No ownership of the Hogan's Heroes characters is implied or inferred. Copyright belongs to others and no infringement is intended.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"Word from the Underground, Colonel," Kinch said, banging the side of the bunk bed that hid the entrance to the tunnel and radio below. He came into the room and stood beside his commanding officer. "Du Bois got the code and the message you want transmitted this morning."
Hogan nodded and took another sip of his coffee. "Good," he said. "So he'll get started soon."
"At least the Underground is doing something," Le Beau observed, taking down the laundry he had hung up two days ago to dry in the cold. "We are stuck just sitting here waiting for something to happen!"
"We've had our action," Hogan replied. "Now it's our job to make sure everything goes to plan. We're supposed to hope we don't have to do anything now."
"Right, mate. If you're so bloody anxious to go out and get yourself shot, you know where the tunnel is." Newkirk leaned down from his bunk, grinned, and pushed the Frenchman's beret down over his eyes.
Le Beau mock-laughed back at the Corporal and pulled down the last pair of socks. "Non, merci." He turned back to Hogan. "So when will Du Bois transmit the message, Colonel?"
Hogan put down his empty cup and glanced at his watch. "In about an hour and a half. After that our people in Leipzig will know to keep track of any movements by artillery." He sighed. "I hate to say it, Louis, but you're right—the hardest part is going to be the waiting. We have to give the Krauts time to get the idea to move on their own. If they don't, we'll have to pull in the really big guns." He looked meaningfully at Kinch.
Kinch straightened and started to swagger as he drew himself up into character. "This is General Kinchmeyer speaking! Why haven't you moved the flak battery from Leipzig to Magdeburg?" He paused as if listening to a reply on the pretend phone he was holding to his ear. "What do you mean you don't have orders to move? Are you insane or just incompetent?" Kinch started pacing back and forth across the common room, tucking his free hand up as if holding a swagger cane. "If you don't obey my orders I shall have you shot!"
Hogan grinned and shook his head. "See? No problem!"
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"Colonel, we have a problem."
Hogan turned his face, stiff with cold, toward the bearer of bad news. "What is it, Kinch?" he asked, frowning. He blinked away a couple of snowflakes that were getting in his eyes. Hogan had taken to the outdoors to cope with the interminable waiting. His mind was still preoccupied with the recent humiliations he had had to suffer at Klink's hands in sight of the bigger picture, and he was still worried about the lack of clothing and other rations for the prisoners. Concentrating on the biting cold meant that he could forget his own troubles, at least until he started to feel a touch of frostbite. "Du Bois didn't get caught, did he?"
Kinch quickly shook his head. "No, he's fine. Our contacts say the message was intercepted as expected, and passed on to Hochstetter for deciphering."
Hogan raised his eyebrows. "Hochstetter," he mused.
"Promote from within…. The boys' club, you know."
"So what's the problem? Hochstetter knows the code."
"Our people in Leipzig say the Krauts aren't taking the bait. The guns are staying."
Hogan let out a breath and watched it hang as a white stream in the air before him. "Great." He looked back out across the compound. "It couldn't be easy, could it? Are you ready, General Kinchmeyer?"
"Jawohl, Herr Oberst!" Hogan raised an eyebrow. Kinch nodded and said, "I know I know…" Then he said the words along with Hogan that he knew the Colonel would say: "Don't pad your part!"
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"Ja, this is Hauptmann Kirkenburg speaking. Heil Hitler!" Newkirk rolled his eyes at the mandatory German salute. "I have Herr General Kinchmeyer on the line to speak to your commanding officer at once. It's a matter of the utmost importance!"
Hogan shook his head and grinned as the others crowded around the radio in the tunnel. When given a role, Newkirk always played it to the hilt.
The ersatz Hauptmann waited until the poor desk clerk on the other end of the line had stammered something. "Taking time out to indulge in fine food and wine while the security of the Fatherland is at stake? Get him on the line immediately, Feldwebel, or heads will roll! General Kinchmeyer doesn't like to be kept waiting!" Newkirk flicked the switch to silence his microphone. "I've always wanted to say that 'heads will roll' bit," he grinned.
"He must be taking courses with Hochstetter," Hogan whispered. "How To Sound Like A Maniac In One Easy Lesson."
"Ja! Ja!" Newkirk suddenly flicked the switch and barked back into the microphone. "He is here. General Kinchmeyer, sir, your call!"
Kinch raised his eyes to the ceiling and then prepared himself as Newkirk handed him the microphone. "This is General Kinchmeyer. Who is this?" He paused. "Major Metzler? Well, Major, I wonder how your packing is going…. That's right your packing for the Russian front…. Well, I presumed that is where you were heading after not responding to the orders to move the heavy artillery away from Leipzig and out to Madgeburg as ordered…. What do you mean you weren't ordered to move them? What kind of fool am I going to have to demote now?"
Carter's smile almost took over his face as he watched Kinch in action. Far from just doing the voice, the radio operator was stiffening and waving a fist in the air, frowning deeply with his nostrils flaring and eyes flashing. Le Beau just shook his head, amused.
"Berlin has intercepted a coded message from the Allies that we have been able to decipher, and as a result we know we must protect Madgeburg," Kinch said with only thinly disguised anger. "So if the railway yards there are left undefended, and it is then destroyed, you will be very cold, Major. If you live that long!"
Hogan shook his head again, grinning broadly at Kinch's aptitude for playing power-hungry Nazis. Newkirk raised his eyebrows and tried to keep from laughing when Hogan stuck a finger under his nose and wiggled it to mock the Fuhrer.
"Of course I have my information correct! Do you dare question me, Unterfeldwebel?" Hogan nearly choked stopping his laughter. "What's that?... Yes, you are a Major… for the moment, Metzler! But I wouldn't be counting on that in your future! General Karterheim of the Abwehr and I are most insistent upon this being done as ordered! We had one of our best ciphering experts, Major Hochstetter of the Hammelburg Gestapo, translate the message for us. I suggest you call him, Unterfeldwebel Metzler—and then get those artillery batteries moving north… or you will be moving east! Heil Hitler!"
Kinch ran a finger under his throat and Newkirk cut off the call.
"Now what?" Carter asked.
Hogan just looked from one man to the next. "Now we wait."
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"Major Hochstetter here, Heil Hitler!... Major Metzler? Ja, I am aware of the message because I decoded it... What was that? Ja, ten o'clock tonight, Magdeburg. The Allies have ordered their spies out of the area as well. We are monitoring the area closely, but the orders were not to move the artillery... You have orders from a General Kinchmeyer to move your battery out of Leipzig?... And Kinchmeyer was told about this by…" The Gestapo Major paused and went a bit pale. "General von Karterheim? Ja, ja. He is Abwehr... Ja, Herr Metzler, Abwehr... The transmission originated from France... Ja, Major, we believe it is authentic. I suggest you act according to your orders. Heil Hitler!"
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Le Beau was taking his turn monitoring the radio when the headphones crackled to life. As the clicks of Morse code sounded in his ear, he turned to the bunk where the regular radio man was taking a nap. "Hey, Kinch! Message coming in!"
Kinch took in a long breath to wake himself up as he rolled off the bunk, took the headphones, and slid onto his chair almost before Le Beau could get out of the way. He tapped out a quick signal, then nodded absently to himself as a steady stream of 'dots-and-dashes' came pouring into his ears. "This is it. Go get Colonel Hogan."
Le Beau scrambled up the ladder and into the barracks, almost sprinting across the common room. He was about to knock on Hogan's slight ajar office door when he heard the Colonel's voice. "What is it, Le Beau?"
The Frenchman hesitated for a split second, not expecting Hogan to sense his presence before he even got in the room. "You'd better come downstairs, Colonel. Kinch says this is it."
Hogan was at the door within seconds. Le Beau scrutinized his commanding officer; he was fully dressed. "Colonel, why are you already in uniform?"
"Not already," Hogan corrected him. "Still. You have to change and go to sleep for 'already.'"
"You did not sleep, Colonel?" Le Beau asked, as he followed Hogan to the ladder and back downstairs.
"Let's just say my mind was on other things." Hogan hopped off the bottom rung of the ladder and quickly came to stand beside Kinch, who was still scribbling madly. Soon, the clicking stopped, and Kinch tapped another series of characters back, then took off his headsets and looked at Hogan. "What have we got?" Hogan asked.
Kinch wrote a few last words, then handed the clipboard to Hogan with a grin. "Our contact in Leipzig says Metzler has sent most of his mobile guns to Magdeburg. They should be there by about nine-thirty this morning."
Hogan smiled and nodded his satisfaction. "Typical German efficiency—only took two homemade Generals and a paranoid Gestapo Major to get things going!" He seemed to visibly relax, something that his men joined him in doing. "Kinch, get back on the horn to London. Use the emergency code. Tell them the way should be clear for a bombing raid at Leipzig tonight—if the weather cooperates with us!"
"Right, Colonel."
"Now let's get the other two Sleeping Beauties out of bed. Roll call's in less than half an hour, and we have a lot of waiting to do… and I'm not going to pace all by myself!"
