Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

Proof of Life 163“Tom’s exactly right. If the execution order comes, we want to be asfar away or in the best defensive position we can be in. The threat levelhas been upped, that’s for sure,” Keith said.“I’m going to need your help a bit with this, guys,” I said. Marc andKeith nodded. They knew that after years of flying and being aroundrunning engines and the high-pitched wind noise, my hearing wasn’tas acute as theirs.The proof of life had made one thing clear: In the event of a rescue,we needed to get ourselves as far away from the FARC as possible sothey couldn’t gun us down. Having the three of us as early-warningdevices—Keith had brought Marc up to speed so that he could detectthe difference between a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter and a Huey UH-1by this time—was a small but significant victory over the FARC, oneof the few advantages we were able to hold over them. Most of themhad never been airborne, so their ability to perform the kind of instantthreat analysis that we were able to do was severely compromised. Ifany attack or rescue attempt came, we’d at least have a couple minuteshead start on the FARC. It wasn’t much, but in what could potentiallybe a game of seconds, it was an edge. Gradually they learned that if thethree of us had our eyes or our ears focused skyward, they should cometo us and ask what was literally “up.” To maintain our control, we wouldrespond by telling them things that suited our needs, and they neverknew the difference between what was real and what we fabricated.Since our arrival at the Second Mud Camp, the skies had been clearof aircraft. That unsettled us a bit. We liked the idea of aircraft beingabove us—especially the planes. Planes made us feel comfortable; theirpresence meant that someone was up there watching us or looking forus. We knew that the “they” up there weren’t the FARC. A week or soafter the proof of life, as July turned into August, the planes returned.We hoped their arrival had something to do with the proof-of-life messagesbeing delivered. In particular, we had one that did large orbitsaround us. We couldn’t ID it confidently, but we knew it was up there