Chapter 3: A Trip Around Town

As far as the Nazis in the area knew, this castle was being used for a top secret operation by personal orders of the Fuhrer himself. And because it was top secret, no one would ask Hitler about it. The Count knew this from personal experience. He'd done it countless times already. All you had to do was say "orders from the Fuhrer himself" and "top secret mission". They left, no questions asked.

This country really was being run by a madman.

Now, they were stationed. This was the most logical town for them to use. It was closest to Stalag 13 and far enough away that no one would question them being here. Even though most would question the validity of using a woman as your key strategist, the Duchess was her father's daughter.

Her judgement was trusted.

HH

The Duchess was sitting at a nice little coffee shop with Hilda, after the two of them had been on a shopping spree. She set her cup down. 'This place makes very good coffee.'

'Oh, yes,' Hilda said. 'It's the best coffee in town. Frau Gretchen really knows how to make it well.'

'It shows.' The Duchess chuckled. She looked around. 'Is the town terribly big?'

'Oh, no, not really,' Hilda said. 'It's just a few farms, a small market centre, a few warehouses, the Lutheran church, and the castle.'

And everything except the farms could be seen from where they sat. This little market centre probably got most of their customers from the men working in the warehouses and the nearby Stalag. And, when it hadn't been emptied under false pretences, from the men working at the castle too.

'How disappointing,' the Duchess said. 'No woollen mills about the place?'

'No.' Hilda looked interest. 'You knit?'

The Duchess smiled at her. 'Doesn't everyone? Oh, well. I can wait. So, tell me about that gorgeous prisoner.'

After all, Hilda hadn't been around other women for quite a while. And she was a feminine girl. She would want girl talk. Already, the Duchess had listened to Hogan sweet-talk her into taking down the last conversation the Duchess herself had had with the Count. It didn't matter, of course. When Hogan and his men sent it to London, no one in London was likely to be able to translate the conversation.

And, even if they did, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

It'd probably make the Duchess's job easier.

'Oh, you mean Col. Hogan?' Hilda asked and immediately a blush spread across her face.

The Duchess ignored it. 'That's the one. Prisoner or not, I can appreciate a handsome face when I see one. He's not taken, is he?'

There was a discontented look on Hilda's face. 'Does that matter in a Prisoner of War camp?'

'I take that as a yes,' the Duchess said.

Hilda frowned. 'I'm not sure. I've only ever heard her called Tiger. Usually Col. Hogan is very flirty but anytime she…well, whenever she comes up, he goes out of it. It generally takes him anywhere from a few days to a week to get back in the mood to flirt.'

'Well, good thing she is not around then,' the Duchess said. She filed away the information that Hilda had unintentionally given her. 'Now, you said you had some errands to run out here?' She had, rather conveniently, finished her own coffee while the Duchess's was still half-full.

'Yes. You don't mind me going now?' Hilda asked.

'Not at all,' the Duchess said. 'The market square is rather charming to look at. I will wait right here.'

Hilda nodded and smiled. She got up and hurried off. The Duchess leaned back in her chair. Now it was time to look for her main targets. She closed her eyes and inhaled. There were two types of warehouses in this town. The kind that was burnt out from a sabotage attack, and the kind that was manufacturing munitions.

The burnt-out ones were empty until they could be repaired…which would happen as soon as Hitler stopped blowing money on having a war on two fronts.

However, her nose told her that one of those burnt-out warehouses was not entirely empty.

Keeping note of Hilda's location, the Duchess moved. She left the table and ducked through a back alley. She then scaled a wall and began bounding across the rooftops of the businesses. Pausing at the edge of the last one, she took a final bound. She landed on the roof of the first warehouse, leaping over the heads of the guards that had no hope of ever seeing her.

The Duchess moved through the warehouse part of town and came to land on the roof of the burnt-out warehouse with people in it. Wasn't that interesting. It was right next door to the church. Of course it was. If they performed the ritual in a church, it would deconsecrate the ground and render the building useless to them.

Not that it would be useful to them anyway.

Stopping, the Duchess looked down. She could hear the voices. She quickly hopped around the place, even as she listened, to look for access points. There was an abundance of them. Most of the windows had been broken. The Duchess only had to pull glass shards out to stop them snagging on her dress.

The group was larger than she thought, but they'd be fun.

'And…Agent Tiger is?' one man asked.

'A Frenchwoman called Marie Louise Monet,' the man he was facing answered. 'And she's not just a French Resistance member. She's one of their key leaders.'

'And Hogan has really gone out of his way for her?'

'Multiple times. Anytime he hears she's been captured, or is in danger of such, he engineers a way to get to her. And she's shown no hesitance in asking him for help.'

'And he, of course, comes running every time.'

'Of course. And he will this time. Being this close, he's likely to bring all of his loyal dogs. That'll give us far more to work with.'

'And the Methodist reverend?'

'He'll be arriving with Agent Tiger.'

The Duchess frowned. From the sounds of things, it looked like they'd already captured Tiger. That didn't give Ruthven and Varney much time to arrive. Not that they needed much time. But the Duchess had no further time to listen in. She quickly exited the warehouse and went back the way she came.

She planted herself down in her seat and finished her coffee.

As Hilda stepped out of the grocer's shop, the Duchess painted a neutral look on her face.

HH

Hogan waited for the women to return.

When they did, Hilda immediately went into the office building while the Duchess headed in the other direction with a canteen of water. It was interesting. None of the language experts in London had been able to identify the language that the Duchess and the Count were speaking in. The theory now was that it was less of a language and more of a code.

But, if you asked Hogan, it sounded like a language.

'Hi, Duchess,' he said as he turned the corner, giving her a flirty smile.

'Hi, handsome,' she returned.

A large part of him was suspicious. She reminded him of Marya, in a way. She was just as manipulative and silver-tongued as the Russian woman. And she was quite happy to flirt. There was something…different, however. For one, she didn't seem as prone to seduction. She hadn't even attempted to kiss anyone once.

And she'd ducked out of the way the one time he'd tried.

This clearly wasn't a woman who did the honeypot routine, or fell for it.

'I heard you went into town with Hilda,' he said.

'Ah, just a bit of girl-time,' she said. 'You know, shopping, gossiping, it'd bore you to tears.' She turned the faucet off. Hogan glanced down. Generally, the men had to throw their weight onto that faucet to get it to turn off properly. They kept telling Shultz it needed oiling.

She turned the tap off like it had been oiled, but the metal still squealed.

Hogan chuckled. 'I suppose it would.'

'Of course it would. See you around, handsome.' She swaggered off.

Hogan smiled until she vanished from sight. Then he called his men over. 'The Duchess just turned this tap like Shultz has oiled it.'

'Really?' Carter leaned over, and turned the faucet on. Then he went to turn it off…but it didn't turn off properly. 'Feels about the same!' He threw his weight into it.

'Okay.' Hogan looked in the direction she'd gone. 'Then how did she do it?' He headed off.

'Where are you going, Colonel?' Kinch asked.

Hogan paused and looked back. 'The Duchess just spent the whole afternoon with Hilda. Maybe she said something to her.'

Hogan walked up into Hilda's office. She was sitting behind her desk. Hogan walked around and kissed her. Hilda grinned and kissed back. Ah, that was better. A woman receptive to his charms again. You'd almost swear the Duchess was raised in a time period where you canoodled with people based on political gain rather than physical attraction.

Hogan pulled back slightly. 'How was your trip in town?'

'Oh, lovely,' Hilda said.

'You two talk about anything interesting?'

Hilda blushed. 'Not really.'

Hm. Talked about him. That wasn't good. Hogan leaned in and pressed kisses along her neck. 'Really? You found nothing at all to talk about?'

'No.' She arched her neck. 'Well…you came up.'

Jackpot. 'Good things, I hope.'

Hilda giggled. 'As if it would be anything else.'

'Hm. What did you say?'

'Not a lot.' Hilda hummed in delight. 'I can hardly admit to her that this happens, can I?'

Well, no.' He chuckled against her skin. 'Okay, what did she say?'

'Well, she asked if you were taken.'

Interesting…'Who, me?' he chuckled again.

'She said it was like a joke,' Hilda said. 'But apparently, she's really good at reading faces.'

'Yeah? Why do you say that?'

Hilda tensed. 'Well…Tiger came up—' She quickly cut herself off.

It was like he was dropped in cold water. Hogan quickly pulled back. From the look on her face, Hilda regretted mentioning Tiger. He knew why, of course, but he didn't care. 'Why did Tiger come up?'

Hilda pulled a face. 'This would be why.'

Hogan quickly put the progression of the conversation together. 'What did you say about Tiger?' He was suddenly no longer in the mood to try and coax it out of her. He'd hate to have to force himself to do as such.

'Nothing!' Hilda insisted. 'I didn't mention anything about you actually seeing Tiger! As far as the Duchess knows she just comes up from time to time.'

I doubt that. The Duchess was far too sharp for that. She'd gone fishing for information on Tiger. Hilda always gave away more than she thought she did. Her offhand thoughts were unedited, and always gave Hogan what he needed. The Duchess had obviously noticed the same vulnerability in her, even if her means for accessing it was significantly different.

But why had she been interested in Tiger?

Hogan quickly brushed out of the office.