Electra

Chapter 19

“Seems sturdy.” Maddock tested the tray by raising it by only a millimeter and holding it there. He lifted it a little higher, the plastic retaining its integrity. “Here goes.” Maddock held the tray full of ceramic spheres high enough for Bones to hold his big hands beneath it as a safety net.

After a few seconds, he told Bones to look underneath. “We need to make sure the bottoms are intact.” Maddock held the tray of smallpox bombs steady while Bones moved his head beneath it and aimed his light on the undersides of the ceramic vessels.

“Looks like they’re all in one piece. I don’t see any hairline fractures or anything.”

Maddock set the tray down gently on the dirt floor of the cave and then directed his light beam on the second tray at the bottom of the crate. Bones peered in at them.

“They look good from this angle.”

“We’ve got to get a look at the bottoms of these, too.” They repeated the process with this tray, Bones eyeing the lower surface of the containers.

“No cracks, no holes! We’re smallpox free!”

Maddock eased the tray back into the bottom of the crate. Then he and Bones carefully put the first tray back on top of that one and put the lid back on the crate, making sure it was fastened securely. He looked at the sealed crate and shook his head, amazed that his government had enlisted the famous aviatrix to drop these horrendous viral bombs on other human beings.

“What I don’t get,” Maddock said, standing and looking out once again over the jungle, “is why her plane was full of bullet holes when it crashed over what at the time was U.S-held territory. The Japanese were hundreds of miles further north in the Marshalls.”

Bones looked at the crate while he thought. “Maybe she went through there and that’s where she took the hits, but made it back down this way as far as she could until the damage took its toll and she crashed.”

“I find it hard to believe that she would have made it hundreds of miles if the damage was that significant. That plane was shot up pretty bad, with a lot of the rounds going right into the fuel tanks. Also, there’s something else that bothers me.”

“You’ve got no game with the ladies?”

Maddock rolled his eyes. “The Japanese didn’t use that caliber of rounds. I measured one of the bullet holes in the side of the plane using the ruler marks that are etched into my knife blade. They’re definitely 50 millimeters. Not a caliber the Japanese were using at that time.”

“So what are you saying?”

At that moment they heard a steady rushing sound as it began to rain hard outside the cave. They viewed it as a positive thing, since it would make searching for them more difficult, and the water would wash away any of their tracks they may have failed to conceal.

“I’m saying…” Maddock seemed to have trouble formulating what he was about to put forth. “What if she was shot down by our own guys?”

“Friendly fire?”

Maddock shrugged. “I’m thinking not so friendly fire. Jimmy said that some rumors have it that Earhart was captured by the Japanese. If her plane went down in the Marshalls and they found her with these…” He looked at the crate. Bones’ eyes widened.

“You think they would have sent her back down this way to deliver the smallpox to the American forces?”

“Exactly! Or even just to take pictures with those dome cameras and bring them back to the Japanese. And if they did, the U.S. Navy, knowing what weapons she had at her disposal,” again he nodded at the crate, “might have ordered her shot down in order to save more lives.”

Bones stared out at the falling rain. “Amelia Earhart shot down by the U.S. Navy as a counterspy? If the American public knew about that…”

Maddock shook his head. “It’s our job to make sure they never know unless the government wants them to know, Bones. We just need to get this thing back to the Navy that’s all.”

Bones nodded. “This thing and the other crate, too. Speaking of…”

Maddock frowned as he stared out into the beating rain. “We have to go dig up the first crate with the film and bring it back here. Then we can make our extraction call.”

Bones grinned in agreement. “So let’s get that other crate.”

“Agreed. Either we go now under cover of this rain, or we wait until nightfall, what do you think?”

In response, Bones laced his shoes down tight. “Let’s get it done.”

After surveying the immediate area outside the cave to be certain no one was there, the pair of SEALs made their way down to the jungle floor.