Electra

Chapter 5

Maddock, Bones and the entire EARHART Group team were gathered around a campfire. Dinner had been finished and now the group relaxed, some enjoying a dessert of tangy, exotic fruits while others sipped on cold South Pacific Lager from a cooler. The meal itself, fresh-caught reef fish and rice, had been eaten largely in silence, the team hungry and tired after a day’s work outdoors and underwater. Maddock and Bones were particularly exhausted, and they knew that tomorrow they faced a long, full day of undercover, underwater work. Yet getting to know the team was important, and they had questions they wanted answered.

Some of these focused on tomorrow’s dives, and logistics were discussed at length. They were glad to hear that they’d be doing the first dive of the day alone. Maddock and Bones made subtle eye contact that said, that’s our chance. Neither had yet mentioned anything about the possible tunnel Maddock had found. As he stared into the crackling flames, Maddock wondered if it would help them access the plane. And if it did, that brought up a question that was on all the team’s minds, although it was Bones who voiced it for everyone.

“If that is Amelia’s plane, then there’s a good chance that her and her navigator’s bodies are still in there, right?”

Many in the group nodded. Steve Carlson responded. “It is likely, although all that would be left by now would be a couple of skeletons. Those, of course, would have to be DNA tested for additional confirmation.”

The group contemplated this in silence for a few moments until Maddock looked across the fire at Spinney and asked, “If it does turn out to be her plane, do you intend to raise it, or is finding it and retrieving artifacts from it as far as you plan to go?”

“This particular expedition is only to confirm whether the plane we found is Earhart’s and to recover easily accessible artifacts, but if that goes well a full-scale salvage operation would be on the table for a future expedition.”

“Hopefully we can be a part of it.” Bones took a swig of his beer.

“Do a good job on this trip and it could happen,” Spinney said. After a slight pause, he added, “Bugsy tells me you two did well down there today. Saw the wreck. What do you think? You up for a couple weeks’ worth of diving down there?”

Maddock and Bones nodded enthusiastically. “There is one thing that gave us some concern today,” Maddock said. He told them about the sleek animal that brushed past them on the ledge.

“What do you think that was, a shark?” Bones asked.

They were met with a surprisingly uncomfortable silence.

“Sorry, did I say something wrong? Somebody get bit once?”

Spinney shook his head and held up a hand as if to ward off any other replies. “I’m sorry you had to see that. We were hoping that threat has passed. It’s been a few days since we’ve seen it, but it seems our friends at Mizuhi Development Corporation are at it again.”

Bones looked confused. “Mizuhi Development?”

“Yes, it’s a Japanese consortium of land development companies. They’ve had some designs on this little atoll. They put in some offers to buy it from the Kiribati Republic in the last few years, all of which were rejected. But as soon as we announced we may have found Earhart’s plane here, that’s when they really ramped up their efforts to buy the island.” Spinney’s visage took on a darker mood.

“What do they want to do with it?” Bones asked, looking out at the edge of the campsite into the dark wilderness.

Spinney sipped from a coffee mug featuring the words, “Today’s the day!” and set it down on a rock. “Build a luxury tourist resort. I’ve seen the conceptual renderings. Overwater bungalows, fine dining, winding paths lit by tiki torches, the whole nine yards.”

“Hey, we’ve practically got all that already!” One of the divers joked.

Spinney smiled and went on. “They’ll clear the main jungle and put lodge-style buildings there. The whole beach will have piers and bungalows. Paved helipad and airstrip over there. Big concrete docking pier for large yachts, possibly even cruise ships.” He pointed away from the camp. “But the clincher would be the plane. There’s no shortage of luxury resorts to choose from in this part of the world. But imagine if this one had Amelia Earhart’s airplane hanging from the ceiling of the main lodge, over the bar, and they call the place, ‘The Lost Explorer Resort’ or some crap like that.”

“I’d have a few rounds at that bar,” Bones admitted. Maddock shook his head while Spinney frowned in his direction.

“Yeah, well a lot of people would, I expect. I’m sure their market research told them as much. Even if this plane turns out not to be Earhart’s, which I doubt, I think they’d still try to market it that way. So that’s why they’ve been trying to scare us off lately.”

Maddock looked Spinney in the eye. “Scare you off how?”

All eyes were on Spinney. Maddock suspected it wasn’t because no one else knew the answer to the question, but because they didn’t want to answer it without Spinney’s permission. The cacophony of nighttime insects and small, unseen animals pervaded the air.

“The creature you saw — do you think it could have been a small whale?”

Maddock and Bones traded glances. Maddock answered. “Could have, yes. We didn’t get a good look, though. It brushed against my wetsuit, so I couldn’t actually feel it, either.”

“It was the whale,” one of the divers said.

Bones looked perplexed. “The whale? There’s only one out here?”

Spinney fielded the question. “There’s only one that’s been trained to attack our divers whenever they get near the plane wreck.”

Spinney’s revelation was met with uncharacteristic silence from Bones. Maddock frowned and considered the possibility that their military handlers had known about this threat. As coincidences went, an exercise against trained ocean-going mammals followed by a live encounter with one on the very next mission, would be a big one

No one was saying anything, so Maddock ventured, “You say, ‘trained’ whale?”

“Like Free Willy!” Bones exclaimed. To Maddock’s relief, Bones didn’t make his usual genitalia joke that accompanied the name of the movie whale.

Spinney shook his head. “Definitely not like Willy. First of all, it’s not an Orca, but a pilot whale.”

“Pilot whale?” Maddock said, feigning ignorance. He knew from his training that the small whale had been used in the past as a candidate for the U.S. Navy marine mammal program, before dolphins and sea lions became the go-to species.

“Yeah, it’s technically a large dolphin, related to the killer whale. We think Mizuhi has been keeping one on their ship, training it to swim little sorties against us.”

One of the divers raised a hand. “Last week the thing rammed me in the ribs something fierce on my way back up the wall.”

“And it’s been getting more aggressive lately,” another diver chimed in. “But until today it had been about a week since any of us had seen it, so we thought maybe they gave up, or they lost it or something.”

“Lost it?” Maddock prodded.

“Yeah, like it just decided the free meals weren’t all that great compared to what it can catch in the wild and so it didn’t return to the ship one day,” Spinney said.

“That reminds me…” Maddock looked around the group, who were watching him intently. “Flying in on the helicopter I did see a ship out there — a large, white one, miles out.”

“That’s Mizuhi’s ship,” Spinney confirmed with a nod. “So they are still around.”

Harvey Sims pulled some errant pieces of fish from his beard and said, “I have heard an increase in Japanese chatter on the marine VHF bands lately, although I have no idea what they’re saying. But I’ll keep a close watch on it.”

Spinney nodded his approval, and then turned back to Maddock and Bones. “Anyway, Mizuhi Corp is trying to drive us away. At first they tried legally, in the courts, which is nothing new if you’re an undersea treasure hunter or salvor of artifacts. Happens all the time. Only difference is, when they lost their case in Kiribati’s highest court, based on some tenuous claim to this island, instead of that being the end of it, they turned to intimidation. Initially, there were verbal confrontations, minor altercations where they would basically harass us by telling us to go home. But of course we told them to piss off.”

Steve Carlson continued. “And not long after that is when the pilot whale started showing up on the wreck site.”

Bones grimaced and clenched his fists, clearly having trouble containing his anger. A small whale trained to kill people was no minor danger. “Thanks for letting us know about that threat ahead of time,” he directed at Spinney. Maddock reached around and knuckled him in the back. If Spinney got mad enough to fire them, they wouldn’t be able to complete their mission.

Spinney threw up his hands. “I told you, I thought that threat had passed. Before today it was about a week since we’d last seen it. Am I right?” He swiveled his head around at his team, seeking corroboration. They nodded and murmured monosyllabic grunts of affirmation, but it was clear that Bones’ statement had resonated with them. It was part of the reason the group had sought additional divers, after all.

“No worries,” Maddock said, seeking to placate Spinney. “We’re aware of this whale now, and tomorrow we’ll know to watch out for it. Right, Keith?” He gave Bones a hard stare.

“You bet. It’s just a small whale trained to kill us, anyway. Not a big one.”

The group laughed and Spinney gave a half-smile before glancing at his dive watch. “And on that note, I’m calling it a night, gentlemen. I suggest you do the same. Long day tomorrow.”