Escape (6 page)

Red Hair was walking again. In a second he’d be past it. Charla was in agony. They’d never get the suitcase any closer than this.

And then

“Ow!”

He stubbed his toe on it, looked down, and found himself gazing into two million dollars.

“I got it!I got it !”

Charla held her own silent celebration alongside the smugglers’ raucous one.

“Now we can get out of here!” Red Hair exclaimed.

Music to her ears. She followed the smugglers at a safe distance, keeping an eye out for any landmark that might point her in the direction of the lookout tree, where Luke, Lyssa, and Ian should be waiting.

Suddenly, there was a yelp, followed by the crashing sound of someone tumbling through the underbrush. Her stomach tightened. Her friends!

But then she heard Red Hair’s voice. “Chel-ton! You okay?”

“I fell in a hole!” came the muffled reply. “Abig one. And — hey, there’s something down here!”

Charla came up a few yards behind Red Hair, who was on his hands and knees searching the jungle floor for the other man. A familiar notch was carved into a palm trunk close to where he knelt. A feeling of deep dread took hold in her gut.

The smugglers had found the bomb.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1945

1240 hours

Colonel Duponfstared at Junior, which had been dangling at the end ofthe defective crane for morethan four hours.

“Andthat’s the only way to move it ?”

“Ninety-five hundred pounds, Colonel,” replied Holliday.

LieutenantBosco, communicationsofficer, ran up. “HQ says the nearest hydraulic is in Tin-ian. They can get it to us inthree days .”

“Three daysl” The colonel regarded the flurry of activity on the runway. There was almosta carnival afmosphereas the men loaded up the plane, looking forward to reunions with wives and families .

If he gave the order to wait three more days, he’d have a revolutiononhis hands

Day 23, 5:50 p.m.

The day had started out hopeful for JJ. Lane. It didn’t stay that way.

His one-of-a-kind sunglasses remained focused on the cloudless sky, now dimming, awaiting the arrival of the plane that would not appear — Charting a New Course, come for Will and, with any luck, the rest of them.

That had been one flaw in his reasoning — that CNC might try to rescue Will, the sickest, but leave the others to serve out their “sentence” of maturing and learning teamwork and building character —

And whatever else those professional torturers think we have to do.

For that reason, he was sticking to Will like glue. It wasn’t exactly hard to do. Will had barely moved all day. He was burning with fever, and JJ. had the feeling the kid wasn’t all there. Oh, he knew when he was hungry, or when he had to set out into the jungle to go to the bathroom. But one time when JJ. was helping Will into the trees, the boy said, “Get out of here, Lyssl I’m going to the can!”

JJ. was taken aback. “It’s not Lyssa, it’s JJ.”

Will seemed indignant. “My leg hurts, but I’m not blind/’ he muttered.

“They’re coming to get us today/’ JJ. reassured him. “Just hang in there and you’ll be okay.”

And what was the bleary reply? “I hope Dad takes the tunnel. There’s traffic on the bridge.”

Two months ago JJ. Lane had been riding down Sunset Boulevard in the passenger seat of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Porsche. Now he was the bathroom monitor on Gilligan’s Island.

Instantly, he felt guilty for the thought. None of this was Will’s fault.

JJ. scanned the horizon. Where was CNC? What was taking so long?

The waiting was hard, but he passed the time by imagining the looks on the others’ faces when they returned to the campsite to see a rescue plane. Especially Haggerty. Luke always acted like he had some special confirmation from God that whatever he did was exactly the right thing.

Ajuvenile delinquent from somerusty old mill town who thinks he’s better than me/If CNC comes,I’m going to rub it in Haggerty’s faceoil the way home.

If? No, he meantwhen . CNC was definitely coming. They’d be here soon. Only —

He checked lan’sNational Geographic Explorer watch — how this cheap piece of junk still worked when JJ.‘s Rolex had dropped dead was one of the great mysteries of the planet.

6:15. Soon it would be too dark to land.

Maybe they were coming tomorrow.

But Will’s sick now! For oil they know, we’re getting reody to cut him open!

CNC were jerks, but they wouldn’t let a bunch of kids operate on a real person. It wasn’t just crazy — it was illegal. They could all go to jail for that, couldn’t they?

It didn’t make sense. The struggle to reason it out felt almost physical — like a wrestling match in JJ.‘s head.

If they knew, then they’d come. Why oren’t they here?

And finally — the answer

Because they don’t know.

JJ. squeezed his eyes shut as if he could stop his weeping by sealing it inside. But his tears were a flood he couldn’t control any more than he could reverse the explosion of truth in his brain.

“Quit sniveling, Lyss,” mumbled Will, half asleep on the raft.

The others had been right all along. Charting a New Course was over. It had gone up in a fire-ball and sunk to the bottom of the Pacific along with thePhoenix and its unfortunate captain. All this — the island, the smugglers, the bomb — was real!

No one was watching them. No one was protecting them. They were on their own.

“No,” he breathed. Weeks of desperation and fear crystallized into a single moment of perfect horror. “No!”

“Shut up, Lyss. I didn’t hit you that hard,” murmured Will.

JJ.‘s heart was pounding like a pile driver in his chest. He had to go somewhere, do something — to move, to act. Otherwise this terrible feeling would destroy him.

Voices! He jumped at the unexpected sounds. The others!

Lyssa took in the stricken look on JJ.‘s face. “Is my brother okay?”

“He’s fine,” JJ. said absently. “You know— for him. How did it go with the suitcase?”

“Good news and bad news,” groaned Luke. “We got the suitcase delivered. But in the process, the smugglers found the bomb.”

“You’re kidding!” JJ. exclaimed. “So — what does that mean?”

“It’s impossible to tell,” Ian reasoned. “We can’t even be sure they know what it is.”

“They’ll figure it out,” Charla said grimly. “We did.”

Lyssa looked scared. “Men like that — they’ll do anything for money. Can you imagine what an atomic bomb is worth?”

“We’re not going to give those guys the chance to find out,” Luke said definitely. “They’ve got their money. They’ll be leaving tomorrow. Tonight’s the night I stow away with the cargo.”

There was a chilling moment that mingled sheer fright with the acceptance that this was their only path.

Charla spoke first. “I wish there was some other way.”

“There isn’t/’ said Luke bleakly. “We’ve had almost a month to think about getting off this rock. This is the best we can do.”

“And we have to do it now if we’re going to help Will/’ added Lyssa.

Ian nodded slowly. All eyes turned to J.J.

“I agree,” said the actor’s son.

Luke was surprised. “Really?” They had been expecting him to give them a hard time.

“But with one change of plan/’ J.J. went on. “Haggerty doesn’t go. It should be me.”

“You?” Luke laughed bitterly. “I thought you wanted to be here on the beach to meet the CNC rescue party.”

“I was wrong about that/’ JJ. said seriously. “I’m not wrong about this.”

Luke glared at him. “You idiot! This isn’t like extreme snowboarding, where you brag to your Hollywood friends about all your bumps and bruises! It could be a suicide mission!”

“That’s exactly why I have to go/’ JJ. argued. “Look — no offense — you’re nobody. If they catch you in the cargo hold, they’ll blow you away without thinking twice about it.”

Luke was disgusted. “And they won’t shoot you because your dad’s famous?”

“Not famous/’ said JJ. “Rich! They won’t kill me. They’ll try to ransom me off to my old man.” He flashed a crooked grin. “He might even pay too. He’s got to be feeling pretty guilty about sending me on this trip.”

“Listen to yourself!” Lyssa exclaimed. “Everything’s a joke to you. How can we trust you to take it seriously?”

Luke was shocked. “Wait a minute — you’reconsidering this?”

“JJ.‘s right, you know,” came lan’s thoughtful voice. “ThatUSA Today the smugglers had — the article wasn’t about us; it was mostly about Jonathan Lane’s son.”

“JJ.‘s picture was in that paper/’ added

Charla. “If the smugglers catch him, there’s a chance they might recognize him.”

“What good is that if he doesn’t get the job done?” Luke exploded. “This isn’t about who’s in better shape if he gets caught! This is about sneaking away and getting us rescued! This guy’ll be on Space Mountain at Disneyland when he’ll suddenly remember, ‘Oops, I forgot to tell the rescuers about Luke, Charla, Lyssa, Will, and Ian.’ “

JJ. bit back an angry retort. “Listen, I don’t blame you if maybe you think I’m a bit of a flake — “

“Abit of a flake?” raved Luke. “If you look up ‘flake’ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of your ugly face! Don’t forget whose fault it was that the captain got killed!”

“And who was right there with me when it happened?” JJ. shot back.

“Someone had to stop you!” Luke raged.

“And you sure did a great job of it!”

There was a rustling sound and Will turned over on the raft. “We’re not fighting, Mom,” he mumbled. “Honest.”

Luke folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not putting my life in your hands,” he said in a lower tone.

JJ. looked him squarely in the eye. “You think I like it that it has to be me? I’ve spent fourteen years doing things the easy way. That’s my style — coasting. Nothing would thrill me more than hanging out here while you riskyour neck. But this has to work, and I’m our best shot/’

Day 24, 1:25 A.M.

The flashlight beam cast a dim glow over the lagoon where the two floatplanes were beached. The rear of the twin-engine craft bobbed in the shallow water. The other — with a single engine — sat heavy in the sand, fully loaded.

“That’s theone ,” whispered J J. “Fatso’s plane.”

Luke grimaced. Now that they were faced with it, the plan seemed totally insane.

The good-byes back at the camp had been shattering. Charla, Lyssa, and Ian had cried openly. Even Will, drifting in and out of delirium, had picked up on the mood of distress. It was clear that the castaways thought they were sending a friend to his death.

If it wasn’t so awful, it would be interesting, Luke thought. Had the six gone to the same school, they probably wouldn’t even have noticed one another. Will and Lyssa, the only two who had known each other before CNC, had been lifelong enemies. Yet the terrible and tragic events of the past weeks had bonded the group into a unit so close that to tear one away — even JJ. — left a painful, gaping wound.

Luke and JJ. crept out of the brush and made their way furtively down the coral slope to the beach.

The cargo hold was in the underbelly of the single-engine plane. Luke lowered the hatch cover, and they shone the beam inside. There were three large wooden crates that the smugglers used to transport elephant tusks. Smaller squarer boxes contained rhino horns. There were also two refrigerated units whose humming batteries confirmed they were in operation. These held vital organs and other body parts harvested from endangered species.

JJ. opened one of the ivory crates. Inside, wrapped in soft blankets, were two tusks, each about six feet long.

“No room/’ Luke whispered.

They moved on to the second crate. The tusks were shorter but fatter, so it was also full. They turned to the third box. Inside were two four-foot tusks, one of them broken.

“It’ll be tight,” said Luke.

JJ. shrugged. “Good thing I’ve been on the banana diet for the past month.” He swung a leg into the crate.

Luke put a hand on JJ.‘s shoulder. “It’s not too late, you know. I can still do this.”

JJ. clambered inside and lay down flat. From the pocket of his fatigues, he pulled out his sunglasses and popped them onto his nose. “How do I look?”

Any reply stuck fast in Luke’s throat. The truth was that JJ. looked exactly like a dead body in a coffin. Finally, he managed, “You remember the location of the island, right? Our latitude and longitude?”

“Oh, sure,” JJ. said, grinning. “First you go to Hawaii, then you hang a left — “

“JJ. — ” Could this kid ever be serious, even in a moment like this?

“I remember,” the actor’s son insisted. “I’ll be back soon, okay? Don’t operate on Will.”

Luke felt himself starting to lose it. “For God’s sake, be careful.Think before you act. There are no do-overs now!”

JJ. nodded. “You’d better get going.” He helped Luke maneuver the lid into place.

Luke secured the box. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done. “You can breathe, right?”

J J.‘s voice was muffled. “If you make it home and I don’t, tell my dad I’m sorry I never grew up.”

As Luke headed back into the jungle on shaky legs, he noted that the kid had it wrong. J J.had grown up — more in the last few hours than in fourteen years.

*

Both planes took off at six-thirty that morning. The twin-engine, carrying Red Hair and the money, turned east into the rising sun. The single engine, with Mr. Big, the cargo, and J.J., banked southwest toward Asia.

Crouched in a finger of jungle that extended out over the beach, a bleary-eyed Luke followed the progress of JJ.‘s plane until it had disappeared into the distant haze.

“Good luck, J.J.,” he whispered aloud.

At the castaways’ camp, all activity ceased at the first sound of the propellers’ buzz. The fire was smothered, the stills were kicked down and buried in sand, and the raft where Will lay was pushed under cover of the trees. All watched in silence as the aircraft carried their friend and their hopes far away.

“Lousy lawn mower,” muttered Will. “Can’t ever get any sleep around here.”

Remarkably, JJ. slept away the hours before takeoff — concluding that he was either very cool or very tired. He was not cool, however, when the motor roared to life. He practically jumped out of his skin, smashing his head on the lid of the crate. The noise was unbelievable, and the vibration was making his bones come unglued. It was like front-row seats at a Metallica concert (courtesy of Dad) times a thousand.