CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The modified Osprey set down on the first of the beaches of the first three islands. Unsure of how many men were there or their conditions, they'd combined teams to be able to tackle everything.

Teams one and two merged, landing Jean, Miller, Cruz, Pork, Kegger, Dex, Trak, Luc, Gaspar, Whiskey, Otto, and Noah on the beach. They scanned the terrain for any hostiles, then saw emaciated men, young and old, stumbling toward them. They had makeshift knives from coconut husks and bats from fallen branches.

"Jesus," muttered Luc. "How are they even standing?"

"I think we're getting a view of what the men in WWII must have felt walking into the concentration camps," said Cruz. He slowly stepped forward, lowering his weapon. The men eyed him warily and took a half step onto the beach.

"Who are you?" asked one of the men.

"We're here to take you all home," said Cruz. "We're part of a security team that's been looking for all of you. We have two other teams headed to the other islands."

"Other islands?" frowned one of the men. "There are more? Why? Why would someone do this? We weren't at war, and we damn sure weren't at war with any of these men with us."

"We think you may have seen something you shouldn't have, either in your country or another," said Gaspar, walking slowly toward the men. "We have medics here. Cruz, Luc, and Otto are three of the best I know. Is anyone hurting?"

"We're all hurting," said another man. "We're hungry, thirsty, tired. We've got lice, fleas, bite marks from God knows what."

"How many of you are there?" asked Noah.

"Nineteen," said the man. "There are six still in the cave. They can't walk; they're too weak." Noah turned to Dex, Whiskey, and Miller, nodding.

"We'll get your friends," said Gaspar. "Please have a seat on the beach, and we're going to give you some water and something to eat. Nothing heavy. When was your last meal?"

"We caught a few fish two days ago and had some mango with it. That's the last time," he said.

"Did you catch him? Did you catch Kaplan?" asked one of the American servicemen.

"Lawrence Kaplan was killed on his yacht in a storm. Levi is still free, but he's next on our list. All of the compounds with the women have been destroyed. Burned to the ground. We got the girls to safety, and they are getting the help they need," said Jean.

"We were prepared to die today," said another man.

"Well, we'd sure appreciate it if you wouldn't," smirked Jean. "We've come a long way to take you all home. What nationalities do we have?"

"Five Americans, four Australians, three Japanese, three Russians, four Kiwis, I mean, New Zealanders," said the man.

"We understood," said Jean, smiling at the man.

They handed out bottles of water, vitamin C, and electrolyte tablets to try and help with their dehydration. When the waters were gone, they handed out electrolyte drinks and orange slices.

"We'll get you a full meal once you've been cleared by the medics," said Jean. "We just don't want you all to get sick."

"Mister?"

"Jean. Just call me Jean," he smiled at the old timer. He smiled and then realized the man was probably younger than him.

"Jean. What kind of bird is that? I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I've been around aircraft a long time. Of course, I guess I've been away from it a long time as well."

"It's called an Osprey, but it's been modified for our specific use. It's a pretty impressive piece of equipment with an even more impressive pilot." Savannah waved at the men, and they all stared at her open-mouthed. "Careful now, she's my sister-in-law, so I'm kind of protective of her."

"Wow! A lady pilot and she's beautiful to boot. Times sure have changed," said the Aussie.

"You have no idea," laughed Jean.

Coming through the trees were Noah, Dex, Whiskey, and Miller. Each carried a man in their arms, two others were clinging to the men as they insisted on walking. Gaspar and Pork raced forward, helping the two men toward the Osprey.

"We have got to move," said Noah. "These men are bad."

Savannah watched as the men boarded her bird. Dirty, infested with lice, and God knew what else. She only wanted to get them to safety. Once they were all secured, Cruz started to bark orders.

"Trak, I need your help. We're going to have major infestation if I don't get their hair cut off with all this lice. Take them to the head and sit each man on the toilet. I've spread a plastic tarp to catch the falling hair. I'm going to spray this lice killer and then shave their heads. Once we have that shaved off, they'll feel better, and we can start to clean them up a bit."

Trak nodded, not questioning Cruz's orders at all. He gently guided each man to the back, explaining what he was doing. They were more than happy to be rid of whatever hair they had. Carefully, he shaved each man's head and face, then sent him to the shower with Noah to get them rinsed off. As each man emerged from the shower, they were given clean sweatpants and sweatshirts.

"Anyone we need to get to a hospital now, or can we take them all stateside?" asked Gaspar.

"I have two that might not make it, Gaspar," said Cruz. "I'm not sure how they've made it this far. I think it's something internal, but I can't know for sure."

"I can go sonic," said Savannah, looking back at the two men.

"Will we still be stealth?" asked Gaspar.

"We'll find out. We've never tested sonic with the stealth protection. What do you guys think?"

"I think it's worth the risk," said Cruz, looking at Gaspar. He nodded at his friend.

"Do it."