What an odd little mission. Not actually all that difficult, if you know the trick and if you move fast but with care. Damn near impossible otherwise.

Unique among HD2 missions, it has a time limit, and quite a tight one too. The meter starts running as soon as the mission starts and if you don't reach your goal in time you get failure, no matter how close you might be. There's just barely time to pull it off, at least using my method and it's the only one I've found that really works reliably.

A railroad station somewhere in Czechoslovakia. Various Germans hanging around. Top floor being used by Gestapo to interrogate a captured Resistance agent. Night. Faint haze.

Supposedly to rescue the Resistance member "Jan Trebissky." In fact this is not possible and you are not actually expected to do it. The real mission is just to reach him, make contact with him, before he dies of what the Gestapo is doing to him.

There are two ways to run this mission: stealth and assault. I've tried both and while it's possible to carry the place by assault, it's extremely hard to do it without losing men and all too easy to be completely wiped out. I've experimented with various attack plans but finally concluded that it's just not the best approach.

So I'm going to show you how to do it by stealth. You'll be lone-wolfing it; and, again, you need a man with very high stealth rating, equipped with a silenced Sten and an MP-40.

When the mission starts everybody's hitting the deck behind a hummock of ground, amid cries of "I can't see him!" and other numb-nuts exclamations. Quickly give the commands Stay Here and Hold Fire, and turn and crawl rapidly to the fence beside you and cut a hole and crawl across the tracks and cut another hole and go through and hang a left. Do all this quickly; you'll have to do everything quickly for the first part of this mission, because the clock's ticking.

Pause long enough to get rid of your backpack - don't forget that part, it's absolutely necessary - and, if you forgot my advice and gave your man a helmet, ditch that too. Now get moving again, along through the weeds and then up alongside the trees to the right.

(The reason you dump your backpack here, rather than at the start, is that the mission completes when you go back through the wire, and it may do it before you have time to grab your pack.)

Once clear of the lighted area you can get up and sprint for a little way, around the outside of the bend in the road, but then as the road straightens out get down and crawl again, staying up in the high grass but not too far from the road. Keep an eye out to the left as you pass that big tree on the other side of the road and a short way farther on, stop and turn to face in the general direction of the station.

You should be in third person through all this; it's easy to get disoriented in the tall grass otherwise. You'll see a couple of men standing on the road up ahead, smoking and talking. Lie there and listen for the train and as it appears, watch that board fence over on the other side and to your right. A man will appear as the train goes by, climbing over the fence; he'll pause and then walk slowly along beside the fence, looking in your direction but not seeing you because of the weeds. At the fence corner he'll turn and start to walk in the direction of the tracks. Get into first person and crawl quickly forward, just far enough to have a clear view of him, and shoot him. Be fast and be sure; he's incredibly alert - and one shot, from him or anybody else, and you're shit out of luck.

Instantly move back into the grass, reload, and go back to third person and check to see if those two guys are still standing in the road. If one or more of them is acting suspicious or moving around, you're screwed; just have to restart.

If they're still there and showing no signs of alarm, though, then quickly crawl across the road. They won't see you if you stay down flat and if you didn't get too close to them. Hurry up, there's a truck on the way.

Turn and crawl through the weeds toward the corner of that board fence, to that narrow strip of grass and weeds between the fence and the road. Pause here and wait for the truck to come by.

As soon as the truck is past, crawl forward between the fence and the road until you're close to those two sentries and then slide out quickly and gun them.

You'll have to get them both in one fast burst, because if one of them gets off even a single shot you're blown whether he hits you or not; more Germans will immediately come running and do things you won't like at all. You could probably escape but then you'd never complete the mission in time.

Reload and keep going until you come almost even with the fence corner. Now things get tricky; I'd strongly recommend you save at this point.

You've got to cross the open space in front of you to that next board fence. There are a couple of sentries who can make this very dangerous and even fatal. In particular there is one who walks back and forth on the other side of the fenced area - over alongside the tracks - and at a certain point can see down between the fences; and there is another one up on top of that small building next to the train station, to your front and left.

Use the map to check where the walking sentry is; it will show you his location and his field of vision if he's anywhere nearby. If there's no sign of him, crawl across the open space and up against that next board fence and check - in third person, you'll never see him in first, he's hard enough to spot in third - to see where that son of a bitch up on the roof is standing.

You may have to wait a few seconds but then he'll turn his back and stroll away to face in the other direction. As soon as he does, get up to a crouch and open the gate in front of you and go through it and dash over to the door of that small building and open it. Go in and turn around and switch off the light - the switch is up on the wall beside the door - and close the door, in that order, as fast as you can. Turn and face the door on the other side of the room; it may be about to open. If not go and open it yourself.

Either way, an officer with a pistol is somewhere on the other side of that door. He may already be coming through the door or he may be sitting on the couch over on the far side of the room, but either way bust him and then hit the deck and go through that door and turn off the light (switch beside the door, again) and close the door behind you and then, and only then, get up. (If you stand up while the light is on, Germans outside see you through the windows and shoot at you.)

Now over to that door to the left and open it. There's a man inside with a pistol but DON'T SHOOT HIM; he's our surrender monkey and he's the key to this operation. He'll toss aside his pistol and raise his hands.

Go into the room and close the door behind you and capture him. Take his uniform and throw away the Sten and get out the MP-40. Stand and let the stealth meter fill before you make any more moves. Ignore the German passed out on the bed nearby; nothing wakes him up and you haven't got time for casual homicides.

As soon as the stealth bar is full, go back through the door and through the next room and on out to the entrance. You'll probably encounter a German in one of the outer rooms. Ignore him; whatever you do, don't shoot him - just run on past him, he won't register you if you move fast.

Out the door and turn left and run to that fence and climb over it (quicker than using the gate) and dash along beside the rear of the station. There's a sentry walking along there but if you move fast he won't bother you. Go all the way down to the far end, to that last of the big glass windows, which you'll see is open. Climb through it and haul ass up the stairs. You'll meet another German on the top floor but again, run right past him without pausing.

Run up to the last door on the right and open it and go through. You'll find yourself in a big room with a fire burning in a stove. There's a guard over on the far side of the room but ignore him too. Turn left as soon as you go in and head for the door at the end of the room. If you're really cooking it will still be shut.

More likely an evil son of a bitch in a white shirt and tie will be coming through it, or will do so as you approach. Shoot him immediately and keep running, on into the next room - don't pause to shoot the guard, you don't have that much time - and nail that sack of shit in the black Gestapo uniform down at the far end, by the desk.

Be careful you don't let a stray shot hit the man in the chair on the other side of the desk; that's the guy you're supposedly here to rescue.

As you dash into the room, you should get a sudden cut scene. Go ahead and watch it, if you haven't seen it before; it's pretty good and it sets up the background for the following couple of missions.

If you don't get a cut scene - if you go over to the tied and bound guy in the chair and nothing happens - you're too late; the mission's failed. Try again. I told you, the time window is very tight in this one.

Assuming you made it, though, as soon as the cut scene ends hit the deck and turn to face the doorway and slide over sidewise so you're out of direct view. Pretty soon that guard is going to come creep-assing through that door and you can kill him.

As soon as you get a chance, crawl over and flip the light switch by the door where you came in. Now it's dark you can stand up and move around more freely. More Germans will try to come through the door; you may acquire quite a little collection. Just stay put and keep reloading and shooting; you've got the tactical advantage and fortunately none of them seem to have any grenades.

After things get quiet and the attacks stop, you should wait a bit longer before making any moves. Just stand around, let the time pass. If you leave too soon you'll run into a bunch of guards and your disguise won't last long enough to get away; but if you'll give them time they'll finally wander off. No doubt they've learned not to inquire too closely into noises coming from that second floor.

When you figure it's been long enough and your stealth bar is looking healthy again, you can go back out the way you came, into the upstairs back hallway, and have a look around. If you see any Germans at all - like back down the hall in the restroom door - get back into the office and wait some more.

When the coast is clear, go on down the stairs - you might flip off the upstairs hall light, just in case - and stop at that window where you came in. Look across the drive at that grassy area opposite. If you see anybody waiting there, back to cover and wait some more. If not, then out the window and run for it. Swing over across that grassy area, circling wide around the station buildings, rather than directly back along the road; you never know who might be within sight. Once you're past where you shot those two guys in the road, you can relax and just chug on down the road toward the exit. Pause to pick up a helmet off one of the stiffs; it'll be useful in the next mission.

(What if the Germans never go away, but stay around watching for you? In that case you'll have to devise some sort of plan to get past them, using your disguise and minimizing exposure. It's never happened to me - and I've run this mission several times in this way, at Hard level - so I don't know if it ever does, but you can never be 100% sure of anything with HD2.)

When you get near the gate, move over by the trees and hunker down for the last bit - remember there are still a couple of guards on the other side of the gate - and go back to where you cut the wire. Don't forget to pick up your backpack!