The picnic was in full swing by two pm. A close group of sisters from the sorority house of Kappa Alpha Theta was talking over U.C. Sunnydale's latest War Bonds drive. The girls around the picnic table from the sorority were Harmony Kendall, Buffy Summers, Amy Madison, Faith Pryce, and Willow Rosenberg.
They were in full gossip mode, when they heard someone calling, "Girls!"
They looked down the path to see their fellow sorority sister, Cordelia Chase, running towards them. As she got closer, they could tell she had been crying.
"Cordelia, what is it?" Harmony asked her best friend, as soon as she got near.
"Is it a 'you know what' problem?" Buffy asked, as she came around the table to help Cordelia sit down.
"Huh?" Cordy asked, before she waved Buffy off. "No, it's not that kind of thing, besides it's still daylight!" She then looked at them, and she was positively beaming.
"Happy tears?" a blonde asked.
"Happy tears, Harm," Cordelia confirmed. "Very happy tears!"
"Well, so what's the good news then?" Buffy demanded, grateful that she and Faith didn't have to go fight anything on such a nice day.
"Here, read for yourself!" the happy brunette thrust out a folded paper to her friend.
Buffy quickly unfolded the telegram, and began to read aloud. "To Cordelia Chase, Sunnydale California. It is our pleasant duty to inform you that we have been given information by the Red Cross that the subject of your enquiry, Lieutenant Alexander Harris, is...alive!?"
Buffy and every other girl at the table screamed for joy. They had all feared the worst, when Cordelia had received news that his bomber had been shot down over France. "He is being held in a German P.O.W. camp, and is in good health. We do not know what camp he is in as yet, and will relay whatever information we can to you when we receive it."
"He's alive, you guys!" Cordelia said, almost deliriously happily. "Daddy's talking to his friends at the Red Cross, to see if they can find out where he is."
"Really?" Willow asked, surprised as she wiped a tear away. "I thought your dad didn't even like Xander!"
"He didn't," Cordelia told her. "But since Alex earned a commission and didn't try to skip out on his draft notice...and I quote...is fighting those evil Nazi bastards? My dad loves him now!"
"Wait, does that mean what I think it does?" Amy asked, hopeful.
"Yep!" Cordelia grinned madly. "When my cute and dashing young officer eventually comes home...Daddy will fully support the wedding!"
"I gotta say, Colonel," Xander said as he looked around the tunnel, "I am *very* impressed by your operation here. To think, this is all going on right under the Germans' noses! But, I do have one question."
"Wild guess what that is," Corporal Newkirk commented, in his British accent.
The young colonel nodded. "Why would we be showing you all this? You, a new arrival who we don't know anything about. I mean, you could be a Nazi plant right? Is that what you're wondering, Lieutenant?"
"Ah, yeah."
"Well, Xander-" Colonel Hogan said nonchalantly. "I can call you Xander, right?"
"How did you know...?" Xander didn't understand. He had almost forgotten the nickname he was known by, back in the States. And commanding officers don't usually call a subordinate by a high school nickname, after all.
"We got a lot of info about you from London," Hogan told him. "Including a bit from the Tweed brigade."
That really caused Xander's eyes to widen. The Tweed brigade was the name given to the Watchers by the higher-ups in England. "You're a..." he leaned in close. "You're a Watcher?"
"No," Hogan told him. "But I have a few friends who are. When they were notified of your capture, they arranged for their German colleagues to have you sent here."
Lieutenant Harris got very confused. "Why would the Watchers care where I am?"
"They think you'll be a good asset to have in my operation," the senior officer handed him a paper. "And Washington agrees. You're now fully under my command, Lieutenant."
"Ah...yes, sir!" Xander said, surprised as he read the orders and then saluted his C.O.
"Great!" Colonel Hogan said, slapping him on the back. "You came at just the right time, too. We have an easy assignment this week."
"And what would that be?"
"Oh, the Gestapo has four leaders of the underground prisoner in the cooler!" the American Sergeant Carter said. "We have to get them out, pronto."
"And just how are we going to do that?" Xander asked.
"Oh, the Colonel has an excellent plan," the Frenchman Corporal Lebeau said. "Don't you, mon Colonel?"
"Don't I always?" Hogan asked, as he moved to climb the ladder back into the barracks.
"And what would this great plan be, sir?" Xander wanted to know.
"Simple, Lieutenant," Hogan responded. "We can't get past their guards, so we just have to convince them to let the prisoners go."
"And we do that, how?" Xander asked.
Hogan just shrugged. "We just have to convince them that the war is over. It shouldn't be too hard."
"What?!" Xander almost yelled. "You want to try to convince the Gestapo that the war is over?!"
Hogan smiled at him. "C'mon, Lieutenant, you make it sound like it'll be hard or something!"
"Colonel, we need you up here!" the black Sergeant Kinchloe shouted from within the prison barracks upstairs.
Hogan motioned up the ladder to Xander. "Let's get up topside, and I'll fill you in on what I want you to do later."
As they all climbed out of the tunnels and the doorway within the bunk started to close, the German sergeant of the guards Hans Schultz barged in. "Rous, rous, rous-" He then blinked, "Colonel Hogan, what is going on here-?"
LeBeau quickly waved a candy bar under his nose. "Hungry, Schultz-y?"
The fat non-com quickly grabbed the confectionery. "I see nothing! I hear nothing!" Quickly putting away the candy, he turned to the senior P.O.W. "Colonel Hogan, I have been sent to collect you and the new arrival, Lieutenant Harris. The commandant wants to see him - at once!"
"Hmmm, I see. Tell me, Schultz, is there a reason for this sudden request for an audience?"
Schultz stood up tall. "I cannot answer that, Colonel Hogan. Occasionally, I have to be on our side as well..." Then he smelled the strudel that LeBeau had been cooking, and his eyes went dreamy. "Oh, Major Hochstetter from the Gestapo is here...and he is a *very* upset man..."
As Schultz drifted over towards the food, Hogan grabbed Xander aside. "Okay, when we get over to the commandant's office, this is what I want you to do..."
Commandant Wilhelm Klink's private office. Ten minutes later
Sergeant Schultz escorted Colonel Hogan and Lieutenant Harris into the office, where the two German officers were waiting. The chief guard saluted, "Herr commandant, both prisoners are present and accounted for!"
"Schultz, what is going on here?" the balding Colonel Klink demanded. "I sent you to bring those prisoners to my office ages ago! Mmmph!"
"Jawöhl, Herr commandant," Sergeant Schultz snapped to attention. "But - it took me a little while to find them-"
"That's no excuse! Consider your upcoming leave canceled-"
"Shut up, Klink, I believe *this* is the man I'm here to see," Hochstetter interrupted in annoyance, as he gazed at Xander and folded his black gloves. "So, American, are we going to do this the easy way - or the hard way?"
Xander stood at attention. "Harris, Alexander. Lieutenant, United States Air Force. Serial number 547-"
Hochstetter snarled and interrupted, "Do not even attempt that garbage with me, Harris! There have been a number of *highly* unorthodox communications about you. I want to know *why* so many people in the Third Reich were interested in the fact that you were sent here!"
Hogan interjected, "Major, just outta curiosity - but are you sure you've even got the right man? Because Harris *is* a pretty common name, you know-"
The agent dressed in black leather and a red swastika glared at him. "The Gestapo does not make mistakes, it is against the rules!"
"Still, it's a point to be kept in mind, right? I mean, who's been making all these inquiries about the lieutenant, anyway?"
Hochstetter glared at Klink this time. "What is this man doing here?!?"
The German colonel decided to play 'nice guy' to the major's 'mean guy'. "Lieutenant Harris, this need not be unpleasant," he said with an ingratiating smile. "Just answer a few questions, and we-"
Xander interrupted, "Commandant, are you by any chance related to this guy at home called Bob Snyder? See, he was my high school principal back in Sunnydale California, and you look a lot like him-"
Klink banged his hands so hard down onto the desk, that his monocle fell off. "Insolence!"
"Not really, Commandant, I'm sure he was just commenting on the amazing family resemblance!" Hogan injected one of his usual pithy remarks into the conversation.
"Hogan..." Klink started shaking a fist at the U.S. officer. Then he turned around, "Harris, three days in the cooler! Schultz, take him away!"
The sergeant hesitated, looking at the Gestapo major; but agreeing for once with Klink's methods, the man with the mustache silently gave his permission to soften up the American prisoner for a while. So Schultz grabbed Xander, and after saluting Colonel Klink they marched out.
Colonel Hogan said nothing, but was impressed at Xander's ability to get under the skin of the Krauts so easily. The plan to get the prisoners out was proceeding nicely; and soon enough, he was sure that with Xander's assistance they would be driving out the prison gates -hopefully, in Hochstetter's own car at that.
Oh, but what a war this was turning out to be...