Chapter 27

His riding crop tipped, slightly forward, pointing towards the little group that was across the room. Then Horst’s eyes drifted to the Abwer man as he asked, “so who is the other man with Agent Hiller?”

Hochstetter was the only officer in the group that was in his field dress uniform. He had no particular use for the fancy grays, with all of the ribbons and medals, that Horst seemed to prefer. He stepped over to the colonel and told him, “which one? Do you mean Colson? The man in the tuxedo?”

Horst only rolled his eyes in complete condescension, “I know who James Colson is. I mean the man in the shabby looking uniform with the unkempt hair?”

“Oh,” Hochstetter replied while holding his temper. Horst could be very taxing. The Abwer Major then replied, “we are still working on that. He is a medic with the local Rangers, we know that much.”

Horst could not resist saying, “you’re slipping Hochstetter. Your reputation is for being much better than that. Well, thankfully, I do know his name at least.” As a jab, Horst told the Major, “it is Kent Gold. My question to you, is he the other one that Crass is pinning a medal on?”

Hochstetter snorted out, “We know what his name is here. It can’t be real. My staff can find no record of him anywhere.”

“Not unusual in this day and age Major,” Horst replied with his usual swagger. “If you don’t know any other name then you can’t tell me that the one he uses is false. Is that not the case?”

Hochstetter bit his tounge. He waited for Horst. Horst waited right back. Then Hochstetter blurted out, “yes Herr Oberst. That is the other medal winner. Is that all you need to know?”

“From the Abwer,” Horst replied as he slapped the brim of his hat with his crop, “that is about all I ever expect.” Horst then told the rest of his staff, “let us make introductions.”

Hochstetter had to let out his deep breath through his nose, “you do not wish to wait until they leave the company of the Americans? Given the circumstances, I would highly advise it Colonel.”

“Non sense Major,” Horst replied as he switched to English. “I never miss an opportunity to make Charles Whitman squirm. One of the small pleasures on this backwards planet. We take what we can get.”

Again, Hochstetter wanted to protest. There were a lot of reasons not to go over there but, he knew that some jackboot, ass wipe, Prussian, was never going to listen to him. He also knew that while Horst might call this planet backwards, the truth was the guy loved it here. If Horst were back home, in Germany, he would be only one colonel in thousands. He would be lost in a sea of gray. Here the guy lived nearly like a king and everyone shivered when he approached. It was the only diet that could feed an ego like his.

Hochstetter was spared another argument with this man. The small transparent speaker went off in his ear. He listened quickly to the report and then told Horst, “I’m afraid I must beg apologies Colonel. Duty calls.”

Horst politely smiled and nodded to the Major, “I had half hoped that something like that might happen. You’re not really dressed for the occasion, Hochstetter.”

That made the Abwer Major wonder if Horst had really considered how he was dressed. Germany had lived under the shadow of what the Hitlerites had done for centuries. Just when it seemed as if everyone else had truly forgotten, the damn Prussians come to power in Berlin, and the first thing they do is start polishing off their totenkampfs. Even if they weren’t really Nazi’s, they sure as hell were reminding the world that Adolph Hitler had once existed.

As Hochstetter watched his fellow officers swagger off he could only think of one real word he had to say for them, “fuckers.” All that Hochstetter could hope for now was that Horst did not go over there and say something stupid. That Wehrmacht colonel could undo years of work with just one short quip. Knowing Horst the way he did, Hochstetter was sure the man would not think twice about doing it if that meant he could get the upper hand in a conversation with an American. It pained Hochstetter because, right now, there was simply too much at stake to let some greedy little man, like Horst, screw everything up.

Hochstetter wondred what kind of disaster of Horst’s he was going to have to undo as he left the building and walked out to the security check point. Then, as he met a young female corporal, who saluted and then gave him a quick report, he was starting to wonder what kind of disaster he would have to handle out here. Hochstetter grunted in agitation and then signaled for the corporal to follow him into the nearby tent.

Once inside, the Major stopped and took a good look at the two shabily dressed men that the panzer grenadiers currently had detained. The prisoners did not have their arms up but, what difference would it make? They had many automatic weapons pointed at them and any move for a weapon would be very short lived. As it turned out, when the sergeant in charge reported, weapons were the key issue here.

The young female corporal said to the Major, “they refuse to give up their weapons. They say they are colonial law enforcement.”

Hochstetter snorted out a short laugh and asked the girl, “do you speaking English? If you do then ask them who they are, exactly who they are.”

When the girl, in her broken English, put the question to the prisoners, it was the black one who replied, “tell Major Hochstetter here to speak English or I’m going to stick my foot up his ass.”

Hochstetter groaned and then replied in English, “what do you want Agent Scoggins? I should tell you now that your little tin badges will not get you past this point. Your senior agents are inside now and they are unarmed. Why should I make exceptions for you?”

Norm just shrugged it off “I really don’t care about that Major. I just made a show for your boys cause I knew it would get you down here. It’s about the fastest way I figured I could get to you.”

Hochstetter figured to entertain this colonial just a little bit longer. He had already wasted enough time so a few more seconds would not hurt, “what do you want?”

Norm looked to Cal who only seemed to want to pass the buck right back. Cal told him with no small amount of cynicism in his voice, “ well this was your bright idea.”

Norm just looked back to the German and said, “there’s going to be an assasination attempt on one of your officers today.” Hochstetter burst out in laughter and Norm asked in a confused way, “did I say something funny?”

“You really came down here, just to tell me that?” Hochstetter actually slapped his side, as he laughed some more, before he went on, “what do you really believe I am? Agent Scoggins, I am already well aware of this.”

After his laughter died down into chuckles, Hochstetter kept speaking English and told the female corporal, “arrange transportation for these two agents. Take them to airport and shoot them.”

Cal grunted to Norm, “any more bright ideas?”