Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Day 9

After reaching the woods, Newkirk pulled the sedan off the road and Dubois met up with them after a few moments.

"So much for our rigged game," Hogan said.

"What happened, Colonel? We heard explosions. Major Miller---?"

"Is on his way into Wilhelmshaven as we speak. But we had to take other measures to get the Gestapo off our trail. We're going to have every goon in Germany in this area in no time because of those explosions, which means we have to clear out of here. Now." Hogan looked at Dubois. "Your men are on their way to town with Kinch and LeBeau?"

"Oui, mon Colonel."

"Then let's get the hell out of here."

--- ----

Major Miller and the boys tried to look unhurried as they walked down the sidewalk looking for number sixteen. There were a few pedestrians on both sides of the street and of course the passing traffic. Miller kept one eye out for Gestapo and SS soldiers and half expected one to just jump out of nowhere, making the Major feel like an eight point buck on the first day of hunting season.

The buildings on the street were tenement type buildings and there was hardly an alley or a driveway to jump into should a car or foot soldier spot them. Finally though, they reached number sixteen and hurried up the steps, Ahren and Erik in front of Miller, and Adler behind. Inside, Emery had seen them coming down the street and he hurried to the door to open it before anyone was able to knock. Startled, Miller grabbed hold of Ahren and Erik's shoulders to pull them back but recognized the face looking back at him from the door way.

Emery stepped aside and waved them in. He said nothing until they were all inside and the door shut. "Good Lord, I thought you had all been captured!"

"We've come pretty damn close," Miller replied.

"How did you know to come here? What has happened? Where is Fritz?"

"He told us to come here. The Gestapo spotted us after we came into town. He threw us out of the car down the street, the Gestapo's after him now."

Emery's expression revealed the fear for his comrade for a split second, then he was suddenly he was all business. "Then we must hurry. We must get you and these boys to the pier." Emery turned to call for the other two Underground operatives, when Miller grabbed his arm and turned him back around. Miller, too, had the same sinking feeling what might happen to Fritz but he realized as he looked into Emery's now guarded gaze that there was little he, or Emery or anybody could do about it. Slowly he let go of Emery's arm and looked away.

"We must get you out of that uniform, Herr Miller..." Emery said softly. He then turned again and went to get the other two.

--- ----

LeBeau, Kinch and three Underground men drove an unassuming delivery truck into town on a different road and turned a corner just in time to see the careening Army staff car.

"Look!" LeBeau exclaimed. The Underground driver stopped the truck and they watched the chase go barreling past them.

"That looked like Hochstetter," Kinch said.

LeBeau muttered a string of expletives in French. Another Gestapo car came off a different street and joined the chase.

"Maybe we can still help," one of the Underground men said. He slapped the driver on the arm and pointed for him to follow the chase.

Major Hochstetter, meanwhile, was to the point of swearing at his driver, who was finding the task of keeping up with the fleeing army sedan a daunting one. Having an especially animated and often threatening superior in the car wasn't making things any easier.

"He's turning! He's turning! Don't lose him!"

The driver was becoming tempted to ask the Major if he would like to drive instead. He stayed after the army sedan, weaving through traffic and turning down another street.

Fritz was trying to lead them as far away from the pier as possible. He saw in his rearview mirror he had now not one, but two Gestapo cars after him. Up ahead, another one pulled out into the street, blocking it. Fritz pulled to the right, aiming for the sidewalk.

The three Gestapo men had guns drawn and were aiming at Fritz. The windshield exploded in glass and Fritz ducked but ended up taking a bullet in the shoulder. The force threw him back against the seat and he gripped the steering wheel, although for about a second he didn't know where he was going. The sharp pain in his shoulder radiated through his chest and neck. More shots were fired, piercing the passenger side window and door. Fritz's sedan made it past the Gestapo car, scraped a lamp post, nicked a telephone booth and then crashed through some wooden crates of vegetables that had just been unloaded from a truck and were being delivered to a restaurant. People in the vicinity scattered like birds from the mad car and it bounced off the sidewalk and kept going down the road.

The three Gestapo men were scrambling back into their car. Hochstetter in his car was screaming at them to get out of the way. Fritz had a few extra moments to flee and he would need every second of it.

LeBeau, Kinch and the Underground men held on for dear life as the truck pulled around the Gestapo cars and then stopped in the middle of the road, creating another temporary road block to buy more time for Fritz to flee.

Trying to ignore his shoulder, Fritz glanced at his rearview mirror and saw the delay in the chase. He turned the sedan down another street, drove and then turned down yet one more street, bringing the car to a stop in the middle of the road. He got out, nausea hitting him briefly and he stumbled a moment. He could see the red of his shoulder out of the corner of his eye but he refused to look. He mustered up all the strength he had and went to the back of the car, opening the trunk.

The Underground men, meanwhile, were pretending they didn't understand the Gestapo men's shouted orders to move their truck. Horns blared and arms waved for them to get out of the way. Finally Hochstetter persuaded them with the point of his pistol and the truck backed up out of the way. The three sedans tore off down the road and the delivery truck followed at a distance.

Fritz's left hand was tingling and damn near useless so he worked quickly with his right hand. The trunk had carried rations, extra clothes, a pistol, a rifle, two hand grenades and supplies that he couldn't allow the Gestapo to capture and confiscate. The car itself he couldn't allow to be confiscated by the Gestapo. He could leave no trace of the Underground, and if he survived he would have to find a way to make this up to Sturtevant. Fritz threw the lid off the small box that had the two grenades in it and he pulled one out. He pulled the pin with his teeth, spit it out and left the grenade in the trunk, running as quickly as he could away from the car.

The Gestapo had almost blown past the street Fritz was on. The first car spotted the Army sedan sitting in the middle of the road and came to a halt, signaling to the other two cars behind them to go down the street. Hochstetter's sedan had no more than turned the corner when the Army car suddenly ripped apart in a ball of orange.

Hochstetter's driver hit the brakes and skidded to a stop. The Gestapo men could do no more than watch the fire and wait for the debris to settle. Hochstetter was stone quiet as he watched the other car burn, the fire reflecting in his own dark eyes. It wasn't long before people started coming into the street to see what was going on, and there was shouting to bring water to put the fire out. Hochstetter then stepped out of his car.

Two other Gestapo officers came up beside him. "Do you think he was in there?" one of them asked.

"I could hope for no less..." Hochstetter growled. "Still they may be on foot. Spread out and search this neighborhood."

"Jawohl, Herr Major."

The delivery truck paused for only a moment at the end of the road letting two of the Underground men out. They would mingle with the crowd, get information, some answers and then meet up with the truck away from the scene.

Fritz, meanwhile, was only just up the street in a narrow alley way where he had collapsed just before the explosion occurred. He could afford no rest and he fought the urge to do so. He got back to his feet and put his back against the building. He peered around the corner of the building and saw the sedan was pretty well destroyed and that the Gestapo was hindered for a little bit. But he knew they would ask questions and search the area on foot and that he could not remain where he was. He had to get somewhere safe.

He turned back into the alley and paused a moment, taking a few deep breaths. He held onto his shattered shoulder now and continued walking down the narrow path.

--- ----

Major Miller had made a quick change into civilian clothes and then he, Emery and the boys got into Emery's car and drove the short distance to the pier. The waterfront was quiet and tranquil compared the commotion Fritz was creating in town. Miller, Emery and the boys had no more than stepped out of the car when they heard the boom of the explosion.

All of them stopped and looked toward the town. Miller turned to look at Emery but the Underground man knew he had a mission to finish. "This way..." he said.

--- ----

Colonel Hogan, Carter and Newkirk had traded their ill-handling staff car and German Army uniforms for the Gestapo attire again. With Dubois and a couple of Underground men following in another car, they drove into town arriving several minutes after the explosion.

"Something's happened…" Hogan said, watching the scene around him. A regular Polizei was directing traffic away from a street. A small group of citizens had gathered trying to see what had happened but were held back by Polizeiand Gestapo. Newkirk pointed the sedan toward the street and was waved through by the Polizei. Dubois followed.

"I don't like it, guv'nor," Newkirk said, driving slowly toward a cluster of Gestapo cars at the end of another street. "Even though we're disguised there's too much Gestapo crawlin' around here for my taste." He pulled up behind another sedan and stopped.

"I don't know if I wanna know what's behind that corner, Colonel," Carter said.

"I'm not sure I do either. But we have to know. C'mon…" Hogan stepped out of the car, with Newkirk and Carter following. The Colonel signaled to Dubois to stand pat for a moment and the Frenchman nodded.

The three heroes walked to the end of the sidewalk, turned the corner and stopped at the sight of Fritz's destroyed cloned staff car. They immediately assumed the worst.

"Oh my God…" Hogan said quietly. The three of them stared at the wreckage. Carter then turned to the Colonel, as if seeking confirmation that what he was seeing was true. They couldn't all have been ... could they?

Newkirk apparently thought so and seethed. "Those bloody bastards!" he hissed. "They got 'em all! They must have been waiting for them!"

Hogan blinked out of his stare just in time to see Major Hochstetter. He turned suddenly to Newkirk, turning the corporal around from the wreckage. Carter turned too. "Take it easy," Hogan said. He glanced back once more at Hochstetter and noted the Major's facial expression seemed infuriated, almost as if….

No, that might be too much to hope for, Hogan thought. He turned back to Newkirk and Carter. "Hochstetter's here. C'mon….I don't want him to see us, but we're going to find out what happened here."

The two nodded and started to walk back to their car. One of the two Underground men who had been mingling through the neighborhood, spotted Hogan, Carter and Newkirk and approached casually. They then stepped off to the side and he explained what he had learned.

"Everyone here only saw one man in the car. He got out and detonated an explosive in the trunk and then took off on foot."

The heroes looked temporarily relieved. "That must be Fritz," Hogan said as he glanced around the scene. "And they're looking for him." He looked at the Underground man again. "Which means he dropped Miller and the boys off somewhere."

The Underground man nodded. "Yes, but there is something else. The man who fled from the car is wounded."

"Badly?"

"Unknown."

"Colonel," Carter spoke up, "with all this Gestapo crawling around Fritz won't make it a mile from here. Whether they know he's wounded or not."

Hogan nodded. "We have to find him and get him out of here. And find out where Miller ended up." He glanced up to see Hochstetter talking to several Gestapo men. "And do it without being spotted…."

--- ----

Emery led Miller and the boys down a boardwalk, to a dock and then to where the fishing boat was moored. The Captain of the boat and two of his crew members were standing on deck. Recognizing Emery, the Captain turned to one of his crew and instructed him to go start the engines. He then went to greet his new passengers.

"Ah Guten Tag!" he said with a smile. "You made it!"

"Ja," Emery replied with a nod.

"With a lot of luck," Miller added.

"Erhard, this is Glenn Miller."

The Captain shook hands with Miller. "Welcome aboard. We've been expecting you."

"Thank you." Miller turned to Emery. "Okay, you got us here. Now go get Fritz out of trouble and get yourselves out of here."

"Fritz is in trouble?" the Captain said.

"Last I saw him he had the Gestapo chasing after him," Miller explained.

"Oh! Then go on, Emery, go on. Herr Miller and the boys are safe here now."

Emery nodded. He looked at Miller and put a hand out to him. "Herr Miller..."

Miller shook hands. "Thanks for everything." He let go. "Go on..."

Emery nodded again and turned to leave the boat. The boys said goodbye to him as he returned to the dock and Emery waved. He then continued on to the boardwalk.

The Captain looked at Miller. "Come. I will take you below deck where you will be more comfortable. I'm sure you've had quite a trip..."