[Hogan's Heroes] Enfilade: Room Four (PG) a WW2 fic crossover with the Howling Commandos

March 3, 1945 at first light

Captain Banko Okada reserved his deepest bow for the photograph of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, sketching a cursory courtesy bow for his current superior, Admiral Koshiro Oikawa. He smoothed his moustache in the stainless steel mirror that his orderly polished daily. The man had not failed him yet. At this moment, with Japan's forces looking to the Dragon of Death for inspiration, failure in the strangest mission of Okada's career was not an option. He would not bend in his resolve to complete it successfully.

"Are the two of them up and dressed?"

"I awakened them both with difficulty, sir. I believe they wish to speak with you after they dress."

"No more than I crave to speak with them. Order them to my ready room. See to it that they not get lost like last time."

"This shall be done immediately."

"Go."

IOIOIOIOIO

The pair conspired to bluff their way through the interview.

So be it.

Each straightened when he stepped into the ready room after a judicious wait to foster proper fear; it was not full attention, but it would have to do. The German surprised him in his laxity since Japan and Germany remained equal powers in the Axis despite Italy hanging onto their coat tails and then dropping away. Von Strucker indeed aligned his thumbs with the seams of his wrinkled trousers, yet every muscle bespoke weariness. Surely rooming with a woman for weeks on end did not tax a full-blooded Aryan? Was she that demanding? Could she not veil her natural female desires for the duration of the war, or at least aboard his submarine? Would she?

The woman's spine may have been straight and her gaze straightforward, but instinct told Okada not to trust her. She twiddled with a feather boa that had seen better days. She was nervous.

Good.

He affixed a Chesterfield into his cigarette holder and waited.

Von Strucker flicked his gaze to the cigarette before clasping his hands behind his back. The Parmanova woman fished inside her clothes, produced a lighter and approached with a sure smile. Okada nearly flinched back at her nearness.

"Allow me, Captain." The lighter flared, he bowed to her slightly and she beamed. "There, comfortable?"

He refused to take a back seat in his ready room's power dynamics as he dragged deeply before streaming a cascade of smoke into her face. "You are most gracious. I deeply regret to say that no, I am not comfortable."

"Oh my heavens, Captain! What can be the trouble, dar--- "

Von Strucker broke in. "Marya, we agreed --- "

"But Wolf, darling, if there is trouble should we not help our savior?" Okada covered his backward step away from her by turning to von Strucker. There was no time to waste with this woman.

"Herr Baron, you lied to me when you said you were through with your Fuehrer."

"Captain Okada, in Gotenhafen I told you that Hitler is kaput. I stand by that statement."

The Parmanova woman appeared distressed in a way that Okada had never observed in a female. "Dear Captain, you saved Amber Room from destruction! We owe you for that and for our lives, our freedom! Your words cut us to the quick, surely there is misunderstanding --- "

Von Strucker's hiss of warning failed to stem the flow of speech, but Okada's shouted Stop! did.

"You two placed a tracker upon my ship! Explain that! You planned to force me to surrender when we were caught off guard, to turn the Amber Room over to the Allies, the enemies of all of us!"

Von Strucker's monocle glinted under the harsh light that was more suited to studying battle plans than conducting interviews. "Upon my honor as a noble of an uradelig family, I did not place a tracker upon your submarine."

The Parmanova woman pursed her lips. "Just a small one, what could it hurt?"

"What!"

Okada observed without commenting, the smoke from his cigarette spiraling above him towards the air vent. These two initiated radio contact in Gotenhafen, seemingly bound together by whatever binds a man and woman without marriage. Okada would call it friendship if a friendship between a woman and a man were possible. At the moment, they snarled at each other like unfriendly Akitas.

"Marya, why in the nine circles of hell would you do it? Did your superiors order you to before we met? How could they know we could find passage on this submarine? Where did you get the tracker?"

"I have no superiors. I just am."

Von Strucker raised a fist to her face until Okada barked Stop! again.

Marya lifted her chin. "The cat is out of the bag, Wolfgang. Fill our captain in on our plan." She plotzed onto a bench that was bolted down to stay in place in dirty weather. "We can include him because I trust him." In all their time aboard together, Okada had never heard such a choked sound coming from von Strucker. If Okada had been a smiling man, then he would have smirked at von Strucker's next words.

"There is no 'our plan'! Well, there is, but only the one I told you about in Gotenhafen before we boarded your magnificent submarine." Von Strucker must be off stride to compliment so, despite the truth in the description of the Dragon of Death.

"Darling, do not take our captain for a fool," Parmanova drawled. "He knows a weak woman could not have placed the tracker by herself inside the Dragon's crest."

Okada wondered if von Strucker would catch the slip by the woman through his rage; the crest's tracker location proved a bold move and he had withheld where thorough cleaners had discovered it. Did she accomplish either its planning or its placement under the shellacked Rising Sun emblem herself? He studied her coolness under pressure as he revised his estimation upwards. On the other hand, von Strucker sounded as earnest as ever Okada heard a Teuton proclaim racial superiority.

"Our plan is precisely what I told you, Captain, when we met after radioing for support. I realized Hitler's days are numbered. It would be foolish to sink with him. It would also be foolish to escape my homeland without resources, so when I spotted the Amber Room crated on the pier and ready for the Wilhelm Gustloff's cargo hold, the answer was simple."

Marya Parmanova made much of blowing a kiss in von Strucker's direction, so their volatile exchange must have cleared the air between them. "He cut handsome figure in his private's uniform, Captain. I tell him in Gotenhafen Lose monocle! Grow out hair for better disguise! but you can see he disregards good advice."

Von Strucker made a visible effort to calm himself before his shaved pate turned any redder. "Captain, the American Howling Commandos worked under cover in Gotenhafen to take me and my friend prisoner for actions which we may or may not have committed in the cause of Germany. If not for your aid, they might have succeeded." He bowed his head stiffly and clicked his heels. "Marya and I are grateful."

The woman twirled the end of her boa. "Why should I fear commandos? I am innocent."

Okada laughed in the way of his favorite Noh actor: loud, long, and explosive. He slapped his thighs. He laughed with eyes closed. He opened them when he could laugh no more to find two astonished faces. "Fraulein Marya, you are the least innocent person in this room."

"So, we are on first name basis? I find I like that, Banko. Tell me more about myself. I fascinate me."

Okada laughed again, louder and longer. When he finished, the pair sat close together on the bench, as if to gain strength from contact with each other in defense from a Japanese madman who commanded their fate. He ignored the way their hands almost touched because they could not know the proper way to act in public as a couple.

"You alone will leave my ship, Fraulein. Herr Baron, I believe you about the tracker. Say goodbye to each other."

Marya's eyes grew round. "The Room! You must not have it! Do not steal it from us! Wolfgang!"

Von Strucker's voice hovered between a threat and a plea. "You will not thrust her into the Pacific Ocean?"

"I cannot swim! Do not let him do this, liebchen!"

Okada stubbed out his cigarette before wiping his spectacles free of the tears of laughter. He issued orders into the intercom that he knew they could not understand. "Captain America wants you, Fraulein Marya. Do you know why?"

"I cannot guess, Banko. I have not had pleasure of meeting --- "

It seemed von Strucker pursued information via intimidation. "Captain Okada, Germany will not look kindly on an ally dealing with Captain America."

"I informed my superiors during surveillance of our esteemed allied power's strategic withdrawal of oppressed citizens from East Prussia to the German mainland, a valuable cargo presented itself for safeguarding, along with its caretaker and his companion. Hanoi is the best destination in my judgment and they agreed."

Marya's laugh rivaled Okada's own. Had she succumbed to hysteria? "So true, Banko! You hit nail on head! 'Caretaker'! 'Companion'!"

Von Strucker only looked thoughtful. Okada had assumed scorched pride might lead the man to apoplexy, yet control etched itself onto his features as he addressed what Okada assumed he considered his friend. "Marya, Okada preserves the Amber Room --- for himself?"

"I have no interest except winning this war. Hanoi awaits you and your treasure, Herr Baron. Marya, I do not expect to meet you again in this world. Farewell." He bowed at a predetermined angle fit for a worthy foe.

Marya slapped him when he straightened.

Von Strucker grabbed her with an iron forearm around her middle and backed into a corner to defend them both in battle. Marya's anger propelled her arms to windmill and her feet to kick. She connected more than once with von Strucker's shins that jackboots protected. She snapped her head back, missed his jaw, but she bounced out his monocle.

"Do not let him see you like this! Control, liebchen!"

"Eeeeeaaaarrrgh! Let me go! You are on his side, you thief!"

Okada's incisor had cut his lip from the blow. He daubed at the blood with a pristine handkerchief. "Herr Baron, it is only my honorable word with Captain America that keeps her head on her shoulders. Take her topside, get rid of her and count yourself lucky."