Old Friends...Usual Trouble
A/N: I don't own any of the characters that appear in Hogan's Heroes or MacGyver. The story and any other characters are mine.
Chapter 4:
"I figured Klink for an idiot roughly 5 minutes after we first met him, but this is ridiculous." Pete said when the tour and explanation of what Hogan's real assignment at Stalag 13 was. MacGyver shook his head mockingly as he pulled out a chair. They had arrived back in the 'communications room' in the main tunnel underneath the barracks and were now having a laugh at commandants' expense.
"Aw Pete, don't act so surprised. I saw the look on your face when we first met Klink."
Kinch, Carter, Newkirk and LeBeau had gone back up to the barracks to keep an eye on things while MacGyver, Pete and Hogan were down in the tunnel system they had dug underneath the camp. "First impressions of Klink are almost always accurate." Hogan laughed.
"They've never found any of these tunnels?" Asked MacGyver; still wondering how anybody could be that stupid to not see what was happening right under their own nose.
"Yeah, they found one just last week." Hogan casually answered as if they were talking about a hockey match they saw just days ago. "Mostly they find the abandoned tunnels that we had no use for and sealed up. That or Schultz accidently walks over a section that has weak support beams."
"Colonel Hogan?" Carter's voices reached them as the tunnel entrance opened. "Klink is on his way to the barracks; surprise inspection."
They all hurried up the ladder and it closed just as the door to the barracks started to open and Schultz walked inside, holding the door open. "Achtung! The commandant is here!" He announced as Klink pushed past him and searched the room, looking for something or someone. To MacGyver, he looked even more odd than when he had first seen the German officer in his office. Klink held his riding crop under his left arm and still had his monocle securely over his eye. Maybe it was because when he had first seen him, MacGyver and Pete had not know just what was lying only a few feet below them, and the entrance was not even a metre away from him.
Glancing towards Hogan who had made it halfway around the other side of the table before Klink saw him, he noticed that there was a smile fighting to appear and he had to look away because he knew his friend only too well.
"What's the occasion commandant?" Hogan asked lightly. He indicated towards the leak in the roof. "Have you come to fix the roof yourself this time?" The men scattered throughout the main room of the barracks cheered.
"Silence!" Klink called over the noise. "This has nothing to do with the roof Hogan." This time boos and complaints echoed around the room before Hogan could stop it. "It is a bed check that has been ordered by General Burkhalter for every night until I say otherwise. This is a friendly warning to make sure you keep your men from any foolish attempt at escaping."
"Right. Colonel it's getting late; we all wanna get some sleep. We got an escape or two to plan before the night is out." MacGyver stared at Hogan; he wasn't the least bit surprised by his words, but he was by Klink's reaction. – Klink raised a fist at Hogan but otherwise ignored the comment. – Pete was staring open mouthed at the both of them when Klink turned to the both of them.
"Do not let Hogan or any of the other men here think that you can escape." Klink said as the laughter of the men died down somewhat. "There has never been an escape from this camp so long as I have been here – and there never will be." With that said, Klink stormed out into the compound, leaving Schultz to close the door behind him. The minute the door closed, the whole barracks either laughed or asked questions about the nightly bed checks and what they were going to do about it.
Hogan, Kinch, LeBeau and MacGyver were in the communications room down in the tunnels. For the past half an hour they have been trying to make contact with Oscar Schnitzer – the local vet that looked after the guard dogs at Stalag 13 – to ask if he could get in contact with Tiger and see what, if anything, she knew about Jack Dalton's capture. Tiger had been out of radio contact for a few weeks and the only contact that could be made with her would be through Schnitzer.
"So what exactly has good old Jack got himself into this time 'round?" Hogan asked while they waited. Jack Dalton had a very adventurous nature – even more so than MacGyver and Hogan.
"We don't really know." MacGyver hesitated and then continued. "He wasn't on an official mission. He didn't even use one of our planes, he took his own. All we know for sure is that he was trying to find out anything he could about some new defences in France."
"He never could leave well enough alone." Hogan muttered. Jack had a knack for attracting trouble when they were young; apparently he hadn't changed any.
Kinch suddenly sat up in the chair behind the small table. He held up a hand to silence any questions about to be asked. He sent through a reply then pulled off the headphones and placed them by the radio on the table. "He'll make a stop here tomorrow. His radio isn't working properly and he can't get new parts until next week." He told them. "He only had enough power left to make one short message – and that was it."
"Okay, so by tomorrow night we will hopefully know exactly where Jack is being held." Hogan looked over at MacGyver. "We'll get him out of there in no time."
Hogan left them down in the tunnel and went to his quarters. For a day that started out so ordinary – well except for the headache left over from last night's party – the day had turned out to be anything but. Jack Dalton had been MacGyver's friend longer than Hogan's; MacGyver introducing him to Jack in the last year of college. The three of them had travelled across the states and spent many camping trips exploring the forests they came across. No matter how many times they had tried, MacGyver and Pete could never prevent Jack from getting into some kind of trouble. Hogan had never really helped the situation of course – he could never refuse to go along with whatever wacky plan he came up with.
The sound of someone knocking on his door pulled Hogan away from his thoughts. "Yeah?" He called as the door opened and Pete walked inside. Behind him, Hogan could see Carter grinning as he talked with the Adams at the table.
"Got a minute?" Pete asked as he closed the door and moved further into the small room. "You know, I've seen MacGyver pull off some crazy stunts in the past and I've never been able to figure out how he does it. But this is... just impossible"
Hogan smiled a little. Hogan stared out of the window for a second, wondering how to convince him that it was possible. He thought about all the times he and his men simply // okay, maybe not so simply // walked through the front doors of Gestapo headquarters or other buildings dressed in German uniforms. Giving up, he turned back to Pete "Just trust me on this. We've done it before and we can pull this off."
MacGyver and Pete were alone in the barracks while the rest of Hogan's men were outside either meeting with the underground agent who had pulled into the compound 5 minutes ago – under the pretence of changing the dogs – or playing a game of football with others. MacGyver sat back in his chair and sighed. He had been watching Pete pace up and down the length of the room. He was used to Pete pacing whenever he was worried or frustrated but now it was starting to annoy him just a bit.
"Pete you're gonna make a whole in the floor if you keep that up."
"Sorry." Pete stopped pacing and pulled out a chair to sit down.
MacGyver pushed Pete's abandoned cup of coffee towards him again and leaned back in his chair. He couldn't blame Pete; this plan wasn't exactly going so well. They both knew that the longer they waited, the less likely it was be able to help Jack.
"Got any ideas on how to get in and out without being seen?" Pete asked after sitting in silence for a while.
"Nope." MacGyver shook his head slowly then tried to lighten the mood. "We'll figure something out though. I owe him a punch in the nose for getting himself into this."
They sat there for a while without saying anything. It wasn't long before Carter came through the door with a smile on his face when he saw them both sitting there. "Hey guys." He said as he closed the door and pulled out a folded map from inside his jacket. He threw it on the table and sat down beside MacGyver. "It's a the layout of Gestapo Headquarters and the area around it. The one we had has been outdated since we last used it." He said when he saw their questioning looks.
"Just like that? You got it that easily?" Pete asked as MacGyver opened the map and looked at it.
"Well Schneider got it from Tiger and he had no use for it so he gave it to us."
"Oh." Pete looked entirely confused.
"Where's Hogan?" MacGyver when he could manage to speak again. He had been laughing at Pete's expression while Carter explained how they got the map. "Wasn't he with you?"
"Yeah but he got stopped by Schultz." Carter thought for a minute then added "I think Klink wanted to talk to him. Who knows, maybe he just wanted to borrow some money so he could go into town." He shrugged and pulled the map towards him.
They were soon joined by Newkirk, Kinch and LeBeau. After going over the map and working out which area was where. Newkirk took the map into Hogan's room and after a few minutes came back out without it. Hogan still hadn't returned to the barracks by that stage so there was no point in keeping the map out in the open any longer.
