“Did anyone want to surrender?” she asked.
“Hell, no!”
“Tell me about the lieutenant.”
“Koz is alive. He needs Claypool, but I think he’ll pull through if he gets seen in time.”
“What are his injuries?”
“Got hit in the gut, but I don’t know anything more than that. That’s why I came for the doc. Was going to wait until night, then go around to the hospital and see if I could get someone’s attention. The doc could sneak out with me and be back by morning.”
“Dr. Claypool can’t help. He’s deathly ill.”
“Then you’ll have to do it. Come hide down here until dark, and we’ll go out.”
“That’s no good,” Louise said. “The Japanese do a check every night and another check every morning. They’ll see I’m missing. Besides, two guards saw me leave. They’ll expect me back before dusk.”
“I can’t just let him die!”
“Shh, quiet. I’m not saying that. Let me think.”
Louise had been lucky so far. Nobody had come to challenge her. There hadn’t even been any villagers out. Some of that was the heat, some no doubt their fear of the Japanese and the Sakdals. But with Mori and his men gone, there were apparently only three enemies left in the village: the two guards and the man she’d spotted bathing at the cascades. Where was the bathing man now?
And where was Sammy? Between his leg cast and his brother’s suspicions, she couldn’t see a scenario by which he was out slogging through the hills looking for partisans. He must be around here somewhere. An idea came to her. Risky, but no riskier than standing here talking to Fárez when being caught would mean both of their deaths.
“How are you doing down there?” she asked.
“I’m all right.”
Something in his tone gave her pause. “You’re sure?”
“It’s wet, it’s hot, it’s cramped. Some darn thing or other crawled past my leg.”
“You’re not sick, though? Your injuries are still healing up?”
“I’m fine. Got no complaints.”
No complaints! Stuck in a filthy hole beneath the home of his enemy, but no complaints. These men. Whenever Louise felt sorry for herself, she could look to their example. She didn’t feel brave, but then again, Fárez didn’t sound that way to her ears, either. She’d always thought bravery was a feeling—confidence, surety of purpose—but maybe she was wrong. Maybe the brave were just as terrified as anyone else. Maybe more terrified. Because they wanted to cower and hide but knew they must put themselves in danger or they’d never live with themselves.
“Can you hold out until night?” Louise said. “Let’s say an hour after dusk. I’ll come get you.”
“If I have to. What if Mori comes back?”
“If he does, sneak out and meet me at the cascades. Do you know where that is?”
“Yes, Miss Louise. How you gonna do it? How are you going to get past those guards?”
“I don’t know that yet. But I’ve got an idea. I’ll work it out some more, don’t worry.”
“Okay. One other thing. Can you do me a favor? I’d sure appreciate it.”
“What is it, Corporal?”
A dirty hand reached out from the gap beneath the building, holding something in its grasp. “I brought this for Stumpy, but I didn’t think he’d leave if I gave it to him just now. Could you?”
She took it. It was a ham bone wrapped in a banana leaf. Fárez had been shot at, had fled through the jungle with his injured officer, and had come back here to hide in a filthy crawl space for hours on end. And all that time he’d been carrying a bone for his dog.
Louise cast Stumpy a skeptical look as he sprang to his feet and followed her out of the alley.
“And where’s your loyalty, hmm? The only thing you’re loyal to is the smell of a ham bone in my pocket. Sorry, but you’re not getting your greedy little paws on it. Not yet.”
Stumpy licked his chops and panted.
She’d thought about leaving the bananas behind but decided that when she made her way back to the hospital it would look more suspicious with her hands empty than carrying the pilfered fruit. And then there was the ham bone. Fárez didn’t know how hungry his fellow soldiers had become since he left Sanduga, or he might not have trusted her with the bone.
The village was just as quiet as before, but Louise didn’t feel complacent. Her biggest worry was the Japanese soldier she’d spotted washing himself in the cascades. He was surely finished bathing by now and was who knew where. There could be Sakdals, too, or merely informers who’d be happy to say that they’d spotted one of the American nurses skulking about.
The bananas were her defense. At worst, she was on an unauthorized scavenging mission. And that much was true. Or had been. She had a different object in mind now.
Louise stepped down another alley, this one behind a single ramshackle nipa hut that looked in danger of sliding down the hill. An old woman peered out from the doorway, lips pulled over toothless gums in an expression that made her look like a withered doll. She didn’t look like an informant, and Louise decided to take a chance under her gaze instead of out in the open.
She turned her back on the woman without waiting to see if she’d go back inside and took out Sammy’s book of poetry. She held it under Stumpy’s nose.
“Now I know you’re no bloodhound, but I bet you can smell that and know who it belongs to.”
The dog casually sniffed the book; then his nose jabbed at the pocket holding the ham bone. She pushed his snout away.
“I’m serious, Stumpy. We need to find Sammy. Come on, take another smell.” She put the book in his face.
He sniffed it a little more and pulled back with what looked like the dog equivalent of a shrug. She studied his face, searching for some evidence that he understood. And saw none. He looked as carefree and unconcerned as ever.
“You’re an opportunist, do you know that? You may have everyone else fooled, but not me. You weren’t whining because you missed Fárez, you smelled his bone, didn’t you? Well, guess what? You’re not getting it if you don’t help me find Sammy. I’m serious. I’m going to drop it in the rice water and boil that darn thing until there’s not a scrap of flavor left, and I’m giving the broth to my men. And then I’m going to toss your bone in the latrine. What do you think about that?”
Who was she fooling? Negotiating with a dog. First of all, nothing would get his little walnut-size brain off the ham bone until he’d eaten it. Second, she wasn’t so hungry yet that she’d steal Stumpy’s treat. Not when she’d promised Fárez. He’d end up gnawing it to pieces when all was said and done.
Stumpy trotted ahead of her, and hope rose that he understood and was off to find Sammy. He sniffed at a rubbish heap in the space between two houses. He rolled in it. Another dog came out from the shade where it had been resting, and the two dogs sniffed each other’s backsides.
“No wonder you need another deworming,” she muttered.
Well, this was pointless. Time to go back to the hospital with the bananas and think of another plan. How was she going to get to Lieutenant Kozlowski?
She started to turn around, but Stumpy and his friend finished their snout-to-rump visit. Stumpy trotted ahead with a glance over his shoulder, as if curious whether she was following. His half tail gave a quick, encouraging wag.
“Oh, all right. I’m coming. I know it’s pointless, though.”
Louise emerged from the alley, glanced either way to make sure the unaccounted-for Japanese soldier was nowhere to be seen, and crossed to another alley on the other side. There were three more grass-roofed shacks on the left, while on the right, paddies terraced down toward the forest. Two women thrashed sticks at bundles of rice to separate the grains but didn’t look in her direction.
The village simply wasn’t very large, and this was the last unexplored corner. Sammy might very well be around here somewhere, in which case she’d already walked past his house. Short of c
alling out his name, how was she going to find him?
As if in answer to this question, Stumpy trotted up to the middle house and stood at the bottom of the steps, staring. She took a closer look. A Japanese-style army shirt hung on a line on the porch, together with socks, undergarments, and several other articles of clothing that were evidently not Filipino.
The clothing wasn’t Sammy’s. Kozlowski had taken the man’s uniform weeks ago in Sanduga and given him a pair of pants and a white shirt from the hospital supplies. The Japanese uniform had been irritating the other patients. The drying clothing must belong to another Japanese soldier.
Stumpy looked back at her, then turned and stared hard. He looked like a bird dog pointing into the brush. It must be the right house. Either that, or both nurse and dog were idiots, and that couldn’t be ruled out.
Heart pounding, Louise walked up the three steps to the open doorway. She peered into the gloom. There was movement, a man coming toward the door.
“Sammy? Are you in here?”
An angry Japanese voice responded.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Louise shrank back and turned to run. A Japanese soldier followed her out and grabbed her arm. He was thick faced and squat, but strong, and he spun her around and knocked the bananas out of her arms. His breath smelled of fish and pickled vegetables.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was looking for your officer. Mori. Yoshi—I don’t remember. Yoshiko Mori! The captain. Ouch, let go of me, you animal.”
He kept yelling at her as he shook her, and she kept protesting. Stumpy came up the stairs, barking. The soldier kicked at the dog, connecting with his bare foot, and Stumpy ran off with a yelp.
A second voice spoke up from inside, and the man who’d grabbed Louise looked back and answered. A brief argument broke out.
“Louise, is that you?” It was Sammy. His voice was anxious, worried.
“Tell him to let me go. Sammy, please.” She squirmed in the man’s arms, but he kept shaking her.
“I’m trying!” More angry words in Japanese.
The soldier dragged her inside. Her eyes adjusted, and she saw Sammy sprawled on a patati on the floor, wearing nothing but his skimpy Japanese loincloth. She was so relieved to see him that she almost rushed to his side with a cry.
He and the other man kept arguing, but Sammy seemed to be getting the upper hand. Finally the other soldier stopped, crossed his arms sullenly, and stared. Louise got a better look at him. He was the man Louise spotted bathing at the cascades.
“I treated him for malaria,” Louise told Sammy after taking a closer look at the other man’s face. “You’d think he’d be a little more grateful.”
“That’s probably why you’re still alive,” Sammy said. “Oto isn’t the sort you want to cross.”
The other soldier seemed to recognize his name, and he glared at Sammy, who said something back. Oto glanced at her. His expression was unreadable.
Sammy reached for his clothes and began to put them on, starting with his trousers. His cast was gone, and he moved his leg stiffly to get it in the pant leg. That worried Louise, but she had more immediate concerns.
“What did you tell him?” she asked.
“That you’ve come to check on his malaria.”
“He’s not going to believe that. How would I even know he was here?”
“Presumably, the same way you figured out I was here. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. My brother left him on guard duty for a reason. Oto is as stupid as he is mean and ugly. Pretend to examine him. We’ll keep talking—you can tell me what this is all about.”
Louise took a tentative step toward Oto. The man glared back. Veins stood out on his neck. He glanced to one side, and following his gaze, she saw his rifle against the wall. He was thinking about going for his gun.
Then he must be scared of you, too.
When she’d treated him in the hospital, he’d initially refused to take his quinine. Only when Captain Mori yelled at him had he done it. Oto must have thought she was going to poison him. He was apparently still afraid. This boosted her confidence.
Louise spoke in soothing terms, as if trying to comfort him, though her words were directed to Sammy, whom she didn’t look at. “Where is your cast? Why did you take it off?”
“That was my brother’s idea.”
“Your leg is still healing. You should have worn it another three weeks.”
“I know. That’s why he had it cut off. He’s trying to immobilize me.”
“Oh, I see.” She put her fingers on Oto’s throat, as if checking his pulse. The man closed his eyes rather than look her in the face. “This man is healthy. I wish Dr. Claypool would recover like this.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to look for you.”
“Louise.”
He sounded like he was going to say something else but stopped. Unlike Oto, however, he didn’t look away, but held her gaze. Louise took a breath, and for the first time she felt something for this man. Not merely a nurse for her patient.
“I would have come for any of my boys.”
“I know.” Sammy stopped, and she thought that he was going to turn away from whatever had been on his tongue a moment earlier. Then he said in a soft voice, “That is what makes you special, Louise.”
Something moved inside her breast, a feeling so physical and undeniable it was like watching a green shoot rise from the warm spring soil. But before it could leaf out, Oto opened his eyes and scowled.
Louise forced herself to speak in a normal tone. “What is your brother going to do to you?”
“Turn me over to his colonel. I don’t know if he’s told his colonel yet, but he’ll know soon enough.”
“Would your brother really do that to you?”
“He would.” There was no uncertainty in Sammy’s voice. “It’s just a question of getting me down to headquarters. Then they’ll have their way with me, I suppose.”
“But he’s your brother.”
“My brother is a loyal subject of the emperor and the Imperial Japanese Army, and happy to prove it. We’d have returned already except for the matter of Kozlowski, Fárez, and the rest. They were spotted at another village not far from here, and my brother set out to bring them in. Yoshi wants a total victory.”
“How did he know about the partisans? Did you tell him?”
“Of course not!”
His voice was too sharp, and Oto pulled back. He said something to Sammy, and the two men argued again. It ended with Oto grunting and looking displeased.
“I told Oto he needs more quinine,” Sammy said. “He says he doesn’t need it.”
“He’s right. I’m not wasting more quinine on him.”
“I was covering my raised voice—you can give him whatever you’d like. A sugar pill or something.”
“If I had sugar, I wouldn’t waste that, either. But yes, I can give him a bicarbonate of soda.”
“Unbutton his shirt,” Sammy said. “You need to check his belly.”
Louise didn’t need to do any such thing but understood Sammy’s reasoning. Keep the conversation going. She reached out to unbutton Oto’s shirt, but he slapped her hand away. Sammy spoke sternly, and finally Oto turned away, as if unable to bear her looking. His belly was thick, but hairless, with a pink, ropy scar running from his navel, across his ribs, and to his back. It was an ugly wound that nobody had bothered to suture.
The nurse in her rebelled at that. She was less concerned with how unsightly it looked than knowing it must cause him discomfort being improperly healed. Someone had done this man wrong.
“So you didn’t tell your brother?” she asked again.
“Of course I didn’t. I know nothing, I saw nothing. Some Americans may or may not have run off when the Japanese came—I can’t be sure because you’d given me morphine to keep me quiet. That was my story. Not sure if he believed me or not.”
“Then how did your brother find out about Kozlowski and the
others?”
“What does everyone call it? The bamboo telegraph?”
“Okay, Sammy. I believe you.” And she did.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said. “There’s no point. Louise, I’m a dead man. And even if I weren’t, I’d have nothing to live for.”
“Don’t say that.”
“So you just wanted to check on me?”
“Well, no,” she admitted. “I brought your poetry book.” She put her hand on the pocket of her dress but didn’t take it out in front of Oto. “Thought you might want that.”
“I do, thank you.” Sammy sounded surprised and touched. “It will give me something to do instead of eating myself with my own worries. And that’s all?”
Louise lowered her head as she prodded around Oto’s abdomen, looking for some mysterious and nonexistent symptom of malaria. She made a sound of concern that drew the man’s attention.
Could she tell Sammy about the injured lieutenant? Could she really trust that he hadn’t said anything to Captain Mori? Even if Sammy’s story of being turned over to the secret police was true, maybe he’d use her information to get back in his brother’s good graces.
“Oto’s going to get suspicious in a minute,” Sammy said as she felt at the man’s ribs without speaking. “If you have something to say, you’d better get to it.”
“Jimmy Fárez is back in Cascadas.”
“What? When?”
“He came to fetch me. Kozlowski is injured—he was shot by your brother’s men. I told Fárez that I’d meet him at the cascades after dark and I’d go see to the lieutenant’s injuries. It sounds like he’ll die if he doesn’t get help.”
“Are the guards letting you come and go?”
“No,” she said. “I had a bit of trouble getting out. They’ll never let me leave at night.”
Oto said something. He gestured with his hands and started to button up his shirt.
“Now he thinks you’re done and just trying to humiliate him. He’s going to kick you out if you don’t come up with something better than malaria.”
“What are the Japanese most afraid of here?”
The Year of Counting Souls Page 23