10
Von Herrmann was seeing red. He was just barely tolerating Himmler's nasally voice. He was sick and tired of Himmler's attitude and while he should be listening to his superior his mind drifted off to what he was going to do to Rodgers after the call ended.
"VON HERRMANN!" Himmler yelled into the receiver.
"Sir?"
"Have you even heard a word I just got done telling you?"
"Sorry, sir. The corporal came in with paperwork that needed my attention." Von Herrmann lied.
"Paperwork...right. Well, when you hang up this phone I want Rodgers dead, do you UNDERSTAND?"
"Sir, are you sure about this?"
"One hundred percent. I want him dead before supper. He's nothing but a liability for us."
"Sir..." "No excuses Major. Question my orders one more time and you will regret it. He's dead tonight or else." The line goes silent and Von Herrmann hangs up the phone. He will honor Himmler's request, but not before he tortures Rodgers one last time.
Val, René, and Kate had been planning and planning for the last 4 hours. They needed a break and Val had enough. They had a plan but René kept finding faults with it.
"Okay, let's take a breather." Kate got up from the table and walked to the balcony of their suite. She swung the french doors open and stepped out onto the balcony. Resting her hands on the railing she looks down at the entrance to the Third Reich's headquarters. She is this close to seeing him again, rescuing him and her eyes start to water. She drops her head.
"Kate?" Val calls softly.
She stays quiet but nods her head in acknowledgment of her name being called.
"Kate, we will get him out. I promise. Please try not to worry. I know it's hard because you love him so much."
She takes in a large breath and releases it. Is she that readable? Does everyone think this? It is the truth, but these feelings could get both of them killed. She is openly letting the tears flow now. Val can't see her face and continues on with the plan. Telling her what will happen step by step.
"Okay since we have found the access point in the utility tunnel we should have no problem getting in."
Kate nods again.
"Then we need to make sure that there are no guards near the room he is in. If there are we have a countermeasure to use to subdue them."
Again Kate nods.
Val continues on. "Now here comes the tricky part. Rick is hurt badly. According to our source inside, he might not be able to move under his own power. So it's imperative that you find him and get him into the German officers uniform as fast as you can. His and your life depend on it. Once he is in the uniform, get him moving as fast as you can. The tunnel entrance is cleverly disguised as a broom closet in case you forget. It has a false back wall. If by any chance there is a problem getting back to the closet, the stairway is 4 feet to your right. Take the stairs and once you find the door that gives you access to the roof move to the rear of the bunker."
"Kate, are you okay?"
Kate lifts her head up and the curtain of hair now parts exposing her face and Val sees that she has been crying the entire time she has been going over the plan with her. She looks so small standing there alone. Val steps over to her and she pulls her into a gentle hug and whispers "Oh Kate it will be fine. We'll get him out. Please believe me."
Kate nods her head in Val's shoulder. She steps back a step and sees that Kate has taken control of her emotions. She even has a look of fire in her eyes now. Val finishes the rest of the plan. René is standing by the open doors and asks them
"Ladies, so are we ready to commence Operation Soaring Eagle?"
They look at each other then to René and say together "Operation Soaring Eagle?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that codename?" He asks a little offended.
Needing the humor at the moment, the girls start to laugh. René looks at them shocked and begins to turn red in the face. He thought the name was fitting. Kate recovers first and asks him if it's due to the fact that Rick is an American.
"Well, I was thinking that your love for him is soaring and yes he is an American. The Eagle is a symbol of the U.S. You think it's lame...don't you"
"No René I do not. I think that's a great name for this op." Kate says. They all head back into the suite to go over the plan one final time.
Von Herrmann dons his medical apron and mask. He opens the door to Rodgers' room and walks across the threshold. He is still strapped to the table and he's in the same position when he left about an hour ago. His body is still contorted in a grotesque position. He wonders what the doctors at the camps have up their sleeve. This looks painful even to him. And he's seen a lot.
He picks up a second syringe and pushes the plunger into the second vial of poison and draws enough into the syringe to kill a horse. Removing the needle from the vial he pushes the plunger up to relieve the air bubbles exiting the tip of the needle. Tapping it with his finger to make sure, he takes a look at Rodgers veins again finding the best location to inject him with the second level of poison. Just as he is about to puncture his skin there is a knock on the door. He looks up to see the corporal standing by the door.
"Enter."
"Sir, there is an urgent message for you in the radio room."
"Tell them I'll be there in five minutes."
"Sir, I was ordered not to leave without you."
Von Herrmann looks at Rodgers and turns to the medical tray. "Very well. Let's go."
Von Herrmann places the syringe down on the medical tray by the poison vial. As he walks away the syringe rolls towards the other bottle of clear liquid. On the label are the words "Counter Agent for level 1 & 2 intermuscular poisons."
Kate is in the final stages of preparation for the op. The staff uniform that she is in was hastily made. Not exactly an Anne Klein or Bonnie Cashin that would be heaven but no this uniform if you could call it that limited her movements in hand to hand combat. And it was an ugly color gray. Finally dressed Val steps over to her.
"Kate, this is a glass capsule that if needed will blind anyone within 10 feet for about 5 minutes. If you need to use it throw it at the ground hard, but make sure that your eyes are closed tightly. It releases a brilliant light and stings the optic nerve in your enemies eyes keeping their eyes closed for a while. This should give you enough time to make your escape if you need it. I am giving you two capsules. Now this is something that your friends from New Hampshire sent to us. It is something that in not even field tested yet, so I don't know if it can help you. The only problem with this is that you need to get in close to your target. Place the ring on your finger with the needle up in your palm. Strike the target like you were going to slap them. Make sure that you make contact with their skin. This is a very fast acting numbing agent. It should render them paralyzed within 3 to 5 seconds. In addition to that, you will have two service weapons. The first one will be a standard issued Luger P.08 sidearm. The second handgun you will carry concealed. It will be a compact S&W semi-automatic .45 caliber. You will need to tuck it away in the small of your back to hide it."
"What will René be doing during the rescue?"
"Since we have no way to communicate with each other while you are in the hornets nest, I will be out on the balcony watching you. If things go south I am going to have René change the scope of the mission extraction. We will be in radio contact and he will fall back to the rear of the bunker and assist you there if you need to make an escape from the roof. If access to the closet is impossible move to the nearest window and give me the victory sign. Then I'll have Rene move to the back of the bunker."
"Okay, Val can you come with me for a second?"
"Sure Kate. Uhh is everything okay?"
Kate just turns to the second bedroom of the suite hoping Val will follow without question. René starts to follow, but Val motions him to stay put. Val enters the bedroom and Kate closes the door. She walks over to the roll up desk and retrieves two envelopes. Handing them both to Val Kate says
"Val, there are two letters here. One that I need you to send to my dad and the other is for Rick. They are only to be delivered if I don't make it out of this mess."
"Kate, there is no need to be this morbid. You WILL come beck. Please don't make me do this."
Kate takes Val's hand into the both of hers. Looks into her eyes and Val sees the intense fear she is giving back to her. She has made her peace.
"Okay, Kate I'll take care of it. So are you ready to go?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Well let's go then, shall we?"
Von Herrmann stood in the radio room clutching the translated message. It happened about five days ago but he is just hearing about it now. It seems that he had underestimated Mr. Rodgers. The German army was sent into an ambush near the Polish/German border and at first, they thought it was a joke so after scouts were sent out and returned reporting nothing, they mounted up and started back into Germany. Before they had time to react a squadron of Douglas A-20 Havoc's from the RAF had almost destroyed all the Panzer's and killed over seventy-five percent of the ground forces. It was later found out that the British were sending out coded messages on an Enigma machine of their own. Von Herrmann knew that Rodgers was the one who had caused these losses in men and equipment. There would be no more torture. He would kill him now!
AN: One or two more chapters should do it. Possibly an epilogue. Thanks to everyone who has read this fic.
P2P