by Gary Paulsen
Footsteps sounded in the hall. When the door opened, Cody knew who it was without looking.
Sidoron was carrying a black swagger stick. He moved his large frame behind the small desk and sat down.
“How have you been, White Fox?”
Cody was silent.
“Come now. We’re not going to get anywhere like this. If I remember correctly, you escaped before I had a chance to show you how easily I am able to convince people of their need to talk.” He reached over the desk and slapped Cody across the cheek with the stick, leaving an ugly red welt. “You made me a laughingstock. I lost an important promotion because of you.”
Cody studied the colonel through cold gray eyes. Sidoron had grown flabby eating the best foods and sitting behind a desk all day. With the martial arts Rico had taught Cody at the warehouse, he knew he could take him even with his hands tied.
But it wasn’t time.
“What are you thinking, White Fox? I can tell you’ve changed considerably since you were here. You have a different look about you and you don’t seem afraid of me anymore. What kinds of things have you been doing? We’ve heard stories, of course, but why don’t you tell us which ones are true?”
Silence.
“When you escaped with your friend Major McLaughlin, where did she take you? Did you go to the rebel base?” Sidoron paused. “I need to know the location of that base. It would restore the confidence my superior officers once had in me.”
He walked around the desk. “Still don’t want to talk to me? What a pity, seeing that we are such old friends. No matter.”
Sidoron took his combat knife out of its scabbard and started cleaning his fingernails. “Before I’m through with you, White Fox, you’ll beg to speak to me.”
He moved to the door and yelled for the guards.
Two husky soldiers marched in and pulled him off the chair. They dragged him to a corner of the room where a long rope was hanging from the ceiling. Then they tied it to the cord around his hands and hoisted him off the floor.
One of the guards took a rubber hose off a shelf and swung, striking Cody viciously across the ribs.
Instinctively Cody drew both feet up and kicked. His boots took the man full in the face and he fell back, holding his broken nose.
Sidoron laughed. “See, I was right. You have changed, White Fox. Too bad you chose not to become one of us. We could have used you. As it is …” He motioned to the second guard. “Show him we’re serious. Extremely serious.”
The guard picked up a coiled whip and shook it out.
CHAPTER 16
It was midnight. Jake opened the door of his room and peered out. The guard Sidoron had stationed outside the guest quarters was snoring.
Jake tiptoed past him and out the side door. The searchlight from the tower was sweeping the grounds. He flattened himself against the wall until the light moved away.
The instant it was gone he darted across to the main building and slipped inside. Cody had told him that Sidoron would be holding him either in one of the cages or in the interrogation room.
Jake crept down the long corridor and pushed the door open. Cody was still hanging from the ceiling. His back was raw and bloody and he was either unconscious … or dead.
The major grabbed the nearest chair and stood on it to cut the rope. Cody fell into his arms.
“I knew this was a bad idea. Why did I ever listen to you?” He helped Cody sit up. “Wake up, kid. You gotta be okay.”
One eye opened and then the other. Cody’s voice was low, strained. “What makes you think I’m not okay, Major?”
“You’re all right?”
Cody flexed his sore shoulders and rubbed his aching wrists. “It’s a trick I learned from Toni. Let them beat on you a while. Then make them think you’re a lot worse off than you are and they’ll leave you alone. They thought I was so bad off they didn’t even leave a guard.”
“Your back looks pretty rough. Are you going to be able to pull off your part of the mission?”
“I didn’t come this far to quit now.”
Jake handed Cody his laser gun. “Let’s do it.”
Cody led the way down the hall to the back of the building. “The cages are back here,” he whispered. “The moon’s out. We should be able to see fairly well.”
They quietly made their way down the steps to the group of cells buried in the ground. Cody checked the first one. It was empty. A low moan came from the cell on the end.
“Trisha,” Jake called softly. “Are you here?”
Cody took his piece of wire from inside his boot, scooted to the other side and picked the lock on the cage door.
At the bottom of the filthy hole huddled in the corner was a mass of tangled red hair.
“Trisha.” Jake jumped down. “We’ve come to take you out of here.”
The hair moved and Trisha looked up. She was barely recognizable. Her face was swollen and purple and some of her teeth were missing. “Is it … really you or am I dreaming?”
“It’s me. We have to hurry. Give Cody your hand.”
Trisha tried to stand and fell back against the cell wall.
“They’ve beat her up bad, Cody. I’m going to lift her out.”
Jake sat her on the edge of the hole and pulled himself out beside her. “I’ve got some explosives to set. You go with Cody and he’ll get you to safety. Can you do it?”
Trisha nodded, her voice hardly audible. “I guess I have to.”
Jake disappeared into the darkness and Cody helped Trisha to her feet. They hobbled to the bushes near the next building and waited for the searchlight to sweep across.
“We’re going to have to move fast now, Trisha. Ready?”
“I’m ready.”
Cody put his arm around her waist and half pulled her across the open compound to the back of the children’s barracks. He was breathing hard. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Sliding under the barracks, he made his way to the opening in the floor he’d made when he was an inmate. He pushed up on it, laid it aside and wriggled through, surprised no one had ever found the hole.
In the dim light he walked down the row of beds to one special cot and sat down. Gently he shook the sleepy-eyed five-year-old girl awake.
“Cody!” She wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, Cody. You said you’d come back for me. It’s been so long I thought you forgot me.”
There was a stir among the other kids. Soon everyone was awake. When they saw Cody they rushed to his side.
He held his finger to his lips. “Everybody listen. We’re getting out of here. I want you to stay together and do what I tell you. No questions.”
Cody took them to the opening and dropped through. One by one they followed him. He edged out from under the barracks and sat next to Trisha. “Keep an eye on these guys, will you? If the shooting starts before I get back, head for the fence. Matt and Nick should have it cut by now.”
The next barracks would be harder. Cody wasn’t sure if any of the adults would remember him. He waited for the light to fade away and then slipped through the door. At the first cot he came to, he put his hand on the sleeping man’s shoulder and shook him.
“What?” The man sat up. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m … the White Fox. I’ve come to help you escape. Wake up the rest of the men and hide under the building. Send someone to spread the word to the other barracks. When the shooting starts, everybody head for the east fence as fast as you can. There’ll be someone waiting there to meet you and help get you out.”
“Cody.” An older man who used to peel potatoes when Cody worked in the kitchen sat up on his cot. “It’s good to see you, son. You’re quite a hero around here.”
“Good to see you too, Herman. Now get everybody up and hurry. Time’s running out.”
Cody cracked the door to check the location of the searchlight and then quickly dove underneath the barracks.
What he intended to do next
he had deliberately withheld from Jake. Their plan had been for Jake to set the necessary explosives and meet Cody along with the inmates at the east fence, where Nick and Matt would be waiting and watching.
Cody had known all along that it couldn’t end like that. He still had one piece of unfinished business—Sidoron.
The open compound was the most dangerous place to be and Cody had to time his move perfectly. The instant the light moved in a different direction he ran full blast toward the main building and slid to a stop, hiding in the shadows.
Sidoron’s private quarters were next to his office. Cody knew them well because he had delivered the colonel’s meals there every day for more than a year.
He opened the door and silently crept in. The guard was asleep in a chair outside the office. Cody stole up beside him and landed a brutal karate chop on the side of his neck. The guard slumped over and fell to the floor.
The office door was locked. Cody had known it would be. He took his piece of wire, jiggled it inside the keyhole and turned the knob.
It was dark in the office and Cody stumbled over a chair, sending it crashing across the room.
“Behren, is that you?”
Cody leaped to his feet and burst into Sidoron’s bedroom with his laser gun leveled in front of him.
“Surprise, Colonel.”
Sidoron hastily pulled the black sleeping mask off his face. “White Fox! How did you—”
“Keep your voice down, Colonel. We don’t want to wake anybody.”
“You’ll never get away with this.”
“Away with what, Colonel? What do you think I should do with you? Maybe you’d like to try a little of the rubber hose treatment, or we could go get the whip your goons used on me. I know, maybe I’ll take my knife and skin you alive.”
“Don’t be too hasty, White Fox. I’m a powerful man. I have the ability to make you rich.”
“Really? How much is your murdering scumbag life worth these days, Sidoron? A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?”
“Whatever you want. Just name it.”
“I want my friend Luther Swift back from the dead and all the others you tortured and killed.” Cody gestured with the laser gun. “Get out of bed.”
Sidoron threw back the covers and stood on the wooden floor in a long white nightshirt, his feet bare.
Cody backed up and set his gun on the floor. “How tough are you when you have to do your own fighting, Sidoron?”
“You will find I am tough enough. You are a fool, White Fox.” Sidoron lunged at him. Cody ducked, brought his right leg up and landed a solid kick to the man’s jaw. The colonel staggered backward, regained his balance and swung, hitting Cody in the shoulder.
Before Sidoron could swing again, Cody hit him twice in the stomach, jumped and smashed his feet into the man’s chest.
The colonel wobbled and gasped for breath.
“You’re nothing, Sidoron. I could easily kill you with my bare hands.” Cody picked up his gun in disgust. “Instead I think I’ll do worse. I’m going to humiliate you to the point that you’ll be lucky if the CCR will allow you to dig ditches for them. Let’s go for a little walk.”
An explosion rocked the building. Cody poked Sidoron in the ribs with his gun. “Don’t worry about a thing, Colonel. That’s just the sound of your kingdom crashing down around you. The guard towers probably aren’t there anymore.”
He pushed the portly man down the hall to the back door. Sidoron turned and pleaded, “You don’t have to do this, White Fox. Think about it. I could set you up in the black market. We could be partners. There is no limit to what we could make together.”
Cody laughed, a low chuckle with no humor in it. “I’d rather be partners with a rattlesnake. Open the door.”
Outside they could hear machine-gun fire and more explosions. Cody ignored them.
“Get in the cage, Colonel. The one on the end. You’ll find it open.”
Sidoron crawled down into the same hole they had found Trisha in earlier. Cody secured the iron grate on top and locked it. “Now hand up your clothes.”
“This is an outrage.”
“Do it or you’re dead.”
The white nightshirt found its way through the iron bars. Just as Cody pulled it out a burst of machine-gun fire came at him from somewhere near the kitchen area. He felt a jolt of something red-hot hit him in the side and he fell to the ground.
Without aiming, he pulled the trigger on the laser gun and destroyed the kitchen.
He forced himself to a sitting position and crawled under a nearby truck. The compound was in chaos. The soldiers who were still alive were running everywhere, trying to escape the intermittent explosions. Jake had set at least one plastic explosive under every building in the camp except for the prisoners’ barracks.
Cody wondered about the prisoners. He hoped Toni had seen the first explosion and flown in to rescue them.
Before he blacked out Cody had one last thought. It was, oddly enough, about Rachel. It would have been nice to see her again. She was a good friend.
CHAPTER 17
The flies buzzed around his wounds and refused to give him any peace. Cody finally opened his eyes and discovered that it was midmorning. From his hiding place under the burned-out truck he could see that there wasn’t much left of the camp.
All the vehicles had been destroyed and any soldiers who had lived through the attack had fled on foot.
Cody was amazed that he was still alive. Now that it was daylight he could see where he’d been hit. A large chunk of flesh had been torn out of his side. Fortunately the wound had crusted over with blood during the night.
It hurt to move but he knew he had no choice. Once the CCR received news of the raid it would send troops out in force.
A water faucet was sticking out of the ground near the end of the truck. Cody crawled to it and turned the valve, letting the cold water wash over his face. Then he drank his fill.
Painfully he inched to his feet, slung his gun on his good side and started walking through the smoke and debris.
Charred bodies littered the ground around him. Most of the buildings were flattened and the guard towers no longer existed. Nothing but pieces was left of the building where he used to attend indoctrination classes.
He walked to the children’s barracks and threw open the door. It was empty except for the cots. He slit one of the mattresses and ripped off its thin cotton covering to use as bandages and protection from the sun.
Outside he looked around for something he could carry that would hold water. But there was nothing.
The last time he had left the prison camp he’d gone out a narrow tunnel in the dead of night and escaped through the torturous desert. This time he would leave in broad daylight through what was left of the front gate and take the road. The CCR wouldn’t be looking for one person and if he heard a patrol he could always get off the road and hide.
His steps were labored and he knew he wasn’t making very good time. About a mile from camp he was wishing he’d looked harder for something to hold water.
It dawned on him that he hadn’t gone back to check on Sidoron. He chuckled and the effort made him cough. “I sure wouldn’t want to be in the colonel’s place when half the Republic army shows up and finds him locked in that cage without his clothes.”
A slight breeze blew and there were a few clouds overhead. Cody was grateful. He sat down on the side of the road to rest and noticed that his wound had broken open and was bleeding.
He sighed. “I don’t even know where I’m going. Jake and the others are probably safe at the rebel base by now. The camp by the sand dunes has most likely been disassembled now that the brass has their shipment of trilithium.
“Maybe I’ll go east. That’s it. I’ve never seen that part of the country.” He lay down on his side in the dirt. I’ll get started as soon as I rest awhile—did I say that out loud or did I think it? It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.…
CHAPTER 18<
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“I’ve had this dream before.” Cody moaned.
This was just like the time with Rachel, when he’d been shot in the shoulder and dreamed that Toni had found him in her chopper.
But this time it seemed so real. He could hear other people talking too and he even thought he heard a familiar bark.
“Wait a minute. Mike wasn’t in my dream.” His eyes fluttered open and he saw Jake Christmas leaning over him. Cody’s eyes closed again. “You’re not supposed to be here,” he muttered, and then he dozed off to the whirring of chopper blades.
The next time he opened his eyes he felt something cold and wet on his forehead. He reached up to touch it. It was a towel.
Cody frowned. “I must be hallucinating again.” He looked to the side and discovered he was in some sort of hospital ward. There were rows of white beds beside him; some of them held patients.
It didn’t make sense. If the CCR had found him, they would probably have shot him on the spot. This had to be an American hospital.
He tried to sit up. A roaring, searing pain shot through his side, seemed to take his whole body.
“Hey, cut that out, soldier. How are you going to get well if you tear out all your stitches?”
“Toni?”
“Who else?” The smiling brunette sat gently on the edge of his bed. “We were about to give up on you. The doctor said you’d lost too much blood and he didn’t expect you to live.”
“But I told him you were too ornery to let a little thing like a bullet get you down.” Jake stood over Cody, grinning.
“So it’s true. My dream about the chopper really happened.”
Toni smiled. “You didn’t think we would leave you out there, did you?”
“Major McLaughlin and some other fliers met us right on schedule that night at the prison camp. But by the time we figured out you weren’t with the prisoners it was too late. We had to get them to safety.”
“So they made it out all right?”
“Every last one of them,” Jake said proudly. “The doctors here at the base are helping them to get back to normal physically and then they’ll be taken to the mountains, where they can begin to live their lives again.”
