Blogger’s Note: Today, Kitt Davenport, who is featured in Operation Impact, shares a vignette about his life on Maliit na Isla in the Philippines. Keep in mind that the book takes place in mid-August 2022, so he’s speaking in August 2022, shortly before the story begins.

What do you remember about the pandemic? That’s a great question that here and now in August 2022, when it’s gradually beginning to fade into my memory, I don’t want to discuss it. But, you asked, so I will. I remember the isolation. Well, you may think that on Maliit na Isla, we’re isolated anyway. And you’re right. But one thing about our island is that we’re a social bunch and frequently visit other islands.

Thing is, we go north, northeast, and northwest. Never, ever to the south. Why’s because down south is territory that the Philippine army and navy can’t or won’t police. It’s a place where pirates and insurgents roam.

We head away from the island at least weekly for a variety of reasons, from going to visit friends to getting supplies. Monthly runs to Manila via seaplane are common. The five of us ex-pat Americans, Rich and Amy Jackman and their kids, plus me, pay monthly visits to an island called Twelve Palms Resort to visit with Marco Abadi. He owns the resort and seems to have a finger on the pulse of the outlaws who inhabit the waters south of us.

Then came the pandemic. The Philippine government flipped, cut off all travel. On our island, we became a cell. Thankfully, we grew most of our food or fished for it. I’d always enjoyed fishing and wound up taking a boat out almost every day. Yet finally, we began running out of stuff that we needed to get on Berdeng Isla, which is the island north of us. Nimuel, who’s like our village administrator, began making calls to the government. We needed to go to Berdeng Isla, and I knew we weren’t the only ones. Finally, in August 2020. they opened a food and essentials checkpoint there.

Rich and I headed north. When we came within sight of the dock, we masked up and tied up our boat. We got in line. And that’s when I saw him. Patalim. The dude’s name means “Blade” in Tagalog. He’s the pirate who’s closest to us on Isla ng Kamatayan, which is “Island of Death” in Tagalog. I couldn’t see his nose or mouth, but I didn’t miss the tats on one arm, the long, black hair tied at the neck, or his stocky, muscular build. It’s his face that’s scary. He must have gotten into a knife fight because he has a scar running from his hairline to his right eye, then below his right eye to his jaw. And that eye? Clearly, he’s lost sight in it because it’s all milky. It creeps me out.

Patalim’s got a rep in our neck of the woods. He likes to hijack fancy yachts for sport. He sells the women and children into slavery. And the men? He’ll hold them for ransom or kill them. Rumor has it he also runs arms for the Islamists that call the islands farther south home.

Why hasn’t he taken over Maliit na Isla? I asked Marco that one time. He said it’s the navy base that’s not too far away. And the military contacts we could call that would rescue us. We’re close enough that Patalim would prefer to pick on other, more remote islands. Honestly, that’s not reassuring at all.

Now times are shifting here on Maliit for me. Amy, who’d been pregnant with her third child, miscarried shortly after that run we made to Berdeng Isla. It was hard on Rich and her, of course. Hard on the other women, many of whom have miscarried as well. And hard on me to watch a friend suffer the way she did. She’s said no more children.

Then, the other doc and his wife had a kid who graduated high school in June 2022. She’s headed to college in the States. Doc and his wife left on August 1 to take her to college. They won’t be back until the end of September, which leaves Amy as the only doc on the island for now. Thank goodness she’s got some help coming soon. A former medical school classmate is what she’s said.

We’ve all been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to ask her about this person. In the meantime, though, I’ve been keeping the island training on the Escape and Evasion plans I made when I first arrived. I don’t think even having a military presence will deter Patalim from taking this island or beginning to exact some sort of payment from us. If he ever invades, I want us to be prepared.