Matt started off, “We don’t know exactly where this island is, but we can tell you it is twenty-five miles from north to south and five miles east to west. In the northwest, there are hills and one mountain you can see from anywhere on the island.” He went on to describe the natural harbor, the flat ridge, the stream of fresh water, and the bridge. “Maggie, did I forget anything?”
“It is high enough out of the water that a high tide won’t overflow it. Did you want to mention about the caverns?”
“No, they’re deep under the water, so they won’t be seen. We’ll tell about those in the long version of our story.”
“But how could you possibly know all that?”
Maggie answered, “It’s part of our story, but God told us to call up an island from the bottom of the ocean. The two of us.” Then she grinned. “Okay, it was Matt, but I got to participate. We believed we were to be very specific and detailed rather than asking for just any old island. Do you wonder how we got the GSM up on top of it?”
By this time, the NCO and the medic were back and were listening, too, along with the pilots and the guard with the rifle. “Yes,” they all said.
“I think we have to go now, but we’ll tell you when we tell the long version later, if anyone wants to hear it.” Maggie was enjoying keeping them in suspense. “I’ll give you a clue, though. We got there first.”
The NCO, Staff Sergeant Phelps, showed Maggie the duffel bag full of velvet from one of the lower coffins. He also had both thick pads, which were too big for the duffel bag. “Here’s a memento from the casket,” he said, producing the tool kit.
It was identical to the other one, except they could see that the slip of paper said “INSP BY SUE S”.
Staff Sergeant Phelps, the loadmaster, helped Matt and Maggie get seated in the troop seats where they could look out the window, and gave them headsets set to the channel where they could converse with Paul if they desired. “I’m sorry I don’t have a headset for your daughter, but these earplugs should help. It will get really noisy when we take off, until we land.” He showed her how to insert them, and brought Maggie some of the velvet from the duffel bag. “Don’t hold her up on your shoulder, but lay her on this on your lap. It will dampen out the vibrations better and make it easier for her. I have a daughter, too.”
They took off and gained altitude quickly, heading west, toward the opposite edge of the island. When they reached the middle, the pilot leveled off and headed south. Below them, the terrain was just as Matt had described. It appeared the edge was black all the way around the island, and they saw two thick black lines heading north and south on the otherwise white surface. “The road and the river!” Matt exclaimed.
Paul verified the river. “It comes fairly close to where we’ll be landing. The perfectly straight one may very well be the flat ridge you mentioned. We’ll be on the ground soon, and you’ll see I have a number of squads of Marines here, and they’ll be busy with different tasks. One is a bomb squad. Before we left to pick you up, they verified that whoever shot you down was using explosive bullets. You must have been terrified! Anyway, we can’t go look at the plane before they certify all is clear.”
They landed. While the pilots conducted their post-flight checks, all of the other Marines except LtCol Washington departed. They were replaced by other Marines with clipboards.
“Sir,” one said, “we have some urgent information, but we should probably be briefing just you.” He looked at the pair of civilians, knowing they were the survivors, and continued, “We are guessing you will want to report this immediately, so it might be best if they step outside.”
“Yes, that would be best. Get Staff Sergeant Phelps for me.”
By the time they got out of the helicopter, SSgt Phelps had appeared. Matt had made another sling for Jenny, so Maggie and Matt took turns holding her. The white mud had been blown away from an even bigger circle than the one where they were picked up. When they got off the flat basalt area, the pale surface crunched underfoot, like the frozen slush left on top of snow the morning after a spring thaw.
“Yes, sir?”
“Staff Sergeant Phelps, please show our visitors around, keeping out of the exclusion area. I’ll be a few minutes with the reports.” With that, he disappeared back inside.
70
In Washington DC, Phil Henry kicked off the 2:30 VTC, and lost little time in turning the meeting over to Captain Palova.
“Thanks, Phil. We received the initial report from the Marines on station about an hour ago. They confirmed AW94 was shot down with American thirty-millimeter high-explosive incendiary bullets. The island’s surface near the plane is littered with dud rounds, which will have to be disposed of before personnel can approach the aircraft. This is consistent with the last words of the pilot, Captain Merkel. The EOD teams identified the rounds as those which are fired from the American GAU-8 machine gun. They provided a list of sixteen different ammunition lot numbers. We are tracking them down to find out when they were produced and where they were sent.
“For the past few minutes, I have been speaking with Lieutenant Colonel Paul Washington, Marine commander on site, who picked up the survivors and brought them back to their command post near the airplane location. We will have the opportunity to speak with them in a few minutes. My radio here will be connected to the VTC so you will hear both sides of the radio traffic.
“Now for the news we’ve been waiting for. One of the EOD teams detected nerve agent consistent with sarin gas in the baggage of one of the Russians. The suitcase had been booby-trapped. It appears the triggering device was a very simple non-explosive bellows-and-plunger designed to function when the suitcase was opened. The technical details are being provided to Bob McGee and Jon Whitaker of the FBI WMD Directorate. I say ‘consistent with sarin gas’ because there are variants, including binary chemical agents, that show up in EOD’s test kits as sarin even though not strictly chemically identical, but have the same effect on human bodies.”
Captain Palova’s monitor switched from his image to the picture of a shiny metallic tank. “The Marines were able to send all kinds of pictures and data. This picture shows one of three similar tanks like the ones we saw earlier. It could not have been aboard the airplane, since nothing like them were on the manifests, and the cargo hold did not appear to be large enough. All three tanks were ruptured quite badly. One possible explanation other than that they are connected to this incident, is that perhaps they were already there on the seafloor.
“I’m turning the meeting back over to Phil. I will let you all know when we have the survivors on the radio.”
“Thanks, Louis. When you talk with the survivors, please ask if they suffered any symptoms of nerve agent poisoning, even a little. Also, the WMD nerve agent being on board appears to tie the shooting down of the plane to the goings-on in Brazil. Pedro, I see that you’re here. Please get with the ambassador to add this new information to his meeting with his counterpart. Brazil doesn’t owe us anything, but their cooperation would sure make our job a lot easier. Ty Harris, if your folks at State would get with the ambassador also, the liaison with your bureau might prove invaluable. Until we find out the motives and agenda of these shooters, we have to assume the worst.
“Just thinking things through into the future, it will be impossible to hide the fact the plane was shot down. Air World Airlines will eventually get their plane back and find the bullet holes, some or most of the bodies will have shrapnel in them, and insurance companies may want photos to support claims. I propose we publicize now, not only that we recovered the plane, but that it was shot down. It may come as a shock to the perpetrators, and they may make a wrong move or otherwise expose themselves. Not the sarin gas yet, though. Does anyone have thoughts on this?”
There was a little discussion among the team members, and in the end, they approved of that course of action.
Just then, Phil announced, “I’ve just been notified by Captain Palova, that Lieutenant Colonel
Washington is being joined by the survivors. Let’s listen in, and we’ll talk some more afterwards.”
71
Staff Sergeant Phelps appeared to be a year or two younger than Maggie. He was a little taller than she, muscular, and walked with the confidence of a man highly proficient in his business. He had an easy manner about him, one comfortable talking with other people besides just Marines.
“We didn’t know what would be here,” he said, “so we brought a couple portable toilets. We’ll start there with the tour. We had to put them and the mess tent far enough from the helicopter to keep the rotor wash from blowing them away.”
There were foot trails already crushed into the dried mud. Odors of canvas and motor oil overpowered the salty ocean smell. As they went, they could see the wreckage of their plane off to the left, inside a large circle of yellow caution tape held in place by the potato-looking rocks, which were scattered everywhere.
The mess tent was a camouflage net tied to heavy objects at each of its corners. Underneath were two vehicles which looked like military dune buggies, and another two which looked like Hummers. There were also makeshift tables and a food locker. The portable toilets were on the other side of the mess tent.
Soon the tour started. “We’re about a half mile from the eastern edge of the island,” SSgt Phelps said, “and about two miles from the southern edge. Our engineers and one EOD team put that tape out. On the other side of the yellow tape, there are dud explosive shells from the machine guns all around the plane. Mostly on the other side of the plane.
“In case you didn’t know, EOD is Explosive Ordnance Disposal, the Marines’ bomb squad. They have to dispose of all duds before we can get near the plane. They are going all around the plane, finding the farthest-away dud as they go, and putting the tape there. They are not quite finished. They are also checking the cargo and baggage areas for explosive devices and dud bullets. The baggage is strewn everywhere. One of the EOD teams is making special checks of all those that are outside the cargo hold.”
Matt pointed to a group of Marines standing near a vehicle he didn’t recognize. “What is that over there?”
“That’s an anti-aircraft section. There wasn’t enough room to bring the whole battery with all their equipment, with everything else we brought.”
“Anti-aircraft? The horse is already out of the barn, isn’t it?”
SSgt Phelps laughed. “Soon the whole world will know an island came up under the plane and brought it to the surface. Our mission includes protecting the remains from whoever shot it down, in case the reason they did that was to make the plane disappear forever. We will be able to see and engage them before they get close enough.
“The only other things to show you are the vehicles in the mess tent. The ones that look like dune buggies are called Light Strike Vehicles. The other ones are Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs. It turns out the surface here can support both sets. Our battalion is not scheduled to get our JLTVs until next month, so we had to borrow these from the School of Infantry. If things are quiet, we will give everyone a chance to get proficient in driving the JLTVs.”
Just then a Marine ran up to their guide, and told him the Lieutenant Colonel wanted them back as soon as possible.
72
Paul was seated by a radio, and there were chairs for Matt and Maggie. He motioned for them to sit, and gave them each a bottle of water. A voice came out of the radio, “Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Washington. We’d like to speak with the survivors if they are nearby.”
“Yes, sir, they are right here. Matt Carven, Maggie Trillbey, and her daughter Jenny.”
“Thanks. I am Captain Louis Palova of the US Navy. We have you on speaker to a gathering of folks very high up in our intelligence community. Is that okay?”
Paul kept pressing the push-to-talk button when it was their turn to speak. Matt and Maggie answered in turn. “Yes, sure.” “That’s fine.”
“I’d like to say, first of all, what a tragedy this has been for our country, the UK, and five other countries who lost citizens yesterday. We are thrilled, though, that you three are alive and well. We won’t keep you long, but we have some important questions that will help us in our investigation and future actions.
“Before we start, how the heck did you know to wave to our satellite? No sooner did we focus on you than you turned and waved. It was apparent you knew what you were doing. How did you know where it was and that it was watching you?”
Matt gave him the same answer he had given Paul. “God spoke to Maggie and told her.”
The radio was silent for a while. Captain Palova said, “That took a moment to sink in! There are ten stunned and incredulous faces here listening to you. For the last four hours, we’ve been trying to come up with an explanation, but nobody’s been able to think of a single plausible one. We’ll move on. Please tell us how the three of you managed to get out of the plane. We know Rachel, uh, Maggie and Jenny were by the window in business class and Matt was in the middle of the plane in economy.”
Maggie started. “Jenny and I had moved out of first class and were sitting with Matt. Sorry, I keep calling it first class. It was first class on the trip over. The pilot had given us a warning about some rough flying coming up, and a few minutes later, we were being shot at. All of a sudden, the oxygen bags came down. I was holding Jenny, so Matt put mine on me and he put his on Jenny. He was on the inside so we switched places so he could find a mask.
“We both had our seatbelts off when the plane started crashing into the water. We were thrown all about inside the plane and I lost hold of Jenny. The plane crashed nose first into the water, and the next thing I knew, water came in through the front and blew me out through the tail. God protected me from hitting or being caught on anything inside the plane, and from being torn by the jagged metal as I went through.”
Matt continued, starting from what he saw in the front of the plane until he exited the plane like Maggie had.
“What happened to your infant?”
“Like I said, I lost her when we were thrown about. She’s three months old, and I had swaddled her in a blanket. We didn’t see her at all once we were out of the plane, which sank immediately. We never saw it again until today, except for the tail which had separated and briefly came to the surface. It was obvious she had drowned.”
Matt added, “There was nothing at all on the surface but us two. Maggie couldn’t swim, and by the time I got her stabilized in the water, the pallet of coffins had floated up and we got on it. Maggie stood on the top, but we couldn’t see Jenny anywhere. We didn’t see her body again for at least an hour or two.”
“Then what happened to Jenny?” Captain Palova was clearly intrigued.
“The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jenny, and she was in the stomach of the fish.”
Matt would have continued, but Maggie interrupted. “The shark rose up out of the water three or four times as high as the GSM. I was scared out of my wits, but Matt very calmly commanded the fish in Jesus’s name to throw up. All kinds of things came out, including Jenny. Her skin looked like it was already starting to be digested. We washed her off and looked her over. The shark hadn’t bitten her and she wasn’t torn on her way out of the plane. Later on, God brought her back to life.”
“That sounds fantastic!”
Matt frowned. He thought he could discern “like a fantasy” rather than “wonderful” when Captain Palova said “fantastic”, so he said, “Jenny was born missing a foot. That’s well documented at the hospital where she was born. When God brought her back to life, he gave her a new foot.”
Maggie opened up the velvet blanket for Paul to see both of Jenny’s feet. “See if you can tell which is the new one,” she whispered.
He took a foot in each hand and gently massaged them. “No, I can’t. They both feel the same.”
“What hospital is that?” Captain Palova seemed to be somewhat off-script.
Matt looked at Maggie, who answered
, “She was born in the New Horizons Unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol.”
“Thanks.”
Paul noticed Matt’s furrowed eyebrows. He deduced Matt was starting to get bothered by the questioning. Paul understood what was happening, and without pressing the push-to-talk, he explained that with all the publicity this would get, they wanted all the information they could get to corroborate the story. Matt was not convinced, but didn’t say anything more about it.
“Let’s move on,” Captain Palova finally said, “You said ‘GSM’. What is that?”
“Oh,” Maggie replied, “our rescue craft had four coffins all made of myrtle wood. We named it the Good Ship Myrtlewood.”
“From when you hit the water until now, did you ever feel your muscles tightening up, or have chest tightness, nausea, muscle twitching, abdominal pain, or diarrhea?”
They both said “No,” and Matt added, “except for normal reactions to losing Jenny, swallowing too much salt water, and watching those planes come screaming at us and shooting into the water when we were on the GSM.”
“They were shooting at you? Tell us about that.”
“There was fire on the water,” Matt said. “I guess it was fuel from the plane. After we got on our lifeboat, we felt pulled away from the fire even though the breeze was against us. There was a haze all over the water, like a cloud you could see through. Suddenly two planes flew directly overhead and started shooting into the water.”
Maggie held Jenny tight, as if to protect her while she relived the experience.
“At first,” Matt continued, “we thought they were going to shoot us. Then we thought they were going to shoot the burning spot, but finally realized they were shooting something farther from us than the fire. The shooting made the same noise as when we were on the plane, except much louder. There was an explosion, and black smoke went up. They did that three times. There were three separate explosions. Is that how many you counted, Maggie?”
The Wreck Emerged Page 22
