Chapter 6:
Hogan sat at his desk reading over several documents from the underground, when he heard a soft knock at his quarters' door. He lifted his eyes briefly from the papers and gave permission for whoever it was to enter. "Come in," he said friendly.
The door slowly opened, and Kalina stuck her head through the small opening to see how swamped the colonel was with work. "Are you busy?" She asked quietly.
Hogan smiled in response, his chocolate brown eyes twinkling. "No," he answered. "Could actually use the distraction. Nothing really intriguing about system changes or updated radio regulations."
Kalina closed the door behind her, then made her way to Hogan's side, who set the papers down on his desk and made his undivided attention hers. "What's going on, hon?" He asked.
"I'm just a little...uneasy," she answered, rubbing her arms uncomfortably. "I keep worrying whenever I hear someone behind me I'm gonna turn around, and it'll be Sergeant Williams standing there."
"Aw, hon," Hogan said, reaching out and gently rubbing her shoulder. "Don't let him get you all paranoid. There's guards all over this camp; if he tried getting in here he wouldn't be off the radar for too long. You just let us grown ups worry about him."
Kalina fell silent for a moment before continuing in a small, meek voice. "Colonel Hogan...I don't want you to die. When I thought Major Bahnsen had killed you with an amphetamine overdose, I...I…" She could not finish. Just remembering was enough to send a violent chill up and down her spine. (1)
Hogan rose to his feet, his kind smile still beaming bright, and took Kalina into his arms and held her close. She looked up at the American that had become a second father to her and felt a cloud of calmness fall around her as Hogan gently rubbed the bottom of her head.
"I'm not gonna die, hon. Gonna take a lot more than Williams to get rid of me," he told her sincerely.
"I...I can't lose you, Colonel Hogan," Kalina whimpered, her voice rattling. "You're my other papa...I love you, you know how to not make me feel scared anymore." She got a gentle kiss on the top of her head as tears streamed down her face.
"I'm always with you, you know," Hogan said softly. "Even when you can't see me I'm still there by your side. But I'm not going anywhere. Not for a long, long time. I'm gonna grow old and fat like a lot of Americans do."
A small smile made its way to Kalina's face as Hogan wiped her tears away with his thumb. She sniffled and shook her head. "You're not fat, Colonel Hogan...just a little fluffy in your belly."
"Gee, thanks," the colonel answered with a chuckle.
Kalina rested her head against Hogan and snuggled the side of her face into his belly. Hogan held her close and rubbed the back of her head as he gave her another kiss on the top of her head. Their sweet father-daughter like moment came to an abrupt end when the sound of LeBeau screaming Hogan's name gradually became louder and louder. The door to his quarter's eventually flew open, and the little Frenchman came tumbling in while waving a sheet of paper in his hand.
"Colonel! He is here! That filthy bosche Williams is here, and he got into camp somehow. Look at what he left outside the barracks." LeBeau exclaimed, handing Hogan the crinkled sheet of notepad paper.
The colonel took the sheet out of LeBeau's hand, read over the very short warning, and let out a heavy sigh. It was Williams alright. He knew the handwriting like the back of his hand. The distinct way the 'L's were written was all it took for Hogan to identify the owner. And it sent chills running down his spine just thinking about it. Williams was in the area, and he was damn close, too. "Oh boy," he said. "I recognize the handwriting, too."
"How did he get into camp undetected?" LeBeau asked.
"I don't know," Hogan said. "But I do know one thing. At this moment no one, and I mean no one, is to leave this camp for any assignment that comes in whatsoever. I don't care who it's from, you tell them to have the underground handle it until further notice. Williams could try grabbing any one of you as bait to get me. Those are orders, and you'll be court martialed without warning if they're violated even in the slightest, understood?"
"Oui, Colonel," LeBeau answered, with a nod.
"And make sure the others get the same message. I'm not even stepping outside these wires for any rendezvous or sabotage job." He felt someone grab on tightly to his arm and looked down to find Kalina latching onto it, looking up at him with a quivering lip and shiny eyes. Hogan gave her a comforting grin, brought her close for a hug, then kissed her head and rubbed the back of it again. "No one messes with Papa Bear's cubs," he said, particularly to her.
"Colonel, what do we do about the work detail tomorrow? Williams could be anywhere in this area," LeBeau stated.
"If I know Williams as well as I think I do, I highly doubt he'll try anything when we're being guarded by a bunch of Krauts. He wouldn't even get by Schultz that fast."
"But, Colonel Hogan," Kalina began, turning her eyes back up at the American. "What if he's in some sort of disguise? Gestapo or Luftwaffe uniform."
"Hon, I could spot Williams from a hundred miles away," Hogan said, gently running his fingers through Kalina's hair. "All I have to do is look at his eyes."
The next day came by quickly, and as soon as morning roll call ended, Hogan, his men, Kalina, Schultz, and a couple other guards left camp and headed to the destroyed road leading to the east side of the city. Once everything was set up and ready to go, Schultz split Hogan's men up in two different groups; Kinch and LeBeau went on one side of the road, and Newkirk and Carter went to the other. Two guards wandered near each group of two, their eyes never leaving sight of them. Schultz patrolled back and forth with his rifle resting on his shoulder, and Hogan and Kalina supervised everyone near the truck.
As Hogan wrapped his arms around himself and watched everyone quietly, he felt someone's presence beside him and looked down to his left to find Kalina standing by his side. He smiled at her, then gently lifted her up onto the hood of the truck. "There," he said. "Little ladies shouldn't be exposed to dirt and dust like this."
Klink's daughter looked down at her feet with a weary expression, then looked off to her left at the forest that bordered the road. She said nothing, but the colonel could see her worries flashing in her little blue eyes. Worried that a certain someone was watching from nearby. And after the message Hogan and the others got from London last night stating Williams was nowhere to be found, she and the rest of Hogan's men were on high alert. Almost paranoid by the fact that Williams could be lurking around anywhere; waiting for the perfect opportunity to commit his crime and finish through with whatever malicious intentions he had in mind.
Sensing her distress, Hogan gave her a warm smile and rubbed her arm for comfort. "It's alright," he told her softly. "I'm right here. Williams isn't gonna try anything with a bunch of Krauts walking around."
"He's out there somewhere, Colonel Hogan...and I'm scared he's watching us from somewhere nearby," Kalina answered meek.
"I've got people looking all over Germany for him. Williams couldn't get away with anything if he tried."
"You don't think he teamed up with the Gestapo or someone, do you?"
Hogan shook his head. "No," he said. "Williams is like a double agent; he's only interested in what's best for him. That means being a loner."
"What's a loner?" Kalina asked, her eyes sparking with curiosity.
"It's a person who chooses to be alone instead with others. Someone who's only looking out for themselves and doesn't hold any loyalties to anybody. Think of Williams as a rogue Switzerland."
"Oh...that makes more sense."
Hogan's expression brightened, and the two were about to start a new conversation, when a huffing and puffing Schultz soon joined them and turned to his commander's daughter with a pleading look.
"Fraulein Kommandant," he began. "Corporal Newkirk and Sergeant Carter are in an argument, and I cannot get them to go back to work."
"But you're the one with the gun," Kalina answered innocently.
"Oh please, Fraulein Kommandant. They listen to you better than they do to me."
Kalina let out a soft sigh. "Alright, Schultz. I'll see what I can do."
The fluffy sergeant helped her down onto the ground, and she began to follow him, when she paused and looked back at Hogan. She bolted from Schultz's side to the colonel's and gave Hogan a big hug, burying her face against his belly. Her smile widened when Hogan wrapped his warm arms around her and gently rubbed the bottom of her head. She turned her eyes upwards, a loving expression twinkling inside them.
"I love you, Colonel Hogan," she said sincerely.
Hogan returned the same beaming smile. "Love you too, sweetheart," he answered softly.
Kalina enjoyed her hug for a few more seconds before separating. She turned on her heels, puffed out her chest as best as she could, then stuck her nose high in the air to resemble her snobbish, aristocratic ancestors as she walked off with Schultz.
Hogan chuckled while shaking his head and was about to wander down to see how Kinch and LeBeau were doing, when he spotted something to his left with the corner of his eye. He turned to get a better look at it and could only distinguish it as a shiny black object hiding behind a bunch of bushes and shrubbery.
Hogan raised his eyebrow in suspicion, then he crossed the road until he was inches away from the odd object. He knelt down on one leg, rested his arm across the other, then cautiously reached out his hand and just barely ran it across whatever it was that was hiding. It was made out of leather and appeared as if it had just been polished, making his eyebrow rise higher with skepticism.
"What the…" he said to himself. As he again reached out his hand towards the object, something from above clobbered him on the back of his head, and Hogan fell to the ground unconscious with a loud 'oompf!' A Gestapo captain with dark blonde hair and green eyes swooped Hogan up in his arms, quickly scanned to see if anyone was watching him, then silently vanished back into the forest with his new prisoner.
"Into the truck, both of you," Schultz ordered, shoving Newkirk and Carter forward with a slight budge from his rifle. Kalina followed by the guard's side with the irritated glare she had seen on her father's face many times when dealing with the prisoners.
"But we haven't even finished yet," Newkirk remarked, both he and Carter holding their arms up over their heads. Both of them were covered in dust, dirt, and muddy gravel from their faces to the bottoms of their boots.
"The road or you throwing dirt all over me?" Carter replied, turning to the Englishman with a smug look. He got the same in return.
"It was a bloomin' accident. You're the one that had to start throwing dirt at people."
"You could have gotten dust in my eyes and caused me to go blind."
"That ain't gonna be the only thing that makes you blind."
The two flyers began another shouting match with one another, their words and sentences blurring into one awful, incomprehensible sound.
"QUIET!" Schultz hollered over them, silencing both prisoners immediately.
"I'm sure Papa will be very interested in how you dummkopfs got covered in mud," Kalina said haughty, crossing her arms for emphasis.
"Oh, come on," Carter whined. "That's not fair."
"Ol' Klink finds out about this, and he'll make us do office cleaning for the next two weeks." Newkirk added.
"Then I suggest you get into that truck without any further complaints...schnell!" Kalina replied command-like.
"Yes, ma'am," Carter and Newkirk said with a salute, then jumped into the cargo bed of the truck without another word, leaving the two Germans to themselves.
Kalina scoffed and shook her head in disapproval. "Ally soldiers," she said.
"They never listen," Schultz added, another nod coming from Klink's daughter in response. "Come, my dear. Let's go check the other side of the road."
"Jawohl, Schultz," Kalina answered, with a respectful salute.
The two Germans walked side-by-side down the road to where Kinch and LeBeau were, when Schultz began telling Kalina of how all the digging and shoveling reminded him of when they were building his toy factory in the early 20s' and began to ramble about the day he cut the red ribbons in front of the factory's main entrance, when he noticed Kalina had stopped walking. He turned around to find the small teenager pale as a pair of bedsheets and frantically searching for something. She even gradually began to shake violently as the minutes went by.
His story completely forgotten, he quickly approached the wandering girl with a worried expression. "Kalina, was ist los?"
"Colonel Hogan?" Kalina called, ignoring Schultz entirely. She ran to the other side of the truck, to the right side of the road, then turned to face the other side. "Colonel Hogan!" She called again. She sprinted back to the spot she had originally been in and unknowingly stopped in the same area Hogan had been abducted. "Colonel Hogan!" She cried, then began sprinting back for Stalag 13, when Schultz grabbed a hold of her.
"Kalina! Where do you think you are going?" He asked her.
"I need Papa's help! Colonel Hogan's gone, I think he's in danger!"
The fluffy guard began to laugh. "Colonel Hogan can not be missing, my dear. He's right…" His eyes widened to the size of saucers when he pointed in the spot the American was supposed to be in and was nowhere to be found. "Here...Colonel Hogan?" When he received no answer, Schultz began calling out Hogan's name, but got nothing in return. His voice gradually rose into full blown panic with each cry, and by the seventh time, he was shaking just as bad as Kalina was. "Der Oberst...wird vermisst?! Oberst Hogan wird vermisst!" He began shouting panicked commands in German for everyone to get back on the truck and that they had one prisoner missing on assumptions of kidnapping. (2)
Kinch and LeBeau practically threw their shovels to the side of the road and followed the guards to the back of the truck. They jumped onto the cargo bed, and as Schultz floored the gas pump, Hogan's men and Kalina all exchanged worried glances at one another. Their colonel was missing and nowhere to be found. And knowing that he would never try to escape without them by his side, their muscles tightened to the point they could barely move. Hogan had been kidnapped...and they prayed to God with every last ounce of strength in them that it hadn't been by who they suspected it to be.
(1) Major Bahnsen is a character that I created for my story 'Hogan's Heroes: The Cowardly Colonel'.
(2) Oberst Hogan wird vermisst - Colonel Hogan is missing!