Back for one more chapter^^ I hope I'll come to write the next one soon, but I promise nothing... Well, hope you enjoy this one though.

chapter 5– crazy

crazy- mad, especially as manifested in wild or aggressive behaviour (source: Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionaries)

"Where have you been?" Schultz whispered in relief to see Newkirk. He had been away. Schultz knew that.

Newkirk himself was very happy to be back in camp now. "I have been to the Gestapo headquarters in Hammelburg." He replied. He doubted the quality of his plan back there. Hell, that was the dumbest plan ever.

"You have been where?" Schultz exclaimed. "Oh no, Newkirk, you can't just walk out of the camp and into the town. What if anybody sees you? They'll send me to the Russian front!"

"And shoot me. Well, after a nice talk. So do you think I'd do that for fun?" Newkirk wasn't really angry with the sergeant. He was just exhausted and therefore fairly fretful. He could understand Schultz's worries, but for heaven's sake, he tried to rescue his team, his fellow prisoners, his friends!

"You should see a doctor. You are completely crazy!" Schultz muttered.

"Wanna hear the rest of the plan?" Newkirk proposed. "Just to prove I'm nuts?"

"Oh no you won't...I hear nothing!" And then Schultz left Colonel Hogan's office.

Newkirk wondered if the guard was right. Was he crazy? He remembered many occasions he thought that about Colonel Hogan. But Hogan wasn't crazy. And neither was he. The plan was crazy, he admitted. Crazy. Impossible. Desperate. But their only chance. So he wasn't crazy. He cared for his friends. And they were worth every risk. They are worth fighting for. They are worth...

Newkirk woke up when Olsen entered the room with two cups of coffee in his hands. He didn't know when he had fallen asleep. But he must have slept quite a while, for his neck was stiff from sleeping at the desk. He groaned.

"Here you are." Olsen handed him a cup of very strong coffee. "You look like you need it."

"Thanks."

Olsen had proven himself a very helpful man for Newkirk. Without hesitation he volunteered to accompany Newkirk to town this morning. And he would be on Newkirk's side this night.

They sat quiet for a few minutes, just drinking. 'Coffee is what keeps me alive,' Newkirk thought. He didn't need much sleep, but now he has been awake for...a long time. The nap he just had was good, but not enough. Well, maybe he shouldn't rest though. If every mission goes as well as the one this morning just because of a lack of sleep...

The Underground had done a very good job. Their man in the Gestapo headquarters in Hammelburg was very lucky to overhear a conversation between a Major Bergmann and a SS officer. This Major reported four spies then the agent reported this news to the Underground. They decided it might be a good idea to answer the call to Berlin Gestapo headquarters (which was very likely to happen sooner or later) themselves. They didn't have to wait very long.

Gestapo officer Müller called Berlin headquarters and reported the spies. He talked to General Meier, who was Lukas Thaler, an Underground agent, in reality. General Meier ordered to wait until a special unit arrived in Hammelburg. That was the perfect startup for Newkirk's plan.

So Olsen and Newkirk went to the Gestapo headquarters in bright daylight this morning, dressed in black Gestapo uniforms, pretending to be a special unit from Berlin. They had faked orders from a faked General. But they had real fear when they thought of what could go wrong.

So better not think of it. As it turned out, their fear had been reasonless. The faked orders were enough for them to get everything they wanted. Which wasn't much at all. Just a lorry (the special unit had arrived in a smaller car, not enough for four spies extra) and a train.

"Why do you need a train?" The Gestapo officer asked.

"You see, it is easy to stop a car. It is somewhat harder to stop a train."

So he got the train. The night train from Hammelburg to Berlin was cancelled. The driver would be one of his team, the leader of the special unit informed the Gestapo officer. Then the special unit left. With 'top-secret plans' to be done, as far as the Gestapo officer could tell, he called General Meier who allowed all actions his special unit was planning. He also demanded support for the special unit when necessary.

So far so good.

The camp looked sad with just the guards outside. Newkirk had realized that while waiting for the evening roll call.

Barracks two had been quiet the whole day. It still was quiet now. Some men were sleeping, but most just lay on their bunks and rested. Few were talking. 'You could grab the tension in the air,' Newkirk thought.

Then Schultz entered the barracks. "Roll call! Everybody out, out, out!"

Eleven prisoners followed him. Klink told them what they all had heard a thousand times before: it was senseless to escape, their fellow prisoners will be captured soon, etcetera etcetera.

Newkirk started to worry. He hadn't thought of the case that Klink would check the barracks this night. But he couldn't change the plan anymore. Was there a way to avoid this case? Could he stop Klink somehow? He was lost in his thoughts so he hadn't realized that the prisoners had been dismissed.

When Schultz pulled him gently to the door, the guard asked "Are you alright?"

"O, yeah. I was just thinking."

Schultz followed him into the barracks. "You don't look very good, Newkirk," he said.

Newkirk knew that Schultz wasn't a Nazi at all. Nevertheless it sometimes surprised him how caring he could act.

"I'm ok," he reassured Schultz. "I'm just a bit tired…and worried."

"You will get them back?" Schultz asked.

"I will." 'I know I can. For you, mates.'

"I wish I could do something to help you," Schultz said looking at Newkirk.

"Well, it would be very helpful if Klink didn't check the barracks tonight." Newkirk proposed.

"I do what I can," Schultz promised. Suddenly he recognized what that meant. "So, you won't be here...so you go out there in the night? You are crazy, I knew it..." Then he left.

Crazy. Again this word. He wasn't crazy. And the plan, he decided, wasn't either. It was ambitious. It was reckless. It was brave. It was HIS plan. Well...maybe he was crazy, Newkirk had to admit that. But that was ok for him. He smiled a bit about his newly born passion for words while he was climbing down into the tunnel.

crazy- being misunderstood