Disclaimer: see chapter three
Author's note: Same rules apply as in chapters three and four.
Hogan ran through the forest surrounding stalag 13, he could hear the heavy footsteps of Newkirk and Conner behind him. He stopped when he arrived at a river, Newkirk nearly ran up the back of him.
"What is this about?" Newkirk panted, with his hands resting on his head as he tried to catch his breath. Hogan grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Conner.
"He is a spy for own side, he has the newest developments for the bomb the Germans are working on," Hogan whispered in the other man's ear. "London sent us a message with the information and that's not the best part."
Newkirk looked at his commanding officer he wasn't in the mood for guessing games. Hogan saw his look and smiled.
"He has an assassin after him and we have to get him to England without sending him along the underground route. There's a leak in the underground." Hogan told him in frustration.
Hogan sat down heavily, putting his head in his hands. Newkirk looked at his commanding officer with concern; it wasn't like him to show his emotions in front of his men. Newkirk sat down next to him, pulling out his pack of cards.
"Well that's a sticky wicket. Rummy?" Newkirk asked. Hogan looked up at him as if he had gone mad, then smiled.
'Good old Newkirk,' He thought, nodding his head. Newkirk dealt out the cards.
"Conner," Hogan shouted over to the other man, who was sitting by himself.
"Yes, sir." The man looked at the other two men suspiciously.
"Come over and have a game." Newkirk added dealing out some cards for the third player.
Conner slowly got to his feet and walked over to the other two. He looked down at them for a minute then sat down.
"We found out that you know about the Germans developments in their new bomb," Hogan said picking up a ten and putting down a five.
Conner looked at him in shock then recovered slightly; he still had a job to do.
"You said it not me, sir." He said after a long moment. He picked his pile of cards up, deciding to play Hogan's game.
"Okay I'll bet you then," Newkirk announced looking at his cards. "Every time 'ogan or me wins a 'and you'll tell us what's going on, but if we lose a 'and we'll tell you how we know 'bout you." Newkirk looked at Hogan, who nodded his head slightly in agreement. "Deal or no deal?"
Newkirk watched as the man slowly thought about the deal. Newkirk looked at the cards in his hand. He knew that he wasn't a great Rummy player, poker was more his game, but he knew that Hogan was a good player; when he did play against the other guys in the barracks. He hoped that lady luck was looking down on him and Hogan.
Slowly Conner nodded his head. He had a feeling he could trust Hogan and Newkirk. He also had confidant that he is a good Rummy player.
"Okay since I already know a bit about your operation I will go along with your plan." Conner told them looking the two men over. Their faces were blank, good poker faces.
The game began and the fight was nerve racking, it ended when Hogan threw down his cards.
"Okay I win and my question is this," Hogan stopped and thought for a minute before he finished his question. "Where you the agent being picked up by the plane that you were on before it was shot down?"
Hogan already knew the answer to his question. This first question was to find out if the man's answers were reliable.
"Yes, sir," Conner said after a pause. "A American plane picked me up, I was on the way home when we came across the other planes, sir. Sam, the pilot, didn't know why they were picking me up. I was a normal agent for them nothing special, so we helped out the other plane, sir. Orders demand it."
London had told Hogan the full story. The man in front of him wasn't lying. In Conner's case, orders do demand that the pilot is to help any Allied plane if requested by a higher ranking officer, even though the plane was on an agent pick up. Unless the pilot was given special orders from Head Quarters telling him otherwise.
"Okay Newkirk deal out the next game," Hogan said a slight smile on his lips.
Another hand was dealt and the game started again. Newkirk picked up a two and threw down an ace. "Any one want to place some money on this one?" Newkirk asked looking down at his hand. Hogan's smile deepened as he realised that their team my have won another hand.
"We-" That was as far as Newkirk got for a hand was quickly placed over his mouth, the light was quickly extinguished, movement cloud be heard to Newkirk's left.
"I saw a light, it was over here." A man could be heard shouting in German. Hogan removed his hand from Newkirk's mouth, placing it on his gun.
It seemed that they had been making too much noise and alerted a patrol that had been passing through the area.
"Stay here and don't move." Hogan whispered into the darkness, so only Newkirk and Conner could hear him. "I'll be back in a minute or two."
He then slipped away without a noise, hoping that the other men would stay where he left them.
"It was here I heard some one and saw their light," a young German solider told the older one next to him, pointing about three meters right of where Hogan had left the others.
Hogan watched the two men from a short distance away. He reached down and ran his hand along the ground looking for a rock or something to throw. His hand touched something large and hard. He lifted the rock up and feeling its weight, he pulled his arm back to throw the rock, then stopped
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure running between two trees, Hogan's heart skipped a beat; the figure looked a lot like someone he knew.
"Damn," Hogan silently cursed.
"There I told you I saw something," the younger German exclaimed, pointing to where Hogan had seen the figure.
Two men hurried after the figure they had seen. Hogan made a quick decision. He rushed out of his hiding spot.
Hogan quickly tackled the older man to the ground and silenced him with a gun butt to the head.
Hogan heard a gun safety being removed and looked up at the young German soldier who was pointing his gun directly at him.