The next few seconds were a chaotic whirlwind of black rushing water, bumps and bruises, unintelligible shouts and sudden, stomach-churning drops. Every time Bones tried to kick, his feet or shins painfully collided with hard steel. He was not yet free of the ship, now totally submerged. He had no idea where Maddock was.
He pushed off something firm toward a glimmer of light. The moon. His head finally broke the surface and he started to swim toward what looked like open water. He looked down as he swam and saw the side of the ship only a few feet under. He thought maybe the ship had too much air to sink, that it was floating there, but then realized that the shallow lagoon they were in was only about thirty feet deep here, about the height of the ship.
He swam over the underwater obstruction, seeking open water. He was surprised to see many people in the water ahead of him. Saddened, too, when he realized that not all of them were still alive. He pushed past the floating corpse of a Mizuhi crewman and swam to what he thought was a safe distance beyond the shipwreck. He turned around and looked back at the sunken ship.
He didn’t see Maddock. Panic welled within him as he turned in circles, looking for his friend, one question refusing to vacate his mind: What if he didn’t make it out of the ship? He eyed the blurry form beneath him. How many of the crew didn’t make it out and were entombed down there now?
He called out Maddock’s name in several directions, not caring who heard. Bones had no doubt that if Maddock had made it out, he would be equally concerned about him. He looked back toward the island where the first of those who escaped from the ship were straggling onto the beach. He was sure Maddock wouldn’t have gone there without locating him first. He started to swim slowly around the wreck, looking carefully, swimming close to each person he saw, even helping a couple of dazed crewmen briefly by pointing them toward shore. He didn’t want to, but crossed over the sunken ship again, mindful of the protruding wreckage. He cast his eyes downward, dreading the sight of a body.
He didn’t see one though, and soon he had reached the open water on the other side of the wreck. He was about to concede that there was nothing more he could do other than to swim toward shore and search for Maddock along the way when he heard a voice call out.
“Fancy meeting you here.”
Bones spun around to see Maddock’s face grinning at him from only a few feet away.
“Where’d you come from? Been looking all over—”
“I got washed down to the far end. Took me a bit to figure out the lay of the ship underwater. Then I thought I’d see if you stuck around near where we went down.”
“And to think you’re okay. I could have been relaxing on the beach all this time.”
Maddock glanced over at the shore. “Speaking of the beach…”
“Let’s go.”
“You didn’t get the call off, did you?”
Bones slowly shook his head. “Phone’s toast.”
They began swimming across the lagoon toward shore, avoiding the more direct route crowded with survivors and skirting the long way around. They could hear many anguished cries, angry yells and just plain shouting, all in Japanese, as they traversed the lagoon.
They made good time across the calm water, not bothering with stealth since so many others were now making the same trek to shore. When Maddock could see individual palm trees on the beach he stopped swimming and let his feet hang down, rejoicing in the feel of the sandy bottom. Land. They waded ashore and sat behind a clump of palms while they watched the Mizuhi personnel make their way up onto the beach. Behind them, the island was still on fire. The scene looked like something out of a disaster movie.
Bones shook his head. “Now what? We’ve got no ride coming. Everybody left on this island wants to kill us. We don’t even have the stuff for our objective,” he finished, referencing the smallpox crate that they’d left behind in the bushes.
Maddock took off his soaked backpack and set it on the sand beside him, patting it. “At least I’ve still got the film. Good thing we put it in those Ziploc bags before putting it in here, though.”
“So what do we do with it?”
Maddock looked out to the lagoon, where shipwreck survivors still swam ashore, then around the beach. He noted the raft they’d made, now broken apart. But it gave him an idea.
“We’ve got to just leave this island. However we can. On a raft, something. Anything.”
Bones laughed, tossing a pebble into the water. “Even if we had something, where would we go?”
“There’s an island with a resort that I saw during our flight in.”
“Ronga Vanua? That’s far, Maddock. We’re talking,” Bones stared out to sea as he considered it. “more like days instead of hours.”
Maddock shrugged. “We could try to stay alive here for a few more hours until some media or authorities from the outside arrive today…if they do…but that could also end up compromising our cover. We’d be on the news, possibly detained as witnesses to what went on here. If we can leave while it’s still dark.”
“I guess.” Bones seemed less than convinced. “But how could we leave anyway? The raft is smashed. All of the lifeboats from the ship either went down with it, never released, or they floated out to sea.”
Maddock nodded. “I’m pretty sure they were never even used. But look. There’s something that still floats.” He pointed out into the lagoon, not far from the beach and a little to their right.
“Hey! What do you know? It’s metal and it floats.” Mizuhi’s model Electra floated serenely on the placid water.
“It’s got no engine in it weighing it down, so the sheet metal should float, especially if it’s intact.”
“Looks like it’s going to wash right up on the beach.”
They watched as it did just that, scraping across the coarse sand as it drifted onto the atoll. The two SEALs ran to it.
“Let’s test it out.” Maddock pushed it into knee-deep water and then hopped into the cockpit. Bones stood there and observed, watching for any signs that the craft was less than seaworthy. It seemed stable.
“Hop on in.” Maddock waved an arm for him to join him in the cockpit. Bones jumped up and into the plane.
“I have to say, I’ve already spent quite enough time in here and wasn’t really looking forward to hanging out here even more.”
“What do you think? I don’t see any leaks. Don’t hear any water seeping in, either, do you?”
At length, Bones shook his head. “It’s about as seaworthy as the old aluminum bass boat my uncle taught me to fish from on the lake. It floats, sure, but if we got into any kind of weather…” He left that unpleasant scenario unfinished before continuing on a new tack. “And there’s no outboard motor on this thing. We’d have to paddle it, but it doesn’t come with those, either.”
“Let’s get back to the beach. Maybe the raft paddles are still good.”
They hopped out of the model plane and dragged it up onto the beach.
“We better hurry up and do this if we’re going to,” Bones said, eyeballing the growing cluster of people assembling some distance away on the beach. “At some point they might come to check out their model.”
Maddock jogged over to the smashed up raft. He rummaged around in the sand for a bit and then came away with the two makeshift paddles. “At least these are intact.”
Bones took them and placed them inside the model airplane. He saw a large cluster of coconuts on the ground and picked them up. “Drinking water and food.” He tossed them into the cockpit as well.
“It’s time to make a run for our crate.” Maddock looked down the beach.
“You still have your K5?”
Maddock shook his head.
“Me neither. Got my coconut opener though.” Bones patted his trusty dive knife, still sheathed on his calf.
“I lost that, too.” Maddock stared ruefully at his bare leg.
“One knife between us to make this happen.”
“We’ll need to be stealthy.”
“Not much jungle left to go through, either. It’s either been burned down or still on fire.”
“Hopefully those bushes where we stashed the crate haven’t been burnt to a crisp. At least with the ship sinking, Mizuhi will be dealing with that instead of combing the island. Let’s skirt the perimeter, this way—” Maddock pointed to their right, away from the crowd on the beach.
Bones nodded and they set out around the atoll.