No ownership of the Hogan's Heroes characters is implied or inferred. Copyright belongs to others and no infringement is intended. Copyright text and original characters belongs to L J Groundwater.
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Carter pursed his lips and scrunched up his face as he considered the possibilities. "Maybe we're panicking for nothing. After all, the Colonel has his papers—as soon as the Gestapo calls Abwehr and talks to Major Teppel, he'll be off the hook."
But Newkirk shook his head. "I don't like it," he countered, frowning. "The whole idea of those papers and the cover story was to stop Colonel Hogan from being arrested in the first place. If they didn't work then, we can't presume they'll work now." He stared hard at a speck of ash on the stove. "Plus, no one from the Düsseldorf Underground has reported that he's been released. And they're watching that place like a ruddy hawk now."
"I don't like not knowing why they have taken him," said Le Beau as he emerged from Hogan's quarters.
"Is she sleeping?" Kinch asked. He and the others had agreed that there was nothing to be gained by Tiger leaving tonight; she was scared and tired, and very little would be accomplished before morning anyway. But relegating her to the tunnels below the barracks was out of the question, so they decided that she should have some small comfort—and privacy—in Hogan's empty office.
"She does not want to, but I think she will be soon," Le Beau answered with a shrug. He joined the others at the table. "What have we found out?"
Kinch heaved a sigh. "Nothing."
"Why don't we just get dressed up as Germans and tell them we want Captain Stark back?" Carter suggested.
Newkirk shook his head again. "That'd only work if we knew they believed his papers in the first place. And if we knew why they've arrested him."
Le Beau nodded glumly in agreement. "Not to mention that it's a bit far away for us to simply disappear from camp without a good cover story. And we would need transportation."
Kinch nodded. "Like the way we got the Colonel out in the first place."
Newkirk took a final drag from his fourth successive cigarette and threw it into the stove. "Tiger said they arrested three people—an older man, an ordinary bloke, and Colonel Hogan. Could he just have been caught up in a general round-up for questioning?"
"Maybe," Kinch mused, but he wasn't convinced. He frowned and watched as his hands seemed to curl into fists of their own accord. "I can't take this not knowing anything."
"We might as well face it, mates," Newkirk said unhappily: "we're not gonna be able to do anything until the Underground network finds out what's going on for us." He sat down heavily at the table, his blue eyes a reflection of concern and of a fear that he was not very successfully trying to hide. "And waiting's just not my cup of tea."
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"Schultz!"
The voice of Kommandant Wilhelm Klink carried so far out of his office that the Sergeant of the Guard actually jumped even in his state of half-wakefulness, which was how he preferred to approach early morning roll call. Hans Schultz looked away from the grumpy prisoners of Barracks Two he had assembled, and sighed in the direction of the Kommandantur. His big eyes seemed ready for reproach.
"Schuuuuuultz!" Once again, Klink's voice echoed through the compound in the dim morning light. But this time, Schultz and the prisoners were both met with a very strange sight: the German officer descending the steps of his office, the buttons of his long uniform jacket done up incorrectly under his long overcoat, his cap pulled down over a face half-shaved and cross.
The prisoners exchanged looks as the Kommandant approached the assembly. "Schultz! You imbecile; why didn't you come when I called you?"
"I am sorry, Herr Kommandant," Schultz replied carefully. "But I thought you were shouting at me, not for me."
"That's the best idea I've heard today," Klink muttered. "Schultz, there is no electricity in my quarters; the entire building is in darkness. I had to get dressed in the dark; I couldn't even shave." He frowned. "Find the electrician and have him look after it immediately!"
"Jawohl, Herr Kommandant." Schultz started to walk away, then turned around. "Herr Kommandant, don't you want me to make my report?"
Klink balled up a fist in front of his face as he forced a frustrated sound out from behind tightly pursed lips. "You idiot, of course I want you to make your report! I didn't come out here just to watch you waddle around the compound. Report!"
"Herr Kommandant, all prisoners are present and accounted for."
"And bloody freezing, thanks, mate! Why don't you let us into your dark rooms—we could use the sleep!" came Newkirk's voice. The prisoners laughed. Anything that got their blood warmer in the morning was welcome, and that included tired jokes.
"Dismiss the prisoners," Klink ordered, ignoring the Englishman's comment. He turned back toward his quarters. "And make sure you get me a flashlight."
"Jawohl, Herr Kommandant," Schultz said wearily, for what felt like the tenth time in the last two minutes. He waved off the prisoners and then shuffled away, full of instructions before he had even had a chance to have breakfast.
The men of Barracks Two, meanwhile, were thinking of anything but food as they hustled back inside.
"Well, that oughta keep Klink distracted for awhile," Newkirk announced. He walked to the door of Hogan's quarters and tapped lightly. "It's safe to come out now," he said.
Tiger appeared almost immediately, looking neat but not rested. She nodded to Hogan's men as she made her way to the table. "How are you this morning, love?" Newkirk asked gently. He glanced at the others to confirm that their opinions were the same as his: the Frenchwoman wasn't holding up well at all.
"Sit down and have something to eat," Le Beau fussed.
Smoothing back her hair self-consciously, Tiger quietly agreed. "Merci, Corporal," she said.
"We're not gonna just sit back, Tiger. We're gonna find out what's going on and we're gonna get Colonel Hogan back," Kinch said, trying to sound reassuring.
"Oui, I know," Tiger answered, not terribly convincingly.
"Did you get any sleep?" Le Beau asked.
Tiger shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I don't know," she answered. "Perhaps a couple of hours. I just kept seeing…" She let her voice drift off as her mind's eye went back to Hofberg. She shook her head and looked down at her hands. "If only I knew…" She couldn't finish the thought aloud: that he was safe… that he had seen me outside the hofbräu. She closed her eyes, trying to contain her emotions. He would be worried about me….
Kinch nodded. "We understand," he said quietly.
Watching her with care and concern, Carter told Tiger, "We're waiting to hear from our contact in Hammelburg, at Gestapo Headquarters."
Newkirk nodded. "We're hoping he can get some information from Düsseldorf so we know what we're facing." He pursed his lips. "And what the gov'nor's up against."
"And then what?" the Frenchwoman asked.
Kinch finally let out the sigh he had tried to stifle. "And then… we see what we can do."
Tiger nodded, not reassured but wanting to be. She nodded her thanks when Le Beau put a plate of food in front of her. She looked at it, but the mere thought of eating turned her stomach. Le Beau knew immediately, but said nothing. She had always had a special relationship with le Colonel; it would be hard for her to concentrate on anything else at the moment. "Maybe you can tell us… what happened before you got to the hofbräu last night," Le Beau suggested. "Perhaps it can give us some idea of what happened."
Tiger nodded, anxious to do something—anything—that might help. "All right." She waited a moment to gather her thoughts as the others settled in, smiling briefly, gratefully, at Carter, who sat close beside her. "I… went to Hofberg early in the day and met with several people who are active in the Underground there. The plan was for me to meet Colonel Hogan and take him to some of the others to be briefed, then bring him to the safehouse where he would be staying until his work was done." She paused for breath and found herself blinking back tears. "But when I got to our rendezvous—" She cut off, and lowered her head.
"Who were these people?" Newkirk asked thoughtfully. "Could one of them have been a plant?"
"I don't know. I don't think so," Tiger replied; "these people have all been with the Resistance for a very long time."
"So if they were bad, hopefully they'd have been picked out by now," Kinch mused.
"Suppose somebody just got careless?" Carter proposed. "I mean, mistakes happen; someone might have heard something said about the meeting."
Tiger shook her head. "It's not likely. We met in a very secure location."
Le Beau crossed his arms grimly. "It looks like we have to face it," he said: "Colonel Hogan just got unlucky." He let out an exasperated sigh. "And it will be very hard to figure out what to do about it."
"Well, we're not gonna let him rot in some Gestapo jail, that's for sure," Newkirk declared.
"We'd better get word to the people in Hofberg to lie low for awhile," Carter suggested.
"But hang on," Newkirk countered. "How do we know one of them didn't turn on us?"
"We don't," Kinch admitted. He rubbed a hand over his mouth and considered.
Le Beau asked Tiger, "Whose idea was it—meeting first in public, instead of le Colonel simply going to meet you at the secure location?"
Tiger pursed her lips and thought. "I cannot remember." Her eyes searched the room, looking for an answer. "I think it was… Josef's. And then we all agreed it was smarter, in case Colonel Hogan had been followed. And it met with the approval of their leader."
"Who's their leader?" Newkirk asked.
Tiger bit her lips as she thought. "They called him the Hunter," she said. "He was not there—they sent him a message, and he approved the plans." She turned to Kinch. "We should warn them."
Kinch exchanged looks with the others. "I'm not sure who to send a message to, at this point," he said. "If we let any one of those people know that you weren't taken, it could make things worse for the Colonel—and for everyone else." He was still for a moment, just thinking about the situation they were in now, and what kind of trouble their commanding officer was in.
"I should have gone back to warn them," Tiger said, shaking her head in self-reproach. "They could be in danger now. But all I could think of was…"
"It's okay, love," Newkirk assured her. "You did the right thing."
"Maybe the best thing is to simply pass on a message via the local Underground that there's been a delay in the meeting. No names, no explanations. Nothing that lets them make a connection to the operation directly," Kinch ventured.
"Right," Carter agreed. "We only ever made contact with them through the local folks anyway; they don't know who Colonel Hogan really is—they didn't even know his name. As far as they were concerned, Tiger was only meeting with him because she knew him, not because he was Papa Bear."
"That's right," Tiger said with a nod. "They knew someone was coming to help them, but they did not know he was part of this operation. Colonel Hogan wanted it that way."
Le Beau nodded agreement. "Because the less anyone knows, the better." He scowled. "Usually."
Suddenly, with a loud, surprising pop! the light above the common room table went out, startling them all. Le Beau recovered quickly, then shook his head in disgust. "It looks like Klink's electrical troubles are spreading to the rest of the camp," he said. "It will take forever to get another bulb!"
"That sounded just like a gunshot!" Carter declared.
"Remind me of that again when I peel my heart off the ceiling," Newkirk retorted, trying to bring his breathing back to normal speed.
Kinch looked at the light thoughtfully. "It did sound like it, at that," he said.
"So?" Le Beau asked.
"I wonder if we can use this little problem to our advantage."
Carter furrowed his brow. "How's that, Kinch?"
"Well, we're gonna need to keep Klink out of our hair while we figure out how to get the Colonel away from the Gestapo," the radioman said.
"That's right," Newkirk admitted. "But how is this gonna help? As soon as he gets the electrician to fix it, that'll be the end of it."
"What electrician?"
"The one Klink told Schultz to get on the job!" Newkirk replied. His patience at the moment was extremely limited. "Weren't you at roll call this morning?"
"I sure was," Kinch said. "Only I happen to know that the camp electrician, Corporal Mueller, is on a week-long pass. Schultz was complaining that Mueller got one when he wanted one."
"So?" Le Beau asked again.
Kinch sighed tolerantly. "So, we all know how Klink gets flustered if everything isn't perfect. And when he can't get things fixed up himself—like having Mueller around to fix the electricals—he usually hunts down Colonel Hogan to fix it for him. If we volunteer to take on the job, Klink won't worry so much about the Colonel being away. It'll buy us time."
The others nodded, considering the idea.
"I'm also thinking that if we can keep Klink a little off-balance, he might not take so much notice of the length of time the Colonel is supposedly with Knopf. We'll have to play it carefully—make enough progress to keep Klink happy, but mess it up just enough to keep him distracted," Kinch admitted. He shook his head. "It sounds like a simple wiring problem. But Klink doesn't know that. And if he starts getting too jittery, we can fix it up quick and for real." He shrugged. "I just… don't know what else to do."
"Well, what other options do we have?" Le Beau asked resignedly. "Klink is expecting Colonel Hogan back in a couple of days. It might take us longer than that to get him away from the Gestapo. What do you suggest, Kinch?"
"Carter, can you make up some noise-makers for us? You know—something that can sound like a gunshot without actually being one?"
Carter smiled and sat up straighter on the bench. "You betcha, Kinch." He looked at Tiger. "I've got a whole bunch of stuff down in the tunnel that can make all sorts of noises and scare the bejeebies out of—"
"Great," Kinch interrupted, nodding. "I'm gonna need to you rig a few other things around camp, too. Newkirk, if you volunteer to be the electrical expert, Louis and I can keep an ear on the radio and monitor the phones, just in case Klink decides to find out why the Colonel's taking so long to come back to camp."
"Whatever helps, mate," Newkirk said immediately. The thought of what was happening to Hogan was making him feel sick inside, and he wanted nothing more than to go charging blindly into the Düsseldorf Gestapo Headquarters and get his commanding officer out of there. But if the best way to help him was to cause trouble in camp, then he would do it. "As long as it gets the Colonel out of there—fast."
"As fast as we can, Newkirk," Kinch said grimly. He looked at Tiger, who had watched the foursome scheming with a slightly bewildered expression on her face. "I just hope it's fast enough."
