“Where would we go if we did get out?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know,” I admitted finally. “We should at least look. So that we know a way if it comes to that. If the worst happens...” I tried to imagine what the worst might be, but found that I could not. “Saul, we can do this, but I need your help.”

I expected him to argue further with me, but he did not. “Fine,” he relented.

“You’re going to help me?” I asked.

He nodded reluctantly, not meeting my eyes. “I will go with you tomorrow night and we will see if there is a way out.” Leaving went against everything Saul wanted and believed in, but he was willing to look for a way for me. “But only to check in case we need somewhere to go in an emergency. We are not leaving.” His voice was firm.

The next night he met me outside the tunnel. “What about the grate above the annex where we read?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It’s welded shut.”

“You tried to open it? I’m surprised.”

He smiled. “There are a great many things about me that might surprise you, Sadie Gault.” Then his expression grew serious again. “But I did pass another tunnel once when I went past the annex.” He started in that direction and I followed him, our arms bumping into one another occasionally as we navigated the narrow tunnel side by side. “I think there may be a path here.” He led me down a pipe, but it was a dead end, walled off.

“We have to follow the water,” I said.

We tried a different tunnel, but it was a circular route and led us back to the chamber. Another failure. Finally, we followed the tunnel to where it grew wider, the water rushing more fiercely. I saw for the first time since we had come the slatted boards across the water where Papa had fallen and drowned. I stopped, tears filling my eyes.

Saul walked up beside me and put his hand on my shoulder, seeming to sense my pain. “Your father, he would have been very proud of you,” he offered. “The way you have managed in the sewer and taken care of your mother.” I did not answer. We stood for several seconds, neither speaking. “Come,” he said at last. “I think the river is this way.” I thought for a second that he meant the sewer river, which made no sense—we were already standing on its banks. But as he led me in an unfamiliar direction and the water began to flow harder and faster, I realized he meant the Wisła River and the outside world.

As I continued on, the path became more familiar. We were retracing the steps we had taken the night Pawel had led us here, only in reverse. I saw the low, capped pipe we’d had to shimmy through and hoped we would not have to do that again now. Thankfully, Saul led me away from the narrow pipe. “Look, there’s another way over here.” He pointed to a path almost too narrow to fit through, more of a crack in the wall than an actual tunnel. We had to go through single file and I went first, wedging myself into the tight space. It sloped upward as though reaching the street. At last we could see a wide opening where the sewer pipe dumped into a branch of the river, the vast sky beyond. The sight of so much open space, more than I had seen since we had gone into the sewer, was tantalizing. I took a step forward, eager to see the stars that dotted the now-clear sky. We could go, I realized. Saul and I could just keep walking and reach freedom.