Claus Schultz was dead and a trial was set for the so-called murderers from the 4077th, set in Seoul. That much Hawkeye already figured out as he listened to his guards, sitting in a cold stockade cell on the other side of the outer fringes of what he always called the "Pearl of the Orient".
Without Klinger (and alcohol, especially from the Swamp still) with him, Hawkeye could not bounce ideas back and forth (either with himself or with others). He could not think straight, being sober for so long and with so many stories and clues in his mind about Winifred Curtis. There was no news other than his new companion dying at Tokyo General (and him and Klinger unhurt, as far as he knew about the cross dressing Lebanese man) and about him being sent to Seoul, along with many others. All he could do was hang his hands behind his back and start that old pace back and forth, sending his mind into a deeper hole.
This time, Hawkeye actually hoped that Klinger had a successful escape plan in mind for once. He was always the mastermind at escaping, but Hawkeye was sure that, creative as Klinger is, he might not have the chance to get his gears going and put his mind in getting out of the stockade.
Dammit, the walls feel like they're closing in on me. They've closing in on me!
"All right, so Winifred Curtis was a nasty woman in general and part of an organization to bring back Nazism," Hawkeye said out loud, but not enough for his guards to hear, as he tried to forget the grey walls becoming smaller and smaller. "She's murdered and we're all blamed for it. Why? Why would the 4077th be framed, especially Margaret first? Who has something against us, her especially?"
"Captain, are you in there?" A voice from Hawkeye's right caught his attention after he spoke.
"Am I where?" Hawkeye questioned, trying to follow the voice and figure out who it was. He could not tell if it was someone who was on his side or someone playing a trick on him.
"Are you there, keeping company with a man in skirts next door?" the voice asked again.
Hawkeye immediately figured out who it was, crouching down to the small hole in the wall that he just noticed, where the voice seemed to come from. "Klinger, is that you?"
"The one and only. How are you, Captain?" The cross dressing Lebanese man sounded very optimistic...too optimistic for Hawkeye's taste.
"Oh, other than feeling like a caveman, I can't say that I'm complaining. The food could be better though. And the company…gee, Klinger, you're the only woman out there that would take a man for a ride."
Hawkeye could imagine Klinger smiling. "Listen, Captain, I think we can get out of here. It's a one floor place and the bars seem a little loose, if you get what I mean."
"And hop the fence? Are you kidding me, Klinger? Didn't you see those gorillas at the gate? I bet they didn't start shaving until they were twelve!"
On the other side, Klinger took his parasol (kindly given back to him by one of the guards as a keepsake of his old and grand Klinger Collection) and stuck it in the hole on his side. Gradually loosening his end, he worked towards Hawkeye, giving the last stone a stove to the captain's side. He then peered through, seeing Hawkeye's distraught face for the first time since arriving and being separated hours before.
"I've been watching the changing of the guards, Captain," Klinger said seriously. "For about five minutes at each changing, they leave the doors wide open for someone to leave. The guys in the tower aren't there too. Besides, it's gonna be nighttime soon. We're usually checked on every four hours. If we count it right, we can get out of here alive."
"And do what, Klinger?" Hawkeye hissed impatiently, always watching his own door for the guard. "Even if we got out of here, we'd be fugitives. We'll be wanted by the US Army. It'll be worse for us than being in here."
"And what's worse, Captain? Going to Seoul and standing trial for something we didn't do or escaping and helping Major Houlihan and the others in proving their innocence?"
Hawkeye, staring at Klinger through the larger hole, thought for a moment. Sure, it'd be a nicer way to escape Korea, but the hellhole all of them would be put through would be worse than Korea. Leavenworth wasn't a laughing matter, even when it came down to the practical jokes he and Trapper used to pull on Margaret and Frank Burns. On the other hand, to help the 4077th was a more noble cause, but more dangerous. They would be on the run until everybody was proven not guilty and they could go back to what they originally did, when they were all sent to the middle of nowhere called Korea.
We'd go back to the meatball surgery. We'd go back to the insanity that we've been trying to escape for so long now. But…but…would that be better than sitting here, accused of murdering someone?
"I guess we should be making our grand disappearance," Hawkeye replied back, confident that leaving was the right thing to do. "When should we jump out of the hat for the magician?"
"Give me about an hour," Klinger said, holding out a metal filer. "I'll be filing down the window bars. It's a short hop to the ground and to the gates. I've got some things that can help us scale the walls."
"And then, how do we jump down?" Hawkeye was amused that Klinger still kept his collection, but what he still had on him was a mystery.
"Oh, I've got a few parachutes we can use," Klinger answered casually, as if it didn't matter what the material was. "It isn't what we used in basic training, but it'll sure get us to the ground."
~00~
Charles, BJ and Kellye had landed in Tokyo some hours before, only three days after the terrible night Major Floyd came into their lives. They immediately started searching for Hawkeye and Klinger in the first place possible, but even that turned cold quickly. The geishas who had instantly recognized Hawkeye from previous trips had pointed them to Tokyo General, mentioning that they were being chased. Tokyo General, who informed them that they were long gone (and good riddance), pointed them to Hawkeye's favorite hotel, which some of the nurses remembered he liked. That hotel manager there then had told the threesome that Hawkeye had checked out the previous morning, but had also mentioned that he talked with his two other companions about checking into another place.
"Where would Hawkeye and Klinger be?" BJ asked as he, Charles and Kellye exited the hotel, walking in with the night crowds.
"For all we know, they could have been captured," Kellye suggested morbidly.
"Or not," Charles interceded smartly. "Knowing Pierce, he'd be with one of his little painted dolls down at the other end of the city, but since they have not seen him, we may assume something a little sneakier about him."
"What? That he might be enjoying himself instead of helping us?" BJ believed the affirmative to that last question, but with Hawkeye's determination on the matter, he might have forgotten Tokyo's pleasures for once and took on the role of detective. "Charles, listen. For all we know, Hawkeye could be roaming around with a woman. The hotel manager said that he was with two other people. Klinger is most certainly one of them, since the man said that he hasn't seen any woman with hairier legs. And the other, for all we know, could be his new flavor of the month, so to speak."
Kellye nodded in agreement. "Major, we can conclude that Captain Pierce has gone AWOL because he was being blamed for the murders too."
"We can assume that," Charles said, "or we can think like Pierce, disgusting as it sounds. Where would a womanizer like Pierce be working his magic?"
"Someplace secret," Kellye commented with a snicker.
"Precisely! Now, we're thinking." Charles stopped the other two, pulling them into the random doorway to a shop. "Pierce and Klinger could be not exactly in Tokyo, but on the outskirts, as you heathens would call it."
Kellye seemed insulted to be called a heathen, but before she could react, BJ put a reissuing hand on her shoulder to calm her down, saying, "Charles, this isn't exactly the time to be insulting anyone right now. We have a mission, so you like to remind us. We have to help Hawkeye and Klinger get to the bottom of the mystery."
"So we do," Charles conceded, then turning to Kellye. "And I do apologize, Madam, for that wretched insult of mine."
Kellye nodded grudgingly, silently, knowing that there were better things to do than to argue. After all, the enemy of her enemy was her friend. Major Floyd was their common foe and he needed to be eliminated as soon as possible.
"So, where do we go from here?" Kellye then asked. "We ask around for hotels at the edge of Tokyo and look for Captain Pierce and Klinger?"
"We have to do so cautiously," Charles informed her and BJ. "For to be asking around would bring more than just suspicious attention upon us. We have to act as if we are indifferent to them."
"Are you saying that we should pose as people who don't exactly care about them, but are looking for them?" BJ was skeptical, but had to trust Charles' better judgment, for it seemed to get them a lot farther than sitting in a hot camp with a Seoul trial over their heads.
"Well, if we act like an MP and have a prisoner, we might have a little help in getting what we want," Charles explained plainly.
"And how do you two dress as military police if you don't have the proper uniform?" Kellye also looked unconvinced at Charles' plans, but knew that it was the only way to join Hawkeye and Klinger and make the next move. "We can't just ask an Army officer if we can have them."
"Wait a second here…" BJ thought for a moment, back to when they were in the jeep and on the plane. "Charles, that bag you brought on the plane with us…does that have what I think it does?"
"Oh, you mean the one I left at our hotel?" Charles smiled an innocent grin. "Yes, Hunnicutt, that bag may have more tricks up its sleeve than I do."
Kellye realized quickly what Charles had done. "You had this in mind all along!" she accused joyously.
"Not quite, my dear," Charles only replied. "It only took the thinking of a man who graduated at Harvard with –"
There's no time for that, Charles," BJ interrupted as he tugged the two along. "Let's go!"