“Slow down now, bloke,” Sergeant Martin said. “Tell me again exactly what happened.”

I was in the Aussie barracks, huddled in a corner with Sergeant Martin, Willy, and Davis. Davis stood with his gigantic arms crossed. Just the look on his face gave me the heebie-jeebies. Back home I used to read comic books like Amazing Stories and Terrifying Tales, and sometimes they had stories about robots from other planets. I loved reading them, and now Davis reminded me of one of those robots. I wasn’t sure I’d heard Davis speak a single word. He seemed like a machine.

“They beat him up real bad, Sergeant Martin,” I said. “Gunny is tough. He’s like a piece of iron, and he’s got a Marine’s mind. But a man can only take so much. They wouldn’t stop wailing on him, and then they dragged him off. I need to find out where they’re keeping him, and see if there’s a way to get him out.”

Martin was quiet for a moment. Then he took a deep breath. “All right, Henry,” he said. “First things first. We find out where he his.”

He stood up, and I was again taken aback by the man’s size.

“2nd! Listen up,” Martin called. “We got us a Yank NCO who at this very moment is being horribly mistreated by our enemies. Every able-bodied man in the barracks scour the camp. Find out where they’re keeping him. Move out.”

Without hesitation, about a dozen men left the barracks and spread out.

“Nothing to do now but wait,” Martin said.

“What happened to that guy Smitty, the one you put in the cage instead of me?” I asked.

A hand reached out and clapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and nearly jumped with joy to see Smitty’s face smiling down at me.

“Hello, mate,” Smitty said.

“Hey there!” I said, standing up. “Are you okay?”

Smitty stooped a little and moved slowly, but otherwise he looked to be in remarkably good shape.

“How did you get out?” I asked.

“Oh, it wasn’t too bad,” Smitty said. “Worst part was the blowies and bities swarming in at night and treating ole Smitty like he was a living, breathing chow line. Some guard let me out this morning. Just opened up the cage and walked away. So I made tracks back here right away afore he changed his mind. Corpsman Howard got me patched up and none the worse. Everything worked out. Just like we said.”

“I’m glad you’re all right,” I said.

“Bah. Weren’t nothing compared to what you did for Sergeant Martin there, laddie. You could have gotten yourself skewered like a shrimp. I only took a nap in a box. It’s a fair trade.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. And don’t you worry about Gunny. Sergeant Martin is the best animal in the entire AIF. We’ll find your mate, and we’ll come up with a way to get him out,” Smitty said.

I must have had a look of complete confusion on my face.

“Something wrong, Henry?” Willy asked.

“No … I … just … I don’t have any idea what Smitty just said,” I confessed.

The Aussies laughed and laughed. All of them clapped me on the back.

“What he means is Sergeant Martin here is the best noncom in the 2nd Australian Imperial Force. When an Aussie is servin’ with a right good sergeant like Marty here, you call ’em an animal. It’s a compliment, is what it is. And Sergeant Martin here is a beaut. He’ll figure out a way to get your animal back,” Willy said.

“I feel like I should go out and search for Gunny, too,” I said.

“Private, you don’t answer to me,” Sergeant Martin said. “But I think that’s a bad idea. That bloke you call Scarface has a talent for showing up in the most unexpected places. And when he does, he takes a bloody instant dislike to you. You sit tight. My men are combing this camp right now. We’ve already got eyes and ears in a lot of places around here. We’ll come up with his location in short order.”

Part of me thought Sergeant Martin made a lot of sense. So far every time I’d run into Scarface all I’d done was get the daylights beaten out of me. Maybe sitting tight was a good idea. But the other part of me knew Gunny was out there and I should be doing something to get him back.

I stood up and paced back and forth.

“I don’t know. Poor Gunny is out there suffering who knows what on account of me.”

“Just by watching you, I can tell a lot about this Gunny of yours,” Sergeant Martin said. “You’re willing to risk your life to save him. That says a lot about a man.”

“Your men were willing to do the same for you,” I said.

“True. I try to treat my men well. Make sure they get trained. Get the supplies they need. Make fair decisions for them. But even doing all that don’t always win you loyalty.”

“They seem pretty loyal to you, Sergeant,” I said.

“I suppose they are. But you got something different here, Henry. A different kind of loyalty, the rare kind. What makes you willing to die for this man?”

I was quiet for a moment. A hot breeze picked up and blew through the barracks. Flies buzzed around some of the sick and wounded. Sergeant Martin had eyes as blue as ice. He waited.

“Next to my grandfather, Gunny was maybe the first person in my life who never made me feel like I was a burden to them.”

Sergeant Martin looked taken aback. He considered my words for a moment.

“What about your mum and pops?”

“My mother died when I was seven. My dad … he … changed after she died.”

“Ah,” Sergeant Martin said. He let the words sit for a moment.

“Let me guess,” he said. “After your mum died, he started drinking. Got angry at the world. When he was most angry, he took it out on your hide. ’Cause you reminded him of her. So he tuned ya up a time or two. And your grandpops tried but was too old or couldn’t control him. That about right?”

“Yes. Except it was more than a time or two. It got to be … a lot. How did you know?”

“Let’s just say you’re not the only one with that sad story to tell. So you didn’t see any way out except signing up to fight?”

“Yes.” For some reason, telling Sergeant Martin all this was making me feel lighter. Like I didn’t have to carry everything any more. I looked out into the camp. Then Sergeant Martin shocked me back to reality.

“How old are you, Henry, fourteen? Fifteen?”

My head snapped around, and I looked at Sergeant Martin with wide eyes.

“Why would you say something like that? I’m … of course … I’m … I couldn’t get in … I’m eighteen,” I stuttered, wondering if I could sound any less convincing.

“Sure you are. And I’m the prime minister of Australia.”

“No. It’s true. I swear. I’m eighteen. The Corps wouldn’t let me in if I was underage.”

“Really? You didn’t have a doctored-up piece a paper sayin’ you was born a few years earlier? You’re a good-sized bloke. Look older at first glance. But despite all that bruising and swelling, you got a baby face gives you straight away.”

“No disrespect, Sergeant, but you’re completely wrong.”

“You don’t need to lie to me, lad,” Sergeant Martin said.

“I’m not.”

“When Gunny came to get you, he was right mad. Yelling at you for risking your life. But every man here has risked his life. It didn’t make any sense to me. Not at first. Then he said something about you being ‘special,’ but he couldn’t say why. That got me wondering. Because excuse me for saying so, Henry, but you don’t seem special in no particular way that I can see. Aside from the fact you’re one brave Yank, saving my neck like you did. So I puzzled on it for a while. And that’s it. Gunny knows, don’t he? He’s been protecting you the whole time.”

I was quiet. Colonel Forsythe might have told Gunny or Jams they were shipping me out before the bombs started dropping. But if he had, Gunny’d never said anything about it to me.

From the very first day I met him, Gunny had looked out for me. He didn’t let me out of any duties or anything. But he made me a Marine. He was always checking and double-checking my gear. Teaching me how to shoot better on the range. I could still hear his voice: Aim small, miss small, Tree. And whether he knew for sure that I was underage or just guessed it, he never said anything about it and treated me like an adult.

Now Sergeant Martin had figured out my secret, too.

“Look, kid, you go on pretending you are who you say you are. For all I know you could be fourteen or eighty-seven. I’ll help you and go on helping you till it ain’t physically possible for me to help no more. We’re brothers, lad. Age don’t matter.”

So I told Sergeant Martin everything. When I got to the part about how the colonel had told me I was going home right as the bombs started dropping, Sergeant Martin laughed out loud.

“Sorry, mate,” he said, laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes. “That has to be the worst case of bad luck I ever heard tell of.”

“Yeah, well, the Japanese sunk the ship I was supposed to leave on,” I said.

This brought another round of laughter from him.

“Lad, I have to say, that is rich,” he said as he finally got himself under control. “Don’t worry none, Henry, your secret is safe with me.”

He was still chuckling when Willy came rushing back into the barracks, sweating and out of breath.

“Good news,” he said, panting. “We know where your animal is, Henry.”