Reborn: The Rookie Detective Chapter 226 226: 226-Rescue

Torrance clearly shared Jack's idea: a gradual approach. First, organize everyone to work together, have teamwork, and collect usable items. Once the passengers had cald down, gradually reveal their predicant.

While he reassured the passengers, the two FBI agents weren't idle. JJ turned on her phone's GPS, consuming a significant amount of battery power, to confirm their current latitude and longitude using the weak signal.

Unfortunately, although their phones didn't have pre-downloaded offline maps, checking the latitude and longitude on a paper map confird that Captain Torrance's calculations were correct.

They had indeed crash-landed on that island, currently not far from the southwest coastline.

Jack pondered, his finger gliding across the map, landing on Mindanao Island, not far to the north, where a familiar na appeared — Marawi.

Just like in his previous life, in this world, at the end of May 2017, this city also experienced a anti-terrorism war that lasted for five months.

Three years ago, Abu Sayyaf and another notorious Philippine terrorist organization, Maute, joined forces to seize the city.

Subsequently, the Philippines mobilized tens of thousands of its elite troops and police, including all six special forces units, and deployed its only armored vehicles and air force, using 150 days to destroy over 95% of the city's buildings.

At the ti, Marawi had over 200,000 residents; after five months of relentless bombing and fierce street fighting, a total of 180,000 were displaced.

The official Philippine figures reported that nearly 1,000 terrorists were killed, while the Philippines suffered over 1,600 military and police casualties and 87 civilian deaths.

Jack's only thought now was that they absolutely could not sit idly by and wait for death. Relying on the small airline for search and rescue was unrealistic; they would only be more aware of the island's danger than he was.

Relying on the Philippines was even more unrealistic. Their only option would be to negotiate with the hostages' country of origin, trying to secure a larger ransom for Abu Sayyaf and perhaps make a quick buck themselves.

Their only hope now was contacting the FBI to see if they could send a special forces team to rescue the passengers, provided they could protect them and prevent them from becoming hostages.

Otherwise, if the US governnt deed the operation too risky, they too would opt for negotiations with the terrorists, and in that case, the passengers and crew would be dood.

Jack had no choice, leading JJ and a few others into the rainforest to find a way out or a port.

As dawn broke, the sounds of the rainforest gradually intensified, filled with various bird calls and the roars of unknown wild animals.

As the temperature gradually rose, after confirming there was no risk of fire on the plane, flight attendant Bonnie and two other surviving flight attendants led the passengers into the cabin and cargo hold to unload all the luggage.

Everyone, regardless of gender, changed into long-sleeved clothing at Bonnie's request, minimizing exposed skin.

While so might have received vaccinations for diseases like ningitis, yellow fever, and cholera before traveling to the tropics, there's no common vaccine for malaria.

Fortunately, these passengers had just experienced a life-or-death situation and were mostly still shaken. Seeing soone take the lead in organizing things, they instinctively followed the group, and no one dared to act recklessly.

JJ's appointnt as the BAU's liaison officer wasn't solely based on her approachableness. While her psychological skills might not be as advanced as so of the other crew mbers, they were more than sufficient for dealing with ordinary people.

Especially in communication, JJ was a master; with her joining the team, she quickly gained a positive response from most of the passengers.

Unfortunately, the radio repairs failed. Even with Jack's help, they couldn't fix the completely burnt-out PCBs and batteries; even a 50-amp circuit breaker couldn't save the circuits.

Because there weren't many passengers, there wasn't much luggage either, and the cargo hold didn't hold much cargo, only so refrigerated fruits.

Bonnie had everyone share the fruit, stuffing the rest into their backpacks. The food and drinking water they collected weren't much, so the fruit was a supplent.

Jack secretly asked Bonnie for the passenger list and did a rough analysis. There were sixteen passengers remaining, mostly Aricans, with the rest from Canada, Germany, and other countries.

There were five couples, two female university students traveling together, three solo adult n, and the prisoner.

The crew consisted of five people: three flight attendants, including Bonnie, were Arican; the captain was British, although he insisted he was Scottish; and the co-pilot was from Japan.

Establishing a sense of community was paramount. The five couples were easy to unite with; they craved the group's presence even more than the solo travelers.

The two attractive female university students weren't a problem either; they were naturally in a vulnerable position and expected the group's protection.

The remaining three adult n, the youngest being about the sa age as the two female college students, were in the pri of their lives, full of energy. A few tasks and a few words of praise would be enough to motivate them to perform well. The other two middle-aged n were a bit more difficult to handle. They had asked the most questions and complained the most, and their business-like attire suggested they were the type who weren't very capable In this kind of situations.

"Let's gather everyone together and talk. It's ti to let them know what's going on," Jack said to the captain.

"Why can't we just wait for rescue here? Why not light a fire and release so smoke?"

"Oh, I shouldn't have boarded this plane."

"You guys aren't making this up, are you? Is this place really that dangerous? Can't I just pay the ransom myself?"

"I have so friends who are cult mbers, and they seem quite friendly."

Just as Jack had predicted, after Captain Torrance explained the situation to the passengers, the passengers, especially the n, started chattering away.

Two of the middle-aged n talked the most nonsense, especially one of them, a bald, white man.

"Please, can you shut up?" The prettiest, longest-legged girl among the two female college students finally couldn't hold back any longer and burst out.

"He's already done his job very well. Thanks to him, we were able to land successfully."

"We should listen to him; he's the captain." This was the wife of the German couple speaking, while JJ next to her winked at Jack.

"Alright, listen, our plan is to head southwest through the jungle to reach the southern coastline. According to the map, there's a town there."

Captain Torrance interrupted the argunt and began to explain the plan they had discussed.

"We will split into two teams, and Officer Tavelor from the LAPD has volunteered to go ahead and scout."