Crowded into the office, Hogan's team watched in silence as he paced back and forth, frowning.
Newkirk lounged against the window frame, relaxed enough apart from the tightness around his mouth. Kinch looked worried, and LeBeau's eyes still betrayed the anger which had come to life during his conversation with Schultz. As for Carter, he'd taken refuge on the upper bunk, and he wasn't giving anything away.
Finally, Hogan stopped in his tracks, and fired a question at LeBeau. "Schultz didn't say definitely that Mills was the man who'd been worked over?"
"He said he didn't know them all yet," replied LeBeau. "He thought they had been fighting. I guess he had it right after all."
"Maybe. But something doesn't add up," said Hogan.
"How do you mean, Colonel?" asked Kinch. "This isn't the first time we've had this kind of thing happen. Not so much with men like Mills, mostly those guys keep it quiet. I guess there's been a few here who we never even knew about. But there's other reasons why a man might find the whole of his barracks turns on him. Remember what happened with Corporal Lau, over in Barracks 5? And I had a few run-ins when I got here, too. Some of the other prisoners didn't appreciate sharing digs with a black man. It can get ugly."
Newkirk straightened up. "Yeah, I remember that. We got them sorted then, no reason we can't sort them now."
"Except this time it's happening in a brand new barracks, among men we don't know anything about," Hogan pointed out. "Which makes it hard to know exactly what's going on, especially with Mills acting as if every man in camp is his enemy."
"I think we know what's going on, mon colonel," put in LeBeau. "It's wrong. No matter what kind of a man he is, for them to gang up on him..."
"I'm not sure it's come to that yet," said Hogan. "Adams said there was talk. If things had gone further, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to keep quiet about it. So if Mills has been roughed up, it was before he got here. It must have happened at the transit camp."
He started pacing again. Then he snapped his fingers. "Carter, what was it he said to you? He was shot down over Saarbrücken, right?"
"That's what he said. Three weeks ago," replied Carter, in a subdued tone.
"Uh-huh. And from then until they brought him here, he was at Dulag Luft Oberursel," Hogan went on. "That's what's been bugging me. Oberursel's bursting at the seams since the Ruhr campaign really got going. They're processing Allied airmen in and out so fast they practically need a revolving door. Now, it makes sense they'd sometimes keep hold of one of the technical guys for a bit longer - a bombardier, say, or a navigator, to try to get a bit more out of him. But Mills is just a rear gunner. Why keep him on ice for three weeks before sending him here?"
"They wanted something from him," said Kinch after a moment. "The question is, what? And did they get what they were after?"
Hogan took his time about responding. "Carter, have another shot at him," he said at last. "If you can get him talking about his time at 182 Squadron, he might loosen up a bit, and maybe let slip what actually happened at Oberursel."
Carter sat upright, turning scarlet. "Colonel...uh...if it's all the same...I mean, I don't think..."
"Do you have a problem, Carter?" asked Hogan, raising his eyebrows.
"W-well...he was pretty darned unfriendly, when I talked to him before," replied Carter. "I just don't know if it'll do any good."
"I'll have a go, if you like," put in Newkirk.
Hogan regarded him with a slight frown. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Look, Colonel, I used to be in music hall in London. There was always a few nancy boys hanging round backstage. They didn't worry me at all. Mind you, I'm not convinced about Mills," Newkirk went on. "Doesn't strike me as the type. But I suppose it takes all kinds."
For a few moments, Hogan considered the offer. "It would be more natural if the approach comes from Carter, seeing as he was at the same airbase," he said at last. "But if he doesn't feel comfortable with it, then we'll just have to compromise. Whatever it was that the Germans kept him so long at Oberursel for, it's likely to be important. We need to find out what happened there. " He turned towards Carter, grave but confident.
Carter refused to meet his eyes. "Okay, I'll talk to him," he mumbled. "But I bet he just tells me to get lost."
"In which case we send in Newkirk," replied Hogan. "Subtle hints like get lost don't work on him."
Newkirk chuckled. "That's true. A little persistence can pay off. Did I ever tell you about this bird I once met in Stratford? Very snooty to begin with, but let me tell you..."
"Later, Newkirk," interrupted Hogan. "If you tell us all the spicy stuff now, we'll have no reason to read your autobiography. For now, let's focus. I want a couple of guys watching the new barracks. They're to let us know the minute there's a chance of speaking to Mills without any of his buddies listening in."
"You can see anyone leaving that building from Barracks 15," observed Kinch.
"Good. Set it up with the barracks chief. As soon as they send word, Carter, that's when you move." Hogan nodded towards the door, a casual gesture his team had learned to recognize as dismissal.
Carter descended from his elevated refuge, and followed his friends out into the common room, where he immediately retreated to his own bunk. The others glanced at him, but left him alone.
"You're really okay with this stuff, Newkirk?" said Kinch.
Newkirk shrugged, as he lit a cigarette. "Why not? They're harmless enough, as long as they keep it to themselves. One or two of them were quite nice lads, as it happens. Always happy to offer some advice, if you didn't know what to give your girl for her birthday." He cocked an eye at Kinch. "Tit for tat, Kinch. What's your opinion?"
"I can't say I'm happy with it," replied Kinch slowly. "But we don't even know if it's true. I don't want to rush into judgement."
He headed off on his errand to Barracks 15. LeBeau had put the coffee pot on the stove, while Newkirk leaned against the end post of the bunk he shared with Carter. Hogan had come out of his office, but he didn't say anything.
"You know, there was this one chap," said Newkirk. "Set dresser, he was, at the Windmill. Married, and all, but sometimes you can just tell. He tried to join up at the beginning of the war, but didn't pass the medical. So he volunteered for the A.F.S. Killed in the Blitz."
"That's a shame," remarked LeBeau. "It takes a brave man to join the fire service. I don't think I could do it."
"Nor me. Makes you think, doesn't it?"
"I know what you guys are doing," Carter interrupted. "Well, cut it out. It's got nothing to do with...I just don't like him, that's all. There's no rule saying a guy has to be pals with every other guy in the place, right? Specially when a guy is just plain rude for no reason."
Newirk and LeBeau exchanged startled looks. "All right, if you say so, Andrew," said Newkirk. "Only it isn't like you to take an instant dislike to a new bloke."
"Well, there's a first time for everything," snapped Carter. "I'll go talk to him, but if you think I'm gonna be best buddies with a feller who can't even be polite, well, you can just forget it."
Hogan took the matter up while Newkirk was still trying to recover from his astonishment. "That's up to you, Carter. But you're not going to get any answers from him if you go in with that kind of attitude. If he's getting a hard time from the rest of his barracks, that's probably why he's got a chip on his shoulder. He won't know who he can trust. Cut him some slack, let him know not everyone's against him, and maybe we can find out what the heck's going on."
"Okay, Colonel," murmured Carter, reddening at the implied rebuke.
For the next few hours, however, it seemed as if he wouldn't get the chance to carry out his assignment. Mills stayed out of sight, and out of reach, in his own barracks, until it was time to turn out for the compulsory exercise period during the afternoon. Even then, he showed no interest in joining any of the activities on offer. He didn't even watch, but remained close to the end of one of the huts, gazing at the woods outside the fence, his expression unreadable.
His barracks mates ignored him, apart from Adams, who made a diffident attempt to involve him in the volleyball game. Mills declined with a shake of the head, and a slightly raised hand, a defensive gesture which seemed to be involuntary.
Hogan, watching from the horseshoe pit, took note of it. It didn't look promising, but he nodded to Carter. "Okay, give it your best shot. The rest of you had better get over to the motor pool. I told Klink we'd do some work on that truck, in return for extra hot water in the showers for a month. Anyway, you'll need the truck tomorrow night. The Braunfeld Bridge is too far away for you to get there on foot, especially carrying the dynamite, the cable and the detonator box."
"You don't think we should put that job off for a few days, sir?" ventured Newkirk, as Carter ambled off. "I mean, with all this fuss over the new prisoners, wouldn't it be better to keep our heads down for a bit?"
"It's a priority assignment, Newkirk," replied Hogan. "We need to delay the troop convoys moving east, and taking out that bridge will stop 'em cold. You go out after lights out, when the new men are all safely in their own hut for the night, so the risk is pretty low. But I don't want a repeat of the Schmeckhof job, so this time you're going to go over that truck and make sure it isn't going to break down. Get going."
As Newkirk headed over to the motor pool with Kinch and LeBeau, Hogan's attention went back to Mills. He had greeted Carter's approach with a clearly visible sigh of exasperation. Hogan could only hope the conversation would improve from there. Had he been able to listen in, he would hardly have been encouraged.
"Hey, buddy, how's it going?" Carter started off, with a fair assumption of cordiality. "Remember me? We met this morning."
"I remember." Mills' eyes glanced past him, towards Hogan.
"Just wanted to see if you were fitting in okay. Seeing as you were at the 182nd, so we're kind of buddies already, right?" Carter's voice faltered slightly, and he flushed. Then he took a deep breath, and plunged on. "How come you're not playing volleyball? Some of your pals look pretty good at it."
"They're not my pals," replied Mills shortly. And neither are you, added the glower in his eyes.
"Well, how about...how about something else? They're throwing a basketball round the side of Barracks 9. That's kind of fun," said Carter, aware that the conversation had gone off in the wrong direction, but unsure how get back on track. "Or there's horseshoes. See, the thing is, everyone's meant to do something during the exercise period. You're not supposed to just stand around."
"How about those guys?" Mills jerked his head towards the trio just going into the motor pool enclosure. "They got some kind of game going on in there?"
"Uh...well, no. That's the Kraut's motor workshop. We do the maintenance on their vehicles, and get extra privileges in return. Like we might get extra rations, or more firewood in winter, stuff like that."
"Your colonel fixed that up with the Kommandant?" Mills gave a soft, cynical grunt. "Seems he's got a pretty cosy set-up here. You're doing unpaid work for the Krauts, nobody ever escapes...what's he getting out of it?"
For a few seconds, Carter stared at him in bewilderment. Then he exploded. "Now you just listen, pal. You think you can come round here saying stuff like that? Well, let me tell you something. Colonel Hogan is the best commanding officer I ever saw. Any time he makes a deal with the Kommandant, it's for a good reason. Once you've been here for a while, maybe you'll get that. But if you ever talk about him like that again, boy...well, you just better not, that's all." The outburst trailed off into anticlimax, as the unexpected flare of anger burned itself out.
Mills listened in silence, making no effort to argue. He waited till Carter had finished, then turned and walked away. Carter didn't even try to stop him. He already knew he'd blown it. If the mystery surrounding Mills was going to be solved, it was not going to be Carter who did it.