Hogan and his men sat around the coffee pot on the desk in his office, listening to the events taking place in the Kommandant's office. Klink had spent three days in the hospital and had just returned to camp, with Hochstetter not far behind.
"Hochstetter sure is mad at Klink," Carter said.
"Yeah, it's a good thing Burkhalter is still here," Kinch agreed. "He's not happy when Hochstetter accuses one of his men of anything."
"All right, hold it down!" Hogan ordered. "I want to hear what's going on. If Hochstetter blames Klink and sends him to the Russian Front, our operation might be in jeopardy. The next Kommandant just might not be as easy as Klink."
- - - - -
"Klink, you are in trouble!" Hochstetter bellowed. "I told you if anything happened to that plant, heads will roll!"
"Major Hochstetter, I … I …" Klink stammered.
"Major, Colonel Klink just got back from the hospital," Burkhalter said. "I think he still needs some rest."
"I don't care if he needs some rest," Hochstetter growled. "I want some answers!"
"But I do care, Major Hochstetter," Burkhalter said. "You may ask your questions, but if I am satisfied with the answers, you'd better be as well."
Hochstetter glared at the General for a moment before continuing his questioning. "Klink, why did the plant blow up?" he asked.
Klink opened his mouth to reply but Burkhalter interrupted, "Because someone planted explosives near the diesel tanks, you idiot!"
"It seems very strange that there were two explosions within a week, and Colonel Klink was present at both," Hochstetter said, trying to sound menacing.
"Major Hochstetter, just what is your question?" Burkhalter asked.
"I want to know why Colonel Klink was at the ball-bearing plant when it exploded!" Hochstetter bellowed.
Klink cringed. "I … I … I," he stammered.
"If you would have bothered to read the report that was sent to your office, you would know that he went to check on security," Burkhalter said, beginning to lose his patience. "While he was walking around the perimeter, he was hit on the head from behind by the saboteurs as they were trying to get away."
"So he says," Hochstetter blurted.
"And so I say, Major," Burkhalter said.
"Are you trying to hinder my investigation, General Burkhalter?" Hochstetter asked.
"Major Hochstetter, you have Colonel Klink's report," Burkhalter said, reaching for the phone. "And now maybe it is time for Reichsführer Himmler to have my report."
"There's no need to bother the Reichsführer, General," Hochstetter said, immediately softening his tone. "I believe I have all the information I need from Colonel Klink at this time." He stood and walked towards the door. He opened it and turned around. "But if I find that Colonel Klink had anything to do with either explosion, I will bother the Reichsführer personally and you both will find yourselves in trouble!" he said before he slammed the door.
"Schwein," Burkhalter and Klink said together.
- - - - -
"Well, it sounds like old Klink is off the hook," Kinch said, unplugging the coffee pot.
"I guess everything's back to normal again," Carter said cheerfully.
Hogan began laughing. "Carter, I couldn't agree with you more!"
- - - - -
Sleep eluded Hogan. He had been trying to sleep for the last several hours, but his mind was still occupied by the events that he had been through in the last week. Or did I really live through them? Maybe it was all a nightmare.
He had talked to Klink after Hochstetter left, and the Kommandant did not appear to remember anything out of the ordinary. He talked about the explosions and the events of the week between as if nothing unusual had happened. Hogan still couldn't shake the feeling that he had actually lived the events. He had never had a dream that seemed as real. Before he left, Hogan had even tried to wheedle the extra writing paper, electricity and bread out of the Kommandant, and was shocked when Klink simply agreed and said he wanted to be left alone.
He dropped down from the top bunk, annoyed that he was not able to get to sleep. Maybe if I walk around downstairs for a while, I'll get tired. He walked quietly through the barracks, careful not to disturb the sleeping men. He opened the tunnel entrance and climbed down carefully.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, he thought he heard a shuffling in the tunnel. He stopped and listened, but heard nothing except his own breathing. You're getting jumpy, Rob! He started through the main tunnel room, but stopped at Kinch's table. The notepad that Kinch normally kept near the radio set had been moved to the other side of the table – and there was writing on the top sheet.
Hogan picked up the notepad and read the note. He stared at the page in shock and quickly looked around. "No, it couldn't be … could it?" He shook his head quickly and dropped the notepad on the table. "Nah, impossible," he said, climbing back up the ladder into the barracks.
- - - - -
A tall well-dressed man in a suit stepped out of a side tunnel and walked towards the desk in the main tunnel room. He picked up the notepad from the desktop.
It is very easy to criticize another person for the job they are doing. But when you walk a mile in their shoes, you find that there is always more to the situation than meets the eye. Colonel Robert Hogan has just found out the hard way - being a Kommandant of a German prison camp is not a dream job … even though his experiences of the past week were just a dream … or were they?
The man looked at the note and read:
Colonel Hogan - Now you know what it is really like to be Kommandant of Stalag 13.
And now Colonel Hogan also knows what it is like to walk into …
The Twilight Zone.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Author's Notes
A few notes about this story ...
This story could have been longer and gone into more detail about the changes, the situations, and even inserted more events into Hogan's experience as Klink. But I wanted to write it as if it would have been a half hour television episode. As such, there are many little details (and some major details) that could have been explored and have been left to the reader's imagination.
For instance, this is written from Hogan's point of view only. We do not know if Klink, when "playing" Hogan, really knew what was going on. Did he remember being Klink or in his mind was he always Hogan? If he did remember being Klink, how did he interact with the prisoners while he was Hogan? What were his thoughts during the transition?
And what about the message left in the tunnel at the end? Was it Klink who left it? That could be assumed, but the reader never witnessed Klink in the tunnels after things returned to normal. If it was Klink, what effect does this have on Hogan's operation? What effect does it have on the relationship between the senior POW officer and the camp Kommandant? What would Klink do with the information he now knows about Hogan's operation?
A couple of readers commented about the language being spoken by the different characters after the switch. This was never pointed out – and is another item that can be speculated about. Did Hogan, as Klink, speak in German effortlessly or did he have to remind himself that he should speak in German? What languages would be used between the different participants? To be honest, this little detail never occurred to me while writing the story, so all I can say is that maybe we should treat it like the television show where it seemed that every German officer that came to camp spoke English exclusively, even when Hogan wasn't in the room with them.
There are many different possibilities for all of these items, and each can be explored. My initial goal was to come up with a story that fit the mold of a Twilight Zone episode – which always tried to make the viewer step out of the trappings of logic and explore different alternatives. Many Twilight Zone episodes could be confusing if you tried to apply logic to them – and maybe this story falls into that category as well.
However, when reading this story, I say that the reader should apply some logic to various unexplained threads and see where they lead. I would find it very interesting to see side stories following these threads … like Klink's point of view, or what happened afterwards. Will I write them? All I can say is … it's a possibility.