The Secret Raid

By:AliasCWN

Chapter 7

"That's our target." Troy announced the next day. The caravan trail had indeed helped them to make up lost time. Now they studied the German base from the protection of some nearby hills.

"Busy place."

Troy nodded without lowering his glasses.

"How do you plan to get your hands on the information we need?"

"I don't know yet, first we have to see what we're up against. We know they beefed up security for these tests but the tests were supposed to end today. We won't know how much they keep in place until we watch them for a while."

"There's a panzer unit parked outside the wall." Moffitt observed.

"I saw it." Troy acknowledged.

"There is an Arab encampment on the other side of the base, outside the wall." Moffitt continued.

"I saw them too." Troy admitted.

"They could be our way in." Moffitt suggested.

"They're camped outside; there's no way of knowing if the Germans are letting them in during the tests."

"The tests were supposed to end today." Moffitt reasoned.

"They'll be sending the results to Berlin within the next day or two." Troy answered. "They may not let any strangers in until after the results are off the base."

"The base commander may decide to deliver them himself."

Troy frowned at Moffitt's suggestion. "We can't allow him to take them out of here before we have a chance to photograph them."

"We can't stop him without revealing that we know about the tests."

"We'll have to go in tonight; I didn't come all this way just to miss those test results. Troy lowered his glasses and waited for Moffitt to point out why it was a bad idea to rush in. He was ready for that; he wasn't ready for what Moffitt said next.

"Troy, look at that panzer unit!"

"Why? What's happening?" Troy raised his glasses again to check out the line of tanks and halftracks.

"Behind the tanks, there are several men standing there talking."

"Where? I don't see anyone."

"They stopped behind the middle tank. I could be wrong Troy, but I would swear that one of them is Dietrich."

"Dietrich? Here?"

"Keep watching, they should reappear soon."

There was a tense silence until the two men walked out from behind the tank.

"It is Dietrich."

"Do you suppose they know we're here?" Moffitt's thoughts went immediately to the missing rations. Had they been found? Had the Germans jumped to the correct conclusion?

Troy lowered his glasses and rolled onto his back. His face was a study in concentration as he considered the possibilities.

"Troy?"

"I don't think so Moffitt. If they knew we were here I think Dietrich would have stayed out of sight. He could have set up a trap without our even knowing he was in the area. This way we know enough to watch out for him."

"Then why is he here?"

Troy gave it some thought as the hot desert sun beat down on them. "We'd better find a good place to hide the jeeps. With Dietrich in the neighborhood we're going to have to be extra careful. He may not know we're here but that won't stop him from taking security seriously. He'll have patrols out watching for intruders. He probably has spies watching everything. I don't think posing as Arabs will work."

Moffitt looked back at the German base and nodded. Dietrich's presence was going to make the assignment a lot more difficult.

Tully and Hitch noticed the tense faces and held their questions as the two sergeants returned to the jeeps. They slid into their seats and waited to find out what the sergeants wanted to do.

"Moffitt, you drive the other jeep. I'm going to ride with Hitch in case we run into trouble. I don't think we're exposed yet and I'd like to keep it that way." Troy climbed into his jeep behind the 50 and nodded at the others to head out. He reached down to remove the dust cover just as a precaution.

Tully and Hitch exchanged worried frowns but remained silent. They reached down and started the jeeps to follow Moffitt when he pulled out.

When Moffitt pulled up in front of a rather large cave Troy immediately jumped to the ground. Reaching for a weapon he turned to head into the cave. "You stay here." He ordered his driver. He disappeared inside without a backward glance.

Moffitt nodded at Tully to do the same as he reached for another weapon. He went to help Troy check out the cave. They were gone for several minutes before rushing back toward the jeeps. Both privates jerked to attention at the sight of the sergeants hurrying toward them. Without a word the sergeants climbed into the third jeep and drove it into the cave. The other two jeeps followed.

"What's going on?" Tully asked Moffitt as Troy rushed out to erase the tracks leading into the cave.

Moffitt looked at Tully before turning to watch Troy with a thoughtful expression. "Dietrich's here."

"Dietrich?" Hitch exclaimed. "Why is he here?"

"We don't know." Moffitt answered quietly. "We saw his unit parked outside the base wall. He was talking to one of his officers by the tanks when we observed the base." Moffitt hesitated, watching Hitch as he continued. "It's possible that they know we're here."

Hitch looked shocked, then guilty. He quickly lowered his head to hide his reaction to the news.

"He's one of Rommel's best commanders." Tully spoke into the awkward silence. "Maybe they don't know we're here at all; maybe he just drew the security detail for this operation."

Moffitt looked over at Tully and smiled. "Perhaps. Troy doesn't think they are aware of our presence either. He says Dietrich would have stayed out of sight if he knew we were close."

"See Hitch, Sarge doesn't think the mission is blown yet. You didn't mess anything up."

Moffitt frowned at the implication that Hitch was blaming himself. He almost didn't tell them the problem with Dietrich's presence. It was the realization that they would need to be informed if they were going to pull off the mission that made up his mind for him. "Dietrich's presence does create a problem." Moffitt admitted. "He knows us and his men know us. If anyone sees us he will recognize our description immediately. And if he's in charge of security, we'll have to keep our eye out for him."

"They'll be waiting for us." Hitch groaned.

"Without a doubt." Moffitt agreed. "But not because of anything you did. They will be on alert even if they don't know we're here. These tests are very important to them. If Dietrich is in charge of their security he will make sure that his men stay alert."

"Moffitt!"

"Coming Troy." Moffitt smiled at Tully and tried to give Hitch some reassurance but he wasn't sure Hitch was paying attention. He hurried to the entrance of the cave to see what Troy needed.

"Look." Troy pointed to some dust in the distance. "It looks like their headed right for us. Do you think the krauts know about these caves?"

"Perhaps." Moffitt admitted. "Actually, considering the circumstances, it's highly likely that they would have taken the precaution of becoming familiar with the entire area." They watched the dust for another minute. "There may be another explanation."

"Such as?"

"There is a road on the other side of those hills." Moffitt remembered. "It may just be a patrol or a column out running a routine scout."

"Take Tully and find out." As Moffitt nodded and turned away Troy called him back. "On second thought, you and Tully stay here. Hitch and I will check it out. I want you and Tully to take a light and see where this cave goes. Maybe we'll get lucky and there will be another way out at the other end. Either way, I want to know what we have. I don't want anyone sneaking in on us through some other entrance."

"It's possible there may be another entrance, there is quite a draft flowing through there."

"Check it out; it may give us an escape route if we need it."

Hitch and Troy drove off to investigate the dust plume while Tully and Moffitt prepared to explore the cave.

"Take this." Moffitt handed Tully a flashlight as he reached for a weapon. He picked up another flashlight and a weapon of his own.

"Think we'll run into bats in there Doc?"

"Why? Are you afraid of bats?" Moffitt was surprised by the question. Tully didn't seem to let much of anything scare him and the thought of bats being his Achilles heel was somehow amusing. He paused in what he was doing to really look at his driver.

"Nope, bats don't scare me." Tully answered as he checked his own weapon. "I was just remembering something."

"About bats?"

"Yeah." Tully admitted. "My cousin and I went into this cave one time." Tully finished checking his weapon and looked up at Moffitt. "It was real dark in there, just like in here. We made ourselves these torches out of rags and old motor oil."

"We have flashlights Tully. We don't need to make torches."

"I know. Those torches didn't really light things up too well anyway." Tully grinned at the memory. "Anyway, we were doing okay until we came to this one cavern that had all these bats hanging from the ceiling. I guess the torches were a little too hot or the roof was a little too low, but all of a sudden there were bats all around us. They just let loose and took off flying. In less than a minute the bats were all out of the cave and gone."

"We're not using torches." Moffitt repeated.

"I know that Doc, but the thing is, we don't know what scared the bats. Maybe it was the heat, or maybe it was just the light. Whatever it was, those bats were gone."

"Are you worried that we might upset the bats?"

"Yeah." Tully admitted. "Those krauts aren't that far away. What if we upset the bats and they all go flying out of here in one big group? Won't the krauts get suspicious if they see bats flying during the day?"

"I see what you mean." Moffitt nodded with a smile. "I hadn't considered that possibility. If the Germans saw a large group of bats flying in daylight they might decide to investigate to see what upset them."

"And they'd find us." Tully finished.

"Troy wants us to check out this cave but I think it can wait until the Germans are far enough away that they won't be alerted by any bats." Moffitt decided.

Tully nodded, satisfied that they wouldn't be doing anything to alert the enemy to their presence. "Maybe we could just check out this cavern. It's pretty big, that might take a while. Sarge might get back before we have time to go any further. We could run it past him. He might want to wait until dark to do any exploring."

"Good idea Tully, let's do that."

They found several short tunnels leading away from the main cavern that were interconnected. They didn't go anywhere; they just doubled back on each other. Tully followed one only to run into Moffitt who had followed another.

"All roads lead to Rome."

"What?" Tully asked in confusion.

"Just a saying." The sergeant smiled. "It means that all the roads lead to the same place."

"Sure looks that way." Tully agreed.

"There's a ledge over here that looks wide enough to walk along." Moffitt pointed to the other side of the cavern. "It overlooks the main cavern."

"Any openings to the outside we could use to keep watch?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Too bad."

"I can't imagine any use for that ledge at present so why don't we head back down and watch for Troy? We want to be ready if that dust really is headed our way."

"Sure Doc, we should have a guard posted anyway." Tully agreed. "Just in case."

"We'll look for Troy and then you can stand guard while I check our maps. Perhaps some of them will include these caves. It might help."

"Okay doc."