by Dale Mayer
Sandrine raced toward them and threw herself into his arms. He wrapped her up close, loving this sense of welcome. With her crushed tight against him, he looked at his prisoner, staring at the floor. Keane watched as the emergency blanket moved. Keane whispered, “How is she?”
“I’m not sure,” Sandrine replied, quickly moving to check her friend. She pulled the blanket down a bit to see Brenda staring up at her. She smiled. “Brenda! How are you?”
“I feel like shit,” she said, “and I’m so tired. It also feels like, if I move, I’ll be sorry.”
Sandrine chuckled. “That is true. Head injuries always make you feel that way.”
“But I’m okay, aren’t I?” Brenda asked, her voice weak and anxious.
“Now that you’re awake and talking and looking a little more normal, I would say yes,” she replied. “I, for one, am very grateful to see you back in the land of the living.”
Brenda smiled and looked up. “Who are these men?”
“Well, these two,” she said, pointing at Keane and Lennox, “came to rescue us.”
At that, Brenda smiled and said, “Good timing for me to wake up.”
“Very good timing,” Sandrine replied joyfully. This was a wonderful reunion.
“Who is the other man?” Brenda studied the prisoner, her gaze frowning at his hands. “And why is he tied up?”
Sandrine looked at Keane and whispered, “Who is he?”
“He’s your buddy’s partner,” he said. “He’s also the one who shot Lennox.” Keane turned to study Lennox, worried about the confrontation that he assumed had occurred in his absence. But Lennox appeared none the worse for wear and had a relaxed look on his face, as if he had not a care in the world. “What were you guys doing around the corner?”
“Seeking a change of pace,” Lennox said with a smile.
Then he held up his hand, and Keane noted several fish were on the line. “Good, so we get to eat tonight.”
“Only if we find something to burn for a fire,” Sandrine said. “I’m not eating them raw.”
“We’ve got some emergency fuel and a small campfire stove,” he said, “so we can cook those. No problem.”
With his prisoner off to the side, Keane dropped the huge bag from his back and said, “Besides, we have their supplies now too.”
“Good,” Lennox said with a hard glance at the new arrival. “So you’re the asshole who shot me, huh?”
Wilson stared up at him. “Jesus Christ! How can you be alive after I shot you and clubbed you over the head?”
“Good to confirm it was you,” Lennox growled. “I’ll be happy to return the favor.”
“What else was I supposed to do? I didn’t have a clue who you were.”
“You always shoot strangers?”
“These men were here to rescue us,” Sandrine said, outraged.
“Well, we didn’t know that,” Wilson said, “and we didn’t care. We didn’t want anybody poking around here.”
“Oh, I hear you,” she snapped. “But your buddy tried to kill us.”
At that, Wilson stopped and stared. Then he said, “Tried?”
She nodded slowly. “He tried. He didn’t succeed.”
And, just like that, Wilson seemed to cave in on himself. “Are you saying Adam’s dead?”
“Yes,” Lennox said calmly. “When people fire at me, I have this thing about firing back.”
“That kid didn’t know how to shoot anything,” he said. “The gun was more for show and to make him feel proud.”
“Maybe,” Lennox said, “but those bullets were real.”
Wilson winced. “I hear you there. He prided himself on that.”
“Well, he won’t anymore.”
“God damn it,” he said. “The kid wasn’t yet thirty years old.”
“We’ve also got another problem,” Keane said. “We need to figure out if we’re alone on the island.”
“You mean, more than our two separate groups?” Lennox asked, narrowing his gaze. “Why would you think that?”
“I’m not convinced that Adam destroyed the Zodiac.”
“Did he say he did?”
“Well, he said something about it, yes. But it doesn’t seem logical that he would have done it, since they needed that boat to get off the island themselves. They apparently wrecked their boat when they picked up the girls. If they’d taken our Zodiac and left us behind, I would understand. That’s logical. But to slash our boat so that it was no more valuable than the piece of junk they crashed on the rocks makes no sense, and I’m thinking maybe some third party sabotaged it, so Wilson and Adam couldn’t leave the island either.”
“So somebody came in and cut up the Zodiac and then left again, hoping that Wilson and Adam died right along with us?” Lennox looked from Keane to Wilson. “That’s pretty cold.”
“Well,” Keane added, “I’m not sure our third-party knew about us per se. But he knew about Wilson and Adam for sure.”
“Regardless, all of it is ridiculous,” Sandrine cried out. She walked closer to Keane, her hand instinctively reaching out.
He was surprised to see his hand reaching back, as if a bond had formed between the two of them. Plus, every time he arrived, she came to him like a homing pigeon.
“Why would anybody sabotage a boat on an island?” Wilson asked.
“You tell us,” Keane said in a mild tone of voice. “Why would somebody sabotage a boat?”
Chapter 8
Sandrine turned to Keane and frowned. “You’re saying it was deliberately damaged so nobody could use it?”
“So nobody could leave.” Keane nodded.
She stared at him. “Then wouldn’t it have been better if it was the guy we shot? Adam, was it? The guy who brought us the fish in the plastic container?”
Wilson nodded. “That was Adam. And that was our dinner that he gave you, by the way.”
“Well, I appreciated that, and we both certainly needed it. But I sure didn’t appreciate him coming back and shooting the place up tonight.”
“Yeah, that’d be him too. He went nuts at times. He was normal most of the time. Then sometimes he would just go off half-cocked.”
“Yes, I saw both sides of him. He was a little bit scary.”
“It’s also why he had trouble finding work and why some of his friends were a little bit off as well.”
“And maybe he was also somebody the bosses could afford to get rid of,” Keane said. “Maybe even a liability.”
“I don’t like your theories,” Wilson said, “but it’s possible.”
“But you did contact your ship, and they said they couldn’t come in tonight, right?”
“Yes, and I told them that we’d already crashed our boat.”
“Were they pissed?”
“There was so much static that I couldn’t really tell.”
“Right,” Keane said, nodding. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if somebody else didn’t come in and take out the Zodiac, then checked out the lay of the land to find you. Chances are good that that someone is still here.”
“And then will come back and pick them up?” she asked. “I want to be close by when that hap—” She stopped, surprised when Keane’s arm tightened around her.
He whispered, “No, you don’t.”
She looked at him in outrage. “I do so. I want to go home.”
“These men are smugglers, who you want nothing to do with,” he said. “And, if they think that you’ll interfere in their plans in any way or could tell tales afterward, they’ll drop you where you stand. And, unfortunately for you, they’re likely to use you hard before that happens.”
She stared at him as all the color drained from her cheeks. “Jesus Christ,” she whispered. “What kind of mess have we gotten into here?”
“Well, for that, you can blame Wilson and his buddy Adam. They rescued you from drowning at sea and brought you to this island, but I think it was a case of going from the fat into the fire,” he said.
Her gaze went from one to the other, and then she shook her head. “Well, now you guys have to get us off this island, some way or another,” she said, “because I refuse to be a toy tossed around between men, and I’ve already fought long and hard to keep Brenda with me,” Sandrine snapped. “So it’s up to you guys to keep us alive. You can get us off here somehow, can’t you?” She studied Keane, and, when he smiled with just a twitch of his lips, she nodded and said, “Right. You’ve already got that organized, haven’t you?”
He shrugged and said, “Well, maybe.”
She smiled and reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “That better be a definite yes, not just a maybe.” But, in her heart of hearts, she already knew that she’d picked the right side. And this guy would help her get her injured friend back home again. As long as nothing else went wrong.
Even knowing something else was going on or that he had some plans was enough to make Sandrine feel a little better. Then she wasn’t so sure again as she stepped back into the little shelter and said, “I guess we just hunker down and wait for morning.”
“To a certain extent,” he said. “We’ll spread out a little though. Otherwise, it’ll get very close in here.”
“Well, I’d rather be outside anyway,” Wilson snapped.
Keane looked around, nodded and said, “That’s not a bad idea.” Then he helped him move outside of the double doors. Leaving the doors wide open for a breeze to come through, he looked at Sandrine and said, “I’ll sit out here too.”
She nodded but quickly chose to go where Brenda was. Sandrine sat beside her friend and whispered, “How are you doing?”
“Well, against all odds,” her friend whispered back, “I’m still on the planet.”
At that, Lennox chuckled. “And a good way to have it,” he said. “Packing your body out of here would be a bitch.”
Brenda gurgled with laughter. “I imagine it would be. Though I must confess that, while I’m grateful to be alive, I would much rather be in a five-star hotel, holding a glass of red wine, staring out over the city lights … from the bathtub.”
“Ooh,” Sandrine said, “if we’re dreaming, I’ll take that steak and prawns now.” She kept up the light banter with her friend as she studied how fatigued she was. She asked Lennox, “I know we said we would cook, but is that anytime soon?”
Lennox nodded and got up, then closed one side of the shelter doors and started up his little burner.
“Did you close that for the wind?”
“Yes, and no,” he said. “Partly so the wind won’t blow out our gas flame and also so that we don’t fill the cave with smoke.” With his flashlight on, he sorted through the additional food Keane had collected from Adam and Wilson.
Outside it was silent, with neither of the two men sitting there saying a word.
Sandrine slid closer to Lennox. “Is Keane out there to stand watch?”
“More or less,” Lennox said, his tone as low as hers.
“But, if anyone else is here, they can see him.”
“Can they?” he asked, a half smirk on his face.
She thought about that, and as she went to peer around the door, he grabbed her arm and said, “Don’t show your white face.” From where she sat, she could barely see Keane. He blended into the rock so well. “That’s amazing,” she whispered.
“He’s good at what he does,” Lennox said.
“And you? Are you also good at what you do?”
“Sure,” he said. “We both do the same thing.”
“Is it safe to light a fire?”
“It’s a calculated risk. We have this small burner for emergencies, but, in this case, a small fire will cook the fish quickly. I doubt you’d eat it raw.” He looked at her questioningly.
Immediately she scrunched up her face and shook her head.
“Hence the fire,” he said gently.
As he started cooking the fish, she realized they desperately needed this food right now. “There’s such comfort in a hot meal, isn’t there?”
“There is, indeed,” he said. “We don’t have a ton to go with this, but there are some canned goods.”
“I’m surprised they brought cans. They’re heavy and hard to pack.”
“We have army rations. Not sure you’ll like that any better.”
“Any chance of a coffee or a cup of tea?” she asked hopefully. But the single burner was currently busy frying fish. He’d cut the fillets off the bone to make them cook faster and planned to cook one fish at a time in the small pan. While he cooked the first one, he was busy filleting the others.
She whispered, “Do you want me to hold the flashlight?”
“No, I’ve got just about enough light to do this,” he said.
She brought over the lid and, with a little bit of water, rinsed off the top. “This is all I can offer as a plate,” she whispered.
“It’ll work,” he said, and he quickly flipped the two pieces of fish that he had cooked onto the lid, then refilled the skillet with more. She couldn’t resist breaking off a few flakes of fresh fish and tasted it. She moaned. “God, that is really good.”
“Nothing like fresh food when you’re hungry,” he said cheerfully. “Take that to share with Brenda.”
Sandrine didn’t need any urging and made her way to her friend. As soon as Brenda smelled the fish, she said, “Well, I guess I’d really like to try eating.”
“Let’s see if we can get you up on your feet or at least sitting up again,” Lennox said, moving their way. With help, he and Sandrine got Brenda sitting up, then slowly and gently propped her up against the rock wall, so she could sit as the two women slowly ate the fish.
“I guess there won’t be any more, will there?” Sandrine asked Lennox.
“We have some other rations, and there are quite a few fish,” he said. “I was hoping to save some for breakfast, but I’m not sure we can.”
“Will it keep overnight?” Brenda asked, sounding curious.
Lennox grimaced. “If we can keep it cooler—like, if I could put it back in the ocean—that will stop it from going bad overnight, but we’ll likely eat it all now.” He went through the motions and cooked another six fish. By the time everybody had one for themselves, a couple were still left. She watched as he and Keane split one, then handed one to the two women. Wilson protested outside that he wasn’t getting seconds.
“You’re alive,” Keane said, laughing. “At least we gave you something to eat. That’s a lot more than you let these women have.” Keane stepped inside and rummaged around in the bags. “I think we still have some fruit leather, beef jerky and granola bars in here.” He handed those out, while they filled the pot with water. As soon as the water boiled, he pulled out a disc, which then elongated into a large glass. He dropped a tea bag inside and poured boiling water over it for the women. Sandrine stared in fascination as a cup of tea was presented to her.
“I hope you don’t need cream or sugar with this though,” Lennox said. “I can offer you this much, but that’s it.”
“We’ll take it,” she said gratefully. With her arms wrapped around Brenda, the two of them huddled over the hot cup of tea, waiting until it was cool enough to drink. “This is absolutely wonderful,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”
Lennox shrugged, then Keane handed over a pack of fruit leather and said, “You can also split a granola bar if you need it. If you don’t need it,” he said, “then save it, since we don’t know how long we’ll be here.”
“I think we’ll probably be fine,” Brenda said. “My stomach is quite full after the fish.”
“I could eat more,” Sandrine said slowly. “But you’re right, we probably shouldn’t.”
“See how you feel after the tea,” Lennox said. “Having a hot liquid will help fill some holes.”
She nodded, and, as Lennox sat here, Keane went back out and resettled in the rocks. She saw Wilson sitting there, staring up at the sky. While his arms were tied in front of him and so were
his legs, he appeared to be quite comfortable. “What will we do about him?” she murmured to Lennox.
“Not sure yet,” he said, glancing at the prisoner. “That’s tomorrow’s issue.”
She nodded and smiled. The two women finished their tea, and Sandrine helped Brenda to lie back down again. Instead of joining her, Sandrine sat propped up, her head back, and just let her eyes close. When she heard a weird zing in her world, she opened her eyes to see Lennox standing right in front of her, a finger at his lips, whispering, “Do not move.”
She opened her mouth, but he placed a finger against it and said, “We have company.”
Instantly her stomach twisted and churned in fear. She nodded slowly. “Is Keane okay?” she asked, letting the words slide out on a breath.
He nodded. “They shot Wilson.”
Her eyes widened in shock, but then, just like that, Lennox was gone. She laid down beside Brenda and wrapped her arms around her friend. When Brenda murmured something, she whispered against her ear, “We have to be quiet. Company’s out there. Somebody just shot Wilson.”
Brenda stiffened in her arms, and Sandrine kept whispering to her friend calmly and quietly. “The other two men are fine. They’re on the hunt. Right now just the two of us are inside, and we must stay calm.”
“Great,” Brenda said. “Will we ever get out of this nightmare?”
Hidden behind the rock, Keane stayed motionless. The first thing he heard had been a tiny scrape up above. He hadn’t expected to see any four-legged predators tonight. He hadn’t seen signs of any wildlife, only birds. Which ruled out any other larger animal. The only ones at issue now were two-legged predators. He studied the cliffs around him. He had already memorized their natural shape, in case anything hunkered down and tried to blend in.
As his gaze went across once and then came back again even slower, he stopped and studied one little hill that wasn’t there before. This newest intruder had sunglasses on, hiding the whites of his eyes, and the glasses had a tint that would stop any reflection. But he was still taking a chance.
