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"Move it, Schultz; move it!" Klink was shouting as he blustered his way out of his quarters.
"Ja wohl, Herr Kommandant," Schultz replied, still only half awake and trying to open the door to the truck to let his superior officer step in.
"Never mind that," Klink said, frustrated, as he waved the Sergeant's salute away and pulled the door shut behind him. "Just get going!" He turned to Le Beau and Kinch, who were clambering into the back of the truck. "And no funny business from you," he warned.
"No, Colonel," Kinch said sincerely. "There's nothing funny going on here."
Le Beau added seriously, "Nothing amusing at all."
"Let's go, Schultz!" Klink urged again. And the truck burst to life and drove wildly out of Stalag 13.
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"There, that should about do it," Hogan said, turning to Newkirk and Carter. The trio had been working under the scrutiny of the Gestapo for more than thirty minutes, slowly wiring the bridge under Carter's finally quiet command, trying hard to make it look like an amateur job, fumbling and dropping things and playing up their inexperience at such work. Newkirk was connecting the fuse to the detonator box, and walking it up and away from the bridge to a safe distance. "That looks pretty good if I do say so myself, Major," Hogan told Hochstetter, wanting to get this over with. He was finding it harder to have patience with the little German as a headache started closing in and his only partially-healed wounds started throbbing for attention. "For an amateur job."
"Ja, it will do nicely, Hogan." Hochstetter smiled.
"Now what?" Hogan asked, as Newkirk and Carter came and flanked him.
Hochstetter turned to his guards and gestured for them to close in. "Now, Hogan, it is time for the next part of our agreement. You and your men will come with me to Gestapo Headquarters."
"And then?" Hogan prompted, uncomfortable at the guards' willingness to aim their rifles at his men's chests. Newkirk and Carter shifted uneasily.
"And then…we'll see."
Newkirk spoke up boldly. "Hey, the gov'nor says you promised us we could get out if we did what you asked for. You were going to let us free, send us back to London."
"Did I?" Hochstetter said, looking as though he were straining to remember.
"You gave me your word as a gentleman," Hogan reminded him sardonically. "Somehow I remember saying that wasn't going to comfort me in my hour of need."
"Perhaps I did, Hogan. We shall have to see what transpires."
"We had a deal, Hochstetter. I wire the bridge, you get Klink. I don't like being double-crossed."
"I did not double-cross you, Hogan. I simply lied to you." Hochstetter spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "I am not after Klink—well, no more than I am after any man who is an incompetent fool. Tonight's events will not remove Klink from his command. His record is too good, and you have been too poor at your work here tonight. Perhaps I have been wrong about you, Hogan. Perhaps you are not such a dangerous man. Just a stupid one, for thinking I would bargain with you. I may not be able to prove your prior sabotage activities… but I have witnesses to this one."
Hogan glanced at Newkirk and Carter. Neither looked like he was prepared for this development, even though they had all played this scenario out in their minds over and over again. He wondered if he had the same stunned, frightened, confused look on his face. "But the dynamite and the charges—they're all fake, aren't they?"
"Of course. But as an escaped prisoner, you would not have had any way of knowing that, and therefore you would have wired this bridge with the belief that it was real, and therefore with the intention of blowing it up. A spy, a saboteur…you can be shot. I am
sure that the trial would be short."
"And fixed." Hogan felt a bead of sweat run down his back.
Hochstetter shook his head and made disappointed clucking noises. "Now Hogan, all Gestapo trials are fair ones. We just happen to know when someone is guilty, that's all." His small smile disappeared. "Now let's go," he said, waving them toward the path they came in on.
"Oh, hang on," said Carter suddenly. Hogan looked at him. "Well if we're gonna be accused of doing something, shouldn't we make sure it looks right?" he said in explanation. "I'd like to have a last look at my final artwork," he said to Hochstetter.
Hogan raised his eyes to the sky, but nodded to Carter. That's right, kid; let's go out in a blaze of glory. Check that everything is ready to go.
"Yeah," Newkirk put in quickly. "Yeah—um—it's the least you can do for us, Major." Stall for time. Stall for time. Where the hell are they?
"Maybe you'd even let us press the plunger down," Hogan added. "You know, just as a symbolic thing. If you're going to get us for sabotage it should at least look like we were going to really try it." Okay, Hogan, so there's a Plan B after all. How far can I push this?
"I do not have time for such nonsense—" Hochstetter began. Then he stopped, a line of questioning entering his head. Did you try to trigger the dynamite? Ja wohl… if they somehow encountered an official who wanted actual evidence, Hogan could not deny his involvement. Hochstetter liked the drama of this possibility, and acquiesced. "On second thought, Hogan, you may do that. It will be a most interesting sight to see."
You can say that again, Hogan said to himself. "Gentlemen, shall we do this together?" he asked Newkirk and Carter. They smiled bravely. But they're scared to death, Hogan thought. And I can't blame them. Hogan stopped as they headed up to the box. "Oh—Major—why don't you stand next to the bridge?" Newkirk and Carter looked at him in surprise. "There's a clear view of what we're doing from there, and you can have absolute proof then that we were trying to blow it sky high." This might be our way out!
Newkirk grinned in appreciation of Hogan's devious mind. "That's a lovely idea, sir," he said. "With a guard on either side of him."
"No tricks, Hogan," warned Hochstetter.
"Oh no, no tricks," Hogan said with exaggerated sincerity. "Not like yours."
Hochstetter growled again, but moved closer to the bridge to inspect the work himself. The guards split, one keeping a close eye on the prisoners, the other following Hochstetter down the hill to the base of the bridge. Hogan and his men headed up to the detonator box. "Nice touch, Newkirk," Hogan whispered. "Couldn't have done it better myself."
"That's high praise, sir," Newkirk replied with a smile.
"Let's make it look good." He looked toward where Hochstetter was standing. "You ready?" he called.
"Yes, yes, go on, go on," Hochstetter said dismissively, turning away from them and studying something on the bridge.
Hogan and his men exchanged glances. "Carter?" Hogan said, indicating the plunger. "It seems only fair that you do the honors."
Carter smiled and moved in closer to the box. But he stopped when the roar of a speeding truck reached their ears. They turned to see the vehicle screeching to a halt near the path, and Hochstetter marched up to it, the guards following him.
Klink came flying out of the truck and barreled towards them. "Stop! Stop this right now!" he ordered, as the others disembarked. Schultz struggled to keep up with Klink, as Le Beau and Kinch followed them. "Major Hochstetter—"
"Colonel Klink, I have just captured three men who have escaped from your prison camp. They were here trying to sabotage this bridge." Hochstetter gestured to the structure behind him. "To make sure we had proper evidence we have been observing them all evening. We caught them red handed. They are spies."
Klink turned to look at Hogan, who with Carter and Newkirk had started coming down toward the new arrivals. "Hogan, is this true?"
"He forced us to wire the bridge, Kommandant—'e's plain barmy!" exclaimed Newkirk.
"Yeah, he's the one who got the dynamite and stuff!" Carter accused.
"That's right, Kommandant," Hogan said.
"He made the Colonel leave the camp, Kommandant," Newkirk said. "If he didn't, Hochstetter was going to kill 'im! 'E even helped us escape!"
"Major Hochstetter, I must ask you to relinquish these prisoners to my authority," Klink said. Was it Hogan's imagination, or did Klink's voice sound a bit shaky? "I will question them when we get back to camp on my own."
"Don't be ridiculous, Klink, these men must come with me back to Hammelburg tonight! Hogan fell straight into my trap!"
"With explosives that you supplied," Hogan reminded him.
"BAH! It is all phony—none of it is real! I arranged it so that we could expose you for what you really are—saboteurs working right under Klink's nose! There are no explosives! Look!"
Hochstetter rushed over, grabbed the detonator box and pressed down on the plunger. Hogan grabbed Carter and Newkirk by the collars and threw them to the ground away from the blast. The ensuing explosion sent twisted debris and dirt arcing through the reddened sky, showering down on the shaking earth and the men. Stunned, Hochstetter could only watch as the remainder of the bridge was engulfed in flames and collapsed into the water below. Klink, Schultz, and the other guards struggled to maintain their footing, while Hogan and his men covered their heads with their arms.
"That cannot be!" Hochstetter cried. "The explosives were not real!" He turned toward Hogan, his eyes full of fire. "You! You are responsible for this! You switched the dynamite!"
"I fail to see how three prisoners of war could have managed to get hold of such things," Klink said. "Face it, Major: you said yourself you have been with these men all night. It is you who are responsible for this, not Hogan and his men."
Hogan stood up and looked at Hochstetter with amusement and feigned surprise. "Try explaining that to the Fuhrer," he quipped over the din, brushing himself off.
Hochstetter's eyes took on a wild look. With a loud, animal-like cry, he flew at Hogan, striking out and reaching for the younger man's throat. Surprised by the attack, Hogan crashed to the ground, struggling against him. He's finally snapped! Hogan thought, realizing that Hochstetter had nothing to lose now by killing him outright.
Rolling on the hard earth, Hogan tried with what strength he could muster to prize Hochstetter's hands from around his neck. But the smaller man's grip was like steel, desperate and unyielding, and Hogan did not have his usual vigor to begin with, thanks to his prior encounters with the man. Guards froze Hogan's men in place as they scrambled to help him. But all movement stopped when a pistol cocked loudly nearby.
"You will stop, Hochstetter." Hogan saw the barrel of the weapon shining in the moonlight, held steadily against Hochstetter's temple, and followed it up an arm to its owner—Klink. "This man is an escaped prisoner, and under my control. It is quite clear what you were forcing him to do. Let go of him, and get up. Now."
Hogan was astonished at Klink's boldness. Never had he heard the kommandant's voice so sure and in command. Hochstetter stared at Klink, then turned to Hogan, the hatred in his eyes slicing through Hogan like a knife. Then, screaming incoherently, he briefly tightened his grip on Hogan's throat, making Hogan gasp, and started violently and repeatedly slamming his victim's head against the ground. Hogan could not fight him, a ferocious explosion pounding in his skull, the world swimming crazily before his eyes.
Klink drew his hand back, overwhelmed and unable to think of how to stop this tirade. Newkirk and Carter broke away and roughly pulled Hochstetter off of Hogan, shoving him toward Kinch and Le Beau, who grabbed his arms. As the noises dimmed around him and darkness overtook him, Hogan remembered thinking that someone was probably going to have to carry him back to camp.
He was right.
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"Hogan, you should have told me what Hochstetter was trying to do to you. I could have done something about it right away," Klink declared.
Two days later Hogan was sitting in Klink's office, going through the events of the previous weeks. He was still unclear on the sequence of events that brought him back to Stalag 13 after the confrontation at the bridge, but the men had explained their plans to him, which at least put some of it in perspective. Klink had arrived with Schultz and two of Hogan's men at that critical moment because Le Beau and Kinch had told him what was going on. Not in great detail, but enough for him to believe that Hogan's life—and indeed Klink's own livelihood as Kommandant of Stalag 13—were at stake. So Newkirk wasn't just trying to boost my morale when he said that the men were my Plan B, Hogan thought. That made my alternate plan to blow up Hochstetter with the bridge more like Plan C! We don't usually have that many options.
"I couldn't do that," Hogan replied. "Who were you going to believe—an Allied prisoner of war, or a German?"
"That much is true," conceded Klink. "But knowing how I feel about Hochstetter, you might have been able to trust me, Hogan."
"And that's another reason I couldn't risk telling you. You're not on friendly terms with the Gestapo. One wrong move from you and they could remove you—permanently. Then poof—there goes your command."
"You were worried about my command?" Klink asked, surprised.
Well, sure. If you go, my men may be subject to a new Kommandant who's not so fussy about whether he follows the tenets of the Geneva Convention. You may be the toughest Kommandant at the tightest POW camp in all of Germany, but at least you're fair."
"You are correct again, Hogan," nodded Klink. "Still, you have your men to thank for your rescue. If Sergeant Kinchloe and the Corporal Le Beau had not come to me when they did, you might have been at Gestapo Headquarters yet again. And from the way Major Hochstetter was acting you might not have been as fortunate as you had been in the past."
"I had made them swear not to tell," Hogan said, which, after all, was the truth. Funny how I'm telling Klink more and more of the truth this time around. If only he knew…. "I've got an awful lot to thank them for," he acknowledged. "More than you'll ever know. And I should thank you, too, sir. You really put it all on the line for me, and I really do appreciate it." I really do.
"All part of the job, Colonel Hogan," responded Klink. But he was practically preening with delight. "You might like to know that Hochstetter is being reprimanded for his actions at the bridge the other night," Klink informed him, with a trace of triumph in his voice. "And there is going to be an investigation into how he seems to have provided you with live explosives instead of the blanks that he claims to have supplied." Klink stopped and narrowed his eyes. "That's something that bothers me, though, Hogan," he said.
"What's that, sir?" asked Hogan innocently.
"If Hochstetter told you that the explosives were not real, why when he pressed the detonator did you and your men try to protect yourselves from the impact?"
Hogan shrugged. "Well, sir, we knew Hochstetter couldn't be trusted. If he was after you, why wouldn't he be after us? And what better way than to sacrifice one little bridge to make his point? It had to be a possibility, sir. I couldn't take any chances with the lives of my men."
Klink nodded, accepting the offering. "Well, Hogan, you're stuck with me now. Ah, you may be sorry one day for trying to protect me," he said good-humoredly. "You might have gotten someone totally incompetent, someone who would run Stalag 13 like a hotel, where you could get out at will. No, Hogan, no one would ever run the camp like I can."
Hogan nodded and smiled. With a parting salute, he said, "Kommandant, I wouldn't want anyone else to even try."