Rob and I were finishing up our version of a quick gin rummy game when Kurtz came back with the briefcase. The thin case shone brightly in the light in Klink's quarters. It was in there that held the crude schemes the Nazis created to end the war for the second time. Kurtz was smiling with triumph. However, the waiting was not over by a long shot.
"What do we do now?" Kurtz asked Rob as he laid the briefcase on the table on top of the dirty dishes.
How appropriate, I thought as Rob answered, "We had better –"
"Get back to the barracks!" LeBeau had suddenly popped his head into Klink's quarters from the kitchens, out of breath and in a panic. My neck told me about the danger. Then I knew, somehow before the words were out, that Schruss escaped.
Rob sat up, knocking over his deck of cards, and went to LeBeau. "What happened?" he asked as calmly as he could, but I knew that Rob was edgy. He was even biting his lip, a habit I knew that he never could break even if he tried.
"Baker just came in through the back, Colonel Hogan," LeBeau said with fury. "Schruss held the barracks up at gunpoint until they told him where the tunnels were and went down into the tunnels with his aide."
"What?" I stood up quickly, knocking over more than the rest of the cards, but also some dishes Klink valued. I'll get his lecture later. "He held up the men in the barracks and forced them to show him the tunnels system?"
"Oui," LeBeau repeated, "and he took the aide."
Even though LeBeau had said Schruss took Jozef through the tunnels, the fear in me didn't register until that moment I heard it a second time. He took my nephew…he took my nephew…
"Let's head out," Rob said, grabbing me as he ran out the door. Kurtz came along with us. LeBeau grabbed the briefcase from atop of the dirty dishes and ran out the back door of the kitchen, intent on joining us later on. I don't know if Rob gave that order or not (I could not hear a thing), but we were out the door in anyway. It was time to grab the creep and save the operation.