“That’ll have to do. Let’s get back to camp.” Maddock went to the wheelbarrow, but then stopped short of picking it up.
“What’s wrong?”
He was staring up into the island, away from the path that followed the beach in an arc to camp. “Maybe we should cut straight through there to camp, instead of following the path around.”
Bones looked toward where he pointed. “Through the jungle?”
“Yeah. It’s not all that thick, not like the Amazon or something like that. If we can get through it the camp is just straight across instead of all the way around, and there’s less chance of somebody seeing us coming back.”
“Hmmm, a little nature walk to get to my sleeping bag sooner? You make a good case, Maddock. But pushing that damn thing through the jungle?” He pointed to the wheelbarrow full of dive gear. Maddock frowned at it.
“It’s pretty flat in there,” he said, shining his light into the trees. “We can’t just leave it here or they’ll know something was going on. We need to drop it back off in the dive tent before we hit the sack.”
“You push first, then.”
Maddock got behind the wheelbarrow and Bones led the way into a copse of trees not far from the beach. Maddock knew that the atoll was actually comprised of several small islands very close together, and he recalled from the aerial view he had on the way in that this was not one of the thin strips of land, but the wide, triangular piece at one of the atoll’s ends. At first it was easy going, with lots of space between each tree, but as they penetrated deeper into the island, the jungle truly began to live up to the name, complete with hanging vines and thick roots that they had to negotiate carefully with the wheelbarrow. It was also dark in here, the moonlight not penetrating through the canopy, so they switched on their dive lights.
Maddock checked the compass on his wrist since they were walking through a wilderness area without so much as a path. “Doesn’t look like anyone from the team ever comes in here.”
“It’s nice and all,” Bones said, stabbing his light beam into the darkness ahead, “but I can see why.” All around, the hum of millions of unseen insects, birds and other animals vibrated the air, which was noticeably warmer and more humid than out on the beach. Bones slapped his arm and muttered something about mosquito repellent.
They came to an area where forward progress was no longer possible due to a pile of collapsed trees. They had to skirt around it, lifting the wheelbarrow over fallen debris as they went. When they got back on course on the other side of the tree pile, Bones pointed toward a rocky outcropping set into a small rise overgrown with vegetation. He turned his flashlight on it.
“What?” Maddock set down the wheelbarrow to look.
“Is it just me, or is there an opening in those rocks there?”
“I don’t know. Does it matter?” Maddock wiped the sweat from his forehead and checked his watch. “Maybe this shortcut wasn’t such a bright idea after all.”
“Well, now that we’re here, let me take a look.” Bones walked over to the rocks. He climbed up on a couple of them and directed his light beam into the dark opening. Maddock groaned when he saw Bones waving an arm, telling him to come over.
“What for?”
“This goes back a ways. I think we should check it out.”
“I thought you couldn’t wait to get to sleep.” Maddock reluctantly brought the wheelbarrow over to the base of the clump of boulders.
“It’s a cave!”
Apparently that was all the reason Bones needed, because as Maddock watched, the big Cherokee ducked beneath an overhang of rock and disappeared into the shadowy fissure.
Chapter 14
“It’s a full-on cave system back in here!” Bones’ voice echoed back to Maddock at the entrance to the cave.
“Bones, we were in an underwater cave today, and we’ll be back in it again in just a few hours. Do we really need more caves?”
“It’s funny, most caves I’ve been in, even the more remote ones, there’s always signs of human presence. Trash, something…but this one is pristine.”
“Yeah, well, let’s see…we’re pretty much smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a tiny, uninhabited coral atoll, and if that’s not enough, we’re in the most rarely visited part of that, in the middle of a jungle. Then you walk into a cave and wonder why no one’s ever been there?”
In return Bones’ light beam jiggled on the cave wall, beckoning. “C’mon! There’s a fork in the road up here, I’m going left.”
“Hold up, I’m on my way.” Maddock didn’t really want to explore the cave, but a SEAL didn’t leave one of their own alone if it could be avoided. They were in this together. He followed the main tunnel straight back and down at a slight angle until he saw Bones standing at a T-intersection, playing his light on the walls. A couple of small lizards jumped past their feet and out of sight.
“I’ll check the right passage, see how far it goes.” Maddock had to stoop a bit to go this way, but he was able to quickly walk down the rocky corridor until it jogged to the left and opened into a smallish chamber with nothing in it. He examined the walls and ceiling with his light but found nothing of interest and headed back to where he had been with Bones.
When he got there, Bones was out of sight, so he followed the left path until it wound around to the right. Here he was faced with both a left-right fork and a higher passage that opened up in the ceiling. It was from this pathway that he heard Bones’ voice emanate.
“Dude, you’ve got to see this! Can you hear me?”
“Sure can. Your voice is hard to miss.”
“Use the foothold on the right side of the wall and jump up to the tunnel. From there it’s a short walk back.”
Maddock found the piece of rock and gained the tunnel. “This must have been easier for you,” he said to Bones.
“Hey, my height has to be an advantage sometimes. At least you don’t bang your head climbing into every freaking car ever made.”
The tunnel-like area sloped down until it opened into a good-sized chamber. Bones was standing upright in the middle of it, and he had plenty of headroom. But what made this natural room special was the evidence of human presence. Maddock shone his light beam first on a small fire pit, then some piles of charred animal bones, and finally on some modern items including glass jars and plastic containers.
“So much for your no one’s ever been here before theory.” Bones grinned as he looked around the former dwelling.
Maddock walked down the short passage to join Bones in the chamber, which had obviously been occupied for some length of time in the past. “Interesting.”
“What is all this crap?” Bones played his light across the objects while Maddock hunched down for a closer look.
“The bones look like fish, birds, and those might be turtles,” he finished, pointing at the larger ones.
“Stuff they cooked on this fire.” Bones pointed to the small ring of stones around a dirt pit still filled with ash. “So somebody camped out here for a while.”
Maddock pointed at another of the objects. “And this is a glass jar, empty, possibly used for holding or collecting rain water.”
“If it was water, it must have been rain water, or morning dew scraped from leaves, because this island is completely dry.”
“Right. And this here,” Maddock said, pointing at one of the plastic containers without touching it, “looks like a woman’s make-up holder. An old one.”
“How do you know so much about make-up? Something you want to tell me?”
Maddock didn’t reply. A thought had just struck him. He looked across the old fire pit at Bones, who now gaped at him. Maddock put words to both of their thoughts. “Could it be that Earhart and Noonan survived the plane crash, and lived for a time as castaways, with this being their campsite?”