JOHN 20:27
As Jake stood up and looked back to the trees, he saw a group of people. At its head was a Latin-looking man, with dark-lidded eyes. He went directly to Cutter. "Are you finished?" he asked. "Well, as I was telling…" Jake looked over to where Jacob had been and he was gone. "Where'd he go?" "It doesn't matter, Jake," the dark-headed man said, "You understand what we need from you." Cutter shrugged, "I guess, but…" "JAKE!" he heard a familiar voice call. Corky came out from behind the group and ran to hug him.
"You okay?" he asked. "Yes, Corky," Cutter responded, "I'm fine." Behind his friend, he saw DeGroot, walking up slowly, with a strange look on his face. "DeGroot?" Jake inquired, "You okay?" The CIA man nodded. He had a kind of serene look, not at all the hard-bitten, no nonsense 'secret agent' he was before. The dark-headed man stuck out his hand. "My name is Richard, by the way." Jake shook it. "Jacob said something about you helping me" Richard nodded. "Yes, I will. We can use our…influence…to help get that Australia route open. You'll be very rich, if that matters to you." Cutter nodded unthinkingly. "What's with him?" he indicated to DeGroot who was walking over to the "foot statue"
"We showed Mr. DeGroot some other parts of the Island," Richard explained, "I think it changed his attitude a bit." Cutter watched him, and then remembered something very important. "What about the bomb?" Richard smiled slightly. "It's buried somewhere safe, which should be the end of it…for a while." "And the soldiers?" "DeGroot will make a full report to his superiors," Richard continued to explain; "He'll tell them that the soldiers detected the leak in the casing, and tried to dispose of the bomb by dropping it into a cave and burying it. But they died of radiation poisoning before they could report back. With some help, it should be convincing enough." Cutter remained curious. "What really happened to them?" Richard looked deadly serious. "They wouldn't leave when asked to."
"Now what, Jake?" Corky asked. Cutter looked at Richard. "Now," the mysterious man began, "You go back home." He indicated south. "We'll lead you back to your plane. Fly out at heading 315 and you'll come out south of Tagataya. I'll meet you in San Diego in two weeks at your office." "Who are you?" Cutter asked. 'I work for Jacob," Richard answered, "His 'intermediary' if you will. You enjoyed a rare privilege, Jake. He usually doesn't or won't meet directly with people. But he felt since you met 'the other one', you would only believe in what you had to do if you met him directly."
Cutter smirked. "Not sure, I still believe it." Richard nodded. "Then how do you explain seeing her?" Jake pondered that. "See who, Jake?" Corky asked. "Never mind, Corky," he answered, "Let's get back to the Goose." As Richard and two of the others led Jake, Corky, and DeGroot back around the statue and through the jungle, Corky began talking. "You should have seen it Jake. There was this temple. DeGroot got hurt and they put him in this pool in a cave and he healed right up." Corky looked back at the man, a dozen feet behind them, still serenely smiling. "After that, he wasn't so much of a jerk anymore. Weird, huh?" "Weird," said Cutter.
They reached the beach and saw the Grumman seaplane right where they had left it. As they started to load all the supplies back into it, Cutter pulled Richard aside. "Look, I like a good mystery as much as the next guy, but…" he paused and frowned, "But what the hell is this place? Halfway point between Heaven and Hell? The Garden of Eden? Something else?" Richard looked at him deeply. "Something else."
He then walked over and said something to the others and they left. Cutter stood there. Then Richard came back. "Look, Jake, I realize some of this will never make any sense to you. But trust me…trust Jacob…when we say that it's important and your part in it will be important, important to the whole world…even after you're dead." Jake Cutter stared at him. Richard added, "And like I said, you'll be a very rich man. A good life, for you and your wife and your sons and daughter. " "Well, that's nice, but…" Cutter stopped, "Wait, I don't have a daughter." Richard simply smiled. "I'll see you in two weeks, Jake." And he walked into the jungle.
Cutter stood there for a moment, looking around. He couldn't count the number of tropical islands he had been on. Many almost, but not quite, as strange as this one. But something about this place created an unusual feeling in him. He couldn't put his finger on why. "Well," he said finally, "Time to go home." He climbed into the nose of the Goose and moved into position in the left-hand chair. Firing up the engines he brought her around and headed out into the open ocean. "You okay back there, DeGroot?" The CIA man looked up and smiled. "Never better, Jake. All I want to do now is get home and see my wife and my boy Jerry." Cutter and Corky looked at each other and shrugged.
The plane lifted off and as instructed, Jake followed a heading of 315 on the compass away from the island. He was just about to his cruising altitude when he happened to turn back and look at the island, now a few miles to his rear. There was a noise that caught his attention. An ever-growing "whining" sound that got louder and louder, even over the plane engine noise.
Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light. And the island vanished. A slight "ripple" (that must have been a wave forty feet high) moved out in a circle, indicating where the land-mass had once been. By that time, Corky had looked as well. "Holy smokes, Jake!" he cried, "Did you see that?" Cutter looked back at his instruments, his eyes bulging, then at Corky. "What happened, Jake? Where's the island?"
"They 'moved' it," was his only answer.