“Jangan pergi,” a voice cried from under the rubble.
Mila answered in rapid Indonesian.
He assessed the situation.Someone was trapped behind the debris which might be blocking a door.
“We helping?”Hawk murmured.
“Yeah.”
They strode over.“Where do you need us?”he asked Mila, handing her the child.
She started, her eyes wide as she quickly scanned him, taking in his dark fatigues.Questions crossed her face, but she said, “If we can move this panel, it should leave enough space for Fajar’s family to get out.”
He nodded and took the opposite side from Hawk.Together they shifted the heavy panel away from the house.Before they had even put it down, people were crawling out of the space.He and Hawk crouched behind the panel.The fewer people who saw them the better.A woman swept the small boy into her arms, while a man spoke rapidly to Mila.She handed him the child and the man tugged Mila, gesturing to the mountain.
Mila responded, pointing to a moped across the square and the father herded his family away.Mila turned her attention to them.“What are Australian Special Forces doing here?”
He suppressed a smile at her no-nonsense tone.“Mila Watkins?”
She nodded once, her expression wary.“Did my mother send you?”
He shook his head.“We were hoping you might know who kidnapped Vance Bradley.”
“Vance has been kidnapped?”She frowned.“When?I saw him… yesterday.”
Dobby scowled.“What time?”
“Midday.He turned up unexpectedly.”Her laugh was full of derision.“Now Agus knows who I am.He took my phone and laptop so I couldn’t contact anyone.”
This wasn’t making any sense.“Vance was with Agus—the smuggler?”
She nodded.“I think he’s staying with him.”
Dobby swore.“We thought Agus was the one who’d kidnapped him.Is there anyone else here who could have done it?Did Vance seem worried about anything?”
She pursed her plump lips.“It’s possible that with all of Vance’s bragging about money, Agus decided to seize the opportunity.”She hurried down the street towards a sobbing woman trying to clear debris from her house.
Dobby and Hawk followed her, but the man they’d rescued reached the sobbing woman first and he and his wife helped her lift the roof.She darted inside and brought out a crying baby.
Dobby grabbed Mila’s hand to stop her moving.“His parents were sent a ransom video.Showed Vance tied and gagged to a chair in a bedroom.”
Mila’s frowned deepened.“What kind of room?Do you have a copy of the video?”
Dobby shook his head.“Nice room, pale walls, four-poster queen-sized bed.”
“Only place around here with rooms like that is Agus’s place.”
“You went there yesterday?”Hawk asked.
“Yeah.Vance was fine.”She scanned the area.“He was sharing far too much information with Agus.I told Vance Agus was dangerous, but he laughed at me.”
Dobby glanced towards the ocean but couldn’t see it from here.“How high is the cliff Agus’s house is on?”
“About ten metres.”
Hawk turned to him.“Would the tsunami miss them?”
A good question and one he didn’t have an answer for.“Does Agus have much security?”
