Calypso's Mast

Chapter 27 - Forgiveness

Banning finished securing the platform again, and he stacked all of the firewood underneath it.

"This place is such a mess," said Pitcher as she stood back to survey the damage. When they had finally trudged wearily into Banning's old camp, they had found the place had been trashed.

"It must be Charleton's scorched earth policy," said Banning. "If he can't have it, neither can anybody else."

"He is such a loser. I wonder if he is still alive. Or Peta for that matter," she wondered out loud.

"Hard to say. They may have been killed by the missiles from the jets. Now, that was a scorched earth policy."

"I can't believe she was with them," said Pitcher. "All this time she knew what was happening and just played along. She was a pretty good actor. If Charleton's gone, it won't be any loss."

Pitcher used a palm leaf to try to sweep some of the debris and rubbish into a pile on the edge of the camp. She stopped after a few moments and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"I am so sore from walking. Bed will be so good tonight," she said.

Banning looked up from his work and smiled.

"I thought you did very well," he said. "We've walked a long way."

And then they both heard it. It was an approaching aircraft.

"Quick! Hide!" said Banning, "There must be more of them."

The palms around the camp gave good cover but there were spaces where one could see through them, to the sky beyond. They both melted back into the shadows and waited. The sound got louder. The aircraft was low.

"That's no microlight," said Banning. "That's a twin engine job – a bigger plane."

"Is it them, do you think?" asked Pitcher.

"I don't know. I don't want to risk it, stay down until we see who it is," replied Banning.

From their cover, they heard the aircraft come in close to the beach from the east, circle just offshore then disappear to the south. Then after a minute or two, they heard a loud whoosh from further south along the beach.

"Is that another rocket? It must be them," said Banning as he broke cover and sprinted down to the beach to look to the south where the noise had come from. As he came out on to the beach, he could see the sail of a submarine in the distance and a trail of white smoke from it disappearing into the sky toward the south.

"Damn. It is them. That's the submarine. They must be shooting at the plane."

"The plane must be good guys, then?" asked Pitcher.

"They must be. They're shooting at them," said Banning. "Where's the goddamned Navy? There's a small war going on here and the Navy and the Air Force are nowhere to be seen," he muttered. "How are these guys getting away with shooting missiles into the sky and no-one is doing anything?"

"Is that another boat in the water near the submarine?" asked Pitcher, pointing .

Banning propped and looked hard.

"You're right. There is another boat. What is that, a dinghy?"

"They are a fair way out. How far do you think that is?" asked Pitcher.

"Oh, it's at least a couple of kilometres." He squinted and tried to block the sun with his hand to get a better view. "I can't make it out. It's too far away."

"They must be rendezvousing for the drug exchange," said Pitcher. "If that's the case, they won't be there long, especially after firing off rockets. Surely the military would have picked that up."