Perdu knew she was rambling on too much. Did she need to get this adrenaline rush under control? She knew it gave her increased strength and heightened her senses, but she also knew it made her do crazy things.
“So Isabella, I know where you are and it looks like we may need to come and get you and your friend. Be warned, we are armed and dangerous. Your lives mean nothing to me. Just like your parents. So one last chance—are you coming out?”
With her last words, Ava chastised herself. She is getting rusty. She usually controlled those strong emotions. She grabbed a large chunk of hay and threw it in the air. Dust and pieces of hay floated slowly to the ground.
No, it was okay. This was what she preferred. She was better suited working the field than being office bound. Besides, she had a task to do.
<°)))><
Isabella stared at the monitor. “What does she mean by that, Lucas?”
“She’s a nasty one, Bella. We best get out of here.”
Isabella absently grabbed the helmets. “We need these.” She turned and stared at the computer. “I’m going to take the hard disk. It’s recorded all this. This lady is dangerous and crazy. I’m puzzled by what she said about my parents.”
“You continue to amaze me, Bella.”
No response came from Isabella.
Lucas grabbed the briefcase while Isabella emptied some of her travel bag contents into her backpack. She searched the pockets of her travel bag and seemed relieved to find something. Lucas noticed it was some kind of foil packaging—it must be the pills she was on. He watched as Isabella unplugged a black device.
“It’s the boot disk. It stores everything. And I mean everything.” She tucked it into the top pocket of her vest and patted the pocket.
Lucas decided that the boot disk was important. It contained information that would have that lady joining him in prison, so it needed to be looked after.
<°)))><
Perdu got up and walked over to the entrance to the bunker and pressed the button that revealed the staircase.
“Not working, or isolated. The latter I believe. Isabella, you need to come out. You will not survive in there if we set fire to the place. Whether you’re dead or not doesn’t matter to me, but I’m giving you the choice. Five minutes, and this place will be alight.”
Perdu went and sat back on the bale of hay.
<°)))><
They commenced their journey to the lava tube. The walls were black and seemed to be absorbing the light—dimming the brightness of their head torches. They had to crawl a little way. Isabella pushed her backpack in front of her. Her thoughts were on what she just witnessed and she was confused. Mrs Perdu had always been pleasant, nice, but now she saw a dark side. Mrs Perdu seemed not to place any value on human life. But what did she want with her? Why was everyone so desperate to find her? And her Mum had worked with these people?
She heard some grunts behind her. “We’ll have more space soon.”
“That’s fine, Bella. The walls are so dark like they’re trying to suck you in. You okay?”
“Yep. The first part of the lava tube you’ll be able to stand up in. Don’t worry about the bats and snakes. They’ll all be listless and sluggish . . . I hope.”
There was no response from Lucas. Maybe his silence indicated fear.
“Just joking, Lucas. The lava tube is too cold for snakes. And the bats cleared out some while ago. Dad kept disturbing them.” Humour is such a funny thing. It covered true feelings.
“I’m still getting used to your sense of humour, Bella.”
They reached the lava tube and both stretched. Isabella pointed to the right. “We go that way. See the small light in the distance? That’s the entrance. It’s not as far as it looks—a few collapsed roof sections block the full flow of the light. We should be able to climb over them.”
When they reached the end of the tube, they needed to push some thin branches and overgrowth out of the way to enter the outside world. Greenery surrounded two large granite boulders and acted as a camouflage for the entrance to the lava tube. One of the boulders had a smaller boulder balanced precariously on top of it. There was silence except for the inhaling and exhaling of the fresh cool air.
“I hope my dad didn’t tell Mrs Perdu about the lava tubes. He probably did, as he liked to tell everyone how great this place was. But I’m not sure if they’d know about the connection to the bunker. Still, we better keep moving.”
“Where to, Bella?”
He didn’t expect an answer.
23 – Silence is deafening
A QUESTION POPPED INTO AVA PERDU’S HEAD. If a tree were to fall on an island where there were no human beings, would there be any sound? She recently discussed this with her husband, so why she was thinking of this now? No ears to hear, there will be no sound. Why these thoughts? They weren’t relevant.
Five minutes had turned into ten minutes, not because Ava Perdu had compassion but because she was curious to know who was in the bunker with Isabella. She was hoping they would give themselves up. But she also hoped they didn’t, because there were other ways of achieving her goals—there always was.
“You have decided I’m bluffing, Isabella. That is not the case. You have one more minute.”
There was also another reason for the delay: what could they use to start the fire? Perdu had sent her man to make use of their car cigarette lighter. While she waited she strained to hear anything. No trees falling. The silence was deafening. She heard something scampering and saw a little mouse come out of its hiding place. The mouse looked up at Perdu, obviously realised that the human was still there, quickly scampered back to where it came from. You and all your friends will soon be stampeding out of here.
Crackle. Crackle. A shadow came into the barn. Crackle. She looked up to see her man standing at the entrance with a small branch crackling as the flames hungered after the other leaves on the branch. She walked over to the entrance.
Fate is fate. “Bye, Isabella, and whoever your friend is.”
She nodded to the man. He walked over to the far side of the barn and threw the branch. The barn contained large amounts of combustible material to accelerate the fire. They watched the flames take hold and then walked out into the overcast day. Perdu stared at the unconscious bodies of the two men they had surprised. They would be unconscious for some time yet, and were safely away from fire’s harm. She had compassion—when it suited her.
“Let’s position ourselves somewhere so we can watch this fire and see if anyone comes running out with the mice.” Yes, and watch the vermin scattering.
They needed to be out of view of the drone that was circling above. It would soon be back in working order, or replaced by another. She was not concerned about reinforcements—they would be some time away. These men would have come in on a locally based ultra-light helicopter and parked it some distance away to avoid detection. Reinforcements would need to travel from another base further away. Perdu got her men to park their vehicle on a slight rise, far enough away to avoid detection but still allowed them to monitor activities by tuning into the hovering drone above.
Perdu placed the tablet in the back seat holder. She adjusted the volume and leant back into the seat, rubbing her hands to get the chill out of her. Being close to the fire would have been better. Her men sat in the front seat, staring at a tablet in the centre console.
Perdu watched as the level of smoke leaving the barn increased. She watched as one of the men got to his feet, but there was no sign of the girl. Her death didn’t bother Perdu, but some other things did. Was the bunker fireproof? If it was, they were going to survive. And did she say anything incriminating? It would have been recorded, so unless the heat damaged the recording device she needed to get it. She could use her role as a pharmaceutical investigator to sort that out.
The tall man looked woozy, and was obviously confused about where he was. His nose twitched a few times as he must have picked up the smell of smoke. He started rubbing his neck and paused as he pulled something from his neck. He stared at it—a dart. Perdu knew that he would now be wondering what chemical had been injected into his body.
“C12, this is Eagle Fly, over.”
Perdu turned the volume up some more to listen.
The man shook his head a few times. Was he hoping the pieces would fall back into the right spots? He would be fine, once his training kicked in.
“This is . . . C12 . . . go ahead, over.”
“We lost contact with you guys. Something blocked our transmission. Are you two okay? Over.”
The tall man stood and held onto the side of the house while he regained his balance. His partner was now doing the same.
“We were both hit by some kind of tranquiliser dart.” The man shook his head again and stared down at the dart in his hand. “I have no memory of any prior events. It must have an amnesia-inducing drug or something like that. Remembering things is a challenge. What are we meant to be doing here? Over.”
