Everybody thanks for the reviews! Have fun reading.
While Hogan was asleep, his men in Barracks two were busy with the preparations. Newkirk had just finished the official papers, when Kinch stepped inside.
"´ey fella, what´s up? Why are you comin´ through the door, thought ya´d left through the tunnel to the watchpost?".
Before Kinch could answer Carter and LeBeau stepped out of Hogans quarters, Carter in the uniform of a German general. They to looked questioningly at Kinch.
Kinch sat down at the table and signalled the others to do the same.
"I was in the watchpost, when Hochstetter cam into the cooler. At first he tried to convince the Colonel that we did not care about him anymore-".
He was interrupted by Newkirk, who smashed his fist onto the table. "What! How could he? That filthy German rag, if I get my ´ands on ´im, ´e´d better make sure, that ´is insurance pays for ´ospital fees!".
"Newkirk, calm. What happened then Kinch?". Carter, eager to know what had happened interrupted Newkirk and Kinch continued.
"The Colonel did not reply to Hochstetter, but when Hochstetter started his tirade on the Third Reich and the Herrenrasse, he could not hold back a sneering comment. This made Hochstetter angry and he called for his goons, who were just about to beat the Colonel up, when I decided to get klink. I met him in his office and took him to the cooler. There he told Hochstetter to leave and, mind you, he left! Then Klink called for Rickman and I stayed there with Rickman and that´s why I came in through the door.".
Newkirk was not at all satisfied with this short explanation. "And what? How´s the gov´nor?".
"He´ll be fine now.". Kinch did not want to say anything more. "But we should concentrate now on saving him from death and not worry about his injuries. I know this sounds hard, but if we lose to much time worrying about him now, we waste time in saving his life. Rickman has tended to him and everything should be fine now.".
The others nodded. "Anyway, Kinch ´ow do you like le uniform?".
Kinch smiled. "It´s perfect Louis. Now we´d better make sure that Carter gets there in time. Have we got some other uniforms?".
"Oui, we´ve got the one we used last week, when we needed to dress up like a German patrol.".
"Fine, one of you needs to dress up as a German as well, we can´t have a General wandering around without his personal attendant.".
"With your permission, I would like to do that.".
"Fine, Newkirk, now Carter, get out of that uniform, roll call´s in a minute."
Carter disappeared into Hogans quarters and came out a minute later, just in time, because Schultz was already shouting: "Raus! Alles Raus! Raus, raus, raus! Schneller, raus!".
Carter hurried outside. As he walked past Schultz, the guard asked: "Carter, what were you doing inside Colonel Hogans quarters?".
Carter grinned. "Do you really want to know this, Schultz?".
The guards eyes widened. "Oh no, Carter, don´t tell me. I don´t see anything, I hear nothing!".
Laughing, the men got into the line. Schultz walked past, counting. "Zwölf, Dreizehn, Vierzehn...". He stopped for a moment when he reached Hogans place, the word "Fünfzehn" on the tip of his tongue. Realising his mistake, he turned to the Kommandant.
"Herr Kommandant, all prisoners are present and accounted for.", but these words were not spoken as proudly as other days, because not all prisoners were there, but the one missing was no ordinary prisoner any more.
Klink turned to the prisoners. "Prisoners, as some of you may have noticed...". He stopped for a moment and sighed. "Well, as I said. As some of you may have noticed, your senior POW Colonel Hogan won´t be in charge here anymore. The Gestapo has found evidence, that he is a saboteur and needs to be executed. This will happen the day after tomorrow. I wanted to remind you, not to do anything foolish.".
Again he paused and the prisoners began to talk amongst each other. Some of them hadn´t noticed that Hogan was gone and they were shocked to hear about this.
Then Klink spoke again. "Quiet please, I have got another announcement to make. From now on, untill Hogans execution, a guard will be present in every Barracks to prevent escape attempts. That´s it. Dismissed.".
Murmuring, all prisoners walked back to the Barracks. In Barracks two, Carter, Kinch, Newkirk and LeBeau were waiting impatiently. They wanted to know which guard would guard them, because this would be a major factor for their plans.
All sighed with relief, when they saw Schultz coming through the door. Kinch nodded to LeBeau and the little Frenchman got out some of his Apfelstrudel, Schultze´s favourite food.
"Bonjour, Schultz, mon ami. ´ere, ´ave some Apfelstrudel!".
Delighted, Schultz sat down at the table. This was definitely going to be a really good evening for him. He did not see Carter and Newkirk slip into Hogans quarters.
Ten minutes later, a German general and his attendant sneaked out of Hogans quarters and quietly opened the tunnel entrance. Schultz was still eating and did not notice them. So far, everything was going fine. Kinch nodded to LeBeau and vanished into the tunnel as well, to control the phone calls, coming in and out of Gestapo Headquarters.
LeBeau returned to the stove, to make some more food ready to keep Schultz busy.
At the arranged place, Carter and Newkirk met some members of the local underground, who handed a car over to them. One of them was Schnitzer.
Schnitzer said. "Succes boys. Papa Bear depends on you.".
Carter nodded. "Thanks, we´ll try to do our best.". Then they drove off, toward Stalag 6.
On the road, they did not encounter any patrols. Carter was grateful for this, because he was getting really nervous. The closer they cam to Stalag 6, the paler Carter turned.
Andrew, calm down. You know what Kinch said? He is sure you´re going to make it, otherwise he would have sent somebody else. Now stop worrying.
Then they entered the gates of Stalag 6. Newkirk jumped out of the car and opened the door for Carter. Carter strolled towards the Kommandants office, with an arrogant look on his face. A few minutes later, a young secretary led them into the office.
Behind the desk sat a man, about 40 years old. He had black hair, with some grey stripes in it. When he looked up, they could see his green eyes. With a move of his hand, the Kommandant swept back his brown hair and looked questioningly at them.
Carter halted his observations and began in German. "Herr Kommandant, I am general von Kattenscheit. I am here to inspect your camp by orders of the Führer. The Führer wants every camp in this region to be perfectly, so that´s why I am here.".
The Kommandant nodded. "Heil Hitler, Herr General. I am Hauptmann Berger, Kommandant of Stalag 6, as you may know. If you want to, I will show you around the camp.".
Carter nodded. "Very well, Herr Hauptmann. And after the tour, I would like to speak to your senior POW.".
"Right, Herr General. Woulkd you follow me?".
During the tour, Carter noticed that this camp wasn´t much different from Stalag 13. There was only one big difference. The prisoners seemed tired and demotivated.
Carter, don´t wonder. You would be demotivated as well, if Crittendon was your senior POW.
After the tour, they returned to the office and Berger called for Crittendon. A few minutes later, the Englisg Colonel walked in and saluted firmly. Then, he turned to Carter and saluted again.
Carter nearly rolled his eyes.
Oh my God, what a jerk. Who cares if his salute is not perfectly? Who has teached him this idiotic habit of being military correct all the time? Has nobody told him the difference between enemy and ally?
Then he stopped his thoughts and said to Berger. "Herr Kommandant, could you please leave us alone for a time. I´d like to speak to him personally.".
Berger left, without a comment. When he was gone, Crittendon spoke: "General, if you want to interrogate me, I won´t say anything. You will hear nothing but name, rank and serial number.". And as if he had to prove this, he said:
"Rodney Crittendon, Royal Airforce, 87, ehm no, wait, 65...". He grabbed his dog tag and was about to say his correct serial number when Carter interrupted him.
"Colonel, we are no Germans. I am sergeant Carter and this is corporal Newkirk.".
Crittendon studied them closely and then came to the conclusion, that they were speaking the truth.
"Very interesting, but what do you want from me?". Newkirk jumped in: "Sir, do ya know, in which trouble, you´ve put Colonel Hogan? You know t´at ´e is about to be shot? We´re givin´ ya the chance to rewind your mistake and save Hogans life.".
Crittendon was perplex. Now Carter took over. "Yes, we have got a tape recorder with us. You know, Hochstetter recorded your confessions on a tape and we want to make a fake tape and exchange them. Here is the text you have to say. Understood?".
Crittendon nodded and allthough everybody had doubted that Crittendon could do even the simplest thing, it was succesful. Carter slipped the tape into his pocket and said to Crittendon. "Okay, Colonel and now don´t do anything. You have done enough in this. Just stay here and keep quiet. If Berger asks what we´ve been doing, tell him I´ve asked some questions about the camp life and so on. Got it?".
When Crittendon nodded, they left. They met Berger on their way out and Carter spoke again. "Herr Kommandant, this seems to be a very well run camp. It was a pleasure to visit your camp. Heil Hitler.".
Then they left. They had no trouble on the way back and left the car at the place where they´d found it. When they stepped into the tunnel, Kinch was already waiting for them. "And? How did it go?". Newkirk slapped him on the shoulder in excitement. "Everythin all right mate. No trouble, no patrols and ´ere.", he produced the tape, "you´ve got the complete interrogation with Crittendon.".
He laughed out loud at Carters look. Then Carter protested. "How did you get that tape? It was in my pocket when we left Stalag 6!".
"Just practisin´ mate. I nicked it from you pocket. You should better watch out when walkin´ in a big city, even an absolute beginner could pickpocket you.".
Kinch smiled but then returned to seriousness. "Well done you two. Now go upstairs, Schultz will be eager to see one of us around and LeBeau needs a break, he´s been serving Schultz with all sorts of food for the last two hours.".
The two of them left upstairs and Kinch was alone.
So far everything has gone well, but how long will our lucky time last?