TITLE: A SPOT OF TROUBLE
AUTHOR: Meercat
RATING: Strong PG-13
WARNINGS: Violence, some torture, drama, angst
SUMMARY: Hogan and the boys race to save one of their own from torture at the hands of the enemy.
AUTHOR'S THANKS: To Patti and Marg for their wonderful beta of this story. Any remaining mistakes are my own. If you haven't yet read their Game Universe stories, run don't walk. They are awesome!
Chapter 2
Andrew Carter hunkered down in the heavy shadows at the base of a gnarly oak tree and breathed a sigh of relief. His job was done, the bombs set. The colonel would be proud of him--in and out past the guards without a single mistake. The German soldiers were too busy sharing cigarettes and gossip to worry about doing their jobs. What danger could there be this deep inside Germany?
It hadn't been difficult to wire up each truck. The center one would go first. The chain reaction would take out all twelve vehicles, the buildings, and everything else inside the way station's barbed wire fence. Thank goodness the depot was well outside of town. He might not have been able to do the job otherwise. The explosions would be powerful enough to take out five square blocks and blast a hole 30 feet deep in the ground.
With time, distance, and a span of unbroken forest between himself and his target, Carter took a moment to relax. The adrenaline rush of immediate danger faded. He wobbled inside, his muscles limp and quivery. He felt lightheaded with relief and giddy with success. Now if only the bombs go off on schedule--
The sky pulsed with a burst of light, like a giant flash bulb. The air throbbed around him. Overhead, leaves rustled and trees swayed as though pushed from behind. A hot, artificial wind replaced the cool, gentle night breeze. A distant whump preceded an even stronger vibration of air. The ground rippled beneath his feet. A new scent tainted the air around him, of spent explosives and superheated metal.
Carter couldn't resist a victory dance. He hopped and wiggled and punched the air with a fist. Far behind him, the overcast sky took on a scarlet haze laced with mustard gold that mirrored the tremendous inferno on the ground. Secondary explosions rumbled across the landscape as ordnance within the depot reacted to the tremendous heat. Beneath the explosions, he heard the warbling drone of air raid sirens.
For a demolitions expert, there was no finer music.
HH
"What was that noise?"
Around the dining room of the camp Kommandant, various people reacted to the distant explosions in different ways. Colonel Wilhelm Klink, Kommandant of Luft Stalag 13, bounced in his chair hard enough to dislodge his monocle. The Gestapo Major, Wolfgang Hochstetter, blurted out a Prussian curse and stiffened in his seat. Sergeant of the Guard Hans Shultz, on duty within the kommandant's personal quarters, came to attention and firmed his grip on his rifle. Only Hogan, LeBeau, and Newkirk continued what they were doing.
His expression at its most innocent, Hogan leaned across the table to pour more wine into Hochstetter's glass.
"What noise might that be, sir?"
Hochstetter scowled. The Gestapo officer shoved back his chair with a harsh wood-on-wood screech, to which Hogan gave an exaggerated grimace.
"You mean that noise, sir? It was your chair on the floor. Rather like fingernails on a chalkboard, wouldn't you agree, sir?"
With a low growl, Hochstetter threw down his napkin and glowered across the table at the senior American prisoner.
"You know precisely what noise, Colonel Hogan."
Newkirk, one arm cricked to hold a folded white dishtowel, moved the white lace curtains of Colonel Klink's dining room window and pointed outside. "Maybe it has something to do with that. Judging by the glow, I'd say something's on fire."
"Glow?" Klink parroted. "Fire?"
Hochstetter and Klink jostled one another in an effort to get a clear view from the window. Shultz, far taller than the two senior officers, looked out over their heads. Hogan hooked a finger around the barrel of Shultz's rifle and aimed it away from Klink's back.
Far beyond the barbed wire and guard patrols, beyond the trees that surrounded the camp, a red and yellow glow reflected off the overcast night sky. The light flickered and brightened in broken synchronicity with the distant rumbles of explosions.
Inside the camp, guard dogs barked and paced their kennels. Armed sentries milled about, alerted by the distant explosions and unnerved by the false daylight, while spotlights from every watchtower crisscrossed the compound in search of prisoners bent on escape. Being after 9:00 p.m. curfew, no lights came on in any of the prisoners' barracks, but the swinging searchlights showed vague shadows in almost every window and doorway. Distant rumbles, like the threat of summer thunder, made the windowpanes hum.
The Gestapo officer wheeled around and glared daggers at the senior POW.
"Colonel Hogan, you had something to do with this!"
"Me!" Hogan laid his hand across his chest, fingers splayed. "Sir, it pains me to think you suspect me. Why, I'd even say my feelings have been hurt. How could I possibly be responsible when I have spent the entire evening in such charming company? Your company, I might add."
"Colonel Hogan has a point, Major," Klink said. "He has been in this room the entire night. Hasn't stepped out, not even once. Even if what you suspect is true--though it is preposterous--Hogan, a saboteur?--phfft!--he could not possibly have done anything under our very noses."
"BAH!" Hochstetter jammed his helmet on his head and stomped out of Klink's quarters. He yelled back over his shoulder, "KLINK! Unlock your office. I will use your phone to call Headquarters."
"But he didn't finish his dinner," Louis LeBeau moaned even as the camp Kommandant trotted after Hochstetter, a white square of napkin still dangling from the neck of his uniform shirt, "and after I spent hours and hours slaving over a hot stove."
"Don't worry, little cockroach." Sgt. Shultz patted LeBeau on the back in awkward sympathy. Despite the big German's attempts at gentleness, he still staggered the smaller man. "I--we--appreciate your cooking."