| General Fiction posted February 12, 2025 | Chapters: |
...32 33 -34- 35... 
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The end of the mission to Gunagua Island
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 34
by Jim Wile
The author has placed a warning on this post for violence.
The author has placed a warning on this post for language.
| Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 33: Upon learning a Chinese boat is at the island, Fran and Brian decide to head back there in a high-speed boat to try to spy on the activity to see if the Chinese are merely harvesting plant leaves or digging up whole plants and excavating soil to grow their own. They also want to know when the coast is clear to begin the spraying operation. On arriving at the island in the rental boat, they anchor it and climb a cliff to the top, where Fran can see activity through her binoculars but can’t tell exactly what they are doing.
A Chinese scout with an AK-47 ambushes them from behind as they approach, ordering them to drop their guns. As he is marching them to his leader and certain death, Fran enlists Brian’s help, and they fake a scenario in which Fran is able to extract a knife from an ankle sheath and stab the scout in the neck.
Chapter 34
Fran
The man dropped his gun and grabbed his neck, trying to stanch the flow of blood, but the knife had clearly severed his carotid artery because the blood was spurting out. It had also pierced his throat, and blood was flowing from his mouth. He was choking on it, and there was terror in his eyes.
It was over in a matter of minutes as he bled out. Brian stood in shock, watching as the life left him. I stood by his side, but my mind was occupied thinking about what to do now.
Fortunately, no shots had been fired, or the sound would have attracted attention. I decided we couldn’t stay on the island any longer, though. We didn’t know how many more scouts there might be, and we couldn’t risk finding out.
“Okay, Little Brother, we’ve got to get out of here now. Unfortunately, we have to take him with us. We don’t have either the equipment or time to bury him, and we can’t leave him, or he might be found.”
Brian hadn’t said anything since the attack, and he kept staring at the body.
“Are you with me here?”
“Yeah. Jesus, Fran. You see that kind of thing in the movies, but it really just happened. Are you okay?”
“I’m shaken up, and my heart is still going a mile a minute, but I’ll be alright.”
“Have you ever killed anyone before?”
“Not with a knife, but I’d rather not talk about it. Grab his ankles now and pull him forward. I’m going to scrape up some dirt and cover up this blood.”
When the obvious result of the attack was no longer apparent, I said, “Alright, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll carry him out walking side by side. You place one arm under his knees and one under his butt, and I’ll place one under his shoulders and one under his back, and we’ll lift him together.”
“What should we do about his gun?”
“Good point. Let’s lay it on top of him parallel to his spine.” I grabbed the gun and did just that. “Okay, get your arms in place, and we’ll lift him with a count of three—on the three. Let me know when you’re ready.”
We squatted down, side by side, and slid our arms beneath him.
“I’m ready,” Brian said.
“Okay, one—two—three,” and we lifted together.
He was a skinny guy and probably weighed no more than 140 pounds, so we’d be carrying 70 pounds each. We may need a rest or two, but it was definitely doable.
When we got back to the spot where we’d dropped our guns, we had to lay the body down so that we could retrieve them and place them in our backpacks. We both took a drink of water, then resumed lifting and carrying the body back toward where we’d scaled the cliff.
We made it all the way back to where we’d exited the trees at the top of the cliff and walked a little way in when we decided to rest up before trying the descent. We laid the body down, walked a few paces away, and sat down on a fallen tree trunk.
I turned to Brian and said, “You know we had to do what we did.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“He was going to lead us back there, and there’s no way they wouldn’t have killed us for discovering their secret operation.”
“I know that,” he said. “It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself you did the right thing. Well, you did do the right thing. It was self-defense. We have every right to be on this island, and he had a gun on us and was marching us to a certain death. No question in my mind about that.”
“Well, I guess I am trying to justify my action. It isn’t easy taking a human life, but in my line of work, it’s sometimes necessary, and you can’t always stop to think about it. Your training kicks in, and you act almost instinctively when you see a threat. It’s later when you begin to question yourself and wonder if there might have been another way.”
“Does the FBI require you to see a shrink about it?”
“Yeah, they do. I’ll have to discuss it with a shrink after my report about what happened. I just keep thinking that maybe we shouldn’t have come onto the island at all. Maybe I should have just asked the DoD to have the Philippine Coast Guard check out the boat and confiscate anything on it. In fact, I should do that now. Even if it’s just the harvested leaves and stems rather than whole plants and soil, it would be good to know that they won’t go into making an entire new batch of Dipraxa.”
“Well, hindsight is always 20-20. You don’t know how quickly or even if their coast guard would have complied, and that’s assuming they even have one. And as for our being on the island, how could you have guessed the group here would send out a scout or scouts to patrol a remote island like this? Why would they think they needed any kind of security when they came to the island?”
“Who knows? Maybe they’re just paranoid by nature, and that’s their SOP. But once we saw them here, I really wanted to find out exactly what they were doing. I suppose we could have waited until they left for us to try to determine if they were just here to harvest the plants. I know that’s going to continue to bother me.”
“I wouldn’t stew about it too much,” he said. “You didn’t want to delay this operation any longer than you had to by waiting. We’ve got these two big planes sitting there at the airport, and people are going to start wondering what the hell they are there for. We just want to get in and get out as soon as possible and fly back home.”
I looked at him and marveled at his perceptiveness and understanding of the situation. He made me feel better about taking this human life. I would never feel good about it; better is about all I could hope for. “Thanks for your support and understanding, Little Brother. It means a lot. Alright, should we attempt going down this fucking cliff now?”
“Yeah, just let’s take it slow; we don’t need a twisted ankle or anything.”
We made it to the bottom with a couple of short rest breaks. It was very slow going, but we managed it without incident. We didn’t bother removing our boots this time but just waded out into the water with boots on and placed the body in one of the two rear-facing seats on the back of the boat. We then boarded and secured him in place with the seatbelt.
On the way back, I called the DoD with my suggestion to contact the Philippine Coast Guard to intercept the Chinese boat. They told me they had already decided to do that.
About a half-hour into our 90-minute ride back, it was time to dispose of the body. Brian volunteered to do it. He headed to the back of the boat, undid the seatbelt, and dumped the body off the rear end. He also threw the man’s rifle overboard. Both sank beneath the surface.
It was late afternoon by the time we got back to the hotel. This day had been a bust. Hopefully that damn Chinese boat would be gone by tomorrow.
This morning, we’d heard no word from the DoD about the Philippine Coast Guard apprehending the Chinese boat, so Brian and I chartered the Cessna again. A pass over Gunagua Island revealed that the boat was gone. It was time to call in the C-130s. They would be here in half an hour, so we would remain in the air circling until they came. We wanted to observe their spraying of the island to make sure it was happening as planned.
Our pilot made several slow circles of the island while we waited for the massive C-130s to arrive.
The C-130s were outfitted with long spray booms. They would fly at an altitude of 100 feet above the treetops. Allowing for a little bit of overlap, 20 total passes would be required, based on the boom size, to cover the entire island. This meant each plane would make 10 passes over its respective half.
We watched the operation from the Cessna. The planes used a GPS advanced mapping system to ensure their passes were precise and didn’t leave any gaps. It was a very impressive performance.
After the final passes by both C-130s, we all headed back to Manila to prepare for the long flight home. Time would tell if we were successful in achieving our goal.
The story is 65% complete now.
 Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.
Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.
Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro 1.1-Ultra
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