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It was just possible that Faraday would be able to get the other prisoners through the gap, but even if that happened, it was beginning to look like Deke would be left behind.

If that happened, the commandant and Mr. Suey would be none too happy with him, and Eyeglasses wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it.

* * *

Hidden in the forest just beyond the perimeter of the fence, Lieutenant Steele watched the compound through binoculars, using his one good eye. He hadn’t seen any unusual activity indicating that the Japanese suspected tonight’s escape attempt. There did not appear to be any extra guards on patrol. Just about dark, he had watched two men climb up into the watchtower, and two others climb down.

In other words, it was business as usual.

The minutes leading to midnight crept past, filled with the night noises of the surrounding forest, which included singing insects and the occasional spine-curdling cry of some animal. Was the creature being hunted, or was it the hunter? It was hard to say. From time to time they heard muted laughter from the guard barracks.

Briefly, music drifted from the commandant’s house, so low that it was hard to even recognize the tune. Maybe some kind of jazz? The thought of that Japanese bastard enjoying his evening while the prisoners suffered only added to Steele’s anger.

He and the others would simply have to bide their time. With nothing else to do and hours on his hands, he thought about that word. Bide. Who had come up with that word, and what did it really mean, anyhow? Steele decided that if it meant nervously chewing gum and occasionally leaving his observation post in the brush outside the fence to prowl restlessly in the confines of the clearing, where the raiding party lay hidden, then he was biding, all right.

He looked around at the others, who were also passing the time as best as they could.

He had forbidden lights of any kind, as well as any smoking, lest the smell of tobacco smoke gave them away. The Japanese might not be expecting American raiders, but they were always on alert for attacks from Filipino guerrillas. The slightest clue might give them all away. Each extra hour that they hid here in the forest increased the risk exponentially, which was why the escape had to happen tonight.

So, he bided his time.

He had been reluctant to allow Deke to let himself be captured, fearful of his treatment at the hands of the Japanese, but it had seemed like the only option to get word to the prisoners and organize tonight’s escape. In hindsight, he was sure that the plan would either seem brilliant — or completely idiotic, depending on how things turned out.

Deke had been the only one among the men who had been capable of working from the inside out. Philly and Rodeo were good men, but they didn’t have the sand or the smarts to pull it off. Yoshio, or any of the guerrillas, for that matter, would likely have been killed outright as traitors. He couldn’t go himself, because then there might be no one to lead the operation, dooming it to failure. So in the end, when Deke had presented his plan and volunteered himself, Steele had agreed.

Had it all been a mistake?

To make matters worse, he also was missing out on Deke’s skill with a rifle. He would much rather have Deke targeting the watchtower through his scope, ready to take out the machine gunners if necessary. With Deke on the rifle, the machine-gun crew would have been dead the instant their fingers touched a trigger.

Instead, he had given that job to Philly. Philly was a good man, and he would do his best to get the job done if it came to it, but he wasn’t half the marksman that Deke was.

He smiled, remembering how Deke had dropped that Japanese officer back on the fight at the ridge leading to Ormoc. The officer had been something of a heroic figure to his own troops, standing tall and waving his sword, directing the attack on the American position. That officer had thought the Americans couldn’t shoot accurately from such a distance.

He’d been wrong about that. Deke had lined up his sights on a buttonhole in the officer’s tunic and put a bullet right through it. It had been an incredible shot to make in the middle of a battle, with bullets zipping around the sniper’s head and the furious cries of the attackers and the defenders ringing in his ears.

If the Japanese had been tough on Deke after he had surrendered, he had no doubt that the farm boy could take it. Deke was like one of those knots that you ran into when trying to split a piece of oak for firewood. As a leader of men, Steele knew well enough that stubbornness was a quality that could work against a man. However, applied in the right circumstances, sheer stubbornness was a gift without equal.

He had no doubts about Deke’s ability in leading the prisoners out from the confines of the camp.

However, Steele wasn’t aware of a major crack in their plan. In fact, it was more like a canyon than a crack.