Harry continued his steep turn to the left trying to keep an eye on the helicopter. The helicopter pilot was good and was maintaining fairly good control as he descended. Harry began exchanging speed for altitude as the engine continued to cough and sputter. He pulled on the carburetor heat and tried changing fuel tanks, but the engine would not run without gasoline. The coughing was soon replaced by silence. Scanning the checklist for an emergency landing procedure, Harry noted the preflight requirement of checking fuel. Damn! Trying to concentrate on the checklist interfered with Harry's flying and he finally threw it on the seat next to him. One final pass over the helicopter and he would land one way or the other.
People were exiting the helicopter and Harry saw one of the men raise a weapon. Instinctively Harry banked the airplane away, which caused him to lose even more altitude. It was time to land whether he wanted to or not. Heading the airplane parallel to the shoreline, Harry prepared for the landing. He let the airplane glide right down to the water and then pulled back on the yoke to flare the airplane just as he would have done in the helicopter. The nose of the airplane responded and lifted up, further slowing the airplane. Harry heard a buzzer but wasn't sure what it meant and concentrated on trying to fly the airplane. His speed was getting low and the nose began to drop about the time he struck the water. The airplane bounced back into the air a few feet before striking the water again. This time it stayed down. Not a pretty landing. But considering it was his first, and a dead stick landing at that, not too bad. Harry headed the airplane toward shore.
The right float was already taking on water and had settled significantly tilting the airplane to the right. Multiple bullet holes would have been evident to an outside observer. This increased drag slowed the airplane so quickly it stopped coasting before reaching the shore. Realizing he wouldn't make the shore, Harry remembered throwing the paddle into the lake. A bad decision now that he was floating 100 feet from shore. In the near freezing water he would only have a couple of minutes before hypothermia began to set in. But there was no way to rescue Angie sitting here in the airplane bobbing 100 feet from shore. Harry did a quick inspection of the airplane contents and found several life preservers. None looked like they would fit him. No obvious weapons. Just an old raincoat that might fit, sort of.
Harry stepped out onto the float and stripped. He carefully wrapped his still dry shirt and suit coat into a ball and covered it with his shorts and still wet pants. He then wrapped the old raincoat around the clothes and secured them with one of the life vest straps. He used a couple other life vests to create a miniature raft that would hopefully keep his clothes dry. He used a short piece of rope to tie the raft to himself. Just standing on the floats naked was enough to get Harry's teeth chattering again. Before diving in and beginning his short swim, he reached back into the airplane and took out the emergency locator transmitter. He whacked the ELT with his hand to simulate a crash. A light came on indicating that the ELT was now transmitting an emergency signal, but Harry had no way of checking.
Harry gave it one more shake and placed it on the seat before diving into the water. It wasn't a long swim by Navy SEAL standards. However, hypothermia was already beginning to set in by the time Harry climbed up onto the shore. He carefully lifted his dry pack floating on the life preserver onto the rocks. His teeth were chattering and his fingers were clumsy as he undid the strap and unwound his clothes. He used his shorts as a towel trying to remove as much moisture from his body as possible. He then dressed in his already wet trousers and his mostly dry shirt and suit coat. He struggled into the too small raincoat and proceeded in tearing out one of the shoulder seams. His uniform was less than ideal for a stealth mission, and he had only two weapons: his natural ability and the surgical scalpel that was still stuck in his sock.