I lay at the edge of the duct for the best part of 2 hours, biding my time. Unfortunately, considering at least 5 to 10 people were all working in the room at the same time the risk of being spotted consistently threatened to ruin any plan of action I could conjure. The waiting game did eventually prove fruitful, however, as after what seemed like an eternity the room lay bare in its emptiness with just one obstacle threatening to belittle what had previously appeared to be the perfect timing. The obstacle in discussion was a small gruff man, with grey hair and a thick, curly moustache was sitting at desk writing on a small piece of parchment. The stern look on his face gave the impression that he resented being there but with a depressingly large pile of documents lying next to him, it looked like he was in for the night.
Knowing exactly what needed to be done, I pulled out the tranquillizer gun from my left pocket and aimed it towards the man, being careful not let my greasy hands shake too much as I tightened my grip on its metal casing. Sweat trickled down my face but before I could let the nerves destroy my accuracy, I pulled hastily on the trigger, setting the dart free from it's iron prison. The gun was silenced and made only a whisper of sound as it soared through the air but that noise wasn't the worrying topic. The man made a surprisingly high pitched squeal as the dart pierced the right side of his head. Begging it wasn't loud enough to alert any nearby guards, I sprinted across the room and shoved the blueprints into my backpack.
Suddenly a crazy idea darted to the front of my brain. The air ducts I'd been crawling through, whilst mostly pointing forward, also contained many vertical drops, which was bearable on the way here as I'd been climbing down but going up them on the way back would be a hugely troublesome, and noisy, procedure. Without thinking twice, I stripped the man I had previously shot of his clothes and put them on myself as a kind of haphazard disguise, hoping I would be able to slip out the main entrance.
Just as I was about to exit the hangar, I knew the idea was of unsound mind. Two German soldiers brushed pass me as I was optimistically making a case for freedom. The men swivelled round and shouted a command in German. Instead of confronting the two men, instinct bullied me into running away. Most likely due to curiosity, rather than suspicion, the two Germans swiftly followed, chasing me outside the hangar.
I was slightly quicker than the soldiers and was almost in confidence until I heard radio chatter being exchanged. Reinforcements were surely coming, probably with the brief to kill. Out of pure instinct, I immediately reached for the knife in my backpack. Hoping to create a quick distraction, I hastily threw the knife at the man speaking on the radio. It dug into his left kneecap and with a deafening squeal, he drove himself to the floor in agony. Whilst my distraction prevailed I still knew capture was unavoidable. I continued sprinting and found myself outside of the base in some nearby fields. Looking around I spotted a sniper to the left; he shot. Scraping across my face, the bullet turned my eyes into a bloody mess. It was the last time I'd ever use them again.
