They moved everything outside and left Garrison to sleep a little longer. Actor removed food jars and a paper wrapped loaf of bread from the satchel Simone had given him, and folded the uniform the Lieutenant would wear down in its place. The car was less than two miles away. It would be a quick trip if you were in good shape, which the Warden wasn't. If they were met on the trail by a German patrol Actor had a good chance of conning their way past them, but not if two of the officers they'd be playing were hauling gear on their backs, so they made the decision to take the supplies down first.

Casino slipped his arms through the straps and hoisted the heavy pack with the radio onto his back with a groan; Chief hung the parcel with the food, clothing, and medical supplies off one shoulder, the rifle they had off the other.

"With this load, I figure it'll take us about forty, forty-five minutes," the scout estimated.

"Don't take any chances," Actor cautioned the two as they started off.

"Won't." Chief called over his shoulder. "That's why it's gonna take us longer."

Actor left the door to the safehouse open when he went back inside. He returned the pot of water they'd been using to the low fire, cracked the lids on the jars of food open a bit and sat the vessels inside. There was no telling when they'd get a chance to eat again so, when the others returned, they'd make a meal; hopefully it wouldn't be their last. He checked his watch only to find it had been less than five minutes since the others left. It looked like time was going to drag until the other two returned.

g

Casino and Chief had been gone for nearly half an hour and the Warden had slept all that time, but he was becoming more and more restless now. Before Actor could get over to him, he'd jerked awake. The conman stopped where he was. There was no sense adding a figure looming over him to go with the obvious nightmare. "Sei ruhig," he called out quietly. "Sie sind hier sicher."

Garrison took as deep a breath as he could manage and wet his lips before glancing up at the Italian who'd made his way slowly across the room and was now standing next to the bed. "If it's so safe around here we might as well stay."

The conman smiled as he grasped the younger man by the forearm and slipped a hand around his back in an effort to get him upright with as little damage as possible. "I recommended staying if you will recall? You rejected the idea." He took a quick look at the bandages before helping the Lieutenant over to the table and into a chair. "I believe you may have to expect some bad dreams after what you went through."

"Yeah? Well, it'd be nice if they weren't quite so realistic." He tore a bit of bread off one of the slices stacked on a plate in the middle of the table. "Where are the others?"

Actor checked his watch again. "They should be on their way back, and if Chief's estimate was correct are probably about five or ten minutes from here now." He turned and checked the jars of stew in the pot of bubbling water. "They took the supplies and the radio down to the car."

"My uniform?"

"I sent it with them. I didn't want to risk it becoming soiled if that wound broke open again."

And I'll be enough baggage for them to handle, Garrison thought, but he didn't say it. "You come up with a con yet?"

"I'm afraid we will have to improvise depending on the conditions we find ourselves faced with." Actor poured cold water in to two of the cups sitting on the table and took a seat.

Craig nodded as he lifted the mug and took a drink and another bite of bread. Improvising played a part in most of their missions now. Nerve wracking as it was, there was no doubt they were getting good at it.

They heard Chief's whistled announcement a moment or two before the men arrived at the door.

"You made good time," Actor said as he took the food off the fire and started to serve it into the bowls.

"Yeah, once we were goin' downhill things picked up a little. Man, that radio gear's heavy," Casino complained as he pulled out a chair and took a seat.

The door was open, the hatch in the roof was open, they hadn't seen anyone on the trail coming or going, and there hadn't been anyone on the trail that led down to the water since Actor hiked back up it. All of them settled around the table to eat so they could pack up quickly and get on their way.

"After seeing the paperwork, I can understand why you took it, but you haven't said how you came across it in the first place," Actor said to make conversation.

Casino snorted and turned in his seat to face the conman, cutting Garrison off before he could deliver a bare-bones description of their part of the mission. "We got in and got shots a the stuff they sent us after, but while I was doin' my job getting into the safe," he jabbed a finger in the Warden's direction. "He goes snooping around and finds a stack a stuff on the clerk's desk…."

"And how did 'he' convince the clerk to let him see it?" Actor asked, but he hardly needed to prompt the safe cracker who was building up a full head of steam.

"Aw," Casino stirred the air in front of him with his spoon for a moment. "He sent him on some wild goose chase or other. Anyway, I'm workin' away over at the safe, Goniff's makin' a place to take the pictures, Junior's keepin' an eye on things outside. We're all doin' just what we're supposed to do, but the Boy Scout over there's still going through the stuff on the desk. When I get the safe open, he tosses me the camera and tells me to get with it while he just keeps flippin' through the stack he found. I wrap it up as quick as I can, and put everything back and wipe it down, you know, so we can get the Hell outta there, and I'm just about to toss him back the camera when the damned clerk shows up again. Well, he catches the Warden red-handed, doesn't he? And he starts goin' off about papers and stuff. And the Warden…, the Warden blows right up in his face! He rolled the papers up and started wavin' them around, right under the guy's nose. He got the clerk backed clear into a corner before he finally gives the guy a parting shot, turned around, and started outta there. That's when a guard shows up!"

Casino shoveled the last couple of bites of stew in his mouth, chewed and swallowed it down with a gulp of water. "He told you there was a guard, right?" and he answered his own question with another wave of his spoon. "Nah! He wouldn't think somethin' like that was important enough. Well, the Warden started shoutin' him down too and practically stiff-armed past the guy on the way out. Goniff and me just pinned ourselves to his hip pocket and tried to keep up with him, and prayed that Junior'd have the car running if we ever got out there to it."

Casino stopped to take a breath and made a show of wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. While the whole diatribe had been delivered in his usual sarcastic tone, there'd been slight tinge of admiration to it, and there was a bit of a twinkle in his eye as he finished. "Jeeze! The odds a livin' through this war'd be about a hundred times better if he wasn't always on the lookout for somethin' else to swipe. I swear! His fingers are getting stickier than Goniff's!"

Chief just nodded his head, there was a slight smile on his face as he mopped the remnants of the stew out of his bowl with the last of his bread.

g

They were taking their time on the trail out to the car Chief and Casino had found. Actor wanted Garrison to conserve his strength and, for once, he seemed to be going along with him. There was over a mile yet to go and parts of the path were quite steep. Chief had ranged ahead to check for trouble, but the other two stayed close to the Lieutenant in case he needed help. They were about halfway up a fairly rocky incline when the scout appeared in the trees at the side of the trail.

"Kraut patrol. Five of 'em."

There wasn't any time to discuss exactly what they would do, but they'd played these games before. Actor moved ahead to confront the oncoming patrol, the others held back, leaving enough space that Garrison would be able to interpret for them so they'd know what was going on. Chief had his pistol in his hand, Casino held his rifle on their bruised and battered prisoner and they waited….

The soldiers crested the hill and stopped; unexpectedly faced with an officer the first one in line saluted. Actor returned the salute and answered the man's question without any sign of his usual haughtiness. He turned to indicate the three men a little further down the path below and made a comment.

"I've just shown you a safehouse." Garrison said quietly. After a little more conversation up ahead he added. "He's sending them on to check the docks since I couldn't make it down the trail and back."

There was a little more friendly conversation and an exchange of more casual salutes. Actor continued down the path and disappeared from view. The German patrol formed up again and started towards them.

Casino jabbed the barrel of the rifle at his back to make it look good, but stopped just short of connecting. Garrison stumbled as he started forward. The three of them stepped off the path to let the patrol go by. Chief held his pistol on their captive, Casino continued to cover him with the rifle and prayed no one would crack a joke, ask a question or want to bum a cigarette.

The prisoner's shoulders slumped and he dropped his head in defeat. Two of the German soldiers hurled insults at him, one of them spat in the dirt at the man's feet. All of them laughed as they continued on down the path.

The three men waited until the patrol was several feet away before they got moving again. Chief dropped back to cover them from behind, Casino shouldered the rifle and laid a hand on Garrison's shoulder to provide some support as they started to climb. From behind it would look like he was shoving the prisoner up the trail to whatever fate had in store for him.

Casino checked for a second when they reached the top of the rise. Actor was no where to be seen. Garrison was still struggling on his way and he had to take several quick steps to catch up to him. He got a hand on the Warden's shoulder again and turned to glance behind. Chief was hiking along like everything was just fine so he took the cue and kept moving forward. When the top of the trail blotted out the view there was a rustle of leaves off to the side of the trail. Chief changed places with Actor and stayed to watch the patrol out of sight while the other three slowly continued on their way towards the hiding place they'd found for the staff car.