Hart's War Page #7

I'm asking

the wrong f***ing guy.

I've just seen the tunnel,

Colonel.

In here, Lieutenant.

Everything in this place

is a lie.

Everything.

Jesus Christ.

First he told the Germans

about the radio.

It was only a matter of time...

before he told them about

the tunnel.

You killed Bedford.

That's right.

If you f*** with this operation

in any way, I'll kill you, too.

You will sit in

that courtroom...

as Captain Sisk drags out

these proceedings.

Make whatever summation

you like, but that's it.

When that board breaks

to deliberate,

35 men go under the wire.

And Lincoln Scott will be dead.

That's war, Lieutenant.

The war's at the front, Colonel.

We're not even in it anymore.

Speak for yourself!

You know those Russians...

they march in and out of here

every day?

-You know where they go?

-Munitions plant.

The army thinks

it's a goddamn shoe factory.

Look...

I don't want to see Scott dead

any more than you do.

But if one man

has to be sacrificed...

to take out that target...

then that's the way

it has to be.

-I agree completely, sir.

-Good.

But I think that one man

should be you.

And don't worry.

I'll play my part.

But at the end of the trial...

you're going to tap

your little gavel.

You're going to stand up...

and you're going to confess to

the murder.

Your duty demands that.

F*** you, Hart.

What the f*** would you know

about duty?

I'll see you in court, sir.

I got a better question.

What was in that goddamn soup

last night?

I got 20 men

with food poisoning.

Colonel? Whoa! Colonel!

You're in no shape

for the trial, sir.

I'm fine. Really, I'm fine.

Here we go.

We'll convene as scheduled

after the appell.

Square them up.

Prisoners, attention!

New order, gentlemen.

Captain Sisk...

is the prosecution ready

to present its summation?

We are, Your Honor.

Very well.

I'm sorry, gentlemen.

The court needs a 5-minute

recess before summations.

Colonel. Colonel!

Colonel? Colonel!

Let's get him back

to the barracks.

Get his coat.

Get some rest, sir.

All right, come on.

Get back to the barracks.

We need an extension, Colonel.

He's very ill.

The agreement was

the end of the week.

It's a matter of courtesy,

Colonel.

The agreement was today!

I need to talk to you.

Are you any good at poker,

Lincoln?

There's an escape going to take

place later on this afternoon.

Escape? How's that?

Down a tunnel through

that burned theater wing.

while the jury's

in deliberation.

So what you mean?

This whole thing's been a joke?

Yes.

But Archer and Bedford

are dead for real.

Is that part

of this big joke, too?

Look, we haven't got time now.

During deliberations you're

going out under the wire...

with 35 other men.

Is McNamara, too?

Yeah, McNamara, too.

It's funny.

I was just writing my son...

and in the letter I was

trying to explain to him...

what the word honor means.

It would be a hell of a thing,

wouldn't it...

to find out that your father

helped 35 men...

escape from a place

like this, wouldn't it?

You're going out, too, Lincoln.

You got that?

I can't do that, Tommy.

Suppose the board comes back...

and there's nobody sitting in

the defendant's chair anymore.

It doesn't matter.

You'll already be out.

Then the search begins...

and all those men,

they won't have a chance.

Lincoln, if you stay,

you'll be convicted.

If I stay, those men

are gonna have a chance.

If I stay, those men

are gonna have a chance.

And you'll be executed.

Lincoln, listen to me, please.

Everything's fine, Tommy.

Everything's really OK...

just as long as he knows

what happened here.

As long as there's

somebody to tell him.

How far could I get anyway?

A colored man running through

the German countryside?

It'd be target practice.

It started with a noble idea.

Letting colored men

join the fight.

But no one in the Air Corps ever

considered what might happen...

if one of those Tuskegee men

ever got shot down.

No one ever asked

what would happen...

if a colored officer

was suddenly captured...

and sent to a stalag

like this one.

But Lincoln Scott was shot down

and he was sent to a stalag...

and once here,

he wasn't just thrown in...

amongst white enlisted men,

he was quartered with them.

Men like Staff Sergeant

Vic Bedford.

Bedford, the real Bedford,

was a man unknown to us.

Hateful, vengeful, with

a bigotry that ran bone-deep.

A man who simply couldn't

stomach the thought...

of sharing a roof

with colored officers.

So he badgered Scott,

baited him.

Even refused

to respect Scott's rank.

Then conspired to kill the only

friend Scott had in this camp.

That's why Scott

followed Bedford out...

the night in question...

crept up behind him

and snapped his neck.

Members of the board,

we take no pleasure...

in prosecuting

Lieutenant Scott...

but a capital charge requires...

that we put aside

our passions and sympathies...

wedding ourselves

solely to the truth.

It is this.

Lieutenant Scott

was positively...

and unimpeachably identified

at the scene of the crime.

He had motive,

he had opportunity...

and he had an animus

for the victim...

which was confirmed

even by his own testimony.

Lincoln Scott is an officer,

he is a soldier...

but he is also a murderer.

There's a tenet that was

drummed into all of us...

from our first day in basic.

Sometimes 1 man

must be sacrificed...

for the good

of the men around him.

Someone has to be first

to hit the beach...

or to jump on a grenade

or to draw enemy fire...

so coordinates can be drawn

for mortar teams.

Vic Bedford

learned that tenet, too...

except Vic got it backwards.

Vic thought that sometimes

a few hundred...

must be sacrificed

for the good of 1.

Him. For Vic.

The watchword was expediency.

One day he'd trade

with our captors...

to get hard-to-find parts

for a radio...

earning him the loyalty

of our commanding officer...

and his staff.

Then Vic would tell the Germans

where to find that radio...

Go.

in exchange for the murder

of Lamar Archer.

The army has its share

of cowards...

and Vic Bedford was one of them.

It also has heroes...

soldiers like Lincoln Scott.

Lincoln Scott who wanted nothing

more than to serve his country.

And serve he did.

Nine downed German fighters,

30 missions...

until one of those missions

landed him here, Stalag 6A...

where Vic Bedford and the sad

sacks Bedford called friends...

were lying in wait.

Scott was a target

from the second he got here.

He suffered insults, threats,

but he did not retaliate.

He did not kill Vic Bedford.

No.

Someone beat him to it.

It could've been

any number of people.

The guard who thought

that Bedford had cheated him.

A fellow kriegie who discovered

Bedford's treachery.

Even one of our

ranking officers...

as punishment for

ratting out that radio.

So this, then, is our victim?

A bigot. A traitor. A rat.

Enemy of every kriegie in camp.

The question is, who hated him

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