Had he known the truth, Steele wouldn’t have been biding his time.
He would have been praying.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rex Faraday had watched as Deacon Cole was dragged away and thrown into the hot box.
It didn’t bode well.
“That’s the end of that,” said Cooper, sidling up next to Faraday. “This is one hell of a mess. What are we going to do?”
“To hell if I know yet,” Faraday replied truthfully.
Cooper just shook his head and walked away. Faraday kept his eyes outward, thinking through his next course of action. It was easier to know what to do in a plane crash, he thought, because at least you had trained for it. This was new territory.
Faraday was not feeling optimistic. He had seen strong-willed men locked in there for days at a time, only to emerge exhausted and broken. In any case, they didn’t have days. The escape plan was set for tonight.
Deke certainly seemed like a tough customer — he hadn’t been imprisoned long enough to be worn down. He still possessed strength and spirit. But it wasn’t his willpower that was the issue so much as time.
Faraday considered that timeline. The escape was scheduled for midnight tonight. When the hour for their deliverance arrived, it appeared likely that Deke was still going to be locked up. He was supposed to be their liaison between the POWs and the rescuers. If he was out of the picture, then who was going to lead them to safety?
He had warned Deke to keep his head down, but he had insisted on butting heads with Mr. Suey by standing up for a prisoner who was struggling to carry rocks from the stream.
Faraday couldn’t blame him. Deke’s actions were understandable, because the Japanese provoked that response in anyone with a sense of justice. The problem was that opposing Mr. Suey was a game that couldn’t be won. The enemy held all the cards.
Now Deke was locked in the hot box, and their entire escape plan was in jeopardy.
Through a crack in the wall, Faraday watched the hot box long after the door to the prisoners’ barracks had been closed and locked. By then it was starting to get dark, and the prison yard slowly fell into gloom.
He didn’t know what he was hoping for, other than some sort of miraculous sign. He saw some activity as their captors brought Deke his evening meal, but then the door to the hot box closed again. Nothing stirred after that.
Having finished with their duties for the day, most of the guards had retired to their barracks. Aside from a pair of guards walking the perimeter each hour, the Japanese remained in their own barracks once the prisoners were locked in for the night. The only lights glowed from the windows of the commandant’s house and the garrison barracks. The surrounding forest looked dark as the sea at night.
For the briefest time, he’d had some fleeting hope that they might all get out of this place. No more starvation diet. No more endless labor moving rocks from one pointless place to another. No more Mr. Suey or Colonel Yamagata terrorizing them with his Samurai bow.
He realized that the idea of freedom had taken root so strongly in the last few hours that the thought of endless days of moving rocks and eating bowls of boiled weeds was almost more than he could take. The carrot had been dangled and taken away again.
Faraday sat back and considered his options. He needed to think this through.
He had a decision to make now that would decide all their fates, and he would have to make it largely on his own. Venezia and Cooper were the only men who knew about the escape plan. They had kept things close to the vest to avoid security leaks, considering that there were men who would rat them out for a single handful of cooked rice. Whatever Faraday decided, he knew that Venezia and Cooper could be counted on to go along with it.
No lights were allowed in the barracks, so they were kept like livestock in a darkened barn. Most had memorized the layout by now so that they could navigate in the dark. There was just enough remaining light to see the men around him. They looked worn out and beaten up. Their clothes were ragged. The air inside the barracks smelled of sweat and funk. Several men suffered from nagging coughs. The stifling heat made it difficult to relax or sleep.
If this wasn’t hell, he didn’t know what was.
He knew that the first step would be to get out of the barracks. Fortunately, their quarters weren’t nearly as solidly built as the hot box. Months before, Cooper had told him how they had managed to find loose boards that could be opened in an emergency, such as a fire. The possibility of escape hadn’t been considered. Faraday had yet to see these loose boards for himself, but he had been promised that they were there.
Looking around at his fellow POWs, he weighed their options yet again. He knew that this was their only chance. If he failed, they might all be killed. Faraday knew that his own life would certainly be forfeit, made an example of by that no-good colonel Yamagata. Maybe the commandant would tell him to make a run for it and then put an arrow through him, just like he’d done to Lucky.
But if he didn’t try something, it would just be a more prolonged death, unless, as Deke had feared, the Japanese decided that no prisoners would ever be returned.
Faraday felt the weight of the decision that he needed to make weighing heavily on his shoulders. Should he gamble with all their lives or play it safe?
A smile came to his lips at that thought. No man who climbed aboard a bomber had ever played it safe. No man who picked up a rifle and fought for his country had ever played it safe. These were those same men. They were just tired and weak, but they deserved better.
He motioned Cooper and Venezia toward him.
“Listen up,” he said. “We’re doing this. We’re getting out of this camp tonight — or we die trying.”
“You can count on us,” Cooper said. “In fact, I think I know how we can get started.”
Faraday raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Is that so?”
“I told you before that I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. Let me show you what I mean.”
Cooper led them to the back wall of the barracks and nudged a board with the battered toe of his combat boot.
Cooper explained that before Faraday’s arrival in the camp, unknown to the Japanese, an enterprising prisoner had loosened two boards in the side of the barracks. The opening was just wide enough for a thin man to squeeze through.
Faraday was amazed. He’d heard Cooper mention this escape route, but seeing was believing. “Has anybody ever tried getting out before?”
“Where would they go? To the USO dance?”
“Well, we’ve got somewhere to go tonight.”
Colonel Yamagata sat at his desk, his uniform shirt unbuttoned in a nod to the heat and the fact that it was now dark out, past the official part of his day. He sat drinking sake, his Samurai archer’s bow in the corner.
As a matter of fact, he was on his second rice wine, and he was beginning to feel the pleasant, mellowing effects of the strong liquor. He took a puff on his cigarette, the pungent tobacco smoke mingling with the lingering aroma of the modest meal he had just eaten, which had consisted of steamed rice with a little canned fish.
Recently he had been forced to reduce rations for his command, as their supplies were cut off due to the American invasion. Even after the evening meal, he still felt a little hungry. He’d also had to limit himself to four cigarettes a day.
He raised his glass and said to the empty room, “Kanpai!” Bottoms up!
Fortunately, he had enough sake to last for months. It was the one commodity that never seemed to be in short supply across the army, perhaps because of its ability to provide liquid courage as needed against overwhelming odds. Some even joked that the army ran on bullets, bombs, and booze.