“We have to hide on this island,” said George. “This whole area will be swarming with search crews and salvage ships from all over the world. For the first couple of days, they will probably fly some reconnaissance flights over these islands, too. We can’t let them find us.”
“But how long can we stay here? How are we going to get off this island? And how are we going to get back to our two-man teams?”
“All good questions, Mac. We need to scout around and see if we can find a source of fresh water. Water will be the critical factor for survival. If we can’t find any, our time on this island may be very short.”
“Well, I see lots of palm trees, so we can get plenty of coconut milk. And there may be pools of rainwater collected in the rocks further up on the island. Hey, if Tom Hanks can survive as a castaway for four or five years, we ought to be able to survive four or five days, don’t you think?”
George laughed. “That’s true, but that was Hollywood, and this is real life. Still, if we find water, I don’t think we’ll have any problem. And if the XO did his job, SF-2 is hidden in a little cove on the west side of the island. We should be able to use it to get out of here when the time is right. I’d like to make it to Auckland within a week.”
“But what then, Captain? I know where my teammate was supposed to go, but he can’t do it alone, so he’s probably changed his plan now and joined with another team. I have no idea where they would be going. All of the locations are secret, and even you don’t know where anyone else is going. And what about Leona? Isn’t she your teammate?”
George shook his head. He and Leona had thought they were being so clever in hiding their relationship. He still couldn’t believe everyone on the Louisiana knew their secret!
“I truly hope I can find her, Mac,” George said with a lonely sadness in his voice. “It would be a tremendous loss if I never see her again. And it would be even worse for her, because she has no way of knowing whether we’re dead or alive. We’ll just have to see what we find when we get to Auckland. Right now, we need to find some shelter and get a little sleep. We will both be thinking more clearly when we’ve had some rest.”
George and MacKenzie hid out over the next couple of days surviving on coconuts and papayas. Several times, aircraft from a U.S. aircraft carrier flew search missions over the island. The second day, a U.S. Navy helicopter slowly circled the entire island. George and McKenzie hid behind a rock outcropping to avoid detection.
“Keep solid rock between your body and that helicopter at all times,” George had warned MacKenzie. “The infrared sensors they have these days can detect body heat right through foliage. But solid rock will shield us.”
On the third day, they located SF-2 in a small cove on the west side of the island. The XO had done his job well. The fighter was hidden under some low-hanging tree branches in water shallow enough to allow George and MacKenzie to enter the fighter through the top hatch. They checked out the fighter’s systems and, to their dismay, found the batteries almost totally depleted.
“What now, Captain? We can’t get far on this charge. And we surely don’t want to get out into the ocean and run out of power.”
“You’re right. On this charge we can run for maybe half an hour. That means we have a maximum range of about twenty miles.”
“Twenty miles? There’s nothing within a twenty-mile range!” said MacKenzie despondently.
George sat thoughtfully looking through his porthole at the beautiful little South Pacific cove. On a different day, under different circumstances, it would be an ideal spot for a romantic getaway with Leona. Now it seemed it might be the last place he ever saw in his life.
George turned to MacKenzie. “Okay… Plan B, Mac.”
“Only B, sir?”
“Okay, okay, you’re right — with the way this mission has gone, let’s call it Plan Z.”
MacKenzie laughed, starting to perk up a little. “All right, Plan Zebra. What did you have in mind?”
“There’s a daily freighter that runs between Auckland and Tonga. They use several old freighters similar to the Nuku since the trip takes several days. The trade route runs just west of the Kermandec Island chain. I’m not sure how far out from the islands they run, but if we climb up that hill next to the cove, we may be able to spot one of the freighters as it passes by.”
“And then what?”
“From the height of that hill, we should be able to see about twenty or twenty-five miles — pretty much our max range.”
“Ah… so if we can see a freighter, we should be able to reach it.”
“Exactly. Let’s get up that hill today so we can see if anything passes within range. If so, we can estimate how far out they are and how fast they’re moving. Then we can plan our rendezvous for tomorrow.”
“We’re going to have to plan it carefully, Captain. We’ll have to see the freighter early enough to run down the hill, launch the fighter, and get out to their track before they pass us by. If we fall behind, we may run out of power before we can catch up.”
“That’s true. The problem is like a quarterback throwing a pass to a wide receiver running a crossing route. The quarterback has to make sure he leads the receiver enough so that the ball and the receiver arrive at the same point at the same time.”
“That’s right, Captain.”
“The only thing is we only have one shot at it. If we miss and have to bail out again, we’ll be west of the islands and the current will carry us away. We’ll never make it back.”
“Understood, Captain. We’ll just have to throw a touchdown!”
George and MacKenzie climbed to the top of the small hill overlooking the cove. Around three o’clock that afternoon, they spotted a freighter moving south toward Auckland. By their estimates, it was about ten miles out.
“They probably keep in sight of the islands as they make their way back and forth,” said George. “It makes their navigation a lot easier.”
“Get a good fix on where they are right now, Captain, and I’ll run down to the fighter. When I get there, get another fix so that we can see how far they move in that time period. That will help us determine how much we have to lead them in order to effect the rendezvous.”
“Good thinking, Mac. Let me get a time hack, too, so we know how long it takes to run from here to the fighter.”
After MacKenzie made his run, George came down to the cove and with sticks picked up from the beach, they drew out the situation in the sand. Using an estimate of the angle that the freighter traversed during MacKenzie’s run, and the estimated distance from the island to the freighter, they were able to use basic trigonometry to calculate how far the freighter traveled. Knowing the elapsed time, they were able to calculate the freighter’s speed. Finally, knowing the speed at which they intended to fly the fighter, they were able to calculate a lead angle by which they would have to lead the freighter in order to keep from falling behind. Armed with this information, they were ready to go and settled into their shelter for the night.
“Enjoy this hearty meal of coconut and papaya, Mac. Hopefully, it will be our last.”
“And the condemned man ate a hearty meal…”
“There you go again.”