The men of Barracks 2 weren't sure what was going on, but they could tell Colonel Hogan didn't like their new guest.
"I don't get it. He seems all right," remarked Newkirk, as he cleaned the mud off the boots he'd worn the night before. "Nice sort of bloke, if you ask me."
LeBeau shrugged, and kept sweeping. "I didn't meet him yet. What did you think of him, André?"
"Dunno." Carter was making up his bunk, and didn't turn around.
"Maybe the colonel knows him from somewhere," Newkirk went on. "He didn't look that pleased to see him, anyway. Did he say anything, Carter?"
It was Mills who answered. "Not while we were there. I guess if there's anything we need to know about him, we'll be told."
"Well, if you ask me..." Newkirk broke off as the door of Hogan's office opened and the colonel emerged. He didn't look as if he'd slept well, and his men exchanged warning looks.
"Mills, I need to speak to you," he said, jerking his head towards his office.
Mills glanced at Carter, then followed Hogan to his quarters. There was silence for a few seconds as the door closed behind them, then a half-suppressed snigger from Kellet.
Newkirk stood up abruptly, and took a step towards him, but Kinch was ahead of him. "Don't start anything," he murmured. "He'll keep, Newkirk. He's not worth bruising your knuckles on."
"I'll give that bleedin' waster something to laugh about, one of these days, Kinch," growled Newkirk. But he yielded, and worked off his anger by polishing those boots till they gleamed.
Whatever Kellet was hinting at, he was way off base. Hogan just wanted to clarify some aspects of Staller's story, and Mills was the best man to ask.
"I need you to confirm something for me," said Hogan. "Last night Staller mentioned something called Project Cadmos, that was running at the 182nd. Do you know anything about it?"
Mills gave him a startled look. "Uh...yeah. But we're not supposed to talk about it."
"Okay. I don't need any details. I just wanted to be sure Staller wasn't spinning out a line. He said it was canned."
"That's right, Colonel. Not long after I got there," replied Mills. "They never said why, but the rumor around the base was that there was too much bad feeling between the flyers and the ground crews."
Hogan nodded, frowning slightly. "Staller talked about a security issue. Anything you can tell me about that?"
"I never heard anything," said Mills after a moment's thought. "They used to keep a pretty close watch on everyone - what we were up to, where we went, who we talked to. But nothing was ever said. Seems to me they wouldn't admit it, if there was a leak."
"Uh-huh. One more thing, Mills. Do you remember, or did anyone ever talk about, a Lieutenant Mason? He was on the same air crew as Jackson."
Mills's eyebrows drew in as he searched his memory. "Doesn't ring any bells, Colonel. But that whole crew was all transferred out before I went there, even the guys who had nothing to do with Carter. There wasn't any Mason involved in that, anyway. I got told all about those jokers."
Hogan grunted. He wasn't about to absolve the unknown Lieutenant Mason from culpability, even if technically he wasn't guilty, and even if he was dead. As far as Hogan was concerned, he was still answerable. "But Staller was still there when you arrived?"
"He stayed on for a couple of months, then he got reassigned. I didn't see much of him, but most of the other guys seemed to think he was okay." Mills looked at the colonel, his head slightly tilted as he tried to work out what was going on. "Last night I got the feeling Carter doesn't like him, but I never heard anything bad about him when I was there."
Hogan wasn't giving anything away, not yet. "Okay, thanks, Mills."
Accepting that as dismissal, Mills headed for the door, but paused with his hand on the doorknob. "Colonel, about Project Cadmos - you probably better not say anything to anyone. Staller probably shouldn't have told you about it. They wound it up, but we were told it was still top secret. So..."
"I understand, Mills. And don't worry - you didn't tell me anything, so you haven't breached any confidentiality."
Mills relaxed slightly. "Actually, Colonel, I probably couldn't tell you much anyway. They shut it down within a couple of weeks after I arrived, so I was never really in on it."
He went out. Hogan remained alone for a few minutes, his frown deepening. Then he, too, headed out.
"Where's Kinch?" he asked, not addressing anyone in particular.
"He went outside," replied LeBeau.
Hogan sent a quick look in Carter's direction, but Carter seemed okay, only a bit preoccupied. That wasn't unusual since he had been held hostage during Jackson's escape attempt. Most times Newkirk or LeBeau would pick up on it, and take steps to coax him back to normal, and even though neither of them had any idea how deeply hurt he had been by that experience, it always seemed to work out. The situation had become more complicated with Staller's arrival at Stalag 13, but for now Hogan was confident Carter could be safely left in the hands of his closest friends.
Leaving the barracks, Hogan found Kinch standing a few feet from the hut, looking up at the roof. "Looks like we'll need to do some repairs, Colonel," he said. "The first strong wind's going to take the roof right off."
"Try telling Klink about it," replied Hogan shortly. "See how much joy you get from him."
Kinch already had a pretty good idea why Hogan wasn't in the sweetest of tempers. He didn't answer, but just waited.
"I want you to start checking on someone for me," said Hogan. "Name of Mason, lieutenant with the 182nd, around the same time Carter was last there. He's supposed to have been shot down over the Channel at some stage since then. I'd like to find out if it's true."
Kinch frowned slightly. "Has he got something to do with...?"
"Yeah. Indirectly, anyway." Hogan folded his arms, looking up at the roof. "Staller gave me his version of events last night. According to him, he had a counter-intelligence operation running at the 182nd, and Mason was his inside man on one of the bomber crews."
There was a brief silence while Kinch thought about that, and came to the same conclusion Hogan had the night before. He didn't say a word, but his head tilted back slightly, and his shoulders stiffened.
"Yep," said Hogan shortly. "The same crew. Staller claims he wasn't involved, but he didn't try to stop it, either. Thing is, I don't trust him."
"Staller? Or Mason?" asked Kinch quietly.
"Oh, I trust Mason all right, as long as he's where he's supposed to be - at the bottom of the English Channel," replied Hogan. "But Staller... He's pretty slick, you know, Kinch. Got an answer for everything." He was silent for a moment. "He almost had me," he murmured at last.
"Almost?"
"Yeah. His story is, he had to keep Carter quiet, otherwise his operation - and Mason - would have been compromised. That almost makes sense to me, Kinch. It makes me sick, but I can just about see how he ended up there. But if any man under my command had gotten himself into that kind of trouble..."
"You'd never do it, Colonel," interrupted Kinch. "You would have found some other way to deal with it."
"I hope so," said Hogan, almost under his breath. "If I thought I could do something like that, even for a good reason..." He broke off, gazing at the roof as if checking its structural integrity. Then he took a quick inward breath, and shook his head as if to rid himself of something unpleasant. "Get on to that as soon as you can, Kinch."
"What's on your mind, Colonel?" asked Kinch.
Hogan took his time about answering. "The Krauts got a mole inside 182 Squadron. Now the Düsseldorf Underground has been infiltrated as well. What's the common factor, Kinch?"
"Staller," replied Kinch, after a moment. "He's got one of his guys at Düsseldorf, and he had someone inside at the 182nd. Colonel, you don't think...?"
"I'm not sure what I think yet, Kinch," said Hogan. "All I'm sure of is that there's a guy in our tunnels who I don't trust. So everything he tells me, I want verified. And if his inside man from the 182nd is still alive, I want to know where he is."