Twilight character names belong to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. Thanks as always go to my betas, U2Shay and Adt216, for their beta skills and to kejce for pre reading.
A/N: I enjoyed chatting with you guys on Twitter last week. I'll be on Twitter again around 8pm EST tonight to answer questions. My twitter account is FirstBlushMom. I'll also have a teaser on the Fictionators site on Monday.
Stalag XIA
"Your word, Stephan," the colonel called out loud enough to be sure the translator standing next to Stephan heard him clearly.
Stephan sneered at the colonel before calling the translator forth. Out of the corner of his eye Jasper saw a small glass vial being handed to the colonel.
What in that vial could possibly be worth giving up our military?
The encounter was brief, but Stephan had the last word, ordering his prisoners back to their barracks. The two Americans who were with the colonel came to Jasper's aid, helping him get dressed.
"I'm Collin, thanks for not getting me shot," he said with a weak smile.
"Shut up, Collin," the captain admonished. "Let's just get him dressed and back to the barracks. I'm Quinlan, but I go by Quil." Jasper only nodded in reply, too tired and in too much pain to do anything else. "Come on, let's start from the bottom and we'll work our way up."
It didn't escape Jasper's attention that every time the captain tried to help him, he'd wince in pain. Jasper wasn't sure which one of the two of them was in worse shape. Collin seemed to manage the best out of any of them. The process was slow but once he was finally dressed, the men pulled Jasper's arms over their shoulders and made their way to the living quarters. Once on the other side of the dilapidated barracks door, the four men were rushed by no less than ten soldiers, all of them were American airmen, like the colonel and Collin.
"Sir?" the closest one asked the colonel upon seeing Jasper.
"One thing at a time, Lieutenant Call, first get this man something to eat and drink. I'm going to see Jake."
The colonel walked to the far end of the barracks and squatted down to talk to a man lying in a bunk. Jasper couldn't hear what was being said, but he saw the colonel open the vial from Stephan and pour some of its contents out onto the man's hand.
A tin cup of water and some crusty bread was placed in front of Jasper.
"It's not much," the lieutenant said sheepishly, "but it will have to hold you until we can get more."
Jasper greedily began inhaling the plate until the colonel came up behind him and caught his wrist.
"Slow down, Whitlock. It will keep you full longer."
Jasper had no patience and no deference for this man who had ordered him to betray his country. He stood and turned on the man who called himself an officer and shoved a finger hard against his chest.
"Why should I listen to a damn word you say? You just ordered me to betray my unit, my mission, and my country! You're a traitor, and you made me one too."
Before Jasper had even finished his breath the colonel had picked him up by the shirt and thrown him on the ground. His face was beet red with exertion and his entire body shook with fury. Sweat poured from his temples and Jasper could see the edge of restraint he was clinging to as he spoke.
"You will listen to me, Private Whitlock, because I am the senior officer here. It is my job to keep you and every other man in this camp alive. It is your job to follow my goddamned orders. You will do as I say without question, or so help me I will kill you myself."
By this point all the men within striking range were huddled over the colonel, offering to either assist him in beating the living shit out of Jasper or aid in getting the colonel back on his feet. The colonel held up his hand to still the men in order to finish making things perfectly clear for the young private.
"You may be hurt. You may be scared. You may be confused, but what you are not is ignorant of your rank or mine. You will not be given leeway a second time, am I clear, private?"
Jasper's ears were ringing. The pain in his ribs and his head were both throbbing like they had their own pulses. Despite being practically knocked senseless, Jasper still he knew he'd just screwed up. He could practically feel Alec kicking his ass.
"Yes, sir," Jasper replied.
Two years of military service engrained a certain deference to superiors and try as he might, Jasper couldn't break his mind free from that programming.
"EXCUSE ME, PRIVATE?"
"YES, SIR!" Jasper shouted.
Collin and Lieutenant Call squatted down to help the colonel up to his feet, but he waved them off, placing a steady hand on the table in front of him. Try as he might to muffle his groan and cover the grimace on his face, it was easy to see the colonel was in pain. Jasper wondered how the colonel had twice been able to subdue him despite the colonel's obvious injuries.
The tension in the room eased a bit when the colonel reached out a hand to help Jasper to his feet. The colonel's stare was piercing as he pointed to the table and Jasper's unfinished food.
"As I was saying, eat slower. The food will hold longer until they decide to feed us again."
"When might that be, sir?" Jasper asked quietly.
"Tonight, if we can finagle something out of the guards, but most likely not until mid-day tomorrow."
Jasper nodded slowly, wishing he'd taken the colonel's advice sooner.
"Colonel, sir? Any word of Bobby?" Collin asked.
"Men, I'm sorry," the colonel began, as he looked around the camp. "Tanner didn't make it."
All the men within Jasper's sight visibly swallowed as the colonel laid Tanner's dog tags on the table beside Jasper's plate. Lieutenant Call shook his head in disbelief.
"How?"
The colonel looked over at Jasper.
"Men, this is Private Jasper Whitlock of the 7th Hussars. Vladimir and Demetri brought him to camp. Whitlock," the colonel said, turning to gesture to the men surrounding him. "These are the surviving members of the Ninth Air Force First Pathfinder Squadron."
Jasper nodded solemnly to the surrounding faces both somber and eager for answers. Unfortunately, what Jasper had to tell them wasn't going to be the message they wanted.
"Do you know what happened, Whitlock?" Collin asked.
"I know pieces," Jasper began, still unsure of how much he should tell the colonel or how the information might wind up betraying his brethren again.
"Tell us what you know then," a deep voice called from the outskirts of the circle.
All heads turned to see a large muscular man with deep brown eyes staring blankly at the assembly before him. His shoulders were draped with a blanket, but his appearance showed he hadn't slept recently. He was drenched with sweat and shaking badly. Jasper was dumbfounded, wondering why a man would need a blanket in the July heat when the realization hit him all at once.
He's sick. The colonel was bargaining for medicine.
"Jake, get back to bed," the colonel ordered.
"We both know that it should have been me who went out, sir. I'd like to sit and listen, colonel," Jake requested. "I'll be alright," he added quietly. "I think the stuff they gave you is helping."
"Get him some more water," the colonel ordered.
Lieutenant Call scrambled off only to return a few seconds later and place a cup in Jake's trembling hands.
"You helped Tanner escape?" Jasper asked, though he already knew the answer.
Though the question was directed at the colonel, Quil was the one who answered his question.
"Yes, he went out through a tunnel I dug."
Jasper shook his head in disbelief; it had to be at least five hundred feet to the fence line.
"We've been here almost eight weeks," Quil added, answering Jasper's unspoken question. "The tunnel was started by whichever poor bastards were here before us. It's strong as hell too. They had it trussed so it wouldn't cave in on you as you crawl out."
"Enough, Quil! We keep giving him information, but we're getting none in return," Jake barked, lifting an eyebrow in challenge at Jasper. "What's an American doing with a British troop like the Hussars anyway?"
"Jake," the colonel cautioned. "Give Whitlock a little leeway in answering our questions. He has a right to be cautious. We have to do some work to earn his trust."
"What?" more than one voice called out.
"Though I'm certain Whitlock won't be mouthing off again," the colonel paused to look pointedly at Jasper. "He is right about one thing. I ordered him to betray his mission to the Russians."
"I don't understand. Why, sir?" Collin began, speaking for all the men in the room, including Jasper.
The colonel smiled a bit and rubbed Collin's head.
"Whitlock, do you have any idea why we're all here even though the war is over?"
Jasper licked his bottom lip in consternation and looked around the room. His earlier mistrust of Stalin was only exacerbated by his current predicament.
"Well, this morning the Hussars were talking about liberating POW camps south of Hamburg. They described how the Russian soldiers in the camp wanted to defect, that they didn't want to go back to Russia. The Russians told them they'd be shot or sent to the Gulags as traitors."
The colonel nodded and encouraged Jasper to continue.
"I'm guessing the Russians keeping us has something to do with that."
"It does," Quil replied.
"Quil's right," the colonel confirmed. "Ever play chess, Whitlock?"
Though the question was likely rhetorical, Jasper nodded anyway.
"We're all pieces in the chess game. The soldiers are the pawns and Stalin wants his pawns back. At the very least, he doesn't want anyone else to have them or use them against him. When you're playing a high stakes game and you're in danger of losing your pawns you make certain counter moves. See where I'm going?"
"We're Stalin's bargaining chips," Jasper sighed. "If he can't keep his own soldiers from trying to defect, he can at least force the hands of the British and Americans by holding some of their own."
"Bingo," Quil answered.
"But if you're in here, how did you figure it out?"
"They let the Dutch and the Belgian POWs go," Jake sneered.
The colonel nodded after Jake, continuing from there.
"The agreement the Big Three made at Yalta allowed for repatriation of soldiers between the British, American and Russian armies. Stalin gains no power by holding any soldiers other than the doughboys and Tommys. When Stephan and his men liberated the camp, they created what they called an "orderly" evacuation. In truth, they were just segregating the prisoners that were of any value to them and setting the others free. We were just unlucky enough to be downed at the end of the war and brought here just before they liberated the camp."
"Is there anyone else still here? I mean besides us and the soldiers under Stephan?"
The colonel nodded. "The Russian soldiers who were once POWs are here too."
"Any idea what their next move is?" Jasper asked.
"We're not staging an uprising against the guards if that's what you're suggesting. I admire your enthusiasm, private, but that would be suicide. We're unarmed and most of us are still nursing injuries from when our planes went down. No," the colonel shook his head. "The best way out of here is by having our own friendlies release us. That's where the Hussars come in."
Jasper's eyes grew wide.
"Then why the h—" Jasper caught himself before he again found himself in hot water with his new superior. He looked down at the table and pulled in a deep breath to settle himself. "Sir, with all due respect, then why did you have me tell the Russians about the my unit and their mission?"
"What mission?" Jake barked in frustration.
"I've been traveling for the last week with the 7TH Royal Hussars," Jasper began, finally opening up to the airmen. "Our mission is to liberate German POW camps and render aid on our march to Berlin. But now, the Russians know all this too. They can attack the Hussars and gun them down."
"I highly doubt that, private. Stephan doesn't have the men to go after a unit of that size nor do they want that kind of overt provocation. No one wants to start another war, and slaughtering a unit won't keep their actions below the public radar. No, they need a quiet but effective approach to getting what they want."
"Then how does telling them the mission help us?"
"Let me tell you a little bit about strategy, Whitlock. First of all, you need to know your opponent before you make a move. Stephan would have surely shot you if you didn't give him what he wanted. He already has a handful of us and another dead American is one less mouth to feed. Now, you may have been willing to give up your life, and in some respects I admire you for it, but I wasn't about to give him Collin when there was another way. Yes, now he knows about the Hussars, but the information also forces his hand. He has to take action. He can't just keep us here and wait for more orders. The Hussars are going to realize that you're missing and are bound to come looking for you."
Jasper wondered that if the colonel was right, then why had Demetri argued with Vladimir to spare his life? He'd have to push that question aside for now.
"If Stephan knows this too, then he's bound to move us further into the Russian occupied zone."
"Agreed, but he'll need a little time to get mobile. Moving sixty odd men and enough supplies to support them requires a little pre-planning. He has to inform his superiors and confirm when and where he'll meet up with another unit. We don't have that same complication."
"What do you mean, colonel?"
The colonel looked past Quil, to the ill soldier sitting before him.
"I mean we're not going to wait for Stephan to make the first move. We're going to get word to the Hussars ourselves. Jake, can you muster?"
"Yes, sir."
"Whitlock, what are your injuries?"
Jasper took a deep breath, testing to see if everything hurt as much as it did before.
It did.
"Nothing's broken, sir, just bruises from Vladimir's hits."
"Good. You know the way better than anyone else here. Both of you get some shuteye. In twelve hours we're sending you out through the tunnel."
Colonel Uley lifted his hand to rub it back and forth over his lips. He was sending out one battered soldier who could barely walk, and a second who'd been shaking with fever for two days. The odds weren't great, but it was the best he could do. Jake was strong and smart. As for Whitlock, he'd proven himself to be both brave and loyal. He just needed to think before spouting off like a loose cannon, but at least knew the path back to the Hussars. The colonel believed that with two men going out and dividing the Russians who would search after them, they'd have a better shot of at least one of them reaching the friendlies. The plan certainly had its risks. Stephan would be enraged over a second escape and more than just his own nephew would likely be executed in retaliation. This time there'd be no convincing Stephan that the escape happened without the colonel's knowledge. The repercussions the rest of them would face would be severe if not deadly. The colonel was banking on the fact that they still held value for Stephan's superiors. If they didn't, none of them would make it out of this alive. Still, the colonel's alternative of being marched like cattle into Russia to serve in the Gulags wasn't any better. He looked into Jake's eyes first and then to Jasper's.
"I just pray to God that you can get to the Hussars in time."
A/N: I could use some happy this week, share some of yours?
Thanks,
FirstBlush
The Long Way Home Historical Research and Reference Guide: Ch 21 Stalag IA
Story reference: Colonel Uley introduces Jasper to what remains of the Ninth Air Force First Pathfinder Squadron.
Historical Significance: The Ninth Air Force First Pathfinder Squadron flew last ever B-26 Mission May 3, 1945. Location: European Theater, England and France.
Source: http:/en(dot)wikipedia(dot)org/wiki/List_of_units_using_the_B-26_Marauder_during_World_War_II