Thanks for the reviews!
When Hogan and his men came down into the tunnel, they found only George, still sitting on the spot where they had left him the night before. Tom had been guarding him, or had been supposed to do so. Now however, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Tom!". Hogans voice echoed through the empty tunnels, revealing no clue to where his brother might be hiding. Fiercely, Hogan turned towards George. "Where is he?".
George shrugged and said: "He left some time ago. Said he did not want to be sitting near me any more.".
Hogan sighed. Of course, this assignment must have been hard on Tom, but still, many lives were in danger, would George escape. He could not allow this slip in the procedure.
"Tom!", he bellowed again, but again only the echo of his own voice came back to him. "Guard him, I´ll go and look for Tom.".
With these words, Hogan vanished into the darkness of the tunnel. Deep inside him, he was happy about Tom not being there, it stalled time, time he did not want to spent in the presence of his elder brother, whose coldness and sudden outburst of Nazism threw him off balance and above all, hurt him more than he would ever admit, to himself and to others.
The end of the tunnel appeared in his field of vision and still, Tom was nowhere to be seen. Where was that boy?
Suddenly, a knife was pressed against his throat, so tight, that he could hardly breathe, let alone speak. He felt himself being dragged off toward the other end of the tunnel, towards his friends. In an attempt to loosen the grip on his throat, he tried to wrestle himself free, with the only result that he received a knock on the head and everything went dark.
He came to, when a burst of laughter erupted in his ears. His vision still blurred from the knock on the head, he tried to look around himself and discovered, that he was in the main part of the tunnel. Rubbing the back of his head, he straightened himself up and gripped the table to prevent himself from falling over at the sudden dizziness that overwhelmed him.
"Anyone gonna tell me what´s so terribly funny?", he asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.
Kinch stepped up to him, barely keeping his laughter under control. "You see, sir. You found Tom...".
Hogans eyes widened in surprise. "I found him?".
"Yes, big brother and I thought you were some kind of enemy sneaking up on me, so...".
Hogan turned towards the voice and looked straight into Toms laughing face. "And what´s so funny about that?".
Tom reddened a bit, before continuing. "You see, I dragged you of towards the main tunnel and shouted for the guys to come and help me, because George had tried to escape. When they reached us, the said that George was still with them, so I figured...".
"That you had knocked out the one who was concerned about you and wanted to come and help you. Guess I learned my lesson, you can care for yourself.", Hogan said sarcastic,rubbing the tender spot on the back of his head.
"I´ll have you court martialed another day, I think, for now, we´ve got more important things to do.".
Hogan dropped himself on a chair. The others did the same. Only George was still sitting in the corner, apparently not taking in any of the events, staring blankly into space. His capture and the things he had seen underneath Stalag 13 had confused him and left him deeply lost in thought.
"We need to get our General out of here, fellas and you all know, London agreed on the condition that we send someone with him, to guard him.".
Suddenly, Toms eyes flashed aggressively. "Rob, I don´t know what you want, but I figure I´ve got an idea. You want to send me with him, don´t you? Well, that´s simple then, because I won´t go!".
"Guv´nor I ask permission to accompany the prisoner.". Newkirk said eagerly, "I need to visit me girlfriend, it´s ´er thirtieth birthday in eight months and I desperately need to be there.".
Hogan motioned him to remain silent, while he turned to Tom. "Why not?".
"I don´t want to be together with him any more! I don´t want to stay with him, I don´t want to accompany him and I don´t want to guard him! He- he - he would have killed us all, without sparing a thought. I think he would´ve even killed mom and dad if nut-brains had told him to do so!".
While these hard words echoed through the tunnel, George shifted in the corner, but did not indicate that he had even heard what had been said. He seemed to have gone totally lifeless, a body without a soul, a shell remaining on earth, while the person itself had gone.
Hogan nodded, but a stubborn look appeared in his eyes. London would reinstate the execution order, no doubt if he would fail to find someone to accompany George and he would not let that happen.
"So you´d rather leave him here until London sends us an execution order, because we failed to find someone to accompany him?".
Tom glared back at his brother, the same stubborn look in his eyes, although tears glittered through the hard look, making him look older than he was supposed to be.
"I can´t...". Tom whispered, but he did not continue. Instead he tried to say what he felt without words.
"I´ll go on my own.". A voice came out of the corner were George sat. Everybody turned. Hogan looked hard at him.
"No way, London said no, so we´ll send someone with you! Despite that, what are you going to try? Escape?".
George shook his head wearily. "It is too late, I´ll go back.".
"Back?".
"You said there was a way back, I´m ready to take it.".
Hogan stepped up to him, not quite sure if he could believe his brother. More than once, he had thought that George would maybe turn around, but every time he had been hurt, when his brother suddenly turned away from him. He was not going to be hurt again.
"Why now? You´ve done so much damage already. You could have decided this much earlier.".
George shook his head. "I was not ready.".
Tom jumped between the two, his eyes bright with rage, his voice sneering as he spoke: "And what are you going to try now? What is this? Can´t you be honest for once? Why the turn now? You endangered everybody here, you wanted to kill Rob!".
George shook his head again, his voice shaking as he said: "I never wanted to, I wouldn´t, I couldn´t. I wanted to save you tonight!".
Hogan sat down beside him, glaring into the darkness of the tunnel. "And to what price? You would´ve made me sacrifice one of my men and let me feel guilty afterwards, that was exactly your purpose!".
George laid his head in his hands. "I wanted you to be so down, you wouldn´t even think of fighting any more. You would´ve remained in this camp until the war was over, safe!".
Hogan looked at him. "Didn´t you realise that I could never stop fighting, that I never would sacrifice someone I could save?".
"I did not know, that this feeling existed.".
Suddenly, everybody fell silent. What had these last words meant? Finally, Rob whispered to his brother: "Which feeling?".
George looked at his brother, his eyes were red. All strength seemed to have left him. "I never knew that it was possible to entrust your life to other people, that it was possible to fight and keep fighting for what you believe in and that it was possible to have men put their lives in danger for you.".
An astonished silence fell over the tunnel. And all of them saw, how exceptional their unit was, how exceptional it was to trust each other in these times.
"But why did you call the Gestapo?".
"I thought that a night with them would suffice to persuade you to accept my offer. Don´t you see, I tried everything, I tried to persuade you myself to join us, I tried threatening you and they were my last, desperate attempt.".
Hogan smiled wanly. "Next time could you show your affection otherwise?".
George grinned weakly, but Hogan did not ease the tension between them. "How do I know that I can trust you?".
"I made a promise to mom.".
Again Tom dashed out of nowhere, angrier than before. "And what is that worth to you? You mingled with the Nazis, you tortured people to their deaths, you, you...".
"Yes, why did you do that? How could you?", Robs voice shook slightly as he remembered the stories George had told him on the first evening.
"They were mingling with the Underground, they were helping the English!".
Rob shrugged. "And what do you think we are doing?".
"I did not know.".
Rob grabbed his brother by the shoulder and turned his face towards him. "Does it make a difference when I do the same? Do you make a difference just because I am your brother?".
George shook his head. "The Underground in that area, they sometimes bombed civil houses, they sometimes targeted civilians, without reason, that is not fair, they are innocent.".
"Hoe many innocent people in London are and were killed in your Blitz? How many innocent people die at the hands of the SS? Why do you hate the allies, George?".
George made a dismissive hand gesture, without looking at his brother. "I don´want to talk about it.".
Hogan turned him forcefully towards himself. "Yes you want to.".
When George looked back at him, tears suddenly filling in his eyes. His voice was so quiet, Hogan had difficulty understanding him.
"My wife, my son were killed in a bombing raid. Another bomb hit the airfield. My comrades and I were sleeping when the bombs came down. Our building was hit, but I survived. Everybody was dead, the dead were everywhere. When I arrived in the city, I couldn´t find our house. It had gone. The neighbours told me that my family was dead, gone, just like that!".
And finally, he could cry. The tears he had been hiding for all those years now streamed down his face and fell upon the tunnel floor.
Robs voice was barely a whisper, when he said: "What city?".
A muffled voice said: "Hamburg.".
Horror stricken, Hogan asked: "When?".
"The night you were shot down.".
Nobody spoke for a long time. Hogans stomach turned, when he recalled that night. The cries of his crew still ringed in his ears, but now to add to the dread he realised that it might had been his plane that had killed his brothers family.
He whispered. "I´m sorry.".
George looked up at him. "That night I thought I´d lost you as well." and then he said almost in a whisper: "Rob, I´m so sorry.".
A wide grin, stretched over Hogans face. "You actually know my first name..."
The two brothers found themselves in a rib cracking hug, when Tom dashed towards them and pulled around them. That night, Jörg Hochman vanished forever, with only George Hogan left behind.
Hogans gaze swiped the compound, three months after these events. Tom and George had left more than two months before, together, but not as one guarding the other. Both had been picked up by the plane as pilots, who´d been shot down. Nobody knew, that General Jörg Hochman was still alive.
They had forged George new identity papers and radioed London that Hochman had accidentally been killed when they tried to capture him. They had actually been pleased that this problem was solved. Tom and George had left via the normal route.
Hogan looked at the letter he held in his hand. Tom and George had arrived safely in the States, where George had now joined the AirForce as a private.
A small smile played over Hogans face. There was a way back, always. He gazed up at the sky, where a bomber squadron made its way back home.
Maybe what I´m doing now is better than what I did before, at least I know for sure where my bombs end up.
Absent-mindedly, he doodled an image on the letter. When he looked at it, he smiled. It was the house with the five windows.
One window, for each Hogan.
The End
