No More Interrogation
By: AliasCWN
( Sorry, couldn't resist this one.)
The guards stopped outside the cell and the door opened. Captain Ginter himself peered into the cell.
"Captain! You came to visit us! That is really nice of him don't you think Tully?"
"I am doing my nightly inspection. I check the entire base myself every day before I turn in for the night. It keeps everyone on their toes. Is everything alright here?"
Hitch scrunched his face in hesitation. "Well Captain, remember that trouble we mentioned about the rats in our cell?"
"We are not going to talk about rats."
"Oh no, I wasn't going to talk about rats." Hitch hurried to assure him.
"Then why did you bring it up?"
"Well, I don't like to complain."
"Of course you don't." the German muttered.
"Like I said, I don't like to complain you understand, but…. you must have cockroaches too. Not in our cell, at least we haven't seen any. But they must be in the hall. There must be a lot of them too. The guards have been pacing back and forth in the hall all day stomping on something. We just thought it might be cockroaches. They probably don't want to tell you about it because you get mad and yell about things like that. But that's not good. It's not healthy to have bugs running around all over the place. It's bad enough you have rats." Hitch gasp and pretended to zip his lips. "Sorry, I forgot, I wasn't supposed to mention the rat problem."
"We don't have bugs."
"If you say so." Hitch nodded as if he believed the Captain. "Not my place to argue. We just thought we should mention it because you got upset because we didn't mention the rat thing."
"We don't have bugs!"
"Okay. Okay." Hitch threw his hands in the air in surrender.
"Then could you please ask your guys to quit stomping on the bugs you don't have? They're keeping us awake. When you have rats sleeping in your bed you have to grab sleep when you can. Now we have to watch for bugs too." The blond shook his head at the apparent state of the base. "And this place looks so clean and neat on the outside."
"We….don't….have…bugs!" Ginter ground out between clenched teeth.
Hitch and Tully both shrugged as if to say they didn't know what to tell him.
The officer questioned his guards at great length before he turned back to the prisoners.
"The guards are merely marching during their rounds. There are no bugs. I have instructed them to do so more quietly. Do you have any other concerns?"
Hitch turned so only Tully could see his face and winked. Tully had to look away to keep from laughing out loud. Ignoring the obvious sarcasm in the German's tone, Hitch plastered a huge smile on his face.
"Now that you mention it Captain, there is one more thing. We're kind of bored. Would you mind sending us something to read? I love to read. My teacher in grade school told me that reading 'broadens the mind'." Here he made imaginary quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "I read all I can." Hitch grinned proudly.
Ginter studied him for a long moment before he ask suspiciously, "What kind of books do you like to read?"
"Comic books of course. They're the best kind." The blond grinned.
"Of course." The German agreed with a sigh. With a curt order to his men he stepped back and watched the door slam shut, blocking out the smiling faces of the Americans. Without another word he walked out, heading for his quarters and the bottle of aspirin he kept in his desk.
Tully grinned as the door slammed in their faces. He ambled over to his bunk and sat down. "It's getting late enough, we should have company soon." He glanced at the window, noting the faint light coming in from outside.
"Not much we can do." Hitch answered. "Maybe we shouldn't have ask the guards to be quiet. The noise made it easy to locate their positions and helped cover any other noise."
Both men paused to listen for the footsteps of the Germans outside the cell.
"They sure are being quiet. I figured they'd quiet down some, but not this much. The good captain must have put a scare into them."
"Maybe they'll start stomping again once they're sure the Captain is in his quarters." Tully paused, sure he'd heard something but not able to pinpoint the sound. "Did you hear that?"
"What?"
"Not sure." Tully rose and crossed to the window. It was completely dark outside except where lanterns lit the intersections of the streets. He scanned the area but he couldn't find the source of the unknown sound.
From his bunk, Hitch watched him wordlessly, only his eyes asking the question.
Tully shrugged and turned away from the window.
"Maybe one of us should stay by the window," Hitch suggested. He stood and leaned against the wall so he could see out into the dark. "Might make it easier for Sarge and Moffitt to find us if we're standing by the window."
"Keep moving so you draw attention." Tully suggested.
"Got any cigarettes?"
"No. The krauts took them when they searched me. Even took my matchsticks." Tully grumbled at the loss of his favorite vice. Hitch smiled and patted his pocket where he still had two pieces of gum. The guards had looked at it but allowed him to keep it. "Keep talking, maybe they'll hear us."
The blond yawned and stretched in front of the window. "You talk. I'm all talked out. All that helping is exhausting."
"Helping what?" A voice floated through the window.
"Sarge!" Tully jumped to his feet and hurried to the window.
"Don't attract too much attention." Immediately both privates parted, one moving to either side of the window. "Do you think you can distract the guards in the hallway?"
Tully and Hitch looked at each other, both reaching the same idea at the same time.
"Sure Sarge, leave it to us." The blond laughed.
Sam gave them a suspicious look before he decided to question them later. "Give us five minutes then try to get their attention. If you can get them to open your cell, that would be even better."
"No problem Sarge. We know what to do." Tully answered as Hitch chuckled.
The prisoners waited the allotted five minutes. At exactly five minutes Hitchcock began pounding on the door. Tully stood back so he wouldn't alarm the guards if they looked through the slotted window before opening the door. The sound of the key in the lock was the signal for the blond to step back and join his partner.
The guards swung the door open, their weapons pointed at the prisoners. As the Americans moved away they began to relax. One of the guards ask them a question, his eyes scanning the room, trying to decide what the troublesome prisoners wanted.
"Bugs!" Hitch cried. "The bugs are in our cell!" He started stomping on imaginary bugs. "I hate bugs!" He told the confused Germans. As if chasing another bug, he started moving away from the guards, stomping hard on the floor as he went. Tully, getting into the act, starting swatting at his clothes to knock off imaginary pests.
The Germans, totally confused, entered the cell to try to see what the prisoners were stepping on. Troy and Moffitt ran silently down the hall to follow them through the door.
When the guards regained consciousness the prisoners were gone and the door was locked. It took almost fifteen minutes for someone to hear their shouts and break down the door. All the while they were looking nervously over their shoulders expecting to be attacked by whatever had been in the cell with the prisoners. They could almost feel something crawling on their skin.
` "Okay you two."
The Rat Patrol had made it undetected out of the base and back to their jeeps. Troy had ordered a hasty escape before the prisoners were missed. As the miles flew by and there was no sign of pursuit, he allowed his mind to go back over the conversation and behavior of his men during the rescue. The chuckles and laughter definitely demanded explanation, not to mention the statement about 'helping'.
Now they sat concealed in a wadi well clear of the base, sharing k-rations and a warm fire.
"What Sarge?" His driver looked up at him from his seat near the fire. Troy had been glad to see that neither of them had appeared to suffer any serious harm. He had noted the light bruise on the blond's face but it appeared to be the only mark.
"I think you two had better tell us what happened."
"Hitch can fill you in Sarge. I have first watch." Tully reached for a machine gun and started to rise. Moffitt leaned over and put his hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down.
"I'll take first watch while you and Hitch fill Troy in on the details." The Brit offered.
"Oh no." Tully shook his head and climbed to his feet. "Believe me Doc, you don't want to miss this. And Hitch can explain it so much better than I can." Tully laughed as he looked over at the other private. "And he really likes to help." Still laughing, Tully left to guard the camp. He walked slowly around the perimeter, glad to be free and among friends. He just hoped their laughter didn't carry far enough to alert anyone to their presence. But if it did, he knew some desert rats who could handle it.