Immediately he could make out that he was in the presence of a large, metal machine. He reached out a hand and ran it along the smooth metal of a…wing! Looking back for confirmation, he nodded to himself as he recognized a tail section. Then, up front, the fuselage tapered into a rounded nose. What’s more, Bones realized, this was no modern aircraft. In fact…his mouth dropped open as he processed the unbelievable.
He was looking at a Lockheed Electra airplane. It couldn’t be Earhart’s, though. He’d personally witnessed it slide into the abyss. Plus, this one was in pristine condition, looking as though it had never even spent time in the air, much less underwater. He gazed in wonder along its length.
Then what the heck was it?
Bones recalled the Mizuhi crewman’s words. No work, just a model. He decided to confirm that for himself. He crept beneath the wing over to where it joined the body of the plane, where one of the twin turboprop engines were. It had a propeller, he could see that much even in the weak ambient light. He wished he had a flashlight to peer into the engine’s innards to see if it had actual parts or was just an empty shell, as the crewman had suggested. It looked real enough from the outside in this poor light, but he wasn’t about to start prying panels open.
He listened for a few seconds to make sure all was silent out on deck, and then slinked back toward the tail section. He passed the supine body of the man he had knocked unconscious and stopped to check his pulse. Still alive. He continued on to the tail section. There was a small tear in the tarp overhead here, and a little more light came through. Enough for him read the serial number painted on the tail.
NR 16020.
The same as Amelia Earhart’s!
Bones was confused. Here was a plane that looked exactly like Earhart’s Electra, even down to the serial number. He wasn’t sure which exact model it was, but it sure looked a lot like the one they had found underwater, and yet there was no way it could be the one they had found underwater.
A model…He reflected on the crewman’s words again, then on the fireside conversation in Spinney’s camp about how Mizuhi wanted to turn the island into a resort based on Earhart’s plane…
And then Bones heard a noise.
Not human. Machine. He laid a hand flat on the deck and felt the vibration. The ship’s engines were starting up! A few seconds later, a second sound came — the grating of metal on metal, which Bones recognized as the ship’s anchor being hauled back in. They were getting underway.
Not sure what that could mean since it was still the middle of the night, Bones decided it was time to get back to Maddock and their captive. He stayed underneath the tarp while he walked back along the plane’s length to the nose, the end closest to where they hid under the lifeboat. He had just gripped the bottom of the tarp to lift it high enough to slip under when he heard voices approaching on the work deck.
Not Maddock’s.
Cursing lightly under his breath, he let the tarp drop back into position and retreated from the edge. The men he could hear spoke in Japanese, so he had no idea what they were saying, but they didn’t sound angry. They sounded industrious, though, like they had a job to do and they were getting it done.
Bones froze in place as he heard the sound of the rumpling tarp from over by the tail section as someone started to pull it up. A sliver of artificial light tracked toward him. Realizing that the tarp was being removed, Bones knew he had to do something. If he simply remained standing here he would be seen in a few more seconds when the tarp was removed.
He looked around the deck beneath the plane. Saw no recourse of any kind. He considered slipping out from under the tarp and making a dash for it somewhere else on the deck, perhaps to the lifeboat, but from the sound of the voices around, there were far too many men in his midst to give that any chance of success. The tarp began to slide from the plane.
Then Bones looked up. The model plane’s cockpit was directly above him. He moved to the base of the cockpit where the step ladder was and climbed. He saw the shadow of a man duck underneath the tarp by the tail of the plane to help pull it off, and prayed there was a real cockpit and not some filled-in space. He topped over the edge of the cockpit on the ladder and was relieved to see there was in fact a deep cockpit.
Bones flopped into it without making any noise, just before the rest of the tarp was pulled away from the plane. The inside of the cockpit was flooded with light. Fortunately, the only way a man could see into it was if he climbed up into it as Bones had done, or if he was looking down from above.
Bones took a glance at the controls and smiled. They weren’t real gauges, just little plastic discs with numbers painted on them. The Japanese guy was right. This was just a life-size model of a plane — of Amelia Earhart’s Electra. Bones curled up on the floor of the cockpit, making himself as small as possible, which wasn’t easy with his size.
He heard men walk nearby, then retreat. Shortly after that, he felt the model plane begin to roll.
The plane was being moved.
Chapter 28
Maddock put a hand on the Japanese crewman’s shoulder. Don’t move. He mentally kicked himself for allowing Bones to investigate what was under the tarp. Now they were in one hell of a situation. He counted six Mizuhi men moving the uncovered plane along the deck. Where was Bones? And, he couldn’t help but notice in spite of the situation: the plane looked exactly like Earhart’s Electra! He checked his watch: fourteen minutes had passed and still the brother had not returned.
The crewman captive’s eyes grew wide upon seeing Maddock look at his watch. He shook his head rapidly. “No, no! Wait, wait! He will come!”
Like it or not, Maddock didn’t see what other choice he had at the moment. They were no longer alone on deck, and Bones was missing… or was he? Maddock thought about it as he peered out from beneath the lifeboat. The men didn’t have him. He was beneath the tarp when they first came out…He supposed it was possible Bones made a run for it when the tarp came off, but then wouldn’t he have run here, under the lifeboat? Maybe not if he thought it would also give up Maddock’s cover. Or, Maddock realized, watching the big model wheel across the deck, maybe Bones was in the plane? In the cockpit? It was possible. The more he thought about it, it seemed probable compared to the other possibility that Bones had run off to another part of the ship. He would have had very little time to make a decision, and from his place under the tarp, running out from under it would be pretty much of a crapshoot as to whether he was spotted.
And what of the brother sent to fetch the sat-phone? Could these men on deck now be part of a response triggered by alerting Tomoaki that the two Americans were holding his brother hostage? Or did he simply need this much time to locate it and return here? These thoughts swirled in Maddock’s brain like a maelstrom while he stared out from behind the lifeboat, wondering what his next move was going to be. He might be able to sneak around the ship himself, employing stealth moves, but with his captive? No way. He’d have to leave him behind, and with no one brandishing a knife at his side, he doubted he’d stick around.
What’s it going to be, Maddock?
But then his choice was made for him.
The Japanese captive, keenly aware that Maddock was preoccupied with watching the activity on deck and lost in thought, suddenly shot backward — toward the opening away from the main activity on deck, away from where Maddock watched. Even though his hands were tied, he was able to scoot backward rapidly until his body was outside of the lifeboat before Maddock could stop him. Maddock reached out and grabbed one of his ankles but it was too late.