Chapter seven: Getting back on track.

Harry pulled up in front of a small motel on the edges of the village. He stopped the truck and jumped out with a spring in his step. He walked up to the counter inside the main building and hired the largest room in the motel. Once he had the key in hand, he skipped back to the truck and drove it around to his room. He parked the truck once more before moving to the back and opening the door. He let the rag tag team of underground/prisoners of war out of the truck. Hogan took the led as Harry smirked behind them as they filed into the nice hotel room.

"Take a seat gentlemen," Harry said with a gleefully lit to his voice. "The interrogations will begin in just a moment."

"I'll give you an interrogation," Newkirk threatened with a raised fist.

"Okay fellas calm down," Hogan said holding out his hands. "We still have a mission ahead of us, a way back to Stalag 13 and a suspicious Gestapo major on our tails."

"Well when you say it that way…" Harry trailed off with a roll of his eyes.

"As I've said before the gov'ner will get us out of this," Newkirk said with pride.

"It's good to know you have such faith in me, Newkirk." Hogan said dryly, while the other gave a nervous chuckle.

"Well getting back to camp is easy enough, I can just drive you through the gates." Harry commented.

Hogan frowned. "Maybe… or we could put that truck to a better use."

"What are we going to do, Colonel?" Carter piped up.

"Well we know there is a break in communication and the only people we've been in contact with are the four underground members. How about we take them for a little ride?" Hogan smirked.

Harry raised an eyebrow, however going by the other men's grins and smirks it looked like Hogan was up to something.

"Do I dare to ask?" Harry questioned unsure.

xXx

Kellen Strauss stretched out before the merrily burning fire with a glass of brandy in his hand. It was a peacefully night to drown his sorrows in alcohol, with his dog as his only company. He had enjoyed many such nights while his love, Helga was still alive. It was her death that had turned him towards the underground after Helga was killed at her job at the hospital. She was just doing her job she didn't deserve what they had done!

Bang, bang.

Kellen's head shot up to the door with suspicion and a little surprise. What was someone doing at an old man's door at this time of night? Kellen pulled himself to his feet with a soft groan.

"Who is there?" Kellen called in German.

"Gestapo! Open up, now!" A rough voice from the other side answered.

Kellen swallowed his fear and composed his mask before slowly opening the door.

A middle aged man with peppered black hair and green eyes stood on the other side with another man in black behind him.

"How can I help you, sir?" Kellen asked as calmly as he could, holding his trembling hands tight.

The man in the lead pushed into the house his eyes darting around the room.

"Are you alone?" The agent demanded, as the other man looked around with blue eyes and a familiar face.

"Yes, it is just my dog and myself," Kellen looked behind the leader to the man behind him.

"We have information that you are working with Major Hochsetter of the Gestapo in hammelburg," The man stated, staring at Kellen.

Kellen couldn't keep the frown off his face. "I-I don't know anyone in the Gestapo, sir. I don't have much of an outside life since my wife died."

Suddenly the second man clicked in Kellen's memory as one of the underground members. Kellen's eyes quickly darted back to the leader hoping they didn't see the recognition in his eyes. Had he been sold out?

"I am sorry, sir. We must escort you down to headquarters," The older man gestured to the underground member to step forward. "Bind his hands."

"I haven't done anything! I don't know anyone in the Gestapo!" Kellen protested as the blonde bond his wrists together tightly.

He looked into the man's blue eyes pleadingly, hoping this was just the underground and not the Gestapo. He bowed his head as he was marched out to a waiting truck and bundled into the back.

Kellen almost lost his feet as he was forced into the truck. He looked around at the other underground agents in the back of the truck and his heart started to sink. They had been found out!

The older Gestapo agent pulled himself up into the back of the truck as the younger agent started the truck. There was tense silence before Kellen cleared his throat.

"What-what are we being held for?" Kellen asked nervously.

The man flicked his eyes around the four underground agents before leaning forward in his seat. "We have recently come across information that one or more of you are part of the underground. And do not think for a second that you will be saved from interrogation!" Harry sneered putting on his best Severus Snape impression, before sitting back in his seat.

They traveled for a few minutes before the Gestapo agent called for a halt. The truck stopped suddenly and the blond came around the back of the truck. Together they herded the four underground members out of the truck. Kellen could hear his heart beating like a drum, as they were lead off the road and into the bush land surrounding the road. What were they going to do to them? What about Gestapo headquarters? Or were they just leading them to their deaths out in the woods.

"Line up!" The dark haired man yelled, as the four were pushed into a rough line. "Kneel!"

Kellen felt cold as he was forced to his knees on the slightly wet ground, what was going to happen. He spared a glance to his side to see Henry Menser a man he had worked closely with for a few months, a quick look to his other side showed Neil Ginburg and Gilbert Neumann, two men he didn't know as well.

They had found the whole team, could it have been the blue-eyed man before him that had sold him out? Or one of the men kneeling next to him on the wet ground.

"We know you are working for the underground," The dark haired man said harshly. "And we will have the truth from you!"

The leader of the Gestapo sneered as he pulled his gun from it's place and rested it against Neil Ginburg's head. The man's eyes widened as he started to sweat.

"Please," The man pleaded, paling. "I have a wife and one daughter, please!"

"The Gestapo do not care about wives or children," The man smiled cruelly, as he moved the gun to Gilbert Neumann's head. "We only care for truth."

Kellen felt a chill go down his spine at those words. He was going to die this night, the blue-eyed man had sold them out and he was going to die in the middle of the bush a bullet in the head. Who would feed his dog once he was gone, buried in an unmarked grave?

"And we will get the truth," The dark haired man continued, moving the gun to Kellen's head.

The metal felt cold and it chilled Kellen to the bone as he rested in the middle of his forehead, he looked up into cold green eyes and knew he would not live out his night. He was doomed his life would be taken by a single piece of metal. He almost sighed in relief as the gun moved off him and onto Henry.

"Now who will tell me the truth?" The man said almost sweetly, as if he could coax the answer out of the men in front of him with his voice alone. "Who will walk away from this tonight…" He let the sentence trail off as he pointed the gun at the ground.

'Oh, God.' Kellen prayed silently in his mind, as his eyes darted to the other three men next to him. This was it, he thought.

"Well?" The man demanded, losing patience.

"I-I" Gilbert stammered.

Kellen closed his eyes, as he pleaded with the man to stay silent.

"Yes?" The man drew the word out as if coaxing a small child to confess to stealing the last sweet.

Kellen started to shake he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I was working with Hochsetter," Gilbert said in a rush. "He wanted to know the movements of the underground and I gave him information!"

The green-eyed man laughed, the sound brought goose bumps to Kellen's skin as the hair stood on end.

"Did you now?" The man asked staking closer like a tiger does to it's pray.

"Yes!" Gilbert cried, gaining confidence. "He wanted to set a trap for Papa Bear!"

"Shut-up!" Neil hissed beside him.

"No, no. Let the man talk," Green-eyed man said sweetly, with a deadly smile dancing on his lips. "Let the man talk."

"Hocksetter would have had Papa Bear too!" Gilbert pleaded. "If he had listened to me!"

Kellen turned his head away he couldn't look anymore. Gilbert Neumann had just signed and dated their executions. He only hoped that someone would feed his dog as he heard a gun's safety be released and someone suck in a lungful of air.

"I believe you would have been right," The dark-haired man said, voice like ice.

Kellen couldn't stop the shiver over taking his body as he heard a loud shot and someone falling to the ground, before complete silence over took the night.

xXx

Carter looked down at the body feeling detached, he knew it was necessary but that didn't make it any better. Gilbert Neumann body laid spread out before him as the other three underground agents huddled away from the slowly cooling man's body. He turned to Harry as the man slowly lowered his arm and took in a slow breath before engaging the safety on his gun.

Harry's haunted green eyes briefly locked with Carter's before he turned away.

"Put the rest in the truck, I'll deal with this." Harry said softly, sounding so different to the man Carter knew.

Carter nodded, before pulling the other men to their feet and getting them moving towards the truck. He never knew what Harry had done with the body and never wanted to as he waited for him back at the truck. All he knew was that Harry reappeared ten minutes later, started the truck and drove the men to the hotel where Hogan and the rest were waiting, without looking back.