The air was decidedly crisp and fresh the next morning when the prisoners fell out for roll call. There had been no sign of the Gestapo yet and Hogan was on edge. Waiting was the hardest part- there was always the thought in the back in his mind that something would throw a wrench in the works before a plan could get off the ground.
"Uniforms ready?" Hogan muttered to Newkirk after Schultz had passed them.
"With plastique explosives in the lining," Newkirk confirmed.
"Dynamite?" Hogan asked Kinch.
Kinch shuffled forward slightly. "In a footlocker next to the road. Checkpoint C."
"Good."
"Fourteen!" Schultz announced when he reached the end of the line, interrupting their discussion. His face suddenly fell and he counted quickly on his fingers. "Fourteen?"
"Carter's in the cooler," Hogan reminded him.
"Ah, yes. Fourteen plus one is fifteen!" Schultz concluded happily.
"Cor, they're wasting your talents here, Schultzie," Newkirk drawled.
"Oh, ho, jolly joker," Schultz bellowed amiably, obviously in too good a mood to let the remark bother him.
With the count completed, Klink came into the compound, his riding crop tucked under his arm. "Report!"
Schultz turned on his heel and saluted. "All present and accounted for," he reported happily. "And all glad to be back with all their friends and in their own beds. Such happy faces."
Olsen, the closest to Schultz, quickly leaned to the side, as if he was afraid Schultz was going to reach over to pinch his cheeks. Honestly, Hogan wouldn't have been surprised.
"As it should be," Klink said with satisfaction. He turned to the prisoners. "Everything is back to normal. I have made Stalag 13 the toughest POW camp in all of Germany, and I will continue to rule this camp exactly the way I always have. No one has ever escaped Stalag 13, and no one ever will!"
His proclamation was met with some obligatory back-talk, but it was very subdued. Everyone infinitely preferred Klink's bragging to Weiss' reign of terror.
"Dismissed!"
Klink turned to head back to his office, but was stopped by the sound of a truck pulling into the compound. "Ah!" he cried in delight. "Hogan, the truck is here. Excellent, excellent."
"The nightmare is coming to an end, sir," Hogan replied.
Klink's face became serious. "A German hero is about to be laid to rest," he said sternly. But he quickly dropped the facade and grinned. "He's no longer my problem! Oh, the moment that truck leaves I think I am going to play my violin; something cheerful, I think. Would you care to join me?"
"Sorry, Kommandant, but the Geneva Convention forbids torturing prisoners."
Klink scowled, but then quickly waved away Hogan's insult. "Not even your terrible jokes can damper my mood, Hogan."
The truck came to a halt and Klink rushed up to it. Hogan kept an eye on the truck and cocked his head towards Kinch. "Take the boys out to the road and stop that truck when it goes by. I'll be right behind you."
"Right. Let's go." Kinch, Newkirk, LeBeau, and Olsen broke from the formation and headed into the barracks.
Over at the truck, Klink pulled open the driver's door. "Welcome, welcome," Klink greeted cheerfully as the driver jumped out of the truck. "You'll find Corporal Weiss in the Rec Hall. Schultz, take the Sergeant here to the Rec Hall and have some men help him load Corporal Weiss into the truck."
"I have my own men," the driver said curtly. He whistled and seven more men piled out of the back of the truck. Eight men total.
And there it was- the wrench in his plans.
What if Pfeiffer was expecting eight men and only half as many arrived? It was too big a discrepancy to overlook.
"Bunch of Aryan poster boys," Goldman muttered.
Hogan caught the remark and quirked an eyebrow before looking back at the men as the filed into the rec hall. It wasn't uncommon for SS to looks like the German ideal, but something suddenly clicked in his head.
Don't waste them. That's what Hochstetter had said to Pfeiffer.
"Aw hell."
The blond brawny men were not just coming to retrieve Weiss' body. Hogan would bet his last dollar that they were a new group of guinea pigs. Which meant Pfeiffer would be expecting similar specimens. Olsen, Newkirk, LeBeau- none of them fit the bill.
"Is everything all right, Colonel?" Private Fuller asked, noticing Hogan's furrowed brow. He and the remaining residents of Barracks Two were still standing in loose formation around him.
"Dandy. Listen, you fellas arm up and go help Kinch and the others stop that truck. It might be a big job for just the four of them to handle." Even with the element of surprise, they were still outnumbered two to one. And then there was the matter of getting the eight of them back to camp. "Tell them I'll meet them down in the tunnels."
"Yes sir," Fuller replied with a salute. He motioned for the group to follow him and the disappeared into the barracks.
Across the compound, Hogan watched the Germans struggle to haul the huge makeshift coffin that held Weiss' body. Eight men and they were all straining under the weight. It still amazed him how large Weiss had been. He couldn't imagine having to go up against an army of those monsters, weak hearts or not.
But Hogan didn't have time to gawk. He needed to find some suitable stand-ins who could distract the scientists long enough for him and the others to scour the place for papers and research unhindered. Then they could pull out and blow the place sky high.
Three perfect candidates were loitering outside Barracks 12. When it became apparent to them that Hogan was indeed headed in their direction, they exchanged confused looks and quickly straightened, offering Hogan a salute.
"At ease. You're Sergeant Klein?" Hogan asked.
"Yes sir. Head of forgery. This is Wagner and Hoffmann-they're part of my team," he said, gesturing to the other two.
"Do you speak German?" They nodded. "Good. I need you on a mission."
"Us, sir?" Wagner asked in surprise.
"Is that a problem, soldier?" Hogan asked. It wasn't often that anyone other than the core group went on missions- especially undercover missions. And when he did need extra hands, he pulled men from Barracks 2.
But everyone at Stalag 13 was a soldier; they could handle themselves if they had good leadership. Hogan would need someone with experience to keep them out of trouble.
"No, sir," Klein said quickly.
"Good. Get down into the tunnels. And get Carter out of the cooler. I'll meet you in the radio room." Sore leg or not, Carter had the looks and experience necessary to lead this group on their mission.
"Yes sir." The men offered him a salute and hurried to Barracks 2.
Hogan watched the SS men pile back into the truck and, after a quick word with Kommandant Klink, pull out of the compound. Hogan frowned. SOP was to not to kill them, but rather bring them down into the tunnels and ship them off to London. But the SS weren't really known for going quietly into the night. Even if they cooperated enough not to get shot, they might put up a ruckus once they came within sight of the fence.
"You," he said, pointing to another prisoner close by. The prisoner looked around to see if there was anyone else around, but then quickly came over. "Lawson?"
"Yes sir," he replied, looking shocked that the colonel actually knew his name.
"It's time for a football game. Make it loud. Give it half an hour and then start a fight. I want the guards across the compound to be watching."
"Yes sir," Lawson paused and frowned. "Cooler time?"
"There's a war going on; we've all got to make sacrifices."
"I've gotta catch up on some sleep anyway, Colonel." Lawson saluted and ran off.
Hogan left them to it and went down into the tunnels. He found Carter there with the three men from Barracks 12.
"What's up, Colonel?" Carter asked eagerly.
"There's been a change of plans," Hogan informed him. "Looks like those goons coming to collect Weiss are supposed to be guinea pigs for Project Stone Breaker. If we show up without new subjects they might just turn us away. And if it gets back to Hochstetter there's a good chance they'll tighten security before we can sneak back in."
"So you need us to take their place?" Carter guessed.
"You've got the right looks," Hogan said.
"Wait, you want us to be guinea pigs for some Nazi experiment?" Klein asked, alarmed.
"Just so we can snoop around without raising the alarms. We could blast our way in, but a project this important is going to have a lot of security, and I'd rather not have every goon in the place looking for us before we can get the information we need. So just play along for a bit until we come for you and then we can blow the place sky high."
"Sounds simple enough, Colonel," Carter said. "Don't worry guys, we'll be all right."
"They won't even have time to give you a physical before we come for you," Hogan assured them. "Just keep your eyes open and gather whatever information you can. We're only going to get one shot at this."