Chapter 18
Carter was peering out the partially open door of Barrack Two and suddenly called out, "Hey, what's going on in the Rec. Hall?"
Kinch quickly joined him. "Looks like a meeting of minds."
"Huh?"
Turning from the door to look at Carter, Kinch explained, "They're going to discuss what they've learned."
Newkirk, who had been nervously shuffling a deck of cards, carefully laid the deck aside and joined his comrades at the door. "The moment of truth."
LeBeau, entering the room from the tunnels below, immediately noticed his friends gathered at the door.
"What's going on?"
"The Kraut interrogators are gathering in the Rec. Hall," Newkirk answered, as he walked back to the table.
Kinch's attention quickly shifted to LeBeau. "Were you able to get close to the Colonel, LeBeau?"
"No, Kinch. They still have a guard posted outside of his cell."
Joining Carter at the door, Louis asked, "Has Knefler left Klink's quarters yet?"
"Not yet. Knefler, Strasser, and Klink must be having one heck of a big breakfast. They've been in there for the last hour and a half." Of this Carter was absolutely sure. He hadn't stopped looking out the door since Schultz told them they were confined to the Barrack two hours ago.
LeBeau and Kinch joined Newkirk at the table...and waited.
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"Herr Strasser, you will remain here, while we go and meet with the interrogators. I may send for you later." Knefler turned to Klink and asked, "Are you ready, Kommandant?"
"Ja, Ja." Klink answered. He really wasn't sure if he was ready for this or not. There was a large knot forming in his stomach but he knew there was nothing to do but go and hear the results of the interrogations.
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"Hey guys, here come Knefler and Klink!" Carter shouted.
The three at the table did not bother to get up. Instead, they looked across the table at each other, without saying a word. Finally, Kinch said, "Carter, come and sit down, it will be a little while before we see anything. Any coffee left?" Kinch asked trying to sound relaxed.
"Oui, I'll get it."
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"All right Gentlemen, lets hear it." Knefler commanded.
Corporal Schaffer had been elected speaker, and standing to address the group, he began. "We have pieced together, from the prisoners, an interesting story, and not in Major Strasser's favor. Major Strasser, according to the prisoner's, met with the underground after he brought the plane down and before our soldiers arrived to arrest him. The plan was to have the underground meet and give false information to his German contacts. Lieutenant Miller was taken into Major Strasser's confidence and became part of the plot to get the Major confined to the cooler in order to provide an alibi for his inability to complete his mission and, therefore, not be responsible for the erroneous information that was passed on. He was to escape before anyone came looking for him. We believe the Underground and perhaps some of Stalag 13's prisoners were to help in this. Kommandant Klink thwarted this attempt by having him transferred to Stalag 6 before the escape was made. It is a fact that partisans made an attempt to stop the truck transporting the Major to Stalag 6, but it did not succeed. This could have been a desperate attempt by the Underground to free Herr Strasser and get him back to England."
"But why fly all the way to Germany, why say anything about the Allied Offensive to begin with?" Klink interrupted.
Knefler answered, "The information was given to Herr Strasser by another of our operatives in London. If he had failed to bring the information to Germany, he would have been suspect, but to come and pretend to be foiled by an unbelieving Kommandant, would keep his cover intact. Evidently, he also had some information to pass on to the underground, some of which must have been a plan to discredit his contacts here in Germany, knowing that an error of this magnitude would demand reprisals. Colonel Hogan and his men were to add to the 'smoke screen'." Knefler paused and looked at Schaffer. "Please continue, Corporal."
"Although Colonel Hogan has confessed to the accusations made by Strasser. He appeared somewhat confused when I originally presented them to him. He remained silent during the several hours of interrogation that followed before he finally presented his statement." Schaffer paused, turned and gestured beside him at the sixth interrogator, Major Boehringer.
"Major Boehringer interrogated the American at Dulag. He has been giving me the benefit of the knowledge he gained while assessing this American Colonel during his interrogations. Having discussed the prisoner's thought processes, we believe that, despite the abuse Colonel Hogan was enduring, the time between the charges being revealed and his 'confession' would be adequate time for him to process the information and decide to corroborate it."
"Why would he lie and put himself in danger of being shot?" Klink interrupted.
Schaffer answered, "We believe he knew the worth to his country of Herr Strasser's position, and decided it was his duty to help preserve that advantage."
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Strasser was looking out the window at the POW's on clean up detail. They were spearing stray pieces of paper and placing them in a bag slung over their shoulder. After a few minutes Strasser smiled, donned his coat and decided to take a closer look at these POW's. He momentarily stood on the porch watching.
"Schultz," he called, to the Sergeant guarding the detail. "Why are those prisoners on clean up detail, are they being punished."
"Nein, not this time, it is their rotation," the Sergeant answered.
"What barracks are they from?" Strasser asked.
"From Barrack Two," Schultz answered.
"Isn't that Colonel Hogan's barracks?" Strasser wanted to know.
"Ja, why do you ask, Herr Major?" Schultz was curious, what with everything going on around the camp, what Strasser may be up to?
"Well, it makes sense to me that one or more of them may have been in on the plot to discredit me and gain information."
Strasser stepped down off the porch and walked toward the prisoners. Newkirk tried to keep his back to the German. Excluding Colonel Hogan he had the most contact with the Major during their act. Strasser stalked around the prisoners studying them. Eventually, Strasser walked up behind Peter and asked, "Played any good parts lately?"
Newkirk kept his head bowed and continued picking up papers from the compound. Strasser stepped in front of the Briton and asked, "Would you like to take some pills to help calm your nerves?"
Newkirk, keeping his head bowed answered, "I'm sorry Major, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, I think you do," Strasser stepped aside and took a wadded up piece of paper out of his pocket and threw it on the ground.
"Pick that paper up, Corporal," Strasser ordered.
Newkirk stabbed the paper and added it to his bag.
"It's no wonder England is such a dirty little country, the British don't even know how to police an area of trash." Strasser laughed and began to walk away.
Newkirk had enough and turned to confront the German Major, when Kinch walked up and draped his arm over his shoulder and turned Newkirk away. "Cool it Newkirk, he's just trying to get to you."
"I'd like to get to him, all right! I'd like to get to him and shove my ruddy fist in his face." Newkirk said angrily.
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The discussion continued in the Recreation Hall, Colonel Knefler had the floor, "I also, have made a study of Colonel Hogan. Judging from his interrogations at Dulag Luft, he is not one to surrender information. He underwent a much longer interrogation with more physical duress, while at Dulag, and did not reveal anything. I must agree, it is far more likely that Colonel Hogan 'gave' that information to fulfill his purpose, rather than to stop his pain. So we now have two possibilities. One, the American is involved in espionage and Herr Strasser is a victim, innocent of any charges, leaving Colonel Hogan to be shot as a spy. The second is that Colonel Hogan is the victim of Herr Strasser's plot to maintain his cover and is to be sacrificed by his country to maintain Major Strasser's cover. It looks like a no win situation for the American either way. Of course there is an alternative: if we prove this is indeed a plot by Major Strasser, the American will remain a prisoner under the rulings of the Geneva Convention."
"How will we cover Colonel Hogan's participation in our research, if we can't prove he is a spy subject to the rules of war, under German authority? Klink asked.
"The cover story for that will be that he was shot while trying to escape, and taken to the hospital for treatment," Knefler smiled.
"But the Red Cross could show up and want to see that he is being treated properly. They will expect to see a wound," Klink challenged.
"A small matter," Knefler replied, while looking at Klink. "however, it won't come to that, I'm sure. Since he has confessed to the allegations, he is ours."
The Kommandant silently starred back, understanding the meaning of Knefler's words. So this is what we've come to. Klink thought. The end justifies the means.
Knefler was the first to break the silence. "Strasser's too well trained for us to extract the truth from him, under normal methods. I suggest we include him in our study at the point where we begin the third phase, along side Colonel Hogan. We may be able to get at the truth during the administration of the anesthetic when their defenses are lowered and they are in a state of confusion. There will be a brief period of time, where they will still be thinking clearly enough to answer coherently, but confused enough not to know why they shouldn't."
"Why not simply use his 'trigger phrase' to gain control of his mind and ask him?" Klink was trying to follow the line of thinking of the interrogators as well as Colonel Knefler.
"If the Major is in fact a double agent, then he has been deprogrammed, and he would use that opportunity to trick us into believing his story." Knefler smiled, "It gets to be rather convoluted when we start talking about double agents and counter double agents. I can understand your confusion Kommandant."
Knefler's plans for Strasser's participation in phase three, were met with approval by the interrogators. It was unlikely they would be able to gain information from either the American or Strasser without the help of hypnotic drugs to alter their perceptions.
"Good. Then let's move on to phase two. Colonel Hogan needs to be worn down. He is still too independent. We need to decrease his perception of being in control, and increase his dependency on Corporal Schaffer. The American has to feel the need to please the Corporal this is generally accomplished by pain avoidance, for that we will use Gestapo techniques. Corporal, you may notify Major Hochstetter that it is time." I have my doubts that this will work on you Colonel. I don't think you can be made to be dependent on anyone. But we can tire you out, and wear you down to the point where rational thinking is difficult
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This time it was Newkirk at the door keeping watch. "Hey, five of the interrogators are leaving.
The others peered out and agreed. "Now what? Carter asked.
"I don't know," Kinch confessed, "but I hope, they release the Colonel, and the rest of them get in their cars and leave, too."
"Well, I feel better now that the interrogators have gone" LeBeau said, hopefully.
"Yeah five of them are gone. Anybody want to lay me odds on which one stayed?" Newkirk asked.
The other three men stopped what they were doing and looked at Newkirk. Peter paced from the stove to the table, picked up his well-worn deck of cards and stood, absent-mindedly shuffling them, as he waited for a response. The silent stares finally got to him.
"All I said was what, all of you, were afraid to say. The Colonel's interrogator didn't leave, and beyond that, why the Kraut doctors. Something else is going down and we haven't a clue what it is."
Kinch was the first to speak. He sighed, and admitted, "I'm afraid you're right, Peter, but until we know what it is we can't make a move."
"The Colonel has given his story, which contradicts ours. At least that is what he was supposed to do," Louis added. LeBeau's statement caused Kinch to stop and think.
"I don't think the Colonel would have changed his mind. He generally sticks pretty close to a plan, once it's underway. There is more danger in changing the plan without anybody knowing, than in finishing it and taking care of discrepancies later," Kinch reasoned.
"So going from that assumption, the Germans should wonder about the contradictions in the Colonel's story, which should also make them wonder about Strasser, since he disappeared and showed up with a note from the underground. If the underground pulled off Strasser's abduction, which we have no way of knowing," Newkirk surmised.
"Holy cow, what if the underground couldn't get their part done? Then the Colonel's confession might not be suspected of being untrue." Carter face went sullen. "They could shoot him."
"It still would have contradicted the information the interrogators got from us. At least that is something for them to wonder about. We're spinning our wheels," Kinch announced. "We're still back to waiting to see what happens."
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