PULAU MATI (16 page)

Gray
hauled a couple of large volcanic rocks down to the beach and dropped them near the water line at the north end of the beach.   They were not needed tonight but tomorrow the rocks would be useful.  When he had grabbed some of the firewood and tinder left at the shelter, he headed up to the flat.  He reached it as the rain started.  It was deserted and he went straight to the cave.

He dropped the firewood at the mouth of the cave and pulled out the little flashlight. 
They stowed the supplies in the areas that were not flat which left what little flat area there was available for sleeping.

With Anna holding the flashlight,
Gray examined the two most recently captured rifles.  They were both in good condition considering they were used in the tropics.  One was an HK-74 and the bandolier containing three clips gave them a total of over 140 rounds for that rifle and his.  The other rifle was an AK-47 using the 7.62 x 39 round and for it they had 120 rounds counting the three clip bandolier.  The pistol was another Glock in 9mm with a single clip and in workable condition.  He asked Keegan for the damaged Glock and when the young man handed it  over, removed the live round from the chamber and the clip and handed it back, saying, “Sling this as far out into the water as you can.”

When the young man came back from the mouth of the cave
Gray gave him the good Glock and the extra clip.  “Would you prefer a rifle?” he asked.

“Nope, a
wm grand wi dis, tank yer mooch.”

Gray asked Shinobu for the revolver and the extra cartridges and showed Dayah the basic operation of the weapon.  She was somewhat reluctant but he told her it was just for her use if the situation became desperate.  He had her dry fire the revolver and practice loading it.  He gave the AK-47 to Shinobu and the AK-74 to Anna.  After demonstrating the operation
of the rifles to Anna and Shinobu and giving instruction on aiming of the rifle to Anna, he gave them some drills at loading and unloading them and aiming and dry firing them.  Doing the drills in the dim light of the cave made it more difficult but Gray thought it might increase the benefit.  They could sleep on what they learned and he could reinforce the training in the morning.

While they were busy with familiarizing themselves with the rifles, Gray had Dayah and Keegan lay
out five small piles of items to take if they had to make a dash from the cave.  The items included Claymore mines, tools, food, water, and two blankets apiece.

The rain turned into a down pour and the temperature outside dropped but stayed the same inside
the cave.  Gray had considered trying a fire at the mouth of the cave since there was a slight air movement coming from the back of the cave but decided the risk was not worth it.  The meat in the sandwiches and the yogurt was going bad so they made a meal of fruit, cheese and the bread but before they could eat the bread they had to pick mold off of it in the beam of the flashlight.

They made their beds on the hard floor of the cave.  Gray insisted Shinobu take a couple of the extra blankets to cushion his old bones.  He got no argument.  They used all the blankets and it was still miserable, making the bare earth of the shelter seem cushy by comparison.  The rain stopped before midnight but no one felt it necessary to post a guard.
  Gray remembered leaving the Claymore mines and the clackers out in the rain but believed they were well enough designed to remain functional.

Chapter IX   Day Five

When morning arrived, Gray wished they had tried a fire in the night to make some rice.  They were down to some sealed packages of cheese, nuts and crackers and a few apples and oranges.  The plastic boxes labeled chicken and beef smelled rancid and Anna dumped them along with the last of the yogurt north of the flat.

Gray did some stretching exercises trying to shed the pain and stiffness from sleeping on the cave floor.    Even Dayah complained of being stiff.  Shinobu, usually the most smiley of the group, was quiet and somber.

After eating, Gray took the binoculars and climbed to peak.  Careful to shade the lenses from the rising sun, he scanned the clearing.  Melanie was still shackled to the pole.  He counted five pirates, all of those that remained or so he hoped.  Three were sitting near the dock, their rifles cradled across their laps or leaning nearby.  Two were on the motorboat.  There were palms partially blocking the view but it appeared the men in the boat had the top hatch off the engine compartment and were leaning over the compartment.  The engine compartment looked about three feet wide and a bit more long and lay a third of the boat’s length ahead of the stern.  Whatever they were doing, Gray was going to give them something to think about.

He came down from the peak and called everyone together with their weapons.  After going over the instructions and drills he had given them in the cave, he told them what he planned and
then took off around the peak and climbed down to the beach.  He gathered many times the amount of driftwood they had used for a cooking fire and set it alight on the beach.  When the fire was burning strong, he threw a stack of green palm fronds on top of the fire and then hurried up the slope to join his companions.  He had a lot to do in hopefully a short time.

  When Gray reached the flat, smoke from the fire was
billowing into the blue sky although the prevailing breeze over the peak was causing a downdraft in places and the smoke was sent off to the northwest.  It swirled higher than the peak at times making it visible from the clearing and that was all he wanted.

Anna and Shinobu join
ed Gray at the ledge overlooking the beach.  To their left but blocked by the peak from view lay the shelter.  The rocks Gray had carried out and placed on the beach last night were visible.  He explained they would use the rocks as targets and fire off a few rounds to get used to the weapons.  Although his own rifle had performed perfectly at close range, he wanted to verify the sight setting and adjust it if necessary.  And firing at the rocks nearly matched the angle and range he hoped to have soon at live targets.

They aimed and fired for some
fifteen minutes and at times Gray held down the talk button of the two way radio he had taken from the man on the trail.  He wanted to give the impression that the men were still alive and involved in a firefight and the radio was not transmitting properly.  It might not help but it could cause confusion about the status of the two men they had killed yesterday evening, and what could it hurt?  When Anna and Shinobu were hitting the rocks with some regularity, he had Dayah fire a couple of rounds to give her some confidence with the weapon.  Keegan fired a couple of rounds and everybody went back to the shade.

Gray
left them and climbed up the peak only far enough to see over the jungle.  One of the pirates was still in the motorboat.  Four were standing near the dock gazing in the direction of the peak, presumably wondering what the smoke was about.  Melanie was sitting up with her back to the post.  That she was sitting up was encouraging.  The pirate in the orange shirt walked over to Melanie and pointed toward the peak.  They seemed to be carrying on some kind of conversation.  The man stood over her with hands on hips for sometime.  He suddenly gave her a kick to the ribs and walked back to the others.  Melanie doubled up and then tipped sideways and lay in the dirt.  Gray came down from the peak shaking with rage.

“What is it?” Anna asked when she saw his expression.

Gray was too angry to speak.  He pulled Anna into his arms and took deep breaths.  When he could speak he just said, “I just saw the guy in the orange shirt kick Melanie.  It’s probably by far not the worst treatment she has gotten but it just got to me.”

The others overheard
and drew close.  Keegan’s face grew red and the muscles in his neck tightened like cords.

Shinobu asked in a quiet voice, “Is it working?”

Some of the anger in Gray dissipated as he tried to interpret what he had seen and then tell the others.  Keegan asked if he could take the binoculars and see for himself.  Gray explained how to shade the lenses from the sun so they did not make a flash visible from the clearing.  An idea formed while making the explanation and he asked Shinobu for the signaling mirror.

Gray and Keegan climbed the peak from the northwest side and lay flat on the top
so they did not make a silhouette.  The young Irishman watched the pirates for a minute through the binoculars.

Gray asked, “Can you tell me when they are all looking away from the peak and toward the east or the motorboat?”

Keegan glanced at the signal mirror in Gray’s hands and grinned.  “Aye, I can do that.”

It was a long wait until Keegan said, “Gay ready.”

Another minute passed and he said, “Now.”

Gray swept the flash from the mirror twice
very quickly across Melanie.  She did not move.  Gray said, “Are they still turned away?”

“Aye.”

He flashed her twice more.  The distance made it difficult for Gray to be sure that her head turned toward the peak but he could tell she had sat up.

“Old et
, they looking dis way,” Keegan said.  In a few seconds he said, “Now.”

Gray flashed her twice more.  Her head definitely turned toward the dock but her hand came up and
he thought she made a little wave toward the peak.  Keegan confirmed it by whooping and backhanding him on the shoulder hard enough to make him yelp.

When Gray asked Keegan what he made of the activity around the boat, the young man said in a voice still shaky from excitement that he thought they were having engine trouble.
  They climbed down and told the others they had signaled Melanie and she had responded.  Dayah and Anna hugged each other and both wept.  Shinobu could not hide his grin or the fact that his eyes moistened.  As for enticing the pirates to come back to the west side in the boat, that was hung up likely due to engine failure.

“They have to be able to get to their ship,” Anna said.

Keegan said, “Aye, they do.  It is likely a fuel problem, or electrical.  They’ll fix it.”

They discussed what they could do
in lieu of ambushing the boat.  Attacking the five pirates in the clearing was not practical.  It was unlikely the pirates would send any more pairs of men into the jungle.  One thing they could do was use the fire to cook some of the beans and rice they had taken from the hut.  As long as someone remained on the peak to assure that all five of the pirates were on the east side of the island, Gray and his companions had the run of the west side.  Anna said she would take the first watch atop the peak.

Dayah and Shinobu readied the pots to take down to the shelter while Anna climbed the peak.  They
agreed to use a waving fist to signal everything was okay and a waving open hand as come back to the flat.  As soon as Anna reached the top and glassed the clearing she hollered down to Gray and motioned him to come up.

Anna was lying on her stomach looking through the binoculars. 
When Gray lay beside her she said she had thought the boat was heading out to go around the island but now it looked like it was heading out to the ship with two aboard. She handed the glasses to Gray.

The boat was under way at a low speed and o
ne of the men had his hand inside the engine compartment and kept it there until the boat came alongside the ship.  Gray searched the clearing and found two of the three pirates that had remained on shore.  It was so unlikely that a lone pirate was making his way across the island that he signaled Shinobu and Dayah to go on down to the beach.

As Gray watched, one of the men aboard the motorboat climbed to the deck of the ship.  In a minute the man came back and climbed down with what looked like a big tool box. 
For some time both men leaned over the engine compartment.  Gray continued to watch and one of the men again climbed the ladder to the deck and then returned with some object.  After a few more minutes, Gray handed the glasses back to Anna.  She looked through them briefly and then laid them aside and gazed at Gray.

When he felt her gaze on him i
t was all he could do to resist taking her into his arms and telling her he loved her and kissing her for as long as he had breath.  He groaned from the effort and closed his eyes.

“You groan like that in the night sometimes,” she said.

“I don’t doubt it.”

“It’s alright.  I do it too.  It just does not come out as sound but it is as painful.
”

“I know, Anna.  I feel you do it.”

“I know you do because you hug me tighter then.”

“Does it help?”

“It does.  Did you ever hear of the old singer, Joan Baez?”

Gray chuckled.  “Only because I
sometimes listen to some of the old Dylan stuff.  They were lovers.”

“My grandmother had
American records and said I should listen to them to improve my English.  She had one with a song on it that went ‘Strictly speaking for me, we both could have died then and there’.  I thought the song writer was nuts.  Nobody could love someone that much.”

“Anna…”

“When you feel that pain and hug me tighter, I could die then and there.”

“Anna, please.”

“It’s alright.  I know you cannot say you love me but I can feel it.”

Gray ached to tell her she was right.  The words
forming in his mind were cut off by the sound of someone scrambling up the rocks behind them.

“
Hey, guys!  I could feel the heat as I was climbing up here,” Keegan said

Gray grinned and shook his head.  “Kaygun, yer a
re a case.”

“
It’s me turn ter watch.  Yer want me ter come back later?”

“N
o.  Dammit, Keegan, why does me English go to hell when you are around?”

“Cause yer a Meck at
heart and yer love me.”

Gray glanced at Anna.  “
I do, Kaygun, I do.  Come on Anna, let’s go see how Dayah and Shinobu are doing.”

Half way down to the beach, Gray and Anna came together in
to an embrace.  It was like a respite from the sorrow of the last few days, the loss of Lleyton, Malik, Paolo and Lex, witnessing the abuse of Melanie, even having to savagely kill other human beings.  Gray closed his eyes and felt the shared love between him and Anna.  They did not speak then nor did they the rest of the way down to the beach.

While they ate lunch and the sun passed overhead, they kept glancing to the peak in case Keegan, or Dayah who relieved him, signaled. 
Late in the afternoon everyone went back up to the flat where they had shade and a cooling breeze.  While Shinobu was on watch, he signaled that something had changed.  Gray climbed up beside him.  The motorboat was underway and making a big wake as it sped for the dock.  When the boat reached the dock, the three men that had remained on shore came running with their rifles and climbed aboard.  Shortly the motorboat was heading out of the bay and turning north.

Gray and Shinobu climbed down
and told the others the news.  With all the pirates in the boat, it gave them an opportunity to free Melanie they had not considered.  Unfortunately they did not have the key to the shackles and would be relying upon a dull hacksaw to cut through them.  They would also miss an opportunity to rid themselves of some or all of the pirates.  Since Dayah and Keegan did not have rifles they briefly discussed sending them across the island to start working on the shackles but no one liked the idea of splitting up the group.  And the pirates might return unexpectedly, finding the two there trying to free Melanie which would alert them to that possibility and kill chances of another attempt.  No, they would stick with the original plan.

They laid out
the individual piles of mines, tools, water, food and blankets so when the shooting was over they could race across the island, perhaps ahead of the boat’s return if they failed at killing everyone aboard.

The sound of the boat’s motor came from the north.  Gray, Shinobu and Anna grabbed their rifles and hurried to the foliage bordering the plateau.  Part of the plateau was a barren ledge overlooking the beach.  Their plan was for Anna and Shinobu to open fire from a prone position at the ledge and scoot back if return fire came their way.  Part of the ledge had foliage growing along the edge which provided visual cover but not protection from bullets.  Gray planned to fire from that position and tell Anna and Shinobu when to scoot back from the edge.  He told Shinobu his target priority was whoever was in the rear of the boat.  If that man went down, shift to whoever was still active.  Anna’s priority was whoever was in the front of the boat and shift it the same as Shinobu.  Gray’s initial target priority was the man on the mounted machine gun followed by the helmsman and then anyone appearing to have located the source of the fire they were taking.  Much of this depended upon the boat coming in as close and slow as it had yesterday.