The Red Panda Chronicles

Manhunt, Part 1, October 1939.

The heavy iron door groaned under its own weight, and for a moment it seemed as if the

burly guards would be unequal to the task of shifting it.

At that instant the massive hinges creaked and the door began to slide on its track.

The afternoon sun streamed in through the gate, and the man called Sevens stepped toward it instinctively.

A uniformed guard quickly pulled him back to reality.

"'Hey!' the guard snapped. "'Hold your horses, pal. We ain't walking out of here. Seven looked at the man

startled, but without other apparent reaction. Get over here, the guard snapped again. Don't

make me come get you. Take it easy, Charlie, another guard called. That one don't speak no English.

Charlie blinked in surprise.

The prisoner in front of him looked wholly unremarkable.

"'Pull the other one,' he barked to his partner.

"'Nah, John Doe, no papers,' came to reply.

"'They think he's a pole.'

Charlie grunted.

"'He was, maybe.

"'I don't guess there's much a Poland left.' "'Still Polish,' a third guard argued, and he still doesn't speak English.

"'You Polish?' Charlie asked the prisoner, pointing his nightstick as he did so.

"'Polish?'

Seven replied with a garbill of speech

"'that he hoped Charlie could not understand,

...