Stalag Thirteen had never had a prisoner escape. This was mostly due to the fact that the prisoners chose to stay in the World War II prisoner of war camp. With Colonel Hogan as their leader, the prisoners of Stalag Thirteen smuggled out spies, defectors, and diplomats and sabotaged several German experiments that had been tested in or near the camp. So when a prisoner transport appeared with no visible prisoner and heavy guards were placed around the cooler cell, Hogan knew something was amiss.
"Hey, Schultz," he said in a friendly voice as he approached the guarded building.
Schultz straightened up.
"Colonel Hogan, you and your men are not allowed near the cooler."
"Why not?"
"I'm saying nothing!"
"Must be a pretty important prisoner in there to have all these guards. Some secret agent with a bunch of secrets in his head I guess."
"The voman in there is none of your concern."
"A woman? The guys will be happy to know that."
"Colonel Hogan…!"
Hogan calmed Schultz with a chocolate and almonds bar.
"So who is it?" Carter asked as he fiddled with the radio.
Newkirk took it away.
"Careful with that."
"I don't know," Hogan said. "All I from Shultz is it's a woman."
The attitude changed instantly.
"Really?"
"Une femme?"
"A bird? When do we get to meet her?"
"Try to keep it in your pants, Newkirk. Same for the rest of you and that's an order."
"Peter is right though," LeBeau agreed. "We need to meet her to find out what's going on."
"I know," Hogan said.
"Colonel Hogan," Newkirk said standing. "I will volunteer to go into the tunnel and find out what she is all about."
"I don't doubt you would. I'm going to insure there are no shenanigans," Hogan said in a very final tone.
Hogan came to the tunnel entrance to the cooler cell. He removed a section of mason and peeked in. There was a woman laying on the bed with her back facing his location. Deciding the coast was a clear as it could be, Hogan unhooked the hidden door's latch and opened it. He crawled through the opening, straightened and cleared his throat.
A woman with flowing tresses of red hair sat up and looked at him with large green eyes that seemed to be made of burning sulfur. She did not smile, so Hogan did.
"Hello. I'm Colonel Hogan, senior prisoner of war officer."
She glowered at him and crossed her legs. Hogan smiled slightly at the flash of thigh.
"And your name is?"
She continued to glare.
"Do you speak English?"
"This one isn't even clever," she said in a mixed American accent. "Sending in an impersonator prisoner to get me to talk. Please! Get out! Next time think of an intelligent interrogation plot!"
"I see. Nice talking with you. You really are a charming girl."
He started for the exit then paused.
"By the way, I hate to tell you this, but this door can only be opened from the inside of the tunnel. It's not that we don't trust you, which we don't yet, but we can't have any nasty German's poking around, can we?"
"LeBeau," Hogan said as he came back through the corporal's bunk, "you are going to talk to her."
"What happened?" Kinch asked.
"She thought I was impersonating a prisoner of war."
"Why have LeBeau talk to her?" Carter asked.
"Because there was a very slight French twinge to her accent. It's small, but there. She may trust LeBeau especially armed with your famous sour crout."
LeBeau entered the cell carrying a bowl of soup. The woman glanced up, clearly tempted by the offering, but lay back down quickly, moving only to push her skirt down to cover her knee.
"I brought you some soup."
She sat up, not having eaten in two days, but she was weary.
"You taste it first."
"Paranoid, aren't you?"
"Occupational hazard," she replied unapologetically.
LeBeau took the spoon and sipped the soup. She waited a moment, keeping her distance from the little man. LeBeau choked and grabbed his throat with his free hand. He fell backward, his back against the bars then smiled.
"I am only joking. It's fine. I would not ruin perfectly good soup with yucky tasting poison."
"Then, monsieur, you are a true Frenchman."
She took the bowl and ate quickly.
"I think you should know, Colonel Hogan was not trying to trick you. He really is our senior POW officer."
"As I said, paranoia is an occupational hazard."
"So you are a spy?"
She nodded, her mouth too full of hot soup to answer properly.
"You have a slight French twinge to your English. Where are you from?"
"Georgia. My mother was French. It's my second language."
"I am Corporal Louis LeBeau."
"Is this place wired?"
"No."
"Holly Mannheim. I've seen that tunnel before when the other was here. What is it?"
"It's just one of our tunnels. We have one that goes to every building in the prison. You would be surprised what we have around here. We'll show you when we get you out of here."
"Hmph! That's not gonna happen."
"Why do you say that?"
"I due to be executed in a week as a spy."
