It was barely four o´clock, when Hogan walked out of his office to get some coffee. He rubbed his eyes, but the feeling of tiredness would not vanish.
No wonder, when you´ve been up all night, pacing your quarters and there´s still no solution.
He folded his fingers around the cup and stared out of the window. The camp was quiet, only a few guards patrolled the fence.
Imagine allied forces marching through that front gate, just now.
He waited and looked at the front gate, as if the allied forces would appear if he only wished for it to happen. Of course, they did not come.
Would´ve been too easy anyway. Has anything ever been easy?
He refilled his cup, but when he walked back towards the table, he tripped over LeBeaus box full of cooking equipment and in his attempt to remain upright, he grabbed the table, which promptly turned over and smashed onto the ground.
Hogan got to his feet again, brushing the dirt of his uniform. While he was pushing the table upright again, everywhere in the Barracks sleepy heads turned towards him.
"Geez, Colonel what are you doing?".
"Ehm sorry fellas, I tripped.".
Hogan settled himself once more at the table and looked around the Barracks at all the men, who were going back to sleep. However, when he reached Kinch´s bunk, he halted.
Where´s Kinch?
He looked around the rest of the room and discovered that Newkirk too was missing.
Where are they?
Immediately, he got to his feet and went down into the tunnel. They were not there.
He climbed upstairs again and walked towards Carters bunk. Gently, he shook him by the shoulder and whispered: "Carter, where are Newkirk and Kinch?".
Carter woke up and looked at him, confused. "What?".
"Where are Newkirk and Kinch?".
Instantly, Carter was wide awake. "Well, you see Colonel they ehm-". He did not continue his sentence, so Hogan tried again.
"Where are they, Carter? Escaped?".
Carter shook his head. "No sir, just let´s say-".
He was saved by the noise of the secret tunnel entrance opening. Out climbed Kinch and Newkirk. Hogan made his way towards them.
"Where have you two been?".
Both of them looked taken aback, not quite sure what to say. They had not anticipated that the Colonel would be awake or that he would have discovered that they were missing.
Hogan grew impatient. "Come on, where have you been?".
"Well, you see, guv´nor, I ehm, yesterday while we were digging some new tunnel, I lost me lucky card an´ I had to go back an´ you know, find it. Would´ve ruined my lucky streak you see.".
Hogan smiled, he didn´t believe a word of this, but it seemed to be nothing important, compared to his other problems.
"Well, then if you´ve found it, go back to bed there´s another three hours until roll call."
"Yes, sir.".
Hogan decided to go back into his quarters. There he would at least not discover things he should not know.
I will see soon enough, I guess.
The drawing on his desk made his mind return to the most urgent problem again.
Why is it so difficult for me to decide this time? I have ordered men to be killed before and George made it clear, that he is no longer the one you once knew, so why can´t I get on with this mission?
Again, his eyes travelled across the room, over the ceiling, the bed, the drawer. The drawer was opened slightly and he could see a glimpse of the pile of letters he´d gotten from his parents.
What would mum and dad say if they knew about this? Would they want one of their sons to become a murderer? No, never. But what if there´s no choice?
He put his head in his hands again, rubbing his eyes.
George endangers hundreds of good men and their families, can I allow him to continue? Isn´t it my duty to kill him? But if I put my duty before my feelings, I would be no better than the Nazi´s...
And there, his head resting in his hands, he fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. He was woken up by Schultz, who was shouting: "Raus! Raus!".
Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he followed the others outside.
Hogan stepped into the line, eyeing his men. Newkirk and Kinch looked tired, almost as if they hadn´t gotten any sleep last night...
Klink came running out of his office. "Schultz! Repoooooooooort!".
Schultz, very happy turned and reported proudly. "Herr Kommandant, all prisoners present and accounted for!".
Snickers broke out in the lines as Newkirk whispered. "Yes, but for how long?".
Schultz put his finger to his lips. "Shhh, the Kommandant wants to say something.".
Indeed, Klink had turned to face the men and was now beginning another "Klink speech", which as the prisoners knew meant, that it would either take five minutes, or five hours before they could go back into the Barracks.
"Prisoners, as Kommandant of this beautiful camp, I have to tell you something important. Some of you may already have noticed, that we have a very special guest here in this camp.".
At these words, he gestured towards Hochman, who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"This, is General Jörg Hochman, a very famous and respected Luftwaffe General. He is here for some investigations. During his stay, I don´t want any misbehaviour from your side. Any infraction of the rules will be, as usual, severely punished.".
Hochman gave a soft cough, indicating, that he also wanted to say something. He stepped forward and addressed the prisoners.
"So these they are, the prisoners of our superiority.", he spoke, as if to himself.
"All of you will have realised by now, that for you, the war is definitely over. And of course, soon the war will be over for all of us, because the Third Reich is proving his superiority by winning ground on all fronts.".
Hogan bit his cheek to prevent a sneering comment from coming out of his mouth.
Hochman now marched in front of the assembled prisoners and stopped in front of Hogan.
"And here we´ve got another proof of our superiority. Famous Colonel Hogan, the feared pilot of the allied forces in a prison camp."
"I wouldn´t be so proud of that. If they hadn´t had half the Luftwaffe aiming for my plane I wouldn´t be here right now.".
Hochman chuckled. "Cheeky, Colonel? Have I touched a tender spot in your pride?".
"At least I´ve got pride in which you can touch tender spots.", Hogan bit back, angrily.
A broad grin appeared on Hochmans face. "Still thinking about fighting, Colonel? Maybe still fighting? I think we will talk about this later, Papa Bear...".
And he turned and walked away. Klink, now very nervous dismissed the prisoners and got back into his office.
"Mon Colonel, we have to do something about him, now!".
Hogan nodded, his eyes weary. "I know, Louis, I know, but I don´t know what!".
Carter jumped in. "Maybe we could-".
Hogan shook his head violently before Carter had finished the sentence. "No, we will not kill him. I need to think about this.". And he marched into his office again.
Newkirk shook his head. "This is not going to work. We need to do something now.".
And Carter said: "Why don´t we solve his problem? We could kidnap Hochman and keep him in the tunnel until we need to bring some allied soldiers to London. Then we could send him with them, they could watch him and make sure he doesn´t escape. Then he could be imprisoned in London somewhere, until the war ends.".
Newkirk slapped him on the shoulder. "I think I like that plan, mate. Let´s contact London.".
Kinch smiled and nodded. "Very good, Andrew.".
"I think we should go and get mon Colonel. Then we contact London and we could wish him happy birthday as well. By the way, Kinch, Newkirk did you manage to get the special birthday present?".
As they nodded, all of them smiled and Carter went to get the Colonel.
A soft knock on the door made Hogan jump up from his chair. "Yes?".
Carter entered. "Hi Colonel, I just thought, I mean we just thought and then we had that plan and we think it´s really good. Do you like it?".
Hogan looked confused. "Do I like what?".
"Our plan!".
Hogan smiled. "You´ll first need to explain it to me, I can´t agree on a plan if I don´t know it.".
Carter slapped himself on the head. "Oh sorry, boy, I mean sir.".
Finally he began explaining his plan. During this explanation, he saw Hogans eyes brighten.
"So we´re going to do it?". Hogan nodded and followed Carter out of the room. There in the main room stood Newkirk, Kinch and LeBeau. All of them got down the tunnel.
Kinch handed Hogan the headset.
"Goldilocks, here is Papa Bear, over.".
"Papa Bear, here Goldilocks, over.".
"Papa Bear asking permission for change of plans, over.".
"What kind of change, over?".
"Kidnap Hochman and send him to London together with allied soldiers, over.".
"Papa Bear, we´ll call back in ten minutes and tell our decision, over and out.".
Hogan looked around the men. Kinch and Newkirk were missing again. "Hey, where are Kinch and Newkirk?".
Carter smiled at him. "Well, sir they are off to get something. And", he looked around, where Newkirk and Kinch had appeared out of the escape tunnel, "there they are.".
Kinch and Newkirk both grinned broadly as they shoved another person into the room. "We thought we´d just say happy birthday, sir.".
The person shook his black hair out of his eyes. Green eyes beamed at the man before him.
"Hi Rob, happy birthday.".
Hogan dropped his crush cap, which he had been holding.
"Tom?".
