Adrenalin slammed the On switch and he jolted into an all-out sprint. Before he could reach them, Crystal broke through the grass, then Eve. She grabbed Crystal. Their legs tangled and they fell onto their faces in the sand. He stopped, chest heaving. Shaking. Relief barely holding his rage at bay.
Crystal, sand pasted to her face, squirmed out of Eve’s grasp. He grabbed the child by the shoulders as she stood. It took every bit of control he had to not scream at her. “Why did you do that?” She stared at him, blue eyes wide. How could she look so clueless? “Why did you run? I told you to stay there until I came for you.”
“I . . . I was being brave.”
“Brave?” He choked back a hot lava of fury. “Running over land mines is not brave. If you’d stepped on one, it would have exploded.”
Her chin trembled. “I followed my footprints . . . like I followed the trail of broken branches. I wanted to”—she jerked in a gasp of air—“make you proud of me.”
He released her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Crystal, I want you to be brave. But I want you to be smart-brave.”
“What’s that?” She brushed her hands over eyes brimming with tears.
“Putting your life in danger is not smart, and it’s not brave. It’s smart-brave only when there’s a good reason to do it. When you climbed the cliff over the ocean, you could have fallen and been killed. That was danger that wasn’t necessary. Not smart. Not brave. Just foolish, hugely foolish, because you put your life in danger for no good reason.”
Crystal frowned. “But I’m good at gymnastics.”
“In gymnastics you won’t fall hundreds of feet into an ocean full of rocks. On a cliff you might.”
Crystal blinked.
“When you ran in the minefield, your foot might not have landed exactly on top of your footprint. Right next to it could have been a land mine. Smart-brave would be to go slowly and study where to put your foot. But running wasn’t smart or brave. It put your life in danger—and Eve’s.”
Crystal’s face crumpled. “I made you mad, but I just wanted—”
“Yes, you made me mad. And I’ll keep on getting mad every time you do something stupid that puts your life in danger.” Tears toppled off her lashes, and he pulled her into a hug. “But only because I care about you, Pumpkin.”
Her body jerked in a loud snuffle, then yielded to his embrace. “I’ll try to be smart-brave,” she squeaked.
He gave her a squeeze and let her go. Tucking his finger under her chin, he stooped to meet her eyeball to eyeball. “And you’ll make me proud.” The brightness of her smile, the eagerness to please reaching out so desperately from her eyes, grabbed his heart.
“Jake, we need to take care of this foot.” Eve beckoned him from Betty’s side.
Crystal dashed ahead to her aunt. Betty was awake, clenching her jaw as Eve washed the grime off the injured foot.
Jake examined the torn flesh. “I need to probe for metal fragments. It will hurt.” Already Betty was pale under the splatter of black dirt clinging to her hair on down to her toes. Her face was contorted with pain. “I’m sorry, Betty. We can’t leave anything in there.”
“Be quick then.” She squeezed eyes, jaw, and fists shut.
He cleaned his hands in the salty water of the cove, then gently clasped her foot. At his first prod, she lashed her foot away and kicked him with surprising force with her other foot.
“Jake, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”
“And here I thought you were a frail, little thing.” He chuckled and patted her fisted hand. “But we’re going to have to apply a bit of restraining action now. Eve, pin her legs down—lie on them if you have to. And Crystal, you hold your feisty aunt’s hands and keep her from slugging me.”
When everyone was repositioned, he probed the bloody flesh of her sole with his fingertips. He blocked out her writhing and shrieks. He was no doctor, but he’d learned in Nam there was no mercy in leaving metal to fester.
As soon as he stopped, she collapsed. Crystal was bawling, Eve shaking.
“She’s clean,” he said. “Before I carry her back to camp, I need to bandage her foot. Run up there and bring me the T-shirt bandages I used on my feet before I made the moccasins. And several coconut shells of water from the stream. Please,” he added, as Eve stiffened. He wasn’t commanding the troops.
As soon as the two were out of sight, he grabbed a large seashell and turned his back to Betty. He filled it and turned to kneel next to her. She opened her eyes when he picked up her injured foot. “I know this is gross, Betty, but it’s the only sterile liquid on hand to disinfect your wound.” He waited for her to catch on while he poured the warm, yellow fluid from the seashell onto her foot.
“What is it?” she asked. Then the odor of Jake’s urine hit her nostrils. She jerked her head away. “Oh my!”
“The Marine Corps tells us to use this in medical emergencies. I’m afraid your injury fits the criterion.”
Her nostrils flared and she blew out a spurt of air. “Can’t argue with the Marine Corps, now, can we?”
Crystal arrived with the bandages. He scrubbed them in the cove and used one to wrap Betty’s foot. Blood seeped through but stopped before soaking the entire bandage.
“How about a drink?” Eve lowered herself next to Betty and raised her head for sips from a coconut shell. Crystal used the second, unused bandage to mop dirt from her aunt’s face.
They moved her to their campsite near the stream, under the three trees’ spotty shade. Crystal did her best to plump up her aunt’s life vest for a pillow, then lined up shells of water for her to drink. Eve took on the job of washing the dirt off Betty’s arms and legs and hair.
Jake put on his moccasins. “I’ll get breakfast.” He itched to examine the fence Betty had found, but until she was okay, he couldn’t ask Eve and Crystal to help him.
Getting to the fence meant he needed to enter the field. Enter and exit it. Not exactly what he’d planned for the day.
* * *
“Your color is back.” Jake opened the pouch he’d made of his shirt, and bananas, star fruit, and dark purple mangosteens tumbled out against Betty’s good leg. She was sitting up, her injured foot propped on a life vest. Eve and Crystal gathered around her and exclaimed over the two additions to their fruit choices.
Betty smiled up at him. “We’ve been talking about the minefield.”
His mouth twitched in amusement. Men would have discussed it first thing. To the women, it was secondary to Betty’s injury. They had mussed and fussed over making her comfortable and hadn’t asked him a single question. He was eager to get back to the minefield, but he relaxed and peeled a banana and stuffed it into his mouth. “And?”
“We think the land mines are Japanese,” Betty said, “left over from their invasion of the Philippines in World War II.”
“I agree.” He sliced open a mangosteen for each of them, and two for himself.
“How did you know Betty stepped on a land mine?” Eve cut open another piece of fruit. “It sounded like a gunshot.”
“The fence. The first thing an invading army would do is take the high ground—in this case, the volcano. To get there from the cove, they’d have to cross the grass field. It was the perfect location for a minefield. The mine Betty stepped on must have deteriorated over the years and was no longer functional. What exploded was the detonator that sets off the mine. It’s made of stainless steel and wouldn’t rust away like the explosive.”
They ate silently, their faces somber, until Betty asked, “Why was a fence there too?”
“As soon as we’re done eating, I’d like Eve and Crystal to help me answer that—if you’re okay with being left alone.” He glanced at Eve. “And if they want to help.”
“I’m ready now.” Crystal scrambled to her feet and wiped her hands on the back of her shorts.
Eve’s eyes narrowed. “Help how?”
“I’ll show you when we get there.”
She rais
ed both eyebrows and looked away.
Could the woman ever cooperate without a protest? “I have to determine the angle of the fence first. Then I’ll know how you and Crystal can help.”
“All right.” Eve popped the last of her mangosteen into her mouth and rose to her feet. “Let’s go.”
What? He’d barely begun his meal. He stood and jammed a banana into each pocket. “You okay being alone, Betty?”
“I’m halfway to a nap already. I’m fine, Jake.” She dismissed them with a wave.
He led the way, heart pounding at what he was about to do. The risk was minimal, but still, it was a risk. The whole course of getting off the island would change if anything happened to him.
They stopped where he had emerged with Betty. “See the rocky ground surrounding each side of the field?” He pointed at two locations rising on either side of the grassy area. “That’s where I want you to walk. There won’t be any land mines there. But wait until I tell you to go. I need to get to the fence first.”
“Whoa.” Eve grabbed his arm. “You aren’t going back in there?”
“To get to the fence I am.”
“Not worth it.” Her grip tightened.
How was it that she didn’t want him to order her around, but she was certainly ready to tell him what to do? He bit back the rebuke. “If the Japanese were here, they had shelter and supplies. That fence could be our key to finding them and getting off the island.”
Her hold loosened, but she shook her head. “If you step on a mine, we don’t gain anything. We can search around instead.”
“Look, I know what I’m doing.” He removed her hand from his arm and stepped into the grass.
Chapter 22
Jake halted as his foot sank into the first flattened clump of grass. Idiot! He gazed at the increased space his foot took up. Why hadn’t he thought about the danger of wearing his moccasins? Here he’d bawled out Crystal for risking her life with the tiniest of missteps, and now he was doing the same thing. One extra inch, and a detonator he’d missed before could be set off.
Should he go back, take off the moccasins, and start over? Trouble was, the soles of his feet were bruised. Stepping on the broken grass on his first trip in had left his feet tender. A sudden stab of pain, a bit of a stumble, and he could be thrown off the safe path he and Betty had forged.
No, his feet needed the protection. He splayed the grass around the next footprint and studied the ground for the telltale spike of metal that would end his life. Once his weight depressed the detonator, stepping off it would explode the mine.
A breeze blew off the ocean. The sunbaked stalks of grass rasped against each other like the tail end of a rattler. The noise was relentless. It crept up his spine, jangled his nerve endings. Each step forward, each lift of his foot, stopped a heartbeat. The gulls, as if holding their breaths, coasted silently overhead. At the edge of the field, Eve and Crystal said nothing.
Sand stuck to the sweat on his hands and fingers. Twice he got granules in his eyes from swatting insects that landed on his nose and cheeks and eyebrows. His back ached from stooping to minutely examine the area of his next footstep.
Then he was there. He stood at the fence, heart thundering, skin and clothes soaked in the sour odor of his sweat. “I’m here!” he yelled, for the sake of Eve and Crystal, for the jubilation of success, for gratitude to a God who was looking out for him.
The breeze rattling the grass parted the stalks into bowing waves that revealed the length and breadth of the fence. It was exactly what he expected: a giant X that stretched some thirty yards across the open area of the field. The waist-high grass was slightly taller than the fence and thick enough to conceal it. Each leg of the X consisted of barbed wire stretched in three tiers of parallel lines—a single wire at the top, more strands in the middle, and several more at the bottom. Together the three tiers formed an upside-down V over the ground.
“Eve.” He twisted to face her over his right shoulder. “Can you get to that spot?” He pointed to a location that lined up with the farther tip of the X on his right. “And, Crystal, can you go over there?” He pointed to the opposite tip on his left.
Staying on rocky ground outside the minefield, they each walked to the place he’d designated. Crystal stopped when he signaled her, but Eve ran forward and bent over the ground. She bobbed back up with widened eyes. “There’s a skeleton here. Human! Next to something rusty.”
He blew out a breath in relief and inhaled the next one with glee. So, he hadn’t taken the risk for nothing. “Perfect! Just what I’d hoped for.” Better, even. “How about you, Crystal?”
Crystal turned her gaze away from Eve and took two stiff steps. Mouth dragged down and eyes wide open, she looked as if she expected a boogeyman to jump out at her. She turned in a half circle and halted. “There’s a rusty thing here too.”
“Excellent! Stay right where you are and wait for me.”
She plastered her arms to her side, fingers worrying the hem of her shorts. He’d better hurry before she bolted. Cautiously, but with more confidence than when he’d entered, he retraced his footsteps through the grass to the beach and on up to join Crystal.
“Let’s check out the terrain before you show me what you found.” They climbed the embankment separating the minefield from the stream and looked over the grassy field to Eve. “See that?” He pointed to a depression running the width of the field between the northern tips of the fence. “That’s a trench where the soldiers hid.”
“Are they skeletons?” she whimpered.
“I’m pretty sure there aren’t any more skeletons down there. Can you see the rusty thing you found?”
She pointed to a red lump below them. “Can I go back to Aunty now?”
He waited while she ran to Betty. The kid had done well. No crying, no fleeing. She had stood her ground in the face of a boogeyman attack.
He climbed down to the trench and found a rusted chunk of metal at the tip of the fence. Clearly a machine gun. An escape route had to be somewhere nearby. He pushed aside the heavy grass at the back of the trench until he found a small hole just large enough for a man to crawl through. A tunnel? If so, no doubt it would have one—maybe several—exits.
He’d save it for another day. At least in the minefield he’d been able to see what he was facing. No telling what had made its home in the tunnel.
He tromped through the grass to the other side of the trench. “Eve?”
“Over here. There’s a cliff.” She trotted back to him and pointed out the skeleton. “Looks like we were right about the Japanese being here.”
Jake brushed aside the long grass covering most of the skeleton. The bones appeared intact, clothed in a tattered khaki uniform and faded leather boots. The figure was kneeling against the trench, arms, chest, and head atop the embankment. Nearby, a second rusty machine gun stood at the fence’s tip.
“The uniform definitely looks Japanese.” Jake examined the insignia on the collar. Red, faded to pink by the weather, with a yellow stripe and single star. “I’m not familiar with their ranking system.”
Eve hitched her hands on her hips and squinted at the figure. “One lone soldier, left behind, looking out to sea for a ship to rescue him. Abandoned and alone, he dies.”
Jake snickered at her drama. “Probably not the lone soldier, but the last. I suspect there are a dozen or two buried somewhere nearby. Being the last, there was no one left to bury him.”
She shot him a look of irritation. “I think ‘Lone Soldier’ fits him just fine. What did Crystal find?”
He gestured at the lump of rust. “A machine gun like this one. Your Lone Soldier was manning a second machine gun position. Enemy soldiers who got through the land mines would run into the barbed-wire fence and be held up. The gunners’ job was to fire along the fence and cut them down.”
“Was that a trench you crossed to get here?”
“Yes. More soldiers would be positioned along it with rifles. I found what I t
hink is an escape tunnel in case the enemy got through.”
He showed her the opening. “If they were here any amount of time, they probably carved out a place to live in. This volcanic rock begs for it.”
“At the other end of the trench maybe?” She jogged back to the skeleton and shoved aside grass on the back slope of the ditch.
The trench abutted a rocky bank that led to a drop-off of about forty-five feet straight down. Jake peered over the edge. The roots of a tree buried long ago in lava stuck out of the cliff’s side like whiskers. He stepped back. The higher slope of the bank between him and Eve didn’t look natural. The stone was not consistently lava. Some of it looked imported. “Let’s look over here,” he called.
Eve brushed past him and picked up a stick at the edge of the cliff. “Jake, I found something—a wire.”
“Wait, don’t touch it!” He rushed to stop her. “It could be rigged to a booby trap.”
He caught a blur of movement in his peripheral vision. He turned to see a huge log rolling directly toward Eve.
“Look out!” He lunged forward and grabbed the back of her shirt. Before he could yank her away, the log mowed her down and bounced off the cliff.
Screaming, Eve toppled after it.
He grasped at the bare rock for a hold, then tumbled after her.
Chapter 23
The edge of the cliff scraped against Eve’s belly. Booted her off.
She scrabbled at empty air. Abruptly, the full weight of her body jarred to a stop. Her breath punched out of her lungs. Punched back in.
She dangled in midair. Gazed numbly as the log cracked in two on jagged rocks below her. Way below her.
“Eve!”
She startled and looked up. Jake was suspended by one arm from a root above them, his face contorted in pain.
Fatal 5 Page 88
