Chapter 20
"Kinch, how do we know this isn't a trap?" LeBeau asked as the two approached the radio room.
"We don't…yet. I've got to call London and get this week's code word. Being on radio silence has kept us out of the loop. Once I have that I can check it against Strasser's note, before we try this frequency."
Kinch sat for a long while at the radio listening to London's broadcast, silently and intently scratching out notes. LeBeau had his attention split between Carter, at the base of the ladder, and Kinch on the radio. Kinch was doing his best to take down the information using only one eye; the other eye had swollen shut. Wilson had told him to keep warm compresses on it, but he needed his hands for other things right now.
The Sergeant could be heard muttering the occasional, "Yes, sir."
Must be a superior officer on the other end of that wire. LeBeau deduced
"Sir, he is very much alive. He and Major Strasser have left with the Gestapo Major, Hochstetter, for Gestapo Headquarters in Hammelburg. Over," Kinch said, and then fell quiet, listening intently.
Pause.
"Their going to what, sir?...We wondered why the Kraut…I mean German doctors were here. Over."
Pause.
"No, sir. We gave them a different scenario to consider, one where Major Strasser is a British agent. Over," Kinch pulled the ear piece away from his right ear and grimaced.
Longer pause.
"Sir, perhaps if someone had filled us in on the plan before Major Martin…err Strasser, dropped in on us, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. Over."
Pause.
"Yes, sir, I apologize, but you have to understand how frustrating this is for us. We walk a tight line here between life and death everyday. We depend on each other for support, not only on assignments, but for our daily living. The Colonel has kept us all alive."
Pause.
"Sir, we had no way of knowing. We have had radio detection trucks in the area for the last three weeks and have been on radio silence. Over." Kinch was rubbing his forehead, as if he were getting a headache.
Again, he sat quietly listening to the voice at the other end of the line.
"We should have no problem contacting the Underground now. The SS have pulled out of camp and have taken the radio detection trucks with them. Over."
Pause.
"Sir, with all due respect, we hope to keep them both alive. Over."
Pause.
"Yes sir, we can get that done. How will we know when and where? Over."
Pause.
"Yes sir, we'll be ready. You just let us know. Over."
Pause.
"Papa Bear, over and out." Kinch took the headset off and dropped it on the table. He sat staring at nothing, and trying to digest all he had been told.
"Kinch what did they say…Kinch?" Louis gave up trying to get a response from the Sergeant and threw his hands up, staring at the ceiling in resignation, while uttering a few choice French phrases.
Kinch suddenly stood and headed out of the radio room, bustling past Louis on his way to the ladder, and back up to the barracks. Carter saw him coming and stepped back, letting him take to the ladder and disappear.
"What happened?" Carter asked.
"You know as much as I do. Come on." Louis motioned for Carter to follow him and they also headed up into the barracks. As they cleared the bunk, they looked around for Kinch.
"He went that way." Newkirk pointed to the Colonel's room. The three stood staring at each other not knowing what to ask, when Kinch stuck his head out of Hogan's room and briskly said, "Get in here, you guys."
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The truck and staff car pulled up in front of Gestapo headquarters. Hochstetter got out of the car and motioning for the guards to follow went and stood on the sidewalk in front of the building. Schaffer and Strasser joined him there. The Major had pulled his Lugar from its holster and was waiting for the guards and Hogan to join him.
"So, Major," Schaffer began, while looking the town over, "where is there a good place to eat?"
Hochstetter, looked at Schaffer absent-mindedly and said, "Huh? Oh that…anyplace is all right." The Major could care less about eating. His attention was generally on his business, eating was usually done hurriedly.
He turned back toward the truck and his eyes brightened as he saw Colonel Hogan being herded toward him. He motioned him to walk ahead of him into the building. Hogan noticed the pistol in Hochstetter's hand as he took his position in front of it. After entering the building, they approached the Desk Sergeant and the Major handed him Hogan's arrest papers.
"This man is under arrest for espionage. I have brought him in for questioning."
Hogan felt Hochstetter jab the barrel of his Lugar into his back and shot a quick disgusted look over his shoulder in Hochstetter's direction.
"I am taking the prisoner down stairs now, call and have my guards meet us there." The Colonel stood silently with his hands cuffed in front of him, and a sinking feeling in his stomach. If his guards are meeting us, he must have immediate plans for me.
"Jawohl, Herr Major," the Desk Sergeant answered, as he grabbed for the phone to fulfill the order.
Hochstetter reached up and shoved Hogan toward a doorway with a long hall leading to a stairwell. Hogan could see the sneering smile on the Major's face without even turning around. Hochstetter's two goons met them as they stepped off the stairs in the lower level of the building.
"Colonel Hogan, you remember my guards," the Major taunted
Hogan looked at the two guards, "Well if it isn't Mutt and Jeff again. You fella's really need to get out more." Hogan said sarcastically.
"You won't be so snide when I'm finished with you Hogan," Hochstetter promised. Looking at his guards he ordered, "Take the Colonel down to the interrogation room and search him…thoroughly. I will be there directly."
"Jawohl," the guards said in unison. The guards stepped to either side of the hall and grabbing their prisoner by the arms propelled him forward and then fell in behind him, guiding him further down the hall to the designated room.
Hogan slowed his steps and scornfully thought, Well I'm certainly racking up the hazardous duty pay.
Turning back to Corporal Schaffer and Major Strasser, Hochstetter informed them, "I am going to begin with Colonel Hogan immediately, Corporal; did you want to talk to him first?"
Schaffer gave a quick smile, "No, Major, I will give you an hour or so and then make my appearance. Major Strasser, I would like you to allow the Major to begin his interrogation alone. You may join me in an hour and we will look in on our Colonel. In the meantime I am going to take a stroll in Hammelburg."
"Well, Major Hochstetter, since I am confined to the building, do you have a room for me?" Strasser asked.
Hochstetter had to catch himself, he very much still wanted to question Strasser, but that was out of his hands for the moment. Biting his tongue he said, "Yes Major, if you will see the Desk Sergeant, he has made arrangements for your stay on the top floor in one of our visitor rooms. Now gentlemen if you will excuse me, I have an appointment." Hochstetter smiled, adjusted his belt and walked toward the interrogation room.
Strasser watched Hochstetter walk down the hall and enter the room containing Colonel Hogan, and then slowly turned to make his way back to the Desk Sergeant.
"Mind if I walk with you a ways, Major?" Schaffer asked.
Strasser looked at Schaffer and said, "No, not at all, Corporal." The Major took a few steps in silence and then stated, "The look of hunger in Major Hochstetter's eyes looks insatiable, when it comes to the American Colonel. Tell me, Corporal Schaffer, do you think the American can survive five days with the Gestapo Major?"
Schaffer smiled, he already knew the answer to that question. He had sized up these two men when they were still in the compound at Stalag 13, playing their game of cat and mouse. "There is only one way Colonel Hogan can survive, Major Strasser."
Strasser looked at Schaffer inquisitively and asked, "And that is?"
"Colonel Hogan has been able to survive by 'giving in' without 'giving up', I'm afraid if he wants to survive this encounter, Major Hochstetter will accept nothing less than his giving up." The Corporal said as a matter of fact.
"So what your saying is there is no way he will survive," Strasser smiled.
"Not if this encounter were allowed to run its full course, Major. From what Major Boehringer told me and from my own observations, the Colonel is too stubborn to give up. Fortunately for Colonel Hogan, I cannot allow that to happen. We have bigger plans for him, than to be beaten to death in a Gestapo jail to prove he can't be broken."
The realization hit Strasser, Well that answers my question. I can't count on Hochstetter doing my dirty work for me. If I want him taken out, I'll have to do it myself.
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LeBeau, Carter, and Newkirk were lined up on the Colonel's lower bunk. Kinch was sitting in front of them struggling with where to begin.
"Ok, I guess the best place to start is with Strasser's arrival in camp. We know Strasser landed his plane in a field outside of camp and that he told the Kommandant his story about being a German agent. Well, the truth is he is a British agent."
"What?" Carter cried out.
"I don't understand this at all!" Newkirk was staring at Kinch, not knowing whether to feel angry or relieved.
"Why did he cause this problem for us?" LeBeau demanded.
Kinch held up his hands and motioned for everyone to quiet down, "Ok, it gets a little involved, but here goes. Strasser is assigned to a branch of the British Service, known as MI6 which is a high level government security division. Actually, his work with Military Intelligence has to do with counter espionage outside of Britain. British Intelligence received information that the Nazis, who had been working on brainwashing techniques, were ready to run another test of their program."
"Another test?" Louis asked.
"Yes, another test, there has been more than one. Now here is where it involves us, or I should say the Colonel, which indirectly involves us. The Colonel was drafted into one of the test groups, while at Dulag, but the test wasn't completely successful. So they locked him away until they were ready to try again."
"So that's why the gov' has lost part of his memory." Newkirk rubbed his face in frustration.
Kinch continue, "Word was sent to London that the newest brainwashing techniques were ready to be tested. Along with that information, they also sent the name of the American officer they hoped to use the technique on. The Nazis are planning to use that officer in their propaganda campaign."
"Colonel Hogan?" Carter asked.
"Yeah," Kinch shook his head. "That is where Strasser comes into this; he was to make sure it didn't happen."
LeBeau looked puzzled and apprehensive at the same time. "How was he going to do this, or need I ask?"
"He was told to do whatever it took. Up to and including knocking off the Colonel."
"Oh, Blimey, and he and Hochstetter just took the Colonel off to Gestapo Headquarters!" Newkirk jumped up.
"Wait, Newkirk, sit down, it gets better." Kinch urged. "We just got raked over the coals for making the Germans think Strasser may be a traitor. Strasser was suppose to make the Germans think the Colonel was involved in espionage, by baiting him into acting on the information Strasser was bringing to the Germans concerning the next Allied Offensive. It was assumed we would stop Strasser, somehow, and afterward Strasser would implicate the Colonel."
"Wouldn't that implicate us too?" Louis realized.
"Louis, we weren't even a consideration. They were hoping that this would cause enough of a stir to either keep Colonel Hogan under Gestapo rule while being investigated for espionage, or on the extreme end, remove him permanently. They weren't counting on us performing a double switch and convincing the Germans that Strasser was a British agent."
"Wait a minute, back up, when you say permanently, do you mean permanently, as in dead?" Now it was Carter's turn to be on his feet. "They can't do that! That's pretty dirty. Boy a guy puts his life on the line for his country and …how can London do that to the Colonel!"
"And us!" Newkirk added.
"First of all, it isn't London, Carter. I mean it isn't the level of the military that gives us our orders from 'London'. MI6 is a higher branch of the government above the regular military and they have their own agenda for National Security. These two government branches are sometimes at odds on what or who can be sacrificed for the cause. The military did not want to sacrifice the Colonel and the operation here, but they were over ruled in the interest of National Security by MI6. The Colonel would be the first to tell you, as soldiers, our duty may include handing over our lives. If the Colonel's death, and possibly ours, would give the Allies the advantage, and prevent having our captured soldiers being turned into German soldiers, via brainwashing, then MI6 demanded we be forfeited. Of course, British Intelligence didn't know that the Fuhrer was behind the Colonel's involvement in their mind control research, and that it would be unlikely that the Nazi's would execute the Colonel without first trying to brainwash him."
"The Fuhrer! Is there anything else you're keeping from us, Kinch?" Le Beau was now on his feet beside Carter.
"Both of you sit down…and you stay down." Kinch was pointing at Newkirk, who looked on the verge of joining his comrades on his feet. Kinch was getting frustrated. "There's more."
"Oh, well you're going to have to go some to top what you've already said," Newkirk growled, looking at Kinch incredulously.
"There is, or I should say there was, a plan underway to get the results of the research, Germany has completed on brainwashing, back to England. Strasser was suppose to pick it up, from another contact, and take it back to England as he made his 'escape' from Germany. Of course, the 'escape' would have been arranged by Germany, because they would have thought they were sending back their 'agent'. Since we have caused them to question Strasser's loyalty, there is doubt on whether they will be able to get that information out and back to London."
Kinch paused and looked at his friends. If this all hadn't been so serious, the look on Carter, LeBeau, and Newkirk's face would have been laughable. They were all staring at poor Kinch with dumbfounded, bewildered looks on their faces, apparently frozen in the moment.
Newkirk had processed the information and snapped out of his trance. "Okay, so now what are we suppose to do?"
Kinch sighed; relieved he wasn't asked to repeat what he had just said. "We are to get in touch with the Underground and put them and ourselves on alert status. London will get in contact with us, as soon as they hear from their contact, and tell us what they need done."
There was a quiet pause and then Louis asked, "So Colonel Hogan doesn't know any of this?"
"No, Louis, he doesn't. He has to be pretty confused right now," Kinch answered.
"And that's why the German doctors came. They had to gather data for their study," Carter filled in. "How does sending the Colonel off with the Gestapo tie in with brainwashing?"
Kinch looked at Carter and then quickly looked away, not daring to look anybody in the eyes for fear his own eyes would give away his apprehension, and then said, "I don't know, Carter. Maybe it doesn't tie in with brainwashing. Maybe the Fuhrer has decided he doesn't need the Colonel for this study after all and has turned him over to the Gestapo for execution. What I do know is that we have been ordered, to sit tight until they get back to us."
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