"Weapons? Ammunition? Knife, rope?"

"Yes, yes."

"A flashlight?"

"Below in the compartment."

He grabbed it.

"In."

He squeezed in sideways, and she slammed the hatch shut. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," came his muffled voice. He opened the hatch from inside. "But knock loudly so I can hear above the noise of the jeep. What time is it?"

"Seven forty."

"Get them in as soon as possible and start driving."

"Right now."

Before she climbed into the jeep, Tatiana ran to the side of the path and threw up.

"I don't know what the hurry is," said Penny plaintively. "I'm tired, I had some wine, why can't we just go to sleep and drive back tomorrow?"

"Because we have to be back here tomorrow," said Tatiana, pushing her to the jeep. "Dr. Flanagan, are you coming?"

"Yes, I'm coming, I'm coming. I just want to make sure I haven't forgotten anything."

"We'll be back tomorrow, even if you did."

"That's true. Should we say goodbye to the commandant?"

"I don't think that's necessary," said Tatiana as casually as she could. She wanted to scream. "I already made our goodbyes to him. Besides, we'll see him tomorrow."

They walked outside, dropped their bags in the back.

"Where are your bags, Tania?" Penny asked.

She pointed to them.

"You have so many bags," Martin said. "More and more, it seems like."

"You're never sure what you're going to need on a trip like this. Would you like me to drive? My head is clear. I've had no wine."

"Yes, why don't you?" said Martin, sliding in past the wheel. "But do you know the way in the dark?"

"I mapped out our route earlier to make it easier for us. We go down to Oranienburg and make a left."

"I guess." Martin closed his eyes. "Let's go."

Tatiana drove away from the commandant's house and made her way slowly in the darkness, and then faster and faster. It impressed on her that she wanted to be as far away as soon as possible from Special Camp Number 7.

At 7:55, Nikolai Ouspensky opened his eyes and screamed. He jumped out of bed and ran waving like a madman to the guard by the door of the barracks.

"I must see the commandant!" he yelled. "I must see him now! It's a matter of great urgency, believe me, great urgency!"

"Easy now," the guard said calmly, pushing him away. "What's so urgent all of a sudden?"

"One of their prisoners is about to escape! Tell Commandant Brestov that Captain Alexander Belov is about to escape!"

"What are you talking about? Belov? The one who is shackled in isolation until the trains come?"

"I'm telling you, one of the Red Cross nurses is not an American. She is his Russian wife, and she is about to help him escape!"

Tatiana drove for a minute, two, three. Time and distance suddenly stood still. She could not drive fast enough, nor get enough time to pass before they needed to make their move. She couldn't remember if there was a checkpoint at Oranienburg, and didn't know if she should chance it. Could Special Camp communicate with the checkpoint? Was there a phone? What if someone came into the cell block? What if Karolich came to and started screaming? What if Perdov fell off his chair and became revived by the fall? What if, what if, what if.

"Tania, we're talking to you, did you hear us?" Martin said.

"No, sorry, what?"

They reached Oranienburg and made a left onto a paved road. As soon as the dim lights of the small town were behind them, Tatiana rapped her knuckles twice on the cabin. Penny and Martin were talking and didn't notice.

Ouspensky was brought before Brestov at 8:15.

"What is this all about?" Brestov said, inebriated and smiling. "Who did you say is escaping?"

"Alexander Belov, sir. The Red Cross nurse is his wife."

"What Red Cross nurse?"

"The black-haired one."

"I thought they both had...dark hair."

Ouspensky through his teeth said, "The small one."

"They were both small."

"The thin one! She was a Russian nurse by the name of Tatiana Metanova, and she escaped from the Soviet Union some years back."

"And you're saying she came back for him?"

"Yes."

"How did she know he was here?"

"I don't know that, but sir..."

Brestov laughed and shrugged. "Where is Karolich?" he said to the guard at the door of his quarters. "Ask him to join us, will you?"

"I haven't seen him, sir."

"Well, find him."

"Why don't you talk to the nurse?" said Ouspensky. "She's his wife, why don't you talk to her?"

"I'll have to do that tomorrow, prisoner."

"Tomorrow will be too late!" Ouspensky nearly screeched.

"Well, tonight is not possible. They've left."

He gasped. "Left where?"

"Back to Berlin. Ran out of supplies. They'll be back tomorrow. We'll talk to her then."

Ouspensky took one step back. "Sir, she won't be coming back tomorrow."

"Of course she will."

"Yes. But though I am not a betting man, I will bet that Alexander Belov is no longer in your custody."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Brestov said, rubbing his head. "Belov is in the camp brig. We'll wait for Karolich and then look into it."

"Call the next checkpoint on the road," said Ouspensky. "Have them at least stop the truck until you know Belov is still here."

"I'm not doing anything until my lieutenant gets here." When Brestov tried to get up, he sloppily knocked a number of papers off his table. "Besides, I liked that nurse. I don't think she is capable of what you say."

"Just check on your prisoner," said Ouspensky. "But if I am right, perhaps the commandant could do me a small service and speak to Moscow on my behalf? I'm supposed to be getting shipped out tomorrow. Perhaps a commutation of some sort?" He smiled thinly and beseechingly.

"Let's stop counting the eggs until they've hatched, shall we?"

They waited for Karolich.

There was the sound of doors banging hard against the sides of the truck and then a loud thump as if something fell or was run over.

"Geez, what was that?" exclaimed Penny. "Tania, oh my, did you run over a dog?"

They stopped the jeep and all got out onto the empty road and hurried to the back. The doors of the jeep were swinging open. They stared at them mutely.

"What in heaven's name happened here?" Penny asked.

"I think I must have forgotten to lock them all the way," replied Tatiana. She looked deeper inside the truck. Her backpack was gone.

"Yes, but what did you run over?"

"Nothing."

"Then what was that noise?"

She turned around. A bulky form was lying some twenty meters back. She ran to it.

It was her backpack.

"Your backpack fell out?"

"We must have hit a nasty bump in the road. Look, everything is all right."

"Well, let's get back in," said Martin. "No use standing idly on a dark highway."

"No, you're right," said Tatiana, and then she rushed over to the side of the road and retched, pretending to throw up. They gave her a flask of water to clean her mouth, and stood solicitously by her side. She said, "I'm sorry, I guess I'm not feeling as well as I thought. Martin, would you mind driving the rest of the way? I think I'll lie down in the back."

"Of course, of course."

They helped her in. Before Martin closed the doors, Tatiana looked at them fondly. "Thank you both. For everything."

"Not to worry," said Penny.

Martin, being most careful, locked the doors from the outside. Before he was in the driver's seat, Tatiana opened the hatch to the litter compartment. Alexander was looking at her. The truck pulled away from the roadside.

Martin was driving cautiously-at some thirty kilometers per hour. She knew he wasn't comfortable driving on foreign roads in the dark.

Tatiana heard the muffled talking in the cabin through the small pane of glass. Alexander got out of the compartment and pulled out Karolich's sub-machine gun.

"You should have left the backpack on the road," he whispered, nearly inaudibly. "Now we'll have to throw it and it will be harder to find."

"We'll find it."

"We should leave it."

"All our things are in it. We also have to take this." She pointed to the smaller canvas bag and the ruck.

"No. We will have to make do with one backpack."

"This one has pistols, grenades, a revolver, and rounds for all your weapons."

"Ah."

He stood on his tiptoes, reaching for the latch that kept closed the hatch in the roof.

"Let me get out first," he whispered, "you'll hand me our things, I'll throw them down, and then I'll pull you up."

Once he threw down the backpack, her nurse's bag, the weapons, and pulled her up onto the roof of a moving vehicle from which they were going to jump down a black slope, Tatiana nearly reconsidered. The slope looked like a bottomless pit, but in less than seventy minutes of comfortable driving they could be in the French sector.

The wind was ripping through her hair and she could hardly hear him, but she heard him well enough. "We have to jump, Tania. Push off as hard as you can, land in the grass. I go first."

Alexander didn't even take a breath or count or look back. He just sprang off from a crouching position and jumped, the bag of ammo on his back. He was down the slope and she couldn't see him.