Cartoon Heroes 3
Chapter 1- Arrivals and News
…
It had been nearly three months since Carter's big mission.
Hogan and the men sat at their table drinking coffee and planning their next move. Two of their targets were taken care off only one more to go. Their targets were bridges of course. This was to work up to their main objective; the ball bearing factory just outside of Hammelburg.
There was a knock at the bunk and the men hurried to open it. Kinch climbed out followed by a familiar girl.
"Hello lads! I'm back."
"Coleen!" Carter jumped from his seat and embraced his old friend.
"Welcome back! How are you?"
Newkirk and Lebeau looked at one another not to eager to welcome her back. It was her fault.
"Oh I'm fine, just helping the underground. It was lucky we hit that bump and I fell out of truck on the way to the interrogation a while ago!"
"You fell out of the truck?" Hogan asked.
"Yeah, that really hurt. Then I bolted and ran into some underground agents and they gave me a hand."
Newkirk shook his head. Of course. She gets lucky and Andrew has to suffer.
"Yeah what's worse is I landed in a pricker bush!"
"Sounds fun…" Hogan replied sarcastically.
Coleen sat down at the table and looked at Carter. He seemed normal. "So how have you guys been?"
"Fine. Busy." Hogan poured himself some more coffee.
Newkirk huffed at that.
Colleen paid no heed. She figured he was just being sarcastic. "So I've heard. Lots of explosions. I'm going to guess Andy is responsible for that." She said looking suspiciously at her friend. "Kind of like how he was responsible for the chem lab blowing up and the cafeteria!"
He smiled. "Don't forget the Auditorium balcony!"
"Who can forget that; the principal was up there!" The two laughed lightly.
"So you're back?" Hogan was ready to get down to business.
She looked at Hogan and became serious. "It's time to take out Hitler.
"I see." Hogan, too, became serious.
"He's having a kind of party and we were able to forge an invitation."
"You're sure it will work?" Hogan didn't want to take an unnecessary risks.
"It should! There's no reason why it shouldn't. We even were able to add the names to the list."
Hogan nodded. She'd been busy. "So when do we go through with it?"
"Friday."
"Sir," Newkirk piped in. "Who all is going to be going on this mission?"
Hogan had a feeling he knew why Newkirk was asking. Hogan looked to Colleen.
"Well, myself, I'll need two drivers, and Carter."
"That's where I draw the line." Newkirk said startling Carter. "He's been through enough because of you."
That surprised Colleen. "Look, this needs to be done. It's not your decision to make."
"It certainly isn't yours." Newkirk countered.
Hogan was afraid of this. Because of what the Gestapo did to Carter after Colleen left really angered Newkirk.
Soon the Englander and the girl were in a heated argument over Carter.
Hogan went forward and tried to break them up. "Alright, that's enough!"
"Look," he turned to Newkirk. "You all took a risk when you joined the underground. Carter took that risk as well. What if they were questioning him about us, would you be as angry with me as you are with her?"
That really fired Newkirk up. "Sir, you take better care of your men than she does."
"Stop it!" Carter finally spoke up. "This decision is mine to make. I don't want my friends arguing with each other. So stop!"
Hogan backed off and Newkirk took his seat next to Carter. Colleen stood there at the attention of everyone. She sighed. "Fine then, Andy you decide. You have until Friday morning. I'll see you then." She turned and left the barracks into the tunnel.
The men looked at Carter who went into thought. Newkirk leaned in. "Carter you don't 'ave to do anything'! I could take your place!"
Carter was only half listening though.
Lebeau came up as well. "I could take your place also."
Hogan was worried. This was going to split the team up. He could easily order Carter to do it. But if he did so that would mean angering half of his team. That would leave Kinch, Colleen and himself. He couldn't let this destroy the team.
He took Kinch aside. "This looks bad."
"Yeah," Kinch looked over to the three men. Two talking one thinking. "If they convince him against this, it could mess with the whole mission."
"The thing is, they could take his place. We don't need him to play Hitler, it's too dangerous for there to be two Hitlers. So he would just be another German soldier or officer, right? If you think about it logically." Hogan and Kinch went to the tunnel.
"They don't trust her anymore." Kinch said opening the tunnel.
"Can you blame them?" Hogan stepped into the tunnel.
"Let's hope it doesn't get in the way of the priority ahead of us." Kinch followed the colonel who agreed.
One things for sure, things would be tense around there for the next week.