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“Best to clean you up. If you get an infection in this place, it’s as good as a death sentence. Besides, you are what passes for entertainment around here.”

A semi-clean rag was brought, along with a basin of water and a sliver of soap, apparently a commodity so rare that it was almost treated with reverence. With an almost surprising gentleness, given the rough conditions and the low light levels in the barracks, Faraday wet the rag in soapy water and used it to clean the wounds across Deke’s back.

It wasn’t so easy to get the shirt off. In places where he had been cut by the cane, the fabric had become embedded in the dried blood. Deke exhaled sharply as the shirt finally peeled away. Faraday whistled. “Those sons of bitches really did a number on you.”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing I can’t take.”

Faraday suddenly stopped in his efforts. He had come to the hard ridges of scar tissue that Deke had carried since boyhood. “I don’t think you’re kidding. Where did you get all these scars?”

“Black bear,” he said. “He wasn’t near as gentle as that sergeant.”

“A bear? Holy hell. No wonder those Japs didn’t rattle you.” Faraday didn’t ask more about the scars from the bear, and Deke didn’t elaborate. Faraday wrung out the bloody rag, wet it again, and went back to dabbing at Deke’s back. “So what the hell are you doing out here? Has the advance really reached this far?”

“Here’s the interesting part,” Deke said.

“I’m all ears.”

“There’s plenty more where I came from,” Deke said. “Well, there’s enough, anyhow. The thing is, boys, I’m here to help get you out of this hellhole.”

Several men were still gathered around, and the reactions on the faces nearby ranged from consternation to disbelief. One man broke down and cackled with laughter as if Deke had just told the funniest joke the man had ever heard.

But Faraday was eyeing Deke intently. In a gesture that was so quick and subtle that Deke wasn’t entirely sure he had seen it, Faraday put a finger to his lips. Then he spoke loudly for the benefit of the crowd, “Everyone says that at first, and then we realize that the only way out of this place is by way of the graveyard — or us finally winning the war.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Deke agreed, just as loudly. “There’s probably no way out.”

“No, there’s not.”

Eventually the men crowded around Deke began to lose interest and drifted away as Deke was cleaned up. That was when Faraday took him aside. With him were a couple of other men that he introduced as Cooper and Venezia. They were as different as Mutt and Jeff, with Cooper being tall and broad as an oak, which was impressive given the conditions in which the prisoners lived, and Venezia being a fireplug of a man with dark Italian features.

“Do go on,” Faraday said, quietly this time. “You were saying something about escaping from this place?”

“Sounds like you didn’t want the people in the cheap seats to hear me the last time,” Deke said. “You got a problem with rats in this place?”

“Unfortunately, both the two-legged kind and the four-legged kind,” Faraday said. “The four-legged kind aren’t bad eating if you can catch them. As for the two-legged variety, there are a few guys who will sell us out for an extra bowl of rice whenever they get wind of anything that the Japanese might be interested in knowing.”

“Sounds like a rat problem, all right.”

“It’s also a matter of self-preservation,” Faraday admitted. “If the Japanese get word of any kind of escape plot, because I’m the ranking officer, they’ll drag me in to get the same treatment that you just got. Then they’ll put me out in the yard and shoot me if they aren’t happy with my answers. I might even get a blindfold if I’m lucky.”

“All because of the rats.”

Faraday shrugged. “You can’t really blame them. Nobody starts out as a rat. Some of these guys are so hungry that they’re not thinking straight. They’ve been here a long time. You just need to be aware of the rat problem. But not to worry. There are plenty of guys in here that you can trust. Most of them, as a matter of fact.”

Looking around, Deke could see why some men might be desperate. A few were so skeletal that they were painful to look at, their eyes sunk deep into the hollows of their skulls. Others were so weak that they could barely stir from their bunks after their day of labor in the jungle. Deke was fairly certain that for these men, their next resting place was going to be that graveyard beyond the prison fence.

He knew that he was too stubborn to ever make nice with the Japanese for a bowl of rice, but he could understand what Faraday meant about the hardships of being a POW wearing men down. Yesterday he would have called such men traitors. But he now had an inkling as to how the enemy treated the POWs. The sooner that everyone got out of here, the better.