The Case of Mistaken Identity Raid

By: AliasCWN

Chapter 1

Laughter echoed through the dark streets as the two men glided from shadow to shadow. A patrol marched down the street and the two men took cover until it had passed. Not until after the patrol turned a corner and the sounds of their marching faded did the two men move.

The target of their mission, the brightly lit building, drew them closer like a moth to a flame. It wasn't going to be hard to find, reaching it was another matter altogether. They had to duck or go around two more patrols and seven different guards just to reach the street the building occupied. Once there the guards on the street had been double, or maybe even tripled. Every corner had a guard with roving guards in between.

The two men paused two buildings down the street and studied the layout. Their target building was the source of the laughter and the lights. There was a rather large and loud party taking place in one of the front rooms. For just a minute they paused to watch the shadows pass back and forth in front of the windows.

"Quite a collection of officers," Moffitt whispered.

"They'd make a tempting target if headquarters didn't insist that this intrusion to be a secret." Troy turned to study the building, wondering how they were going to get in, and back out, without being discovered. Getting the pictures they had been sent to get suddenly seemed like the easy part.

Moffitt nodded at Troy's comment. When they had been given this assignment, they had been warned that it wouldn't be easy. A visiting general was more than enough reason for added security. Just photographing the plans for the rumored attack was going to be challenge enough without the added problem of the general. The plan had been to get the plans before the arrival of the general. The party seemed to suggest that the general had arrived early.

A guard walked around the building, their only warning, the soft scrape of his boots on gravel. They managed to duck before he noticed them.

"There has to be a way to get in there." Troy's frustration was evident in his harsh whisper.

"I'm glad Tully and Hitch aren't with us," Moffitt whispered in return. "They're much safer guarding the jeeps. Two men are hard enough to hide in here."

Troy looked over and nodded. Leaving the two privates behind now seemed like one of his wiser decisions.

Moffitt touched Troy's arm and the two of them ducked for better cover. This time one of the soldiers from the patrol started down the alley to where they hid.

Troy moved his arm slowly, reaching for his knife. His hand froze in place when the rest of the patrol stopped to wait for their companion. Both sergeants did a quick mental review of their escape plan, hoping they'd get a chance to use it.

The German soldier stopped before he reached their position. Stopping, he bent and retrieved something from the ground. Turning it over in his hand, he turned and rejoined the patrol.

Troy and Moffitt held their place for a full five minutes before they dared to move. Troy wiped the perspiration from his forehead and dropped to his knees. "We need to find a better place to wait for an opportunity."

"The closer we get to that building the more guards we'll have to get around," the Brit warned.

Troy was nodding his agreement when he suddenly had a thought. He stared at the building they were using for cover. His eyes ran the length of the wall facing the alley. There was a window in the wall that opened into the first floor of the building. Moving over to it, he tried it. The sash slid up easily, opening into some sort of storeroom. The two sergeants slipped inside and closed the window.

"Now what?" Moffitt asked. "We're still two buildings away from our target."

"We cross over to the other side of the building and find another window. We'll crawl out of that one and find one into the next building. Then we'll do it again in the next building."

"What if there aren't any windows?" Moffitt asked with a smile.

Troy shrugged. "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

They wove their way through the first building, climbing over boxes stacked in the aisles.

"There seem to be a lot of supplies for one base," Moffitt observed.

Troy nodded. He continued to the other wall of the building and found another window exactly opposite the one they had used to get into the building. Checking the alley, they slipped out into the night. The next building had a window closer to the street but still on the first floor. This one didn't open as easily, and it took both of them to pry it up. They slipped through just as a guard appeared at the end of the alley. They plastered themselves against the wall as the guard walked down the alley. The German soldier peered into the window. Using his hands around his eyes to block out the light from the street. Next, he tried to lift the window. The window stuck again, defeating his attempts. Finally, he hefted his rifle and returned to the street.

"Let's go," Troy hissed, "we're running out of time."

The next room they entered was an office. Moffitt immediately went to the desk and began to shuffle through the papers.

"We didn't come for this," Troy whispered. "The stuff we need is in the next building."

The Brit nodded and put the papers back on the desk. "Too bad, I would like to see what's here."

"No time," Troy answered tersely.

"Troy!" Moffitt grabbed Troy's arm and pulled him down behind the desk.

Another guard was outside, making his way slowly along the alley. As the two sergeants hid behind the desk, the guard peered in the window.

After the guard left, Troy saw his opportunity. He led the way out the window and into the alley. The two men found themselves next to the building where the party was still going strong. Troy ran to a window and slid it open. He was inside before Moffitt reached the window. Moffitt followed quickly, carefully shutting the window behind them.

Once inside they took cover between the curtains and the walls and familiarized themselves with the sounds of the building. The party guests seemed to be confined to the front room of the building. The two men ghosted across the room and peeked out into the hall. The voices were much louder there and they had to keep an eye out for wandering party guests.

"All right, we're here, now where do we look for the plans?"

"I would imagine that they have some sort of planning room, perhaps upstairs," Moffitt suggested.

The two sergeants moved across the room to the door leading to the hall. After listening at the door, they peered out. A set of stairs at the end of the hall led to a second floor. Moffitt and Troy ran quietly up the steps, alert for guards at the top.

They didn't run into any guards and were able to make their way to the first door leading off the corridor. The polished floorboards echoed hollowly under their feet. The door was locked but Moffitt used his lockpicks and soon had it open. Both men stepped inside and closed the door. Troy reached back and locked the door again so no one would intrude on their inspection of the office.

Moffitt went to the desk. He peered at the files lying in neat piles. "This desk belongs to a clerk."

"Then we're wasting our time here," Troy replied.

"There's a door leading to the next room, perhaps that's where we need to look."

The next office belonged to the base commander, but there were no maps on the walls or papers on the desk relating to any planned offensive.

"Across the hall?" Troy looked over at Moffitt to ask his opinion.

"If the room is as large as the one downstairs it would make a good planning room, lots of space for officers to gather around a table."

"Let's go look," Troy ordered, "I don't like staying here any longer than necessary."

Moffitt picked the lock on the office across the hall and they slipped inside.

"This is it. The maps are covered but there are too many for a normal office. They must be planning something big."

Troy rushed to the windows and closed the black-out curtains. Moffitt rolled up a rug and tucked it along the crack at the bottom of the door. Troy turned on a light and the two men began to look for the information they had been sent to photograph. Moffitt located the documents they needed and photographed them along with all of the maps on the wall. Everything was meticulously replaced exactly as they had found it. The lights were turned off, the curtains opened, and the rug carefully replaced before either man even considered leaving the room. Fifteen minutes after entering the office, the two men were headed back down the stairs.

They had to wait until the guard passed before they could leave the building. They slipped out of the window and listened for any indication that they had been seen or heard. They had to repeat their journey through the other buildings. Crossing the base was another adventure. Another patrol halted their progress across the base as a furious sergeant loudly berated one of his men for dropping his rifle. They hid and listened to the dressing down until the soldier was properly chastised and the sergeant was convinced that it wouldn't happen again.

Troy grinned and shook his head as the patrol moved away. Moffitt smiled and shrugged, having understood the sergeant's entire colorful description of the soldier's character and ancestors. The two men continued on toward the point where they had entered the base earlier.

As they slipped past the last guard and left the base they both breathed a sigh of relief. Their jeep was close by, hidden where they left it so they could reach it in a hurry if detected.

Despite their objections, Troy had ordered Tully and Hitch to stay with the second jeep in a wadi further out in the desert. He hadn't wanted the jeeps together, in case one of them was discovered. The privates had orders to stay away from the base, no matter what. If either jeep was discovered the plan was to make a run for it. That way, one of the jeeps might make it back to their own base with news. Being further away, Troy was convinced that the second jeep, guarded by the privates, would be safe enough.

The sergeants reached their jeep and found it undisturbed. Troy pulled the cover and folded it away while Moffitt carefully packed away the camera and film.

"Did you get everything?"

"Everything I could find," the Brit answered. "The lighting was good so I think they'll develop just fine."

Troy glanced around before climbing into the jeep.

"Then it looks like we can go home. Everything went off like clockwork." Troy started the jeep as the other sergeant slid in beside him. "We'll pick up Hitch and Tully and head back. Headquarters wants this film as soon as possible."

"Don't they always?"

Troy laughed. "Yeah, they do."

"Anyway, I'm glad that's done. Security was as tight as any I've ever seen." Moffitt shook his head at the memory of all of the guards they had had to slip past. "It could have gone bad in so many ways. One wrong move and we would never have gotten out of there alive."

"But we pulled it off."

"Yes, we did," the Brit agreed.

He had no sooner spoken than gunshots echoed across the desert from in front of them. Troy slammed on the brakes and listened, trying to determine where it came from. "Hitch and Tully!" He hit the gas, intending to go to their aid.

"Troy!" Moffitt reached over and grabbed Troy's arm. "We have the film. We can't allow that film to fall into the hands of the Germans."

Troy's foot slipped off of the gas pedal. He looked over at Moffitt in silence.

"They'll have to get away on their own," the Brit continued. "They're resourceful, they'll get away."

"What if they don't?"

"They weren't near the base. They don't know anything."

"That's not what has me worried," Troy growled.

"We can't take the chance to help them Troy!"

Troy nodded reluctantly and turned the jeep away from the continuing sounds of battle. He guided the jeep through the darkness with no lights. The further they got from the base the fainter the sounds of gunfire. Gradually the firing tapered off and then died out altogether. Neither sergeant had anything to say as silence returned to the desert.