Bersenbruck,Germany
Day 8

Two hours, and one flat tire later, Fritz's sedan sat slumped to the right at the side of a dirt road just ten miles from Bersenbruck. Miller and Fritz both got out of the car to inspect the tire. Fritz wasn't too concerned; after all they had a spare. He went about taking the spare from the trunk along with the jack and the appropriate tools he would need. It wasn't until he attempted to remove the flat tire from the car that he started to show a little worry.

"Let me try," Miller offered. But the bandleader couldn't get the lug nut loose either. After a few failed attempts, he looked at Fritz.

"I think we're going to be here for awhile..."


Düsseldorf,Germany

Within the same two hours, the Underground in Hammelburg had sent coded messages out to other operatives south of Düsseldorf with the instructions to report false sightings of Major Miller and the kids. Those reports were now finding their way to Hochstetter's attention.

The Gestapo Major almost thought he had picked up the trail, but he would wait until he had more definite proof before shuffling his search teams around. Definite proof to the contrary, however, came a little while later, when two reported sightings crossed his desk from district commanders. Hochstetter looked them over and found the details were nothing different from the few reports he had received all ready. He was about to place them aside when something prompted him to look at them again. This time he noticed an inconsistency. The time of the sighting from one town was twenty minutes earlier than the sighting reported in another town. And Hochstetter knew the travel distance between the two towns was over forty minutes.

"The Underground...." Hochstetter concluded out loud, speaking the word like it was vile. There was no other explanation. He knew Miller had to be getting help from the Underground in his escape and it was logical that the resistance fighters would try to persuade the search away from the direction Miller was going. The deflection would have worked except the Underground had gotten sloppy.

All in all, it proved one thing for certain. Major Miller and those kids were not heading south.

Hochstetter picked up his telephone. It was time to start shuffling things around.


Military Checkpoint, north of Hamm, Germany

Meanwhile, at a checkpoint Fritz and Miller had passed through three hours earlier, two Gestapo officers were questioning the two military guards. Yes, the soldiers had seen a black Gestapo sedan with two adults and three youths in the back. It was the only Gestapo car to pass so far that day. They recalled the names of the two Gestapo officers in the car. They told that the driver had done all of the talking. They described as best they could what both the driver and the passenger looked like. The soldiers were then handed the two photos of Glenn Miller.

The soldiers paused. They concentrated on the civilian photograph. It was hard to tell, they explained. The passenger, the Gestapo Captain, did not wear glasses and had a mustache. It was possible it was the same man, but they were not for certain.

The two questioning Gestapo officers nodded in understanding and thanked the soldiers for their help. As the officers walked back to their car, they glanced at one another. The soldiers may not have been certain, but they were. The American had passed this way.


Bersenbruck, Germany

Thirty minutes after Fritz's sedan pulled up lame with a flat tire, Emery arrived at the checkpoint just north of the town of Bersenbruck. The small clearing, located off a dirt road, was empty. Emery tried to hide his concern, but the kids knew something was wrong.

"Where are the others?" Roderick asked.

Emery shook his head. "I don't know..." He looked through the windshield out at the clearing and to the road. Fritz was supposed to arrive at every checkpoint first. There was the chance that Fritz could have been held up by something. A road damaged from bombing that they hadn't been aware of. Or mechanical trouble. Emery tried to keep his thoughts more along those lines and looked at his watch. He would wait a few minutes.


Düsseldorf, Germany

The situation room Hochstetter had set up at Gestapo Headquarters was a buzz with activity. More reports were still coming in from the southern district commanders, which Hochstetter pretty much ignored. The northern district commanders were reporting that they were shifting their efforts per Hochstetter's instructions and were making contact with the military commanders and checkpoint guards in their areas.

While Fritz and Miller were losing minutes due to the flat tire, the two Gestapo officersinvestigated what the two checkpoint guards had told them. They verified that there had been no escape from any of the surrounding work camps near Hamm, that the two names the supposed Gestapo officers had used were false and that no Gestapo officers within the region were known by any such names. They also verified that no youths had been turned in to the Gestapo either in Hamm or in the next town of Ahlen.

A report was put together quickly and forwarded by wire to Major Hochstetter in Düsseldorf. Marked top priority, it was delivered to him at once.

"Herr Major," the currier said, coming to stand at attention and holding the report out to Hochstetter. "Top priority from Hamm, sir."

Hochstetter took the report and read it quickly. His expression flashed briefly with elation and he turned to the map that was still spread out on the table. He picked out the town of Hamm, checked the time table in the report, looked at his watch and made a ballpark guess at which towns they would be near after three hours. He frowned. They would be in the heart of the oil country, assuming they had made it that far. A popular target for the Allied bombers, there were few passable roads in that region and only the main road way to the town of Clappenburg was kept in repair. From there they could either go east, toward Bremen and eventually north to Bremerhaven, or keep going directly north to Oldenburg and eventually to Wilhelmshaven.

Hochstetter grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and listed the towns he would call special alerts to. The alerts would cover a fifteen mile radius around each town, effectively putting a Gestapo weaved blanket over the entire north west corner of Germany.


Bersenbruck, Germany

With the flat tire finally changed, Major Miller gathered up the car jack and the busted tire into the trunk of the car, while Fritz finished securing the lug nuts on the fresh tire. Once that was complete, Fritz gathered up his tools quickly and hurried to the back of the car, tossing the tools into the trunk with a clang. Major Miller slammed the trunk lid down and the two men got back into the car. Between Miller and Fritz it had taken forty-five minutes to change the flat tire and now they were in race to make it to the coast. And as Fritz threw the transmission into gear and the car sped forward, he knew this was a race he might possibly end up losing...

Just north of Bersenbruck, Emery stood outside of his car and looked at his watch for the hundredth time. He had been waiting almost fifteen minutes and if he was to make it to the coast by night fall he could wait no longer. With a heavy sigh, he turned and opened the door, stepping into the car.

"We are leaving?" Roderick asked.

Emery turned to the four concerned faces in the back seat. "We can not wait any longer," he explained gently. "If we are to get to Wilhelmshaven by tonight, we must go now."

"But...the others? What if something has happened to them?"

"I pray nothing has happened to them," Emery said. "But even if something has, we must continue on. It is not safe for us to remain in one place for too long." Emery turned back forward and started the car. As he pulled back onto the road, the four kids in back all turned to look out the back window hoping to see the other black car in the distance.


Stalag 13

A little after three in the afternoon, General Burkhalter's staff car arrived, unannounced, through the gates of Stalag 13. Noting the General's arrival, Hogan and his men gathered in the Colonel's quarters around the coffee pot to listen in.

"Major Hochstetter reports that he believes Major Miller is somewhere in the area of Clappenburg," Burkhalter said, after sitting down.

"Clappenburg? There's not much up that way, other than the oil fields which have been bombed to ---"

Burkhalter cleared his throat. "Yes, it is a popular target for the Allied planes. Major Hochstetter has assured me that he should have the American captured within the next few hours. There are more Gestapo and SS men in the area than in all of Berlin right now."

Klink gulped. That's a lot... "Uh, General....is Major Hochstetter's order to shoot the escaped prisoner still in effect?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't it be? The Fuehrer is most upset by the events that took place at the radio station with the Propaganda Ministry's broadcast. The American has insulted the youth of Germany and all loyal Germans. If Major Hochstetter had not issued the order, the Fuehrer would have!"

That's what I'm afraid of. "Of course," Klink concurred.

"You have taken measures to punish the prisoners who were part of the insult, ja?"

"Yes, Herr General. They have been confined to barracks for the next 30 days. All privileges revoked."

"Why not the cooler, Klink?"

Klink looked up at Burkhalter and shook a little under the General's scrutinizing glare. "Uh, well, Herr General, because the men did not attempt to escape during the chaotic moments with the fire, when they most certainly had the opportunity to do so."

"Hrmph," Burkhalter scoffed. "You are too lenient, Klink. However, once Major Hochstetter has captured the American I will see to it that your prisoners be witness to the execution." The General stood up from his chair. "They will learn the price for insulting Germany and her youth."

Hogan yanked the plug out of the coffee pot, not wanting to hear any more. The room was quiet, only for a moment, then Carter looked at the Colonel directly.

"Colonel, we have to do something. Something."

"Oui! I can not stand sitting here, waiting for the worst!

"What can we do?" Hogan said, looking at his men. "We don't know where they are. We can't contact them. Fritz can't contact his troop in Düsseldorf, they're still on radio silence. We tried decoying the Gestapo and the SS away from the north but obviously that didn't work." Hogan paused. "I don't like sitting here waiting for the worst either, LeBeau....but..." Hogan let his words drift, hating to admit that there was little they could do. More than that, he hated the feeling of helplessness that enveloped him. This just wasn't supposed to be!

"What if we went to Clappenburg?" Carter wondered. "Set up our own decoy there."

"How 'r you going to get five Allied POW's into Clappenburg with all those Gestapo and SS troops around?" Newkirk asked. "It's a bloody hornet's nest up there."

"Well, we wouldn't be in uniform...."

"Even in civilian clothes they would be checking us out," Hogan said. "We would have to have the best damn forged papers we could get. Besides that, how do we ensure we get there before Miller does? How do we even know Fritz is heading to Clappenburg? The northern escape route changes every time he takes somebody up that way."

"Well, it wouldn't matter if Major Miller was there or not because we could set up a decoy that would take the heat off of wherever he is," Carter said.

"Assuming the Gestapo or the SS hadn't found him by the time we got there," Kinch said. "It takes a good day's worth of traveling to get north. We would have to go by rail if we were going to make any good time, but even then that only cuts the travel time in half. Major Miller could be captured and executed by the time we got there."

Carter sighed. They couldn't be this helpless, he thought. They just couldn't!