The War Without Honor Raid
By: AliasCWN
Chapter 10
Tully Pettigrew crouched next to the wall and motioned to Mark Hitchcock. They both braced for trouble, ready to defend themselves or draw the guards away if needed. Knives in hand, they hoped to do whatever needed to be done as silently as possible. Troy and Moffitt were due back at any time and it was their job to make sure that the sergeants were not spotted or stopped. The Germans could never know about the switched vials.
A dark form moved along the outside of the wall toward them. Tully relaxed as a second form separated from the shadows carrying a satchel.
"It's okay." Tully whispered to the blond. Troy and Moffitt kept going, slipping out into the darkness toward the jeeps. Tully and Hitch waited a few minutes to make sure the sergeants were not being followed before they headed for the jeeps.
Troy was wrapping the satchel in a heavy oilcloth when they arrived. They watched in silence as he wedged it carefully into the rear of the jeep.
"I'll sure be glad when we get rid of that." Moffitt commented in a low voice. Tully nodded thoughtfully as Hitch watched Troy. Hitch didn't say a word as he climbed into the driver's seat and waited for his sergeant.
"Just don't bang it around and break any of the vials." Troy cautioned needlessly. Hitch nodded and chewed harder on his gum. Troy noticed that he appeared nervous and wasn't blowing any bubbles. "Blowing bubbles won't break the vials Hitch."
"I'm not taking any chances Sarge. Let's just get somewhere where we can burn this stuff."
Troy nodded and climbed into his seat. "Let's shake it."
Hitch glanced over at him without his usual smile. "I'd rather not if you don't mind."
Troy tried not to laugh. "Just get moving. We'll destroy the vials as soon as we get someplace where we won't be spotted."
Hitch led the way driving so slowly that Troy wanted to get out and push. His tension was clear even in the dark.
"Hitch, you drove faster than this when we had those tennis ball explosives in the back. What's the problem?"
"They killed you quick Sarge. This stuff, it's a whole lot worse. I just can't understand why the krauts would want to come up with something like this. And to use it on their own people, that's just wrong!" Hitch shuttered as if cold.
"It's not all of them Hitch. I think Dietrich feels the same way you do. He is helping us after all."
"I know." Hitch drove in silence for a while. "Sarge?"
"Yeah?"
"What happens now?"
Troy shrugged. "The Colonel said that the stuff that we left will make Dietrich and his men sick for a day or so, but nothing serious. We'll avoid a fight if they get sent out to engage. Maybe it won't come to that."
"How are we going to stop it? I thought that that was part of the plan from Berlin?"
"It was." Troy explained. "Only they aren't expecting the men to get sick for at least a day or two. The stuff we gave them will make them sick within hours. That ought to throw their scientists for a loop. And when they recover after only twenty-four hours," Troy shrugged again, "we're hoping they think there is something wrong with the formula. If it fails that bad they may just scrap the whole plan."
Hitch was shaking his head. "It seems to me that anyone who would come up with a plan like this isn't going to give up that easily." The blond fell silent again, concentrating on his driving.
Troy fell silent too, thinking about what Hitch had said. Darn, the kid was right, they needed to adapt their plan to cover the bigger picture.
A half hour later Hitch pulled the jeep next to an abandoned building that had fallen in disrepair. The two privates piled wood from the building into a pyre and piled kindling all around the outside edges. When it was ready the sergeants removed the cloth wrapped satchel from the jeep and secured it in the center of the pile. Moffitt double-checked the positioning to make sure it wouldn't roll free as the wood burned.
Satisfied, Troy turned to Tully. "How about using one of those matchsticks for something useful?"
Tully took the matchstick from his mouth and scraped it across a rock. When it flared to life he lit the pile of wood. The four of them moved away from the fire to avoid breathing the smoke. They watched as the heat broke the vials and the liquid inside spilled out only to evaporate amid the cleansing fire. They watched until the flames died down to glowing embers.
"Let's hope that that is the last of that." Moffitt spoke for all of them.
"Amen to that." Tully responded.
Hitch popped his gum and stared into the dying fire.
"Troy?"
Tully and Hitch looked up at Moffitts' voice. Sam Troy stood staring into the ashes with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Troy?"
"Do we know if the 'inspectors' had anything to do with developing the serum?" Troy looked over at Moffitt in the dark. It was hard to read his expression now that the flames no longer lit up the area.
"From what I understand, some of them were part of the team that developed the serum. G-2 didn't specify which ones though. What are you thinking Troy?" Moffitt watched a range of emotions cross his friends face. Even in the dark it was obvious that something was bothering him.
"Hitch said something earlier that got me thinking." Troy answered in a distracted way. Then he shook himself and faced his team. "He said after coming up with this plan he couldn't see them giving up this easy."
Moffitt nodded thoughtfully. "He could be right. Headquarters may be a bit optimistic about this being the end of it. They obviously spent a lot of time on this idea."
"What if they lost some of the planners?"
"Troy." The Brit could hear the determination in the other mans' voice.
"Think about it Moffitt. If some of the planners die and the experiment fails, will they go to all the trouble of trying it again? If we wait for them to send word that they have completed the first part of the plan and then it fails for some inexplicable reason, what will they do? If some of the scientists are killed in an unrelated attack on their convoy that won't be connected to the experiment, will they go to the trouble of finding someone to replace them?" Troy waited for Moffitt to answer.
"Troy, if we hit that convoy anywhere near Dietrichs camp, we risk them making the connection." Moffitt reasoned.
"So we don't hit them right away." Troy was getting more convinced that he was right as they talked. "Look, we can't go back to the base for a few days anyway."
"Why not Sarge?" Hitch ask with a puzzled look on his face. "We switched the vials, I thought that that was all we needed to do." He was clearly confused.
"We switched the vials Hitch. We carried them in our jeeps."
"You're saying we can't go back because we might be sick?" Tully drawled in his slow way.
Troy glanced between the two privates. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you earlier but I was ordered to keep that possibility to myself." He looked to Moffitt for support.
"It's only a possibility you understand. " The Brit hurried to explain. "We don't know enough about that serum to rule anything out. We're not sure just how it acts yet."
Both privates remained silent.
"We had to take the risk. The alternative was just unacceptable. We couldn't let the Germans carry out their plan." The sergeants waited for the reaction from the younger men.
"So they were willing to sacrifice us without asking us? How is that different from what the Germans were doing?" Hitch still sounded confused.
"So how long until we know?" This from Tully.
"Twenty-four to forty-eight hours." Moffitt told them. "We took every precaution that we could. We used gloves and masks when we handled the vials. We packed cloth around them to keep them from banging together. Everything we used we burned, except the jeeps of course."
"So what are our orders now?" Hitch ask in a quiet voice.
Troy shrugged. "Stay away from all Allied bases and troops until we're sure we aren't infected."
"And if we are?"
"We don't go back." Troy faced his driver with a grim face.
"We'll be dead in a few days in that case Hitch. Without treatment to prolong our lives, we'll die fairly quickly." Moffitt explained gravely. "And if one of us is sick, none of us can go back, it's just too risky."
There was an uneasy silence as the four of them considered their futures.
"So we have two or three days of free time? Sort of like a leave?" Tully broke the silence.
Troy tried to smile. "Yeah, sort of. We just get to hang out and relax."
"And do whatever we want?" Hitch wanted to know.
Moffitt smiled slightly. "Just what do you have in mind Hitch?"
"Why don't we follow those 'inspectors' and find out what they're up to next? They handled those vials too when they brought them here. It seems to me that if they get sick and start an epidemic then we've still failed in my book. Maybe we ought to watch them and make sure that they don't get sick."
Troy finally managed a smile. "Anybody have a problem with that plan?" When he didn't get any arguments he headed for his jeep. "I don't know about you guys but I don't want to sleep anywhere near this stuff, burned or not, and I'm tired. We have another long day ahead of us tomorrow."
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