligence, and the men," Washington eyed an officer. "will shoot officers. They will shoot on sight. If an officer falls that is a sound victory."
The General turned to Hale once again. "But we need to know where they are going to be. Nathan Hale, you will be volunteering to be the colonies' spy for the cause. I hope you know the consequences of what you are volunteering for. If you are caught, you will be hung."
Nathan gripped his neck as if he was imagining the feeling of the noose around his neck while he faltered slightly before there was like a light emitting from Washington as if the heavens were opening to him. He felt inspired, more willing to go through this. Nathan wanted to prove to Washington he was no simple farm boy from Connecticut and that his love for his country would be felt.
"I'll take it." He stated as he looked at the officers and Washington.
"Good." Washington said before an officer spoke up to this.
"You are not a spy, Lieutenant, if this is some bid for rank or award, I say this is a horrible job for it." The officer said. "There are different ways of rising or getting a medal."
Nathan thought about it for a few seconds, pausing as he stood near the window, looking at the little town of Manhattan, the soldiers, women, and children there, and it was his duty to protect his country.
"I am not influenced by the expectation of a promotion or some simple award. I wish to be useful to my country and any job that is done for that cause is righteous. I thank you, General Washington, for this opportunity." Nathan said.
Another officer spoke up. "You will be deployed to New York and spy on the British. Report back with a pigeon bird, we cannot risk them tracing you back to the camp."
"Sir, yes, sir." Hale said before he looked over at Washington and saluted before leaving the room finally. The officers looked at Washington before the one who spoke up on the suspicion of Hale doing this for promo spoke up again with a rather true statement.
"General Washington, you know that the mission is suicide…. you're using him, aren't you?" The General walked to the window before nodding his head.
"He wanted to be useful, you heard the kid, Nathan Hale wanted to serve his country. He may have had the punishment in his head, but his heart told him he needed to serve his country. If only there were more men in this army like Nathan Hale."
"Let us continue, gentlemen."
September 22, 1776, New York City
Nathan Hale had been caught so easily slipping out of New York. He had no contacts or resources other than a diploma. His passion and determination was not enough as he felt the rope around him. He was surrounded by the British as he looked around.
A British officer approached Hale. "Any last words, Captain Hale… before we hang you for breaking the rules of warfare?"
"I wish to have one more life…to give to my country." Hale said but in the back of his mind he wanted to do more, he wished to give more information to Washington. Had he not been caught, Hale would have wanted to do his best.
His eyes looked out at the rising sun, it was the morning. The farm house nearby was where he had stayed while looking out at the nice scenery of his country. He looked at the British officers there for the hanging before breathing slowly.
"I need….to get this to Washington…all the information I had…where Howe is…. all the details of my journey even if they weren't the best…..I want to be useful."
"Do it." The British hangman was alerted to hang the spy before they kicked the stand that Nathan was standing on to keep him breathing.
As Hale stared down at the trap door below his mind continued to race with ideas of getting back to Washington with the intelligence.
Suddenly he was dropped but before the noose could snap his neck, he found himself in a hallway. He looked around startled as he landed here.
"Where am I?"
A desk was in front of him, a man with glasses looking up from his newspaper before putting it down to look at the man.
"Who are you?!" Hale yelled at the man, where was he, was he a British soldier too or a hangman. "Answer me, please!" He asked before watching the man begin to write something down.
Hale looked around seeing all these doors leading to somewhere. He breathed before feeling a vacuum begin to suck him into a door. "Let me go! I need to get the information to Washington damn it!"