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"Major Hochstetter has been most anxious to know when you are recovered, Colonel Hogan," Klink said a few days later, when Hogan made his way to the Kommandant's office, trying to resume his routine. Still limping, bandaged, bruised, and aching, Hogan wasn't finding the rounds easy. But he was never one for simply lying back and letting others do the work, something he was keenly aware of doing recently. And he didn't want Klink to think all would revert back to normal now that he had returned.

"Has he?" is all Hogan said now. "Lovely of him to show his concern."

"Please, sit, Colonel Hogan," Klink said, uncomfortable about Hogan wandering around the Stalag. "Are you sure Sergeant Wilson said you could be up in your condition?"

"Hey, I'm the senior POW, Kommandant. Anything Wilson says is merely a suggestion." But he sat, carefully, and stretched out his sore leg, wincing. "Tell me, Kommandant, what have you been telling our friendly neighborhood torturer?"

"Merely that you were still under the care of the camp medic and unable to attend to your duties in the camp." He did not tell Hogan that he had also been exaggerating Hogan's condition, even when he was recovering, out of fear that the Gestapo officer would try to come back and take him again. It was all he could do, he thought. He could at least manage that without fear of reprisal.

"I've got a couple of things I'd like to tell him myself," Hogan remarked wryly. "I was hoping you could bring me up to date, sir. Let me know what's been happening around camp. I feel like I've missed a lot." Like what you're not telling the boys about your call to Burkhalter.

"You have missed nothing, Colonel Hogan," Klink said, not wanting to continue this conversation. I will not tell you about the near riots the day you were returned. I have no doubt you will find out anyway.

"Any visits from our friend General Burkhalter?" asked Hogan.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well the boys say you called him when I came back. What was that all about?"

"He is my superior officer, Hogan. He needs to know what is happening in this prison camp," Klink answered.

"And that's all?" Hogan pressed.

"I don't have to explain my actions to you, Hogan," Klink said sharply. There was no way he was going to tell Hogan that Hochstetter's apparent vendetta was scaring him, that he was afraid the Gestapo Major would go too far one day and destroy Hogan, that over the time Hogan had been a prisoner that Klink had come to consider him in some ways as a friend or confidant. He had to maintain his position as a superior man of a superior race: humane concern for the enemy did not count among his duties to the Fatherland; they merely counted among his duties to himself. And those feelings he could only do his best to suppress, while his orders were to suppress them. But all the same, no matter how much his job – and, he expected, his life – depended on his being able to do so, Klink could not help but harbor less than evil thoughts about the men under his watch, including this senior POW sitting before him. You supported the Fatherland, Wilhelm, he told himself now. But you have failed yourself.

Hogan nodded acknowledgement with raised eyebrows. "Understood, Kommandant." Hogan stood and gingerly rubbed his left leg, and turned to leave.

Klink wanted Hogan to say something that would indicate that the "old Hogan" was back in camp. He was about to say something that he hoped would provoke the American when the phone rang. "Colonel Klink, Heil Hitler," Klink greeted. Hogan stopped and watched as Klink's expression changed to one of dread. "Yes, Major Hochstetter, Colonel Hogan is still recovering…. Well, Major, it would help if your interrogators weren't so over-zealous about their work…. No, Hogan is not in any condition to be questioned again." He glanced at Hogan, whose demeanor had changed at the mention of the Gestapo officer's name. Was that anger Klink saw in his eyes? Or fear? "Yes, he is up and about, Major, but he should not be…. No, Major—well, yes, I can pass on a message to him…. Yes. Yes I have it. But Major—yes, yes, today. Heil Hitler."

Klink turned to Hogan, who seemed visibly paler. "Major Hochstetter," Klink explained needlessly.

Hogan nodded. "So I gathered," he said quietly.

Klink paused. "He wanted to know if you could be questioned again soon." Hogan gave a start. "I told him you weren't well enough," Klink added quickly. Hogan seemed to momentarily relax. "He asked me to tell you not to burn your bridges, Colonel. Perhaps that means he will be trying to make contact with you again soon."

Hogan took a deep breath. "I'm sure he won't give up," he said, admitting it to himself and to Klink. His mind in a whirl, Hogan heard the real message Hochstetter had passed on through Klink. "I—I'm a bit tired, Kommandant. If you don't mind, I'll—head back to the barracks."

"Not at all, Colonel Hogan," said Klink, unable to miss the sudden disorientation the call triggered in Hogan. "Dismissed." He returned Hogan's distracted salute, and with concern watched him leave the office. I am trying to hold him off, Hogan. There is nothing else I can do.

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"We're on tomorrow night," Hogan informed his men when he got back to the barracks.

"Are you sure, Colonel?" asked Le Beau.

"Hochstetter called while I was in Klink's office. Once he found out I was on my feet, he told Klink to pass on a message to me—it was the code we… discussed, when I was in Hammelburg," Hogan said.

"So what's the plan, Colonel?" asked Kinch.

"Tomorrow night, 2300 hours, Carter, Newkirk—you and I will head out and get to that bridge and set the charges." He stopped. "I'm giving you guys the chance to refuse this assignment. There's no guarantee Hochstetter will keep his word. As a matter of fact, there's a pretty good chance that he won't. I've been banking on him taking the hint that Klink is just too good… but the longer this goes on the less confident I am that he cares about that. We just can't take the chance that he's really gunning for Klink. Whether or not he gets to the operation, this may simply be his way of getting to us. I won't order you to walk into this. You can back out at any time along the way, and there won't be any shame about it, understand?"

Hogan's men looked at each other and at the floor and around the room. What Hogan said was what they had often thought to themselves when their fears had dared surface in the last couple of weeks: perhaps Hochstetter wasn't really targeting Klink; perhaps he was after Hogan and the operation they were running under the camp. There was no way to tell, though, without being involved. Because this mission had been started by the enemy, they had no control, and worse, no trust in the person with the power to make or break them. They were flying blind, and completely at Hochstetter's mercy. And not one of them trusted the Gestapo officer enough to surrender his reservations about the man. But keeping their doubts in place, someone had to take the risk. It had been Colonel Hogan who had done that, and the price he was paying was immeasurable. And now here he was, telling them they did not have to follow him down the same path. Telling them that he knew they did not have to be humiliated if they chose to stay out of the fray. Telling them in essence that he knew he himself was walking into a trap, and that he did not want them to meet the same fate.

Newkirk was the first to speak up. "I'm ready to do the job, sir," he said, looking Hogan in the eye.

Hogan nodded.

"And you can't go without me, Colonel," Carter added. "I'm the one who made up the explosives. You won't know what to do unless I'm there."

Hogan smiled and started a protest here. "You could always explain, Carter—"

No. No, sir," he insisted. "They're my charges, and I'm staying with 'em."

"Okay, Carter, okay," Hogan laughed, inwardly relieved. He didn't want the men to risk this. But he equally didn't want to face it alone. You've got the best of the best, Rob; don't you ever forget it.

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"Give us an hour's head start," Newkirk said to Kinch and Le Beau.

"We'll be ready," Kinch said. "Let's just hope it works."

"Something's got to. I just can't watch this happen any more." Newkirk kept his eyes on Hogan's door. The senior POW had not come out for most of the afternoon.

"What do you think will happen, Pierre?" asked Le Beau, worried.

"I don't know, Louis. But we've got to end this tonight. The gov'nor's had about all he can take."

Hogan's door remained closed, as it had for most of the next afternoon. A couple of unwelcome visits from Wilson since Hochstetter's call yesterday had kept Hogan off his feet for awhile, and while the men hoped he was still convalescing in his quarters, they knew better. He's putting everything in order, Kinch realized in amazement last night, just in case…. The thought chilled him, and made him more determined than ever to follow through on Plan B, and end this waking nightmare.