Espionage

I looked around and saw dead bodies littering the floor and Dieter's corpse resting on the table with stab wounds to his neck, back and head. Stiglitz really went home on that one.

Stiglitz. Stiglitz was gone. Wicki was gone. Whatever small feelings I had towards Stiglitz were stomped on as I looked at his dead body, bullet holes littering his torso. My gaze went back to Bridget. I couldn't control my rage.

"Ich werde Sie mit meinen bloßen Händen, Sie einschnüren stummes Weibchen! (I am going to strangle you with my bare hands, you dumb bitch!)" I felt tears of rage building up behind my eyes as I charged at her. She put her arms up, defending her face. I was snatched back before I could get to her. "Ich werde sie töten! Dieses verdammt stumme Weibchen wird erhalten, was sie verdient! Lassen Sie mich gehen!" I ranted and ranted as I thrashed against Donny's solid body. I stopped momentarily and craned my head back to look at Donny. I was panting from my lack of breathing.

"Ich werde Ihre Kugeln abschneiden, wenn Sie mich nicht gehen lassen, Donowitz. (I am going to cut your balls off if you do not let me go, Donowitz.)" My voice was eerily calm.

"What?" He asked, obviously not understanding me.

"She said zat she is going to cut your balls off if you don't let her go." Bridget translated. His eyes widened and his grip tightened.

"Lez get'em outta here. There's a doggy doc down the street. We'll get'm to fix'er up." Aldo ordered. Donny handed me off to Omar, then went and picked up Bridget.

"I can see why Donny's so in love with you. Any woman that can threaten to cut off the balls of a man who has beaten hundreds of men to death with a bat is a keeper," I glared at him. "...But I'll just keep that to myself." He mumbled.

"Ja, I zink zat vould be better for ze both of us." He held a secure hand on my arm while we went up the stairs so I couldn't make a run towards von Hammersmark. I don't know why they're trying to protect her. If I didn't know better, I'd say that she set us up, but that's just me jumping to conclusions.

***

Aldo and I stayed behind in the front of the vet's office as Donny carried Bridget to the back, with all the other Basterds.

"What the fuck happened back there?" His brows were furrowed.

"Archie blew it."

"Howso?"

"He ordered zree glasses," I held up three fingers the same way Archie did "Vee order zree glasses." I held up my thumb, index finger and middle finger. "Zats ze German zree. The ozer one looks odd."

"I thought there ain't supposed to be any Krauts down there. What the fuck happened to that?" His hands were on his hips.

"I can't explain vhy zere vas a Gestapo Major zere, but as for ze ozer officers, zey vere out zelebrating. One of zem just had a son." He nodded. "I don't trust her, Aldo."

"Yeah, we'll see what she has to say." We walked into the back room. I had a pistol in my hand as we walked up to the operating table. I could hear Bridget trying not to scream as the vet gave her a shot of morphine in the leg.

"Tell the doggy doc to go back to his dogs." He looked at me. I translated it into french and the old man wearily got up. Donny grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him in a chair. I walked around the opposite side of the table than Aldo as he began to question her. I stuck the barrel of my gun to her good leg. Aldo threw the table that had the vet's scalpels and whatnot across the room and kicked a stool into the other room. He leaned on one hand against the operating table and hand his other hand rested on his hip.

"Now, 'fore we yank that slug outta yer leg, yew gotta answer me a few questions."

"Questions about vat?" Her gaze was shifty.

" 'Bout I got three men dead back there. Why don't yew try tellin' us what happened?"

"I'm sure she told you already." She pointed at me with her eyes.

"Yeah, she told me alright. But we wanna hear yer side of it. What the fuck happened?" She explained how Archie blew our cover with the three. " 'Fore we get into who shot who, why'd yew invite us to a rendezvous in a basement with a bunch of Nazis?"

"I can see since you didn't see vat happened inside that the Nazis being there looked odd."

"Yeah, we got a word for that kinda odd in english. It's called suspicious." When she failed to give him a good explanation as to why there were Germans in the tavern, he gave her something to think about.

"You need to calm down! You are letting your imaginations get ze better of you!" She struggled to say as Aldo stuck his index finger into the bullet hole in her calf. She screamed in pain as he dug his finger deeper. I gave a genuine smile to her as she looked at me. She started rambling the story of how one of the officers, Willy, had a baby and that they were celebrating. He didn't care, so he stuck his finger deeper into her leg. She was gasping for air from the intensity of the pain. "Ze Germans being there was either a tragic coincidence or a trap set by me, it couldn't be both." Aldo looked at her for a few seconds, then yanked his finger out. He cleaned off his bloody finger with a random rag and started pacing around.

"Kay, let's pretend there were no Germans and ever'thang went exactly the way it was supposed to. What was the next step?"

"Tuxedos...and a dress. To get them into the premier wearing military uniforms around ze military there would have been suicide. But going as members of ze German Film Industry, zey vear tuxedos and fit in vith everyone else. I arranged for the tailor to fit zree tuxedos and one dress tonight."

"How'd you intend to get'em into that premier?" She had Omar hand her, her purse. She painfully sat up and rifled through it, plucking out a pack of papers. The barking of the dogs behind me were really starting to get on my nerves.

"Lieutenant Hicox was going as my escort. Ze otzer two were going as a German camera man and his assistant. She was going as one of their dates."

"Yew think yew can still get us in that premier?"

"Can you speak German better zan your friends? No. Have I been shot? Yes." She ranted about how she was probably going to lose her leg and her acting career. I had to bite my tongue from saying she didn't have much of one to begin with. "However, zere is something you don't know." Aldo looked at her. "There have been two recent developments regarding Operation Kino. One, the venue has been changed from the Ritz to a much smaller venue."

"That's not so dramatic. Why is Gerbels bein' so damn peculiar?" Aldo asked.

"It might have something to do vith ze second development. Der Fürher is attending ze premier."

"Fuck a duck!" Donny shouted, causing the dogs' constant barking to explode. Aldo looked like he was in thought. He said something about Uncle Adolf and a horse.

"Vat is zat supposed to mean?" I asked.

"It means that she's gonna get us in that premier."

"How do you expect me to walk ze red carpet?!" She was outraged that he would even think about this. He pulled out his snuff can, pinched a little bit out and sniffed it.

"Doggy doc is gonna dig that slug outcher leg. He's gonna wrap it up in a cast and you got a good 'Hi, I broke my leg mountain climbin' ' story. That's German, ain't it? Ya'll like climbin' mountains, don't yew?"

"Since I've been vith you all, zat has to be ze dumbest zing I've heard you say." I gave him a look that said he was an idiot.

"We'll fill'er up with morphine 'til it's comin' out'er ears. And yew just get'yer little ass up that rouge carpet." His infamous smirk made it's way onto his face. The sound of a goat echoed through the room. I furrowed my eyebrows and whipped around to find it. A small kid came trotting through the room as if it owned the place. I looked over to the vet with a questioning look. He just shrugged.

"While I know this is a silly question, but I must ask, do you Americans speak any other language beside english?"

"Aldo and I both speak a little italian." Donny spoke up.

"With an atrocious accent, no doubt." I had to agree with her on that one.

"I alzo speak italian, fluently." I gave Aldo a look.

"Zis is good. Germans don't really have an ear for italian. So you use the italian and breeze right through it. Zats the plan?"

"That's about it." She nodded her head.

"Sounds good."

"It sounds like shit, but what else are we gonna do, go home?"

"As long as you don't blow it, I can get you into the building. Whose doing what?"

"Well, I speak the most i-talian, so I'll be your escort. Donny here speaks the second most, so he'll be your i-talian camera man and Bambi's escort. Omar the third most, so he'll be Donny's assistant."

"I don't speak italian."

"Like I said, third most. Just keep yer fuckin' mouth shut. In fact, why don't yew start practicin' right now?" He gave Omar a smile.