He put the binoculars down and surveyed the jungle around the peak on which he sat. It looked like he had come out of his way by going south before climbing to the peak. If he had come straight east from where the shelter lay there would have been a steep but short climb
followed by a more direct path to the top. As for the approach to the possible cave, that looked straight forward, just follow the tree line around the peak to the north. He made one more scan of the hut area and saw no one. The four making the hike to the other side were likely en route and hidden by the jungle. If he waited he might catch them crossing the saddle because he could see the open area where the trail cut across it.
He took up the binoculars again and found the speck to the west. If anything it had moved further away. He put away
the binoculars and started down the slope to the north. At the tree line he turned west and headed cross slope of the peak. He came to a protected flat surrounded by thick foliage and trees on the east and north sides, the peak on the south side and partially by foliage on the west side. At the northwest corner of the peak he found the hole he had seen from the beach.
The cave
was bigger than it had appeared from the beach, at least ten feet high and four wide at his shoulders, but the sides quickly came together so it was very narrow at the bottom. It was accessible as he had believed although the short, narrow ledge to reach it might make it too treacherous to carry a stretcher into the cave. He stepped into the cave and let his eyes adjust. The cave was dry and since it had rained hard last night it meant the cave was probably always dry. When he was about 30 feet inside, he brought out the little flashlight.
The floor was very uneven and at times
the walls met at the floor forming a vee that his shoes wedged into and threatened to come off. The cave turned right and went on at man height or better for another 30 feet then began to split into smaller fissures that went off in many directions. A faint, cool breeze was coming out of the fissures. The cave had plenty of room to hide eight ambulatory people and two stretcher cases but not enough level floor space to allow all of the other eight to lie down. No, if they needed to they could haul rock and dirt into the cave and create enough flat floor space. Satisfied that the cave could make a viable shelter, he left it and climbed up to the peak for one last look.
Gray golfed and had become good at estimating distances up to five hundred yards or so
. At those distances he could usually tell by peoples’ height roughly how far away they were but when people were ant or gnat height it became a long shot. There was movement in front of the hut and when he put the binoculars on the movement, it became Melanie going to the pool, probably to wash bandages for Lleyton. His guess was that the distance between the peak and the hut was about 1 mile which put the island’s size at easily 1 mile wide and about 1.5 long. They had longer term food and water on one side of the island, and shelter and a good vantage point on the other. It sounded to him like they might have to commute, which he had always avoided.
When Gray left the
peak he went south only as far as the tree line then turned west and headed toward the shelter, carefully memorizing his route. He came out on the beach slightly north of the shelter about 10 minutes after leaving the peak.
Shinobu must have seen him
start down because the old man was standing at the edge of the sand when Gray turned to go to the shelter. “You are fast walker,” he said. “You were on the top not ten minutes ago.”
“Ah, you are observant, Shinobu. Did you see me well enough that we could communicate with arm signals?”
“Oh, yes. Even with my old eyes.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“When Paolo came back without you I wondered what might have happened.”
“
Nothing untoward my friend. He is simply a hard one to figure out.”
Gray
noticed Keegan had not gone with Anna and the others to the hut. When asked about that, Keegan said just walking along the beach looking for something shiny had put his head to hurting fierce.
Gray asked Shinobu, “
How are Lleyton and Malik?”
“No change in Malik. I worry about young Lleyton. He has stopped asking me to help him piss and he is very hot.”
Gray said, “Both bad signs. Is he drinking water?”
“Nothing since early this morning. He has such a strong spirit but I fear it is not enough.”
“I fear that too. Shinobu, would you like to visit the other side of the island? Keegan and I could watch Lleyton and Malik.”
He
turned down the offer and Gray did not want to insist because the old man seemed to find it difficult to say no to requests but Shinobu continued to ask questions about the other side of the island. Eventually Gray told him it was less than a thirty minute walk at a slow pace and he might help the others with the fishing and crab traps. That persuaded the old man, and Gray led him down the beach and got him started on the trail with a bottle of water.
When Gray returned to the shelter, he sat down beside Keegan and asked the young man how he was feeling.
“Fine now. But me aid’s not right.”
“Have you taken more ibuprofen?”
“Is there more?”
Gray nodded and got up to dig out the bottle of pain killer. “What brought you to Kuala Lumpur?”
“Training Malays en coraiocht.”
“Is that something to do with martial arts?”
“It is. Wrestlin’.”
“And Brisbane?”
“The same.”
Gray guessed the young man
had relapsed from this morning or simply did not want to talk. He scooted over to check on Lleyton and Malik. Lleyton’s skin was hot and dry to the touch and he did not wake when Gray touched his forehead. Gray could hardly find a pulse in Malik but did eventually. He did not time it but Gray guessed the man’s heart rate was below 50. Grey believed the man’s brain had put him in a coma in response to the damage done to his body. How long the body could maintain itself in that slowed down state, Gray could not guess. He lay back to take a short nap, thinking he might try to dive to the wreck when he awoke.
The others had not returned when Gray woke from his nap. Keegan and Paolo were asleep so he did not bother them. He walked down to the beach and removed his clothes and shoes. He had noticed there was little change in the tide around this island but it did appear to be as low as it ever got right now. He leisurely swam out toward the forward section of the wreck and tread water over it while he repeatedly filled and emptied his lungs. When he felt ready he dove and thrust himself toward the opening. He grabbed a seat and worked toward the front. The light was much better than the last time he was down here. He made it to the galley and opened a cabinet, pulled out a case of water and pushed it toward the opening. He came up faster than the water, his lungs bursting for air. He pushed the case of water back to the beach and dragged it up from the water.
Gray
stood looking out toward the wreck, breathing heavily and trying to recover. The time he could stay under water was so short it limited what he could accomplish. Part of the problem was the initial swimming surge required to overcome his buoyancy and reach the opening. That effort used much of his oxygen reserve. His skin was about dry and he started dressing.
A poor attempt at a wolf whistle caused him to turn around. Anna was runn
ing across the sand. She was wearing an olive colored painter’s cap he had not seen before and was carrying a small rectangular piece of something shiny in her hand but she first wrapped her arms around him. “I wish you had come with us,” she said.
“I missed you too,” he said and was surprised that it was the truth.
“That hat looks cute on you.”
“Thank you,” she said, touching the bill of the cap. “Have you been diving? Your eyes are red.”
“I have. You didn’t find some diving goggles or a mask over there did you?”
“No, just this boring old thing,” she said and
with obvious pride handed Gray a flat, three inch by five rectangle of metal.
The sheet of metal had
one highly polished surface and a half inch diameter hole in the center with a kind of screen in the hole and then a smaller hole in the screen. On the back were instructions how to use the “Surviva-Mirror”.
He laughed. “What a find
! What else did you guys come up with?”
“More crab and fish
. We brought back the mines and that stuff. We brought back some more coconuts and more dried rice and beans and enough cooked rice for dinner.”
They gathered near the shelter and Gray updated them on the view from the peak and the
usability of the cave. Lex had unsuccessfully tried to climb a coconut tree and had gotten his arms scraped up doing so and had taken a fall but did not incur any injury. He did not think he would try it again for awhile. Shinobu said Lex should not feel bad about failing. Those that climb coconut trees started learning as children.
Lex
said Shinobu had shown him some other places to place crab traps when the catch diminished around the dock. He said Shinobu had carefully watched the few chickens and could point out where they were nesting. The old man seemed very pleased that he had been useful.
Gray
suggested they set up a schedule for lookouts on the peak during daylight hours of about three hours apiece. He could rig up three of the mines a safe distance down the slope from the top. When a lookout spotted a ship within reasonable range, he or she could detonate the mines about five seconds apart, resulting in three loud explosions and with the steady breeze, three distinct clouds of smoke. If the ship was in a favorable direction, the lookout could then flash the ship with the mirror. The group sounded encouraged by the plan judging by the cheerful comments.
When Gray told Lex about his difficulty with retrieving items from the wreck, Lex said he had done some scuba diving and what Gray needed was a weight belt and a floating rig where he could rest
rather than tread water. He could also store things he retrieved on the rig and avoid taking them back to shore each time.
“My man, my appreciation of you is growing,” Gray said.
He had thought of using weights to help him sink without expending so much effort and he had considered tying together some of the floating seat cushions that littered the area to make a raft. He did not tell Lex that he had already thought of those things because he had grown to like the young man and knew he liked to be helpful.
Melanie, Lex and Anna
wanted to eat dinner before dark so it was too late to go up to the peak. They postponed it until morning. That evening they had a hot meal of rice, fish and crab with fruit and candy for desert. Shinobu told them he expected he could find some edible greens and possibly some fruit or berries on the island. Things were looking better for the castaways except for the two badly injured men. Everyone was concerned about Lleyton’s turn to the worse. He was not speaking much and could not eat and only drank when coaxed. It especially frustrated Melanie that they could not get help for the young man.
The sky turned shades of gold and red as the sun set. No rain came that evening and the night sky glittered with an impossible number of stars. The group was not so totally exhausted this evening as last and they sat in the sand and talked, learning a bit about each other. Dayah wanted to know why each had been invited on the flight. Gray told how he had gotten on the flight through his friend, Alyson Marker, an LPGA star and Anna said she was also invited because she was a golfer. Keegan had won martial arts tournaments across South Asia and had held a world lightweight title in cage fighting. Melanie and Lex were staring in an adventure movie that had been filming in the Malaysian jungle. Shinobu said he suspected he was chosen because he had been the Japanese ambassador to Malaysia for five years before his recent retirement. When Gray asked him how he was so knowledgeable of building with the local materials, he said he had always lived in outlying areas when he was a diplomat and immersed himself in the local culture.
Looking at Paolo, Dayah said, “Now you not nice man but we want know why you here.
”
The moon light was not enough to tell what expression was on Paolo’s face, only that it was not a smile because no teeth were showing. “Is that so?”
When he said no more, the young Malay said, “What, that you not nice or we want to know why you here?”
That brought a chuckle from some of those sitting in the sand. Paolo smiled then
but his voice was cold. “If you wish. I won the formula one championship last year driving for Colotra Renault. The schedule was changed radically this year. Sepang, the race in Kuala Lumpur, is usually in March but it was in October this year. The race in Australia was moved from March to November and from Melbourne to Brisbane.”
“Thank you,” Dayah said. “That not so hard.”
Anna said, “Paolo, Molenaar is a Dutch name but Paolo is not. Will you tell us about that and where you are from?”
“For you Anna, yes.
I was twelve when my mother, a Brazilian, married a Dutchman. We left the favela of Rio and moved to Utrecht. My mother registered me at school with the last name of my step father. Believe me when I tell you, there are no two cultures more different on earth than Brazilians and the Dutch. My hero was Aryton Senna and I consider myself a Brazilian.”