Max and Star watched the returning workboat disappear from view as it hugged the overhanging cliff face, eroded over centuries by the restless sea. The motor slowed to a tick-over and then stopped.
They continued to explore and following the cliff edge they discovered a massive, oddly formed projection to the cliff, carried down vertically to the sea. It looked like ancient lava flow, covered with sparse vegetation.
As they clambered over it, it sounded hollow. Max scraped away at the lava, but soon realized that it was black sprayed concrete, the process used to stabilize rock faces and create buildings. Someone had gone to great trouble and expense to create this artificial structure.
The men and boat must have gone inside it because there was nowhere else they could be.
“What the hell is going on here, Star? The only reason I can think of for a hidden complex on a deserted island is some sort of secret government project. They obviously don’t want the world knowing about it.
“That is why they dragged the plane away. It has also ruined any chance of us being rescued. They certainly don’t want any visitors, so I think we are in great danger.”
The two of them continued to explore the area and found a steep, narrow, winding path, with rough steps, leading down to the water. In the side of the concrete structure, hidden from above and from the sea, was a pair of large hinged metal doors and a side door. The bottom of the large doors disappeared below the surface of the sea and allowed the boat to float through when open. They cautiously entered the side door from the pathway. It opened into a large, well lit chamber. The work boat was inside, moored to the walkway. They heard voices beyond an inner set of large doors and side door. They could not afford to be discovered, so they returned the way they had come.
As they reached the top of the false cliff, they saw a person in a hazmat suit pulling a small soft-tire truck, loaded with containers. He was walking away from them, so they decided to follow, under cover of the jungle foliage.
The false cliff merged with a large rocky headland. From this, Max and Star could hear the faint, muffled voices of natives. Judging from the echo, the voices were coming from a large cavern under the headland.
The hazmat person wheeled the truck into the cavern and he was met by cheers from enthusiastic natives. A short while later, the voices subsided and the hazmat person pulled the empty truck back along the path.
Max and Star followed at a distance and saw the person enter the false cliff structure through a cleverly camouflaged door. It clicked shut behind the suited figure and when they tried to open it, it would not budge.
They decided to see what the natives were doing in the cavern so retraced their steps and peered in. There were about 20 natives inside, some of them were women. Everyone was having a good time. They were eating and drinking from the containers off the truck. Some played musical instruments while others sang. To describe it as a party would be wrong, it was an orgy. Max and Star were shocked at the sexual activity - one women was on her back, mounted by a man, another woman had her legs clamped around a man and was being serviced from the front, as he stood upright. At the same time she was also being serviced from behind, by another man. No one seemed to care and there was no obvious pairing. Soon, everyone fell asleep and the cavern was filled with the new sound of rhythmic snoring.
Night fell suddenly on the island and Max and Star hid well away from the cavern, near the false cliff edge. They planned to enter the complex, at sea level, during the early hours, when everyone would be asleep, and they needed the better light of dawn, to safely climb down the narrow path.
They decided to fashion some basic weapons, clubs from a fallen branch and daggers made from sticks, sharpened on the jagged lava.
***
The man in charge of the complex, Conrad Phelps, had considered the report by the diver who had investigated the wrecked plane. He concluded that the badly burned pilot, with her arm missing, had been struck by the lightning. In her condition, she could not have landed the plane in the sea. It would have dropped from the sky and broken up as it hit the water. Someone else must have brought it down in one piece. Probably there was a co-pilot, and perhaps two passengers on the flight.
One life raft had inflated within the plane, which may have prevented the survivors from getting another one and floating away. Without a life raft, the island was the only place to go.
He knew a night search was a bad time to look for people, in a jungle, but to start in the morning would be too late to save their lives.
Two men in hazmat suits roused the sleeping natives at 9.00pm. The natives were to go and search the island for any survivors from the plane.