3. Accomplishments/Decisions:
a. Brazilian military forces and Agência Brasileira de Inteligência (ABIN) will conduct police action with advice and support of American military and civilian agencies. Overall task force leader will be Brazilian Army Major Antonio Silva. The US will provide explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) support to Brazilian Army EOD unit involved.
b. Brazilian agencies will hold and question all personnel detained. If citizens from the US, Brazil, or other countries are detained, and it is determined no crime was committed, those personnel will be released, otherwise they will be tried in accordance with Brazilian law. All property involved will be held by Brazilian agencies until final disposition is determined. Requests for extradition will follow normal protocols.
c. Neither US nor Brazilian press will cover. Appropriate notifications will be made per embassy protocols.
4. Action Items:
a. ABIN will provide operations location, transportation, and medical support to American personnel, and equipment as necessary. ABIN will be responsible for all detainees. Brazilian Army will provide command and control. Brazilian Army will provide one EOD team and disposal materials.
b. US will provide one EOD team. US will provide operational advice and expertise.
c. Brazil and US will share all intelligence gained.
5. Reports Due: N/A.
Classification: SECRET
Classification exempt from Standard Declassification Schedule
89
Dasya Khatri was a condensed-matter physicist and father of four sons. He had done his doctoral work at Leipzig University in Germany, where he defended his thesis on the effects of cosmic dust so well that he had an immediate job offer from that university. He had turned them down, however, to return to his native India to work in industry. He had dreamed since his youth of doing something with his life to benefit all of mankind. The company he worked for allowed him the luxury of doing research toward that end—on his own time, of course—as long as he accomplished all his assigned research, operations, and development tasks.
As he progressed into middle age, his idealism slowly turned to pessimism, brought on by incessant changes to government regulations. These were, at the heart of them, prompted by a desire for India to be world-class in many scientific fields. However, due to excessive bureaucracy, usually compounded by corruption, these rules most often had the opposite effect. He had joined the Federation of Indian Scientists soon after returning to his home country, for the purpose of networking with like-minded scientists. It was at an FIS meeting that he met Rishaan Chabra.
Rishaan Chabra was a chemical engineer by trade and considered a master by his profession. He had several patents for products and processes, mostly dealing with environmental research. He had never married. He blamed his determination to never be disappointed romantically again on the death from cancer of his childhood sweetheart, Prisha Bakshi, after they had graduated from the university. He tended somewhat toward mysticism, and his strange ideas were dismissed by his colleagues as generally harmless, or at least non-threatening.
He was currently the president of the FIS, the youngest ever to be elected to that position. India’s reputation as the world’s most polluted country disheartened him, and he recognized that the government’s policies allowed much wealth to be generated at the expense of clean air. This problem, which seemed to him to be manifested all over the world, was worst in his own country.
Rushil Singh was what Rishaan thought of as a “general scientist,” that is, a person without a PhD after his name. He was very gregarious, but uncharacteristically reticent concerning his own history and abilities. Dasya thought he joined the FIS to make contacts to find employment. Like Rishaan, he was taken with his outgoing nature and ready solutions to just about any problem. They could see he didn’t have a political bone in his body, and was not swayed by promises of wealth or reputation.
The three became fast friends and had many discussions about the future of India and the obstacles that threatened its standing in the world of science.
“What would you do,” Rushil had asked the other two one day, “if you could eliminate all the pollution in the Ganges River by the sacrifice of just a few people?”
Rishaan wondered where this was going. “There are probably a hundred dead bodies thrown in the Ganges every day. There are hundreds of sewage entry points on the Ganges. What few people are you talking about sacrificing? How many is a few?”
Dasya had a different take. “It’s really just about money and education. Graves and crematoriums for the bodies and sewage treatment plants should fix all that. But who would pay for it all?”
“That wasn’t my question. If you could eliminate the pollution by sacrificing a few people, would you do it, knowing how many people would live as a result?”
Rishaan and Dasya agreed, yes, they would. Sacrificing a few to save many seemed like a good deal. The question had evolved over the course of the next six months, and so had the definition of “a few.”
The evening’s dinner and IBC meeting were now over, and everyone had left except Rishaan, Dasya, and Rushil. Dasya wondered out loud about the server who had seemed to be spying on them during the dinner.
“He was mine,” Rishaan said. “At the last meeting, I thought there were some who were a little careless with their words. I asked him to see if he could detect any purpose of our group other than baking. Just before dessert, he gave me the thumbs-up signal I was hoping for.”
Rishaan, who had led the meeting, was not happy about what had gone on. “I’m glad the money got transferred and distributed, but why the hell did Jackson use her real damn IP address? Did we put so much pressure on her to get this done that she got careless?”
Dasya tried to get his friend calmed down. “You heard what Kevin said. The US bank security system demanded a real IP address, and she thought it would be no big deal since the total time on station would be less than thirty seconds. She logged in to both banks, intercepted the money, received the money, sent the money, deleted the account, and logged out within nineteen seconds. That was remarkable because there were thirteen accounts the money was transferred to. She said that was no riskier than trying to find and co-opt a legitimate IP address somewhere in California, where if some user typed something during the transactions, the money might have been lost.”
Rishaan had lost patience with Kevin Bhatt and had already decided what to do when the meeting was over. “It was sloppy,” he said. “What do we have in the Amazon? Anything we can’t afford to lose? We just need to watch and wait for a while. Are they still sending us a code every morning?”
Rushil was acting as go-between. “Yes, and I’ll get with Kevin before he leaves tomorrow and tell him no shipments in or out, except for food and bug spray, for what, fourteen days?”
“Yes, that’s about right, except that he needs to get the tank out and send it to California. We’re short there, one spare tank.” Rishaan turned to Dasya. “Why did you tell them the MiGs already had the guns installed?”
“The less they know about Kevin’s operation, the better. They think he’s just the money guy. Not only that, the delivery teams don’t know it was your pilot friend who stole those extra parts.”
“Why would that be an issue?”
“In case something happened to one of the teams.”
Rushil smiled, a self-satisfied smirk. But the other two didn’t notice.
90
At noon on Sunday, Eastern Daylight Time, the second Stallion arrived on the island. The dried mud was hard enough to withstand the rotor wash of the heavy helicopter as it came in. Only a small amount of loose debris was thrown into the air. It parked about fifty meters from the first Stallion, on the other side of it from the mess tent. Phil Henry did not wait for the blades to completely stop, and LtCol Washington was waiting for him as he came down the steps.
The introductions were quick. Phil and Penny Hasid, who had parked herself
just off Phil’s hip, notebook in hand and camera at the ready, introduced themselves to the Marine leader and his NCOs. They immediately got to work, comparing notes and photos. The Marines started to offload the second Stallion, which they nicknamed “King Two”, in preparation for loading two of the tanks and other items.
Phil’s stomach was telling him it was lunchtime. “What time is it here?”
“Just after fourteen hundred hours,” LtCol Washington said. “Officially, we are two hours behind Zulu time and two hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. Let’s set up shop in the other Stallion. We’ll have chow, and then, since EOD is finished, we’ll take a tour of the plane.”
Matt and Maggie stayed at King One when the other helicopter landed. “It’s not about us anymore,” he had told her. “We need to make sure we don’t get in the way, and they’ll be discussing things they won’t invite us to hear. I’m sure they’ll take care of us, but truthfully, from this point on, we’re just excess baggage.”
91
Maggie and Matt played with Jenny and chatted under the mess tent while Phil and Penny had a working lunch with LtCol Washington and the EOD teams. The sun was directly overhead, and there was otherwise no shade. At three o’clock, SSgt Phelps let them know the FBI team wanted to meet them, so they followed him back to King One.
“We’re getting ready to look at the plane,” LtCol Washington said after the introductions were finished. “After that, Phil wants to see your life raft, and you’re invited to come along and say good-bye to it. We have enough drivers trained up on our new vehicles, so we’ll take the two larger ones. When we come back, we’ll take you all to see the river. I’m afraid that part might not be very exciting.”
“This evening, over supper,” Phil said, “Penny and I would like to sit down with the two of you. We have some questions for you, and perhaps some answers.”
They all walked over to the plane, approaching it from the rear. The yellow caution tape had been removed, and what was left of the baggage and cargo was arranged in small, orderly piles in thirty or forty spots. One spot held a pallet with two mangled coffins attached and one missing between the two. Jagged, twisted metal threatened to pierce anyone approaching too close to the plane.
“Look where we came out!” Maggie pointed to spiky, razor-sharp metal which seemed to enfold the tail opening like arms, holding back debris from making its escape. They could not see into the fuselage.
At the front of the plane, a short ladder afforded access to the interior, which LtCol Washington had put off-limits. Since the aircraft was upside-down, it appeared that all of the seats were hanging from the ceiling. The nose of the doomed Dreamliner had been ripped off at row one, which was still attached to the cockpit. All of the row-two seats and some of the row-three seats were missing.
The EOD team chief, Gunnery Sergeant Sims, explained that the missing seats, all occupied, were located further back in the fuselage. “It looks like the seats were torn from the floor by the force of the water coming through as it slowed the plane down. Ms. Trillbey, after I heard your story last night, I came back to see where your seat was. Come over here and look.”
Matt took Jenny while GySgt Sims climbed onto the ceiling of the aircraft. Maggie stood below while he pointed to what was left of her seat. “You would never have felt the water,” he said. “You would already have been dead from the explosions.”
“Sometimes God protects us and never tells us about it,” Maggie said, “but God has been showing me all the ways he has protected me since even before I got on the plane. I’m in awe of how and why he chose to protect me, because I didn’t deserve any of it.”
LtCol Washington directed the group away from the cockpit section and toward the tail cone. “The EOD team didn’t find the black box when they were looking for duds, but maybe they didn’t know exactly what to look for.”
“We need to take it back with us,” Phil said, “so I got a quick lesson from Air World where to find it. From what I see, it should still be inside the rear of the plane, and it won’t be black, but bright red or orange. There should actually be two devices.”
“We got all the way to the rear, to where the light was coming in, during our dud sweep,” GySgt Sims said. “I remember seeing them there, but damaged. We’ll pull the back end open and we should be able to get them out.”
The tour was soon over, and the group headed back to King One. Matt looked to the north and pointed. “Look, everyone!” There, just barely ascending above the horizon, a lone black peak proudly stood guard over the island.
Back at King One, Penny brought Phil his satellite phone and he started punching in numbers. “Matt and Maggie,” he said, “Air World asked me to have you talk to them about your return. This will be Abby Cameron. You’ll be getting back to Dulles between eleven and noon tomorrow.”
Abby wanted their cell phone numbers and carriers and approximate arrival time. “Upon your arrival, you will be met by representatives from Air World Airlines and Britannia Airlines,” she said, “and there will most likely be media coverage. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.”
On their way to the GSM, Penny explained about the potato-like rocks. “They’re called manganese nodules. It looks like you have millions on this island. The rocks are about a quarter manganese and varying amounts of nickel, cobalt, and copper, and trace amounts of a lot of other metals. Depending on the percentages, they’re worth anywhere from three thousand to thirty thousand dollars per metric ton.”
She sounded like an encyclopedia, and Matt the businessman was impressed. He immediately thought about his friend Larry Williams, how this would be perfect for him.
At the GSM, Phil was amazed at the pallet raft with the coffins attached. “This was all that floated to the surface, once the plane sank?” he asked. “These steel cabinets stayed together, even though they were not connected by a single cable, and didn’t try to tip the raft over? This is incredible!”
“Do you see how the last cabinet acted as an anchor?” Maggie asked. “It kept us from being washed over the edge as the island broke the surface.”
“Let me show you what else the shark brought us besides Jenny,” Matt said as he opened the coffin which had been on top. He pulled out the half life preserver and several of the plastic bottles. “I haven’t seen these caps in a long time, maybe twenty years or more. For some reason the shark couldn’t expel them. When she threw them up, they must have been in the front part of her stomach.”
Phil was more interested in the life preserver. “Penny, when we get back, I want you to find out what ship this is. Probably US Navy. Find out what you can about why this life preserver might have been in the ocean. Let me know, and Matt if he’s interested.”
“I’d like to know too,” Maggie said, feeling left out.
Phil turned to Matt. “If you had just found this floating in the water, it would have been covered with a layer of green algae and other scum that you wouldn’t have been able to get off. How big was the shark?”
“I estimate there was about fifteen feet of it out of the water, and we saw only the belly the first time it surfaced, so I couldn’t tell you if the rear fin was out of the water or not. The second time, when it threw up, maybe about eight feet was showing.”
Penny was taking pictures of everything and listening at the same time. “You must have been terrified!”
“I was,” Maggie said. “I wanted to hide in the coffin. But Matt very calmly just pointed at the shark and commanded it in Jesus’s name to throw up. That’s when we got Jenny’s body back.”
GySgt Sims had volunteered to be one of the JLTV drivers. “How did you know to do that, Matt?”
“God showed me,” Matt said, “just like he showed Maggie about the satellite overhead. In my case, after the shark disappeared the first time, I saw a scene play out like a YouTube video. It was very vivid and in detail. I watched the shark come out of the water and I watched myself commanding it. So when it did indeed come out
of the water, I knew just what to do and say. We had no idea right then that the shark would throw up Jenny’s body. After that, we never saw the shark again.”
“Before we go back,” Penny said, “I’d like to get a picture of you two, Maggie and Matt, sitting on the coffins, just by yourselves.”
“It was great of Staff Sergeant Phelps to volunteer to take care of Jenny if she woke up before we got back,” Maggie said, “but it would have been nice to get a picture with her, too.”
After Penny took that photo, Matt reached into the coffin, which had been put back on top, and grabbed a couple leftover velvet cloths. He wrapped them around some of the water bottles. Maggie held the simulated baby for a few more pictures.
It was time for supper when they got back to the base camp. The EOD team had located and removed the black box assemblies and packaged them for the trip back. The Marines had loaded one of the large tanks onto King Two, and were preparing to load the other prior to nightfall.
Phil, Penny, Matt, and Maggie found some boxes to sit on in a quiet area near King Two while the Marines all ate their chow at the mess tent. Maggie put Jenny on some velvet cloths and let her wiggle around while they ate and talked.
“I have started to believe in miracles,” Phil said. “There’s no explanation for why you’re sitting here, other than that a miracle happened.”
“Yes,” Matt said. “We’ve started a list, and between us we count at least twenty miracles, plus other manifestations of God’s mercy and care for us.”
“Please tell us,” Penny said.
Matt and Maggie started with the loss of Matt’s family and Maggie’s winning the trip in the raffle. When they came to the part in the story where Maggie received Jesus as Lord and became God’s child, Phil interrupted.
The Wreck Emerged Page 27
