PULAU MATI (18 page)

In a few seconds his answer came.  “I am here, my friend.  Did it go well?”

“
Half good.  Melanie is alive and free and the rest of us are unhurt.  We have captured the leader but there is one able bodied man on the ship and one wounded.”

“That is
mostly good to hear.  Is the young woman going to recover?”

“She seems okay other than bruises
and whatever the gang rape may have caused.  They beat her and she is near catatonic right now.  We will see.  Can you and four land lubbers man that ship if we figure out how to get the last man off it?”

“
Of course but we might not need to.  A radio should be aboard.”

“That is true.”

“Are you coming to this side tonight?” Shinobu asked.

“It will be
completely dark soon.  I’ll see what the others think.  I’m concerned about the guy on the ship.  He has a machine gun that can reach the clearing and god knows what else he might have.  Are you going to be okay there?”

“I will be fine.  I am going to go down to the shelter
right now.  I will bring blankets and a few items in case you come across.”

Gray signed off
as the women were helping Melanie out of the pool.  She was shivering and when they dried her off they wrapped her in blankets.  Gray motioned Keegan to join them.  He told them about the danger from the man on the ship if they stayed at the hut tonight.  Melanie gazed at the hut and then turned to Gray.  “I can walk, Gray,” she said in a tone he could not interpret.

“The rest of you want to go to the shelter for tonight?” Gray asked.  When everyone indicated that they did, Gray wondered what to do with the pirate
leader and whether the man on the ship posed a danger to them tonight.  The women went to the hut and he motioned Keegan to stay with him.  They talked about their options.

With the sun
about to drop below the horizon, the clearing was in darkness to anyone on the ship.  With Keegan’s help, Gray strung a trip line across the foot of the dock and for a hundred feet to the north.  They ran it only a short ways south.  It was not ideal because that long length of trip line could not be made taunt or it would trigger the detonator.  The line had to be supported by twigs to keep it six to eight inches about the surface.  The length also required a lot of slack to be taken up before it did trigger the detonator.  He set one Claymore south of the dock facing north and the other about one hundred fifty feet to the north, facing south.  If someone came onto or off the dock or came ashore in the dark they could not avoid a withering barrage.

The women appeared and Melanie was walking without assistance.  Anna had a bulging bag over her shoulder.  Gray motioned Dayah to follow him over to the pirate.

“Ask him if he thinks the guy aboard ship will leave during the night.”

Dayah asked and the man snarled a reply.  “Bossman say men on ship not leave.  They come ashore and kill us.”

‘Well, that’s not helpful.”

“P
ut’im in the shackles,” Keegan growled, “I did not cut half through them.  Or weh can just kill him.”

“I’d like to kill him.  Or slice his stomach open and let him lay.  But he may be of some value toward getting
us onboard the ship.”

They unbound his ankles and walked him to the post where they
shackled his leg.  Gray checked that his wrists were not bound so tight it cut off circulation.  He wished he had some duct tape but in lieu of that they gagged and blindfolded him with rags from the hut.  Gray told Keegan to grab the man’s rifle.

It had been
fully dark for sometime when they were ready to leave. The moon was full but low in the sky and cast everyone in tones of bluish grey.  At the saddle Gray called Shinobu and told him to expect them. On the way down they encountered the bodies of the two men killed by the Claymore mine.  They did not notice the stink until they were past the two bodies, and then it followed them well down the trail. They would have to deal with them in the morning.

Melanie had kept up a good pace until they were about to the beach but was beginning to slow.  She said the pirates had not fed her much.  Dayah supported her where the trail was wide enough.  When they reached the beach, Melanie put an arm around Keegan’s and Dayah’s necks and they almost carried her the rest of the way.  When they went up the beach, a fire was going at the shelter and water was boiling.

Melanie was about dead on her feet but when she stepped into the shelter she looked around and then to the others.  “Lleyton… Malik
, Paolo?” she asked.

Gray
put an arm around her and said softly, “Lleyton about noon day before yesterday, Malik a little later.  Paolo was shot yesterday while trying to ambush the pirates with a Claymore.  We buried them up the beach.”

Melanie sank to her knees, head bowed but did not wail as Gray had expected.
  He knelt beside her and felt her shoulders shake.  New tears were streaking her face.

Shinobu made some tea, peeled some fruit and laid out some crackers and cheese which he insisted everyone eat so they would sleep better.  Everyone including Melanie ate hungrily before exhaustion
drove them to their blankets.

Gray planned to rise early enough to get across the island before sunrise.  His phone was dead and no one else had one
so they could not set an alarm.  Shinobu said an alarm was unnecessary and promised he would wake before sunrise and rouse Gray. Gray fell into the hard sleep of total exhaustion.

Chapter
X    Day Six

D
uring the night an explosion rocked the island and brought everyone awake.  The moon had traversed about a quarter of the sky so Gray guessed it was about midnight or one in the morning, a long time to daylight.  “I don’t think they would set them off intentionally,” he said to no one in particular.

The others thought what he said meant there was nothing to worry about and went back under their blankets.  He was exhausted but the need to know would not let him lay back.  Anna squeezed his hand.  “I will go with you if you need to go,” she whispered.

“I think we should wait until light.  But I think we should post guard.”

From the darkness of the shelter,
Shinobu said, “I have rested more, I will take first guard.”

Keegan said, “Wake m
e in two hours.  I’ll take over.”

“That is very generous,
guys, thank you,” Gray said and snuggled back against Anna.

Gray awoke with more hope than he had felt in a long time.  Everyone was gone but Melanie.  She was lying on her side and staring at him.  He said, “You are already looking better this morning.”

In response s
he rolled over and pulled her blanket higher.

Gray
wanted to go up to the peak and scan the clearing with binoculars to try to learn as much as possible about what had happened at the hut during the night but he needed to wait until someone returned to watch Melanie.  When he saw Anna returning he walked out to meet her and told her of his concern about Melanie and that he wanted to make a quick trip up to the peak.  She nodded in understanding and he took off.

In ten minutes he was scanning the clearing.
  Bossman, as Dayah had tagged him, was still shackled to the post.  Gray searched carefully along the shore line around the dock and finally spotted the reason for the detonation.  A body in a very unnatural position lay fifty feet north of the dock.  He scanned the ship and saw nothing changed or moving.  Satisfied that there was no urgency, he climbed down to the shelter.

Keegan came out of the jungle with Shinobu who was carrying a 20 foot length of slender bamboo. 
The young Irishman sat down and began working on the bamboo with the hack saw he had cursed.  It was now nearly too dull to cut bamboo but he accomplished what he wanted and attached the hooked blade from the broken pole to the new pole.

Anna and Dayah returned and were scrounging around for something to eat.  Shinobu
asked, “Gray, do we need to go to the other side of the island soon?”

“
No, I believe only Bossman is alive and he is still shackled.  And probably had the scare of his life in the night.  Why?”

Shinobu chuckled at the thought of the pirate sleeping so close to the mines when they went off. 
“If someone will prepare some rice I think we can have a late but very delicious breakfast.  Does anyone want to go with us?”  He turned to Melanie and called her name.

Anna
had pulled Melanie’s clothes from where they had hung overnight to dry and given them to her.  As she dressed, Melanie said, “Thank you, Anna.  Are you guys leaving now?”

Shinobu answered,
“Soon.  We are going south and try to find the fruit the pirates were going to collect and maybe some clams.  All of us can go.  The rice will be okay if it is high above the fire.”

“I’ll catch up,” she said and rose
stiffly and stumbled off into the jungle.

Dayah, Gray and Anna said
they wanted to go.  With Shinobu carrying the pole, Keegan led the way carrying sacks and the shovels.  When Gray held back, Anna glanced at him and he made a nod in the direction Melanie had taken.  She smiled and gave him a waggle of her fingers and followed the others.  Gray sat down in the shelter and counted the firearms left behind.  The old revolver was there, Bossman’s Steyr and the four rifles.  Keegan had grown fond of the Glock and was probably carrying it.  In a few minutes he heard the sound of approaching footsteps.  Melanie came into the shelter and made a little startled sound when she saw Gray.

“I thought I would wait for you,” he said.

She turned away without speaking, then without much force, said, “Bullshit.”

Gray took a while to speak, trying to parse and weigh his words.  “Melanie,
your heart break is breaking my heart.”

She turned back to him and he held out a hand as a gesture to sit by him.  She went to her knees and then turned and sat
close to him.  Tears were rolling down her cheeks and she was swallowing hard but not sobbing.  He put an arm around her and she leaned into him.  When he put his other arm around her she broke into hard, shaking sobs.

In a few minutes h
er crying lessened and she said, “It felt so good on the plane when I snuggled up to you like this.  You laid me back so gently and covered me up.”

“So you were not so drunk
, or asleep.”

“
I was very drunk but I woke up.  You were so sweet I did not want to spoil it.”

“Well, I
guess I was flattered.  You were acting then.”

“
You said I deserved a nomination.”

“I did.
” 

“When you held me on the trail,
trying to keep me from going down to the clearing, it felt so good I nearly gave in.”

“You are a sweet and beautiful young woman
, Melanie.  It felt good to me to hold you.”

“You do not think I am despoiled?”

Gray chuckled.  “We are not in the middle east.”

“I don’t really care anymore
, but if what I did becomes public I think my career is dead.”

“
Don’t think like that.  What about those changes you were going to make when you got back.  I was looking forward to the result.”

“That is all moot now… meaningless.”

“Melanie, all the men who did this to you are dead now but one and he is going to be dead soon.  I’m sure you know a discreet doctor who can test and treat you if necessary.  And the five people beside yourself who know about this all love you.  They will not make it public if they know that is your wish.  You are still the same beautiful young woman that both men and women like to see in the movies.” 

She pressed against him, acknowledging the compliment and then went quiet for a bit. 
“Gray, it is not so much what the men did to me.  I can’t live with what I did.”

“I know, and I can’t absolve you of it.”

“Do you know why I went down there?”

“Maybe, but…”

“But you won’t say because it is so awful?”

“If I were wrong it would hurt you that I could even consider it.”

“Gray, I think I did it out of blind spite.”

“That is what I
started thinking.  I think it is good that you can recognize that, and even admit it to yourself.”

“How can you
still hold me, be so gentle with me after doing such a horrible thing?”

“Because you did a
stupid but common human thing that by horrible timing or ill luck had terrible consequences.  And then you suffered punishment far out of proportion to the sin itself.  But there is more to it than that.”

When he did not continue, she snuggled
deeper into his embrace.  “More to it?” she asked.

“
I remember saying you would know there could be pirates around here if you ever read any international news.  I saw how much the comment hurt but I never found a way to apologize.”

“Oh, no, Gray.  That was a small thing.  For god’s sake don’t blame yourself for what I did.”

“I’m not, but it might have made a difference.  More importantly, I could have stopped you from going down there.  Keegan was all over me because I did not use physical force to stop you.  But when I asked why he did not stop you his only reply was that I was the leader.  Lex himself could have stopped you.  None of us had the strength of our convictions.  We all failed you, and you failed yourself, and we all failed Lex and Lex failed himself.”

She cried again and Gray held her in silence.  She stopped and wiped her face
and took several deep breathes and they broke from the embrace.

“I could love you, Gray.”

“And I you.  Will you promise me that you will not kill yourself until you have recovered physically, all the bruises gone and you’ve gotten back into your life and given me a phone call and a chance to talk to you again?”

“I could but I don’t know if I
have the strength to keep that promise.”

“I’m just asking you to make the promise
, not keep it.”

She laughed and it sounded full of skepticism. 
“Alright, I promise to do ya da ya da and I’ll call you before I kill myself.”

“Good, because I don’t think you will let me down.”

“No, I would not.”

Gray reached for her arm.  “I could not
bring myself to ask you yesterday.  What happened to Lex’s body?”

“They
tied a rope around him… and dragged him behind the boat out past the bay.”  Her shoulders started shaking and Gray held her tightly.  After a short time she sighed and asked, “Can we catch up with them?”

“I need to ask you one more thing, and then I owe you an apology.”

“I can’t conceive of you owing me an apology.”

“Did the pirates ask you about all the stuff that was missing?”

“They did.”

“What did you tell them?”

“The guy in the orange shirt, the number two man, was the only one who spoke much English.  I told him six of us came to the island on my boyfriend’s yacht and he took the stuff.  I said my boyfriend caught Lex and I screwing so he went off and left us.”

“The story you told worked, Melanie.  They never suspected anyone else was on the island.  It probably enabled us to
ambush them and get the first rifles.  But that gave away your story.  Is that when they beat you?”

“Yes.”

“Please forgive me, Melanie.  Setting the ambush was my idea.”

“Forgive you?  No, no, th
ose explosions… They saved my life.  I wanted them to kill me until that first mine went off.  I was either going to slash my wrists or kick one of them in the nuts and get myself shot.  I cried for joy, I bawled like a baby when I heard that explosion!”

Gray was chuckling but Melanie went on.  “
And then flashing me from the peak.  I cried then too.  I told myself if you and the others were going to risk your lives for me, I had to hang around so your efforts were not in vain.  Anyway I think I avoided the worst of the beatings.  To explain how others could be on the island I cried and told orange shirt that my boy friend had probably come back for me.”

“
Melanie, I think you earned Oscars for script writing, directing and acting, all while under duress.”

Gray slung the AK-74 over his shoulder and he and Melanie caught up with the others very near the south end of the beach.  They had been making forays into the jungle and having no luck.  Keegan pushed through the thick foliage on the southwest slope of the island and was gone but thirty seconds when he hollered, “Comb see what I found!”

The others pushed through
the foliage following his voice.  They came into an overgrown clearing with a line of papaya trees grown tall and a few mango trees and some other scraggly fruit trees.  An abandoned hut with half a roof and a collapsed floor sat at the back of the clearing.  Some flowering plants not native to this part of the world struggled against the encroaching jungle.  A red climbing rose on a decaying trellis bloomed beside a rotted wooden lawn chair.

Shinobu and Keegan set about harvesting the ripest papayas.  Gray and Anna poked about the hut and walked around the clearing.  The papaya pickers said they had enough and Shinobu led them down to the shore.  While Shinobu and Keegan dug up tiny clams at the surfs edge, the others sat on the beach and watched.

“Once upon a time this island must have been someone’s paradise,” Anna said.

“Now pulau mati,” Dayah said.

Gray looked at her and raised his eyebrows, silently asking for a translation.

“Now island of death.”

“Maybe no more though,” Gray said.  “Dayah, what does Kesempatan, K E S E M P A T A N mean?”

She spelled it to herself and said, “Mmmm, like chance, opportunity.”

“Well, the pirate ship is aptly named for us then.”  He rose and took a closer look at the claming operation.  The clams were very small but they were only four or five inches below the surface and revealed themselves with a tiny air hole after the surf rolled past.  A lunge with the shovel a few inches from the air hole usually produced one clam which was thrown into a sack.  Gray went to work with the folding shovel.  When Anna knelt on the other side of Gray and began searching through the clumps of sand he turned over, the group’s production doubled.  In a short time they were heading back to the shelter.