Chapter 3:

Night came sooner than anyone had anticipated, and after dinner, Hogan, Kinch, and Newkirk gathered down in the tunnels to send Kalina off on her first assignment. After being briefed by Kinch and Newkirk on what to do and how the assignment would work, she turned to face Hogan with weary eyes. Her stomach was twisting in knots, her heart was pounding, her palms felt a bit wet and clammy. Was she as ready for this as she thought she had been? What if something went wrong? What if she was caught? What if she screwed everything up? What if she disappointed Hogan? Her mind was racing a hundred miles a minute with burning question. She swallowed a knot down and looked up at the colonel trembling slightly. She was greeted with a kind smile.

"Little nervous there, aren't you," he said.

Not able to speak, Kalina nodded and turned her eyes downward.

Hogan smiled warmly and gently rubbed her shoulder.

"Don't be nervous," he continued. "You're gonna do great. I know you are."

"But what if I screw up? What if I don't do something correctly? What if the Gestapo catches me, and I risk exposing everything you've done?" She remarked, meek.

"It won't. Nothing's going to go wrong. You want to do a good job, and that's what'll keep you from making a slip up. Just don't overthink anything is all. Staying calm and collected at all times when outside the wire is what makes a difference in succeeding and failing."

"You're sure?"

"I've done it a hundred times. If this old man here can do it, so can you."

Klink's daughter gave a small smile and nodded.

"I'll keep that in mind when I get out there...but how do I know if it's One Eye or not? What does he look like? What does he sound like?" She asked.

"He's a very tall, young man. A little older than Carter is. Slick black hair, dark green eyes, very slim and usually wearing some type of German uniform. Stay in hiding until he calls for you, he knows what to do," Hogan said.

"Okay," Kalina answered, soft. She let out a shaky breath of air before speaking. "I think I'm ready."

"That a girl."

Kalina let out a deep breath of air, turned on her feet, and slowly started her way for the tunnel exit. She paused halfway out of the radio room and turned to look at Newkirk with an anxious expression to her face. The Englishman gave a gentle smile and patted her arm.

"You're gonna do great out there, little mate," he said, with confidence.

"Don't be scared, kiddo. Just do as instructed, and everything will go from there." Kinch added.

"You just keep thinking how proud the Gov'nor's gonna be of you when you get back here with that info and got it all sent off to London. You'll soon be helping us blow things up and kidnapping generals, all kinds of things are beyond the horizon for yah."

Kalina nodded and again let out a shaky breath of air. She took another few steps out of the tunnel before turning back to Hogan once more. He was grinning from ear to ear, his chocolate brown eyes twinkling like stars that were full of pride. He gave her a wink to send her off with, and she nodded in response. Settling and calming down as much as she could, she took off for the exit and soon disappeared from sight.

"There she goes," Newkirk said, gleaming with admiration.

"Out there bringing home another win for the Allies." The radioman added, with a grin of his own.

"You two stay here and wait for her to return. I'm gonna go upstairs and make a list of positions for her to check what sounds interesting to her. By how much she was enjoying learning about the radio, you might have a new apprentice under your hands, Kinch," Hogan said. The colonel took off for the barracks, leaving the two flyers alone to themselves.

The Englishman's smile turned into a worried frown and turned to Hogan's second in command.

"Yah think she'll be alright out there, Kinch? Maybe one of us should of went out with her," Newkirk stated.

"She's got this in the bag, Newkirk. By how excited she was last night being offered to work for the Colonel, her chances at messing this up is slim to none. Personally, I think Colonel Hogan should have given her a tougher assignment to complete. This will be as easy for her as speaking German," Kinch answered, confident in his gut feeling.

"I just hope everything goes over alright...I'd sure hate to see how heartbroken she'd be upsetting the Gov'nor. She loves him like another father whether she knows it or not...and I have a good feeling little girls hate upsetting their dads. Especially when they look up to them so much."

It was an abnormally windy night in Hammelburg. As she walked alongside the sidewalk to the rendezvous spot, Kalina pulled her blue cardigan tighter around her to keep warm. The wind was brittle and stung her eyes when it blew directly into her face. Keeping focused on her task at hand, she did all she could to ignore it and briefly looked down at her wrist to check the time. She still had another twenty minutes before she had to get there, and the meeting point was not that much farther from her. She hated the idea of standing alone in an empty, cold barn for that long, but it was best that she not do any stalling. One thing could go to the next, and then she would really be in trouble. And hypothermia would not be the problem.

She continued to trudge along her designated path, but the wind again blew in her face, making her teeth chatter violently. She hugged her cardigan even tighter around her body and was beginning to lose concentration from how cold she was. She needed to sit down somewhere for a few minutes. Go inside someplace warm. Just to get her heated up enough to finish the rest of her walk to the abandoned barn a few feet outside the city. But what? Where? Where could she possibly go?

As she was about to collapse to the ground and let the cold consume her, she looked across the street and spotted a clothing store with a few dresses and skirts displayed in the front window. The place itself looked very warm and welcoming. Heat, shelter, a place to warm up and relax for a little bit, it all sounded like a dream to the little teenager. She grinned from ear to ear and was about to step one foot in front of the other, when she shook her head and immediately dismissed the idea. She was out there to do a good job for Hogan. To get that important information safely to London and put yet another loss in the war on Germany's record. Not to dilly dally around outside like she was on vacation or something.

Kalina resumed on her designated path to the abandoned barn, when another gust of wind blew straight at her face. It was stronger and sharper this time, almost knocking her off her feet. She shivered violently and chattered her teeth louder. How she wished her father was there to wrap his warm arms around her and give her all his love and warmth to keep her from freezing. Sadly, her father currently wanted nothing to do with her, and he could not have any idea of her true loyalties in the war. She knew he would never turn her into Hochstetter or the Gestapo. But she could not risk it. For his safety, for Hogan's safety, for the operation's safety. No matter how much she wanted to tell him. She hated keeping secrets from her father. She told him everything. He knew all of her secrets and everything about her...but she could not this time. There was just too much at stake for her to take such a risk.

"Ooooo...would Colonel Hogan mind if I stepped inside for just a couple minutes?...Better than dying of hypothermia before I can even get the information he needs...two minutes. That's it, just two minutes," she said, to herself.

She quickly made her way across the street and ran inside the store. The minute she stepped inside, she was in Heaven. The place was as warm as a beach in Southern Italy, not a single wisp of cold air in any vicinity of the building. She took a deep breath of air in and let the warm air warm her insides. She sighed with contentment and looked over to the display window where she spotted a long light blue skirt. Kalina sprinted to its side and ran her fingers on the soft cotton fabric. She had a white sweater that would go perfectly with it back at Stalag 13. She looked at the price and frowned. It was more money than her year's worth of allowance she got from helping her father with chores around the house. She could put it on her father's tab. Surely he would never notice a sudden change in his banking statement. It was the camp's budget he was hawk-eyeing nowadays.

Kalina's smile returned, took the skirt off the stand, and hugged it tight. Her white sweater with this skirt and her black flats, she would feel like the prettiest girl in all of Germany. Even prettier than all the rich generals' daughters that attended school that always made fun of her for being shy and ordinary looking. Her smile widened as she imagined herself coming back to school in her new outfit, putting a lock on all of their mouths. Kalina Klink would not only be the smartest girl in school, but also the prettiest and the one with the most successful father in the military.

"Mighty good choice you have there, young lady," a man's voice said, from behind, making the little teenager jump and turn around to see who it was. She let out a silent sigh of relief when she saw it was just the store manager.

"Jawohl, Herr Ladenbesitzer. It is very pretty and so soft. I'd like to buy it, Sir. I have a white sweater at home that would go beautifully with it," she answered.

"It is just your size too, meine liebling. You would look absolutely breathtaking in it...but does a little girl like you have enough money to pay for it? That's a designer skirt all the way from Paris. It's rather on the expensive side," he said.

"Put it on my Papa's account. One skirt won't put him into bankruptcy."

The store manager gave a hearty laugh.

"Wunderbar! Then it's yours." He replied.

"Really? Oh, danke, Herr Ladenbesitzer, danke!" Kalina cheered, her eyes sparkling bright.

"Oh, while you're here, let me show some others in our collection. You will absolutely fall in love with them," he said, gesturing for her to follow.

Kalina frowned, remembering her assignment. The agent was due in another ten minutes at the barn, and she had to impress Hogan in order to get a permanent position on his team. She shook her head apologetically.

"As much as I would love to, Herr Ladenbesitzer, I'm afraid I have another engagement at the end of town in just a few minutes. Maybe I could…" she never got a chance to finish her thought, when the store manager came to her side and escorted her to another part of the store.

"Nonsense. This will merely take two minutes tops. You will be in and out before you know it," he said.

"Herr Ladenbesitzer, really I…"

"Just two minutes, my dear. That's all I ask for."

Kalina sighed at that point. How was she going to get out of the store and to her meeting without being rude? One Eye would be there before she got a chance to escape. She had to get out of there, but how? She looked down at her watch. Five minutes till rendezvous time. She began to internally panic, but remained calm externally.

"Herr Ladenbesitzer, forgive me for sounding rude, but my engagement starts in just minutes from now. I must really get going now. Thank you very much for the skirt, but I'm afraid I must bid farewell now. I will come another day, I promise," she said.

"Oh, my dear. Don't be silly. Your engagement will wait for you until you arrive. Please, I must show you…" the store manager paused mid sentence when the door to his shop again opened. When he saw who the patron was, his eyes nearly fell out of his head, and his jaw dropped almost completely off its hinges.

Kalina eyed the man suspiciously with a raised eyebrow and looked in the same direction he was facing. She gasped and gaped when realizing who had just walked inside.

It was Colonel Reinhardt Tegeler of the Berlin Gestapo with one of his many aides. The colonel was tall, slim, had dark eyes, and dark hair. He was the most highly regarded, most infamous figure in all of Germany. He had become a colonel at just the age of 26 and was known for never having a prisoner that would not talk or squeal to him what he wanted to hear. After he had the information desired, he killed the prisoner and threw their body out into the middle of the wilderness to wear away. He was pompous, confident, malignant, and above all horrifying. There was not a single person in Germany that was not afraid of him. People wondered if even Hitler feared the man.

"Herr Tegeler," the store manager gasped, running to the man's side. "Colonel Tegeler, your honor, I have never been more happier to serve a customer than you, your honor. What brings you all the way to…" Before he could finish, Tegeler was taking the jacket he carried behind his back to his right and dropped it on the man's head.

"Enough talk," he said, quiet and expressionless. "I need a birthday present for my niece."

"Jawohl, Herr Tegeler. And might I say, you are much more polished than pictures portray you," the store manager answered, ending with a friendly chuckle. It quickly subsided the minute he saw the colonel's unamused look and swallowed a knot in his throat. "Follow me, Sir."

After Tegeler and his aide passed by Kalina, both completely ignoring her presence, the little Klink started to hyperventilate softly and dashed out of the office. Gestapo. Meeting. Information. She sprinted for the abandoned barn without a moment to take a breather as she prayed that what she thought had happened was just a figment of her imagination.

"One Eye," Kalina called out, running inside the barn and closing the door behind her. "One Eye...One Eye? One Eye, are you here? Answer me, One Eye, please! Tell me you're in here!"

Her eyes continued to dart around the barn desperately scanning for any sign of the man. There was not a single trace of him anywhere. Was he late? Had Tegeler found him and done the worst to him? Was he hiding somewhere else until the coast was clear? The more questions came to her mind, the less answers she got. She ran her fingers through her hair trying to think of what to do, when she spotted something odd out of the corner of her eye. She turned to her left and saw a white object just barely sticking out of a haystack.

Her mind curious, she walked over to the haystack, cautiously felt for the object, then pulled it into her hand once realizing it was just paper. She unfolded it and saw it was surprise attack on the Allied Armies on the Western Front. The German Army was going to dig a tunnel towards the French border and come up from beneath to attack. She grew lost in all the fine details of the plan, when she noticed something was on the back of the sheet of paper. Kalina flipped it to the backside and began to read the note left for her eyes:

Information for Papa Bear. Gestapo coming. Get this and get out. Will be back for you soon.

-One Eye

"Oh no," Kalina said, meek. She closed her eyes and whimpered. She could practically hear Hogan's screaming at that very moment. "I'm in so much trouble!"