A Temporary Situation
By: AliasCWN
Chapter 2
"We're too late."
Hitch looked over at Troy without speaking. The worried look on his face said it all.
"They've already taken the convoy." Troy explained when he realized what Hitch was thinking. He lowered the field glasses and watched the scene below without them.
"Moffitt?" That one word expressed all the anxiety they had all been feeling. Hitch looked toward the German column and tried to spot the English sergeant.
"Over next to the halftrack, on the ground." Troy handed the glasses to Hitch so he could look for himself. Moffitt was secured to the side of the armored vehicle by a pair of heavy handcuffs. His back was to them but they could see a dark spot in the sand beneath his leg. They had both seen enough blood to recognize it when they saw it, even from a distance.
"I don't see a bandage." Hitch's voice was low and concerned. "They wouldn't let him bleed to death, would they? Tanner said they wanted him alive to interrogate."
"There's alive and then there's alive." Troy sighed. "They only need him healthy enough to answer questions. Maybe they don't want him healthy enough to escape. They could have changed their minds altogether. Who knows?"
"What do we do now?"
"We wait." Troy took the field glasses back and studied the column. "We'll have to wait for an opportunity to present itself. According to Tanner they have no idea we're in the neighborhood; we can use that to our advantage."
"What about Moffitt?"
"What about him?"
"He looks like he needs medical attention."
Troy sighed again. "Look Hitch, if we go in there now all we're going to do is get somebody killed. That somebody could be Moffitt, we wait."
The blond nodded unhappily. "I'll go tell the others."
Troy frowned as he watched his driver slide down the hill to the jeeps. He knew how the other man felt, he felt it too, and he hated feeling helpless. He turned back to watch every move the Germans made.
The German lieutenant who commanded the column approached Moffitt. The man was older than most of the lieutenants that Troy had encountered to date. That suggested to the sergeant that the officer was not a career soldier but one who had entered the army sometime after the war began. He didn't have the stiff bearing of the officers who had graduated from the elite German military schools to command their forces. The sergeant wondered if the lieutenant had actually earned his commission or if he had family connections that had fast tracked his promotions. In his experience Troy had found the career officers more honorable and fair than those promoted for their successes on the battlefield. Too many of those successes had been the results of brutal tactics used without regard for human decency or consequences. It was an unfortunate fact that Hitler cared more about results than he cared about human rights; the Gestapo being a perfect example of that ideology.
The officer stopped next to Moffitt's still form and stared down at him. Troy could see his lips move but he couldn't make out what was said. At a nod from the lieutenant the guards unlocked the handcuffs and pulled the sergeant to his feet. The officer spoke again and Moffitt shook his head. Moffitt sagged into the arms of his guards as the lieutenant backhanded him across the face.
Troy cursed under his breath, hoping the questions were done.
The German appeared to be very short-tempered as he faced the wounded prisoner. He waved his hands around wildly, threatening again and again to strike the sergeant. Moffitt shook his head several times, each time receiving a blow to the face or body for his refusal. The officer continued to question him until he sagged into the guard's arms and dropped to his knees. The officer waited impatiently for him to stand.
One of the guards pulled his head up by his hair and stared into his face. With a shake of his head he let Moffitt's head drop and looked up at his lieutenant. The second guard shifted his grip to hold more of the unconscious sergeant's weight. Both guards lowered the prisoner to the ground and refastened the handcuffs as the officer stomped away.
Troy turned away, his own anger threatening to boil over and affect his judgement. When he turned back Moffitt was once again alone on the ground by the halftrack.
"Can I take a look Sarge?" Tully crawled up next to Troy to look down at the Germans.
Troy wordlessly handed the glasses to Moffitt's driver.
"He's hit in the leg."
Troy turned to look when Tully spoke. Moffitt had rolled enough that the leg wound was visible. Most of the blood was dark and dry, but there was some fresh blood there too, bright and glistening in the sun. The wound was high on the thigh and Troy remembered that Moffitt had been standing alright until the lieutenant had hit him. He dared to hope that the bone wasn't hit.
"Looks like they beat him up too." Tully continued.
"Yeah Tully, I know. He's alive, that's the part we have to remember. As long as he stays alive we still have a chance to rescue him."
Tully nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, you're right Sarge, and we're going to get him back."
"Yeah, we are." Troy agreed, he just didn't know how yet.
The two of them lay side by side and watched the Germans for the next forty-five minutes. They noticed that the convoy commander, an officer they knew by the name of Lieutenant Pope, was being held separate from his men. The drivers and guards from the convoy who had survived the attack were being held in a loose group behind the trucks. Moffitt and Lieutenant Pope were being kept closer to the halftracks. Troy smiled when he realized that Moffitt had more guards watching him than all of the others put together. It would make it harder to rescue him but Troy found it enlightening that they thought Moffitt was such a risk.
"They aren't taking any chances on Moffitt getting away." Tully drawled.
"I noticed, but they don't know about us."
"Are we sure?"
Troy turned to Tully in surprise. "Don't you trust Tanner?"
Tully shrugged. "I don't know him all that well but he seems okay." He shifted his matchstick to the other side of his mouth and stared at the Germans below. "I'm just saying, are we sure they didn't say that to lead us into a trap?"
"How would they know we were listening?"
"I don't know Sarge; I just don't want to make any assumptions that might get Doc, or us, killed."
"We won't Tully. We always expect the unexpected; it's saved us more than once."
"So what are we going to do?"
Troy shrugged. "What we always do, wait for an opportunity.. and take it. None of this was part of our assignment so there is no plan; we're on our own in this." Troy searched Tully's eyes for any sign of doubt. He didn't find any, but he did get a crooked grin.
"Actually Sarge, that makes me feel a whole lot better. We do better when we're on our own. I trust us; some of those officers, not so much. They aren't out here, we are."
Troy nodded as relief flooded him; they might just need all of the confidence they could muster to rescue Moffitt. He turned his attention to the problem at hand.
"Sarge, they're moving them!"
Tully's urgent call woke Troy from a light doze. The sun, heat, and lack of sleep had caught up with him as he tried to figure out what they could do to save Moffitt and the others. He twisted around and crawled the few feet to the top of the hill where Tully waited.
The German guards had moved the prisoners to the rear of one of the American trucks. As Troy and Tully watched they forced the prisoners to climb into the rear of the ten wheeler.
"They must have repacked the trucks to make room for the prisoners." Tully noted. "Command wouldn't have sent an empty truck with the convoy."
"That's probably why they were still here when we arrived. They repacked the truck to make room for the prisoners and since it was almost noon, they just stayed for lunch."
"Lucky for us."
"Unlucky for them."
"Hey! They're putting Doc and Lieutenant Pope in the staff car."
"When the time comes you and I will take the staff car and let Hitch and Tanner take the truck with the prisoners." They watched as the staff car drove away, leaving the trucks behind.
"Darn! They're splitting up." Tully groaned.
"Maybe not." Troy said quietly. "It looks like the trucks are going the same way. Maybe they're just in a hurry to get Moffitt and the Lieutenant to their base. This could work out to our advantage Tully." Troy sounded distant as he considered the possibilities. "We can take the car first and wait on the trucks to come to us."
Tully watched as the trucks took the same route as the staff car. "How are we going to do this Sarge?" He had a big grin on his face as he turned toward his sergeant.
"Let's get ahead of them and figure it out. It's nearly forty miles to their base, we have time."