Chapter 10: Following Orders
The next morning, the men stood out in the cold waiting for Shultz to finish the count.
"Common Shultzie, its cold." Complained Newkirk
"Hurry up. I have important things to do." Hogan commented.
"Colonel Hogan, please tell me you are not up to any monkey business. It is too early in the morning for that." Shultz pleaded
"I could tell you that…but I'd be lying."
Shultz covered his hears "I want to hear nothing. Noooooothiiiiiiiiing!"
"REEEEEEPOOOOOOORT!" Klink yelled as he walked to his usual spot in front of the prisoners.
"All present and accounted for, Herr Kommandant" at least for now.
"Colonel Hogan, incase you haven't figured it out. The hand off rule is back into effect. Shultz dismiss the prisoners."
Before Shultz could dismiss them, everyone was already heading in different directions. "No one is suppose to break formation until I dismiss them!"
Down in the tunnel, "Since we have a few minutes before Mertz leaves, Maria I am going to show you how to use this gun, just in case." Hogan handed her a Walther P38. Maria took it and looked at it. "Hold the gun in your right hand, and push your right hand into you left hand like this. Put you finger on the trigger. Close your left eye. Line up the front and rear sites on your target. Now squeeze the trigger, don't jerk it." Maria did as ordered. After she pulled the trigger, everyone looked at the target. Bullseye! "I thought you said you have only shot a few times?" Hogan asked.
"No. I said I have shot a few times. This is a nice gun, but if you don't mind, I would like to take this one?" Maria pulled out a bolt action Mauser 98K.
"I have been working on this rifle for a while. I now have it perfect for me to shoot."
"Are you sure you know what you are doing with that thing? That's a long range rifle." Hogan stated.
"I know. I have already tested its accuracy."
"Wait a minute. You didn't….Na you couldn't have. Not at that time." Hogan started to say.
"What are you trying to say? That I don't know how to shoot this rifle?" Maria glared at Hogan. If there is one thing she took seriously, and that is her shooting skills, even though she never bragged about it. "Lets just get this job done. Were running out of time."
Colonel Hogan and his men along with Maria waited in the curve for Mertz to show up. Carter and Newkirk had planted explosives in the road to make a crater to stop the car.
"Here he comes." LeBeau whispered
"Get ready Carter…NOW!" Hogan ordered. Carter hit the plunger, nothing happened. He checked the wiring and tried again. Still nothing. After seeing that the explosives were not going to go off, Maria positioned the rifle and set the site a little in front of the car. She pulled the trigger and blew out the front tire. The driver lost control of the car and ran into a tree. While everyone was dazed, the men rushed the car and grabbed Mertz. The driver was unconscious.
Back in the tunnel, Hogan decided to have a talk with Maria. "What were you thinking? You could have killed him. Then we would never have gotten any answers. You would never able to find out what he knows about Neblig! You need to learn to fallow orders. Don't do anything like that again. Is that understood?"
"If I would have waited for some one else to make up their mind, he could have gotten away. Since the explosives didn't go off, I took up the slack. It was a calculated risk. Everything about this job is a calculated risk! And besides, you can't order me."
"You think that just because you are a civilian that that means you don't have to fallow orders? Your wrong."
"No it's not because of me being a civilian."
"Then why?"
"I don't have to tell you any thing." Maria turned around to go upstairs, when Hogan grabbed her arm. Maria turned and looked Hogan in the eyes. "I'd advise you to let go…Colonel."
"I do not take orders from civilians."
"Fine. Then take this." Maria drew back her free arm punched Hogan in the face. The punch had such force, not to mention catching him off guard, that Hogan let go and hit the ground. Maria went upstairs and into her room. She put a chair in front of the door so it couldn't be opened. Hogan went upstairs and right for Maria's room. When he couldn't open the door, he started banging on it and yelling. The men have never seen their CO act like this before.
"Maria you open up this door immediately! I will not tolerate this kind of behavior!"
"Colonel, what's a matter?" LeBeau asked
"Allowing a female to be on the team and in this camp is what's a matter. I'm going to Klink to see if I can get her transferred."
Maria opened the door "I'll help you. I don't want to be stuck in the same camp with an arrogant, pompous Colonel, who is stuck on himself."
KOMMANDANTUR
Hogan and Maria barged into Klink's office. "Kommandant, I want to move to another camp. I don't want to stay here any more."
"I agree I don't want this Nazi whore here either."
Klink and Maria looked at Hogan with a surprise look on their face. "What did you call me you self righteous …"
"Hogan and Maria please! Lets talk…" Klink tried to interrupt
"You heard what I said. I called you…" was as far as Maria let him get before she punched him again. This time Hogan fought back. Klink could not believe a senior POW not to mention Colonel Hogan ever acting in such a manner. Hogan very rarely showed his emotions not to mention let them get out of control like this. Hearing the breaking of glass brought him out of though. He looked to see his office window was broke, Hogan was not in the room and Maria had just started going out the window. Klink grabbed Maria by the collar and set her in a chair.
"You will say there." Looking out the window and seeing Hogan on the ground, he yelled for Shultz. "Shultz, bring Colonel Hogan back in here."
By now, prisoners had gathered around Hogan and Shultz had to fight his way through them. When Shultz finally reached Hogan, he was on his feet trying to make his way back inside.
"Colonel Hogan, please come with me."
"Glad to. No one does something like that to me and gets away with it."
When Hogan got inside, he made a lunge at Maria, only to be stopped my Shultz. Klink put his hand on Maria's shoulder to keep her in the chair.
"Shultz, sit Hogan in the chair please. Now both of you will stay seated. Colonel Hogan, you are the senior POW and an officer no less. This type of behavior is unacceptable. You set the tone in this camp. Other prisoners look up to you. Maria, what Colonel Hogan called you was very inappropriate and should not have been said. On the other hand, you should not go around punching people and throwing them through windows. You are forcing me to take drastic measures to correct this problem. Shultz get me a pair of shackles."
"Thanks Kommandant that way I don't have to worry about her taking cheap shots at me."
"Colonel, what makes you think they are for her?"
"There is no reason for you to put them on me! Are you giving her special treatment because she is a woman?"
Shultz entered the office with a confused look on his face and handed the shackles to Klink. Klink put one shackle on Hogan's right wrist and the other one on Maria's left wrist.
"Hey Kommandandt what gives? I don't want to be chained to him?"
"Feeling mutual."
"You didn't seem to mind being close together last night. The two of you seemed quite cozy together. I don't know what the problem is and I don't want to know. Both of you will remain chained together until you work things out and I decide to release you."
"How are we suppose to sleep?"
"Or go to the bathroom?"
"I guess you will have to figure something out for yourselves. You're dismissed"
"But Kommandant…"
"No buts, jut leave or I will make you leave."
Maria and Hogan looked at each other with disgust and got up to leave. They both tried to go out the door at the same time. Klink motioned to Shultz to help them out the door. Shultz went up behind them and pushed them out.
"Kommandant, I hope you know what you are doing. They seemed really mad."
"Yes they did, but you didn't see them last night. They will get things worked out. They care about each other too much. The sad thing is when two people care about each other; they have a tendency to over reach over the little things.
"Thanks a lot for getting me into this."
"Me? You are the one that blew things out of proportion" Maria defended
They walked over to the barracks and the guys just stared at them.
"Any one saying a word will find themselves in hot water."
LeBeau got a towel and soaked it in cold water and handed it to Hogan. "What's this for?" LeBeau just pointed to his eye. Hogan rushed over to the mirror dragging Maria behind him. "You gave me a black eye. Why did you have to go and do that?"
"I didn't appreciate what you called me. Look we need to get something figured out If we turn around and walk in there and tellKlink we have things worked out, he will know we are lying."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Why don't we take this to the far extreme. Make it look like Klink's plan worked too well. We will still show our disagreements for a while, and then we start acting like we have worked things out. Then we will take it a little further so that Klink will have to release us. That is if the plan meets your approval."
"We can try it. The sooner I am unchained from you the better."
"Ditto."
"First we have to tend to our guests down stairs."
Everyone walked over to the bunk and tripped the lever that opened the secrete opening that lead to the tunnels.
Hogan started to go down the ladder "Hold on a minute." Maria stopped him "You want me to fall on my head?" Hogan examined the situation. Hogan threw Maria over his shoulder and carried her down the ladder. The rest of the men new it was in their best interest to not let the Colonel see them smile or laugh at the situation. But it was hard.
Downstairs, Hogan had Kinch bring Mertz into the room they had Buttons in.
"You. You sold me out. It is not nice to double cross the SS. I shall make you pay with your life." Mertz threatened Buttons
Hogan walked up to Mertz "Have a few questions to ask you. First. What have you done with the underground members you have taken into custody?"
Mertz sat silent. Hogan nudged Maria "Persuade him." Maria pressed on a pressure point. Mertz gritted his teeth to keep from screaming out. "Answer or I will let her keep doing that until you do talk." Mertz just still himself waiting for more pain but didn't say anything.
Maria pressed on another spot a little longer. This time Mertz bit his lip to keep from screaming. Still no answer. This time Maria bent down and pressed on two different pressure points on his calf. He could not keep from screaming this time. She kept pressing on them until he agreed to talk.
"Ok… Ok… They were sent to a secluded location and are being persuaded to talk."
"Where is this location at?"
"Aboutfifteen miles south of Hammleberg."
"You willtell us how to get there and then you and Buttons will go on a little trip. If you are lying to me…Well lets just say it can be very painful. What are you looking at?" as Hogan turned to Buttons.
"Oh, nothing" he quickly looked away.
"Second question, what do you know about Neblig?"
"You mean you're not Neblig? You look like her."
"I get that a lot."
"She is helping the underground in aiding downed fliers and escaped prisoners get out of Germany."
"Do you know where she is?"
"No. When we went to pick her up, she was gone."
Newkirk I want you to work on getting some transfer papers together. Lebeau, get some SS uniforms ready. Carter, check the weapons and make sure all are ready. Kinch, get on the radio to London and tell them will have some packages that need to be picked up and that two of them are hot."
"Um Sir are you forgetting something?" Kinch pointed to the shackles. Hogan rolled his eyes and gave Maria dirty look. "Ok so just Newkirk, Carter and LeBeau will be gong out.
That evening, Hogan sat sulking with Maria. "I should be out there with them. But thanks to you I had to send them out alone."
"Colonel, they are grown men. They have been on many missions with you. I am sure they will be extra careful and get every one out safely. Speaking as a person who had to finally let her daughter go out on her own, it terrified me. But I also know she can handle herself. I have taught her what to do, and I reached a point when I had to trust her. I just prayed that God would help her make the right decisions and that He would protect her."
"And see what happened to her."
"I see that God answered my prayer and kept her safe. They'll be fine."
"Colonel we have a problem." Kinch said as he ran up to them.