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Der Meißel der Seele	By : Wertiyurae Category: G through L > Hogan's Heroes Views: 1600 -:- 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
- 8
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- 10
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Hogan yawned, feeling the affects of a mostly restless night, and watched with disinterest as Sergeant Schultz started to count the men. Schultz looked a bit nervous but he needn’t have worried: there were no schemes in motion and no one was missing from the rolls. Hogan’s special brand of fast talk would not be needed to confound the guard this morning.
No, he wouldn’t need the fast talk until after Roll Call. During the night - putting his insomnia to good use -, he’d considered and came up with a number of contingency plans to use if he couldn’t get the ‘Iron Eagle’ to cough up the wallpaper. Unfortunately, they were a bit more complicated and a lot more risky than the one he’d originally decided on. He didn’t want to have to use one of them unless he absolutely had to.
So, after Roll Call, he would hit up Klink for the wallpaper and hope that the Kommandant hadn’t been lying the day before about agreeing to give him some today.
As if thinking of him had brought the man into existence, Hogan saw Klink leave the office building and start walking down the steps. Seeing him, a faint echo of what he’d listened in on last night rang in his ears and he found himself studying the Kommandant intently. He didn’t know what he expected to see or what he was looking for exactly as he stared – just because the man had played the whore didn’t mean he’d suddenly have an x on his forehead or something – but there was an undeniably urge to look anyway.
And, since there was nothing pressing that Hogan had to do at the moment, he saw no harm in doing just that. At first glance, there was nothing strange about Klink’s appearance except for a slight limp that Hogan wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been paying such close attention. It wasn’t until Klink had come much closer that Hogan saw the weariness in his expression. And a strange wariness in his eyes.
Klink stopped well short of where Sergeant Schultz stood, as if the fat man had a disease that the Kommandant didn’t want to catch. Then, with an expression more suited to dealing with some kind of rabid animal than a subordinate, he glared at Schultz for close to half a minute before speaking. “Report.” His voice was as tense as his posture.
Schultz saluted, either not noticing his superior’s odd behavior or not caring. “All present and accounted for, Kommandant!” he boomed, his relief plain.
Is it my imagination, Hogan wondered as he watched Klink return the salute, or did Klink just flinch? Seeing the way the Kommandant had clenched his fist, he realized that it hadn’t been his imagination. But why was Klink so jumpy?
“Good,” Klink said, still sounding tense even though the news was good. He leveled his gaze at the assembled men and seemed about to dismiss them as usual when he noticed Hogan’s scrutiny. Consternation and suspicion showed plainly on his face before the Kommandant’s expression became blank. Or, tried to become blank - Klink wasn’t adept at hiding his emotions and the fear remained.
Fear? Hogan had seen Klink scared before and, while the Kommandant was a coward, it usually took a bit more than a look from Hogan to make him afraid. Usually. But Hogan had seen him afraid before and he’d looked a lot like he did now. What did he have to be scared of? He had nothing to fear from Hogan . . . well, as far as Klink knew.
But there was no denying that something had definitely scared him.
Klink stared back for a moment longer before shaking his head sharply and briefly closing his eyes tight. Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention back to Schultz. “Dismissed!” When he turned and stalked away, his pace was steady and measured. The only things that gave him away were his hands: they were trembling.
Hogan continued to watch until Klink disappeared into the office building. Once he was gone, Hogan crossed his arms and let his eyes narrow as he thought. That certainly had been . . . interesting. He wondered what had the old ‘Iron Eagle’ on edge like that. The only thing he could think of recently that could have possibly disturbed the Kommandant so much was that . . . incident with General Adler.
But why would Klink be acting like this if Adler was the cause? Hogan could understand, he thought, if Klink was nervous around the General - from what little he’d heard last night, things hadn’t sounded exactly . . . amicable - but Adler wasn’t at Roll! And even if Adler had been there, Klink’s behavior still wouldn’t make sense.
Klink was pretty much a glorified clerk now-a-days, but Hogan would have thought that he should be able to take a slap or two in stride no matter who they came from. Besides, Hogan hadn’t seen any bruises so Adler must not have even hit him that hard. But, if it wasn’t that, then what was it?
‘What the General's doing . . . it's a bit like rape, isn't it?’
Hogan’s frown deepened as he recalled Kinch’s words. What if it wasn’t being hit that had the Kommandant so edgy? What if it was something more subtle than that? What if -
Hogan shook his head, feeling annoyed with himself. Why was he even worrying about this stuff? He didn’t have time to psychoanalyze Klink! There was still that business with the wallpaper he had to take care of and, rather than wasting his time wondering about the Kommandant’s mental state, he ought to be thinking of ways to get around Klink’s inevitable objections.
Because one thing was for certain: no matter what the Kommandant had said yesterday, it was clear that he wasn’t going to be in the mood to discuss wallpaper. That had never stopped Hogan from trying before and it wouldn’t stop him now - he just had to think of an angle to work from; that was all. Hogan had the feeling that the Escape Committee threat would have worked yesterday if the Kommandant hadn’t had other things on his mind so he figured it would be worth trying again when he went to see him.
If it didn’t, well, Hogan was always good at thinking of things off the cuff.
Decision made, he’d been about to head over to the office building when he saw that he wasn’t the only one interested in seeing the Kommandant. General Adler was striding in that direction now, a disturbingly self-satisfied smirk on his face. He certainly looked rested. What could he want now?
“Sir?”
Hogan turned towards the Sergeant. “What is it, Kinch?”
“What -” Kinch hesitated, as if he didn’t want to ask what he was going to. “What happened with Klink last night?”
Uncrossing his arms, Hogan took off his hat and rubbed his forehead with the brim. “He did it.” He put his hat back on. “I didn’t listen very long but I know he did it.”
Kinch, despite his dark color, managed to look a bit green. “I see.” He opened his mouth to say something else when their conversation was interrupted.
“What are you fellas talking about?”
Hogan spun around to see the eavesdropper, going over what he’d said, trying to think if any of it was incriminating. He should have known better than to talk out in the open like this!
And there stood Sergeant Carter, his blue eyes wide and his face lined with confusion. “What did Klink do?”
Great. Of all the people that could have heard this conversation, it had to be Carter. Carter wasn’t a bad soldier and he was an excellent munitions man but he kept secrets about as well as a leaky bucket held water. Unless he wanted news of Klink spread around Barracks 2 and beyond by noon, Hogan would need to nip this in the bud right now.
But first: “Kinch, I want you to man the coffee pot.” While Hogan doubted that anything useful would be gleaned now, he did not want to take the risk of missing something vital. At Kinch’s unhappy look, he sighed. “I’m sorry, but it has to be you. I want to keep whole mess between us for now.”
Kinch still didn’t seem happy and, considering what he’d been privy to yesterday, Hogan didn’t blame him. However, Kinch was too much of a professional to argue about it once he’d already made his thoughts clear. “Yes, Colonel.”
When he was gone, Hogan smiled a bit and gestured for Carter to come closer. “Listen, Carter,” he said once the Sergeant had done so, “the Kommandant just got himself into a little mess.” Hogan stared at Carter meaningfully. “It’s nothing big but I’d like to keep it quiet for a while so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go spreading this around.”
Carter frowned. “But Klink’s got himself into trouble before and you never kept it a secret.”
Hogan opened his mouth to answer the unasked question before he realized that he didn’t have an answer. Why was he keeping this a secret? It had seemed like a natural decision at the time but now he wasn’t quite so certain. Had he kept it hushed up for Klink’s sake? That was quite the thing to do for someone who wasn’t even a friend . . .
Looking at Carter’s open and mostly innocent face, Hogan decided that his reasons for doing it didn’t matter right now. What did matter was the fact that he didn’t want to explain to his subordinate that Klink had whored himself out to Adler to protect his hide. Ugliness was a fact of life when you were a soldier and saboteur - there was no need to add extra ugliness to it if you didn’t have to.
What was the old saying? Ignorance is fleeting; knowledge lasts forever. There were some things you didn’t need to ever know.
“It doesn’t matter why I’m keeping it a secret, Carter,” Hogan said at last, keeping his tone firm and commanding. “All that matters is that I’m ordering you to keep this to yourself.”
“But, sir -”
“That’s an order, Sergeant!”
Carter snapped a salute. “Yessir!” Then he frowned again, crossing his arms and coming dangerously close to sulking. “Jeeze, no one ever tells me anything!”
Hogan patted him on the shoulder and steered him back to the Barracks. “Now, is that any way to talk to your commanding officer when he’s about to let you give him that guided tour of your new chem lab?” Carter had been trying to convince Hogan to take a look at the new lab for close to a month now and Hogan had been very reluctant to do it - mainly due to what had happened to the last lab.
But Hogan wanted to get Carter out of this funk and his mind off of what he’d heard. This was the exactly right way to do it.
Carter’s eyes lit up like one of his fuses and he smiled widely. “You mean it, sir?” Not giving Hogan a chance to change his mind, he quickly continued. “Well, you won’t regret it, boy, I mean, Colonel.”
As Carter rambled on about the interesting and highly volatile things he wanted to show him, Hogan only listened with half an ear. He was not looking forward to visiting that death trap Carter called a lab but, now that he’d committed himself, he had no choice in the matter.
On the bright side, he thought as Carter led him to down to the tunnel, at least I’ll be able to get this Klink business off my mind for a while.
He’d be too busy worrying about explosions and cave-ins to worry about anything else.
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- 8
- 9
- 10
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Der Meißel der Seele