This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any actual resemblance to persons or historical persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The Hogan's Heroes characters, settings, ect. are owned by other entities who have not endorsed this fic nor have they given permission for their use. Author makes no claims to these characters and is not making any profit off their use.

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© Copyright: ­2004. Lisa Philbrick

Stalag 13

November 1944

Day 2

Major Miller considered himself fortunate that the quarters he was in had an aristocratic looking upright piano, because other than the deck of playing cards, he certainly didn't have much else to occupy his time with. Not that the instrument sounded all that wonderful but he made do, playing stripped down versions of various songs that both his civilian and military bands had played.

It was a simplified version of Moonlight Serenade that Kinch and LeBeau heard once they made it to the end of the tunnel directly underneath Klink's quarters. It was a tight fit, but the crawl space between the floor and the dirt was just big enough to allow Kinch and LeBeau to crawl out of the tunnel and make their way over to where they wanted to run the wire up through.

"You hear that?" LeBeau asked.

Kinch listened and then nodded. "Moonlight Serenade."

LeBeau nodded and smiled, knowing the tune. He listened as Kinch prepared his small hand held drill to drill through the floor. They both heard as the Major hit a note he didn't like, as he hit it more than once, obviously dissatisfied with it.

"Sounds like it needs a tune up," Kinch said. He put the drill to the floor board and began to turn it to drill the hole. The Moonlight Serenade continued, despite the rotten piano key. It took only a moment for Kinch to puncture the floor board and pull the drill back out. He then threaded the wire up through and tacked it to the underside of the floor board, holding it in place but keeping it lose enough to have it let go when the wire was pulled for more slack.

"Okay," Kinch said. "Now all the Colonel had to do is get the microphone in there."

LeBeau nodded. They then crawled back to the tunnel entrance.

Later, in Hogan's quarters, Kinch gave the cigarette-sized microphone to the Colonel.

"The wire should be near the desk. I judged it as best I could."

Hogan nodded. "Did you leave enough slack on the wire?"

"Plenty. He can run it up into ceiling if he wants."

Hogan chuckled. "I'll tell him that."

"The hard part is going to be finding a good place to hide it all. I'm sure he can hide in the desk somewhere. We'll have to test it too, to make sure it's all working."

"I'll work out a signal with him to test it and one to let him know we can hear everything."

Kinch nodded. "I had LeBeau make a new plug for the coffee pot here for the microphone."

"Good." Kinch handed Hogan the microphone. The Colonel tucked it into his bomber jacket. "Okay..." He turned and walked out of his quarters and nodded to Newkirk, Carter and LeBeau. The three heroes got up and followed the Colonel out of the barracks.

Armed with his playing guards, Newkirk wandered across the compound shuffling them in his hand. Carter and LeBeau gathered a few other prisoners for a diversion making sure to keep the tower guard's attention on them while the Colonel snuck to the backside of the guest quarters.

Hogan carefully opened the window to the bedroom of the guest quarters and hoisted himself up and in. He disappeared through the closed drapes and then turned around to close the window.

Major Miller heard the English pilot as he was talking to the camp guard. He carefully peeked through the closed drape in the living area and then heard the noise of the window being opened in the bedroom. He left the window and went to the other side of the quarters.

Hogan nearly had a coronary when the door opened. In a heartbeat he thought maybe he'd been caught, but when he saw it was the Major he let out the breath he had been holding.

Miller smiled. "Gotcha."

The Colonel chuckled. "Heard me coming this time?"

Miller nodded. "Also saw the Englishman outside, distracting the guard." He watched as Hogan removed the microphone from his bomber jacket. "What's going on?"

"Remember what I said earlier about the Propaganda Ministry looking to showcase you soon?"

"Yeah?"

"They're coming tomorrow."

Miller rolled his eyes. "Wonderful."

Hogan held the mike up. "And I want to hear every word they have to say." Hogan walked into the living area of the quarters and approached the desk, looking around it. "Some where here there's a wire sticking up through the floor..." Hogan spotted it and kneeled down, taking a hold of it and pulling it up through the floor a little more. "Here we go..."

Major Miller couldn't believe it. How the heck did that get there?! Curious, he approached as Hogan looked up at him.

"We have a receiver in the barracks. I'm going to leave this with you. It's easy to hook up, you just have to find a good place to hide it."

Miller nodded but looked at Hogan with surprise. "Colonel...how in the world...?"

Hogan smiled. "I told you my purpose here is to help POW's and the like escape? We have a tunnel system underneath this camp that helps us do that."

Miller blinked and looked at Hogan, his brown eyes wide. "Tunnels??"

"Yep. We've got one tunnel that runs right to Klink's quarters next door. We just ran the wire through there and drilled a hole through the floor here."

Miller was speechless.

"You know how I figured out the Propaganda Ministry is coming…"

"You have the Kommandant's office wired."

"Right. His phone too."

"You have a tap on his phone?!" Miller was so astounded by this he started laughing.

Hogan was grinning. "There are only five of us, but we do everything we can to mess up the German war effort." Hogan paused, feeling a sense of pride but knowing time was of the essence. "I wish I could show you everything we do, Major, because I know you'd get a kick out of it." Hogan sobered a little. "But we don't have the time to spare."

Miller nodded. "I understand Colonel." Hogan handed him the microphone.

"Once you have this set up and hidden, open the front window there about an inch. If the guard gives you a hard time about it, just tell him you need some air. One of my men will be watching that window. Even if the guard makes you close it, we'll see that you at least opened it."

"Okay."

"Now, after you do that, give us a moment or two so we can turn the receiver on. Then either just speak or..." Hogan glanced at the piano. "Better yet, play something on the piano."

"Okay. How will I know you can hear me?"

"If all goes well you should hear the Stalag 13 Barber Shop Quartet singing White Cliffs of Dover out in the yard." Hogan grinned.

Miller chuckled. "Okay."

Hogan nodded. Suddenly he heard Newkirk whistling a tune outside. That was the signal that the Englishman had run out of time with the guard.

"There's your signal," Miller said. "I'll take care of this, Colonel." He held up the mike.

Hogan nodded and stood up, patting Miller on the shoulder in a 'good luck' fashion before ducking into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

Major Miller looked at the cigarette-sized microphone and chuckled. He glanced behind him, checking the front door and then went to work connecting the microphone to the wire.

Once Hogan, Newkirk, Carter and LeBeau got back to the barracks, everyone took their positions and waited, knowing it would probably take the Major several minutes to connect the mike and then find a place to hide it. LeBeau sat just outside the barracks door with a book, holes cut through it so he could look directly across the compound at the front window of the guest quarters. Once he saw the window open, he would signal to Kinch, who stood near the door of the barracks and would knock, which would signal Carter to signal Hogan.

Major Miller had the wiring hooked up in less than two minutes. He then looked around the desk to find an appropriate place to sufficiently hide the microphone. He pulled the chair out and looked up underneath the writing table and found that that would be a sufficient place to hide the mike....but he had nothing to attach the mike to and nothing to hold it in place. His brow furrowed in thought, he placed the mike down on the floor and began to rummage through the desk, looking for anything that might be of any help.

He found paper, an envelope opener and several fountain pens and then finally in the last drawer he opened he found a box containing sticks of sealing wax. This would work. He had his cigarette lighter and would have no problem softening the wax and the wax would surely hold the microphone in place, along with the wire, which he could tack to the underside of the desk and then down along the backside of the desk.

"Good...now..." Miller removed his Zippo cigarette lighter from his pocket and placed it on the desk. He picked up the microphone and checked to make sure that with it extended it to the very edge of the front of the desk that he would have sufficient slack on the wire. He did and leaving the microphone on the floor again, he opened the box of sealing wax and took one of the sticks out. Using the letter opener, he cut a piece of the wax off.

Miller then flipped open his lighter and struck it, passing it underneath the piece of wax that was on the letter opener, careful not to hold it directly to the wax and have it melt completely. He only wanted to soften it enough to use as tack.

Meanwhile, outside in the yard, the heroes were waiting for the signal.

"Nothing yet?" Kinch asked LeBeau.

"No." LeBeau dropped the book a moment, looking like he was turning a page. He raised it back up and continued to watch the window. "I hope he's not having any trouble with it."

"I think most of the time is being spent looking for a place to hide it," Kinch said.

Back in the guest quarters, Major Miller had successfully softened the wax enough and had tacked one end of the microphone underneath the desk. The one dab of wax, once cooled, wasn't enough to hold the microphone, which he knew it wouldn't be. But he now had to hold the microphone up with one hand and use the other to try to prepare the next dab.

"Terrific..." After a moment of thought, he picked up the letter opener and cut another piece of wax from the stick that was laying on the desk, with one hand. With the wax stuck to the tip of the letter opener, he laid the letter opener on the desk top, placing it so the tip was over the edge. He then held up the Zippo lighter and sparked the flame, carefully waving it back and forth near the dab of wax, being careful again not to totally melt the wax.

Seeing it was softened, he closed the lighter and took hold of the letter opener, applying the wax to the other end of the microphone underneath the desk. He held the mike while the wax hardened and prayed it would all hold when he let go of the mike.

He hesitated on letting go. He didn't trust it. If he let go and it let go, he wasn't all to thrilled about having to start the whole thing all over again. So he held on to the mike still with one hand and prepared another dab of wax.

By this point it had been almost ten minutes since Hogan had smuggled the microphone in. Although the heroes were anxious, they knew the task of hiding a listening device couldn't necessarily be done in five minutes. Wiring the Kommandant's office had taken Kinch almost an hour, as he had to patch in the telephone line as well. So they waited, as patiently as they could.

The microphone was now stuck to the underside of the desk with three tacks of wax. Major Miller held his breath as he slowly took his fingers away from the microphone. It held and he slowly breathed out.

Tacking up the wire that connected to the microphone was a cinch. He pulled the remaining slack back toward the back of the desk and prepared bits of tack to hold it up underneath the underside of the desk. He then tacked the remaining wire to the backside of the desk and whatever remaining slack he had he forced back through the hole in the floor and tacked that in place as well.

Miller looked over his work and satisfied with it he stood up. He returned the chair with the desk and checked to make sure when the chair was pulled out, it didn't interfere with any of the device. It didn't and with the chair pushed in, the Major stood back and looked at the desk, making sure it didn't betray what it hid.

The microphone was unnoticeable and the wire that had come up through the floor was in back of the desk, unnoticeable as well. He checked it from just about every angle, pacing back and forth in front of it and could see nothing that would suggest there was a listening device hidden beneath the desk. Major Miller was impressed with his work and grinned. Not bad for a trombone player from Iowa...

He retrieved his Zippo lighter and returned the sealing wax and letter opener to the desk drawers he had found them in. He found a cigarette from the pocket of his uniform, lit it, and walked over to the front window. He carefully peered out through the tiny slit of the drape and saw the guard that was pacing back and forth in front of the guest quarters. The Major took a moment to savor a drag on the cigarette and then holding it between his lips, he unlocked the window to open it.

Crack!!

The guard outside heard the noise and saw the window being opened a little. Across the compound, LeBeau sat up straight.

"There it is, he's got it!"

Kinch signaled to Carter, who signaled to Hogan. The Colonel turned on the receiver and all the heroes gathered in his quarters to listen.

The guard, meanwhile, had quickly run into the guest quarters. "Nein!" he shouted.

Miller jumped back from the window and held his hands up, cigarette still between his lips. "I was just opening it for some air." He paused to take hold of the cigarette. "Verboten?" he asked.

"Ja. Close it."

Miller nodded and obliged. He closed the window and stepped away as the guard checked it to make sure it was locked.

"Sorry," Miller said as the guard glared at him before leaving the quarters. The front door closed with a loud bang! and Miller looked over at the desk. "Well, Colonel I hope you can hear me..." He approached the upright piano and sat down at it. He then began to play White Cliffs of Dover.

Over in the barracks, Hogan and the others smiled at the success. "Loud and clear, Major," Hogan said. "Loud and clear." He nodded to LeBeau, who unplugged the receiver and the heroes left the Colonel's quarters. When they emerged from the barracks, Newkirk signaled to several other prisoners to join them. They lined up like a choir, and Hogan took the position to lead them. He raised his arms and then signaled for them to begin.

"There'll be blue birds over....

the White Cliffs of Dover

....tomorrow...

just you wait 'n see....

There'll be love and laughter....

and peace ever after

....tomorrow...

when the world is free..."

Major Miller heard the singing and stopped playing the piano. It worked! They could hear him! He stood up from the piano and went over to the window and cautiously peered through the slit in the drape and saw Colonel Hogan leading several of the prisoners in the singing. Miller smiled, for the success and for the fact that the boys sounded pretty good.