Chapter 12:
Longsuffering:
Hogan sat there quietly in his chair and rolled his eyes as he continued to listen to the two arguing underground agents on the other side of the table from him. He had been called to an important meeting by underground leader Otto Heidleman for a two day briefing on a new plan to take out a power plant in Frankfurt that was causing trouble for the Allies. The underground had recently reported its coordinates to London and had immediately received orders for sabotage. Hogan was there to help organize a ground party made up of agents in Frankfurt to take out the factory in order to completely cripple the Germans. He had arrived to the secret location in Frankfurt a few hours earlier to have the first of two meetings with the agents in charge of the project, but so far had heard more bickering than actual discussing. He continued to remain silent, like he had done so for an hour now, and listened to the two men bark back and forth at one another.
"You stupid fool! That tactic has never turned out successfully for us! The last time we attempted it, four of our best guys were arrested by the Gestapo, and the other three were murdered while trying to escape!" The one agent, Markus, cried. He was a very young man, around Carter's age, with blue eyes, very light brown hair, and was extremely thin built.
"You're doing it again, you always do this to me! You're not even giving it a chance!" The other agent, Konrad, remarked, his eyes flashing furiously. He was a bit taller and older than Markus, a little less thinner in body size, had blazing green eyes, and black hair.
"Because it never works!"
"That's because no one ever does it correctly!"
"And why should I trust your input? Your commanding officer is still being tried for treason for suspicion of purposely leading five agents into a suicide assignment."
"Oh, so you wanna go back to that again, do yah? Well, at least my commander isn't having an affair with a girl working for the Gestapo."
"Who the hell told you that filthy lie?!"
"It's not a lie, and you know it. I have the photos to prove it. And how I obtained it remains confidential between me and my contact."
"Why you no good, son of a…"
"May I suggest something?" Hogan asked, stepping in before the man could finish his thought.
"NO!" Both agents hollered, and returned to face one another. The response made the colonel clench his jaw shut and grind his teeth in order to not lash out at them. He was about fed up with these immature men who spent more time acting like children instead of highly trained agents.
"I oughta smack yah one side up and down the other for saying such things about my commander!" Markus spat.
"I should throw you to the Krauts for talking bad about mine!" Konrad spat back.
"You wanna start something you can't finish, bananenbieger?" (1)
"You started it, I'm ending it, hitzkopf!" (2)
"I'm ending it!" Hogan barked, standing up and slamming his hand on the table. "I came here to help organize a ground party to setback the Krauts further in the war; not listen to you two holler at one another! I have a fifteen year old little girl on my team, and she acts more like an adult than both of you combined! We're fighting a war here, not just playing some stupid playground game at recess!"
Both agents froze in their spots and simply stared at the colonel with their eyes bugging out. They made no movement or sound whatsoever, as if they had frozen in time. Hogan let out a steamy breath through his nose to calm down and continued.
"Now I want you two to just sit there quietly and listen to my idea for attacking this power plant. All you two have to do is follow my directions and give them to your assigned men for this job."
"But Papa Bear, he…" Markus was cut off by Hogan.
"I said be quiet! Next one who talks without permission gets a court martial, got it?!"
Markus slouched in his chair, darted his eyes down to the table, then back up at the man.
Hogan watched them for a moment longer before speaking.
"Now, if everyone's settled, I'll begin," he said, ignoring his pounding migraine. London did not pay him enough to do this job. He fought back against the nausea he felt and started to explain the plan.
(1) Bananenbieger - banana bender. Basically, it's telling a person they're going nowhere and doing a useless job.
(2) Hitzkopf - hot head