Yay! I'm back with another chapter!
Thank you Synchronized Harmony, ShadowBrook17 and RowdyClara for the reviews! Also, thank you ShadowBrook17, witchy girl 88 and Serious Bunburyist for following the story! I also have to thank RowdyClara and ShadowBrook17 for favoriting this story, it means a lot to me!
So here's the next chapter! Last time we left off with Emma meeting Colonel Hogan and Faith waiting to meet a Gestapo Colonel. So we'll see where we go from here.
Thanks for reading and leave me a note, please!
-Shire from CollieandShire
Chapter Seven
Faith meets a different Colonel
Faith sat in the room, which she presumed was no doubt the interrogation room. Duh, I'm in Gestapo headquarters and this is not a cell, what else would it be? She thought, smiling a little at her own sarcasm. What she didn't know was why Major Hochstetter wasn't the one interrogating her.
It was weird for her to think that the very Major she laughed at in the Hogan's Heroes shows could be so terrifying in real life. She knew he could be a bumbling fool, but right now he was anything but that to her. He was a man to be feared, a man of the Third Reich.
And right now he was nervously awaiting someone that he feared. Whomever that was Faith reasoned was even more frightful than he, and the very thought made her squirm in her seat.
"Stop moving." Hochstetter barked, glaring at her. Faith stopped moving and looked down at her feet.
There was a knock at the door, and the officer who had helped capture Faith leapt to the door and answered it. "Heil Hitler!" both Hochstetter and the officer saluted.
A Colonel in a black uniform walked into the room, his riding crop tucked underneath his right arm as he returned the salute to his subordinates. His gaze caught sight of Faith, and a small smile crossed his face. If ever Faith wondered what the quintessence of a Nazi was, this man was it.
He approached her and let his smile go from small to large, his grin as hideous as a bobcat's. "Goot evening, Fraulein." he said.
Faith didn't answer as she swallowed down her fear, wanting to tear her gaze from the Colonel's eyes but finding herself not able to. His eyes were an icy blue, and everything about him sent off an alarm in Faith's head. This was the last man in the whole world she wanted to meet next to Hitler. Oh God, please protect me.
Emma yawned, stretched her arms and opened her eyes. "Eekk!" she squealed, flinging herself back as she stared at the French looking man in front of her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his accent proving her assumption correct. "Colonel Hogan!"
Emma relaxed as she remembered where she was, and she concentrated on trying to remember the French man's name. "LeBo?" she murmured. "No, LeBeau!"
LeBeau's eyes widened. "How do you know my name? Colonel Hogan!"
"What!" Hogan popped his head in through the doorway of the underground sleeping quarters they'd created, and caught sight of Emma. "Oh, I see you've already met Emma."
"Emma!"
Hogan rolled his eyes. "If you have questions, ask Newkirk. He brought her here last night." Hogan turned to Emma. "Morning. Hope you slept well?"
"Yes sir."
Hogan nodded. "So, are you ready to tell me your long story yet?"
Emma took in a breath. She wasn't expecting him to ask her that soon. "Uhm, about that." Emma said hesitantly, choosing her words carefully. "I don't think I should tell you everything until Faith is safe and sound."
"What!"
"This has just as much to do with her as it does with me. Besides, I have to ask her if we should leave certain parts out."
Hogan crossed his arms. "I do not like the sounds of this. What are you hiding?"
Emma smiled sheepishly. "Things that you would probably never believe and proclaim we were insane."
"Try me."
Emma rolled her eyes and sighed. Hogan was being-well, Hogan, and this wasn't getting her very far. "Fine. But if Faith gets mad at me it's your fault." Emma told him.
"No girls ever get mad at me." he grinned, and Emma had to laugh.
"Okay, obviously you've met here already. But who is she?" LeBeau begged. "And what is she doing here?"
"I'm sure she'll explain everything to us in a minute. Right, Emma?" Hogan asked.
"Wait a second!" Emma exclaimed. "You didn't say I'd explain it to all of your men at the same time!"
"I want them to hear whatever you have to say." Hogan explained. A frown crossed his face. "All of my men? Just how much did Newkirk tell you about us?"
"To a pretty girl like her? Probably everything." LeBeau grunted. "Oi, why does everything good happen to Newkirk?"
"LeBeau go get the others. Emma's going to brief us on how she and her friend got into Germany." Hogan turned back to Emma and said, "And that's something we all would really like to know."
Emma couldn't help but sigh again. Faith, forgive me but I'm going to have to tell them everything.
Colonel Andrew Roskoldikov struck a match and lit his cigarette. Taking a puff he shook the match to make the fire go out and dropped it on the ground, stamping it out with his boot.
"Report, Viktor." he grunted, glancing at the Sergeant at his side.
Viktor saluted the Colonel and cleared his throat, reading from a paper he'd just received by telegraph. "Your report has been brought to Stalin, stop. He demands immediate action on case, stop. If necessary pursue the Americans into the Reich, stop." The Sergeant looked up from the paper and studied his superior officer's expressions.
Colonel Roskoldikov remained emotionless, flicking his cigarette to the ground and stamping on it. "Very well, if that's what the government wants." he muttered. He turned to Viktor. "The Americans are no longer here." he stated, pausing to remove his hat and scratching his brown hair. "From my resources I'm pretty sure they went into Germany."
"And we are pursuing them because?"
Roskoldikov rolled his eyes and glared at the Sergeant. "Because of the information they possess, Sergeant."
Viktor shuffled his feet and looked down, then glanced back up at the Colonel. "And what might that be?" he asked timidly.
"You stupid Sergeant!" Roskoldikov snapped. "Don't they brief anyone in the army anymore? The girls are not from this time era!"
"How do you know, Colonel?"
"Because of this!" Roskoldikov waved a paper in front of Viktor's face. Viktor caught the date on the paper and his eyes widened. "Do you see this date, Sergeant? The date is 2013. This is an American newspaper."
"But-but where did you get it?" Viktor stammered as Roskoldikov stuffed the paper back into the briefcase he'd been carrying around for the past couple of days.
"Got it the first day we met up with them." he grumbled. "The blond one had it in her belongings."
"But if you had it for that long why didn't you try to get something out of them from the moment they came into the camp?"
The Colonel sighed and scowled at the Sergeant. "Because I didn't want to scare them off." he snarled. "If I came bursting into the room demanding to know how they got here from the future they'd shut up like clams. Sure, with a little force we would have gotten something out of them but who's to say if it's true or not? I was going to let them make some slip ups and mistakes before I brought it to their attention I had this paper," Roskoldikov tapped the briefcase where the paper was, "But then they pulled off the stunt with the radio." he growled and crossed his arms, the humiliation of it all still very clear in his mind. "Now they're out of the country and Stalin wants us to go after them. If we don't get a hold of them fast the Germans are going to eventually figure it out and we could be facing a very different outcome in the war."
"But we're allies with the Americans, why wouldn't they help us if it means the Americans will win the war?" Viktor asked.
"Because if they're from the future and if the Allies won, they probably already know that world peace isn't exactly what the Motherland has in mind."
Faith was exhausted. It didn't matter that Colonel Fischer was standing over her at this moment scowling at her, she was utterly and completely exhausted and she couldn't hide it any longer. What adrenaline she'd had over the night had long since drained from her, leaving her a sleepy girl in the middle of a Gestapo interrogation. Not a good mix.
Colonel Fischer had no problem telling that his prisoner was tired, she was practically falling asleep in the interrogation. He'd already struck her four times, yet even the threat of that wasn't enough to keep her awake. It had been a long night for him, too, and he was doing his best to hold back his own yawns.
"I vill ask again, Fraulein, where is your friend? Za other spy?" he demanded, slamming his fist down on the table and causing Faith to jolt.
"I don't know!" Faith wailed. "I don't know where she is, I honestly don't know!" And even if I did I wouldn't tell you. She thought.
Fischer could tell she was telling the truth, but he couldn't let her off that easy. She had to have some idea of where her partner would go during a crisis like this.
Fischer struck her across the face with the back of his left hand hard. Faith cried out, her hand flying to the spot he'd hit her.
"Maybe physical pain will loosen your tongue, nein?" he taunted. He removed his hat and smoothed his sandy blond hair, then placed his cap back on again. "I am tiring of this greatly, Fraulein."
"As am I." she muttered.
Fischer thought about correcting that with another blow, but decided he had a better plan. "So I will now move onto your partner and see what she has to say."
Faith shot her head up and stared at the Colonel, her brown eyes wide. "You mean you've had her here the whole time!"
Fischer shrugged and grinned. "I wanted to see if zere was a possibility zere were spies other than you."
Faith's head spun. Emma is here? They had her here the whole time but were asking me where she was and what information we had? That didn't make sense. Wouldn't they threaten to kill Emma if she didn't tell them anything?
"Major Hochstetter!" Colonel Fischer barked, standing up and heading towards the door. "Hochstetter! Get in here! Schnell!"
Major Hochstetter popped through the door, his eyes showing that he hadn't been as awake as he should have been for the last couple of hours. "Ja, Oberst." he murmured, rubbing his eyes.
"You were sleeping on za job?" Fischer demanded, glaring at the Major.
"Nein, mein herr. I vas…resting." Hochstetter offered up.
Fischer snorted, making it obvious he didn't believe that for a second. "Take za prisoner away and lock her up. Do not give her any food or water at all, and tell one of za men not to let her sleep. I don't care how, bang on the cell bars if you have to, just don't let her sleep." Fischer shot a glance at Faith. "Zat ist vat you get when you're not cooperative, Fraulein." Fischer turned back to Hochstetter. "Once you've locked her up bring me the other prisoner."
Fischer hoped that Hochstetter would catch the look in his eye and realize it was a trick to get Faith to talk more, but Hochstetter wasn't quite awake yet. "You mean zey caught her?" he asked. "I wasn't told about zis!"
Fischer stamped his foot. "Maybe it vhas because you were sleeping." he growled.
Hochstetter shook his head. "Nein, they would have told me right away." he proclaimed.
"Major Hochstetter, how does the Russian front sound to you right now!" The Colonel roared. "Because that's where you're going if you don't shut up and get her out of here!"
Hochstetter saluted, his eyes wide as he yelled out the doors for his men to take Faith away.
Faith watched the whole thing, her eyes getting sleepier and sleepier through it all as she put two and two together and figured it out, relaxing at knowing the real truth. One thing was for sure, Fischer was bluffing. Thank God, they didn't have Emma.
Things are getting serious here, aren't they? Faith is being interrogated, and Emma has to spill the beans to Hogan and his men on how they got here. And the Russians are looking for them, wanting to get their hands on them because they know their secret.
Hope you're enjoying this so far, if you want leave me a review, I appreciate it!
-Shire
