'I have, over the last fifteen years, saved two hundred rubles - you don't exactly get overtime as a Russian prisoner! Wladek tried to laugh at the camp's oldest joke. 'I keep the money hidden in a drug bottle, four fifty - ruble notes. When the time comes for you to leave, the money must be sewn into your clothes. I will have already done tins for you.'
'What clothesT asked Wladek.
q have a suit and a shirt I bribed from a guard twelve years ago when I still believed in escape. Not exactly the latest fashion, but they will serve your purpose!
Fifteen years to scrape together two hundred rubles, a shirt and a suit, and the doctor was willing to sacrifice them to Wladek in a moment.
Wladek never again in his life experienced such an act of selflessness.
'Next Thursday will be your only chance,' the doctor continued. 'New prisoners arrive by train at Irkutsk, and the guards always take four people from the kitchen to organise the food truck for the new arrivals.
I have already arranged with the senior cook' - he laughed at the word - 'that in exchange for some drugs you will find yourself on the kitchen truck It was not too hard. No one exactly wants to make the trip there and back - but you will only be making the journey there!
Wladek was still listening intently.
'When you reach the station, wait until the prisoners' train arrives.
Once they are all on the platform, cross the line and get yourself on to the train going to Moscow, which cannot leave until the prisoners' train comes in, as there is only one track outside the station. You must pray that with hundreds of new prisoners milling around the guards will not notice you disappear. From then on you're on your own. Remember if they do spot you, they will sheot you on sight without a second thought. There i_ only one last thing I can do for you. Fifteen years ago when I was brought here, I drew a map from memory of the route from Moscow to Turkey. It may not be totally accurate any longer, but it should be adequate for your purpose. Be sure to check that the Russians haven't taken over Turkey as well. God knows what they have been up to recently.
They may even control France for all I know.'
The doctor walked over to the drug cabinet and took out a large bottle which looked as if it was full of a brown substance. He unscrewed the top and took out an old piece of parchment. The black ink had faded over the years. It was marked October 1904. It showed a route from Moscow to Odessa, and from Odessa to Turkey, seventeen hundred miles to freedom.
'Come to me every morning this week, and we will go over the plan again and again. If you fail, it must not be from lack of preparation.'
Wladek stayed awake each night, gazing at the wolvee sun through the window, rehearsing what he would do in any given situation, preparing himself for every eventuality. In the morning he would go over the plan again and again with the doctor. On the Wednesday evening before Wladek was to try the escape, the doctor folded the map into eight, placed it with the four fifty - ruble notes in a small package and sewed the package into a sleeve of the suit. Wladek took off his clothes, put on the suit and then replaced the prison nniform on top of it. As he put on the uniform again, the doctor's eye caught the Baron's band of silver which Wladek, ever since he had been issued his prison uniform, had always kept above his elbow for fear the guards would spot his only treasure and steal it.
'What's that?' he asked. 'It's quite magnificent.'
'A gift from my father,' said Wladek. 'May I give it to you to show my thanks?' He slipped the band off his wrist and handed it to the doctor.
The doctor stared at the silver band for several moments and bowed his head. 'Never,' he said. 'This can only belong to one person.' He stared silently at the boy. 'Your father must have been a great man.'
Ile doctor placed the band back on Wladeks wrist and shook him warmly by the hand.
'Good luck, Wladek. I hope we never meet agaims They embraced and Nfladek parted for what he prayed was his last night in the prison huL HQ.was unable to sleep at all that night for fear one of the guards would discover the suit under his prison clothes. When the morning ben sounded, he was already dressed and he made sure that he was not late reporting to the kitchen. The senior prisoner in the kitchen pushed Wladek forward when the guards came for the truck detail. The team chosen were four in all and Wladek was by far the youngest.
'Why this one?' asked the guard, pointing to Wladek - 'He has been at the.
camp for less than a year.'
Madek's heart stopped and he went cold all over. The doctoes plan was going to fail; and there would not be another batch of prisoners coming to the camp for at least three months. By then he would no longer be in the kitchens.