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Der Meißel der Seele	By : Wertiyurae Category: G through L > Hogan's Heroes Views: 1599 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the television series that this fanfiction is written for, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Despite staying up most of the night talking to Kinch, Hogan still hadn’t decided what was the best way to broach the Klink subject with Newkirk, LeBeau and Carter. Hell, he hadn’t even decided what he truly thought about the whole thing - it would be nice to be sure of that before trying to explain it!

If it weren’t for the looks he’d gotten from them in the morning, those “I know you’re hiding something and I’m going to find out what it is!” kind of looks, he would have tried keeping them all in the dark until he had a chance to decide. As it was, he would tell them but Newkirk and LeBeau would have to be curious for just a little longer. At least, until he sprung Carter.

If he had to have this discussion, he only wanted to have it once.

Which meant dealing with Klink. While Hogan didn’t quite believe that Kinch was right about everything he’d said the night before, he could well believe that he’d have to be careful when dealing with the Kommandant today. Unfortunately, he was not feeling very careful.

He wasn’t sure if it was just having less sleep than usual or if it was spending so long thinking about something without figuring it out but he was keyed up. Annoyed. The extra long Roll Call where Klink never showed only increased that feeling. Later, when General Adler beat him to the office building, his mood took another plunge.

Just what he needed: another damn delay.

“What does he want now?” Hogan asked himself aloud.

“You could always listen in and find out, sir.” When Hogan turned to face him, Kinch shrugged. “Maybe you’ll be more prepared to talk to Klink later if you know what’s happened.”

While Hogan suspected Kinch only wanted to use this as an opportunity to prove his point about Klink and Adler, he couldn’t deny the value of the suggestion. If he’d gone to Kinch yesterday, maybe he wouldn’t have been caught with his pants down. So to speak.

It turned out to be a good decision. Hogan was glad that he’d followed Kinch’s suggestion when he heard Adler outline his “prima” plan to get Klink transferred. Finally, something he could sink his teeth into. Finally, something he wouldn’t have to justify getting involved with. He’d been about to turn off the receiver when Kinch stopped him, putting his hand on Hogan’s arm.

“I think you should keep listening, sir.”

Hogan gave him a hard look before figuring that listening for a few more minutes wouldn’t do any harm. Maybe Kinch would even bury that dead horse he’d been beating. Crossing his arms, Hogan returned his attention back to Adler and Klink’s tinny voices. He listened with mounting disgust as Adler mentioned the activities of the night before and insisted that things would get easier once Klink stopped fighting him.

Fighting him? Hogan almost laughed in disbelief. How the hell was Klink fighting him? It sure didn’t sound like Klink was doing much to fight any of this!

When Adler hinted that a generalship might be forthcoming in exchange for certain favors, Hogan decided that he’d heard enough. Again, he was stopped by a serious looking Kinch who grabbed his arm. He had glared at his Sergeant, had been about to tell the man just what he could do with his hand, when he was distracted by Klink’s sudden acquisition of a backbone.

Then he listened intently until Fraulein Hilda, after several increasingly frantic tries, finally managed to get Klink’s attention. This time, when he reached out to turn off the receiver, Kinch made no moves to stop him. Looking at Kinch, Hogan was sure the revulsion he saw there was mirrored on his own face.

Kinch shook his head. “That man makes my skin crawl.”

A sentiment Hogan couldn’t disagree with; he felt distinctly unclean from listening to that conversation. “He’s some nasty piece of work, all right.”

He stood up and brushed some imaginary dirt from his clothes as he pushed the conflicting feelings about what he’d just heard aside. There was no time for that now. “Get someone on the phones - I don’t want anyone calling out until I have a chance to figure out what we’re going to do about that transfer.”

“Do you think Burkhalter would really transfer Klink?” Kinch asked, getting to his own feet. “I know he doesn’t like him but doesn’t he dislike the Gestapo more? I’d think he’d hate them too much to just give them something they want without a fight.”

“It’s hard to say,” Hogan said after some deliberation. “Burkhalter’s a blow hard and he likes to throw his weight around but I doubt he’d put up more than a token resistance for this.” Thinking it over a bit more, he shook his head with disgust. “Even if Burkhalter did want to fight it, I get the impression that Adler isn’t the kind of man who gives up on something he wants easily.”

Kinch nodded. “I’ll get on the phones right away.”

“Now, remember,” Hogan reminded him with mock severity, “I need your help with the fellas once I get Carter out of the lock up. Put Baker on it.”

Smiling, Kinch saluted. “Yessir!” Then he sobered, frowning seriously. “About Colonel Klink -”

Hogan held up a hand and struggled not to let his temper get the better of him. He knew what the man was going to say and he was in no mood to have this out with him again. Better to nip this in the bud before Kinch had a chance to gather steam. “Klink is not going to talk to me and I wouldn’t know what to say to him if he did.”

“You could try -”

“Try what?” Turning away from the Sergeant, he picked his coat off the bunk. “I can just imagine how that conversation would go,” he said, sarcastic and moments away from saying something he knew he shouldn’t. “Hey, Kommandant. Tell me: how’s the sex with Adler?” There. That was something he shouldn’t have said already!

“I don’t think that’s very funny, sir,” Kinch stated tightly, the disapproval in his tone very plain.

With a sigh, Hogan turned back to Kinch, feeling tired and annoyed with himself. That had been pretty damn tasteless of him. “I don’t really think it’s all that funny either.” He shrugged on his coat as he decided how much he wanted to share with Kinch about what was going on in his head. How much he wanted to admit.

“This isn’t easy for me, Kinch. I don’t know what to do; I don’t know what to think.” He half laughed at the understatement he was about to make. “I feel a bit in over my head here.”

Kinch’s disapproval softened a bit. “I can understand that - I’m a little overwhelmed myself,” he sounded sympathetic although his frown deepened slightly. “But, if you and I feel over our heads, you got to wonder how Klink must feel. He’s the one it’s happening to, not us.” Then he shook his head and went on with a pleading expression. “Just promise me that you won’t say something like that to him if you do get him to talk to you.”

Hogan wanted to be insulted that Kinch would think he might do such a thing but he couldn’t blame him for thinking so. He could admit that, even now, it was hard for him to look at this situation with an open mind. But, closed minded or not, he certainly had no plans of getting out the salt - what kind a man did Kinch think he was? Forcing himself to smile, he put on his honest face. “In the unlikely event he decides to unburden himself, I promise I’ll be civil.”

“I’ll get Baker on those phones.” Kinch still didn’t seem completely mollified but he was clearly willing to let the subject drop.

If Kinch was going to let it drop, Hogan wasn’t going to pick it up again. He acknowledged the Sergeant’s words with a nod before leaving his bunk, bound for Klink’s office. It would be a lie to say that he was looking forward to seeing the Kommandant but he didn’t have much of a choice - after agreeing to be the fall man for him, Carter didn’t deserve to be left to rot. So, looking forward to it or not, it was time to get to work.

And that meant arranging a meeting with Colonel Klink.

.
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There had been two obstacles in Hogan’s path when it came to arranging that meeting.

The first had been a strangely forceful Sergeant Schultz who had flat out refused to let Hogan within so much as six feet of the office building itself- never mind stepping foot inside!

When wheedled, the usually talkative German had ben oddly reticent about any particular reason why he was so adamant that Hogan keep his distance. Not even the promise of a candy from his Red Cross package could coax Schultz into saying anything more than “The Big Shot isn’t feeling well.”

Further questions had been flatly dismissed. Schultz’s sudden bout of loyalty to Klink was worth pondering but Hogan had other things he needed to do first.

He had not been able to run a multinational underground operation this long without knowing when to retreat. Or when to pretend to retreat. Even with this odd protective stance Schultz had adopted, Schultz was still Schultz, and it hadn’t taken too terribly long for the man to become less attentive. Once that had happened, Hogan had snuck into the office building, leaving Schultz none the wiser.

It was there where he’d run into his second obstacle.

“I’m sorry, Colonel,” Hilda said, her expression matching her words, “but I know that you are only going to rile him and he does not need it today.” With that, she returned her gaze to the papers in front of her and started to write.

Hogan watched her work for a while, a bit baffled by the rebuff. Usually, Hilda was only too happy to go along with his schemes - not that he had one today or a chance to say what it was if he had - and, considering the fact she did her own fair share of ‘riling’ the Kommandant . . .

Then again, remembering how frantic, how frightened, she’s sounded over the coffee pot before she’d been able to get Klink to speak, maybe this display of loyalty wasn’t so strange. It was the memory of her voice then that allowed him to rein in the irritation that had formed in response to her stubbornness.

Maybe a new tactic was needed. Maybe a nice, sharp tug on the old heart strings? “All I want to do is get Sergeant Carter out of the cooler. He’s already spent the whole night in that place.”

Her eyes softened for a moment before hardening again. “No. Absolutely not.”

He frowned and considered just walking by her and going into Klink’s office without being announced - it wouldn’t be the first time he’d done so! However, as he didn’t want to deal with a sulky Hilda later and keeping in mind the fact that the Kommandant might be even less likely to hear him out today than usual, he decided that the best way to do this was to secure her cooperation.

Going over to her side of the desk, he stood as close to her as he could without actually touching her. “Come on, Fraulein, have a heart.” When this did not receive so much as a twitch, he leaned on the desktop, positioning himself so he had to look up at her. “Now, don’t do this to me; you know how much I hate to be ignored.”

Hilda sighed and set down her pen. “Colonel,” she began, still not looking at him, “I have a lot of work to do right now. I don’t have time for this.”

She was weakening - he could feel it. Just another little push. “Then let me see him. It won’t take more than a couple of minutes.”

Now, she did look at him, her expression more serious than he’d ever seen it be. “If he agrees to see you, promise me that you won’t . . . that you won’t upset him.”

Hogan felt himself frown again. First Kinch and now Hilda? Just how many promises would he have to make today? It was enough to give a man a complex! “What’s the matter? You don’t trust me?”

She narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Promise or I won’t announce you.”

Well, that answered that question clearly enough. Still, he had to stop himself from grinning at Hilda’s display - it wasn’t often that he saw her be genuinely defiant. It wasn’t such a bad look for her although he might have liked it better if she thought she could trust him just a little. “All right. I’ll be good.”

“You promise?”

Standing upright and putting a hand on her shoulder, he smiled in that way he knew made her weak in the knees. “I promise.”

Hilda regarded him searchingly for several long seconds before her lips turned upwards. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Hogan’s smile widened, feeling as though he was back on far more familiar footing. “Could I hold you instead?”

Chuckling, she stood and gently took his hand off her shoulder. “That depends on how well you behave yourself, Colonel Hogan.” Then she shook her head, her levity abruptly replaced by a more somber emotion. “I’ll announce you. Just - the Kommandant had a . . . bad morning so, please, try not to, to get too close to him.”

“A bad morning?” While he wanted to get this meeting with Klink over with, he knew that the difference between success and failure was often a good piece of intel. Anything that could make dealing with the man go more smoothly would be welcome.

She bit her lip, obviously debating with herself whether or not to explain. “When he missed Roll Call, Sergeant Schultz came to see what had kept him and,” her gaze strayed down towards the floor as her eyes unfocused, “we found the Colonel on his couch. Sleeping. Then . . . he barely touched him and the Colonel, he . . .” trailing off, she shivered and brought her head back up. “I’ve never seen him act like that before. And poor Schultz - he looked almost as terrified as the Kommandant.”

That could explain why Schultz had been so protective. Klink’s behavior had shaken Hogan and he knew what was going on. Even if he hadn’t really decided what was going on. Before he could calm Hilda with some well chosen platitudes, she said something that really startled him.

“I think, I think something must have happened to him.”

“To Kl- To the Kommandant? What could have happened to him?” Hogan asked, trying to sound as though he thought this was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. How much did she know? What had convinced her? And would there be anything he could say to put her at ease?

Hilda looked from side to side before coming to press herself against Hogan. He would have enjoyed this if she hadn’t looked so distressed. “I’m not sure,” she whispered softly, as though afraid of speaking too loudly, “but I think General Adler might be involved.”

To say that Hogan was surprised would not have done justice to his feelings. It was only his years of practice (and natural talent, of course) that allowed him to hide his shock at her intuition. “General Adler?” He knew he should be telling her that Adler couldn’t be involved in any troubles Klink was having, that he should be trying to throw her off the scent, but he was curious. How had she come to that conclusion? “What makes you say that?”

Hogan could feel her shudder and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “General Adler came to see him earlier this morning. I didn’t notice anything strange at first - I don’t listen at the door! But then, I heard shouting and crashing.” Her hand twisted tightly in the fabric of Hogan’s shirt. “I - I tried to open the door but it was locked and I -” She made a sound that could have been a laugh but was probably a sob. “I didn’t know what to do. And then it was quiet and that was even worse.”

Stroking her hair, he closed his eyes and contemplated whether or not he should press or just let her tell her story her way. It became a moot question as she started speaking again. “He looked so pleased with himself when he came out,” Hilda spat venomously, her voice harsh. “I don’t know what he did but he did something. And the Kommandant was so . . .” When she looked up, she was on the verge of tears. “I’m frightened for him, Hogan.”

While Hogan didn’t know when she had grown to care so much about what happened to Klink, it was plain that she did now. Maybe she had a reason to worry. He gave her a light kiss on the forehead and hugged her a little closer. “It’ll be all right. I promise.” God knew that he had no business making a promise like that, one he didn’t know he’d be able to keep, but he hated to see a woman cry.

“Just take it easy,” he said gently. “Klink the Fink is a tough old bird - he’ll be fine. You’ll see.”

“You really think so?”

He wished he did. The truth was, between everything he was hearing and what he’d seen first hand, his doubts on that score were beginning to grow by leaps and bounds. Summoning up his reserves, he smiled as genuinely as he could as he pushed her back a bit so he could lie to her face. “Yes. I do.”

She smiled and backed away, wiping her eyes. “J-just let me clean myself up and I’ll announce you.”

A couple of minutes and a quick coating of makeup later, Hilda looked much like herself again. Even if her eyes were still suspiciously bright. She knocked on the office door before opening it and sticking her head inside. “Kommandant?” Then, she tried again, concerned. “Sir?”

“What are yo-” Klink’s shout broke off and, when he started again, he sounded a bit more polite. “Ah, I mean, what can I do for you, Fraulein?”

There was something off about his voice but Hogan hadn’t heard quite enough yet to decide what it was.

“Colonel Hogan is here to see you, Kommandant.”

“Colonel Hogan?” A long pause. Then: “I - I suppose, I mean, there’s no reason I . . . . Yes, I’ll see him.” Either Klink was being even less eloquent than usual or he was drunk. Neither was an encouraging prospect. Although, if Klink was drunk, maybe he wouldn’t act like Hogan was going to eat him alive - that much alone would almost make all the problems attendant in dealing with intoxicated people worth the trouble.

Hilda stepped back to allow Hogan access. “He’ll see you now.” Her warning look as she walked passed him was very easy to read: “Remember your promise!”

Finding it very hard not to resent the complete lack of trust there, Hogan gave her another smile before entering the office himself. He was in the middle of waving at Klink, a glib greeting on his tongue, when he noticed what the Kommandant was holding in his hands. Innocent explanations ran through his mind but all were rejected in turn.

Hogan couldn’t be 100 percent certain what was happening here but he was reasonably certain of two things: he owed Kinch an apology and he was going to have to follow the radioman’s advice and soon.

Before it was too late.
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Der Meißel der Seele