“We’ve probably got a thirty-minute grace period from now while they think we just went somewhere else to avoid the confrontation of the fight,” Maddock hypothesized.
“But after that they’ll turn this little patch of coral upside down looking for us.”
“Let’s get a move on.”
They spent a couple of precious minutes eyeballing the best route for them to take up to the cave — handholds, footholds, resting points. They decided not to use the poles and hid them in the brush. They also took care to disguise any trampled vegetation or other signs of their passage.
That done, they both put their hands on the crate and began to take it up the rocky incline. Fifteen minutes later, they slid the mysterious box up into the cave. They looked down over the jungle, double-checking for anything that would give away their presence to someone who passed through here searching for them. Satisfied they had left behind no obvious signs, Maddock and Bones turned their attention back to the crate and the cave.
Bones gauged the distance to the back wall where passages went left and right. “Not really looking forward to lugging this thing all the way to the room back there,” he said, referencing the chamber filled with evidence of human activity.
“Let’s open it here and see what’s in it. That way we can keep an eye on what’s happening out there.” He looked out over the jungle.
Bones nodded. “Plus if it doesn’t have anything that has to do with our mission we can just get rid of it.” He unsheathed his dive knife while Maddock provided extra illumination with his flashlight. After crushing off the marine growth, Bones was able to pry up the lid. Maddock lifted it off the container and they looked inside.
Maddock and Bones remained quiet as they stared into the crate. They were looking at a plastic tray of off-white, ceramic spheres. Each bore a black skull-and-crossbones label. A second tray of the same was visible underneath the top layer.
“Rows of four by four, so sixteen on top, sixteen on bottom for thirty-two total,” Maddock calculated.
“I’m just looking to see if any are cracked.” Bones stared intently into the box.
“It doesn’t look like any of these top ones are. We should check the ones underneath, though.”
Bones exhaled heavily. “Why the skull-and-crossbones and not the biohazard symbol?”
“I don’t think that was in use until later.”
“So how are we going to do this?” Bones eyed the crate’s contents dubiously.
Maddock ran a finger lightly over one of the trays. “I think the supports are plastic, so I don’t think we need to worry about them crumbling if we lift it out.”
“They had plastic in 1937?”
“Yeah. I don’t think they had so many different kinds like they do now, but they had it.”
“Are you sure? Because if this stuff turns to dust and one of those ceramic things breaks…”
Maddock lightly traced a finger along the framework in which the bio-weapons were nestled.
“It’s plastic, Bones. C’mon, we’ve either been infected already or we haven’t. Let’s lift out this top tray and find out.” Maddock balanced his dive light on a shelf of rock so that it shone on the box, freeing both hands.
“At least we had the vaccine. Remind me to get that nurse’s number when we go back for the debriefing…”
“Bones. Stay on track. The whole island is looking for us and we still have a lot to do.”
“Okay. You’re not about to have any kind of muscle spasm or anything, right?” Bones flexed his fingers as Maddock felt around the tray for a place from which to lift it.
“I’ll be okay. How about if I lift it out with two hands, and you cup your hands underneath to catch one of these globes in case it falls through.”
“Where are you going to set the tray down after you lift it out?”
Maddock looked at the ground next to them and pointed. “Right there.”
Bones used his knife to rake the spot clean and even, making sure there were no rocks just beneath the dirt waiting to crack the ceramic spheres.
Maddock gripped the tray and began to lift.
Chapter 19
“Seems sturdy.” Maddock tested the tray by raising it by only a millimeter and holding it there. He lifted it a little higher, the plastic retaining its integrity. “Here goes.” Maddock held the tray full of ceramic spheres high enough for Bones to hold his big hands beneath it as a safety net.
After a few seconds, he told Bones to look underneath. “We need to make sure the bottoms are intact.” Maddock held the tray of smallpox bombs steady while Bones moved his head beneath it and aimed his light on the undersides of the ceramic vessels.
“Looks like they’re all in one piece. I don’t see any hairline fractures or anything.”
Maddock set the tray down gently on the dirt floor of the cave and then directed his light beam on the second tray at the bottom of the crate. Bones peered in at them.
“They look good from this angle.”
“We’ve got to get a look at the bottoms of these, too.” They repeated the process with this tray, Bones eyeing the lower surface of the containers.
“No cracks, no holes! We’re smallpox free!”
Maddock eased the tray back into the bottom of the crate. Then he and Bones carefully put the first tray back on top of that one and put the lid back on the crate, making sure it was fastened securely. He looked at the sealed crate and shook his head, amazed that his government had enlisted the famous aviatrix to drop these horrendous viral bombs on other human beings.
“What I don’t get,” Maddock said, standing and looking out once again over the jungle, “is why her plane was full of bullet holes when it crashed over what at the time was U.S-held territory. The Japanese were hundreds of miles further north in the Marshalls.”
Bones looked at the crate while he thought. “Maybe she went through there and that’s where she took the hits, but made it back down this way as far as she could until the damage took its toll and she crashed.”
“I find it hard to believe that she would have made it hundreds of miles if the damage was that significant. That plane was shot up pretty bad, with a lot of the rounds going right into the fuel tanks. Also, there’s something else that bothers me.”
“You’ve got no game with the ladies?”
Maddock rolled his eyes. “The Japanese didn’t use that caliber of rounds. I measured one of the bullet holes in the side of the plane using the ruler marks that are etched into my knife blade. They’re definitely 50 millimeters. Not a caliber the Japanese were using at that time.”
“So what are you saying?”
At that moment they heard a steady rushing sound as it began to rain hard outside the cave. They viewed it as a positive thing, since it would make searching for them more difficult, and the water would wash away any of their tracks they may have failed to conceal.
“I’m saying…” Maddock seemed to have trouble formulating what he was about to put forth. “What if she was shot down by our own guys?”
“Friendly fire?”
Maddock shrugged. “I’m thinking not so friendly fire. Jimmy said that some rumors have it that Earhart was captured by the Japanese. If her plane went down in the Marshalls and they found her with these…” He looked at the crate. Bones’ eyes widened.
“You think they would have sent her back down this way to deliver the smallpox to the American forces?”