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Bones stood on the weathered ledge and stared down into the tangle of vines and undergrowth over two hundred feet below. Someone had cut and set the stones beneath his feet, but who? Long and irregular, they did resemble pictures of the Nan Madol ruins, but these stones were set with more precision. He turned to Lyn, standing several paces back. “This rock pile was built by some fine engineers.”
“Great, just tell me how we get out of here.”
“The same way we came in. I think we should circle down and cross that ridge to the south. There’s a stream on the other side. It will lead us back to the shore.”
Maddock joined him, glancing down for a moment. “Where’s the boat from here?”
Bones pointed out their best route. He figured Maddock already knew where the boat was. That was just his friend’s way of giving him the lead. “Those steps are gonna be tougher going down than they were coming up. Why don’t you and Lyn go first, and I’ll follow with Sally?”
Lyn started down immediately, but Bones saw his friend hold her back. Always cautious, but it had saved their necks more than once. Sally had regained her feet, but she was still wobbly. Down, one step at a time. Sally turned and used her hands, descending like on a ladder. Once at the bottom, Bones steered her well away from the glowing pool.
He watched Maddock retrieve the pack, not letting Lyn out of his sight. Once beyond the net of vines, Bones searched out a path, little more than a cleft in the vegetation, that circled below the looming stone edifice. Lower still, they broke into a clearing of tumbled rocks and scrubby brush. “Must have been a landslide here or something.” He called a halt. “I don’t like the looks of this field, too open.”
Maddock agreed. “Then we cut over there and cross the ridge higher up.”
Climbing to the ridgetop, Bones dodged around a maze of large boulders. Lyn said, “These stones have been cut and squared off.” She gazed back at the stone fortress above. “There must have been an entire city here at one time.”
Bones didn’t stop. “Lemuria. It came to a bad end.”
Crossing the ridge, Bones located the small drainage he’d seen earlier. Animal trails paralleled the trickling stream. He followed deeper into a green maze of underbrush. A little farther, the stream broke into a rippling cascade that plunged fifty feet to a pond below. The game trail they’d been following veered off to the south before angling back to rejoin the stream. At the foot of the falls, Bones halted them once more. “Let’s take ten here. I want to refill our water supply before we go much further.”
Maddock shrugged out of the pack and dumped a half-dozen two-liter bottles at their feet. Sally helped him fill them from the pond. She surprised them all by slinging the loaded pack across her shoulders. “Look, you guys do the fighting. I’ll do the carrying.”
Maddock tried to argue her out of it, but to Bones, she made sense. After a few words, Maddock gave in. She wore a smug look as they trooped down the mountainside, despite lugging a twenty-five-pound pack.
They hadn’t traveled for twenty minutes before Bones heard the first shots. Still far off, they were answered by a half-dozen others. Maddock said, “I think Willis and Matt found your arsenal, Captain.”
Lyn halted and listened. Four more shots, then two answering. “Damn,” she said.
“We’ll be expected, now,” Maddock said. We’ve got to get back to the boat. I’ll lead. Keep it quiet everyone.”
Bones watched the tree line for birds or anything else that might reveal the other’s movement. He checked his pistol. “I’ve got one round in the chamber, and seven in the mag.”
Lyn gripped Maddock’s shoulder and pointed to a gap between the palms. He nodded and led them that way. A narrow path, it ran past a row of huts. Maddock halted.
Bones moved up, he didn’t care for this setup at all. One pistol against however many rifles was a bad hand to play but walking through the enemy camp was just stupid.
He shook his head and pointed off to the right. Maddock led them into a maze of palm trees and underbrush. The shots continued. Intermittent fire.
Their trail returned them to the stream, a broad meandering waterway by now that glided beneath a tangle of fallen trees and overgrown banks. It led to an opening in the underbrush where the jungle met the beach. Bones signaled the others to stop. On his belly, he crawled out to look.
A hundred yards south along the narrow beach, Lark sat right where they’d left her. Willis and Matt had managed to raise the landing ramp and now crouched behind it, firing at someone further down the beach. Bones returned and explained the situation.
“Did you see Corey?” Sally asked.
“No, but I’m sure he’s fine.”
Maddock said, “We need to find and eliminate the shooters before they find us.”
“Then what?” Lyn said. “Usually about six guys hang out here. If you figure two waiting at the lava tube, that will leave at least four with rifles on the beach.”
Maddock flashed a wolfish grin. “It’s what we’re trained to do.”
“That sounds awfully boastful, coming from you,” Bones said.
“Fine, you tell them.”
Bones shook his head. “No, you stole my thunder. Anyway, the two of you stay hidden. Get as close to Lark as you safely can and wait for the signal.”
“What’s the signal?” Sally asked.
“No idea. I’ll figure something out.”
The two men split up. Bones moved silently, invisibly, toward the nearest shooter. He’d learned woodscraft from his grandfather, uncle, and mother, but refined it in the SEALs until he could move like a ghost under the right circumstances. And here, under the cover of lush tropical growth and the sounds of gunfire and the roaring sea, it was child’s play to move toward the sound of the nearest shooter. He only hoped he wasn’t struck by a stray bullet fired by one of his crew mates.
He crept up behind a dark-skinned man who held a rifle trained on Lark. The man never saw Bones walk up behind him and club him on the back of the head. He relieved him of his rifle, ammunition, and knife. The latter he used to make sure the man didn’t follow them or anyone else ever again.
A shot rang out from Lark. Nearby he heard a grunt and a cry of pain. He followed the sound and was pleased to discover that one of his crewmates’ bullets had found its mark.
The gunfire was abating. Obviously, Maddock was holding up his end. Grinning maniacally, he moved on, eliminating another target with ease. Footfalls crashed through the undergrowth nearby, headed away from the shore. The bad guys, what remained of them, were in full retreat.
He broke through the tree line to see Willis and Matt had swarmed ashore and established a beachhead at the jungle’s edge. Bones saw smoke in Lark’s stacks and Corey at the helm. He waved to Corey, who waved back and sounded three long blasts on the horn. That should do as a signal.
He heard the sound of running nearby. Lyn and Sally were making a mad dash for Lark. Bones fell in behind them.
While Willis and Matt laid down some random fire, the others sprinted for the water. Maddock climbed the boarding ladder and took up station behind the bow ramp. He covered the others with shots from his World War II relic while Willis and Matt crossed the beach and scrambled up behind him.
Bones followed, firing his last rounds. He waved an arm over his head and Corey reversed engines. Willis and Maddock bent their backs to the anchor line astern. Hand over hand they pulled, guiding Lark into the swell and holding her off the rocks.
“So, what exactly happened back there?” Maddock asked as they headed for open water.
“Matt told me there were two guys. They’d started unloading Lyn’s Spam, but then they got nosey and started rummaging around the boat. Corey asked them politely to leave. One of them got mouthy and made the mistake of shoving Willis. Willis threw him over the side and that’s when all hell broke loose.”
“Well, we got rid of a few of them,” Maddock said.
“Yeah, but some got away,” Bones said.
Willis ducked in through the cabin door, followed by Corey and Matt. “Lyn’s got the helm. Not sure if she’s ticked that I played with her guns, so to speak, or if she’s glad I did.”
“She’s more interested in playing with Maddock’s gun, I think,” Bones said. “I just wonder if she set us up.”
“I don’t think she did,” Sally said. “She went along with your bonehead plan to climb that pit.”
Maddock nodded. “You two acquitted yourselves well, back there.”
Sally nodded. “I know. Now, how about a beer while we digest everything that’s happened?”
“First I want to talk with Lyn,” Maddock said. “Let’s go up and ask our good captain what else she might have on board. I’ve got a few other questions as well.”
Lyn looked up when they all piled into the wheelhouse. She shook her head. “No bourbon, no bitters. I’ve got vodka; we could make very, very, very dry martinis.”
“That works.” Sally said.
“Beer for me,” Willis responded. “Y’all?”
Maddock nodded. “Beer’s good, and I’m ready.”
Matt made the run. Willis followed saying, “A little squirt like you couldn’t hardly carry enough for me, much less the others.”
Bones positioned himself near the wheelhouse door where he could watch body language. Lyn had put the auto-pilot on while she hunted up the vodka. The woman seemed a little jumpy. But then, he figured, it could just be that she’d had a rough day.
Corey seemed antsy as well. He prowled the wheelhouse fiddling with various bits of equipment. Every so often he’d fuss with an old radio set bolted to the far bulkhead.
Lyn returned with two tumblers and a half-filled bottle of Moskovskaya. Corey said, “If you’ve another glass, I might join you.”
She found a coffee mug and poured him a generous slug. “This’ll have to do.”
He clinked glasses with her and Sally, and said, “I’m curious. This looks like an old single side-band. Does it still work?”
Lyn tipped her glass back and poured herself another. “Need to phone home, ET? I use it for long-range communication. You have to switch the power over from the marine radio, and it’s a bitch to tune.”
“So, is that how your ‘boys’ knew we were coming?”
Bones saw the woman’s back stiffen. Still, she grinned. “You got me. I called them before we left Guam. Had a swap all set up.”
“Product, right?” Maddock said. “You brought food to swap for a load of weed.”
“Something like that, but I can’t figure out why the dirty little bastards double-crossed me. We’ve had plenty of dealings.”
“Maybe they had a better offer,” Bones said. “Maybe they talked to someone else.”
Lyn nodded, then that grin again. “The market’s been in the crapper for the past two years. Spam for weed, and I hardly break even these days. Used to be, the Navy guys took all I could give them. Now some international consortium brings it in by the boatload. You want to know the worst? I don’t even smoke the stuff myself.”
Bones didn’t take his eyes off her. “So, I want to know. Did you get a better offer, too?”
Silence. The grin vanished. “No, but I could have. That little worm Jungle Jim tried to call me after we left Saipan. I didn’t pick up.”
Bones glanced at Maddock and said, “I’ll buy that for now.”
“So, we cool?”
“We’re cool.” Bones opened his beer and took a long swallow.
Sally tipped back her glass and held it out for a second splash of vodka. “What was with those giant crab things?”
“Coconut crabs. They’re usually nocturnal, and never aggressive. I swear Mama Lani must have a way of calling them.”
“I don’t know,” Sally said. “Assuming for argument’s sake she could do that, she didn’t seem hostile when I talked with her. Maybe they were just, like a demonstration or something?”
“What else did she tell you?” Maddock asked Sally.
“She said she was makana, one of the old ones, a thousand years old if you believe her. She said she speaks with the taotaomo′na, the spirits.”
Lyn said, “Here have another shot, then you can go sleepy time. But first, what did she say of Maug?”
“Ma’óghe, ‘the Eternal One.’ Three islands, west is land, east water, north sky. Secret fourth island is fire. She said it will consume the world one day. The Ma’óghe dwell there and they eat ships.”
Sally took Lyn’s advice and tottered down to her bunk in the doghouse. Maddock said, “Pour yourself another slug, Lyn and get some rest if you can. It’s been a long day for all of us.” He opened a second beer, disengaged the auto-pilot, and took the helm.
Willis said, “Leave some for us, boss.”
“You and Matt get some sleep as well. Bones, spell me in four hours.”
Bones let the others thump down the outside ladder after Sally, then opened another beer. Corey sat at the single side-band with headphones on, fussing with the Vernier tuning knob.
Maddock glanced his way, then turned to Bones. “You look like you’ve got something on your mind. You make this pained expression when you’re trying to think.”
“Do you think Pym was behind what happened back there?”
“I don’t know. Seems unlikely. He’d have had to know where we were headed, then make contact, bribe the locals, make a plan. It’s a lot to do.”
“Unless the connections are already there.” Bones said. “You heard Lyn. Boatloads of weed sold by some international consortium. It wouldn’t surprise me if more than one hedge fund didn’t indulge in a little off-the-books trading.”
“Could be,” Maddock agreed. “But why let us see Mama Lani? Why not just kill us?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we arrived sooner than they expected. Or maybe they’re just not very good at what they do.”
“Not as good as us, anyway,” Maddock said, gazing back in the direction of the island.
Bones cleared his throat. “Listen, Maddock. About the thing with Angel...”
“Forget about it. It was a no-win for you. I don’t know what I’d have done if the shoe was on the other foot.”
“Thanks, man. You going to talk to Matt?”
“Yeah, but not until I no longer feel like stomping a mudhole in his ass.”
“Hey, guys?” Corey straightened in his chair and pulled his headphones off. “I just learned there’s a typhoon headed for Guam. No one will be traveling there for a while. Maybe that will slow down pursuit?”
“Maybe,” Maddock said, “but I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of them.”