The War Without Honor Raid
By: AliasCWN
Chapter 9
"It looks like Dietrich kept the patrols light tonight." Moffitt whispered to Troy as they lay along the wall of the hospital building.
"Yeah." Troy agreed. "Just don't get careless. This has to be perfect." He reached down next to his leg and picked up the satchel they had brought with them. "Cover me."
Moffitt nodded, his rifle gripped tightly in his hands, knowing that if he used it he would doom the entire mission. He watched as Troy slithered to a space underneath a window where he could peer inside. After a quick glance through the glass Troy placed the satchel on the ground and reached for a knife. Using the point, he pried the window open , sliding it up a slowly as possible. When he climbed through and disappeared, Moffitt crawled forward to join him. Once he landed on the floor inside he propped his gun against the wall and reached up to close the window.
The window screeched as it slid down, the sound carrying in the still night. Both men froze, listening to see if anyone had heard the sound. Footsteps echoed between the buildings as a lone German sentry crept through the dark, looking around cautiously. The two sergeants ducked to the sides of the window and hugged the wall as the guard looked through the glass into the room. Moffitt let out a sigh as the footsteps faded away, the guard walking more boldly after finding nothing amiss.
"That was close. Let's get this done. I don't want Hitch and Tully to get itchy trigger fingers."
"They know what's at stake here. They won't do anything to jeopardize the mission." Moffitt could hear the strain in Troys' voice. His reassurances weren't necessary but they did as much for him as they did for Troy. They began a systematic search of the shelves in the room.
"What's the name of this stuff we want?"
Moffitt could just make out his tense face in the dim room. He spelled the name of the serum so Troy would recognize it. "The serum is probably in boxes. They wouldn't want anyone asking questions about it if they saw it. This way it can pass for more influenza vaccine."
"Tully said he saw them unloading square boxes with red tops." Troy offered.
"That's probably the serum. They already had the vaccine according to Captain Dietrich." Moffitt was scanning the boxes as he talked. "Here it is!"
Troy rushed to his side and checked the boxes. The flaps were folded together but they weren't sealed. Troy grinned, showing even white teeth.
"Troy, stop smiling, someone will see us." Moffitt warned, only half joking.
Troy glance up, startled, his face once again serious. He looked at the window quickly before he nodded. "Take the vials out but be careful." Troy warned Moffitt even as he set the satchel on the floor and began pulling rows of vials out and setting them on the counter.
Working quickly, the two sergeants pulled vials from the boxes and replaced them with vials from the satchel. The vials from the boxes were wrapped in cloth and placed in the satchel.
"Is that all of them?"
"Yes, this is the last batch. I wonder how G-2 found out what the vials looked like. These are an exact match right down to the color of the liquid."
Troy took a minute to consider the vial he held in his hand. " It may look alike but the important thing is what it can do to a person. It's amazing how crazy some people get." He shook his head in bewilderment. "The only thing that matters now is that we get this stuff out of here without anyone knowing we were here." He placed the vial in with the others in the satchel and sealed the top. They replaced everything the way they had found it with only one difference, one very important difference; the vials they left behind would cause only a mild case of influenza. Mixed with the flu vaccine, it would run its course in twenty-four hours and be virtually harmless. The ones they took with them were anything but harmless.
Moffitt glanced at his watch. "Dietrichs little dinner party will be breaking up soon. We'd better be getting out of here."
Opening the window carefully, mindful of the screech it had omitted earlier, they listened for footsteps before climbing out. Again carefully, they lowered the window sash behind them. Ducking from shadow to shadow the two men carried their deadly cargo off the base and into the dark desert beyond.
The last sounds they heard were the inspectors leaving the dinner party for their quarters. The men were saying their good nights and talking among themselves. As health inspectors, they had requested and been given quarters in the hospital.
Once in the privacy of the hospital where they were quartered, they rushed to the room where the drugs were kept. Wearing masks and gloves, they opened the boxes and removed the vials. Using syringes, they added the contents of the vials to the bottles of flu vaccine. Still using gloves, they replaced the vaccine in its original box. When all the contaminated vials had been stored neatly and the serum vials had been packed back in the boxes, they breathed a sigh of relief. They removed their masks and gloves and put them in the boxes with the red tops along with the now empty vials. The boxes were loaded into one of their trucks to be disposed of after they left the base.
"Once the vaccine is administered it will take about a day for the first symptoms to appear. We will be gone before the vaccine is given so there will be no suspicion to fall on us, Once we are sure it is working the captain will be given orders to attack the Allies. He will lose of course, and he and his men will be captured or killed, taking the virus with them. After that the outbreak will spread quickly among the Allies. They won't know what hit them. Within a week there will not be enough healthy Allied troops in North Africa to hold a fortress. We'll wait for them to fall and then take over." The inspector in charge of the mission summed it up for the others. "It is done. Tomorrow we finish here and then it's just a matter of waiting."
The inspectors packed their boxes into their trucks and went to bed, convinced that they had just taken a huge step toward defeating the Allies.
The tainted vaccine waited to be administered to the unsuspecting loyal soldiers of the Afrika Korps.
