Chapter 12:
"You're certain you did not see any suspicious individual come in or leave this camp, Sergeant," Hochstetter said, interrogating Schultz, who was sitting in the chair before Klink's desk. He had arrived a half hour earlier, and while the major and Burkhalter questioned Schultz regarding any unknown person entering the camp, Klink had gone to retrieve Hogan's men and brought them back to his office. He wanted them there to find out the news of their beloved commander and friend. The four prisoners stood near the back wall next to the door entering Klink's quarters, Burkhalter and Klink stood behind the desk, and Hochstetter paced back and forth behind Schultz's chair.
"I swear, Herr Major. I did not see anybody come in and out of this camp that I did not recognize," the fluffy sergeant answered, fidgeting under Hochstetter's fiery stare.
"Then Williams must have come in here under the disguise of another Luftwaffe guard," Burkhalter hypothesized. "It's the only explanation for why he wasn't detected and his presence wasn't alerted by the other guards."
Hochstetter began to rub his chin with his fingers. "If that is the case, then he could be disguised as anybody in Germany. He could easily leave the country before we are able to track him down."
"Then you better start searching, Major," Burkhalter said, swaying back and forth on the balls of his feet. "I am personally assigning you to this case."
Hochstetter shot him a bewildered expression. "Assigning me to this...You want me to help the most wanted man in Germany?!"
"Hochstetter, you indirectly caused this mess, you are directly going to fix this mess. Had it not been for your ridiculous beliefs regarding Hogan, your crazy subordinate would have never kidnapped him, and Sergeant Williams would have never put this outrageous scheme of his into motion."
"It is not my fault for one of my men acting out in a completely irrational manner." Hochstetter protested.
"It is your fault for putting those wild ideas of yours into an irrational and unstable Gestapo officer." Burkhalter replied. "I could have sent your erratic subordinate to the Russian Front for putting one of my camps into unnecessary danger...Unless you need to have your mind cleared up, too. They could use some new soldiers in their combat unit, last time I heard."
The last part made Hochstetter freeze in his spot momentarily before turning to the burly general completely baffled. He opened his mouth to argue, but could not get a single word out. He finally dropped his finger and looked away in disgust.
"Is it true, Kommandant? Is Colonel Hogan really alive?" Carter asked, his eyes hopeful and fighting back an excited grin trying to make its way onto his face.
"Will we really get mon Colonel back?" LeBeau added, just as sanguine.
"I just got a phone call back from the Stuttgart train station," Burkhalter reported. "One of the passengers told the Ticketmaster that he spotted two medics performing emergency surgery on a patient from Hammelburg to Stuttgart over a week ago. And the man had black hair and was wearing an American officer's uniform with the name tag of R.E. Hogan stitched on the leather jacket."
Both Klink and Schultz let out a heavy breath of relief, feeling like for the first time in over a week they could finally relax again. It was him. Hogan was alive. Terribly injured and probably not in the best condition, but he was alive and receiving medical care.
"He's alive," Carter said. "He's alive. He's alive! Colonel Hogan's alive!"
All four men began to cheer and jump around in a celebratory dance. Tears of joy streamed down LeBeau and Carter's faces, while Kinch was already cooking up a rescue operation inside his brain. No more interviews. No more grizzly drill sergeants or wannabe Broadway singers. Hogan was alive, and they were going to get him back.
"Colonel Hogan is alive! We're going to see him again." LeBeau cheered.
"Well don't just stand here; let's go tell me little mate the good news!" Newkirk exclaimed triumphantly.
"Come on, guys!" Carted added, with the wave of his arm.
As Hogan's men barreled out of the inner office, and while Burkhalter and Hochstetter continued to argue on the major's new assignment, Klink felt a wide smile come to his face, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. It had been him he hoped to tell his daughter the news, but just picturing the beaming grin and joyish squeal coming from his Kalina was enough to make his heart full. Looks like he could take away his daughter's pain after all.
Kalina tried to ignore everything in the outside world by playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano, Hogan's hat sitting on top of the piano beside her. She tried her best to make her mind go completely blank, but the constant aching inside her chest just refused to let its grip go of her. Memories of Hogan sitting beside her while she played continued to flood her mind. How he would help her with a tough spot in a song, or all the times she had played a song and had listened to him sing along with her. Hogan was extremely self-conscious when it came to his singing voice and rarely, if ever, sang in public. But he had sung for her. Soft and gentle, but it had been one of the prettiest voices she had ever heard sing. And how she yearned so desperately to hear it just one more time.
She hung her head down as tears flowed down her face and began to silently weep as she played the last segment of Beethoven's famous composition.
As Kalina continued to try and use music as a coping mechanism, Hogan's men barged right into her father's quarters like they were running from a wild animal. All four of them were grinning from one side to the other and came to a sharp halt beside her right.
"Kalina!" They cried in unison.
The little Klink looked up at them with her red eyes, still playing flawlessly. Seeing the expression on her friends' faces, she frowned and furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion. "Kinch?" She asked meekly.
"He's alive!"
Kalina's jaw dropped from its hinges, staring at the four men blankly for the longest time before her face began to light up, her music piece completely abandoned now. A hopeful smile came to her lips, her blue eyes twinkling with glee. "He's alive?" She croaked. "Colonel Hogan's alive?!"
"He's pretty banged up, but he's alive and under medical care somewhere in Stuttgart, little mate," Newkirk told her excitedly.
"Colonel Hogan is coming back to us, ma petite." LeBeau added, hardly able to stand still.
Kalina squealed, jumping to her feet and hugging Kinch, who lifted her up in the air before setting her down on the ground. "Colonel Hogan's alive! He's alive, he's alive, Colonel Hogan's okay!" She cheered, crying tears of joy. Her cheerful expression quickly changed to urgent and anxious. "We gotta go get him!"
"One step ahead of you, kiddo," Kinch answered, with a wink.
"How do we do it, mate?" Newkirk asked, all set and ready to go at any moment.
"Alright," Kinch began. "We're gonna first convince Klink and Burkhalter to allow us to go into Stuttgart with Schultz's supervision."
"Check," Newkirk said.
"We make contact with our agent stationed there and have him help us locate where the Colonel is currently being treated."
"Check," Carter answered, with a firm nod.
"And once we figure out where Williams is after finding the Colonel, we…" The radioman never got a chance to finish his plan, for he was interrupted by the sound of Hochstetter's boisterous arguing with Burkhalter.
"Absolutely not," the major hissed, entering Klink's quarters with Burkhalter and Klink following from behind. "You may have assigned me to this ridiculous assignment, but I absolutely refuse to spend the next 72 hours in Stuttgart with those criminals there."
"Are you forgetting the fact that Hogan nearly dying was partly your fault, Major?" Burkhalter remarked, his arms clasped behind his back. "I think it is only fair that Hogan's men and Kalina go with you and take part in this assignment, too. As far as I'm concerned, the Gestapo has caused those five more grief than necessary."
Kalina stepped up towards Burkhalter's side and put her hands together as she gave him one of her puppy dog eyed looks. "Please, General Burkhalter? Can't we go with? I want to see Colonel Hogan again."
"Of course, my dear," the general answered, smiling at her pompously. "That should not be any problem with Major Hochstetter, won't it, Major." The last part he turned towards Hochstetter, his eyes displaying it was not up for debate. His decision was final.
"You can not order me to take those dummkopfs with me. This is a Gestapo matter, and a Gestapo matter only!"
Burkhalter made his eyes briefly to Klink, then slightly back to Hochstetter. "I think positions on the Russian Front are opening up again," he told Klink, an indirect reminder to the major what his alternative was.
Hochstetter opened his mouth to say something, but there was nothing more to be said unless he wanted to cause his own death sentence. His face turned a bright shade of crimson, his eyes blazing with flames as he made a brief gaze towards Hogan's men and Kalina, then back at Burkhalter and Klink again. "BAH!" He finally hollered. Hochstetter stormed towards the door and grabbed the knob, looking once more at Hogan's small family. "Pack your bags; we leave tonight!" And without another word, Hochstetter marched out the door and slammed it shut with a loud "BANG'!
Once certain the major was gone, Hogan's men and Kalina turned to face one another again, their eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. They all gave a celebratory cheer.
"Alright, we're going to Stuttgart!" Carter cried.
"We could be seeing Colonel Hogan by tomorrow night!" LeBeau added.
"I'm gonna give him so many hugs he won't know what to do with himself," Kalina said gleefully.
"Hold it," Kinch said, holding up his hand. "Wait a minute here. We've still got one problem."
Carter furrowed his eyebrows together in perplexion. "What might that be?" He asked.
"How the hell are we getting to Stuttgart?" Kinch replied.
The question put a sudden damper on all of their moods. They looked off into the distance quizzically and tried to think of an answer to that very important question.