Usual disclaimers apply: I don't own 'Hogan's Heroes' and am only borrowing them for fun, not profit.

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The Triple Threat Challenge: The challenge is to take one or more season three episodes and write a story revolving around them in any way. That could be a missing scene, coda, epilogue, prologue, or extension, a scene from a different point of view than shown in the episode, or even something dealing with results of something that happened in the episode. Three hundred words in length. There is one more requirement for the challenge, and that is to use exactly three characters. That will make it a true triple threat story. Only three characters can appear in the story with speaking parts, although other characters can be mentioned

(Condensed version of the rules nicked from the Mission Briefing at Captain Oboe's website.)

Counting the title, this came in at exactly 300 words, and references three characters: Major Hochstetter, Gestapo femme fatale Gretal, and our very own Englander, Corporal Peter Newkirk.

This scene takes place immediately after Episode #82 "Sticky Wicket Newkirk". After destroying half of Barrack Two, finding nothing but dirt, and a very public dressing down by a 'General von Sidelburg', a very angry Major Hochstetter left Luft Stalag 13, taking his erstwhile agent with him to be... dealt with.

Despite everything that's happened, Gretal KNOWS that she's seen Papa Bear's entire operation. The only question is, can she use this information to save her life?

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The Bargain

She'd been made to look like a fool. No, not just a fool, but a traitor to the Fatherland. She shuddered, and not from the bone-chilling cold of winter. She was Geheime Staatspolizie, and knew the price of treason.

The ride back to Hammelburg from Luft Stalag 13 was silent, which was unusual, given the highly explosive temperament of the man sitting next to her. Major Wolfgang Hochstetter had been badly humiliated at the prison camp, and it was her fault. She kept her eyes on the steel cuffs locked around her wrists, her thoughts going back over what had happened.

It was that damned Englander that caused all of this! Oh, he was good, and it was only his Cockney accent that gave him away. I thought at first that he was one of the escaped prisoners from Stalag 6, but he didn't act like a fugitive; he'd had the air of a man out for an evening's entertainment.

She'd never expected to see him again after his arrest, but he'd shown up later at her apartment saying that he could get her out of Germany. Curiosity had prompted her to go along, expecting to meet up with someone from the local Underground cell.

What she found was a network of tunnels hidden beneath the 'toughest POW camp in all of Germany', clearly the headquarters for an extensive espionage operation.

Right where no one would ever think to look. Major Hochstetter's obsession with Stalag 13 had always been a joke, but now it seems that the 'joke' is on all of us who did not believe him.

She looked at Hochstetter. "Everything I told you is the truth. Give me the Englander, and I'll give you what you've wanted for so long."

He nodded briefly. "I'm listening."

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Once again, from The Credit Where Credit Is Due Department, I'd like to thank LJ Groundwater for taking the time to supply me with a synopsis of "Sticky Wicket Newkirk", as I (unfortunately) don't happen to have any of the episodes on tape or DVD. Couldn't have done it without you, mate!