The medical personnel weren’t like the rest of the CCR. Most of them had been drafted to meet the growing needs in the new country. They resented being stuck in a prison camp and it showed in their crisp businesslike manner.
Cody pushed a metal cart across the hospital floor. It was stacked high with clean sheets, hospital gowns and towels. He stopped in front of the linen closet. It was locked. Everything was kept under lock due to the amount of “borrowing” that went on among the soldiers.
He could have opened the lock himself but it would have given him away, so he pretended to search for an orderly.
Leaving the cart, he walked boldly into the next room. It was a ward with a row of beds along each wall. Most of the beds were full. Dysentery and flu were the biggest problems in the camp right now.
A nurse near the end bed was taking a soldier’s temperature. “White Fox, you know you’re not allowed in here. What are you doing?”
Cody bowed and scratched the back of his neck, trying to look as innocent as possible. “I brought the laundry cart and need to get in the linen cabinet.”
“Go wait in the other room. I’ll send someone.” The nurse turned her back on him and attended to her patient.
Cody bowed again and deliberately went out the wrong door. He found himself in another ward. This one had only a single patient, and a makeshift curtain had been drawn around the bed.
He edged closer to get a better look. The patient was moaning deliriously—in English.
Cody’s heart raced when he thought of what would happen if he was caught in this room. But he had to make sure. He pulled the curtain back.
The major had a bandage wrapped around her head and she was tossing and turning. The doctor had set her dangling arm in a cast. The other arm was solid purple with bruises.
“Major,” Cody whispered urgently. “I am an American. I want to help you. Can you hear me?”
The moaning continued but the tossing stopped. She turned her head and looked directly at him. She started blinking. It took him a few moments to realize she was trying to blink out words using Morse code.
“No give base location. Am acting crazy. Don’t know how much longer can fake …”
Cody leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Hang in there, Major. And stay ready for anything. I’m gonna try and get you out. Can you walk?”
“Yes,” she blinked. A feeble smile made its way to her cracked lips. “Thank God, marines are here.”