Chapter 28
Dutchy and Bomber move in a southern direction and everything seems quiet at their end. Same goes for Buddy and 2Dads, who went west. But Mike and Spider stumble upon the smugglers and their makeshift camp. Not wishing to alert the baddies of their presence, Mike gives Spider a sign to take cover and to wait for a signal from him. He then moves away from Spider to the other side of the camp. Spider waits covered behind some bushes, his gun at the ready. But before he knows what is happening, he is knocked out from behind. It's one of the smugglers and a mate. "If the Navy is here, that guy isn't here on his own. Let's see if we can't find more of them."
The two smugglers go around their camp, meeting their boss Chad and another mate by the name of Tony on their way. And they are not alone. Hanging unconsious between them is none other then Mike Flynn! He too was knocked out and stripped of his radio and gun. But unlike Spider, the smugglers boss decided to take Mike as a hostage. So they restrained him, his hands tied tightly behind his back. Hastily the other two, Brad and Harper, pack all their stuff and together they move to the other side of the island, where a boat is waiting for them. After a thirty minute walk they reach the beach with their boat. They load all their stuff and get Mike on board too, throwing him to the lower deck and closing the hatch behind him. After that is done, they leave the island and make way to another of their hideouts, undetected by the Hammersley, as their radar screen just turned itself of.
Back on the Hammersley the only contact Kate and Nav have with their crew out there on the island is the radio, which thankfully still works. Kate informs Dutchy "Bravo-82 this is X-Ray 82." Dutchy grabs his headset and replies "This is Bravo-82. Go ahead X." With a bit of fear in her voice, Kate tells Dutchy that she cannot get in contact with team Charlie. Neither Spider nor the CO are responding to her radio calls. Thinking a moment, Dutchy lets the X know that he and the others will take a look. Together with Bomber he meets up with Buddy, 2Dads and Charge near the beach. There they debate where to go and finally head east. After about ten minutes walking into the dense jungle, they happen upon the hastily left campside. Immediately they all start looking around for clues. 2Dads finds Spider's Steyr and Bomber finds the Boss's Browning and radio. Dutchy even finds some blood near the place where Bomber found the gun.
Then a shout is heard. It's Buddy. He has found Spider. They all come running to his side, where he is about to help Spider up. 2Dads goes over and helps him to stand too. Dutchy asks him "What happened Spider?" Still trying to clear his head, Spider blinks his eyes a few times, before he answers. "We found the campside and the boss ordered me to wait here, while he went around to the other side. Then suddenly I felt a blow to the back of my head and then nothing. I'm sorry Dutchy. I stuffed up again and now the boss is paying for it." Dutchy shakes his head "It's not your fault Spider. That could have happened to anyone of us. We should now concentrate on finding the boss. He has obviously been abducted by those smugglers we were after. Let's go back to the ship."
In the meantime the group of smugglers has reached their destination, an uninhabited island not too far from the coast of PNG, but far enough away from Australia and it's authorities. Chad, Brad, Harper and Tony start to unload their goods, wooden boxes filled with drugs and some weapons in between. To their luck, they are already welcomed by their buyer, a rich businessman from PNG with roots in Australia. He orders his henchmen to load the boxes into his seaplane, a DeHavilland Twin Otter, a very popular and much used type throughout the world. After the loading is done, Chad receives the money and directly the next order. He shakes hands with the businessman and goes back to his mates.
Minutes later the seaplane is taking of and Chad, Brad, Harper and Tony go back to their boat. They decide to lay low for a while and stay on the island. Brad and Harper grab their stuff and some supplies and leave the boat, going into the dense jungle. Chad and Tony stay back and open the hatch to the lower deck. Tony goes down first, followed by Chad, who takes out an AK-47 and aims it at Mike, who lies still unconsious on the floor. Tony kicks him into his stomach as a way of waking him up. A groan is heard and as Mike starts to blink his eyes open, he is roughly pulled to his feet by Tony. Due to this fast and unexpected motion, he sees stars before his eyes and shakes his head to clear it. But for this he earns a hard slap to the back of his head, making him wince.
Chad waves with the AK-47 and says "Let's go topside Navyman and no hurried moves or I'll pull the trigger, is that clear?" Still a bit groggy from the earlier hit he received to the back of his head, Mike only nods. Tony shoves him forward to the stairs and orders him to go up. But with his hands tied behind his back, it's not so easy to climb the steep stairs while the boat is rocking with the oceans swell, even for a seasoned sailor like Mike. Finally he reaches the top and he collapses to the deck. Because of his sore head, that small exertion was enough to rob Mike of his strength momentarily.
Tony and Chad come up too and again Mike is pulled forcefully to his feet. Then suddenly a blindfold is put over his eyes, making him blind. Chad explains "It's just a safety precaution. It's better for you to not know where we are going." With a sign to Tony, who grabs Mike by his arm, the three men leave the boat and make their way inland to the camp that their mates are setting up for them. Although he can't see, Mike tries to orient himself by the sounds he is hearing around him. But apart from the usual jungle sounds and their own footsteps nothing is to be heard that would be of any help to tell him where he is now. Sighing in defeat, Mike walks on, guided by Tony who warns Mike from time to time about treeroots he has to step over.
