No ownership of the Hogan's Heroes characters is implied or inferred. Copyright belongs to others and no infringement is intended.

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Kinch fought down the sick feeling rising inside him and tried hard to focus on the work at hand. He watched light-headedly as Carter gasped and dropped to his knees at Hogan's side before anyone could stop him. Newkirk came forward and placed a restraining hand on the young man's shoulder, squeezing it in the hopes of passing on an unspoken plan. "You fool!" Kinch rasped at Oberholzer, glad the German could not see his face. "What have you done?"

Carter continued to call Hogan's name, each pleading cry piercing his friends and leaving them almost unable to function. The Sergeant was shaking Hogan by the shoulders, moving his head back and forth, trying anything to rouse him. But it was not working, and Newkirk had to look away from the still, white form on the floor.

"I did nothing!" Oberholzer protested, aghast. "He was fine this morning. I came down here and talked to him myself!"

"Clearly he was not fine!" Kinch retorted. "Or does this look fine to you?" He moved in close to Oberholzer, rammed the barrel of his gun into the man's stomach. His anger was real, despite his knowledge that the German was not responsible for the vision before his eyes now. "Did you have Colonel Hogan searched for cyanide capsules before you left him in here on his own?" he sneered.

"Cyanide…?"

"You idiot! If this man is as dangerous as you claim he is, did you think he would leave himself no way out of relentless interrogation? Did you not think he needed to have a guard in this room with him, to stop him from doing something like this?"

"B-But—but I was sure!"

In the meantime, Newkirk had leaned down near Carter and was doing his own examination of Hogan. Trying hard to hide the fact that his hands were trembling, he lifted Hogan's eyelids; pinpoint pupils stared back at him. Swallowing with difficulty, he ran his fingers along the Colonel's cold, clammy skin and stopped just below the jaw line. He pressed hard, harder than he had to, his eyes boring into his still commander's face, willing him to have a pulse. When he found one, albeit slow and thready, he breathed a sigh of relief that he quite frankly didn't care if Oberholzer noticed. He moved a hand in front of Hogan's nose and mouth and waited for what seemed an interminable time for the slightest warm, moist breath to touch it. He nodded to Carter when it finally happened.

"He is still alive," Newkirk said, as much for his own benefit as for Kinch and Carter's. He stood up and confronted the Gestapo officer. "But he may not be for long. That means, Oberholzer, that there is still time to try and stop your bungling from completely destroying the Abwehr's plans for this man. We will take him with us now. And you will come with us. If Hogan was going to stop this plant from being bombed—" Newkirk scoffed outwardly, but inwardly he strained his ears to listen for the sound of approaching planes— "he certainly isn't able to do that now. And so it will be safer for you to be out of this place than in it, ja?"

Oberholzer nodded stupidly. "Ja."

"And not so safe when our superiors are through with you," Kinch added with a snort of contempt.

Oberholzer shook his head as he continued staring at Hogan. "Nein." I could not have been wrong… I could not have been! There are no bombers! And yet…

"Let's go." Kinch waved his gun sharply toward Carter. "You, American, help carry your officer and get him out to our car. We will have much to ask him if we are not too late to reverse the effects of whatever he has taken. And much to answer for if we are."

Carter gulped and nodded, by now comfortable with what was really happening, but still shaken by Hogan's condition. Newkirk holstered his gun and helped Carter lift the Colonel's lifeless body in between them. Kinch motioned with his gun for Oberholzer to move out of the way, and Hogan was taken out of the room. The others followed.

As they emerged from the building, Kinch once again looked up at the sky, all too aware of the tight time frame they were working within. The sky was starting to cloud over, but still no sign of American bomber planes. He shook himself back to his most immediate worries and prodded Oberholzer toward the car, where Le Beau was waiting for them.

"What's this?" Oberholzer asked, resisting getting into the vehicle.

Kinch shoved him into the front seat and sat beside him, effectively blocking him in. "Shut up," Kinch ordered as he pulled down his mask. Oberholzer gasped.

Le Beau revealed his pistol and stared with loathing at the German officer. "This is what happens to les Boches when they play games with Colonel Hogan."

Kinch looked into the back seat, where Carter and Newkirk were loading Hogan into the car and trying to make him as comfortable as possible. "Anything, Newkirk?" he asked.

Newkirk pulled his mask down and took a couple of deep breaths to recover from the exertion of carrying the Colonel. "Nothing, mate. He's not stirring at all yet."

"We've gotta get him back to Joe as soon as possible. If we can't wake him up, we can't help him from here."

Le Beau handed his pistol to Carter and started the car. "I will drive as fast as I can, mon ami," he said.

Newkirk felt for Hogan's pulse again, looked one more time at the expressionless, pale face. "His breathing's real slow, Kinch—and his skin's like ice."

"What happened to him?" Carter finally asked.

Newkirk shook his head. "We had to find a way for the Kraut here to agree to let Colonel Hogan out of the plant before it was bombed—and the only way we could think of was for him to appear to be so ill that he was no longer useful. So we injected him with morphine."

"Only a little bit more than is normally good for him," Kinch clarified.

"You gave the Colonel an overdose? What if it's too much?" Carter yelped.

"That's what an overdose is, Carter," Kinch answered. "And it was the only chance we had. We were planning to use it on you and the Colonel to get Oberholzer to think you were both sick and maybe contagious. But once we discovered you'd been separated, we had to change tack."

Oberholzer raised his head. "And so why did you not just force him out at gunpoint, instead of concocting this charade that may still cost your Colonel Hogan his life?" Where did they get the uniforms? Where did they get the car? Hogan… everything I suspected really is true…. But what can I do about it now?

"We couldn't risk you saying anything to the plant guards on the way out, now, could we?" Newkirk replied. "This way, it all looks perfectly legitimate… and we get rid of you in the process."

"What are you going to do with me?" the officer asked.

"We should have left you in the plant," Le Beau replied. "You were right, after all; it is going to be bombed today." He shrugged, listening for a moment to the silent sky. "But the Colonel would not like it if we operated like that without his permission. So we are taking you to the Underground." He pulled the car off the road in front of a small house. "The signal is there," he said to his companions.

Kinch put his mask back on his face and opened his door. "Now you're gonna get out nice and easy, Oberholzer. And you're gonna come nice and quiet-like. We're going to take you into this house, and the nice people who live here are going to make sure you get to London by the scenic, submarine route."

"I cannot go to London! I—"

"You have two choices, mate," Newkirk said, leaning toward the front seat and into Oberholzer's ear. "You can go to London—or you can bleed to death in this car. Take your pick. I know which one I'd prefer for you."

Oberholzer nodded stiffly. "Very well." Kinch backed out of the car, his gun now readied and aimed at the officer. Oberholzer disembarked and straightened his uniform. "Tell me," he said, looking at Kinch, "how did Hogan get word out to stop the bombing?"

Kinch shook his head. "He didn't. He ordered us not to."

Oberholzer looked suitably surprised. "But then, how is it that you came to the plant? It is due for destruction, and yet you have risked your lives…"

"We take chances, Oberholzer; that's our job. And we'll do whatever we have to for the Colonel. Because he's worth it, and Carter is worth it, and the cause we fight for is worth it. If we'd gotten blown up today, at least we'd have been able to look our Maker in the eye. I doubt you'll ever get that high up." He glanced into the back seat and felt himself turn even colder inside when he caught a glimpse of Hogan. "Now move."

With Hogan's body still leaning heavily against his arm, Carter very carefully held up the gun Le Beau had handed him so he could track Oberholzer. When Kinch and the German disappeared inside, Carter dropped his pistol into his lap and looked back at Hogan. "He looks bad, Newkirk. He looks really bad," he fretted. "What can we do?"

"I don't know, mate. But if we don't get him back to camp soon, we're all gonna look exactly the same—'cause we'll be dead from those bleedin' bombs that are gonna be dropped any second."

Kinch came quickly out of the house and without waiting got into the car and shut the door. "Let's go," he said curtly.

Le Beau pulled the vehicle away from the curb and headed back toward the middle of Hammelburg. "Oberholzer is taken care of?" he asked.

Kinch nodded. "He won't be going back to his office any time soon," he answered. "Those fellas from the Underground are gonna keep him all tied up—in more ways than one. And then they're going to get him back to England, where he can't cause any more trouble." A glance toward the back seat. "For anyone."

"Where are those bombers?" Le Beau wondered aloud.

"Who cares?" Newkirk answered, with a glance of his own out the window. "Let's just be glad they haven't shown up yet and get back to camp!"

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Le Beau got out of the car and tried to pull Schultz into the front seat. "Hurry up, Schultzie; we have to go back to camp right away."

"Oh, Cockroach, you are back!" Schultz smiled happily as the Frenchman tugged at him. The guard looked around the car, seeming to check if everything was still in order. "I knew you would come back; you are good boys in the end, even if you were naughty and left me sitting on the doorstep like that!" He nodded, running his hand along the open door. "And you kept it so nice and clean!" he marveled.

"Come on, hurry up, Schultz; we have no time to waste." Le Beau pushed and shoved until he got Schultz close enough to be pulled into the car by Kinch.

The guard frowned as he resisted the manhandling, then almost choked when he saw the black man in German uniform. "What are you doing?" he asked, notes of both fear and warning in his voice. "Why is Sergeant Kinchloe dressed as a German officer?"

Le Beau didn't bother answering. He just pushed in beside Schultz, shut the door, and tore off toward Stalag 13. It was Carter who replied. "Well, he had to, Schultz, if he was gonna get me and the Colonel out of that factory."

Schultz nodded agreement. "Ja, ja…" Then the voice registered in his brain and he looked into the back seat. "Carter!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" His eyes moved over Newkirk and then fell upon Hogan. "And Colonel Hogan! What is Colonel Hogan doing here?" He closed his eyes and turned back to the front seat. "I do not see them! They are not here! I see nothing!"

"Stop that, Schultz; there's no time for that," Kinch scolded. "We have to get the Colonel back to camp. Can't you see how sick he is? Now here's what you're going to tell the Kommandant—"

"Wait! Do not tell me! If I say anything, the Kommandant will know you boys left me to go get Colonel Hogan and Carter—"

"We've got you covered, Schultz; you'll be fine," Newkirk said, trying to sound reassuring. He looked back at Hogan, about whom he was getting more and more worried by the minute. "I just hope we can say the same for the gov'nor when we get back to Stalag 13."