Splish, Splash... I Jumped Back in the Bath

Continued from events occurring
Taking place several hundred miles off of the coast of


Quirk eased back on the throttles of the Osprey, reducing speed and breaking the connection with the
KC-135 tanker.. “I’m in a bit of a hurry today,” he quipped over the radio, “so we’ll have to skip washing the window’s this time.”

“Understood,” a gravelly voice replied over the speaker as the tanker slowly turned to the left drifting out of view of the cockpit’s forward windows. “You are still entitled to a wash and wax with the fill up, so be sure to take advantage of it when you get back to Norfolk.”

“Will do. This is three-two-niner-foxtrot, out.”

“Any idea what this is all about?” Silverman asked from the co-pilot seat. “We get hauled out of our beds at 4am, ordered to report to the hanger, where we are then told to pre-flight this Air Force bird. I mean. We’re Navy. Why are we flying an Air Force machine, and where the hell are we going? You saw the flight plan. There is nothing but water there.”

Quirk looked over at the First Lieutenant with a slight grin. Silverman was an attractive brunette, and he indulged himself for a moment with the observation that even the flight coveralls couldn’t adequately camouflage her figure. “You can always ask Special Agent Spenser back there,” he nodded toward the back of the plane. Maybe he will be more forthcoming with you than he was with me when I asked him.”

“No thanks. I’m still pissed that he tossed my morning paper. He was really clear that he doesn’t want that woman knowing about what’s going on in Angel Falls right now. Thunderbird is that all any of the media is talking about, yet he won’t. So what are the odds that he is going to tell me what this flight is all about?”

“You could use your womanly wiles on him.”

“He is probably immune to my womanly wiles. He seems to like them younger. How old is that girl with him anyway? Nineteen? Twenty?”

The plane began shaking violently as it passed through turbulent air, silencing the discussion as both pilots turned their full attention to their respective responsibilities.

In the cargo area, Gunnery Sergeant Belson grabbed the cargo netting as the plane bounced, watching with curiosity as the bare footed blonde casually shifted her feet and weight to remain stable without seeming to take notice of the plane’s movements.

“What you’re going to see in a few minutes is classified,” Spenser reminded the Marine. “You don’t talk about it with anyone, understand? If you do, I will find out, and you will be standing gate guard six hours on and six off at Ice Station Zebra until retirement.”

“I’ve kept bigger secrets than this,” Belson assured him.

“I doubt that,” the young woman replied casually as she unzipped the front of her coveralls, and pulled them down baring her shoulders. “But you lack all of the facts regarding the current situation, so it is understandable that you are mistaken.”

“Whoa! What are you doing lady?”

“I am preparing to go to work.”

“As a stripper?” Belson asked in a sarcastic yet tense tone.

“Ms. Morrigan has special…skill sets,” Spenser explained as the woman let the tan coveralls fall to the deck, and stepped out of them revealing her swim suit.”

“If that was intended to be a compliment regarding my appearance, Gunny,” Mako replied, “I appreciate your intent, but it is chauvinistic and it is not that flattering of an adulation. A more generic statement regarding my level of physical fitness would have been more appropriate. Given the professional relationship we will be expected to maintain.”

“It is time to open the rear door and extend the ramp,” Spenser interrupted, almost smiling. The engine noise had increased in volume and changed pitch as the engines rotated upward, putting the Osprey went into a stationary hover.

“Who are you people? Who talks like she does?” the Marine asked.

“You have seen both my own as well as special agent Spenser’s identification,” Mako answered. Your question is redundant and unproductive. Now. As the operations mission specialist, one of your duties is to allow for my egress. Please open the door Sergeant.”

Belson remained silent, his thoughts troubled, as he held his thumb on the button the rear door opening as the ramp extended and locked with a heavy thunk. ‘What the fuck is a Marine doing on a Air Force plane piloted by the Navy, ferrying two NSEA spooks no where?’, he thought.

Outside the sky was gray, and the water below choppy from the recent storm.

“Sea state five?” Spenser yelled over the wind noise, looking down at the water.

Those are at least five foot waves,” Mako answered clinically. “Sea state six.”

“You need to step back from the door miss,” the Marine said with concern. It’s pretty bumpy out here and you do not have a safety line on. It’s a long way down and if you fall into that mess, you’ll probably never be seen again.”

“Ms. Morrigan. If you would please? Step back from the door and put the Sergeant’s mind at ease.”

“There isn’t any danger of my losing my balance and injuring myself,” Mako said without emotion as she stepped back away from the door. “I am perfectly safe, though I do appreciate your concern for my well being Gunny.”

“What’s that?” The sergeant suddenly asked, pointing to the doorway. “A crow? What’s a crow doing this far from land?”

Turning both Spenser and Morrigan had a puzzled look on their face at the sight of the black bird sitting on the deck, just inside the doorway looking in at them.

“This is most unusual,” the young woman declared. “Ravens are not known for flying this far out over water. This is most curious.”

“What is it doing out here then?” Belson asked.

“I do not know. Perhaps it was caught in the storm and blown out to sea?” Doris answered.

“Shooo. Shoo. Get off of my airplane,” Belson yelled waving his arms and stomping his feet as he approached the perched bird. “Go on. Get outta here. Shoe!”

The raven cocked it’s head as if curious regarding the man’s antics, and hopped over to one side, and back to the other, easily evading the man’s efforts to drive it away.

“Leave it alone,” Spenser said firmly. “It’s probably exhausted and needs a rest. It isn’t hurting anything and this is the only place it to land for hundreds of miles in any direction.”

“Well I am gonna be the one who has to clean up after it, if it shits in here,” Belson complained.

“You ever read the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner?” Spenser asked. “Bad things happen to people who mess with birds at sea. Leave the crow alone.”

“Raven,” Mako corrected as she attached her dive knife to her leg. “It is a raven.”

“Leave the raven alone,” Spenser corrected himself.”

“I’m in the twilight zone,” the Gunnery Sergeant muttered, as the young woman adjusted her dive watch’s band for comfort and approached him.

“I’m ready,” she said.

“You are not taking a weapon?” Spenser asked.

“No. There is nothing down there I am going to need to shoot. I am just going to go to the bottom, look around, and report what I find.”

“I’d feel better about this if you took a weapon,” her handler insisted. “Better to have it and not need it than the other way around.”

“I will be fine,” Morrigan insisted as she stepped to the edge of the ramp and looked down at the gray water below.

“What about your dive gear?” Belson asked, his eyes scanning the cargo area for the missing equipment. “I’ll help you gear up, and then we will get the capt’n to bring us down a mite.”

“Do you want to tell him again Mr. Spenser?” the blonde asked.

“What you are about to see is classified,” the agent repeated to the Marine. You do not talk about this to anyone. Ever.”

“Okay but what am I going to…”

The veteran of two wars was suddenly speechless as he watched Mako smile at him then lean back and drop backwards out of the back of the plane into open air. She gave a quick salute and he watched in shock and amazement as the woman performed a series of twists and maneuvers that an Olympic gold medalist would envy during her long drop to the ocean below. At what seemed almost past the last second she orientated herself so that she hit the water feet first, her ankles crossed.

“ Now she is just showing off,” Spenser said dryly, as the woman plunged beneath the waves and vanished from view.

The raven looked down at the water for a moment, looked back up at the two men in the plane’s cargo area, then looked back down to where Mako had jumped. It stood there for a moment as if contemplating what it had just seen, and suddenly took to the air, wings wide. The black bird glided downward in a wide lazy circle-orbiting the spot where the girl had disappeared.

“Six on and six off at Ice Station Zebra,” Spenser reminded the stunned Marine as the NSEA agent mashed the button with his thumb, and the rear door to the airplane slowly began closing.

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