Chapter 7
Hogan beckoned Kinch over. He hadn't been surprised that Corporal Langenscheidt had accepted his word, that Schultz' orders had been lifted and everybody could return to normal. His men hadn't needed a repeat to throw away their shovels and disappear in every direction.
"Everything alright?" Kinch hunkered down and hid his face from the cold wind.
"Your call was timely and worked. But we need to prepare for Hochstetter to return."
Solemnly Kinch nodded. "So the young man Klink hid had really escaped from Organization Todt."
Hogan recognized the name but the Nazis had so many new groups and organization, he needed a map to keep track all of them. "Organization Todt?"
"It's an organization for military engineering. They use prisoners, forced laborers and everybody else that doesn't fit their narrow ideal." Kinch crossed his arms. "Interesting for us is their résumé. For example, they were responsible for creating the Siegfried Line and the Atlantic Wall. If these men escaped from around here, it usually means that they are building a new underground facility."
Hogan pinched the bridge of his nose. He hadn't even finished the first job as the second was knocking on his door. "Did you question him already?"
Kinch shock his head. "Schultz was pretty fast to summon us back to work and Wilson said that he was dangerously malnourished."
With an arch of his eyebrow, Hogan prompted his trusted right hand to continue.
"According to Wilson he wouldn't have survived much longer."
"Then I'll need to ask some questions fast."
Nodding, Kinch turned toward the barracks. His desire to get out of the cold was clearly visible in his hunched shoulders and tense body language.
But Hogan still had another important question. "A moment," he said.
Kinch stopped.
"Schultz has the rest of the day off, and we'll get back our flowers." Hogan said and glanced across the compound where Newkirk and Lebeau lingered in front of a barracks door, encircled by other French and English airmen. Then he focused on his voice of reason in a sea full of irrational yet highly emotional opinions. "How important is Armistice Day right now for our operation?" Kinch would have a better knowledge about the mood of the camp.
The first answer was a deep sigh. Followed by another sigh. Newkirk and LeBeau were slick, but they wouldn't have been able to get their order to London past the man sending it. He had helped them but now Hogan needed to know something different from him.
"Did you know that my uncle was killed in action in the Great War?"
Hogan blinked. That wasn't an answer, it wasn't even the beginning of one. But he trusted Kinch, and so he shock his head.
"He died somewhere in France." He looked down. Before Hogan could lose his patience he raised his head and continued. "My aunt was eligible to participate in the Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimage and traveled to Europe in 1931."
Hogan remembered the public discussion, mostly about money and seldom about the sacrifice that had accompanied the decision.
"She returned as a different woman," Kinch explained. "Did you know that the government stood by its segregation and used different ships, different hotels and segregated groups?"
The colonel nodded. There was no way around it. It was the truth.
"As I wanted to join up my mother sent me to her and said that whatever sacrifices I'll make it won't be worth it. But Aunt Millie didn't think like that. She said how much the trip to Europe had changed her - everything the American government did was segregated between them and the white mothers. But in Europe they didn't have different doors, they didn't have different train wagons, and they didn't bury the dead segregated."
Hogan listened trying to understand what Kinch was telling him while also keeping Newkirk and LeBeau with the other men in his line of view.
"For the first time she had realized that it didn't need to be like it was." Kinch pulled out his hands and rubbed them together. "War doesn't only change the people fighting it. It can also change a society. It overturned the governments in Russia, Germany and Austria." He shot Hogan a quick look. "And it changed something for my aunt far deeper than that she had become a widow."
"Kinch," Hogan began but didn't know how to continue. It seemed wrong to repeat his real question while Kinch finally told him something so private and important.
"What does it have to do with your question?" Kinch grinned. "We need this change - for the good or bad nobody is the same after a war. If we adhere to tradition and celebrate Remembrance Day not only we will remember but also the Germans have to remember and maybe they will draw now better conclusions from these memories."
Slowly, Hogan nodded. "You do remember that Hochstetter wanted to shoot me?"
Kinch's grin turned to a real smile. "And do you remember, sir, that Colonel Klink our personal coward, stepped between you and him?"
The voices around Newkirk and LeBeau got louder.
"The memories hurt but if we remember we can direct the conclusion. If we don't, we let the emotions, mostly hate and anger, rule."
Hogan clapped Kinch on the shoulder and turned to commandant's office. He needed the pouch sooner rather than later.
Hogan leaned against the side of the barracks with his arms crossed. After he had retrieved the pouch with the flowers, he had allowed and encourage every nation to celebrate Remembrance Day in its own way with only a strict order to stay indoors, playing it safe. It hadn't been on time, but he hoped that his men were willing to cut him some slack. He had pulled down his cap and turned up his collar. From his position he could see most of the barracks. Through his pulled down cap his men didn't felt like he was watching them, yet he could keep an eye on the celebrations. Several times he had watched how one of the men hurried out and walked away as fast as possible without running, their faces turned away.
Klink had given him the pouch without too much fuss, but he hadn't answered his question about the woman in his office except an introduction as his new secretary. And now the allegedly new secretary was watching the infirmary. Hogan didn't need higher education to recognize that she was the mother of the young man, Klink had hidden.
Carter came out with a content face. He had taken everything he needed from Remembrance Day. With a sigh, Hogan straightened and pushed away from the wooden wall. He beckoned Carter and together they went to the infirmary barracks. He needed to try to get some information before Klink dropped the act and allowed the mother to run interference. Carter needed to play translator again.
"How is he?" Hogan glanced to Wilson who had stayed for the two-minute silence and then went back to his infirmary.
On Wilson's face the whole range of emotions flickered across his experienced features. At the end, he settled on the bare facts. "Food and rest, and he has a real chance to heal again."
Hogan nodded in more than only thankfulness for the information but also because he had been spared a more detailed run-down.
"Don't tired him out."
The colonel acknowledged the advice with a short nod. It was a useless advice but necessary nonetheless. Carter followed him. From the last bed, the young man watched them approaching.
"How are you?" Hogan asked and waited until Carter had translated his words. Better to play it the long way than giving ammunition to a man needing bargain power over the Nazis.
"What do you want? Why did you help me? Where's Colonel Klink?"
Hogan kept his face blank until Carter had translated everything. Only then he allowed a small grin to appear on his face. "We did it for Colonel Klink, as a favor." He paused. "What's your name? I'm Colonel Robert Hogan and that's Sergeant Andrew Carter."
He had to fight off the grin as Carter translated dutifully the sentence without changing the pronouns. It sounded funny but it gave them a more friendly appearance and the young man cracked a smile.
"My name is Kurt Gold."
"How do you know Colonel Klink?"
His eyes darted around the room. Hogan didn't know if he tried to spot hidden spies or was looking for Colonel Klink.
"Come on, you can tell us. We're just prisoners and risked a lot to help you. To know who you are to Colonel Klink isn't asked too much, is it?"
Kurt Gold still hesitated. "Uncle Wilhelm is a friend of my father." It explained a lot even if Klink didn't strike Hogan as the man to be capable of a real friendship.
"Were you on the run for long before you have found Colonel Klink?" He asked with a soft voice.
"No, I-" The young man stopped. He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you asking?"
Hogan glanced to Carter. "We're just curious about the land."
Angrily, Gold pushed away the blanket. "You want to escape!"
It sounded like an accusation. "I'm pretty sure that you can understand the sentiment." Hogan kept the inappropriate joke to himself that everybody associated with Klink always feared an escape.
"But you want me to help you!"
Hogan stepped back, giving the distressed young man more room.
He fought to get up. "I won't help you. I am not going to help the enemy." He managed to push himself up on shakily legs. "I am a proud German!"
Carter started at him in wonder but Hogan crossed his arms. "If you are a proud German, just who kept you prisoner and starved you? And why?"
As if his strings were cut, the young man crumpled down. He hid his face behind his hands and started to cry. Silently but violently his shoulder shock.
Carter took a tiny step towards him. With a look to Hogan, Carter sat down besides Gold. As neither men objected he pulled out a handkerchief and offered it to Gold. "I also miss my home so much. I guess you do miss your home even more because you never left and yet it is gone." He paused and the shaking lessened. "I always think about the good times then and hope to return soon. Maybe you'll find your Germany again, after the war."
Gold stopped crying. He looked up with red-rimmed and teary eyes. "The Nazis. Because I don't fit into their worldview," he replied and answered the questions while looking Hogan straight in the eyes. "And we were working in an underground site twenty kilometers south where they are developing new rockets."
Carter remained silent and Hogan had to keep his face blank. He cleared his throat. "Oh yes," Carter said and translated the rest of the message. More work, more information for London, more pressure to help Klink to hide the young man. Hogan really couldn't complain about an insufficient amount of work.
Hogan leaned against his desk with crossed arms.
LeBeau was still wearing his Bleuet de France as he slipped in behind Newkirk and Kinch. Carter was the last to arrive.
Newkirk and LeBeau looked more at peace and yet more emotional than he had ever seen them. Kinch hid every emotion behind his usual calm mask. After he had shared his story, Hogan was sure that this day was also special to him.
"We're back in business?" he asked and looked around his men, waiting for a confirmation that he had their undivided attention back. "We still have a lot of work to do. How's Major von Hofer?"
"Nothing much to report," Kinch replied and shrugged his shoulders. "He is one of the easiest guest we ever had. He gets a little restless but that's normal."
"If he shows his face, he will be shot," Newkirk added with a grin. "We are his best shot."
"We have an additional problem," Hogan said and pushed himself away from his desk. "Klink is hiding a forced laborer and Hochstetter will be soon enough back."
"The young man hasn't seen anything about our operation here," Kinch said. "We could help Klink to set something up without risking anything."
"You're right," Hogan agreed. "It shouldn't be too hard to talk Klink into a useful plan." He had already a few options in mind. Relaxing, he straightened up. "So, what about our German major? How to get him to London?"
Newkirk licked his lips. "How long do we have this setup? Shouldn't we have a backup plan by now?"
"Oui," LeBeau agreed. "We should have a backup plan for people we can't get to London to normal way."
"The last time we used a plane to fly her to London," Carter said.
Newkirk pointed his finger at LeBeau in recognition. "The baroness!" He grinned. "And we were allowed to knock out Crittendon."
Hogan crossed his arm. "Nobody had knocked out a group captain of the Royal Air Force." He smirked. "But accidents do happen and sometimes heavy tools fall down."
"But back then we had a plane," Kinch, always the practical thinker pointed out.
"We could blackmail Klink to get us a plane." LeBeau rubbed his hands together and the slick grin of anticipation on his face gave him a slightly manic expression. "We have enough material for blackmailing."
Hogan made a face. "We need Klink and that's the way to lose him."
With a shrug Newkirk said what most of them were thinking: "Then we won't get him out. We need to wait until everything has cooled down."
Still remembering the hint about the Ardennes, Hogan knew that this wasn't an option. "Or we need to build our own plane and fly him out."
The loud protests of his men were expected, but they weren't wrong. "We don't only need a plane and a runway but most importantly a pilot," Kinch summarized the main points after the storm had died down. "And Major von Hofer is a Wehrmacht officer. I doubt that he knows how to fly a plane. As long as we have this weather, London won't fly any mission and therefore we won't get a new escaped or downed pilot."
"But we have enough pilots in the camp already," Carter interposed.
"That we can't lose," Newkirk had to have the last word while he pulled out one of his smokes.
Hogan shot him a glare but that didn't make his statement less true. No plane, no runway, no pilot and with a sigh Hogan added to his mental list: no plan. But facts hadn't yet knocked him out of his stride and with a smirk he issued his new orders. "Let's start easy and find a blueprint - we'll simply build our own plane."
Apparently his plan was so outrageous - his men didn't even protest but stared at him in silence. Hogan took this as a win and strode out of his office with his head held high leaving them baffled behind.
