Decision

When Alex woke up, it was already the next morning. Looking around at the lavish, ornate decorations, he felt a bit confused—had he really left that terrifying Auschwitz?

Just as he was wondering, a delighted voice rang in his ears. It was Audrey Hepburn.

"Brother, you're finally awake!" Audrey had changed into a different set of clothes. After a simple wash, her face had regained some color. Seeing Alex awake, she ran over joyfully. Behind her, Ella and a middle-aged man walked over slowly.

Alex looked at the straight-backed middle-aged man, a faint flicker of recognition stirring. "You are?"

"Toby Manes. Thank you for saving us yesterday." The middle-aged man walked to Alex's bedside, gave a proper military salute, his face full of gratitude.

Alex snapped back to reality, propped himself up, and sat up. His gaze passed through the window beside the bed—beyond the clear glass was a stretch of gray buildings and a large open space. Seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar scene, Alex immediately realized he was in White Glove's three-story building!

"How's the camp now?" Taking a deep breath, Alex jumped off the bed, tidying himself up as he looked at Toby Manes and asked.

"Everything's under control." Toby's expression turned serious as he addressed the matter. "But getting out of here..." He trailed off, not finishing. Auschwitz was in Poland, deep in German-occupied territory. Escaping would be extremely difficult.

"I know that!" Alex said helplessly. A group of four or five people would have a smaller target and an easier time escaping. But circumstances wouldn't allow it—he never expected things to end up like this. Sneaking away with just Audrey and Ella was something Alex simply couldn't bring himself to do.

Alex finished tidying up and walked out of the building. He glanced at the Wall of Death across the open ground, stood in a daze for a while, then finally spoke. "The other camps nearby haven't noticed anything unusual here, have they?"

"No, they haven't even sent anyone to check." Toby felt a bit fortunate. It was really lucky that such a big commotion yesterday hadn't drawn any Germans to investigate.

"Dying here, a gunshot here—no one cares." Alex walked out of the building and headed toward an office block on one side. "Are the others all right? Have the Germans been locked up?"

"Don't worry, everything's fine!" Toby nodded, hesitating as if he wanted to say something.

Alex noticed Toby's expression and asked, puzzled, "What's wrong?"

"About twenty thousand of us were captured this time. The others were probably sent to other camps. I was thinking... I was thinking..."

A godsend. After seizing the entire Auschwitz camp, Alex naturally couldn't just escape alone. He needed to find a way to save everyone in the camp. But relying solely on the people in this camp obviously wasn't enough. If they had those twenty thousand prisoners, though, that would change everything.

But before that, Alex had something more important to do.

Not waiting for Toby to finish, Alex waved him off. "Alright, I understand. We'll rescue them!" With that, Alex stepped into the office, searched around, and quickly found a telegraph machine.

Alex rapidly sent out a string of Morse code. While waiting for a reply, he turned to Audrey, who had been following him the whole time. "Audrey, where's Marx?"

"Marx is resting. Not long after you passed out yesterday, he did too." It wasn't Audrey who spoke, but Ella beside her. After yesterday's battle, she truly understood Alex's strength and felt even more at ease leaving Audrey with him.

Alex nodded at that, then turned back to Toby. "How many guns and bullets do we have in the camp?"

"The camp's ammunition stock isn't large—enough for only a thousand people." The first thing Toby did after taking over the camp was find the armory, but there wasn't much stock. The small amount of ammunition could only cover the camp's daily needs.

"Enough for a surprise attack, right?" Alex frowned, a little worried.

"More than enough!" Toby guessed what Alex was planning, and a hint of joy appeared on his rugged face.

"Good. Send someone to prepare, and try to pick some good hands."

Just as he said that, the telegraph machine responded. Reading the reply, Alex frowned again. "This is trouble now!"

In 1940, Germany and the Soviet Union hadn't gone to war yet, which completely dashed Alex's original plan to lead everyone into the Soviet Union. The Soviets wouldn't risk offending Little Mustache by taking in a group of "fugitives" like them.

Finding a map in the office, Alex stared at it for a long time, his head aching. He wasn't a professional, after all. Spotting Toby nearby, he quickly pulled him over, pointed at the map, and said, "Toby, see if there's any way to fight our way out?" Auschwitz was in Poland, deep in the rear of German-occupied territory. It was fairly close to the Soviet Union, but far, far too far from France—almost across half the European continent.

Toby shook his head with a bitter smile. "Other than escaping into the Soviet Union, we have no other choice."

"Forget that idea." Alex waved the telegram paper in his hand, looking dejected. "The Soviets won't agree."

The telegram Alex had sent earlier was to contact Howard, hoping he could pull some strings with the Soviets so they could slip into the Soviet Union safely. Unfortunately, Howard gave him tragic news: Germany and the Soviet Union had long been colluding in secret. They would never agree.

Toby muttered a curse under his breath, his face full of reluctance. "Then we'll have to fight our way back!"

"That's suicide!" Alex rolled his eyes in exasperation. They were still over a thousand miles from the German-French front line, right in German territory. "Fight our way back"—easy to say, but they'd probably be surrounded and wiped out before they got far.

Just then, the telegraph machine rang again.

Alex read the decrypted message, looked at the map on the table, stood stunned for a while, and finally handed the paper to Toby. "What do you think? Is this feasible?"

Toby took the paper, glanced at it, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. Then he looked down at the map, raised his head after a moment, and said to Alex, "It's feasible, but very risky."

"Still better than staying in this godforsaken place!" Hearing Toby say that, Alex couldn't help but shout excitedly. Finally, he could leave this hellish place.

Toby nodded, then asked with a hint of doubt, "Are you sure your friend can pull it off? Once we make a move, there's no turning back."

Alex waved his hand, full of confidence, pointing at the paper. "Do you know who he is? Howard Stark, the biggest arms dealer in America. Something like this is no problem for him."

Hearing that, Toby broke into a smile. "Then I can rest easy."

P.S. Scorpion didn't have any drafts saved up, and writing this required looking up information on the fly. The update was late—hope you'll forgive me!