After many minutes of silence Jenny went over to where her father sat on the edge of their protected ridge, as he watched the lighter flakes of the recent snowfall, that had been lifted into the air by the tremendous wind the avalanche had created, float gently down, once again. In the bright sunshine it seemed the crystals were nature's attempt to purify the face of the earth by covering over ugliness. Inside fifteen minutes all that remained of the broken chunks of rock and ice that had avalanched, were shapes that could be taken to resemble tombstones.

"Was that part of your plan?" she wanted to know.

"Maybe," both of the men she loved answered as one.

The Colonel got to his feet. He started walking, sinking to his knees at each step, heading to where the cave had been. Jed watched a while, then followed. As did Jenny.

When she caught up with them they were bent over, digging at the cliff base, seeing if it would be possible to salvage the radio. It bothered her that they hadn't stopped to search for any sign of Hendrickson and Sayer.

"A radio, a fancy typewriter, and a generator is worth more than the lives of two human beings?" she asked sarcastically.

"If you consider those two human, Yup!" Jed said. "What a shame. All that equipment, buried forever."

"You knew what would happen, didn't you?" she accused both of them.

"Yes," Jed replied honestly. "I don't feel any guilt."

"Look at it this way, Jenny," her father added, "they wouldn't have been put on public trial for murder. They knew too much, could threaten to talk. And besides, they were the ones that caused their own deaths."

"It still makes me all squiggly inside."

"Well, how would you feel if the voices of Ichiko -say all who died unnecessarily at Pearl Harbor- gave you a sign that they were satisfied that a debt had been paid?"

"What sign?"

"This," Hap answered as he handed her a gold chrysanthemum bar.

"How did you get that from the cabin?"