Prisoner of War by Michael P. Spradlin

Author:Michael P. Spradlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

“He’s in one of the old officers’ quarters on the north end of camp,” Willy said, trying to catch his breath.

“How reliable is the intel, Willy?” Martin asked.

“As good as we can get,” he answered. “I talked to an American private who’s been working as an orderly in the compound over that way. When I described Gunny McAdams, he said he couldn’t be sure but there was an American sergeant in one of the rooms they’ve been using to interrogate prisoners. When I described him, he said this had to be the same bloke. Said the bush rats had worked the poor lad over good. I asked him was they any other American sergeants in that compound he knew of, and he said no. Gotta be your animal, Henry.”

I tried not to let my excitement get the best of me. Knowing where Gunny was and getting him out were two completely different things. And the truth of it was I had no idea how to rescue him. It wasn’t like we could mount a frontal assault on the building.

Sergeant Martin rubbed his chin. Then his eyes lit up, and he grabbed Willy by the shoulders.

“How much we got in the stash?” Martin asked.

“Fifteen pounds and a few shillings, plus two packs of cigs the guards didn’t get their hands on when they searched us,” Willy answered.

“All right, here’s what we’re gonna do. You, Smitty, and Davis work out a schedule and watch that building for the rest of the day and into the evening. Find out how many guards they’ve got, when and how often they change watch, and if they’re paying close attention to what they’re doing. Take turns and switch it up often so nobody notices you watching. We don’t need anybody guessing what we’re up to.”

“Right you are,” Willy said, running off to find Davis and Smitty.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I’m not quite sure yet,” said Sergeant Martin. “Our information is limited and only halfway reliable. But for now, we’ll wait until lights-out, and then we’ll go and see what we can see. If we can sneak in and get Gunny out with a fair chance of not losing our heads—and I mean that literally, mate—we’ll do that. If not, we’ll see if we can bribe us a guard to look the other way.”

“Do you think that’ll work? From what I’ve seen, these guards are pretty mean.”

“You’re right about that, Henry. No Japanese soldier wants to be babysitting a bunch of surrendering allies. They all want to be out on the battlefield, dying a glorious death for their bloody emperor. So we’re stuck with the worst soldiers that the Imperial Japanese Army has got. If they were any good at fighting, they’d be out actually doing it instead of guarding a bunch of dirty captives who they consider less than human.”

“The Bushido,” I said.

“You know about that, do you?”

“Yeah. Gunny explained it to me. No honor in surrender and all that.”

“Exactly right. A Japanese soldier would rather commit suicide than surrender.

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