Hi, my dear readers,

Originally I wanted to poste the new chapter already yesterday, but a lot to do in my praxis and the damn ice-rain in the evening delayed everything (including cooking dinner) so that any kind of hobby had to wait. Now it's only raining, every little spot of snow we had, has vanished and it's stormy and simply… unghghghg (you know what I mean, *smile*).

Thank you so much for the reviews, comments, kudos and any other kind of feedback. I knew that you would love the fluffy scene in the last chapter, and I promise that it won't be the last. But just right now our two colonels are staying at another kind of threshold that will change everything for them, the Heroes and even others.

I don't want to reveal more, so have fun with the new chapter.

Love

Yours Starflight

Chapter 22 – The secret is revealed

It didn't become necessary for Klink to join Hogan to give him some more silent support – or so it seemed at first. There was nothing audible from the other sick-room, not even a half-hour later. And that gave Klink second thoughts. The file contained only ten or eleven pages. How long did someone need to read them? Yet, he didn't want to impose himself on Hogan and so he remained in the guest room, while the minutes were slowly ticking away.

Forty minutes later and Klink was ready to crawl up the walls. Not being endowed with great patience by nature, he had finally had enough, threw the covers away, rose, slipped into his bathrobe and slippers, and walked quietly to his usual sleeping chamber.

The sight that greeted him made him stop dead in his tracks.

The bed was empty, the file lay on the tousled blankets and Hogan… stood at the window and looked outside into the camp through the net curtain. His hands gripped the windowsill tightly enough his knuckles had turned white.

Somehow he must have heard a noise, because all of sudden he began to speak, "I read through it three times. Burkhalter got everything accurate – and I signed it." His voice was tight and hoarse. "Just take it and send it to him. And then I don't want to be confronted with any of it again for the near future!"

Klink sighed soundlessly; understanding the hidden anger in Hogan's voice and statement. "It was too early," he murmured. "But may God make you listen to me one time only."

Hogan whirled around – and almost lost balance. Regaining his feet by leaning himself back against the windowsill he snarled, "I have had enough of being treated like a china doll! I have had enough of…"

"Neither your men nor I treat you like a china doll, Hogan!" Klink interrupted him sternly. "You're injured and we take care of you so you can heal, that's all."

"Oh yeah?" the colonel sneered. "You, Birkhorn, my men, Schultz – hell, even Burkhalter! You all tiptoe around me and fear I would shatter at any given thoughtless word! You speak behind my back about how to help the poor broken bloke, but…"

"You are not broken, Robert – not yet," Klink snapped. "But bottling up everything until you can't control it anymore isn't a solution. I thought you understood this after last night – or that you'd accepted that you can't push yourself, yet the latter is what you still do despite the fact that it harms you."

"What me harms is this damn pity," Hogan spat; fury lay in his eyes.

"We don't pity you," Klink corrected him firmly. "Pity is something you receive; sympathy, compassion and understanding is something you must earn – and you've three guesses as to what we hold for you!"

This time the colonel remained silent, yet his breathing was heavy and his glance was fierce.

Klink sighed quietly and moved slowly forwards as if he were approaching a wild animal. "I know that you loathe being in this condition – that you loathe having to depend on others instead of caring for them. I know that you hate what has been done to you and that this anger is beginning to latch out at everything and everyone. But neither your friends nor I are your enemy, Robert. Hochstetter was the enemy and he tried to triumph over you by wounding you so much that a part of his hate would remain in you. Hochstetter has lost all humanity in his constant desire to beat everyone and to be the best – in his constant fear of losing. Having such a sick, twisted soul walks hand in hand with a deep rooted loathing and anger towards everyone. To say it in a religious way: It's like he tried to plant some of his evil streaks into you – streaks your mind and heart has to fight, or you'll be lost. Just look at you. You glare at me as if you are ready to murder me. Is this really you?"

The words seemed to reach something in Hogan, because he blanched and his glance betrayed a soft shock. "I… I would never murder you, Wilhelm," he whispered. "I would never harm you – not before you showed how much you care for me, and certainly not now. But…" He lowered his head and balled his hands into fists. "But I hate all this. I can accept that my injuries have to heal and that it may last a few weeks. I can accept that I have to take it slow, even if I'll certainly go mad within the next days because I'm forced to do nothing. I'm grateful for your and my men's worry. I'd never had such close friends like I have found within my team – and I have certainly never anticipated a German officer becoming a sort of guardian angel for me; someone who even risked his own life for me. I never thought you'd care so much for me that you'd put up with my stupid nightmares and even comfort me like… like we were family."

"Then what is it was makes you so angry all of sudden?" Klink asked quietly. "Please, make me understand."

Hogan looked up again and took a deep breath. His eyes brimmed with unshed tears. "I fear that… that Hochstetter won in his own way. When I described all that happened to Burkhalter, it was like I was speaking about someone else, not me. It helped make it possible for me to give the report at all. Last night I couldn't hold it back anymore – the pain and the disbelief that something like this has really happened were too strong. I… I was so helpless, Wilhelm, so damn unable to defend myself or stop Hochstetter and his men, I still can't get over it. Dr. Birkhorn may be right if he says that I have to let it out in order to accept it in the end, but I'm far away from it."

"Of course," Klink said softly. "Of course you're far from healed. First you have to come to terms with everything."

"'Come to terms'," Hogan snorted. "I was always the strong one – someone the others could rely on. It's me who makes the decisions, who takes the responsibility and who fights 'til the last breath to keep all those under my command or close to me safe. But this time I…" He gulped. "I was ready to sacrifice myself, Wilhelm. I knew that there was no other way to keep everyone safe, so I was ready to let myself be killed. It's what you do for those you love, or for those whose lives are in your hands. But as Hochstetter told me that he wouldn't let me up again and that this was my very last chance to give into his demands, I…" He moistened his lips. "I knew it would be my end – that I was going to die, yet I couldn't do anything else than sign my own death sentence. I was forced to let death take me, because despite Hochstetter's attempt to blackmail me with my life, there was no real choice he gave me. I couldn't tell him what he wanted to know despite the terrible fright that ruled me within those last minutes."

He took another shuddering breath. "As Hochstetter arrested me the second time, he cited a saying: 'The proof of heroism doesn't lay within brave acts, but in enduring defeat'. And in one way or the other he did defeat me."

Klink shook his head. "He didn't defeat you, Rob. He tormented you, made you afraid – but he didn't defeat you."

Hogan lowered his head again. "It feels like defeat. I fought, Willie. I fought him as much as I could – and then I realized that I couldn't gain victory this time. I realized that everything was over the moment I heard his inhuman scream of rage before he pushed me under water. And I continue to hear this shrill roar that seemed to come from an animal and not from a human." He took another deep shuddering breath, and glanced up again. "I fear that… that he broke something in me I won't regain."

Klink slowly walked around the bed and stepped in front of the younger man. He knew that the next minutes were essential for Hogan's healing.

"The fact that you admit this fear alone shows me that you aren't broken, Robert Edward Hogan. You doubt yourself, which is understandable, but maybe you should consider that any real near-death experience makes us doubt ourselves. I think, we both went through it in similar situations: As we were shot down from the skies – I at the end of the first war, you before you came here. In those minutes we didn't know if we would make it out alive – yet we did. The same went for you while Hochstetter was about to kill you. You thought you would not survive – yet you did. These moments and the doubts we have about ourselves afterwards, show that, despite our strength, we're only humans. Death is always waiting for us, but we beat it. You beat it – and maybe you should consider that it has made you stronger in the end. You won – not Hochstetter. He has been arrested and will be seriously punished, but you are safe and cared for – and you will heal, both in body and soul. And do you know why?"

As Hogan carefully shook his head, Klink cradled the younger man's face between his hands, careful not to inflict some pain, before he continued gently,

"Because giving-up is not in your nature. If things are bad you dare them to become worse. If there is no way out, you search until you find one. If you can't do anything, you hold on until you get a chance to turn the wheel and come out of the situation as the winner. Hochstetter also never gives up, but he is haunted by too many inner demons to be successful. He fears so many things that the pressure on him became too much – and it corrupted and twisted his mind. He doesn't know it, but inwardly he is broken – contrary to you."

His hands slipped down to Hogan's shoulders where they remained; his gaze never left that of the younger man.

"We both know that you have faced danger within the last years more often than anybody can count. You outwitted your opponents and the Grim Reaper over and over again. You were pushed to your limits, maybe even despaired here and there, yet you were always able to go on – because you didn't give up. You never let anybody down – including yourself. And this is the reason why Hochstetter hasn't won and will not win, so don't give him a small victory by letting self-doubt bloom in your heart. You, Robert, showed everyone that you triumphed over the poison-gnome even in the most dark minutes of your life, and will continue to do so as long as you do not doubt yourself. Your family at home needs you, your men need you, this damn war needs you – and every man and woman on this almost doomed continent need you." –'And I need you, too', he added in his mind.

The strong words had given Hogan something to latch on to, had breathed new hope in him – and then he realized what Klink had said between the lines.

"The people of this continent need me? I faced danger within the last years?" he asked; new alarm rose in him. "I outwitted… the Grim Reaper? What do you mean? I'm safe here in Stalag 13, am I not?"

Klink nodded slowly; his gaze fixed Hogan's. He had hoped to have this talk some days later, when Robert was more himself again, but as it seemed the grace period was over. He had revealed a few details within the last days, which hadn't slipped Hogan's attention. The colonel was nervous because deep down he knew that he, Klink, was aware of many things the American tried to keep a secret. And this new fear was poison for Hogan's healing. Right, Klink had inflicted it by being unable to hold his tongue a little bit longer, but what was done, was done. And just like the night before, Klink would try to get Hogan to talk. It would be better for both of them.

Taking a deep breath, he said softly, "Yes, as long as you are here you are safe, because I can protect you – citing the Geneva Conventions or pointing out my authority as the camp's Kommandant if necessary." He let go of the colonel and sat down on the bed's edge; making himself smaller to appear not threatening to the deeply troubled and also alarmed man in front of him. "But we both know that there were a lot of times you were outside of my authority's range – in the middle of 'the enemy's territory', risking new arrest and even execution. You always knew exactly what was at stake for you, yet you mastered everything because you don't give up. This is the reason why I said that you are stronger than Hochstetter, because you didn't break under any pressure you endured within the last years since you arrived in my camp."

Hogan stared at him – highly alert. Klink's little speech could be nothing more than a simple comparison between a POW locked away in a POW-camp and a Gestapo-member who was under the pressure to succeed, but the colonel knew his German counterpart very well by now. There were times Klink was rambling, and there were times Klink expressed his sometimes surprisingly profound thoughts to make it clear to the others around him that he knew more than he admitted. And in the last days Klink had done the latter a lot.

The colonel knew that he had to be very careful now. Maybe Klink didn't know for real about him and his men, and simply had made some guesses – last but not least Hochstetter had rambled about many details a lot, and Hogan would bet his last shirt that some of that information had been passed from Hochstetter to Burkhalter, and from the general to Klink during his talk with him six days ago. If Klink was only bluffing concerning his 'knowledge', then there was still the chance to keep the mission hidden.

"If you mean last year when we were at the Hofbräu to help you with those two morons who'd been blackmailing you, then…"

"Hogan," Klink interrupted him softly, "we are both aware that this wasn't the only time you were outside of the camp."

"Yes, of course, after all you sent me out to re-capture a few escapees, you sent me on a test drive after we repaired your car and…" He stopped as he saw the sadness in the other man's eyes.

"Do you still not trust me, Robert?" The question was uttered in a quiet and simple tone, but it seemed to echo in the room like a trumpet fanfare.

For once Hogan didn't know how to react. Did he trust Klink? Yes, to a certain degree. And, to say the truth, he wanted to trust the older man completely. God, he longed to trust him, because it would be so much easier for him to share everything with somebody who held the same rank and knew how it was to hide behind lies and a mask. Klink and he had more in common than he had ever thought, and the last days had shown how much the Oberst cared for him, but… could he indeed entrust him with his men's lives? He didn't know. He simply didn't know, and…

"I can understand that you are careful, Hogan. I know how difficult yet sometimes necessary it is to pretend to be another person. I also know how it is to carry the weight of responsibility for the men under your command on your shoulders – especially in your case. They are your friends; more than brothers in arm." He sighed deeply and all of sudden he seemed to age by years. "Maybe one day you will realize that I would never take any risk that could cost you your life, and will trust me the way I trust you."

He rose and headed towards the door; his movements were heavy – as if something was weighing him down. And Hogan knew what this 'something' was: The feeling that he wasn't worth someone's trust; the feeling of always being left out; the pain of utter loneliness.

"Don't," Hogan whispered.

Klink stopped. "'Don't what'? Don't expect too much?" A hue of bitterness was in his voice. He had really thought – hoped! – that Hogan would finally realize that he, Wilhelm Klink, was on his side; that he never would give him away.

"Don't trust me like you obviously do, Wilhelm," Hogan murmured, before he became aware of what he was saying. "I'm not worth it."

"Why?" Klink turned around and faced the younger man; a mixture of understanding and hope lay in his eyes; hope that Hogan finally realized that his German counterpart could be made privy to his deception. "Because you have secrets? We all have them. But yours are bigger, aren't they? They are big enough to make you restless whenever someone begins to suspect them. And this is more exhausting to you by now than anything else. But you need rest, Robert, just like any other bear in winter – especially when he is the papa of the family."

The world seem to come to a halt.

The words 'bear' and 'papa' – even in the wrong line of order – hung in the room like a thick fog.

Hogan could only stare at Klink; knowing deep down that his bad suspicions were obviously true: The older man knew about him and his missions – or he assumed and had simply taken a shot in the dark. Maybe the latter was the case, after all Hochstetter had said a dozen times and more that he thought Hogan was 'Papa Bear'. Maybe Klink had only hopped on the train of thoughts and suspects Hochstetter had certainly been able to wake in the Oberst. If this was the case, he, Hogan, still had a chance to turn the wheel, but an inner voice told him that he was fooling himself. Nonetheless he answered,

"Well, rest really is something I need – just like you. We are both living in hard times and face problems every day. We are both commanding officers of our men in the middle of a war, and this makes our responsibility even more difficult than usual. Of course one day we would be tired out and need a break." The words sounded lame even in his own ears.

The Oberst nodded. "Yes, you are right. We both need rest, but you will not find it again until you have found out how safe your secrets still are. I'm very aware of your restlessness yesterday and during the night. But to get an answer to this uncertainty you have to reveal your secrets – and they can be if deadly given away to the wrong persons." Klink returned; his voice and face were soft, yet firm. "Rob, I'm not one of those 'wrong persons'. If I had belonged to them, you and your men would have been arrested and certainly already executed a long time ago." He watched how the younger man went absolutely rigid.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the colonel lied through his teeth; avoiding the Kommandant's gaze. And this, especially, told Klink more than anything else. Hogan always glanced straight into his eyes. It was his nature to show dominance by never looking away from someone he talked to – except when he knew that his eyes would give him away. And this was exactly the case now.

Klink couldn't help the little smirk that curled the left side of his mouth. "Still not ready to admit the truth, but playing the ignoramus? Okay, you block-head, then let me mention a few things which may tell you of what I'm speaking."

He sat down on the bed's edge again, pulled the comforter over his lap and waited until Hogan looked at him, before he began,

"I have assumed that you and your men are much more than 'simple POWs' for more than two years now. First I thought I was imagining things, because the truth would be too bizarre to be true. But over the months, piece by piece was added and it began to build a picture I didn't dare believe to be true, but denial never changes a fact." He took a deep breath. "I had a lot to think about within the last days, and no matter how I look at it, it always remains the same picture; compounded by too many incidents."

Hogan felt his mouth go dry. "What incidents?" he asked; managing to sound casual.

Klink sighed. 'Stubborn mule', he thought fondly, not for the first time this day. Clearing his throat he said,

"Remember the days I rebuked you because your men were almost too tired to stand straight on their feet during morning roll call? Of course they were tired, as if they hadn't slept all night, because they hadn't. And why not? They had other, more important things to do."

"What things should we be able to do except for sleeping at night?" Hogan still sounded nonchalant as if he wasn't really interested in that talk, yet he needed all strength to keep up the masquerade. Hochstetter had figured him out and Hogan had been able to laugh straight to his face. But, for reasons unknown, he almost had trouble acting the same way around Klink.

The Oberst shortly pursed his lips. "Well, let us say that running around in the area for the whole night, or several nights even, can be very tiresome. Or another example of odd incidents: Remember all the times you dove for cover within the camp or even in my quarters, pulling me with you or warning me – seconds before something close by exploded, came flying through the window or likewise? You are not a foreseer, Hogan, therefore there is only one explanation: You knew of what was going to happen because you initiated it – or got word of it through secret channels."

"We've a transistor radio here, as you know. You yourself offered to have it repaired for us," Hogan said slowly; feeling his tension increasing.

"Please, Hogan, give me some credit here," Klink grumbled. "If the authorities knew that something bad would happen, they would prevent it instead of broadcasting it before it took place. Therefore you can't have gotten the knowledge by listening to the German radio – or that of the Allies. Like hell they would tell the enemy what they're up to. And, by the way, you never came out of your barracks where you could have listened to your transistor radio before you acted as the king of guardian angels for all in the camp; warning your men, my men and me in advance before something bad could happen. No, you knew about the upcoming dangers because you were responsible for them or learned of them from your allies outside the wires. And these warnings of yours aren't the only thing that gave me seconds thoughts for months – years even. Remember all the times someone who was involved in sabotage resembled you a lot, but you had an alibi?"

Hogan felt his knees going weak as he realized that Klink seemed to have finally puzzled everything out, and he lent back against the windowsill again; still trying to look casual. "My 'alibi' like you call it, is me being a prisoner here in…"

"'A prisoner who comes and goes to his liking', Hochstetter said. And the more I think of it the more I have to agree with him. You, Robert, walk out and into the camp whenever you need it – while others take your place to cover your back; maybe even switching clothes with you, just like LeBeau did as he came to the hospital to get me." Klink braced his underarms on his thighs. "There are several occasions I remember very well in which you were officially here, but I'm ready to make a vow that in truth you were on the other sides of the wires. For example that one time you lay drunken on my bed while a few kilometers away air fighters were blown into pieces at their air base. I bet my last shirt that someone had replaced you and wore your clothes, so that Burkhalter believed it was you he saw face-down on my bed; snoring like a bear in winter."

"Why do you think it was me who gave your planes an extra flight? As you said, I lay drunken on your bed. I think I remember that someone shook me, but…"

"The sabotage was done by someone whose description fits you very nicely. And as Burkhalter learned of it half an hour after the attack on the air base, he went into my sleeping chamber to check on you. Yes, you lay there in all your drunken glory and even snapped at Burkhalter to let you sleep." Klink chuckled. "A dangerous scheme but you love to play with fire. You returned just in time, changed into your own clothes and lay down again before the general saw you for real. A plain alibi – and very clever."

He watched the colonel closely, who had wrapped his arms around himself in a typical gesture; face paler than before.

'My guess was right – it really happened this way,' Klink thought, and continued quietly,

"Or another example for your tricky way of making anyone think you're in the camp, but are in truth outside: Your identity as Erik Schafstein last October. Schultz watched you play chess with Carter the whole evening, but in truth someone had taken your place again, wearing your cap and jacket and turning his back to the window so that Schultz could only see said person from behind. I think it happened as Schultz said you pushed a play-stone down on the floor and put it back on the wrong field – cheating. In truth this was the moment you switched places with someone else who wore your leather jacket and your crush-cap. There must have been a reason why you played at the open window the whole evening despite the fact that it was damp and cold outside: You wanted Schultz to see 'you' the whole time."

He cocked his head, as Hogan only stared at him – stiff and tense.

"Like this Pruhst and I met Schafstein on the party, getting 'proof' at first hand that you, Robert Hogan, have a doppelganger, who turned out to be non-existent later," Klink developed his thoughts further. "Like this you killed two birds with one stone: You got Pruhst off your neck and there finally was an explanation as to why someone who looks like you was so often seen during strikes against the Third Reich. Yet the problem was that Hochstetter, after he got word of it, didn't buy your act – just like me. I knew that it was you the whole time – at the party and later in your barracks."

"Pruhst and you spoke of a tattoo and you even checked if I have one. But I haven't, so…"

"Robert, the moment I saw the slightly reddish color on the inside of your underarm and how flushed your face was, I knew the truth. It was you on the party – tattoo or not. By the way, I already knew then that pictures you can glue to the skin exist – a gag for Karneval or parties. You got one, put it on and came up with the story of how you got the same tattoo like the Feldmarschall's son. You rubbed it away while you were returning to the camp, switched clothes and sat down in your barracks, 'playing' chess with Carter like you'd been doing when Pruhst and I left earlier in the evening. And you were flushed because you had to hurry a lot to be there when we arrived – especially after we left the party earlier than you were able to." He took a deep breath. "And, besides, I know you too well by now. I would recognize you everywhere, no matter the costume and mask you wear. I know the way you move, how you cock your head, how you chuckle and how you charm your way into everyone's mind. I know the way you hold a glass and sip at it – or how you try to distract others to change a topic that becomes uncomfortable for you. It was you at the party, no mysterious doppelganger, who – in my eyes – doesn't even exist."

He saw how the younger man had gone deathly white by now, as he asked hoarsely,

"If you were convinced that it was me all the time along that evening, why didn't you reveal me?"

"To Pruhst?" Klink shook his head. "He would have torn you apart, believe me. He isn't less fanatical than Hochstetter." He sighed. "I even 'lost' my way while we were driving back to the camp, buying you a few minutes like this. You should have heard Pruhst grousing while I turned the car and 'found' the main road again."

Hogan gulped; barely believing his ears. "If what you say is true, then I'm a spy and saboteur. It would have been your duty to stop me at any cost – to give me away to the authorities. But you even tried to help me by stalling for time? Why? It shouldn't…"

"And it's your duty to flee, yet you never did. You even returned after you were transferred but were freed by the Underground. Hell, you didn't even try to escape after I ordered you to take your chance and run away eight days ago. You stayed – despite the fact that Hochstetter was after you," the Kommandant interrupted him. "Because a) you've something very important to do here that doesn't allow you to go away, and b) you couldn't let me down. We both forget our duties when the other one is in real danger – and I think that's the reason why we're both still alive."

Taking a shuddering breath and still not ready to admit anything, Hogan murmured,

"Of course I warn you if danger closes up. You are our Kommandant here – and a fine man despite your unruly way of handling the camp's books and exchequer. We have built a kind of friendship over the years and this is stronger than what our superiors are expecting us to do. I warn you, you help me – or you cut my men or me a break when we've broken a rule and you let us out of the cooler earlier than originally ordered. One good turn deserves another. But this doesn't explain why you're risking trial and execution by staying silent about my trips you're so convinced of."

Klink chuckled. "'Your trips I'm so convinced of'… A nice way of formulation – and so typical for you. Trying to get others to talk by revealing things first in such a way that no-one believes you. Is this a natural streak of yours or have you been trained? I think Pruhst mentioned some kind of special training you underwent before you were sent over the Atlantic to Europe."

Hogan only looked at him, and the Oberst grimaced. "My dear Robert, I'm absolutely convinced that you are still here because you've a special mission to fulfill. For this you are pulling strings in the background in an extent that would even make Himmler dizzy if he should ever learn about it. I remember the day you were chosen to witness the launch of a newly developed rocket to afterwards tell your people of the great success of the Third Reich, so that they would think twice about attacking us again. Several test-starts prior had been very successful, but the start you participated in promptly went to hell."

"I was locked in my room. You yourself locked me in and opened the door the next morning."

"As if a locked door could stop you," Klink said sardonically. "And given the odd, phony attack during the night at the rocket station, I've a theory of my own. I don't want to probe your little gang about this incident. However, I can't shake off the feeling that they had a big part in it – despite the fact that they should have been here in the camp, many miles away from the test areal."

Hogan said nothing to this detail. What could he say? After all, his men had really shown up at the rocket station and had helped him – and the Russian spy Mayra – to change the rocket's programmed course. Schultz had caught them, had seen Hogan's men in the black SS-uniforms and had decided that he saw 'nothing' (like always).

Clearing his throat, Hogan replied with pretended calm, "We were all questioned by Hochstetter afterwards. Except for insulting me he had to admit that none of us, me included, could be blamed. Hell, I even told him how he could formulate an excuse for Berlin."

The Oberst smirked. "Yes, I'm impressed how you always manage to erase any tracks which could lead to you – mostly. Hell, you're able to do you tricks right under everyone's nose. One time a whole tank vanished within my camp, only to be back a day later – another time it was a shot-down plane that disappeared and returned hours afterwards. The latter happened while Feldmarschall von Heiken was 'kidnapped' by the Brits and was exchanged for the American Brigade General Barton who had been shot down and had been brought to Stalag 13. If I remember correctly he was also your direct commanding officer. I have a certain feeling that the vanished plane and the kidnapped Feldmarschall are connected. And do you know why? One, the general is your direct superior, as you admitted, and even if he treated you worse than Burkhalter behaves towards me, he's still your direct CO and we both know how strong your loyalty runs. And two, the voice of the American negotiator during the broadcast, in which the swap of the two officers was demanded, was your voice…"

"I was sitting in your anteroom the whole time, if you would please remember," Hogan interrupted with a croak; realizing with dread that the game was as good as over. Klink had indeed figured him and the others out. Denial was impossible anymore.

The Oberst rolled his eyes. "You sat there as I left my office to check on you after I recognized that the voice from 'London' sounded exactly like yours – and unfortunately I even blurted it out, thinking too late that my carelessness could and would put you in danger. But, of course, somehow you'd already learned that I had recognized you and acted on it; rushing to the Kommandantur and sitting down in the anteroom maybe seconds before we left my office. And I think I know how you learned of it. You've placed bugs in my office, haven't you? Like this you can always show up in time if something goes down the hill and your interference is necessary. Because the latter happens on regular base."

"I have a good gut-feeling, and simply 'smell' it when something bad is in the air," Hogan pressed out.

"Very funny. Your nose must be better than that of our dogs," Klink scoffed. "But concerning this particular case, there is a third thing that made it clear to me that there was more going on than it seemed to be. General Barton saluted you first instead of the other way around as he was brought away to be exchanged with our Feldmarschall. Why should a general, who even thought so low of you to accuse you of being a traitor, give you such a high symbol of respect by greeting you first? The answer is easy: It was you who got him out – and he learned of your intervention shortly before he left Stalag 13. I think, Newkirk stood at his side just before he left. Did he tell him of your mission that is such a top-secret that not even your direct CO knew about it?"

Hogan didn't answer and looked aside; pressing his lips into a thin line. Sweet Lord, Klink knew him as well as maybe his own mother. And obviously there was not much that escaped the Oberst's attention, even if he masked it so well. Hogan gulped. God help him!

Sighing, the Kommandant rose again, closed the distance to his American counterpart, reached out and placed a hand on his underarm. He felt that the colonel seemed to have turned into stone.

"Rob, stop pretending," Klink said gently. "We both know that Hochstetter was mostly right with his accusations concerning you. You are running an espionage ring – here, right in my camp and under my nose. You are the man who is behind all the little and bigger stunts, using Stalag 13 as your very own base of operations, and only a few in the Allied High Command know about it to keep the risk of you being revealed as low as possible." He lowered his voice softly. "You are Papa Bear, aren't you?"

Hogan bit his lips. Klink had pointed out many things similar to Hochstetter – and even more, after all there were incidents of which the major hadn't been aware of, in contrast to the camp's Kommandant. And the older man had put together all puzzle-parts he'd collected until he finally got a picture – the right one. Wilhelm Klink was anything but the moron Hogan had always thought him to be. The colonel had to admit the bitter truth that he had been the idiot thinking that he really had Klink fooled for almost three years now.

The horse was out of the barn and closing the door after it was too late. And there was nothing he could do to stop whatever may come now.

He neither could try to replace Klink, nor could he kidnap him and send him to London, where he would be questioned and be treated as a POW. The Saxonian officer had become far more to him than only the 'idiot' he needed to go on with his missions. Klink had become his friend – and he was a good man. He owed this man his life, maybe more often than he'd believed until now. And, after all the Oberst had done for him, to repay him with betrayal was out of the question. Hogan wouldn't do this to Klink – never! Usually he wouldn't have any other choice if he didn't want to endanger his men and himself. God alone knew what Klink would do if his assumptions were proven true. Yet… Hogan couldn't simply eliminate the threat like he had often done before. Too many things stopped him.

And beside the emotional reasons there was one fact that echoed like a shout in his mind: Klink hadn't given him away despite everything he had witnessed, recognized and assumed. If he understood the Oberst correctly, the older man had been aware of his activities for two years now. Why had Klink covered for them? Yet the more important question was: Would Klink still turn a blind eye on everything, if he would learn of all the things Hogan and his men had been up to? Maybe Klink had stayed silent until now, but eventually the whole truth would be too much for the Kommandant to handle, and he wouldn't have any other choice than to call the SS. What then? Could he, Hogan, really take this risk?

Klink's gaze roamed over the younger man's face. He saw the inner battle Hogan was going through – how caution, training, distrust, fear and the knowledge that he had finally reached a dead end were fighting with each other. The colonel's fingers, which clutched the material of his pajamas around his upper arms, were shaking, while something flickered in his eyes that made it clear that he was nearing his limits again. In his current condition, learning that his secrets were revealed, could be too much for him to bear. Realizing that Hogan stood at the cliff's edge, Klink decided to help him a little bit.

Lifting his arms and cupping Hogan's shoulders, he moved his thumbs in a soothing way, before he softly said, "Robert, there is much proof I got of you being anything but an 'innocent' POW within the last years – and I never gave and still won't give you away, so calm down. There is no need for you to freak out."

He met the colonel's gaze and recognized the growing despair behind the uneasiness. Yet there was also an almost desperate hope that indeed everything was okay. Klink could understand him. After being deep inside of the enemy's country and having faced many fanatical and brutal followers of the merciless regime, Hogan had internalized distrust with every fiber of his being. It was what had kept him and his men alive. If Klink wanted to prove to the younger man that he could trust him, he had to convince him that he wasn't in danger here – not now and also not during the times earlier.

"I first ignored the many little hints and odd incidents, until I couldn't look away anymore. Deep down I knew that you are the man half of the Gestapo, SS and Wehrmacht are after – yet I couldn't stop protecting you as best as I could. The first time I really became aware of you being more than my senior POW was two years ago. There was an event that forced me to make a decision: Tell the authorities what I'd found out, or stay silent. I chose the latter. Remember the day you came to my office and told me that a Gestapo-major – Hegel – had offered to get you and your men out of the camp in exchange for diamonds worth a million dollars?"

Hogan nodded wordlessly; tensed like a bow ready to let an arrow fly. So much depended on the next minutes. He had to make his own decisions on how to proceed now; decisions he didn't want to make and he caught himself praying to all higher beings that Klink could indeed prove that he was an ally. He didn't want to go against the older man. The mere thought made him sick.

"I asked you how you were able to contact him – or how he got in contact with you, after all this bastard had never been in Stalag 13. I also wanted to know how you wanted to get so many diamonds," Klink continued, while he let go of the American, but remained in front of him. "Every time you said 'I can't tell you', yet I agreed to play your game of cat-and-mouse. Hell, I even kept my mouth shut as the other Gestapo-guys interviewed you after the whole misery in my office. It was you who told them how it came that Hegel was shot, and you served them one of the biggest fish-stories and lies I had heard in a very long time. Why, do you think, did I not intervene but covered for you by staying silent?"

"Because they would have partly blamed you for Hegel's death – and for the attempt of our almost escape," Hogan whispered. He knew that any denial was for naught, yet he couldn't help but try to change the course the ship had taken.

"No, my dear Robert, I kept my mouth shut because otherwise they would have had your ass for it. The story you served up to me as you came to my office two days earlier had so many inconsistencies I'm still surprised that you came up with it at all. Usually your tales are more thought-through. The report you gave the Gestapo sounded far more convincing, so I let them buy it. You can also thank me that I removed the little box Hegel carried with him – a wooden box that was made of teak. We use oak wood, the Brits favor teak – a certain evidence of the box' origin. And then its content: Diamonds – approximately worth one million dollars; the payment Hegel demanded. You got them to fake the payment – despite the fact that you're a POW in a camp with only a small town nearby." Klink sighed as he saw how Hogan looked away again. "May I tell you what I think was really going on during this crazy incident and how you got the gems?"

"Not really," Hogan murmured; feeling dizzy as everything began to crash down on him.

"You and your men were blackmailed by Hegel," Klink continued as if he hadn't heard the colonel's answer, "because he found out about you. He threatened to arrest and execute you all if he wouldn't get paid – in the form of diamonds. Yet, clever as you are, you knew that Hegel couldn't allow you and your men to remain alive afterwards, so you needed a way out. In your dilemma you turned to me, knowing that a) I would do everything to keep my flawless record, and that b) I couldn't permit that this scumbag would put the blame on me for the pretended escape of you and the others. Therefore, I was your only chance to get you out of the mess alive."

"If you would please remember that you heard Hegel blackmailing me further with your own two ears? He also gave instructions where the hand-over should be – and you heard it," Hogan desperately tried to turn the wheel a last time.

Klink smiled sourly. "Yes, I do remember very well the two hours I pretended to be a simple soldier, and Schultz gave me a little payback for one or the other stern word by shouting at me the whole time. And I remember your and Hegel's little talk while I cowered behind the major's staff-car and heard how the guy, who'd never met me before, called me an idiot – an insult you agreed to." He shot his grimacing American counterpart a dark glance.

"It's difficult to disagree with someone when you're facing a dead-end," Hogan pressed out.

Klink rolled his eyes. "Come on, you did it before – only a few days ago." He saw Hogan stiffening anew, and sighed. "Robert, the point is: I knew that Hegel wasn't offering you an escape which you knew would lead to your and your men's death in the end. Then you could simply have declined the offer. No, he was blackmailing you with something completely different. The moment you told me that it would be a mistake to call the Gestapo-Headquarters in Berlin to let them take care of Hegel, I knew something was amiss. You said that the black-cladded bastards stick together and wouldn't arrest one of their own, even if said someone tried to get rich by helping POWs escape for payment. This was another hollow explanation as to why I should try to get Hegel and not the Gestapo. Yes, the dudes hold together but only on the surface. Internally, they're fighting each other like the mangy dogs they are, and you know this like I do. Some guys who wanted to replace Hegel and get his position would have loved to arrest him."

"How should I know that one of your elite units tear each other apart – for whatever reasons? I haven't had that many experiences with the Gestapo and…"

"I think you've even more experiences with those bastards than I – and I'm the highest ranking Luftwaffe-officer in the area when Burkhalter is in Berlin." Klink shook his head. "No, Hogan, you know exactly how these black- or leather-clad maniacs tick – the reason why you were forced to turn to me for help. You were caught in a trap you couldn't get out on your own anymore. Hegel held something over your head that made it impossible for you to allow an official arrest, and this something was the knowledge of your secrets. He would have blown your cover if he wouldn't have been paid to stay silent – and he was certainly going to kill you as soon as he received the diamonds he had demanded. So you had to get rid of him – and because it is very dangerous to eliminate someone from the Gestapo, who may even have partners in crime who knew what he knew, everything had to look like an accident. And this was the moment you brought me into your game."

Hogan, still clinging to denial, shook his head. "What should he have found out about m…"

"He found out the same thing Hochstetter did, like Pruhst did – like I did, even if I denied it for a long time," Klink stated firmly. "You are the chief of the espionage-ring here in the area; an active member of the Underground. Hegel blackmailed you, and you had no chance to silence him without risking others revealing the real reason for his death. So you had no other choice than to play along and get support from another side – from me."

Hogan stared at him; his breathing was uneven. "You are convinced of this," he gritted out, and Klink snorted.

"Damn right I'm convinced of all this – because it's the truth." He sighed as he saw how Hogan pressed his lips into a thin line again while lowering his gaze for the third time. Hogan had certainly undergone hard training before he took over his mission. He was clever like a fox and stubborn like a whole herd of mules, yet the colonel could only lie to a certain degree – this much was clear to Klink. And it showed him one time more that his American counterpart was still a good man – a man who had been risking everything for almost three years now without knowing that someone he thought to be an enemy had begun to support him from the background for many months.

"Everything clicked into place the moment I found the little box with hundreds of diamonds Hegel carried with him," the Kommandant added. "I personally searched his dead body after you and the others were secure on the truck; already anticipating that you had somehow gotten hold of the demanded gems to give Hegel the impression that you'd submitted to his demands. I let one of the stones get examined by a jeweler in Hammelburg. They are phony diamonds, of course. Very well made, but still fake. This faked payment stalled enough time for you and your men until I and my men arrived to save your butt."

The colonel had the unpleasant feeling as if someone had pulled the rug away from under his feet and he was in free fall now. Klink had indeed figured everything out! God help them all – and God help him, Robert E. Hogan! If it would turn out that Klink wasn't an ally, Hogan would be forced to take action against him – and he didn't want to!

Klink still voiced his thoughts. "Am I wrong that the major wanted to kill you after he got what he wanted?"

"No, you're not wrong," the American officer whispered. "He wanted to get rid of my men and me. He… he was about to shoot us as you arrived."

Klink growled in exasperation. "You and your damn schemes! One day you'll really meet your maker before your time because of your crazy plans." He shook his head, before he glanced back at the deathly pale American. "The phony diamonds… I've asked myself many times how you were able to get hold of them to present them to Hegel. Maybe you can enlighten me? And please don't come up with such a silly lie like the one you told me when I asked you how Hegel and you had come in contact with each other. 'Reflections of mirrors', really Hogan! As if not one of our guards would have seen it if you and someone outside of the camp were signaling each other with little illumination-plays."

"This wasn't a good explanation, right?" Hogan murmured; feeling nauseous while a piercing headache approached him.

"No, it was one of your less brilliant ideas to trot me out." Klink sighed and cocked his head. "I think you got the diamonds the same way you got the penicillin for me last year: London sent them." He watched how the younger man swayed slightly, reached out and took his shoulders into a strong, yet gentle grip again. "Robert, please don't fear for yourself – or your men. Neither you nor they are in danger. Not if I can prevent it. I have presumed the truth for over two years now. And after everything that happened within the last days – and after the further details Burkhalter got from Hochstetter, which I was able to refute in a small way – I simply know that my strong assumptions are correct. I only want your admission because keeping this whole operation a secret is becoming more and more impossible for you and the effort is eating you alive. And, by the way, it's giving me the chills by now. Despite all your attempts you've left a lot of tracks during your operations here in Germany and they are about to come back to you. I try to protect you, but to do so in the future, I have to know the plain truth. So tell me, clear and simple: Are you Papa Bear?"

Hogan had trouble breathing.

Game over!

Any denial, excuse or further lie wouldn't lead to anything.

This was it – the end of everything he had worked for and tried so hard to hide. They could do with him whatever they wanted, but…

"My men," he croaked. Fear rose in him like an icy storm.

Klink blinked in confusion, then he realized what was going through Hogan's mind, and groaned, "For crying lout out, Robert, when will it get into your thick head that I won't give you or your men away? I could have done it for a very long time now, but I didn't. Rather the opposite. I tried to cover for you as much as I could after I realized that the poison-gnome had a few good points. I observed you, and noted many little details that spoke their own language when you put them together under certain aspects. I concluded that Hochstetter and the others were right – that you are indeed the Underground-agent half of Germany is after. Yet I covered for you, and will continue to do so."

"Why?" was the only thing Hogan could reply; his brilliant mind was close to becoming blank due to the stress and added pressure it had to endure.

"I have my reasons, but believe me, they have nothing to do with any form of abusing your situation like Hegel tried to do and maybe others have already done." Klink took another deep breath. "Robert, are you Papa Bear?"

"If you're so convinced that you know the truth, why ask me to admit to it?" Hogan tried to stall for time, even if he didn't know anymore for what.

"Because I want to hear it from you. After all I did for you – and your men – I think I've earned the truth and your trust. So, once again: Are you Papa Bear?"

Hogan took a shuddering breath. Maybe Klink was really an ally, but how much of his mission could he, Hogan, give away without pushing the Oberst to the limits of what he could bear? He knew that Klink was a patriot who only loathed the current regime – but how far did this loathing go?

'At least far enough to keep covering your ass during the last years and to take the risk of being hanged with you, Rob,' his inner voice told him. 'And at least far enough to punch a Gestapo-major, to risk his life by getting you out of a crossfire – literally – and to even stand up against his own superior officer. Far enough to let you sleep in his quarters, in his bed even, and to nurse you back to health with tender care. So, how much more does he have to do until you get it into your thick skull that Klink is trustworthy?'

"Robert?" The older man's voice was quiet – and sounded almost pleading. This here was a question of trust, and after everything Klink had just told and done for him, Hogan knew that he couldn't keep up the denial any longer. It would be useless anyway.

As if someone had cut the strings of a puppet, the colonel seemed to falter into himself. There was nothing he could do anymore except for pray that Klink would, indeed, not tell anyone what he got confirmed now. The consequences for them all would be deadly.

"Yes," he whispered. "Yes, I'm Papa Bear."

TBC…

NOW it's in the open – the one thing Hogan desperately tried to keep to himself despite the trust he has developed for his German counterpart within the last days. But Klink is cleverer and far more intelligent than Hogan gave him credit for. And after all his missions, operations, pranks and other deeds, it was only a question of time until he was figured out. Well, okay, Hochstetter was the first but luckily this dude's opinion doesn't count in the moment – but Klink's does. And our 'Balding Eagle' knew that he couldn't delay 'The Talk' any longer.

I hope, you liked how 'Willie' put one and two together, and which TV-episodes were deciding to open his eyes.

In the next chapter, I'll refer to more episodes which were crucial and how some events happened from Klink's point of view. And, of course, both men have to come to terms with this big secret being out in the open between them. Everything depends now, if Klink continues to walk the way he had chosen as he began to support Hogan in secret, or if the fact that Robert is one of the most-wanted men in Germany will be too much for the usual cowardly Kommandant. It's not a question of honor alone, but also of the heart.

I remember that I loved to write these scenes, and it was pure fun to read through them again and to add / change a few things. I hope, you enjoyed 'The Talk' so far. And, like always, I'm absolutely curious what you think of it, so I'm looking forward to your comments.

Have a nice rest of the weekend,

Love

Yours Starflight