October 3, 2011 – Sorry for the little late update. FanFiction was down for me all Monday til now!
a/n: I want to thank everyone who has read this story and who have taken the time to offer thoughts and comments on this journey with me. Enjoy the final installment of Ernie's adventures. You've all been a great help in motivating me to continue posting updates and keeping Ernie alive each week. Thank you all so very much!
Characters from Hogan's Heroes do not belong to me.
The Thrilling Adventures of a Boy Spy
:: Part, the Eleventh ::
I met Mama and jumped into her outstretched arms. "The bird was very talkative!" I said, then whispered to her the latest developments.
"Sergeant," she addressed Schultz, "can I see my husband?"
"But he's in solitary." The poor fellow looked pretty beat.
She looked out to the road in a pretty, thoughtful way. "Major Klein is away, and I'm sure they'd find my husband innocent of all these accusations. Please, I want to see him."
Schultz sighed. "Why do I get in these messes? I think your husband is a nice fellow, Frau Gottlieb, so..." He sighed. "I'll let you see him. Only for a minute!"
"Of course, Sergeant, of course!" She rushed over to the gray building and he slowly followed us up. He looked at me accusingly. What did I do?
Inside, we saw Papa and Hogan, just like I'd left them. But from the way Mama was gasping, I was sure she'd faint. "They're all right, Mama!" But then I thought maybe sad gasps were the same as happy ones.
I smiled at Papa and tried to tell him everything was going nicely. Schultz was there so I had to keep up the theatrics. I looked at Hogan and winked a few times – maybe a little too much, because he whispered, "I think it's out of your eye now, sonny."
"Uh, yeah." I made a face. Well at least he got the message. I think.
Before I could even think much more, Schultz was trying to herd us out again. Even Hogan's suggestions didn't faze him this time. What was that saying? Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice...
Anyway, we were out of the building in no time. Mama had water around her eyes, and Schultz was peering towards the gate, twiddling his hands on his big gun. "Don't cry, Mama," I whispered and she hushed me quietly, then wiped her eyes quickly. She walked over to Klink's building and leaned against a wood pole on the outside. I went around and plopped myself on the steps. I guess we were waiting for Uncle to come back and release Papa.
To beat away my boredom, I reconsidered my situation. Uncle already thinks Hogan isn't Papa Bear. He'll catch the "bird" Underground man and get convinced Papa isn't a part of the gang, either. I honestly didn't want to think about how that fellow was going to do it, but I figured he was a part of this business for so long, he'd find a sensible way. Good thing I'm not really Papa Bear, or else I'd probably be the one doing that tipsy business (that's not the right word, is it? Oh well, it sounded good there...).
Anyway...
I guess we just had to wait.
For Uncle to come back and release Papa.
Mmm, I don't like waiting.
:: ::
Finally the car came. Mama jumped forward even before I did – then Schultz and the two of us tripped over each other to reach the vehicle. Klink and Uncle stumbled out of the black car. Uncle looked all fumed. What that a good sign or a bad one?
Several of many black-coated fellows rushed up, each calling "Major, Herr Major!" And causing a general ruckus. Suddenly Uncle slapped his gloves on his palm and everyone became quiet. "I cannot believe it," he said.
Schultz nudged Klink. "What cannot he believe?"
Klink looked all of misery. It was like he'd just swallowed rotten broccoli. Ick! Anyway, he responded, "That his guard Gottlieb is not a part of the Underground."
"Oh," Schultz mumbled, then looked at me and Mama. "Then this means your Papa and your husband—" He stubbed his finger at each of us in turn. "—is free to go! Isn't this good news!" He grinned.
Klink and Uncle looked at him not very nicely.
"Oh." Schultz said, very small.
Of course Uncle had no choice. He started raving on and on about what happened out there, and I could catch snippets of his catching an Underground man and his getting away. About him begging to be let free and babbling on and on about the organization. "And he said Gottlieb was hosting the Underground as a trap," he spat. I should have listened to Uncle's rant a bit more. I might have gotten something useful out of it. Oh well, you can't repeat life – which can be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation – of course.
But anyway!
We got Papa back that day, kind of reluctantly from Uncle. Mama and Papa hugged in the middle of the camp. I stayed back because I saw Hogan come out of the gray building just then, and I figured Mama and Papa wanted one of those alone moments.
Hogan stopped about ten yards from me and stared up into the sky. I looked up. What was there to see? He smiled and sighed. Then he looked at me and got down to my level. "It feels good to be out." He patted my head. "Looks like you did a mighty fine job."
"Really?" I looked up into his big brown eyes.
He looked up past me and I turned. Four other fellows were approaching us.
"Colonel!" the red-scarfed fellow said. Seems like I met him first so long ago.
"Guv'nor." Hey, it was nice to see him again. Did he know I did a good job?
"Sir." The black man looked so friendly.
"Boy, am I glad to see you!" I hadn't met him.
"Hi!" I said and they all looked at each other with knowing eyes. Hogan turned my head to face him. "Yeah, you did snap job, kid."
I think I started to feel kind of giddy about then.
:: ::
Hogan had a few more tricks up his sleeve for Papa and Mama and me and the Underground people we'd been hosting a long while ago (the ones in our house and in the tunnels when I first got in). See, they finally told me what was going on. Apparently, we all were suppose to scram the country by means of Papa Bear's organization. Uncle's suspicion sort of changed the deal a bit, and got us in this mess. Going forward, we couldn't let Papa escape now just like that, else suspicion would fall on us again. (Boy, isn't it nice to know what's going on?)
So Hogan suggested the dastardly deed of killing Papa and us off. Not really of course, but just pretend, so the Underground would be blamed and we would be free to do as we please without any more suspicion from Uncle.
It was kind of fun hiding out in the forest and watching our car blow to bits. All this, mind you, took some time to plan. We spent about a week or so couriering messages from Hogan to us by means of Max and the dog truck man (Schnitzer was his name). In that time, I also learned the names of Hogan's team, although I didn't meet them after that last time in the camp. There was Kinch, the black man; Lebeau, from France; Newkirk, the man in blue from England; and Carter, an American.
So now I was in the woods with Mama and Papa, the glow from our blown car making lovely silhouettes out of the trees. All of our little goodies were in one small carpet bag my Papa carried. It was a good thing I wasn't a girl, because I'd have missed leaving all of my outfits in that hotel, never to be seen again.
Well, we met Hogan and one of his team in the woods there. They looked all funny with that black smeared on them.
"Hi, I'm Carter," the one man said. I was glad to get introduced to him, since he seemed to be a big part of the group.
"Hi!" I said.
"We've got to hurry," Hogan said.
"I heard a lot about you," Carter said, kind of friendly-like, as he meandered close to me.
"Yeah?" He was nice. "Well, danke!"
We scampered off to a tree stump which amazingly opened up into the tunnels I'd seen before.
"You're heading out on the first sub at 0230 tonight," Hogan said, quite in his element, I could tell. "That leaves about, say, an hour until we start moving you out."
I looked around. There were so many people, all the Underground folks and Hogan's team. I looked up at Mama. "Will we be leaving together?"
"Yes, darling. You and the six people here and your Papa and I are going to England."
"And what about Hogan?"
She smiled, like she knew something. "Why don't you ask him yourself."
An interesting proposition. I wanted to see him again anyway. Hogan was pacing the area in front of the big apparatus which no one had gotten around to telling me what it was. "Hogan?" I called up.
He looked down quickly. "Yes, Ernie?"
"Are you coming with us? To England?"
He paused and looked almost amused, then knelt down. "No, sonny."
"Why not?"
"I have a job here."
"Oh."
"But I'll come over later."
I looked at his team and at him. "So we won't see you again?"
"It's not forever, Ernie. Remember the song, we'll meet again."
I shook my head.
"Well, that's okay."
"You won't be able to show me how to make invisible ink, then?" Boy, I should have asked about this a lot earlier.
"You know, I think we can manage a little something." Hogan looked up at his team. "What do you say, fellas?"
"Oh, sure." "Yeah." "I'll get a lemon."
What did a lemon have to do with anything?
"Come here, Ernie." Hogan scooped me up and carried me to a little jutting table in a dark corner of the tunnels. He lit a lamp and his team gathered, armed with paper, toothpick, fountain pen, and bright yellow lemon.
"You see, Ernie," began Newkirk, "you take a toothpick."
"And stab the lemon," continued Lebeau, as Newkirk poked the yellow orb.
"Then squeeze the liquid." Lebeau took it and puddled some of it on the table.
"And write your message." Carter with the fountain pen dabbed the juice and scribbled on the paper.
"To reveal the message," Kinch took the paper and brought it to the lamp above, "just heat up the paper." Just before the paper crisped, Carter's doodle came into view. "Hello!" it read brownly.
"Wow!" I awed. "It's that easy?"
Hogan took the paper from Kinch and gave it to me. "It's just a basic one, but with your skills, I'm sure you'll be using more complex ones very soon."
I stared at the paper stretched between my hands. I smiled up at them. "Danke." They all smiled back.
The hour finally caught up with us. The whole gang in the tunnels trickled out until we all met at a hidden corner on the side of a road near a town. There was a big truck there that was going to take us to the shore to the boat. The Underground people hurried in the back, tipping their hats at Hogan and his team.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Mama said as Papa shook Hogan's hand.
"I will not forget your operation, Colonel, and what you do to help people like us," Papa said.
Hogan nodded briskly. Mama and Papa climbed into the truck. "Ernie!" she called.
Hogan came forward and helped me into the back. "One more thing," he said. "The gang and I thought we'd like to give Ernie a going-away present."
I perked up. It wasn't even Christmas.
He reached inside his jacket and took out a folded roll of paper. "Keep it dry, okay?" He handed it to me.
"What's it for?" I peered through the flattened cylinder.
"It's got a secret message on it."
"Really?"
Hogan smiled. "Really."
"Goodbye, Ernie," Kinch called quietly from behind Hogan.
"I guess it is time to go," Hogan retreated.
"Cheers."
"Au revior."
"So long."
The truck started and the fellows disappeared into the night. You know, I've changed a lot since I first encountered those fellows. Why did I have to get all sad now? I scrubbed my eyes madly; I didn't want to wet the paper.
:: ::
As we traveled all that way, I had the opportunity to do that thing where the main character looks back, hand upon chin, and muses over the great lessons learned. Of course there was some pretty scary times, some pretty dumb things I did, and some really bad situations, but in the end, everything came out good. In the end, boy, did I have fun.
Of course, I didn't have much of a chance to reveal the secret message until we were at a house in England. Nobody wanted a kid playing with fire. And I didn't feel very spyish rocking in that submarine. Anyway, when all the grownups disappeared to unpack and what not, I got to the first lamp and held the paper over it. The message slowly appeared, except it wasn't just a message. All kinds of fancy swirls were browning over the paper, and a sort of fancy lettering, much more sharp than the lemon could have made. These fellows sure had tricks up their sleeves. I waited until it all appeared before I read it all, and I must say, it made me feel all warm inside. I took a framed photo from our bag, the one of me Mama had brought, and took out my picture and put the little paper inside behind the glass. I was kind of sad. I wished I could thank them. But like Hogan said, we'll meet again.
This is to certify that
Ernst Gottlieb, Jr.
has thus successfully completed
the necessary instruction and derring-do
to be declared Honorary Member
of Papa Bear's Team of Saboteurs,
otherwise known as
Hogan's Heroes