g
They were still waiting for some word on the Warden. Casino had come close to wearing a path in the floor as he paced from corner to corner, until Goniff pulled him off course and pushed him in a new direction, just to break the monotony. After seeing the safe cracker set on his new course the little man turned back to their Italian teammate. He'd been tossing about a bit and groaning to hisself. Goniff was ready to make a deal with God, or fate, or whoever was in charge of the kind a trouble they were in. He settled on the chair and pulled it closer to the bed. He'd give up anything, he decided; pinching those little things he found so appealing when they was out on a job, baiting Casino into bets he couldn't win because he always managed to find a way to cheat him out of it,… even his loaded dice, if the con man would just wake up and look at him. He was all set to make the vow to him when he glanced up and found himself looking into a pair of dark, questioning eyes.
He was a wake! He was looking at him…. But that was about all.
"Hey, Actor, how ya doin', mate?" All that got was a slight shift away from him and an increase in the suspicious look on the con man's face. Goniff turned a worried frown on the others as they made their way back to the Italian's bedside. "What's wrong with 'im?"
"Jeeze! Didn't you listen to that doctor? His brains are all scrambled. Lemme in there a minute." Casino pulled Goniff off his perch and pushed the cockney behind him, back out of the way. "So… How'r you feelin', Actor?" He watched the man they counted on to be their second in command when anything went wrong shift his gaze from one to the other of them and he could see a hint of panic in his eyes. He shoved his hand through his dark hair as he thought a moment. Casino took a deep breath and tried his best to look relaxed and confident. "Siete buono?"
"Sì, grazie." He wasn't, but it was the polite response to the question.
"Dove siete?" Casino tried next.
Looking around the room he tried to pull the information from the swirling chaos that threatened his sanity. "Sembra essere un Ospedale."
"Buon! Vi ricordate che, … uh, che cosa è accaduto?"
"Nessun… non posso…" He peered at each man in turn as they stood shoulder to shoulder next to his bed. He searched their faces, hoping for enough information to make some sense out of his current situation.
"Avete preso una… pailoto….No, wait." Casino looked up at the ceiling hoping to find his inspiration there. "Uh…pallottola,… pallottola alla testa."
Actor closed his eyes a moment and tried to remember what he could have been doing, what kind of mistake he could have made that would lead to this. "Perché?"
"Perche?! Jeeze! Because we're in the middle of a war!" And right after he opened his mouth he wished he could kick himself. Actor looked like he'd been getting a little more comfortable with them but with the shift back to English his guard went up again.
"S'no good if he only speaks Italian Casino." Chief reminded him as he laid a hand lightly on his shoulder. "We all gotta talk to him."
"Yeah! I know. I know!" Casino took a deep breath, shrugged the hand off, and tried to forget how much he wanted to punch a wall. "You can speak English? Potete parlare inglese?."
"Of course." He hadn't realized it before, but as soon as the question was put to him he knew the answer he gave was true.
"Great!" Then he thought about where they were and what they had to do to get out. "What about German?" That didn't get him anywhere and Casino had to search around for the word he wanted. "E tedesco?"
"Natürlich."
"Swell!" At least they'd have someone who'd be able to really talk to the Krauts for 'em…" He took another look at the confusion on the con man's face… Maybe.
Pressing a shaky hand to the bandage on the side of his head Actor took a deep breath and asked. "Chi sono voi?"
Casino turned on him, he was in no mood to go sliding backwards. "Will you speak English, …. please. Parlerete inglese,…. per favore!"
"Certamente." Actor agreed, reasonably. "If that is what you wish."
Casino just stood and stared at him a moment. For some weird reason he couldn't understand the con man could do what they asked once they asked him to do it.
"What is the meaning of this? Who are you?"
"Us?" Goniff grinned and rolled his eyes. "Blimey! We're yer mates…"
Actor just looked at them, frowning and waiting. He could speak English just not Goniff's version of it.
Casino elbowed the pick pocket out of the way. "Will you keep out a this? Look we all work together."
"Really?" Surely he must be hallucinating.
"Yeah, for the Army."
The con man looked from one man to the other. "Which one?"
"Jeeze!" Casino's worry and frustration boiled over and he had to turn away.
"Take it easy Pappy." Chief laid a hand on the explosive expert's arm for a moment and took over. "Actor… that's you. We're in big trouble. We work for the Allies, for the American's, but we're stuck in a German army hospital in Italy."
Actor frowned at him, concern overriding his confusion. "But they are at war, are they not?"
"That's right!" Chief agreed. "And if we don't play it just the right way we're gonna get shot as spies so you gotta listen and do just what we tell you to do…. Got it?"
He studied each man in turn, their soiled clothing added weight and drama to their claims. Two of them were outfitted in American attire but the third had articles of both a German and American uniform… He let his eyes roam around the room. There were no guards, no signs to support their claims… nothing but the blood stained uniforms and the urgency in their manner. "What do I have to do?"
Casino turned back and took over again. He didn't know if any of this was really getting through and sticking. Actor had that look on his face that people got when they were humoring kids or talking to nut cases. He snorted to himself, drawing concerned stares from the other two men. Well, if there was a crazier set up than the one they were in he'd never heard of it and he hoped to hell he'd never have to live through it.
"Alright, listen up, this is what we already told 'em."
ggg
"Your premise is dramatic enough but it seems your plot is a bit thin." Now it was their turn to stare at him. "It lacks detail."
"Jeeze! I know that! That's what we got you for." He clapped a hand on the con man's shoulder. "You'r the idea man." That only got him part way to where he needed to go. "You and the Warden, you run this little outfit. When he's out a commission you take over…" Casino snorted a laugh. "Even when he's in commission you and him work up the dodges… the 'plots' we use."
The story was outlandish, surely some kind of joke… But it had elements that seemed so familiar... Before he could ask who this 'Warden' was the door to the room swung open. Two of the men moved back to slouch against the wall, leaving the one who seemed to have all of the answers alone near his bed. He looked to him for direction and mimicked him when he looked up at the orderly standing in the doorway.
"The doctor sent me to tell you. They will move your other friend soon from observation. I will find some help and then we will bring you all to a room where you will stay together." He spared a quick smile for the patient on the cot. "The doctor will be pleased to see you awake." and then he left to find the help he needed.
Casino watched as the door swung closed. Just great! They needed about a week to get the con man up to speed and it looked like they had about two minutes… "Look you gotta go along with this, Actor, or we're all dead. Got it?" He raised a warning finger and pointed right at the sophisticated con artist. "And keep it in English so we know what's goin' on."
g
They'd barely gotten settled in the new room the orderly found for them when the door swung open and the doctor stepped through. "Ich sehe, dass unser Freund wach ist. I see that our friend is awake. Wie geht es Ihnen? How are you?
Actor stammered a bit and seemed to stumble over the words "Was ist geschehen?" then shifted into Italian. " Chi sono voi e dove è questo posto?"
"Easy. This is the doctor. He doesn't understand, you need to speak English to him." Actor just continued to stare at him and Casino didn't know if it was an act or not so he dropped into Italian. "Facile. Ciò è il medico. Parlerete ingles."
As soon as the patient nodded and shifted his attention back on him the doctor started in again. "What is your name, please?"
"Ilario Burla" The name rolled off his tongue easily enough to be the truth… maybe it was.
"Can you tell me what happened to you?"
Actor glanced at Casino and then back at the doctor. "They said I was shot while we were working."
The doctor nodded, making note of the switch to what the patient had been told rather than what he knew. "Will you tell me the names of your friends, please?"
The con man studied the men standing just behind the doctor. He'd been told, he remembered the names, but he wasn't sure just which man had taken them. He decided against trying to guess, shaking his head instead.
These were probably new associations. He adjusted his questioning. "Do you have a family?"
He thought for a moment before he answered. "I have a brother."
"And what is his name?"
He puzzled over that for a moment too. "Leonzio."
"Please tell me where you live?"
He raised an eyebrow. He didn't know why he knew it, but he didn't think 'England' would be the best answer to give the man standing in front of him and the questions were making him dizzy. "I'm not sure.." Bringing his hand to the bandage on his head Actor leaned back against the pillows and closed his eyes. "I don't seem to remember."
"Do not worry, my friend, you will. In time I believe it will all come back to you." As he went about his exam he continued to reassure the patient. Head injuries could be so unpredictable though... While he was encouraged that the man had been able to identify himself, there was still a chance all of the deficits might not resolve with time. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and settled on it to ask a few more questions but before he could get started the intercom overhead sputtered to life. Heaving a sigh he pushed to his feet again. "Forgive me. I hoped to be here when they brought the other man in but I am the only doctor here now and," he indicated the speaker in the ceiling with a weary wave of his hand as he reached the door and pulled it open. "they have other plans for me."
g
Ten minutes later the Warden had finally been installed in the second bed but Kurt wasn't the one who brought him in so they had no way to get any information on how he was doing. The three men hovered around the bed for a few moments wondering what to do next.
Casino lifted the chart off the foot rail of the cot where the orderly hung it and walked over to Actor's bed. Goniff had been trying to explain again who they were and what they did and Actor's usual part in it all. At the safe cracker's approach the little man gave their confused second's shoulder a squeeze and moved out of the way.
Casino looked at the papers he had in his hand then up at Actor. The European con man was pale and perspiration beaded across his forehead. He'd complained as soon as the doctor left and they'd doused the lights but his eyes were still tight, squinted against the subdued light filtering in from the window. He must have one hell of a headache, the safe cracker thought. Taking a deep breath he handed the clipboard over and asked. "Can you understand what they got written down here?"
Actor frowned and took the chart, after a moment of flipping through the pages he handed it back and rubbed at his eyes, shaking his head. "The hand writing is too hard to make out."
The east coast con took another look at the notes scrawled across the page. Even if the mess had been written in English he didn't think anyone would be able to decipher it. "What about these numbers here?" He tapped the chart with a stiffened finger. "They mean anything?" And he handed the board back.
Actor took it again with a weary sigh. Surely the man was joking, there was no reason he should be able to understand what was written here, no reason they should expect him to have an opinion about it. The sheets had a format, there were headings across the top where the numbers were written, then a space below for the hastily entered notes. He'd tell this inquisitive man what the headings were… that's all he could do. "Here is where they record the blood pressure…." But as he looked at the numbers they seemed to make a bit of sense to him. "They seem quite low." The con man flipped to the next page and scowled at the numbers scribbled there. "And these laboratory values… the cell counts and hemoglobin levels are low too. He must have lost a great deal of blood."
The safe cracker turned a critical eye on their leader. It didn't take any fancy reports to convince him the Warden was running a couple a quarts low. He was about the same color as the sheet he was layin' on! "Great! So how long d'you figure before he wakes up and we can get out a here?" But his answer was only silence and when he turned around he was faced with that half panicked, confused look again.
Goniff shifted closer to the con man's bed and patted him on the shoulder. "'At's OK, mate. You heard that doctor fella. He said you'd remember everything again… It'll just take a bit a time, that's all." Then he turned an irritated glare on Casino. "Why'n't you just lay off 'im for a bit and let 'im get some rest, eh?!"
"Yeah. Yeah, OK!" he heaved an exasperated sigh by way of apology and continued with a shrug. "Look I'm sorry, alright. It's just that I'm not used to this… Jeeze! Most a the time we can't shut you up."
Actor's mouth lifted in a quick smile. "That must be very irritating."
"You got no idea!" Casino rolled his eyes in agreement, but he countered quickly with, "But it's all stuff we need. Stuff that gets us outta trouble…."
Actor's gaze traveled over the three men to the young man laying in the next bed and back to the one who seemed to have taken charge. "Then I'm sorry I don't have the information you need now because I believe we are in a great deal of trouble."
He snorted a laugh. That was an understatement if he'd ever heard one! "That's OK." He laid a hand on the European confidence man's shoulder. "Like Goniff said, you'll remember eventually. And," Casino moved back over to Garrison's bed. "it looks like we're not goin' anywhere for a while anyway. You go ahead and get some rest."
ggg
Leutnant Neurath pushed the door open and started shouting questions as soon as he entered the room. "Chi sono voi? Identifichi la vostro comandante, la vostra unità e la vostra missione, immediatamente!"
Over the few hours they'd been left on their own they'd gotten used to being in the room alone and the man's abrupt entrance had startled all of them. Goniff was sitting between the beds, Chief had taken up a spot by the window near Actor who was sleeping again, and Casino had gone back to pacing back and forth at the end of the beds. They all came together to stand shoulder to shoulder between the new comer and their injured teammates.
It was up to him to be the pitchman for the group and he couldn't do it. He just wasn't fast enough. Casino understood what the man wanted, but couldn't get his head and his tongue wrapped around an answer in time.
Neurath leaned back against the door, blocking the way out of the room and watched the men as they shared a nervous look. "So you are not Italian after all."
"Don't bet on it baby!" Casino took a step forward and jerked his thumb towards his chest. "I'm full blooded Italian alright… Born and bred in Chicago's Near West Side." He grabbed Chief's arm and pulled him forward. "Mario here's out a Jersey City. And keep it down, will ya!? We got a couple injured guys in here!" All the noise had started the Warden tossin' on his cot. Casino gave Chief a shove in his direction, Goniff was already back in position over by Actor's bed, and he took a step closer to the officer leaning on the door.
The German lieutenant studied the spokesman a moment. Italian Americans? He'd heard stories that there was a growing movement in support of the Italian Duce and it was reported that men were flocking home to enlist. Until now he'd thought that just another propaganda ploy but he seemed to have the proof standing right before him. "And what are you doing here?"
"Same as you… fightin' for a cause." It was true and the safe cracker tried to put all the conviction he could muster into his answer.
"The same cause I suppose?" Neurath still had his doubts. Surely they would have been informed if there were expatriate Americans in the forces here… Even if he believed that part of the tale it didn't account for their uniforms or the way they arrived in town. "How do you come to be here?"
Casino took a deep breath before he launched into their story. They'd decided to follow some of the guidelines they'd gotten way back when the group was first formed. They'd gone through fake interrogations then. One of the dodges was to mix the truth with so many lies that you got confused yourself as to what was really goin' on. This was easier, he was stickin' to the facts, with a few minor changes, and all he had to do was sell it until the Warden woke up and took over…
"Oberleutnant Loder recruited us outta prisons in the states." Casino let the Kraut chew on that one a minute. "He said it was the best way to get back at 'em for they way they treated us and our families over there."
Neurath frowned at the group's spokesman. "And how do you do this? How do you 'get back at them'?"
"By snoopin' around the American's lines and bringin' back information on how many guys they got. By getting' in where they think they got their battle plans stashed all nice n' safe and takin' pictures that we bring back to our side." Casino shot the man a conspiratorial smile. "By pretendin' to be them so they let slip what they're gonna do next."
The German officer took a step towards the men gathered in the room, fascinated. He'd heard rumors of groups like this one but he'd never met anyone involved in such work. "And it doesn't bother you to turn against your adopted country?"
"Adopted!?" Casino snorted a laugh. "They don't want us immigrants over there for nothin' more than slave labor. The best you can hope for is to live out your life workin' like a dog while your family's stuck livin' in the slums with the rats! There's no way out, there's no 'adoption'." He jerked a thumb in the direction of his chest. "I'm third generation and my family still ain't made it out." The explosive expert shared a look with his teammates. They'd seen their share of propaganda the Krauts and the Italians fed their people, he could tell the guy at the door was lapping this one up. "Nah! It don't bother us a bit to go against 'em."
Neurath let his eyes travel over the men until they settled on the blonde hanging back between the beds. He didn't appear to fit this story that was being spun out. "And what do you have to say for yourself. Who are you?"
"Him?" Casino shifted over to stand between the Kraut and Goniff and tried to shield him as he wracked his brain to come up with some way to explain the little Limey. "He's…"
"Rodney Joseph Dillon, at yer service." Goniff reached a hand out and pushed Casino aside, stepping up to face the German lieutenant.
"Irish?"
"Right you are!" Goniff smiled and laid the accent on as thick as he dared. "An if ya know much 'bout our hist'ry you'll not have much trouble knowin' why I'd up 'n throw in with a mob like this."
Neurath had considered himself a student of politics before the war and he knew that the Irish, or at least some of the IRA, were sympathetic to the German cause, as long as it disrupted the English hold on Ireland and helped with their own reunification efforts. It was rumored that the Abwer recruited Irishmen, and it was common knowledge the IRA had made overtures to Hitler... Even though there was no strategic benefit to taking them up on their offer it was a political coup and had made all of the papers. Was it possible that there was the same thing going on in America, especially in the prisons and slums? "Are you also an unhappy American?"
"Me?! Bless yer heart no! I was invited ta leave Ireland by the British, wasn't I?" Goniff grinned and stuck his hands deep in his pockets. "I didn't see any reason t' be followin' all the rules over there in the colonies an they tossed me behind bars. Here was me lookin' at a deportation when this fella," the little pick pocket jerked his chin towards Garrison's bed. "shows up and convinces me there's a way ta strike a blow fer freedom by workin' fer him.…. So here am I to do all I can to further the cause, so ta speak."
"But your leader? He is German, no? Why do you follow him?"
Casino snorted a laugh but it was Chief who supplied their answer. "Why not? The Germans and the Italians, they'r partners ain't they?"
Neurath considered that as he continued to study the men one by one. Each of them had a slightly furtive air about him, just what he would expect out of a criminal… "Until I find out exactly who you are you will stay here with your friends. There will be a guard outside the door to see to it you do not leave. Do you understand me?" Neurath got their agreement to his terms in the form of wary nods before turning to leave the room. Once he gained the corridor he headed out of the building for the field commander's quarters. He knew how he would use these men if he were in command, but he was not. Their fate would be decided by another. He just hoped Captain Giordano had the imagination it would take to make the right decision.