Who Could Nimrod Be?
Officers...?
This wasn't right. This radio broadcast couldn't be correct. It was false information, it had to be. Nimrod was the war's mystery man, a British superagent operating in the back yard of the Third Reich. He worked alone. He was single handedly responsible for the collapse of two major Nazi operations, not to mention the numerous secret labs and factories that had been destroyed at his hand. After all, Colonel Hogan had said so. This broadcast couldn't be right… If it were right, everything Hogan and his men had known about the war's mystery man, everything anyone knew, would be null and void. But here it went, repeating again for the fourth time that day…
"New evidence has come to light surrounding the superspy Nimrod. No longer does German intelligence believe him to be one man, but a small rebel group operating in the backyard of the Third Reich. This suggests that the previously believed notion of Nimrod's British origins is indeed incorrect. It is believed that Nimrod may have no affiliation with one another beyond the initial contact that brought Germany's worst nightmare to life. After tonight's attack on three separate Nazi bases, scattered far apart throughout Germany, it is with great disappointment that we must concede to the existence of at least two other Nimrod operatives in addition to the original. One man cannot be in three places at once. All eyes must be open. Nimrod may walk amongst us as the least likely of people…"
HH
This failure had been a miserable one, this time all three of them involved. Hogan had made them all look like fools yet again; or he would have had they not all had a backup plan just in case. One that luckily Hogan's men didn't know of… yet. They would probably find out, but with luck not before it was too late to stop it from reaching Berlin unless they were to get out of camp. Now, with this broadcast being aired on a regular basis, things were all the more difficult. Klink watched as the General ranted and paced in front of him and Hochstetter. Soon enough he tuned him out, losing himself in a thought. He had always sensed something different, about Burkhalter. The General wasn't what he portrayed himself.
He appeared, on the outside, a stone fisted man, one of Hitler's right hands, and in most regards he showed how competent he was. The keyword here, though, was most. For such a strong willed man one would never guess Hogan could manipulate him, yet he did. More than once. More importantly, it seemed to only happen when sabotage ended up being involved. The bombing of a bridge, sabotage of the radio tower. More importantly, for all Burkhalter's threats he never made good on them. Not to say he was soft under all that flab, because he most definitely wasn't; but there had to be a reason, right? Most outstanding of all, he seemed all too calm whenever Nimrod was brought up. Only once had he ever even seemed concerned with the name; when he himself, the General's subordinate, was accused. Even then, no worry, no tension. He seemed to almost relish in the hunt for the uncatchable spy. He relished the confusion. Almost like he was laughing at them all. Like a Nimrod Agent himself was laughing at them…
HH
Burkhalter had ended his rant now, had demanded of Hochstetter an explanation. Now he waited with Klink as Hochstetter bellowed out a defense and strings of insults. The Major… the man was a character. The man wasn't what he seemed. How was it that this man showed up at all the most inconvenient of times? How was it that he put a wrench into every German operation that was surefire, and under the guise of protecting it such as with the missile event? They were never protected. They ended up destroyed or the secrets got out. Sometimes Burkhalter wondered, did the man even try?
Why had he acted so suspiciously during the Nimrod event with Klink, even eating a paper after answering a phone call? He'd seemed nervous, then. Why was it that for a Gestapo Man he threatened so idly when so many others would not even think twice before arresting...? And Hochstetter gave Klink break after break. The man had once even accused the Kommandant of single handedly doing what millions of enemy soldiers couldn't; bringing the Third Reich to its knees. For that reason alone Hochstetter could have had the Kommandant shot, yet he never arrested Klink, almost as if he inwardly approved, inwardly plotted it from the start, inwardly laughed... Just as a Nimrod Agent would...
HH
Hochstetter had passed the buck to Klink now, letting the man babble pointlessly as he and Burkhalter listened. He had to be… There was no other explanation. No one was so incompetent, so stupid. No man so clueless could possibly be able to single handedly cripple the Third Reich, even by mistake! He made it look like an accident, like the sabotage was due to his own idiocy. No! He didn't believe it for a moment. He had seen Klink show competence before; he had heard that Klink had one-upped Hogan at one point! The man survived and got out of every execution attempt, every near death experience, not even scratched. And the buck was always passed to another, more guilty than he had ever been.
Klink made it appear as if Hogan had everything to do with it. He let his prisoners make a fool of him. Nimrod… the name literally meant fool and idiot, a slow witted person, among other more noble definitions such as 'great hunter.' This man was both fool and idiot, but it was a ruse. It had to be. From the moment the idea was proposed during the Nimrod event, he'd suspected the Kommandant of being either a Nimrod spy or the man himself. Klink was not the person he pretended to be. Sabotage followed him everywhere; he and his prisoners both. Yet he always got away from other Gestapo agents, everything, every threat… He couldn't be innocent; and Hochstetter fully believed Klink was laughing at them all, Hogan included. Just as a Nimrod Agent must be doing even now...
HH
That same night Klink left camp late, Hochstetter vanished from Gestapo headquarters, and Burkhalter disappeared into thin air. Meanwhile, the latest radio broadcast crossed the nation… with an addition. "Nimrod has struck again, right at the heart of the Third Reich! Three separate atomic research laboratories have been demolished. Yet again, the Third Reich has been crippled by this Elusive Team."
Episodes referenced: The Missing Klink, The Witness, Happy Birthday Dear Hogan, Hogan Goes Hollywood, Look At All The Pretty Snowflakes, and pretty much every episode where Klink is nearly killed or any of the three men are involved in being manipulated into sabotage attempts.
A/N: Which one, which one? Klink, Hochstetter, Burkhalter, or all of them?
