Chapter 12: The Meeting

The returning prisoners entered the radio room. LeBeau was halfway lying on a bench, trying to get up. Nelson was struggling to keep him down without reopening the wound in LeBeau's shoulder.

"Let me up!" demanded LeBeau. "I need to go help them."

"You're staying here. I'd hate to have to sedate you again," warned Nelson. "Not this close to roll call."

LeBeau would not be calmed. "Who cares about roll call? The others will be missing."

"We're back," declared Hogan.

Nelson and LeBeau, who both had been too busy struggling to notice the others, stopped and looked their way. "You're okay!" exclaimed LeBeau.

"But you're not. How's the shoulder?" Hogan asked.

"Sore. But I'll be okay." Then, LeBeau glared at Carter and snapped, "You tricked me. I let Nelson treat my shoulder like you wanted and you still left me behind."

Before Carter could respond, Hogan said, "LeBeau, you're still in no shape to go trudging through the countryside. If I were leading a mission right now, you'd be staying put. Carter made the right decision."

LeBeau looked dismayed. "But I only wanted to help, Sir."

"I know. And you did help," Hogan insisted. "You came all the way back here to get a rescue party. The patrol had given up searching for you. They were planning to leave in a few minutes to deliver us to the Gestapo headquarters in Hammelburg. If Carter had brought you along, chances are the rescue party wouldn't have made it in time."

LeBeau looked apologetically at Carter. "I'm sorry, Carter. I guess you made the right decision."

"That's okay. I understand," Carter acknowledged. "You were worried about the others. We all were."

"I am also sorry about before, mon ami," LeBeau stated. "I never meant for you to be hurt. For you to move out."

"That's okay, too. I'm not upset anymore," Carter assured him.

"I'm sorry, too," apologized Newkirk. "The things we said, they were only said in fun. We'd never wish to harm you, Carter."

Carter nodded. "Apology accepted."

"I hate to cut this short," said Hogan, interrupting. "But we need to clean up and change for roll call. It's almost time." The men started to leave for their respective barracks. "Carter," Hogan called. When Carter looked back, Hogan added, "After roll call, you're to report to my office. That's an order."

"Yes, Sir," acknowledged Carter, his trepidation noticeable in his voice. Then, he hurried down the tunnel to catch up with the others from Barracks 6.

- - -

Carter paused outside the door to Hogan's quarters, his hand in the air, as if dreading to knock. Finally, with a heavy sigh, he forced himself to knock.

"Come in," he heard Hogan say. Carter entered. "Sit down," Hogan said, indicating a chair opposite his.

As Carter complied, Hogan surveyed the Sergeant. He noticed that Carter seemed very ill at ease. Hogan had debated on whether to cover the difficult or more pleasant aspects of the meeting first. Having seen Carter's apprehension, he decided it would be better for them both to approach the more difficult things first. Hogan gave Carter a long stare, then stated firmly, "I want these 'accidents' stopped and I want them stopped now. That's an order."

"But Sir, I only wanted to--" Carter started to protest but was cut off.

"I ordered them stopped. There is no room for argument. Understood?" Hogan demanded.

Carter looked abashed. "Yes, Sir," he quietly mumbled.

Hogan sighed. This was not going any better than he expected. Then, he thought of a way to emphasize the importance to Carter without sounding so harsh. "Stop and think about it, Carter," he urged. "If you're the good leader I know you are, you'll realize it's too dangerous for your men. For you , too. You're too good a man for us to lose. Your crew are amateurs. You have no backing from London. You've been lucky so far. But how long do you think that luck will hold? Look at last night. We had backing from London and lots of experience with missions, but we were still captured. Only your timely rescue kept us from being handed over to the Gestapo. See what I mean?"

"I know," admitted Carter, solemnly. "I just wanted to do my part in fighting the Nazis. To prove I was still a loyal American."

Hogan was puzzled. "You had nothing to prove. We all know how loyal you are."

"Then, why was everyone always asking which side I was on? Telling me I'd cost our side the war?"

"We were only joshing. We never meant anything by it. Others on the team have been told the same thing."

"I thought it was only in jest, at first," Carter declared. "And like you said, the others heard the same thing. Occasionally."

"But you heard it a lot," Hogan concluded. "Apparently, too much."

"After a while, I began to have my doubts. I thought maybe you guys were starting to mistrust me. And even if you weren't, I'd messed up so often, maybe you'd be better off without me on the team."

Hogan realized that the bugs may have added to Carter's doubts. "Carter, we have always trusted you, even when you moved out. I was angry, yes, that you went over my head to Klink. I sensed you were up to something. I couldn't take chances. I wanted to know for certain. We'd been wrong before but I didn't think we were this time. As Senior POW Officer, our operation and the prisoners in this camp are my responsibility. That's why we planted the bugs. Not that it did us any good, though."

"I understand about the bugs." Then, a smile flickered across Carter's face. "The guys had fun." Carter commented.

Hogan gave him a stern look. "Newkirk didn't. I believe he later said something about killing you guys. He's the one whose ears were ringing from whatever you guys dropped."

"Oh, boy," moaned Carter.

Hogan brought the conversation back to Carter's earlier concerns. "About your mistakes, Carter, we'll deal with them." Then, Hogan's expression became grim. After hearing how Carter had felt, he almost hated to do this. But it had to be done to maintain proper military discipline and in fairness to the rest of his men. "There's one more serious matter we have to discuss. I don't care if you are in Barracks Two or Six or even one of the other barracks, if you ever pull the same things again that you have this last week and a half, I will have you confined to barracks for the rest of the war. We're talking insubordination, neglecting the proper chain of command, freelancing it--maybe even going AWOL since you were out of camp without permission. Do you understand?"

Carter's gaze fell to the table. "Yes, Sir," he mumbled, contritely.

Arm crossed in front of him, Hogan stared harshly for a moment. Then, his expression softened. "Carter, you can relax," he said reassuringly. "The tough part's over with." Carter was obviously still tense, so Hogan continued, "I'm going to talk with London later today. Fill them in on last night's events. I'm going to request commendations not only for LeBeau, but for you and your team as well."

"The men deserve it," agreed Carter.

Hogan wanted to make sure Carter understood how he and his team felt. "So does their leader," he insisted. "I think that I speak for Newkirk, Kinch and Durand, too, when I tell you how very proud of you and extremely grateful we are. If it weren't for you organizing the rescue party, we'd likely be sitting in a Gestapo cell or worse right now. How did you get to be such a good leader?"

"It wasn't easy, I can tell you. When I was making all my plans, there were a lot of dumb ideas I had to throw out. They wouldn't have worked. I just had to keep asking myself, 'What would Hogan do in this situation?' " Seeing Hogan's surprised look, Carter smiled and declared, "You don't think this week in Klink's office is the only 'observing' I've done these last few years, do you?"

Hogan smiled briefly, then became a bit more serious. "Carter, come home," he invited, softly.

"That an order, Sir?" asked Carter.

Hogan shook his head. "A request."

"Because we rescued you guys?"

"No. Because this is where you belong."

"I'll think about it," Carter promised.

"Let me know what you decide. Dismissed."

Carter stood and started for the door. "I'll let you know when I reach my decision."

Hogan watch him leave. At least Carter hadn't said no.