Electra

Chapter 24

Maddock resisted the urge to swat a fly off his arm. The slightest movement of the bushes could tip off Tomoaki or one of his men, and they’d be finished. Two men, even SEALs, armed with only knives couldn’t hope to be a match for what looked like dozens of men with automatic weapons.

“We already issued our press releases and reports of criminal activity hours ago.” Spinney somehow managed to sound smug even while face down in the dirt.

“This atoll will be crawling with people any minute!” Carlson added, his voice shaky.

Tomoaki ignored them and beckoned one of his associates. He huddled in close conference with the man for a few seconds until his employee nodded and trotted off toward the camp. Then he pointed his pistol once again at Spinney’s head.

“Get up! Both of you! I will not say it again.”

Spinney and Carlson struggled slowly to their feet, Spinney slapping Carlson away once when their arms tangled.

“March! That way.” Tomoaki pointed with the hand not holding his gun toward the beach on the other side of camp.

“What are we doing?” Spinney’s voice had a demanding tone. He stood in place.

Maddock couldn’t hear the reply, but it was galvanizing whatever it was, because Spinney and Carlson started trooping down the path toward camp. They were flanked on either side by men with automatic rifles. Tomoaki looked around for a few seconds, taking in the destroyed radio tent, the burning jungle, his men leading the EARHART leaders away. Then he stared directly into the tangle of fern, myrtle, and fire plants, where Maddock and Bones hid. The two SEALs held their breath until Tomoaki turned around and strode after Spinney and Carlson.

Bones looked at Maddock. “Now what?”

Maddock eyed the radio tent. There was a clear path to it for them now, but after the destruction they’d witnessed, the chances of finding a working long distance transmitter were heartbreakingly low.

“Not worth the risk to even check the radio tent.”

Bones nodded. “That guy went all postal on it. And even if one of the shortwave units did still work, the antenna’s knocked over and there’s no way we could get that up without anybody noticing. So how do we contact base?”

Maddock looked toward the jungle, where the blaze was stronger now. Acrid smoke penetrated their stand of foliage. “I doubt it’s worth it to snoop around camp looking for a sat-phone someone left behind. Spinney’s sat-phone was probably already confiscated or destroyed by Mizuhi, anyway. Let’s follow that Tomoaki guy and see where they’re taking Spinney and Carlson.”

Bones pulled a branch out of the way of his broad shoulders and adjusted his footing. “What about the crate?” He gently patted the box beside them in the foliage.

“Gotta leave it here. At least I have the photos in my pack, though.”

“Yeah, even you should be able to handle the weight of a bunch of celluloid. But seriously, we can’t take that crate with us. But if we leave it here…what if it burns?”

Maddock contemplated this for a moment. He wondered if the smallpox would be spread if the fire were to crack the porcelain containers open. If there were spores that could be carried by the wind all over the island, or even worse, to the neighboring islands. It was not something he wanted to dwell on. “Then we lose, Bones, and the Navy loses. We need to be light on our feet while we find a way out of here. That’s all there is to it. If we can make contact with the extraction team, then we have a chance to come back here for the other half of the goods.” He hesitated before adding, “If Mizuhi’s men don’t find them first. That’s the other possibility.”

Bones looked out into the smoldering jungle. “Looks like our chances of a successful mission are going up in smoke.” He looked over at the crate, and back to Maddock. “For now at least, they’re looking in the jungle, toward the cave. So let’s do this before Spinney gets out of sight.”

Maddock and Bones slipped from the foliage. Both had smeared their faces with mud while in hiding to keep light from reflecting off their skin, but even so, they knew they had to move with a high degree of stealth. The fire created a lot of light, in addition to the powerful search beams and flashlights Mizuhi used to penetrate the darkness, looking for the two men who had disappeared with two of Amelia Earhart’s strongboxes. The island was crawling with men who were overzealous about controlling this piece of coral even though it now lacked the legendary pilot’s airplane.

He and Bones crept past the rest of the sleep tents, all either unoccupied or burned, until they reached a break in the line of plants they’d been following. From here an exposed path cut directly through the main camp.

“There goes Spinney.” Bones followed Maddock’s pointing finger just in time to see Spinney disappear on the far side of the camp around the path that led to the beach. In the camp, they could see two Mizuhi men standing and conversing, one of them pointing toward the jungle. Although Maddock and Bones couldn’t see them, there were other men still in camp as evidenced by silhouetted figures inside lantern-lit tents and bursts of arguing, some of it in English, some in Japanese. He guessed that some of them were Spinney’s men who had already been searched, stripped of any weapons, and left behind to bicker amongst themselves about the invasion.

Maddock removed a shoe and held it up for Bones to see. The big Indian nodded and removed his footwear as well, holding it in one hand. They waited a minute to see if the two men would stop talking and leave, but they didn’t, so Maddock gave the signal to go ahead anyway. They didn’t want to lose sight of Spinney.

Now barefoot, Maddock and Bones trod light-footed across the crushed coral, soundless as they passed through the edge of camp, the burning jungle to their right. Across the camp they could see that the dive tent had been ripped down, the equipment inside destroyed, including the air compressor. There would be no more business as usual here for quite some time, even without the fire.

Maddock felt Bones tap his shoulder and he saw him pointing. Tomoaki’s procession trod onto the sandy footpath that led out to the beach. The SEALs followed at a safe distance, keeping Tomoaki’s party in visual contact but just out of earshot. Soon they reached the beach and the site of the bombed-out pier.

A small boat lay beached not far ahead of Spinney and Carlson, who were being led at gunpoint by a pair of Tomoaki’s men. Another Mizuhi employee waited in the boat, starting up the motor when he saw Tomoaki approaching. Maddock and Bones lay flat on the sand. No point in being seen now; it was obvious what was happening. Spinney and Carlson were being transported by boat…but to where? Another part of the island? Would they be taken to do a night dive on the wreck site, to prove that the plane had gone over the ledge and survey the damage their whale had caused? They waited until the sound of the boat’s motor had faded into the distance before standing.

Immediately the boat’s purpose and destination became clear. About a mile offshore, the dark outline of the Mizuhi ship was just visible in the moonlight. A single, dim light could be seen on the craft, toward which the smaller vessel made a beeline.

“Dollars to donuts that’s a tender vessel taking them out to the ship,” Maddock said, looking around the beach to make sure they were still unobserved. So far so good.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get out there, but that ship’s going to have satellite communications, radio, the works.” Bones stared out to sea where the small boat churned its way out to the white ship.

“I know how we’re going to get out there.” Maddock stripped off his shirt and hid it along with his shoes under a clump of shrubs at the edge of the beach. Then he stretched and looked out at the ocean, at the black expanse of water between the edge of the reef and the Mizuhi vessel.

“We swim.”