It was not a pleasant scene in Klink's office.

Kurtz had taken his argument with Major Hochstetter into Klink's office, where Helga was filing paperwork. Witte had pushed me onward with him and since I was attached to his arm, so I was still listening to two incompetent Krauts screaming at each other, plus a general to add to the noise. As Witte overrode Kurtz and took over the fighting with Hochstetter, he ordered Kurtz to go into Klink's office and order everyone out, including General Schruss. In doing so, Witte had released me from his imperious grip and had let me roam the outer office freely.

Helga had, by then, tranquilly seated herself at the typewriter and was typing out whatever Klink wanted her to. On her desk, I noticed, was a copy of the same file that Witte had thrown at Schruss when he had arrived beforehand (I knew it was such because it still had CONFIDENTAIL painted across the page and even in that same handwriting). As Hochstetter and Witte moved their noise to the inner office, to where Schruss, Kurtz and Klink were, I quietly shut the door behind them and grabbed the file, only to have Helga stop me as she swiveled in her chair, swatting my hand.

"Colonel Michalovich, you should know better. This is General Witte's file and he asked it be filed with Colonel Hogan's," she said sharply as I rubbed my red hand.

I sighed with frustration. This was not the time to bargain for goods and most certainly not between two women who can get into a worse fight than that of what men can do. But then it registered in my mind that she said Colonel Hogan and it had to go into his file. So maybe Witte knows more than I had thought.

"I do 'know better'," I answered smartly and yet so politely, "but you know that the filing cabinet hasn't been fixed in months. There is no point in putting anything in there."

Helga sighed at me. "I know. Colonel Hogan keeps coming for more. Your operation is in danger enough as it is." She whispered the last sentence hastily. Helga especially was careful as there were people around. She and I almost jumped seconds after her sentence as we heard someone yelling and then a gunshot. It was common these past couple of days since Schruss and Witte love to have duals. I wasn't too worried…then. But I knew that our lovely secretary was.

"I can tell, by the way Schruss is going about things," I whispered back, "but if I could steal it and then give it back to you if the need arises, then could I have it?"

"Not until you promise me something," Helga said.

"It'll be anything, since Colonel Hogan owes you everything else," I said automatically.

"He still owes me three pairs of stockings and a bottle of perfume," Helga said with an almost laughable pout. "Just for you though I can make it two pairs and the bottle."

"I'll throw in the next two pairs for this one file as soon as they come in from the Red Cross," I said as I took the file into the deep depths of my jacket, "since it'll be saving all of our lives. I might have to cover Colonel Hogan given that he never receives them in the Red Cross packages." I jumped back when I heard another gunshot and said, "Thank you for everything."

Helga jumped out of her seat from all of the noise (she was very frightened) and then seated herself back into the chair saying calmly enough, "It's no problem, just as long as I get those stockings and perfume."

I laughed and then, almost as suddenly as this mirth came upon, gasped as the door opened suddenly revealing Hochstetter. My neck prickled.

"So, Colonel Michalovich," Hochstetter began, "do you mind answering some questions for me and General Schruss?"

Behind Hochstetter, I saw Jozef, still taking his notes and recording all that is around him (and oblivious to everything else, but I knew he was trying to hide being sick for I saw some green tinge to his face). Behind Jozef, though, I saw a pool of blood, and knew that it was Witte. I noted that a Gestapo guard was also putting his own firearm against Kurtz's back.

I gulped, knowing that soon I might be doomed soon. The file was still snuggled safely in my jacket and anyone who searches for it won't find it until you took it off or dug in deeper to find my prized object of that hour (and I hope that it wasn't going to be found anytime soon).

Then and for the remainder of the time I had to spend with these people, I had to remain calm and serene and stick to my story. Maybe I can develop it more. I mean, Witte's aide Kurtz can't say a word against me unless he wants me dead, along with him.

From the outer office, Hochstetter grabbed me and slammed me in a chair just in front of Klink's desk. I heard the papers inside my jacket rustle (even if Hochstetter heard them, he could have mistaken them for Klink's). Klink was, obviously, ordered to ignore the gross and ghastly scene in his office across from him as he shuffled through paperwork from Berlin. From the door behind me, the one that led to Klink's quarters, was Witte, hanging from the ceiling from a hook that I could tell was recently put there (it explained the banging and the shooting). His head sprouted a hole squirting blood, put there by the local hangman Hochstetter or his goony guard.

Schruss flanked me from behind as Hochstetter closed in from behind Klink. As Klink looked up, Hochstetter shot him a glare so vicious that even I'd wither. I had not seen Hochstetter shoot such a look, but I was sure to have more of it in the future if I didn't give him what he wanted, much like Klink does.

Klink, in turn, took the hint and got up. He said, "If you gentlemen would please excuse me…"

Klink then went to grab his coat and hat from where Witte's body hung and went out the door, grabbing Schultz at the door, who just came in and was about to report to Witte about the microphone situation. Now, there was no living Witte to report to. And with Klink gone, Hochstetter and Schruss can kill me and then blame Klink for his lack of commanding skills.

As that Gestapo guard of Hochstetter's shut the door to block anybody from viewing this single murder, Schruss ordered that Jozef record everything and anything that happened in this office and whatever was being said, no matter how minor it is or how vague and silly my responses are.

When the order was acknowledged (Jozef only nodded his head), Schruss and Hochstetter began their much-wanted interrogation. Schruss started with, "So, Colonel Michalovich, do you deny that you were with this traitor, about an hour ago, and discussing the exact circumstances of which you came here? Do you deny that you yourself are a spy here for the Allied Forces?"

The questions were intense, quick and like lightning. Hochstetter didn't hear a peek come from my mouth immediately afterward, the immediate second after Schruss asked me the question, so he hit me. In my defense, I can say that I didn't have the time to reply to the damned question and didn't blurt out the first thought that came into words. It would have caused me more trouble than before.

"Answer the General!" Hochstetter yelled at me.

Wiping my mouth where Hochstetter hit me (a few drops of blood were on my lower lip), I spitefully answered. And that time, I didn't bother to be nice. "Geez, Major, if you'd stop hitting me like that, maybe you'd get where you'd want to be." I knew that I was brave enough to say those words to my most-feared enemy and anticipated death as a result of being saucy. Rob doesn't call me Miss Saucy Tongue for nothing, I thought with regret as I stoically waited for the next move.

"Insolence!" Hochstetter yelled. "Colonel, do you realize what you are throwing away?"

The Hangman of the Stalags was about to give me another blow, but Schruss put his hand to block this, a gesture I thought kind until I heard his words. "Major, maybe Colonel Michalovich would wish to be alone with me to talk. If we were a little more…welcome to her, maybe we can receive what we want, just as she expressed to you. Besides which, the Hammelburg office needs more of you."

Schruss' smile haunted me, and it still does, only yesterday did I see it. I was saved from Hochstetter for that moment, who I know is fuming in his office in Hammelburg at this time. A general had ordered him back there as if he didn't receive his piece of the action, something I was sure Hochstetter was eager to have.

However, Schruss was just as worse.

So, with his usual babble about heads rolling, the fearsome Hochstetter left Klink's office, motioning that his guard come with him. Kurtz was left here too (I had almost forgotten about him until the moment Hochstetter), but Schruss spun around before Kurtz could leave behind Hochstetter. Schruss grabbed Kurtz and pulled him in the chair next to me in an action so quick that even I couldn't follow it with my eyes. Schruss must have had more practice than Hochstetter, I thought. He's gotten Kurtz into that chair faster than our own Major Hochstetter did to me.

The door clicked closed (quiet for Hochstetter, who usually slams them) and therefore Schruss could have his way. I knew that my turn was up again and that Kurtz's was later.

"So," Schruss began, "we have more details about the amazing adventures of our Colonel Michalovich. She is so vague. Perhaps, perhaps, we shall have more details about her and her mentor. The Gestapo has their reasons, Witte says, and then she reassures him with her seductive behavior. She has sense, style and caution…she also has no damned army to speak of even!" Schruss banged his fist on the desk so hard that even Kurtz flinched with fear, the first I had seen compared to his brutal behavior beforehand. I, meanwhile, was silent and didn't bother to move because I knew what it would mean.

"Answer me this, Colonel," Schruss continued to address me. "What do you plan? What are your aspirations, other than dealing with this traitor? You know that there was information you owe me. What is it about Witte that attracts you to him? Or does it happen to be that he is on your side after all?" Schruss went over and kicked the swaying corpse (it was low enough for Schruss to do so). It was making me sick.

"I have none and have already told you about the agent you are after," I said with some tinge of anger in my voice (I was feeling nervous, as I was using Witte in the lie from a few days ago). "The Luftwaffe general here sent me a message a while ago and said that he was coming. That was all. He was coming. He mentioned something in his note about someone of great importance that was to come in this area, but nothing more."

Kurtz was about to protest this statement, weak as it was, but failed to because Schruss was giving him a stare much more threatening than Hochstetter's was to Klink just the few minutes previously. Instead, Kurtz surprised me by saying, "Now, General Witte is just another starman waiting in the sky."

I was shaken. How did Kurtz happen to know this one code? Sure, the Krauts must know a million of mine, since it being dangerous to say anything to any agent, but just randomly trying to fit it into the pieces of the puzzle here just shocked me beyond words. Does he want me to trust me? Was the scene in the barracks just an act?

Kurtz even went on. "I would have liked to known him better, but his mind has been blown unlike ours."

"And it would be so if you'd just shut up with your nonsense, Kurtz!" Schruss turned around and hit the aide across the face, causing him to topple off of the chair. "Some German officer you happen to be! Stop using some code and talk like a normal man. This isn't some meeting with the Underground!" Schruss laughed. "You know what happens to traitors like Witte here. Yes, he is no longer to be addressed as a general of the Third Reich, but to be spit upon. He is among the dead. No, he is worse than dead. He doesn't deserve it." Schruss spit on the body. "So, the former officer had been interacting with Allied prisoners. Tell me, Colonel, do you happen to have these letters in your barracks?"

"No," I lied quickly, knowing there is no such thing. "I burned them immediately."

"Then why tell me about them?" Schruss thundered.

"Because I want something more out of this war than you thought," I said quickly, much too quickly (Nervous again old girl? I thought). "I have been playing a game of survivor, General Schruss, and you above all should know this."

"Indeed, I do," Schruss answered thoughtfully, calmer than before. He then looked to Jozef, giving him a look that asked how he was doing with writing everything down everything that conspired thus far. It seemed kind, full of understanding (almost fatherly, but it sickened me to think of Schruss that way), as if Schruss had some compassion for his young aide.

Jozef, I noticed, was still quiet in his corner. His nose was still buried in the notepad. He wrote more furiously than ever, and before long, he was finished and up to the present moment. He looked up from the pad at last, his pale face, no longer green with sickness, his face radiating some hope for me. His hope even calmed the feelings in the my neck.

All right, so I determined that Jozef is to be trusted, but what about Kurtz? Nothing said that I shouldn't trust him and there are also reasons not to. Any Kraut could just pop that out and it could be a coincidence. There MUST be reasons why Kurtz said that and it may not be to tell me that I was to trust him. The more I thought about it, the more confused I was about it. My neck indicated nothing, so I presumed trust. But I knew never to presume anything.

Schruss seemed finished with us though and the interrogation was over for the time being. He ordered Kurtz to be commissioned to be in his interests alone and to resign from Witte's offices (those who work for Witte's offices would have to forfeit their positions anyway). Kurtz is not to switch services, but to merely be a puppet to Schruss and act as a spy, as if he had a choice in the matter anyhow. I was, meanwhile, dismissed to the barracks.

I was never happier to be going back to the barracks and still carrying the file. In finding myself alive (it seemed to be like a dream, so surreal it was), I ran out of the office as normally as I could. I knew that Jozef was behind me, but was being watched too (Schruss' eyes were protruding from Klink's office and Kurtz was behind us, going in a different direction), so that instead of following me back to Barracks 2 as he wished to, Jozef went towards the direction of the motor pool and then switches his route to the cooler, running in a circle and going back to Klink's office. It was like Jozef was out the door to observe on me for a split second and then to report back to Schruss.

Rob and the others have to get a load of this file before Schruss, and not Witte (the rightful owner), finds out that it's missing.