A Secret Kept

By: AliasCWN

Chapter 6

After joining the others Troy managed to finish his meal without answering any more questions about his secret. They talked about other things as they walked back to their room. The fan was still blowing and the room was much cooler than the air outside. With the fan in the window, blowing air out, there wasn't much noise coming in from the street. Its low hum drowned out the sounds from the adjoining rooms too. The four men stretched out on their bunks and talked about their plans for the morning. With everything decided, they were preparing to turn in when the knock sounded on the door. Troy looked over at Moffitt and frowned.

"Who could that be?" the Brit asked. "Hardly anyone knows we are here."

"I'll check," Troy grunted. He heaved himself to his feet and crossed the room.

A nervous looking corporal stood outside the door with a piece of paper in his hand. "Sergeant Troy?"

"Yeah," Troy growled. "What do you want?"

The corporal took one look at the frown on Troy's face and shoved the piece of paper at him. "This is for you."

Troy took the paper and looked down at it. "What is this?" He looked up, expecting an answer, but the corporal was already rushing down the hall.

"What did you do to scare him?" Moffitt asked in amusement. "They don't usually act that way until after they get to know you."

Troy stepped away from the doorway and closed the door. "I never saw him before," Troy answered. "Maybe he's just the nervous type." He glanced down at the paper in is hand.

"What is it?" the Brit asked.

"I haven't read it yet," Troy answered as he began to unfold the note. The handwriting wasn't familiar and he didn't think he knew anyone on the base.

Moffitt watched his expression change as he read the note.

"We have to go!" Troy reached for his hat and gear.

"What's the rush? Hitch and Tully haven't had time to get into trouble yet." The brit smiled at the younger men.

"There isn't time," Troy answered as he headed for the door.

"At least tell us what we are rushing to," Moffitt answered with annoyance.

"There isn't time!" Troy repeated. He was out the door before the others had time to gather their gear.

"Troy! Wait!" Moffitt called after the other sergeant. "Tell us what the rush is all about. Wait for us!" Moffitt hurried to catch up to the other sergeant. "Does this have anything to do with whatever it is that is bothering you?" Despite his longer legs, the Brit was finding it hard to keep up with his shorter counterpart.

"I told you about Jerry?" Troy answered over his shoulder. "This is about him."

"The work he hadn't finished?"

"Yes," Troy answered. "Something went wrong with his mission. I told him to call on us if he needed any help while we were still here. This is a summons to the base commander's office. It says urgent." Troy gripped the note tightly in his hand as he picked up the pace.

Hitch and Tully had caught up by the time the sergeants reached the commander's office. The four of them were immediately shown into the officer's office.

"Sergeant Troy, thank you for coming so quickly," the base commander greeted. "I am Captain Kendrick. I'm the one who summoned Captain Caine for this assignment." The officer noticed the other members of the team and nodded. "You brought the rest of your team. Good, that will save time. Time is something we don't have right now. Something has gone terribly wrong."

"What can we do Captain?" Troy asked.

"Captain Caine went to meet the informant.

Troy nodded that he knew about the meeting.

"The informant didn't want to meet on the base. He was afraid the Germans might have spies on the base who might see him. The informant suggested a water hole near here. The captain agreed and went there to meet him. The captain left his driver away from the water hole so he wouldn't scare the informant into changing his mind." The officer paused before going on. "Are you sure you weren't spotted delivering the captain to the base?"

Troy half shrugged. "There's no way to be absolutely sure, but we didn't see anybody. Why?"

"The Germans were waiting when the captain arrived at the water hole. Captain Caine had no sooner arrived for the meeting when the Germans moved in and took him and the informant captive. Captain Caine's driver saw it happen. He brought word back as fast as he could."

"Do the Germans know there was a witness?" Moffitt asked.

"Not to my knowledge Sergeant. The driver waited until the Germans departed with their prisoners before he left his position."

"Are we sure that the informant didn't betray the captain?" Troy asked.

Captain Kendrick shook his head. "We don't know anything about who may have betrayed him. The informant was arrested along with Captain Caine, but that could have been part of the plan to throw us off."

"Or to get the captain's trust and get him to let something slip when they are alone," Moffitt suggested.

"That's entirely possible," Captain Kendrick acknowledged. "But that doesn't concern me right now. What does concern me is the information Captain Caine has stored in his head. If he talks…"

Troy nodded. "What are our orders Sir?"

"Get him back Sergeant. I have no idea how you are going to do it but Captain Caine suggested that I contact you if anything went wrong with his mission. He seems to have faith in your abilities. I will have to leave the details up to you."

"I offered to help in any way we could," Troy admitted. "When did all of this happen Captain?"

"About an hour ago," the officer answered. "It will take you about that long to get to where it happened. The informant was adamant about staying away from the base. He thought the Germans had spies everywhere."

"He was probably correct," Moffitt answered. "The Germans pay the locals to keep an eye on us and report back to them. It could be anyone. Some of them work for both sides. This isn't their war, but they are more than willing to make money off of it."

"I am aware of all of that Sergeant, but I did all I could to keep this meeting a secret."

Troy was already considering the problem. "If we are going to find Captain Caine, we had better get going Sir. If we lose them it could take too long to locate them again."

"Understood Sergeant. Requisition any supplies you think you might need."

"Yes sir."

"And Sergeant, good luck."

"Thank you, sir; we'll be leaving right away. As you say, time is not on our side."

The captain nodded wordlessly and watched as the four men shuffled out the door.

"I know the water hole where the meeting took place," Moffitt announced as they left the building. "The Germans must have been there before the captain arrived. If they had arrived after him, he would have spotted them in time to escape. The water hole is in a wadi but the desert around it is fairly flat."

"So, you're thinking that the informant was in on it?" Troy paused to question the other sergeant.

"Perhaps. I suppose the only way to know for sure is to find them," the Brit answered.

"Do we need any supplies?" This question was directed at the privates. Troy turned to them as they reviewed what was available in the jeeps.

"We're good Sarge," Hitch finally answered. "I restocked our rations while Tully refilled the gas and water cans."

"What about ammunition?"

"We haven't used any since we restocked it before we left," Tully answered. "We have plenty."

"Then let's get moving. I want to find them before dark."

Moffitt directed Tully to the water hole where the meeting had taken place. There were lots of tracks in the wadi but they were too overlapped to be of much use. Since it was still light, it wasn't hard to find the tracks the Germans left when they departed from the wadi.

"Two halftracks and as many as four patrol cars," Moffitt guessed. "Not a large column, but big enough to get the job done."

Troy looked down at the tracks as the Brit made his observations. The column was smaller than the ones the Germans normally sent out, and that worried him. "Do you think they knew how many men would be at this meeting? Ahead of time, I mean."

"If their spies told them about the meeting, yes, they would have known. It's entirely possible that that is why they sent such a small column to capture them."

"Then it's also possible that they know what the meeting was about?"

"Perhaps," Moffitt agreed. "But hearing about a meeting, and hearing what it is about, are two different things. They may have overheard something, or guessed after hearing the captain order a car."

"But then they wouldn't have known about the place in time to beat the captain there."

"True," Moffitt answered thoughtfully. "They had to have known about it in time to get here, and their base is more than a full day's travel from this wadi. That suggests that they learned of it from the informant."

"Either he was in on it, or they suspected him and followed him," Troy suggested. "Then it's also possible that they know what he planned to tell the captain."

"Quite possible."

Troy nodded. "Okay, we'd better get rolling. Maybe we can catch them before they reach the base."

Moffitt glanced up at the sky before he answered. "They won't reach their base before dark. The halftracks will slow them down and they couldn't possibly get there before tomorrow. They'll have to camp for the night."

"Good, that may be the break we need." Troy replied. "Let's follow them."

The tracks were easy to follow so Moffitt concentrated on watching for the Germans, letting Tully do the tracking. The jeeps fairly flew across the flat terrain, the dust trail getting lost in the gathering twilight. By the time darkness was beginning to creep across the landscape they had the column in sight.

Troy called a halt to allow the column to get ahead of them. "Let the jeeps cool down," Troy ordered. "We don't want to get close enough to be seen." He took his field glasses and went to watch the column until it finally disappeared in the distance. "Two halftracks and four patrol cars, good guess," Troy praised his second.

"Not so much a guess as just reading the signs," the Brit replied. "But I'll accept the compliment."

"Did you see any sign of the prisoners?" Troy asked, ignoring the teasing of the other sergeant.

"Third patrol car," the Brit answered, "there was an Arab in the back seat."

"What about Captain Caine?"

"I didn't see him," Moffitt admitted. "Did he go to the meeting in uniform?"

"I think so," Troy answered, "but I'm not sure. I guess we should have asked the captain before we left the base."

"I think the halftracks are acting as security for the patrol cars," Moffitt continued without commenting on Troy's statement. If that is the case, the prisoners will both be in the patrol cars."

"If the Arab was in the third one, my guess is the captain is in the first one." Troy looked toward Moffitt for agreement.

"Quite likely," Moffitt answered. "They would want him close to the column commander. I would guess the commander would be in the front car too."

"They'll be making camp soon," Moffitt suggested.

Troy nodded.

"Troy, you asked me if I thought they knew what the meeting was about."

"Yeah?"

"I'm still not sure, but they absolutely had to have known ahead of time that the meeting was going to take place. That column left their base a day and a half ago, they didn't just happen on that wadi."

So, what does that mean?"

"That it is possible that the informant was in on it. And if that is true, we can leave him behind. But, if he wasn't, we're going to have to bring him along so he can give us the information."

"We'll bring him either way," Troy decided. "Either way, he can tell us what he promised to share with us."

"If he is willing."

"Either way, he'll tell us," Troy repeated. "It won't be our problem, but we'll bring him back so someone else can get him to talk."