7

Sergeant Newkirk grinned as he picked the lock on the hold of the ship. He beamed back to his Colonel as they entered the hall.

"Colonel," he started. "Give me a gun. I'll plug that Kraut major with one shot."

"No," Hogan turned to Carter "Carter, go down and try to defuse the explosive. Take Baker. Kinchloe, sneak into the radio room and try to get the Allies. Newkirk, take LeBeau and find a boat unless there's trouble. Don't wait for me."

"Yes, sir." His men left him behind as he secreted his way back on deck. It was night and the unsettled sea choked and struck the bow with intimidating force. Newkirk and LeBeau were off finding a boat as he peeked in a porthole. Von Nine and Siegfried were drinking sherry in the lounge as they boasted on their success. Hogan watched them carefully as they talked of plans after the war and drank the captain's sherry. For a second, he thought Von Nine had noticed him, but instead the German major grinned and toasted Siegfried. Straining to hear their conversation, Hogan heard other noises and turned to Carter and Baker coming up the dark gangway of the ship behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Hogan looked them over. "Did you get the bomb defused?"

"Colonel," Baker started. "We can't defuse the bomb."

"It's got a defective timer." Carter revealed. "Jostling it or moving it could make it explode. In fact, I could blow up just by looking at it."

"That's great!" Hogan mumbled. "Just great! Get Kinchloe and find Newkirk with the boat. Leave me behind, and that's an order!"

"Yes, sir." Hogan started to make his move. He moved around a vent hurriedly and tripped over a rope on the deck. They must have heard him now. Von Nine and Siegfried broke from their camaraderie and rushed out with pistols in hand. They stared down to him.

"Colonel Hogan," Siegfried spoke. "Is there a problem with your cell?"

"Yes," Hogan froze as he clutched the deck. "It's too drafty. Another thing, your bomb is going to go off too soon."

"He's lying." Von Nine jostled the Allies' briefcase in his hand. There was a sudden explosion as the deck slanted up and the ship turned on its side. Hogan's men clutched the railing and tasted seawater as Siegfried slid to the end of the shattered deck. The briefcase tore from Von Nine's wrist and slid toward the end of the tilting deck. The engines in the belly of the wounded ship made odd noises from the strain in the hull as ocean water rushed into the craft.

"Wilhelm!" Siegfried screamed as he clutched the case and went overboard with it. His hand grabbed at the twisted railing as he slid past it. Von Nine cursed in German as Hogan's men clung to the side as they tried to retrieve their colonel. He gazed to them as he saw Siegfried stuck in the damage of the sinking ship. The waves of the tumultuous sea were raising and rolling as the floundering ship began sinking bow first.

"I must save him!" Von Nine screamed. "He's my best friend!"

"No!" Hogan yelled. "Come with us! We can return you to your daughter in the states!"

"Nein!" Von Nine hit Hogan over the head with his pistol and pushed him to his men. "Get your colonel out of here! I'm saving Konrad!"

"To each his own!" Newkirk watched Von Nine tie the rigging rope around his body and slid down the slanting deck. It was like walking on a roof as he braced on the distorted steel railing and then gripped Siegfried's hand. His legs were dangling in the water as he hung on to the sinking ship in his uniform. The screaming engines were making a loud screeching noise as that of a wounded prehistoric reptile. The sea and craft buckled and trembled under them in the cold North Sea while flames licked and danced their way out of the hull.

"Wilhelm!" He looked to him. "You are my friend!"

"Forget the briefcase!" Von Nine wasn't speaking with his Ronald Colman voice now. He was screaming urgently in his real voice. "Give me your other hand!"

"There's something I must tell you!"

"Don't tell me you set another bomb on board!" Von Nine screamed over the buckling ship and crackling flames.

"I put another bomb near the gas tanks!"

"I asked you not to tell me that!"

Hogan barely had his bearings as another explosion threw the boat with his men and the Java Queen's crew into the water. The bright yellow explosion lit them up in the dark waves and very briefly turned the dark night sky into day. Captain Clark and Sergeant Newkirk were there to pull him into their bare boat while LeBeau huddled with the captain's son. Nearly capsizing from the force, Hogan rubbed his head and looked back at the moonlight on the rolling sea as the last glimmering silhouette of the ship sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic!

"There's goes the nicest Kraut I never met…"