"You're sure you're okay with this, Carter?" said Hogan.

Carter nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

He sounded uncertain, and Hogan gave him a quick look. "If you're not, now's the time to say so."

"I can handle it," replied Carter. He spoke abruptly, the more so because he had doubts. Nobody knew better than he did how skillfully Staller could twist the truth to fit his own designs.

At least this time he would have the colonel there to back him up.

"Why d'you think he wants to talk to me?" he asked, after a pause.

"I can think of a couple of reasons," said Hogan. "But the most likely is that he thinks he can get to you. It stands to reason, he's going to try to talk his way out of this. Maybe he thinks..."

He broke off, as Wilson came out of the guest quarters. "Okay, he's as fit as he's likely to get for now," the medic said. "But he's pretty weak, so take it easy on him."

"Okay, thanks, Wilson. You can take a break, I'll let you know when we've finished." Hogan smiled, but his eyes stayed serious.

"You don't think maybe it'd be better if..." Wilson began, then at the look Hogan gave him, he capitulated. "I'll be with Kinch, if you need me."

He headed off down the tunnel, turning his head a couple of times as if debating whether to query the order.

"He knows something's going on," said Carter quietly.

"Yeah, I think you're right. But he won't ask questions," replied Hogan. "If there's one guy in the whole camp you can trust for that, it's Wilson. You ready?"

Carter breathed in deeply. "I'm ready."

Staller, flat on his back on one of the low camp beds, turned his head to look at Carter, then at Hogan.

"I said I wanted to talk to Carter," he murmured.

Hogan took up a position by the entrance, leaning casually against the wall. "Well, he's here," he remarked calmly. "So let's talk. Yeah, I know you'd rather speak to him alone. But the thing is, this is basically an interrogation, and for Carter to do that wouldn't be appropriate. In the first place, you're an officer and he's an enlisted man, and in the second place, he's the guy you tried to knock off."

He had drawn something from his pocket as he was speaking, and now he held it up for Staller to see. "You know what this is, don't you? It's the timer you used on the explosive charge you planted in the lab. Tell me something, Staller, what's the penalty these days for attempted murder? Or was it just a sabotage attempt?"

"I...Listen, I can explain..." Staller's eyes flickered towards Carter, who had edged along the wall a little way, unwilling to come closer. "It wasn't like that. I thought...I didn't think it'd be that big. Kinchloe said you had explosions down there all the time, and no damage done. So I thought, one more, just a small one, and maybe you'd see sense and stand him down before..."

"Before he got a chance to meet Karl Weber," Hogan finished up. "Because once he saw him, you were in trouble. Carter would have known straight away that he wasn't the real Karl Weber - what happened to him, by the way? We know Weber was operating in Potsdam when your friend Lewis was stationed at the 182nd. I guess the switchover happened when Weber was posted to Düsseldorf, right?"

Staller pinched his lips together. "I don't have to answer that."

"No, I guess you don't," Hogan replied, with no change in tone. "But frankly, Staller, I'm out of patience with you. I need some answers, and I need them now. I can't afford to sit around waiting while you play your little games. You told Wilson you were ready to talk, on one condition. That condition's been met. So start talking."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I hand you over to the Underground, and you can talk to them. Only I warn you, they can play a little rough," said Hogan. "Especially with double agents."

"I'm not a double agent," Staller protested weakly. His eyes shifted from Hogan to Carter. "Okay, I'll admit it, Lewis had me fooled. I had him down as one of the best men in my department, I thought he was too valuable to lose."

"More valuable than Carter," said Hogan.

Staller sighed unconsciously. "Try to see it from my point of view. One man was compromised, but as far as I knew, he was still a sound operator. The other was a complete wreck. I felt sorry for Carter, but as far as I could tell, he was too damaged to make any further contribution to the war effort. You know how it works, Hogan. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions. That was one of the hardest." He paused, breathing deeply. "I gotta tell you, when I turned up here and the second guy I met turned out to be Carter...well, I never saw that coming, that's for sure. It was a problem, I had to fix it fast."

"So you tried to convince me he was a liability," Hogan went on. "And when that didn't work, you tried to wipe him out."

"I already explained that." Staller was sweating a little. "You're not going to believe me, but I really thought he was a risk to your operation, as well as to Lewis. And like I said, I didn't expect that much damage. It was only a small charge..."

"In an enclosed space," Carter interrupted sharply. "Where'd you think all that energy would go?"

Staller just shook his head, and didn't answer.

Hogan straightened up, put his hands in his pockets, and started pacing the floor. "Okay," he said at last. "Let's leave that for your court martial. Tell me about Weber."

There was a pause, before Staller replied. "If I tell you what you want to know, you'll give me a chance to talk to Carter alone?"

"Not for a second," replied Hogan grimly. He glanced at Carter. "If he's willing, I'll let you talk to him for three minutes without interference, but not alone."

Staller bit his bottom lip, and turned a questioning look on Carter. "You want him to stay?"

"I got nothing to hide from the colonel," said Carter, his voice very low.

There was a moment of silence, then Staller started talking.

"When I took over handling Weber, he'd just received notice of his transfer to Düsseldorf. It was the perfect transfer, as far as we were concerned. We'd been trying to get a foothold in that office for months. Then just before he was due to make the move, Weber got in touch, said it was getting too dangerous and he wanted out. We didn't want to lose him, so after some discussion I was dropped into Germany to meet with him on his way to Düsseldorf, and talk him round. I needed a partner for the mission, and Lewis was the logical choice. He speaks perfect German..."

"Not surprising. He probably grew up here," interjected Hogan.

"Okay, maybe I should have checked him out more thoroughly." Staller shifted slightly, and winced. "You probably think I'm the biggest chump in the army, and you're probably right. But I never doubted him. He'd been one of my best operatives. My superiors weren't too happy with it, on account of what had happened on his previous assignment."

"They knew about that?" Carter's voice shook a little.

"No, of course not," replied Staller impatiently. "If they'd known, he wouldn't have gotten a job making tea for the girls in the typing pool, and you wouldn't have been let anywhere near Stalag 13. But they knew the operation at 182 Squadron had gone badly, and that somehow the whole squadron had been completely demoralized, so there were question marks on his record. I had to argue the point, before they'd let me bring him along."

Hogan uttered a soft, skeptical grunt. "And then what? You met Weber?"

"No. We parachuted in as scheduled, we met the Underground as scheduled, they directed us to the meeting place, an old abandoned farmhouse about forty miles north of Düsseldorf. But things went wrong. There was an air raid, and the farmhouse took a direct hit."

"Wait a minute. Forty miles north of Düsseldorf - isn't that wide-open farming country?" Hogan gave a short laugh. "Not exactly a strategic target, Staller. Even allowing a big margin for error, it's pretty unlikely."

"I'm just telling it as I saw it," said Staller. "The farmhouse was blown out of existence. But we found Weber some way away. He'd taken a shrapnel hit, and bled to death before we got there."

Hogan turned to Carter. "How easy would it have been to fake it?"

"Pretty easy," replied Carter, after a moment's thought. "Plant a big enough charge under the building, with a delayed action fuse, send a couple of bombers over at the right time - if it's dark enough, nobody's going to see the insignia. The hardest part would be faking the injuries on the body, and if the Gestapo had him for a while before they killed him, well..." He trailed off, with a grimace at the thought of what the unfortunate man might have gone through before his death.

"You're saying it was a set-up?" asked Staller.

"Either that, or you're lying," said Hogan. "Jury's still out on that. Go on. Whose idea was it for Lewis to take his place?"

"It was his own idea. I didn't like it, I thought the risk of him getting caught was too high, and in any case headquarters would never go for it. But Weber was dead, we had no other way of getting inside the Luftwaffe at Düsseldorf. So I let him talk me round. He took Weber's orders and documents, and went to Düsseldorf, and I went back to London, and reported that Lewis had been killed in the bombing raid."

There was a long silence, as Hogan played the story over in his mind. Unwilling as he was, he had to allow it was just barely credible. Staller, sure of his own infallible judgment of character, would have been the perfect dupe in such an operation. Just as he had pigeonholed Carter as so damaged as to be worthless, so would he have had Lewis classified as above suspicion.

"Okay, let's give you the benefit of the doubt for a couple of minutes, " said Hogan at length. " When did you realize you'd gotten him all wrong? Before he shot you, or after?"

"I heard Carter and a couple of other guys talking," replied Staller. His voice was starting to slur a little with weariness.

"In the lab," Carter put in. "Me and Mills and Wilson. I guess we were a bit careless, Colonel."

Staller acknowledged it with a tired smile. "I couldn't believe anyone would think that. But you seemed so damned sure about it, you and Mills, so I knew there was going to be trouble, especially once Lewis arrived, and you recognized him. The only thing left for me to do was to get out there and warn him. I thought maybe he'd have some other contacts we could get in touch with, until we got it sorted out. I got out of camp all right..."

"Going for Mills with a knife on the way," Hogan interrupted.

"That was a mistake," Staller replied, flushing. "He surprised me." He paused, getting his breath back, then went on. "I don't know when it was that the whole thing suddenly made sense. All I know is, I made it to the meeting point, I was about to tell him what had happened, but when I opened my mouth, what came out was Did you sell us out? And then before I could say another word, he shot me."

Another lengthy silence ensued. Hogan folded his arms across his chest, and pursed his lips. Finally he spoke. "What do you think, Carter? Plausible?"

Carter gave a derisive snort. "Boy, you think a guy's pretty smart, 'cause he's a major and he knows how to talk. But if he thinks anyone here is dumb enough to fall for a crazy line like that..."

"It's the truth," Staller broke in, cutting himself off with a gasp as he attempted to raise himself up. The effort was too much, and he dropped back, panting. Hogan moved quickly forward, leaning over the cot. It would do no good if Staller passed out on them, or worse.

Perhaps Staller misunderstood his intention. He flinched, and tried to pull away, with a sharp cry of pain as he jerked his wounded arm. Carter, still keeping his distance, suddenly felt sick. He wasn't sure why, for a couple of seconds, then a wave of dread swept over him, as a memory surfaced, as clear as a photograph: the hospital room in England, so long ago, and Staller standing over him just as Hogan was now standing over Staller.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had stumbled forward, grabbed the colonel's arm and yanked him back. Hogan swung round and stared at him, too startled to be angry.

"Carter, what the hell...?" he said after a couple of seconds of astonished silence.

The look on his face brought Carter to his senses. He let go of Hogan's arm. "S-sorry, sir," he stammered. "I-I just...I don't know what I was thinking."

Hogan continued looking at him, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Had enough?" he asked in a low voice.

Carter shook his head. His hands were trembling in the aftermath of that moment of fury. "He didn't tell us everything yet."

"I think that's all he's going to say, for now," murmured Hogan, with a glance at Staller, who looked to be slipping into unconsciousness. "And if that malarkey he just gave us turns out to be true, he may not have anything more to give us."

"You think maybe it's true?" asked Carter unsteadily.

Hogan shook his head. "I'm not calling it either way yet, Carter. Go find Wilson, tell him to get down here right away. Then I want you to go and get some rest. There's nothing more for you to do right now. He can have his little heart-to-heart with you later."

"Yes, sir. A-and I'm really sorry, sir." Carter backed away, and disappeared into the tunnel.

Staller appeared to have fainted. It could be a ploy, but as there was probably nothing to be gained by further questioning, Hogan was prepared to let it go for now. The major would answer to a military court in time, any further information about the failed operation at 182 Squadron could wait till then. Hogan's prime concern right now was with the present situation.

He stood back, regarding Staller with a slight frown, which evaporated as Wilson came bustling in. "Carter says he passed out," the medic said. "You got all you wanted?"

"No," Hogan replied, "but I think I got all I'm going to get."

Wilson grunted as he started checking Staller's vitals. "Kinch wants to talk to you," he said over his shoulder. "He's had Kurt from Hammelburg on the radio. Urgent."

"Keep me posted." Hogan left him to his work, and headed rapidly for the radio room.

Kinch was alone. "Kurt called in," he said as soon as Hogan came into view. "He wants to see you, urgently. Says he can come here tonight, if you agree."

"What's it about, Kinch?" asked Hogan, reaching for the notepad where the message had been written down.

"He's got news," replied Kinch. "We may not have to question Weber after all. Kurt didn't want to say too much over the radio. But he's got some of the Düsseldorf Underground people with him."

"Did he give you anything at all?"

"Just one thing, Colonel," said Kinch. "Hammelburg are closing down operations till further notice."

"So whatever it is," Hogan concluded, "it's bad news."

Kinch nodded. "Real bad."