Part XI

While Hogan had told the men that he wanted to see fast progress, he was very pleasantly surprised to see just how fast that progress was. Newkirk practically drank in his lessons and apparently his long Cooler talks with Schultz had inadvertently taught him more German words and nuances than he'd been aware of. Reflecting on that, it made sense to Hogan. There was nothing to keep a man occupied in the Cooler except conversation and the guard must easily get as bored as the prisoner. As social a man as Schultz had already shown himself to be, Hogan could imagine that the pair had spent many an hour chatting back and forth just to relieve the endless tedium.

They actually ended up stopping the lessons before lunch when they couldn't contain their laughter as Newkirk launched into speaking as Hitler – in German – composing a love letter to Churchill.

"Vinston! Mein Liebchen!"

While LeBeau had trouble speaking German, he understood it well enough to follow the joke and was even having to wipe tears from his eyes. Of course, the fact that Newkirk was having Hitler reciting a love note with the same tone and cadence as the Fuhrer used in a rallying speech made the whole thing just that much funnier.

After lunch, Hogan stepped out for some fresh air and noticed that Newkirk was walking side-by-side with Schultz again. While he still wasn't sure how he felt about that, he noticed that none of the camp guards seemed particularly surprised or bothered by the thin Englishman walking with the large Sergeant. Hogan shook the mental image of Laurel and Hardy out of his mind, but it wasn't easy. He was slightly disappointed that Newkirk wasn't getting on with his assignment though and decided he'd have a talk with him about the urgency after evening roll call.

Before Hogan even had a chance to ask to speak with Newkirk, all three of his core group moved directly to Hogan's office the second after evening roll call was finished and were waiting for him. They surprised him once again. Kinch not only had Bank's drawing in hand, but had already noted what materials they already had and which they needed to obtain or make. LeBeau had an inventory ready as requested – it was in French, but since half of them could read it, Hogan supposed that was fine. As for Newkirk, his smile was downright smug as he passed over a sketch of the camp that made Hogan wonder if the man had a history of bank jobs in his past - it was more detailed than he had hoped for. The distances to the places outside of the fences were estimated, but appeared to be educated guesses as to the distance to and height of the guard towers and other visible structures. Seeing the expression on Hogan's face, Newkirk shrugged.

"Admittedly, I cheated a bit, Guv. I already 'ad a rough sketch on th' camp for where me an' me mates were plannin' on findin' a new country club t' join. I just needed t' fill in a bit o' details. Oh – an' this goes with."

The Corporal had made use of the back of one of the envelopes from his sister and jotted down who was assigned to which barracks. Hogan was a bit surprised to note that even the guards were listed as well as the details of the inside of the guards' barracks. Again, there was that sly smile.

"Spent too much time in th' Cooler o' late t' give you much in th' way o' personality on the newer blokes."

LeBeau moved over to Newkirk's sketch and laid another over top of it.

"You asked about the dogs? The handler brings the guard dogs and changes them out once a week. This is how our current underground area is, mon Colonel. Going from this corner and digging east will take us under the fence in the least amount of time if we do not run into rock."

"I'm impressed, men - doesn't look like I have to worry about enthusiasm."

"We've all been going a little stir-crazy, Colonel. Nice to be able to channel some energy where it might do some good."

Giving Kinch a smile at that, Hogan pulled the sketch for the entrance back up.

"So, you and Banks seem to agree this would work. How long would it take?"

"If we already had all the parts? Week at most. If we have to manufacture what we need, well, that will add to it quite a bit. Likely take a month."

Leaning over the sketch again, Hogan studied in again.

"Ask Banks to step in for a minute, will you?"

Once Banks was in, Hogan tapped his drawing.

"This is excellent work and it's what I want us to shoot for, but is there a more basic way we could do this with materials we have on hand that we use as a starter? Once we're up and running, we can get the other parts through our Underground contacts and upgrade."

"Sure, Colonel. It will take more man-power, but I could make it work."

"Alright. There are currently nine of us. That gives us three teams. Each team will pull a two hour stint a night, rotating which team does what every night. Team 1 will be under Kinch, Team 2 under Newkirk and Team 3 is mine. Night 1 - Team 1 will dig, Team 2 will evac the debris and Team 3 will be keeping an eye up here in case of emergency. Night 2 - Team 2 will dig, 3 will evac and 1 will have the upstairs watch and so on. If we find we can add more work time without being obvious, we'll adjust as necessary. I think two hours a night to start will give us a chance to see where adjustments might be needed."

"Beggin' th' Colonel's pardon, but are we going t' just be pilin' th' debris in th' bunker?"

"For the first tunnel? Yes. Once we have a way outside, that's another detail we'll adjust."