Chapter 7: Contingency Plans
'You need some of the prisoners in town?' Klink asked.
'Don't sound so nervous,' the Duchess told him. 'You put your prisoners out for work details all the time. The Count needs manpower before he actually arrives at the camp. That's all he wants them for.'
'Uh…well…Which men did you have in mind?'
'Oh, just a few men from Barracks two,' the Duchess said. 'I shall take Shultz with me. I am aware that he is their usual guard.'
Klink gave a nervous grin. 'Which men?'
'Oh, Hogan, Newkirk, Kinch, Carter, and LeBeau,' the Duchess said. 'I'll probably have them for a few days.'
'And you'll return them in the condition you took them in?' Klink asked.
'A few scrapes and bruises, no worse for wear,' the Duchess said.
'Oh, very well.' Klink moved around and sat behind his desk. 'When do you want them?'
'The Count would like work to begin at the crack of dawn.'
Klink nodded. 'Schultz!' he bellowed.
The door opened and the guard in question walked in. 'Jahwol, Herr Kommandant!'
As Klink told him what the Duchess wanted, she walked over to the window and looked out. She could see Hogan and his men already sneaking out of the tree stump and disappearing into the woods. As Walt had said, it wasn't ideal. The more people that were there, the more people that could be used.
'…do you understand, Shultz?' Klink finished up.
'Jahwol, Herr Kommandant!' Shultz quickly agreed. 'I won't let them out of my sight, not for a moment!'
'Watch them like a hawk!' Klink added.
'Jahwol, Herr Kommandant!' Shultz turned to her. 'Are we leaving now, Duchess?'
'Yes.' The Duchess turned and walked to the door.
Shultz held it open for them. They walked out and out past Hilda. When they came out of the office and onto the porch, the Duchess stoppped there. She glanced over and saw Klink through the window, furiously scribbling. Varney had parked her car in front of the office. He'd changed into dark-coloured civiies. Shultz stopped when he saw that.
'Should I go and get the prisoners?' he asked, suddenly sounding unsure.
'Don't bother.' The Duchess stepped down. 'Get in the passenger side, Charlie.'
'Duchess…can you please explain?' Shultz's voice had gone up an octave in slight panic.
'A rogue faction of your own army wants to subject Col. Hogan to a fate worse than death,' the Duchess said. 'I know for a fact that you like the man.'
'Well, yes…' Shultz hesitated. 'When you say, "a fate worse than death"…?'
The Duchess held up her hand. 'You don't want to know. All you need to know is that we're dealing with it. There is no job. I'm just using those few days as a recovery period for Hogan and his men after we save them.'
'His men?' Shultz asked, immediately concerned.
'If we don't stop it, they will die,' the Duchess said. 'So will Hogan, in the end, but after watching all of them be killed, and after being beaten to a bloody pulp and having human blood forced down his throat.'
Shultz looked decidedly green around the edges.
'You don't…need me to…?'
'I don't need you to guard anyone,' the Duchess said. 'We should make it before they start killing anybody, but only if we leave now. What I need from you…' She held her hand back.
Varney pulled a block of chocolate out of the glove box and leaned over, handing it to her through the open car window.
She held it up. 'Is to make yourself scarce for a few days. Three days should do the trick. Visit your family. See your children.'
Shultz stared at the chocolate for a moment.
'And mention this to no one,' the Duchess added.
Shultz then pressed his lips together and reached out, taking the chocolate bar. 'I see nothing. I heard nothing. I know nothing.'
'Good man.' The Duchess climbed into the car beside Varney and drove away.
Shultz would have seen him duck, but he'd have seen little else.
Sure enough, Shultz made his way out of the camp himself.
HH
Count Karnstein frowned as he stood at the window.
'How many?' Walt asked from behind him.
'Five, including Hogan.'
'Plus the woman inside.'
'Yes.' The Count turned his head. 'But according to your information, we have no worry of him becoming what they want to turn him into.'
Walt scoffed. 'No. All we have to worry about is the damned Nazis killing all six of those people.'
The Count rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'Hell, I'd hoped we'd have these Nazis wiped out before they did something like this.'
'It was going too well,' Walt said. 'You can't win them all.'
'Sad, but true.' The Count turned to him. 'Let's go. We have some humans to save.'
HH
Shultz snuck out of camp.
His hair stood on end at the back of his neck. The things the Duchess had said to him scared him half to death. How had she noticed that he liked Col. Hogan, as well as the men under his command? But she had known, and she had used it to secure his silence and his cooperation. The only thing that calmed him was nibbling through the chocolate she'd given him.
Shultz took a truck and drove out the gate. He turned a blind eye much of them time and time again, but he still knew what went on in this camp. The Duchess would be seen to have left early. Shultz would be seen to follow with the prisoners for "work detail" presumably in the back of his truck. But he didn't drive for town.
He drove for home.
He just prayed that when he returned, Hogan and his men would be back, safe and sound.
HH
Tiger did not like feeling helpless.
She despised feeling helpless.
But there was really nothing she could do. She was shackled to a wall and left on her own. She wondered if she was really alone, or if they'd only given the illusion of such. Reaching down for the shackles, she tugged at them experimentally. They wouldn't give, so she had to figure a way out or Hogan would walk right into this.
But Tiger had a sick feeling in her gut. It twisted and churned. She'd gotten the exact same feeling she'd gotten the day her father went out to protest against the formation of the Vichy. He wasn't alone. Many other men in their neighbourhood had gathered together and gone to protest. None of them ever returned home.
She just couldn't shake it.
She felt like it was already too late.