Man 'O War

Chapter Three: Forgotten Past

December 1944, Eisenach Germany

It had been the coldest winter in record and it was days like this that Jack wished he was back at Bletchley Park inside sitting next to a fire instead out driving through the back roads of Germany in a stolen uniform and stolen Kubelwagen. He shifted the gears down to slow down the oversized "Bucket" to avoid hitting another pothole in the muddy road. Once safely traversed he shifted back up, doing his best to quickly get to the farm house where he will meet up with rest of the advance team as well as their German contact.

He had just came off a two months assignment with the Russian counterparts in Stalingrad, helping them with some "unique" interrogation methods. When the Nazi army was unable to overtake Stalingrad and started to pull out, there were plenty of Nazi officers left with no hole to run into. They were gathered quickly and interrogated extensively. Jack thought he knew how to get a man to talk, but what the Russians were doing, well it was far beyond just getting information.

Now here he is, driving through Nazi occupied Germany, instead of being back in England as he was promised. He assumed that the Nazi advance in places like Bastogne, had something to do with he delayed R&R. There were rumors of mass execution of U.S. soldiers by the Nazi SS and stories about the brave soldiers of the 101st Airborne fighting in freezing temperatures. The thought of those boys half frozen, most without proper winter gear and still having to fight, caused him to stop complaining about his own situation and soldier on.

He slowed down once again, this time due to a fork in the road. He knew he was close but wasn't exactly sure how close. Though his German was passable, with a decent accent, he didn't want to tempt fate by running into a unit of German soldiers or worse an SS unit. So far he had been lucky, only coming across a hand full of minimally staffed check points. These were easy enough to bluff past, especially considering he was wearing an officers uniform with an Ostmedaille (East Medal) which indicated that he had served in the Eastern Front. One sight of that and most fresh recruits waved him on, some even terrified to look at him out of fear or respect.

He once again unfolded the map and used his compass to try to figure out where he was. Once locating the farm house he noticed the fork in the road and determined that he needed to go about 5 kilometers till he reached it, meaning on this road and how bad it was, he should be there in around 15 to 20 minuets. Folding the map back up and putting it away, he pulled the smelly gray officers coat tighter around him as the first flakes of snow began to fall from the gray overcast sky. Placing the vehicle back in gear it lurched forward as he turned the steering wheel tot he right and headed down towards the farmhouse and hopefully something warm to eat.

With the end of the war in sight, "pivotal" information has been flooding in to the OSS office. Most of them were desperate German Officers who where simply trying to save their own ass by selling off some useless information in hopes of getting a new life in England or America. Nine out of ten times that was the case, German Officers selling off nothing more then plans to an attack that never did or never will take place. There have been a few nuggets of information, but it took a lot of digging through a lot of dirt to find those few informational nuggets.

Jack had a feeling that this meeting would prove more useless dirt. With the Americans and British pushing through France on the Western Front and the Russians plowing in from the East, every intelligence outfit was scrambling for the quickest way to Berlin. Trying to set up supply lines and make contact with any underground resistance. Most importantly though was securing the safest rout for their troops to reach Berlin and put a bullet in Hitlers head. The OSS had worked with a number of discontent German Officers who were willing to do it for them, but for one reason or another the old rat seemed to evade ever assassination attempt. So it looks like it's left to the troops on the ground to get the job done.

The German contact that Jack was on his way to meet didn't say anything about helping with that, he only mentioned that the information he had was priceless. Jack stopped believing in "priceless" information a long time ago. Everything is priceless to the one selling it, but what will it really be worth. It wont be up to Jack though this time, to determine its worth. Normally Jack does these meetings alone, but this time the Colonel and Spencer will be joining him. This was only the second time he had worked with the Colonel out in the field, but Spencer he had worked a lot with and had formed a strong friendship with the Canadian. Jack just hopes that things go fast and without any snags. He wanted to get out of this uniform and get back to where he can take a warm shower and a get a warmer drink.

Within the expected amount of time Jack arrived at the farmhouse. It was your typical German farmhouse, with a barn covered in faded and dulled read paint sitting just off to the left of the house. This is where Jack pulled, placing the car in neutral so he could hop out and pull the car into the barn, keeping it out of sight and hopefully a bit warm. He had just closed the barn doors behind him as he was heading towards the house when he heard a single gun shot go off inside the house.

Jack instantly reached inside his Officers topcoat, towards the small of his back and pulled out his Colt 1911. Half crouched he lightly jogged over to the back door of the house. Not sure who was all in there, who fired the shot or who was going to be waiting for him, he paused for a moment. Then, pulling the hammer back on the 1911, he used his free left hand to slowly turn the knob on the back door. With the knob turned completely, ensuring the door was open, he pushed it in slowly, having to stop twice when it started to squeak a little. Once the door was open enough, he made his way into the back of the house, which turned out to be the kitchen/dinning area.

The first voice he heard was German, which caused him to instantly freeze, fearing that their meeting had been compromised. But when he heard the second voice he was able to relax and take a breath. It was the voice of the Colonel and it didn't sound like he was in distress, if anything it sounded like he was upset. Jack stood upright, relaxing his arm all allowing his right hand, still clasping the cold steel of the 1911 frame, to fall towards his side. He walked on to the other room where the voiced were coming from, then as soon as he turned the corner he just froze. "What the Hell!" he blurted out without even thinking, then instantly tightened his grip and drew his pistol once again leveling the barrel directly at the Colones head.