Warning: Slightly dark scene (for my writing style at least)
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Hogan kept working at the bars. Unfortunately for him, he was doing more harm to LeBeau's knife than he was the metal. Throwing the knife at the wall in frustration, Hogan looked at his night's work. He had barely gotten threw one bar, and it was completely obvious what he had done. Hogan cursed at himself silently, vowing that they could skip working on the barracks tunnel connections, for one to the cooler. Picking back up the knife, he handed it to LeBeau, who promptly upon seeing the damaged to his beloved cooking instrument, started a tirade in French, directed towards no one in particular. Hogan sat back down at the ground, and starred up at the sky, and watched it glow from black to pink.
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"Kinch sat on the table in the common-room. Everyman was either sitting up, or propped up on one elbow listening to him."
"…need answers. So if anyone has something to share, now would be the time to do it." He looked around the darkroom, seeing people's faces only when the search light passed over them.
"Look, Kinchy. I think if anyone 'ere 'ad 'imself an idea, 'e woulda told ya by now, don't ya think?" A voice drifted out of the darkness from Kinch's right.
"I would hope so. But I need an answer now. So I need a volunteer to go into the tunnels and see if maybe some one down there has seen him."
"How would he have gotten into the tunnels, Kinch?" Another voice spoke from the darkness. "He hasn't been down there, has he?"
"No. He doesn't yet know about the operation. But maybe someone down there saw him."
"How? The only entrances are here, the dog kennel, and Klink's living-room."
"Look, I dunno! Someone just go start to investigate. I also want two volunteers to go to the other barracks."
"I'll go Kinch. I would love to pull a prank on-" A voice this time to his left voiced up.
"No pranks!"
"I will also go, Kinchleo. I could not sleep anyways." Kinch nodded at the second volunteer, even though he knew it was pointless in the dark.
"Good. Both of you have 15 minutes each. Then I want you back in here, understood?"
"Understood."
"I'll go into the tunnels, Kinch-o. I left my book down there anyways."
"That 15 goes the same for you too," Kinch said turning to the tunnel volunteer, "even though you'll be in the tunnels. I will alert you with the single if he appears back in here. In which case, come out through either the dog kennel, or Klink's living quarters."
"Understood, Kinchy-o."
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It wasn't that Carter was scared beyond all reason that his heart couldn't seem to control itsself, rather it was the thought that he had been setup by the others that seemed to fuel his increased heartbeat.
The last few hours seemed to have happened in a mere matter of a few minutes. Carter tried to think back to just what exactly lead him to this particular situation in which he found himself. Yet, he wasn't able to come up with a clear reason to the question of why he now found himself bouncing, yet again, in the back of a german LKW. In fact, the only explanation is that he had been deliberately set up by someone. However, Carter was unable to fathom exactly why. Had he done something wrong? Were the others all traitors? Was that not even a POW camp he was in? Whatever the reason both fear and rage filled him. Carter now had a new mission, and that was to get back to America at any cost.
Carter looked out the back of the LKW at the shadowy landscape that was rolling by. Suddenly the whole of the world shook as a loud explosion rocked the scenery. He smiled slightly, happy to know that his night's word hadn't gone for naught.
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Kinch and the rest of barrack 2 were still wide awake when Schultz came in to announce that roll call was happening. Kinch looked at each member of the barrack as pure dread washed over him. This has to work. Kinch vowed. Nodding to Olsen and Newkirk, the men slowly filed out and into the pale morning light. Looking up, Kinch noticed that Hogan was exciting the cooler and making his way across the compound, he was immediately followed by LeBeau and the rest of the "gardening" team. Must of talked Klink into letting them out with him, Kinch smiled. Looking back at the line, he saw that both Olsen and Newkirk were in place. Let's see if we can pull this off, Kinch prayed silently.
Hogan took his place at the front of the line, as the guards began to count each member of the camp, and reporting back to Schultz. Schultz in turn counted the men in front of him. Smiling at Hogan, upon seeing that he was out of the cooler. As he made his way through the lines, he stopped at the man between Olsen and Newkirk.
"Newkirk…..who is thiiiis?" Schultz pointed at the "man" standing between Newkirk and Olsen.
"'Im, Schultz? 'E's me new Bunkie."
„Newkirk...pleaaaaaase. I could be shot for this...where is that new boy…?" Schultz quietly pleaded.
"You really wanna know, Schosie?" Olsen smiled.
"No! I' seh' nix….i hör nix…. (I see nothing… I hear nothing…)" Schultz shut his eyes, and opened them again to keep counting. Hogan looked over his shoulder at the men. Immediately confused as to what was going on. Upon seeing the "member" in-between Olsen and Newkirk, his eyes froze. If they had him out…..
"Repooooooort! (Report!)" Klink shouted. Hogan turned back to see Klink stride across the yard, and immediately turned the rest of the exchange between Schultz and Klink out. Something did happen last night. He knew his gut couldn't be wrong. Keeping his mouth closed, his mind began to spin different scenarios in his mind. However as Hogan began to panic, Klink couldn't help but take advantage of the situation.
"I see you are quiet this morning, Colonel Hogan. Tell me, what do you think of my speeches now?" Klink waited smiling.
"Look, Willi-" (1)
"KLINK!"
"Look, Klink-"
"Oberst Klink!"
"Look, Oberst Klink, I am very tired, I had a long night at the Opéranational de Paris. So if you-"
"And just what were you doing at a French Opera?"
"Why, singing of course, my dear Kommandant. What else do you do at an Opera?" Hogan smiled.
"Well you could…oh dismissed!" Klink turned around and headed back towards his office.
"You hear the Kommandant! Geh ma', geh ma', geh ma' (go, go, go)!" Schultz shooed the men away. Hogan kept his eyes on Newkirk and Olsen, immediately following as the majority of the men walked back into the barracks.
"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Hogan demanded after the last men entered and the door was closed. Hogan spun around and faced each man with a stern look. Everyone man immediately feeling guilty. Kinch swallowed as he stepped forward, looking at the door signalman for reassurance that it was all clear.
"Well, Colonel…sir…."
"If you are starting it so formally, I know I'm not going to like it." Hogan leaned back against the common-room table and crossed his arms."
"Kinch, I can tell him." Olsen stepped forward.
"Well someone should. Why did you guys bring out ol' Uncle Sam there?" Hogan motioned with is head at the full-size dummy POW now lying on a corner bunk.
"Sir, please. It's my fault." Olsen hung his head low.
"No Olsen, it's my fault. I was the one in charge." Kinch admitted shamely.
"I don't care whose fault it is. Someone just tell me what happened." Hogan calmed himself down, upon seeing the look of utter shame in his men's eyes. Kinch started at the beginning. How after Hogan had been taken to the cooler, that he had ordered Newkirk into the tunnels, and how Carter had snuck out of the barrack. Olsen added the portion from when Rose had turned up at the site, and had admitted to taking Carter with him. Hogan groaned at the information.
"How did he get into the tunnel?"
"Rose said something about Sparky finding him, and about him making explosives." Olsen replied.
"Where is Rose and Sparky now?"
"Uh, Sparky should be at the radio. Rose is probably down there working on the tunnel extension. We were going to start work on tunnel 4 to surprise you, sir." Kinch answered.
"Well get both of them up here pronto. I want to speak with both of them."
"Yes, Sir!" Olsen and Kinch responded at once, and both started to take a step forward in order to leave. Hogan massaged his head. "What happened after you realized he was missing, Kinch?" Kinch and Olsen stopped mid-step and turned back towards his CO.
"We started a search party. I sent Newkirk out, and sent a man down into the tunnels, and others to the different barrackses. It was Sparky who told me he was out with the team, Colonel."
"Why didn't you inform me of what was going on?" Hogan felt as if the whole world was collapsing around him.
"There was no way, guv'ner. We couldn't get near the cooler." Newkirk spoke up for the first time.
"I see." Hogan massaged the bridge of his nose, soaking in the information. "Alright, Olsen you go find Rose, Newkirk, go find Sparky. Kinch, you radio the underground, see if perhaps he was picked up. The last thing I want is for someone to find him and for him to sing like a canary about our operation." Hogan stood up and slammed his office door behind him.
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It didn't take long for Olsen to find Rose. He was leaning over a spade, wiping the sweat from his brow. Rose turned his head towards Olsen as he heard him walk down the tunnel hall.
"Hey Olly-Olsen! Care to join in? A little dirt never hurt anybody." Rose smilled.
"Not now, Rosey. The colonel wants to speak with you."
"Me? Did I do something wrong?" Rose stood up straighter, and played nervously with the top of the spade.
"No…well….yes…..well….no….oh just come on, you know how the Colonel hates to be kept waiting."
"Don't remind me. I still can't get the smell from that night of KP duty outta my uniform. Speaking of which, I should probably change." Rose sat down the spade and started walking towards the changing room, Olsen following behind him.
"I doubt very much the Colonel would care if you got dirt in his quarters."
"No…but Schultz might."
"True. Okay, I'll wait, I'm supposed to delivery you first hand."
"Oh boy, now I know I'm in trouble." Rose groaned as he slide off his current uniform for a fresh one in the changing room.
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Rose and Sparky each took a deep breath before knocking on Colonel Hogan's door. Hearing a chair slide across the wood floor, and Hogan personally opening the door, scared both men more than if Hogan had started shouting.
"Sit down…both of you." Hogan said calmly, but with no question of authority left out.
"Yes Sir." The two men responded, and sat promptly down on the corner of the lower bunk in Hogan's office. Hogan looked at both men, obviously terrified of what he was going to say next. Hogan took a deep breath before starring both men in the face.
"Alright. I want to know what happened. Exactly. We will start with you, Sergeant Binnie." Hogan crossed his arms, leaning on his desk. Sparky swallowed.
"Well, Sir. It was like this. I was just mindin' the radio, ya know, um Sir, and then there comes in this Sergeant. Obviously new to the tunnels, ya know? And I asks him, I did Sir, if you had given your permission to be down here. And he said yes. So I shows him the tunnel, and then all of the sudden he tells me that you didn't tell about the operation. Naturally, Sir, I was confused, ya see? But then he tells me that he is an explosives expert, so I thought to myself, 'Sparky boy, if he can make a better explosive than what those boys have, by all means, I should let him!' Sir. And well, he did. And so, I go get Tommy, ya see, and he takes the kid out." Sparky held his breath, knowing full well what could happen to him since he broke protocol. Hogan frowned for a moment, considering the story and what to say next. "Please Sir! Please I beg leniency! I was only tryin' to save the men out on the mission! Please Sir! Please don't send me back to England!"
"I'm not going to punish you, Sparky…." Sparky sighed a sigh of relief. "At least not yet." Hogan turned to Rose. "Alright, Sergeant Rose, your turn." Rose gulped.
"Well, it's true, Sir. What he said. Sergeant Binnie did come and fetch me. He told me that Sergeant Carter? I believe that was his name. That the sergeant had made explosives, and it was imperative to get them to the men outside the wire. So I led the two of us there. Apparently the explosives that the team had to be set off by hand, once the convey arrived, dangerous to say none the less. There, Sir, we planted the explosives, and turned to leave. I made it back to the meet-up spot, where I found the others, Sir, but the sergeant was nowhere in sight. It was then, Sir, that we debated whether or not to go after him. Sergeant Olsen decided it was better to come back." Rose held his breath as well.
"I see…" Hogan quietly said, after a minute. Standing up from leaning on the desk he began to slowly tour his room, as if he was taking an afternoon walk. He suddenly stopped and turned back towards the two. "Do you know if he was taken captive?" Hogan inquired.
"Um, no Sir, at least, not for sure. We did hear shooting. I suppose it is possible that he…" Rose trailed off. Hogan nodded slowly.
"Alright. Thank you. You are both dismissed. One of you please send Kinch and Olsen in here. I want you both to know though, that neither of you are off the hook for breaking security."
"Yes Sir." Both men responded exiting the room. Hogan began to pace again, before suddenly stopping and pulling out a map of the area. Studying it, he looked for the nearest place that the men who had captured Carter could possibly be. He was starring intently at the map when Olsen startled him from behind.
"Sir…?"
"Ah! Oh Olsen."
"You sent for me, Sir?"
"Yes, Olsen, Kinch," Hogan added noticing that Kinch too, had entered the room. "I want both of you to take a look at this." He motioned to the map. "Where in your opinion, if you were a German guard, would you take an American POW?" The three men starred at the map a moment.
"Well, Sir. I would take him, here." Olsen pointed at the map. "At least for questioning. Of course, since he was at the site where a convey blew up….I would um…" Olsen swallowed, "take….take him…. him, here." Olsen pointed at another spot of the map. Hogan agreed glumly, turning to Kinch for his opinion.
"I agree, Colonel." Kinch added sadly. Hogan picked up the map, and rolled it aggressively back into a tight roll, before storing it back away.
"Alright then, we have our work cut out for us. We need to get that man back, so we instead can interrogate him."
"Colonel," Kinch spoke up nervously, "just what, if I may ask, do you want to do with him, if, I mean when we get him back?"
"I want to find out just once and for all, who he is, before we ship him back to England."
"What should we do about Klink in the meantime, Sir?" Olsen asked.
"Klink? Nothing. Just make sure that everyone donates a piece of chocolate for the Schultz bribery fund."
"Boy, two pieces this week…taxes are sure going up." Olsen smiled.
"Well my dear Olsen, the state thanks you for your generous donation in order to keep its members alive. It is indeed an expensive country we run here." Hogan joked breaking the tension as he opened the door and went into the common-room. Opening the trap down into the tunnels, he descended down into the dark.
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Carter huddled in the corner, fear filling his whole body. Any second now, the guards would be back for another round of what they considered "questioning". Carter wanted to cry, but his eyes were out of tears, having spent them during his last round with the guards. Trembling in the corner, Carter waited, waited in sincere fear.
He didn't have to wait long. He heard the familiar sound of hobnails hitting the stone floor. Click-click…click-click….click-click….click-click, the sound seemed to echo through the hallway, finding a victim to torture with his steady beat. Click-click…click-click….click-click….click-click, the sound got closer, and closer. Carter wanted to scream, he knew what the sound meant, and the pain associated with it. Click-click…click-click….click-click….click-click, the sound didn't stop. He wanted to melt into the walls, be anywhere, anywhere other than where he was. Click-click…click-click….scraaape, jingle, jingle, squeeeak. Carter heard the guard stop at his door, pull out his keys, and open the door. Lifting his sore head enough, he could see with his eyes, that it was not the same guard which had thrown him unceremoniously in there.
"Raus! (Out!)" The guard pointed at Carter. Carter tried to swallow, but found his throat didn't work. Pushing himself off the floor, he limped over to the door. The guard grabbed his arm, and started to drag him down the hall. Carter's stumbling mixing in with the steady sound of the guard's hobnails hitting the floor. He then was shoved from behind into another room, immediately falling on the floor, where a man in black starred at him from above, and another guard stood next to him.
"Danke, Feldwebel. (Thank you, Sergeant.)" The man wearing the black suit purred, in a way that scared Carter straight to the bone. "Carter, Andrew Jonathan. Sergeant. Serial number 02763350." The man looked up from his clipboard, and noticed Carter's stunned face. "I see that this information is correct." The man smiled, but Carter was more afraid of the smile, than reassured. "What were you doing at the train stop? WHAT?" The man suddenly yelled, Carter, who was still on the floor, began to crawl backwards, afraid of the man now towering over him. "TELL ME! The Geneva Convention will not help you here, Sergeant! You are considered as of now to be an enemy of the State!" The man bellowed. Carter's eyes widened as the reality of his situation hit him.
"I…I…uh….I…." Carter sputtered, his mind suddenly blank.
"Tell me! Why did you blow up the train?"
"I…I…I du….du….dunnooo!" Carter finally managed to spit out. The man beat his fist against the wall, causing Carter to jump and the room to echo.
"Why would you blow up a train, if you did not know why?"
"I…." Carter's mind tried to race, but felt as if it were trying to do it through sticky caramel.
"If you don't remember…we do have….other ways…" The man smiled again.
"I dunno! Look honoust! Oh boy, if I knew I would tell you! Honoust! I was just there! Really! I had no idea that…" A thought suddenly hit him. He could go two ways about this. Sell out the men at that POW camp, or deny he even knew them. Either way, it could cost him his skin. Inside Carter's mind a debate ranged.
"That WHAT?"
"That….that…. that that would happen! I was just trying to escape, boy, was I!" Carter felt some courage start to trickle its way into his body.
"Escape? Yes, I know all about you being at Stalag Luft 13."
"Well, you seem to know a lot about me, boy. So you know then that I was just trying to get back to England. Or Switzerland. Or even Sweden. Preferably the US, as you already know I'm sure, I am from there, and well so you see-„
"SHUT UP!" Again the man bellowed. "I don't care about you getting back to England., or your precious United States! I care about you telling me about everyone involved in blowing up the train, and with it, the convoy. Now you are going to sing, or wish you had never been born." The man motioned for the second guard, who had been standing silently in the corner, to grab Carter and throw him in the chair in the centre of the room. Carter's heart raced, and was on the verge of hyperventilating. "Also, while you are at it, are going to tell me just how your brother made it out of Germany…" Carter's mind seemed to come back into focus at the mention of his brother.
"You're mad. And I mean insane-mad! My brother is dead! You people shot him down!" Carter's voiced was full of hurt emotion.
"That's not going to work, Sergeant." The man sneered. "We both know perfectly well that your brother was thrown into Stalag Luft IV, and then escaped. My contacts in London keep track of everyone who makes it back, now I want to know who helped him out!" The man again smacked his fist on the wall, as if he was making a point. However Carter didn't even notice. His mind was again racing, this time about his brother. Is it true? Could he have survived, and been thrown into a prison camp, like I was? That doesn't make sense, the Red Cross would have notified us immediately if he was captured. And breaking out? If he was indeed captured, he broke out? And got back to England? And why wouldn't he have notified us when he got back? That doesn't make any sense. And getting out of Germany altogether….
"How…?"
"That is exactly what you are going to tell me, Sergeant…" The man again purred. "Now do you want to start with your brother, or, with the convoy?" He motioned for the guard to restrain Carter.
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"Any luck, Colonel?" Kinch asked as he walked into the radio room. He was coming to relieve Private James, but quickly noticed that Colonel Hogan had apparently done that himself, and was currently sitting at the radio with a defeated look on his face.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." Hogan sighed heavily as he stood up to stretch his legs. "The underground hasn't heard anything, and I've been monitoring Klink's office, nothing there either."
"Well, it hasn't even been 12 hours yet, Colonel. These things sometimes take time to-" However Hogan wasn't listening to Kinch. Instead he was starring blankly into space, as an idea hit him.
"Kinch. I want you to go and grab Olsen, LeBeau, and Newkirk." Hogan spun around and looked at Kinch.
"Um, alright Colonel." Kinch nodded to his CO, before turning to head up to Barrack 2.
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(1) Hogan tends to call Colonel Klink, "Willi", in order to mess with the man. Well…in the german EKvH at least. :)
A/N: I know I said I would never write a chapter as dark as this one, with the scene with Carter... I debated about it for a long time, seeing as that is not my style of writing. I don't like writing dark like that, it's too close to home...literally. But I felt I needed it for the development of the story, so with apologies to Carter, the next chapter will be lighter.