*Cue the dramatic HH theme music!*
Colonel Hogan very slowly turned his head, his eyes travelling up the barrel of the luger that was aimed directly at him. His eyes stopped when they met the eyes of the person wielding the weapon.
Campbell's once friendly and animated eyes had taken on an almost icy and determined appearance that made Hogan's stomach churn.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see equally shocked expressions on the faces of both Carter and Lucy, the latter of which looked extremely pale.
"Campbell?" Lucy's voice had a slight quaver to it.
"Be quiet," Campbell directed her, not taking his eyes off Hogan.
For his part, Colonel Hogan seemed to be pretty calm about the whole situation from all outward appearances. Inside, however, a certain feeling of dread began to settle in his mind, as well as an uncomfortable stirring of betrayal and loss. He really had liked Campbell, and he had trusted him. Trusted him with the safety of his team and his operation.
Usually his intuition was spot on; he'd been able to sniff out traitors and undercover Gestapo agents more times then he could count, but it had let him down this time. The fact that he had misjudged Campbell so greatly was not the only thing bothering him. He had been thinking of telling London that they had another man for their group; he had wanted someone like Campbell on his team. And now here he was, staring down the barrel of a gun.
So maybe he would rethink asking him to join the team.
He had been so ready to be mistrusting of Lucy that he had never thought to direct his suspicions toward the once kindly appearing older gentleman. How could he have been so wrong about him?
Although Colonel Hogan's thoughts had only been for a few fractions of a second, he was jolted out of them when Campbell slowly moved the gun away from Hogan and instead aimed it at the radio set on the counter.
Hogan glanced towards Lucy and Carter, who were looking just as surprised as he was. Carter looked liked he was about to move towards them when Campbell suddenly spoke up.
"Don't move, sergeant. There's a charge in this radio, and if you come any closer, I won't hesitate to shoot at it and blow everyone in this room to kingdom come."
Carter abruptly halted, looking unnerved by how casually and calmly Campbell had issued that threat.
"A what?" Hogan asked, incredulous.
"Explosives, colonel. I put some in there the last time I was here pretending to fix that thing." His gaze shifted to Lucy, who looked extremely betrayed.
"Why-why would you do that?" Carter asked hesitantly.
"My boy, there are many reasons." Campbell sighed, and Hogan thought for a moment that he could see a touch of the older man's geniality return to his eyes. "Some that I don't think either one of us will ever understand."
"Alright, what do you want with us?" asked Hogan, eager to find a way to get himself and Carter out of this situation.
"I want you alive when I turn you in to the Gestapo," Campbell answered evenly, his gun still trained on the radio. "But I will settle for every single one us dead if you decide to try and get away."
"You're going to turn them in to the Gestapo?" asked Lucy, who still had a shell-shocked expression on her face.
"Not just them, but you as well."
Lucy opened her mouth as if to say something, but Campbell began to speak again before she got the chance. "I wouldn't worry, if I were you, though. You are on their side, after all."
"She is?" That was Carter.
"I am?" That was Lucy.
"You will be, if you know what's good for you," said Campbell.
Lucy said nothing.
"How does the Gestapo know we're here?" asked Carter faintly.
"That sound you heard from the radio earlier was me sending a signal to the Gestapo on my emergency wavelength. They were waiting for one to come through; they know that if anything came through on that to be on their way here to Hammelburg as quickly as possible."
"That means they'll be here any minute!" Lucy fretted.
"Exactly. So everyone just stay where you are and don't move," said Campbell.
"You would really do it? You'd really kill us all, me and my baby, and even the Schneiders?" asked Lucy plaintively.
Campbell gave an emotionless smile. "I don't think that the Schneiders would have it any other way."
Campbell's cryptic response suddenly made itself clear when a man, although very frail and elderly, slunk deftly down the stairs.
Lucy was the first to speak. "Herr Schneider! What in the world are you doing out of bed?"
Herr Schneider ignored the girl, and smiled at Campbell. He pulled a luger of his own out of the pocket of his trousers and aimed it at Hogan. "The Gestapo are on their way, ja?" he asked Campbell, who nodded.
Herr Schneider nodded. "Gut." He paused. "I didn't know that you were one of us, Herr Campbell."
Campbell nodded again. "It was a brilliant idea of yours to wire Lucy's radio so that all of the messages got sent to Gestapo headquarters."
"Danke," said Herr Schneider, giving Lucy a smile so smug that, even though it wasn't aimed at him, it made Colonel Hogan's insides squirm.
"It helps that she probably can't tell the difference between a radio and a toaster," quipped Herr Schneider. The two older men smirked at the joke.
Hogan's gaze shifted to Lucy, and he felt a stir of pity for the girl. She looked absolutely devastated, and he couldn't blame her. How else could someone feel finding out that someone they had trusted so implicitly could end up being a snake in the grass?
And as for Herr Schneider, Lucy was looking at him with a betrayed expression that was mixed with fear. Hogan could tell that Lucy was most likely mentally going over any message she had ever sent over the radio, thinking of how long she had felt safe and at home in the same house with him, never thinking how dangerous he was, not knowing he was the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing. She had cared for him, believing him to be a helpless old man, and he had preyed on her good nature.
It was sad how war ended up doing things like this to people, making them turn on one another like this. Hogan knew; he'd seen it so many times before.
All of the occupants of the room looked up when they heard the front door open, followed by the sound of jackboots walking across a wooden floor.
Major Hochstetter suddenly appeared in the frame of the door leading into the kitchen, a sickening smile on his face.
"We meet again," he said, flashing a sinister grin in Hogan's direction. He looked over toward Carter. "Ah, so two prisoners from Stalag 13 are here. What a coincidence."
Carter didn't respond.
Acting on some unspoken cue, some of Hochstetter's guards filed into the kitchen, all with equally apathetic expressions on their faces.
"Take them away," Hochstetter ordered, sneering.
The guards complied, each producing a set of handcuffs. There were low clicking sounds as they were quickly attached around the wrists of Hogan, Carter, and Lucy.
"There's no need to handcuff us, Major Hochstetter. You can just call Klink and he'll send over a truck to bring us back to the Stalag," stated Hogan, his eyes wide and innocent as he effortlessly slipped into his manipulative mode.
"Don't think that you can convince me that you are just an escaped prisoner this time, Hogan," growled Hochstetter through gritted teeth.
Campbell, who had watched emotionlessly as the cuffs were fastened, suddenly turned towards Herr Schneider, who had watched the proceedings with ominous glee.
"Should I go tell Frau Schneider that we will be...busy for the rest of the evening?" he asked the older man.
"Ja, bitte," he responded, pocketing his luger.
Everyone watched as Campbell deftly climbed the farmhouse stairs. There was the sound of footsteps that echoed through the house. Muffled talking and shuffling around could be heard through the ceiling.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a door being shut and locked, followed by two loud stomps.
Then, much to the surprise of almost everyone in the room, Hochstetter swiftly pulled his gun and aimed it.
This act in itself was not altogether surprising, but who he was aiming it at was.
It was pointed at Herr Schneider.
