After all the potentially doomed had had their fill of the large meal, Hogan was arranging the straws. Little remained of the meal, but it was enough to draw the presence of one Sergeant Schultz, who was always attracted by LeBeau's cooking.
"Hey Schultz, what's up?" Carter greets cheerily.
"Is that LeBeau's cooking I smell?" The sergeant asked hopefully.
Through the open door Hogan saw a truck coming through the gates. "Depends, what's in the truck?"
"I know nothing." Schultz insisted, but a plate of extra food waved under his nose quickly weakens his resolve. "I know no-" *sniff, sniff* "Two new prisoners."
"What nationality?"
"English." Hogan nodded at the small Frenchman, and the enticer released the plate to the informer. Finishing the food, Schultz looked around at the suspiciously calm barracks. "What are you up to, now?"
Newkirk leans coolly on the table and answers with sly nonchalance. "Oh, you know. The usual, blowing up a factory, plotting Old Hitler's as-"
"I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!" Schultz exclaimed, his eyes shut and hands clapped over his ears, exiting the barracks and the door shut behind him.
"I think I'll go visit our dear commandant." Hogan said from the door before disappearing through it. On the way he saw trio approaching Klink's office in front of him. The prisoner was hidden, but for the top of his head of mussed brown hair, by the two guards. The absence of the other prisoner confuses the colonel until he notices that the escort was coming from the direction of the unused infirmary.
By the time Hogan reached the office, the prisoner was already within. Without hesitation he opened the door and entered. Klink was in the midst of bragging on the camp's supposed no-escape record. Now able to see the newest addition to Stalag 13, Hogan notes the man's upright unmoving stance, hands held behind his back, identifying him as one of those stalwart often troublesome English types. The uniform further identified the prisoner as a medical officer.
"And so you see captain- Hogan!" The German colonel interrupted himself to whine.
Having been escorted into the office of the commandant, the prisoner stood before the man himself. The colonel, formerly of the Luftwaffe judging by the pins upon this chest, wore a monocle which greatly detracted from any intelligence his features might otherwise have possessed.
"Name." The commandant stated in way of inquiry.
"Captain Doctor Henry Morgan."
"Welcome to Stalag 13, Captain! I am Colonel Klink, commandant." Henry's first impression was not helped when the man spoke. "Here at Stalag 13 we have never had a successful escape." The warnings continued in an unending flow of repetition. Just as Klink was finishing this, Henry heard the door open, and the commandant stopped and addressed the entering person in a whining voice. It was then that Henry looked over to the intruder, a fellow prisoner. He was surprised to see that a prisoner was permitted to simply enter the commandant's office.
"Come on, Klink, you know I'm allowed to be here when you talk to a new prisoner by-"
"Yes, yes, the Geneva Convention, I know." Klink relented, taking his seat. "Captain Morgan, this is Colonel Hogan, Superior Officer of the prisoners."
Henry inclined his head toward the officer. "Colonel."
"Captain." Hogan returned. "You're a doctor, huh?"
"How did you know that?" Klink asked, leaning forward in his seat.
"By his uniform." Hogan replied, tone appropriate for the sheer stupidity of the question.
The commandant seemed to pick up on this. "By his uniform, yes of course. I knew that. I was just testing you, Hogan." The last sentence was delivered with a wagging of his finger at the American colonel.
"Yes, I am." Henry answered Hogan's earlier question.
"We haven't had one of them around for awhile."
"Judging by the state of the infirmary, I should say so. It's utterly deplorable! You might as well not have one. I left two guards over there cleaning it." Hogan was impressed, the man hadn't been here more than five minutes and he was already ordering the guards around. Henry turned back to face Klink and stood silent, waiting for the man to speak further.
"If you're done with him, Klink, I'll take our newest family member to barracks 2, he can bunk with us." Klink began to stutter some incoherent opposition to this suggestion. "Great, bye then." Hogan put an arm across Henry's shoulders, ignoring the doctor's tension of discomfort from the action, and turned him toward the door and out of the office. Once out, the colonel freed the doctor's shoulders. "How'd you manage that bit with the guards?"
"Being a doctor lends one certain leverage, even over the enemy."
"Sounds like you've got POW experience, Morgan."
"I've seen the inside of a few camps in my time. None quite so ill-run as this."
"We call it home. So how'd you escape?"
"I have my ways." Henry was slightly wary of confiding in Hogan at the time being.
"Care to share with the class, captain."
"Forgive me colonel, but you seem rather comfortable with the commandant…" Henry half-accused.
"We'll get to both sides of that conversation cleared up in just a moment. And here we are." Hogan opened the door to a barracks and entered, Henry following a little behind. "Hey boys, meet the new kid in town." Then ushering Henry in, he continued. "Everyone, meet Dr. Morgan. Morgan, this is LeBeau, Carter, Kinchloe, and your fellow countryman Newkirk." Each man waved at the mention of his name.
"Hello." Henry said to the group at large.
"Normal procedure, colonel?" Kinchloe asked Hogan.
"Yep. Kay, Morgan, have a seat." Hogan, pulled out a chair for the doctor who sat down obediently and waited.
"So…" The young Carter began, in an overly dramatic detective voice. "Who's the king of England?" He questioned, abruptly turning and placing his hands on the table.
"His Majesty King George VI."
Carter's eyes narrowed as he nodded slightly, when he was about to ask another an arm across his chest pushed him back. "Alright, Carter, that's enough." Hogan told the put out corporal. "Newkirk, take over."
"Right ho. What was the dear monarch's former title?"
"The Duke of York, a title traditionally conferred to the second royal son." A few perfectly answered questions later, as Hogan paced past him a humming sound emanated from the colonel, a familiar tune. "If you expect me to jump up and hiel at the sound of Flight of the Valkyries, you will be sorely disappointed, Colonel Hogan." Henry stated matter of factly.
Kinch diplomatically responded. "We must be thorough, you understand."
"We don't want any dirty Kraut spies." The little Frenchman LeBeau added sourly.
"You've been suspiciously secretive, Morgan. And the Germans are known for training their men to look, sound and act like allied soldiers. That high-born, educated accent is easy to identify as British and easy enough to learn, it's Oxford isn't it?"
"Cambridge." Henry snapped the correction.
Hogan raised an eyebrow and looked over at Newkirk, who stood arms crossed. "He's the real deal, loyalty to the Alma Mater is a distinctly English trait."
"Alright, welcome to the crew, Morgan."
"We're just going to believe that he's a doctor?" LeBeau asked, still suspicious for the sake of their two country' s old time feud.
"Not like we have anyone who could check." Kinch said.
"If you'd heard him go off on the infirmary you wouldn't doubt it." Hogan noted.
Henry waited patiently through this discussion, held as though he wasn't sitting right there, this far anyway. "I am still here you know."
Carter started the welcomes. "Glad to have you doc."
"Same, sorry for thinking you were a Kraut." LeBeau admitted as his welcome.
The other Englishman followed. "Well I never doubted you for a second, these eyes can spot a Brit like that." Newkirk said, ending with a snap of his fingers.
Kinch brought up the rear of the weapon band. "Welcome." He shook Henry's hand.
"Where were you headed when you got captured?"
"Allied lines in Germany from France." Hogan seemed to consider this a moment. "Now that we've established my loyalty to King and Country, care to establish your own allegiance, Colonel?" Henry starred the superior officer down, his own suspicions not fully relieved, they all seemed too comfortable in this place, with far too much sway over the admittedly dim commandant.
"You're not going to give me the old "the captured soldier's first duty" speech, are you? We're not traitors. The camp's so called perfect no-escape record is grossly exaggerated. Let's say there's a lot of unofficial escapes, and that we're under assignment."
"Underground escape stop-point. You're Goldilocks." Henry stated his deduction. The effect was the return of suspicion. "I was stationed at the end point in England in '42. You do good work, Hogan."
"Okay, you're already in the loop. You're turning out to be more useful than we before. Newkirk, show Morgan around the tunnels."
Newkirk went over to a bunk and tapped the upper frame, exposing a tunnel entrance. "Come on, mate, I'll give you the grand tour."
"Kinch, run our friend's credentials by London for confirmation. Just to be sure." Hogan said, once the two had gone below.
"Yes, sir."
The expanse of the network of tunnels, and the elaborate operations amazed Henry, even though he had spent months seeing the results of these men's attentions. "Down that way we have our exits outside the fence. Handy for visits to the nearby town, and French Underground connections. These tunnels connect to the other barracks, all except 3 that is."
Up above, Kinch returned to Hogan. "Finally got through to London, they confirm, everything he said is true. His record's nothing to snicker at either."
"Good to hear, he might be very useful to us."
"And this is the end of our tour, thank you for traveling with Stalag 13 express please exit via the ladder to your right." Newkirk finished, before following Henry back up into barracks 2.
"Quite the setup you have down there, Colonel." Henry praised stepping onto the wood floor.
"We're thinking of renovating, maybe repainting, its rather drab."
Author's Note: Don't get spoiled now, next chapter will come next week.