Disclaimer: Something different - no historical basis for this story
Rest and Recreation for the Rat Patrol
By Dex 27
The Rat Patrol had been on patrol duty for over a month, with little time off in between. They were exhausted from the many battles with the Germans and were badly in need of a break. On returning from their latest assignment, Captain Boggs called Sergeants Troy and Moffitt into his office. They thought it was to discuss their next mission but were pleasantly surprised when he told them that they had the next five days off for a little R & R.
The privates were waiting by the jeeps and expected the worst. They greeted the news of the break enthusiastically and did not want to waste a minute. They finished packing a few things and left right away. Each member took turns driving through the night so they could get a little sleep and reach the nearest coastal town by morning. They quickly located a small inn where they were able to secure rooms close to the beach.
The inn keeper noticed the American uniforms and advised them that there had been rumors of German spies in town. Troy thanked him for the advice and said they would be careful.
They deposited their bags in their rooms and headed down to the dining area. As they were eating breakfast Troy happened to notice a familiar uniform at another table. Sergeant Paulette Sampson, a nurse from Troy's past was having coffee with another nurse. Troy went over to their table, as Paulette recognized who it was she smiled, "Well look who the cat dragged in! Georgette meet a friend of mine, Sergeant Sam Troy."
Troy could only laugh, "Hi Paulette, so nice to see you again. It has been quite a while! Would you and your friend like to join us for breakfast?" The ladies joined the other members of the Rat Patrol, introductions were made and plans for the day were arranged.
Troy found out the nurses were at the inn for a break from work as well. Troy asked Paulette to spend the day at the beach to catch up on their lives and Hitch was quick to ask Georgette to accompany him on a tour of the town. Moffitt had noticed a museum when they drove in and could not pass up a chance to visit. Tully had nothing better to do, so he decided to tag along with Moffitt. Archeology had been discussed frequently during some of their more boring missions, so Tully thought it might be interesting to see some real artifacts.
As the two "rats" entered the museum, Moffitt went off in search of the curator while Tully wandered around the exhibits. One small sarcophagus in a special glass case caught his eye. The fact that the artifact was in the shape of a cat, covered in gold with markings sparked his curiosity. Standing there admiring it, Tully was lost in thought and did not hear Moffitt and the curator approach. Moffitt cleared his throat and Tully turned.
"Tully I'd like to introduce you to Monsieur Gravel, the museum curator."
Monsieur Gravel responded by saying, "Bonjour, a friend of Jack's is most welcome."
Moffitt continued, "It turns out Monsieur Gravel is a friend of my father's. He was mentioning that the Germans have been pilfering various items from museums all around North Africa. Apparently Hitler is building a stock pile of artifacts that he believes have powers that will help Germany win the war."
No one observed a gentleman hovering close by trying to overhear the men talking. He was carefully cleaning his glasses during their conversation.
Monsieur Gravel noticed Tully's interest in the cat item and shared the history behind the artifact. "This tiny sarcophagus has a strange history. It was discovered about fifty years ago in a tomb with an unknown Egyptian princess. When the tomb hieroglyphs were deciphered it involved a curse on the people who would remove any objects from the grave site. The information was too late for the grave robbers, and they all met strange and unusual deaths. This object was found in their things and someone left it with a note of explanation at the museum's door. Since then we have been able to determine what the symbols on the outside of this object mean. As you know cats were special to the Egyptians and their cat god, Bastet, offered them protection which explains why this was found in the tomb with a princess. It was meant to protect her tomb from being disturbed. The markings on this piece state that whoever has it in their possession will be protected from any danger."
Tully replied, "Thanks for all that information. Sure is hard to believe such a tiny object could hold any power over things. Cats back home on the farm just help keep the mice numbers down. Glad this is safe in your museum for people to look at."
As the conversation ended the man with the glasses slipped away to look at other things. Monsieur Gravel left to attend to a new shipment of items for the museum and Moffitt provided comments on various artifacts as they continued to look at the different display cases.
Later on that evening the guys and the two nurses met up for supper and Tully and Moffitt talked about their trip to the museum. When the discussion turned to the cat sarcophagus the nurses were interested to see this artifact so it was agreed they would go to the museum after breakfast.
When they got there the next day, the museum was surrounded by security and they could not get any information about what was going on. Finally Moffitt asked to speak to the curator. Monsieur Gravel came out and explained the museum had been broken into, the night watchman had been killed and a number of items were stolen including the cat sarcophagus they had talked about. There was no proof, but Monsieur Gravel felt that possibly a German spy may have been responsible. Not being able to go to the museum, Troy and Hitch decided to take the nurses to the beach for the afternoon.
Moffitt thought he might do a little investigating on his own and chose to visit a local drinking establishment to see if he could find out any information. Tully was determined to find a lead and settled on just looking around the town. While Moffitt ordered a drink and asked the bartender about the theft at the museum; Tully was checking out the different shops to see if they were offering any unusual objects for sale. Tully felt like someone was following him but saw no one. He later joined Moffitt at the bar and shortly after, another man walked in. Tully got that same strange feeling; as he was talking to Moffitt he looked over to see that the stranger happen to take a seat very close by.
Moffitt had not found out anything useful and Tully had no success in town. As they left the bar Tully said, "Doc, did you see that guy sitting close to us; he looked like he was trying to listen to our conversation and I think he was following me around town."
"Sorry Tully, I didn't notice but let's head back to the hotel." Neither detected they were being watched as they walked away back to their sleeping quarters.
After supper, Hitch and Georgette went dancing while Troy and Paulette went for a moon lit walk along the beach. Moffitt retired to his room to catch up on some archeology papers that Monsieur Gravel had given him but Tully was too restless to return to his room. He kept thinking about the stranger from the bar so he took to the streets again to see if he could find out anything.
As he was going down a narrow alley he noticed an ambulance parked in an odd place. He heard voices and ducked into a doorway. There was an Arab and the man from the bar speaking in German and it sounded like the conversation was turning into an argument; then he heard shots. As Tully peeked out he saw the body of the Arab being shoved into the ambulance and shortly after several boxes were loaded as well. The ambulance started to drive away slowly so Tully stepped out to try to follow it. Shots rang out and Tully fell to the ground.
Moffitt found an interesting article and after he read it, he thought he would pass it onto Tully. Knocking on his room door there was no answer. He thought that was a bit strange but slipped the paper under the door. It was 3:00 am when Moffitt heard some shuffling outside his door and then a gentle knock. He opened the door to find a bleeding Tully leaning against the wall outside. He quickly pulled him inside.
"Tully what happened? Sit down here and let me take a look at your forehead. It looks like you have been grazed by a bullet." Moffitt started cleaning up Tully's minor head wound; there was more blood than damage. He placed a bandage on his forehead and gave him two aspirin with a glass of water to help with the headache that was starting.
"Doc I think I found the missing museum pieces. Remember how I thought someone was listening to us; well I saw that same guy from the bar with an Arab. They were arguing in German and the next thing I know the Arab is dead. He was loaded into an ambulance with some containers and I was sneaking out to see where they were going. That was when I got shot. Guess the German didn't want anyone to know about the ambulance being used to transport stuff or trying to see where it was going."
"Stay here and rest a bit, I'm going to see if Troy is in his room." Moffitt returned about a half hour later with both Troy and Hitch. They had been given an update on all that had happened with Tully and the mystery ambulance.
Troy asked Tully how he was feeling. Tully replied he had a headache but he was anxious to see if they could find this ambulance and check out the packages for the missing artifacts.
Troy thought for a moment and said, "If they were going to send the artifacts to Germany they would have to go by air so maybe we should see if there is an air strip nearby."
Hitch seemed lost in thought for a moment and then said. "Sarge, when I was talking with Georgette she mentioned they arrived by plane and there is an air field at the far end of the town."
Troy responded, "Well let's shake it."
The first streaks of dawn were just breaking when they got to the landing strip but there was nothing around. Suddenly Tully spotted some movement that turned out to be a black cat. It seemed to be trying to get his attention and then it started to purr.
"Sarge, see that cat over there, I think he wants us to follow him. I know it is strange but I think we should do it. Maybe the Egyptian cat god is trying to help us out."
Troy looked at Tully strangely and said, "I think you are delusional Tully. I don't see any cat! Maybe you got hit in the head harder than we thought."
"No Sarge, you mean you don't see the cat? Well, we have no other leads and have no idea where the ambulance might be now. I really think we should see where this cat takes us. What do we have to lose?"
"Ok we'll follow you and that invisible cat but let's be careful. We have no idea where we are heading," was Troy's reply. Troy was still thinking Tully was suffering the effects of his head wound by talking about that imaginary cat.
The cat that only Tully could see led them away from the field and back into town and down a narrow street not far from where they had come from. By now this cat had faded away and as they made their way carefully down the street they saw the front of the ambulance. It was parked in an alcove and was being guarded by someone dressed as an Arab carrying a rifle which was partially hidden by his robe.
The guys retreated to a more secluded place to come up with a plan of attack. They all thought it strange that an ambulance would be in this location and have a guard at this early time of day. By now they were curious to see if in fact the boxes Tully saw being loaded held the missing treasures.
"Moffitt, I want you to pretend to be a drunken soldier and stumble along with Tully holding you up. Hitch and I will go round the back way to check if there are other guards we need to take care of. When you get close Tully can take him out with his knife. We need this to be handled as quiet as possible."
"Right Sarge," they whispered.
The Arab noticed the stumbling soldiers and as they got closer he drew his rifle to fire. Tully was able to dispatch the Arab with his knife before he could take aim. Hitch and Troy came around the ambulance. They had taken care of the other guard who was getting ready to climb into the vehicle. The bodies were moved into the alcove and covered. Troy opened the back of the ambulance and spied the body of the other dead Arab that Tully had seen killed earlier in the alley.
"Hitch, keep an eye out for anything suspicious around the street. Tully help me move this body out of the way so we can get at the crates. Moffitt check to see if there something we can use to pry up the lids."
Moffitt found a crow bar and was able to open the crates. What they saw was a bit of a surprise. They expected to see pieces from the museum but instead the crates were filled with robes, baskets and boxes of figs and dates.
They were confused. Hitch asked how it was going to which the reply was not good.
"Doc this doesn't look right. I was sure we'd find the stuff from the museum. This seems like it was a wild goose chase after all. I feel like such a real fool right now."
Moffitt replied, "Not so fast Tully. Troy help me lift out some of the boxes of figs and dates from this crate. I have a feeling this may be just a cover for what is hidden in the bottom."
The first crate only contained the food, the second was filled with baskets but in the third crate under the clothes they found what they were looking for. Carefully wrapped was the cat sarcophagus along with several other pieces that were taken from the museum. They quickly removed the artifacts and found a safe place to store them. The crates were resealed and they got away from the ambulance just in time to find a hiding place.
German voices were heard close by and then all was quiet. These Germans dressed as Arabs stopped by the ambulance and got in without noticing that the guards were missing. By now it was early morning and in the distance the drone of a plane could be heard. They were in a hurry to get to the airfield and load their cargo to send it on to Germany.
Troy motioned for the others to gather up the pieces and make their way to the museum as quickly as possible.
They arrived just as Monsieur Gravel was opening up the door.
Moffitt called out, "Monsieur Gravel, un moment s'il vous plait." The curator motioned for them to come inside. Moffitt continued, "We have a surprise for you. Here are your museum artifacts which we rescued before they could be shipped off to Germany. There are German spies in town as you suspected and they were most likely responsible for the robbery. You were right about Hitler looking for items that could bring him power."
"My friends thank you, thank you, thank you. I never thought I would see these things again. How can I repay you for risking your lives to help the museum?"
Troy replied for all of them when he said, "We take great pleasure in causing the Germans difficulty whenever we can. We were glad to help out. Ok guys let's get some breakfast after our busy night."
They said goodbye to the curator and walked out the door.
As they turned to head back to the inn only Tully noticed the black cat sitting by the wall. He could have sworn there was a smile on his face like he was happy to be home.
When they got back the two nurses were sitting down to breakfast. The men joined them and told them about their little adventure and the happy ending. The nurses were leaving later that day and once they left the guys decided to catch up on their sleep. The remaining couple of days were uneventful but they did hear from the inn keeper about the discovery of the dead Germans dressed as Arabs.
It came time for the guys to depart so they thanked the innkeeper and took a more leisurely drive back to camp. They did not encounter any problems. When they returned the privates took the jeeps to the motor pool where they were serviced, loaded up and prepared for action while the sergeants checked in with Captain Boggs.
He advised the Rat Patrol that a new mission needed their immediate attention the next day. As they headed off into the desert early the following morning their mini vacation was quickly forgotten. It was back to the business of war.