The T.V. show Hogan's Heroes belongs to Bing Crosby Productions.
No ownership of the Hogan's Heroes characters is implied or inferred, and no infringement is intended.
Weaving a Web to Freedom, Undoing the Past
By Marty Miller
Background information, for this story, is from the HH Episode "The Meister Spy"
Chapter 27
Major Hochstetter had been checking security outside the hospital. He walked the grounds getting a feeling for the safety measures needed, and decided to add more guards to walk the perimeter. There would be a 'ring of steel' around the hospital, not only to keep people out but also to keep someone in. He could not imagine considering Hogan a "kamerade" should these experiments produce the results that were hoped for. He had despised the American's cockiness and irritating smirk to long, but he would do his job and make sure there was no interference with the experiment about to be performed.
Hochstetter smirked, You'll learn what discipline is in the German Army, Colonel Hogan. To see you as puppet for the Third Reich might be amusing at that. Hochstetter smiled and continued checking for breaches in security.
Lutz was once again behind the wheel of the "plumbers' truck with Armin sitting in the passenger seat. The four POW's, hiding in the back of the truck dressed in black, were quiet and determined, as they headed toward the hospital at Hohemark. They had gone over the plan thoroughly and now all that was left was to carry it out.
Erika made her way down the hall taking patients blood pressures, and now stood outside of Major Strasser's door. The guard stopped her.
"Nein!"
The blood drained from Erika's face. She stopped looked at the guard and put her hands on her hips. Looking around for Lisa, she saw her at the nurses' station intently engaged in conversation. Erika couldn't see who it was that had captured Lisa's interest, but she was determined to intrude on them. She waved her arm to get Lisa's attention and Lisa looked in her direction.
Lisa raised her voice slightly and asked, "What is it, Anna?"
"The guard refuses to let me enter to take the patient's blood pressure."
Lisa obviously wanted to return to her conversation and said, "That is okay, just go on to the next the room."
"But Lisa this is Herr Strasser's room and I don't think we should risk not following orders." At that statement the man that had been talking to Lisa turned around and took a step in her direction. The guard immediately recognized Captain Dering and came to attention.
"Guard, do not hinder these nurses from doing their jobs. You will allow her to enter and resume your duties. Is that understood?"
"Jawohl, Herr Captain!" The guard clicked his heels and opened the door.
Anna entered and the guard closed the door behind her. Hans stood from the chair he had been sitting in and with a questioning look on his face looked at his watch.
"Where is Emma? Time is running out. They will be here for me soon." There was urgency in his voice.
"Emma will not be here, she was called to work on another floor. Kyle has arranged an alternate plan. He said to tell you, 'It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way'."
There was only one person who knew that was my favorite 'Aristotle" quote?
Strasser smiled and commented, "Don't I know it! Come and take my blood pressure." Strasser sat back in the chair, as Erika applied the cuff. Hans dropped the negatives in her pocket and again looked at his watch. "Tell Colonel Hogan there will be someone dropping by to pick that up tonight but don't tell him who. If his thinking is compromised it will lessen the danger of a slip. The Colonel may be a little slow to understand after the medicine they gave him this evening. Make him repeat it back. They've only just started the regimen of sedatives. He should not have enough in his system to prevent him from remembering. Just make sure he is awake enough to hear you. He must stay awake and be alert from now until he is contacted. If he has not been contacted by midnight he won't be. Do you have that, Anna?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?" Strasser asked.
Erika stopped what she was doing and looked at Strasser. "With all I have done this past year, I think I can remember three sentences, Herr Strasser," Erika said with indignation. "However, there is something you need to know. There is no clock in his room."
"How did you know to check for one?" Strasser asked suspiciously.
"One of my strong points is that I am very observant. Some say I have a photographic memory."
That's interesting. Hans took his watch off and passed it to Erika. "Be sure to get it out of the room as soon as you can after midnight." He slipped the watch into Erika's pocket with the film.
Erika wrote down the blood pressure and moved on to the next room.
The Guard in front of Colonel Hogan's room had seen Captain Dering give the order to allow the women to enter the rooms. He opened the door for Erika, and stationed himself in the doorway. The Colonel had been lying quietly, preserving his strength and thinking. There has to be something I can do. If I could just get to Strasser and find out what his game is I might be able to think of something. Or maybe it is a game. Strasser might be part of this whole farce. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone at the door. He closed his eyes, so that it would appear he was sleeping. Erika entered and began placing the blood pressure cuff on Hogan's arm, when she heard Doctor Becker's voice. The doctor was entering into Strasser's room, and saw that the guard to Hogan's room was standing in the open doorway.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"The nurse is with the prisoner, Herr Major." Evidently that was all Becker needed to know, because the door to Strasser's room closed. Shortly there after there was a commotion next door and the guard at Hogan's door was called to assist.
"Colonel Hogan," she gently shook his arm. "Colonel Hogan, wake up, I have a message from Herr Strasser."
Hogan recognized the voice and opened his eyes, "Erika." The Colonel placed his hand on his stomach in an attempt to splint his muscles. "I'm glad to see a friendly face, but what are you doing here?" Hogan had worked with Erika through the Underground a few times. The last time he saw her she was playing the part of a "Red Cross Representative".
"Herr Strasser needs your help," Erika said.
"Needs my help? Which side of the war is Strasser on? What is he up to?"
"Oh, Colonel Hogan, you are in the dark aren't you? What do you know?" Erika asked.
"From what I remember, Strasser was at Hochstetter's side for most of my ordeal, and then last night, I think he was in my cell saying something about being brainwashed and not giving up." The Colonel's eyes looked tired and haunted by the memory.
"Major Strasser is a British agent," Erika whispered.
Hogan stared at Erika. "You mean we were telling the truth?" Hogan smiled and then the ramifications hit him, and the smile was replaced by a frown. "Then we blew his cover."
"Yes, now you need to help him finish what he set out to do, which is to get the results of the Nazis' studies on mind control to England." Erika was trying not to talk too fast. She paused to look closely at the Colonel and check that he was hearing her.
Satisfied, she continued, "To gain access to the information he needs meant it had to be brought to the hospital. And it was brought to the hospital to be used in an experiment they want to perform on you, which means you will have to submit to that experiment." Erika watched what little color was in the Colonel's face drain away.
He started to speak and paused to clear his throat of the scream he was swallowing. "When…?" he didn't finish his sentence, instead he thought. So those little flashbacks I've been having must be something from when they brought me here after I was first captured. I know they sewed me up. I saw the stitches. What else did they…? I don't know if I can do this. He felt drained. Like I have a choice!
"Tomorrow or the next day. It depends on how you progress. The sedatives they are giving you are supposed to make you feel 'comfortable' and relax you. They are trying to lower your resistance little by little." Erika stopped for a moment to give Hogan time to assimilate what he had been told.
After a few seconds she began again, "I have a message from Herr Strasser." She bent over and studied Hogan's face. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Erika was trying to talk slowly and say her words very distinctly, so that the Colonel could follow what she was telling him.
"I understand what you're saying. What is the message?"
"Erika continued to study Hogan's face and very deliberately and slowly said, "Listen carefully…"
"Erika, it's okay. I'm not drugged. Please talk normally; I haven't lost my mind," Hogan said with exasperation. At least not yet!
"Colonel, Herr Strasser said," she pulled the roll of negatives out of her pocket along with the watch, "you are to hold onto this. It is the information London is waiting for." She gave Hogan the negatives, "Someone will contact you between now and midnight to pick that up. If you haven't been contacted by midnight, you won't be. The Major said you are to stay awake and alert from now until midnight. Now repeat that back to me."
Hogan looked at her with defiance and said, "I understand. I told you I didn't take the medicine!"
"Colonel, my orders from Major Strasser are…" Erika was stopped.
"I'm a Colonel, I outrank the Major." Hogan could see the frustration on the girl's face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so…stern. Thank-you for the message." He tried to change his position but his body protested. "It's just that I have no control over my fate, and I'm a little edgy."
Oh, Papa Bear, I wish I could do more. "I understand." Erika's features relaxed a little and she continued with her instructions. "This is the Major's watch. Use it to keep track of the time, but keep it concealed. I'm instructed to get it out of here as soon as I can after midnight. Do you under…" Erika stopped mid sentence when she saw the Colonel's eyebrows raise and his eyes fix on her with a "don't say it" look.
"Sorry," she began to say, but they heard the guard coming back and assumed their roles. Erika took the cuff off of what appeared to be a sleeping prisoner and quietly left the room.
"What is going on here?" Major Hochstetter approached the truck and shone a light inside. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
Carter, Newkirk, LeBeau, and Kinch, recognized the voice and held their breaths.
"We have come to fix the water line that feeds the surgery rooms," Lutz announced.
"At this hour of the night?" Hochstetter bellowed.
"We always work during the night at the hospital. We can't turn the water off during the day when they are at their busiest," Lutz explained.
Hochstetter looked at him and finally said, "Go away, come back tomorrow."
"Major we can't do that; they need this fixed tonight so they can do surgeries tomorrow. I suggest you check with the hospital if you doubt me." Lutz could feel the perspiration running down his back as Hochstetter stared at him.
Finally Hochstetter relented. "Very well, keep them here until I check this out."
"Jawohl!" The guards brought their rifles down and held them ready for use.
Emma appeared on the fourth floor and asked if Anna was ready to eat. Erika looked at Lisa, waiting for permission to go with Emma.
"Certainly, you two go eat. I have some charting to do."
"Is your night going well, Anna?" Emma asked as they entered into the stairwell.
When the door had closed on the stairwell, Erika and Emma dropped their pretense and walked down to the landing between floors.
"It was a little tense for a minute, I was able to get the item that needed passed to Colonel Hogan from Major Strasser, but then the guard to Colonel Hogan's room stayed in the doorway watching me. Doctor Becker arrived to take Major Strasser to see Doctor Mahler, and the Major overheard my predicament. So the Major caused a disturbance next door and Colonel Hogan's guard stepped over to help. Since it looked like Colonel Hogan was in a drugged sleep and wouldn't cause any problems." Erika paused.
"What do you mean 'looked like'?" Emma asked.
"After the guard left, I started explaining to Colonel Hogan what was going on and he told me to talk normal, that he could understand me…"
"Talk normal?" Emma interrupted. "How were you talking?"
"Slowly so he could understand," Erika said matter of factly.
Emma giggled, "And the Colonel didn't like that?"
"No, not at all. Basically, he said he was a Colonel and to never mind what I was told to do by Major Strasser. He told me he was not drugged, that he did not take the medicine."
Emma smiled. "The Colonel is full of surprises. Is that it?"
"Just one more thing. The Major sent his watch to Colonel Hogan, so he would know what time to expect to be contacted. And I have to get that watch out as soon as I can after midnight."
"The major is right, Anna. If it is found they will know how it got there and that something has occurred," Emma frowned.
"Emma, my name is not Anna," Erika began.
"Stop, I don't want to know your name. It is one less thing I have to guard against." Emma smiled.
Major Hochstetter returned and looking the driver over said, "Let them pass." He looked at Lutz and growled, "Get in and get out."
"Jawohl, Herr Major, that is always our intention." Lutz continued to the loading dock at the back of the hospital and backed the truck up next to the building. Armin checked out the dock to make sure it was empty and then went to the back of the truck, opened the door and began taking some tools and supplies out.
"Okay, it's clear. Good luck!" Armin whispered.
Four dark shadows flowed out of the back of the truck and disappeared around the side of the building.
