Chapter 4 – Rescue and Betrayal

Once again Chief pulled up outside the German HQ building and hopped out to open the door for Garrison, Actor and Casino. The three officers glared at the two guards at the entrance as they marched up the steps, Actor stormed up to one of them and poked him in the chest. "Why is this button undone? Are you on holiday soldier? Do it up at once!"

"No Herr Hauptsturmführer! Sorry, yes Sir!" the soldier leaned his rifle against the wall and fumbled to do up the errant button, the weapon toppled over, discharged and clattered down the steps to rest on the pavement. There was a deadly silence.

Actor leaned down and stared into the man's eyes, his own were cold and hard as he muttered in a low, threatening voice. "Are you trying to kill me soldier?"

The guard's face turned beetroot red. "No Herr Hauptsturmführer!"

Actor took a step back and looked the guard up and down with disdain. "Are you trying to kill Sturmbannführer Schäfer? Are you an assassin or simply an idiot?"

Sweat was forming on the guard's brow. "No Herr Hauptsturmführer! Yes Sir!"

"Yes Sir? Which one are you soldier?"

"An idiot, Herr Hauptsturmführer!"

Actor nodded and turned towards the other guard who was concentrating all his attention on the ornate brickwork on the building across the street and hoping to escape unscathed. The tall conman's gaze swept past him, rested on the group's commanding officer and gave him a surreptitious wink. "Shall we go in and deal with the rest of these idiots Herr Sturmbannführer?"

Garrison kept a straight face as the guard rushed to collect his rifle from the street, he noticed a damp patch forming on his trousers. He looked at Actor and nodded curtly. "Lead the way Hauptsturmführer Ziegler."

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Major Dietrich was a short, rotund man of about fifty years of age, his hair was close-cropped and stood up from his scalp like a short, ginger-coloured brush, his skin was red and shiny and seemed stretched tight as if he was bursting out of his body. He jumped to his feet as his office door burst open to admit three SS officers and their cohort. "What is the meaning of this?"

Garrison strode forward and glared at the officer taking in his ginger moustache and round pebble glasses. "You're not expecting us? You were told we were coming back to question you!"

Dietrich looked at the tall SS Major looming over his desk, his glance went to the even taller Captain standing behind him and then to the Lieutenant next to him, his gaze stopped as he saw a large, hairy mole on his face, Casino gave him the dead-eye. Dietrich tore his gaze away and looked back at the Major, although they were of equal rank he knew he had no chance in a battle of wills. "I was expecting you four hours ago, why are you late?" he blustered.

Garrison took off his gloves, sat down and gave the Major a long, hard stare. "Something important came up that we had to investigate."

"What could be that important?" snorted Dietrich as he sat heavily in his chair.

Garrison remained quiet as Actor approached the desk. "Are you missing a Lieutenant and two Corporals Major? We know where they are, you might want to send some men to collect the bodies."

Dietrich seemed to deflate as he heard the news. "I know where they went, I'll send a detail out now." He jumped up, rushed to the door, barked out some orders and returned to his seat.

Garrison leaned back in his chair, stretched out a hand and dropped a bag of coins, a few rolled out. "What were they doing with this?"

The Major sighed heavily, "They were meeting a known collaborator to pay him off. We've used him before and found him to be very reliable."

Garrison raised an eyebrow. "Reliable? Are you sure he wasn't a double agent? Something must have happened, it looks like they had an argument and started shooting. Unfortunately there were no survivors to tell us what happened." He waved at the bag of coins. "What were they paying him for?"

Dietrich shifted uncomfortably, sweat was forming on his brow. "We use him to inform us of enemy spies operating in the area. He'd intercepted a group who'd tried to steal information in Montreuil and took them to a safe house where we could pick them up, we have them here. He also said there was a second team operating in the area. To be honest Herr Sturmbannführer..." he paused and looked into Garrison's impassive face. "I thought you were the second group when you didn't turn up."

"Really." Garrison casually held out a hand, Casino leapt forward, offered a cigarette and lit it, he took a long, slow puff as he observed the Major. "You said you have the spies in your custody, where are they?"

"In the cells Herr Sturmbannführer, we have five, four or them are wounded."

Garrison glanced quickly at Actor and got a small nod in return. Eckhardt's team had consisted of six men, the Captain thought he'd lost two in the gunfight in Montreuil but they had obviously survived and been brought here, Evans was dead and Lucas was the only one who had avoided injury. He wondered how he could get ten men including four casualties out of France and immediately dismissed that train of thought, he had to find out how badly wounded they were and get them out of here first before he could make further plans.

Garrison steepled his fingers, rested them against his chin and silently regarded the Major for a few seconds, he seemed to come to a decision. "Well done Herr Major, give my compliments to your men for capturing these enemies of The Reich. I will see your prisoners and question them. I may need to take them to Paris for further interrogation if necessary. You could get a commendation and a well-deserved promotion for this."

Dietrich's face lit up at the praise and the thought of a long overdue promotion, he bustled to his feet and lead the way out of the door. "This way gentlemen, I'm sure you'll be pleased with what you find."

Casino looked longingly at the safe he'd opened earlier, he still remembered the combination and it would be a matter of seconds to get it open again and remove the money and valuables he saw in there, a warning glance from Garrison stopped him from carrying out his plan. "Maybe some other time baby, I got your number," he said to himself as he followed the others out.

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Eckhardt glanced up as he heard the door to the cell block opening, the sound of heavy footsteps approached and stopped outside his cell. He looked through the heavy bars at the Major and sighed, the officer had already paid them a visit and had not been gentle in his questioning of him and his men. The team had been split into two groups with the three worst injured men laid in cots in an adjoining cell, the Major had concentrated on them figuring that the additional pain of interrogation on top of their injuries would make them break quicker. The Captain was thankful Lucas had been largely ignored, he was sure he would sing like a canary at the first opportunity.

The captain looked at the group of officers following Dietrich and his heart sank as he took in the black uniforms and SS insignia. His gaze travelled to the first one, a Major who was staring at him intently as if to pass a message, his heart leapt as he recognised Garrison, behind him was Actor and the rest of the team, he quietly elbowed the man sitting half-asleep on the cot beside him. "Lucas, whatever you do don't say a damn word," he whispered out the side of his mouth.

Lucas stirred out of his daydreaming and looked at his commanding officer. "What's going on?"

Eckhardt lowered his head and raised his hand to cover his mouth. "The cavalry's here, we're getting out," he rasped.

Lucas looked around the cells. "What?"

Eckhardt gave Lucas another nudge. "I said be quiet, Garrison's here, we're going home."

Lucas was now fully awake and acutely aware of the seriousness of his situation. "Like hell, I'm not going home to be court-martialled, I'm staying here!" He leapt to his feet, pointed at Garrison and his men and started shouting at the top of his voice. "American spies, those men are Allied Special Forces sent here to get your defence plans. Arrest them!"

Eckhardt launched himself off the cot and, despite the agony in his shoulder, wrapped his arms around Lucas' chest and bore him to the ground. "You traitor!" he gasped as he grappled with the writhing man.

"What?" Dietrich suddenly realised his predicament, he was on his own with none of his guards to protect him, he swore, reached for his gun and fumbled to get it out of the holster, this gave Casino the chance to run up behind him, slip a garotte over his head and start pulling. The Major's thick neck made it difficult to strangle him, the safecracker grimaced and gasped as he put a knee in the officer's back and leaned back with all his weight. Gradually Dietrich's face turned from red to purple, his breath rasped, his tongue lolled out of his mouth and his eyes seemed to pop out of their sockets, his knees gave way and Casino followed him down on his journey to the floor keeping the thin wire tight.

Meanwhile in the locked cell Lucas twisted, lashed out and bit down on Eckhardt's arm as hard as he could. He pulled free, rolled on top of the Captain, put his hands round his throat and started to throttle him, he was confidant no-one was going to risk letting off a gun and alerting the guards.

Eckhardt tried to push off his attacker but he didn't have the strength, he felt his vision blurring as he looked up into a pair of murderous eyes and struggled for breath. Suddenly Lucas looked puzzled, his eyes lost focus and he toppled over to one side, he gasped, shuddered and lay still with Chief's blade lodged in his neck where it had severed his spine.

Casino rummaged through Dietrich's pockets and triumphantly produced a small bunch of keys which he tossed to Garrison. "I'll go check no-one heard the ruckus, follow me Limey."

The guard on the reception desk looked up as the two SS soldiers marched out of the cell block, received a glare from the lieutenant and immediately looked back down to stare intently at his paperwork. Casino lead the way to Dietrich's office and looked at Goniff. "Stay here 'n make sure he don't move, I got a little visit to make," he rasped.

Goniff took station and stood to attention. "What you doin' mate? We got the plans ain't we?" he whispered out the corner of his mouth.

Casino winked. "Yeah, but yah can't spend photos of money 'n jewels babe, yah need the real thing 'n it won't take a minute to get 'em out the safe."

"Bloody hell, what are you like? Hurry up 'n get 'em." Goniff rolled his eyes, gave a tiny shake of his head and fixed the guard with an icy stare as Casino disappeared on his little side mission.

Two minutes later the safecracker walked back out of the office with a satisfied grin he patted a large bulge under his jacket. "Liberated 'em, let's go."

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Garrison unlocked Eckhardt's cell door and tossed the keys to Actor. "Check on those three, we need to get out of here as fast as we can." He strode in and helped the captain to his feet, "You okay?"

Eckhardt nodded. "Yeah, thanks to your man here."

Chief entered the cell close behind Garrison, he knelt down and checked Lucas for any sign of life. "He's gone." He pulled the blade out of his neck and wiped it on the dead man's jacket.

Garrison thought of the ramifications of what had just happened. "Fremont isn't going to be pleased Lucas is dead, he'll be furious when he finds out we had a hand in it."

Eckhardt looked at the traitor's body and then at his surviving team members. "He won't hear about it from us, my report will say the Krauts shot him trying to escape."

Garrison felt a sense of remorse and shook his head. "No, he deserves to know what happened to his nephew. If he hadn't interfered Lucas would be in prison but he'd still be alive, he'll have to live with that."

Casino and Goniff walked back in and went to help Actor get the three injured prisoners on their feet, the thief looked over. "We takin' him with us Warden?"

Garrison shook his head. "No."

Casino looked down at the body. "Leave him, he wanted to stay 'n he got what he wanted."

Goniff nodded. "Like me ol' mum always says, you should be careful what you wish for."

"Ain't that the truth, especially if it's Geronimo grantin' your wishes, he takes things literally."

"Knock it off you two, let's go. Can you walk Captain?" Eckhardt nodded. "Alright, Chief get one of the others and follow me out."

Once again the guard on the reception desk looked up at Garrison strode out of the cell block, he saw that the other SS soldiers were supporting three of the wounded prisoners, a fourth prisoner was walking behind with the tall captain bringing up the rear holding a pistol. The guard immediately looked back down again but became aware of the Major approaching him.

"Soldier!" barked Garrison.

The guard jumped to attention. "Yes Herr Hauptsturmführer!"

"We're taking these four prisoners to Paris for further questioning, Major Dietrich has decided to keep the fifth to interrogate himself. He may be some time and does not wish to be disturbed, is that understood?"

"Yes Herr Hauptsturmführer!"

"Good." Garrison indicated that the prisoners should be escorted outside and lead the way.

The two sentries at the main entrance stamped their feet and stood rigidly to attention as the SS detail marched past. Actor brought up the rear, he stopped and looked them up and down before continuing on down the steps. They looked at each other, breathed out a sigh of relief and continued watching out for enemy infiltrators.

An hour later the detail that had been sent out to recover the bodies returned, the sergeant looked around. "Where is Major Dietrich?"

"In the cell block interrogating the prisoner, he doesn't want to be disturbed," answered the guard.

"I have to give him my report." The sergeant marched down the corridor and entered the cell block, seconds later a shout of alarm was heard.

The guard rushed down, opened the door and looked at the scene. "Oh schiesse!"