About a hundred metres on Damien swore and abruptly the bike slid to a stop.
Mila leaned to look past.The track had disappeared, falling a few metres straight down and then a path of dirt and debris spilled out from it.
Landslide.
Their escape route was gone.
Chapter 9
Dobby pried his fingers from the moped brakes.They had stopped on the edge of the almost three-metre vertical drop where the land had split.
His heart raced as he scanned what remained of the track.Nothing but a pile of rocks and dirt as far as he could see.
The northern villagers had probably evacuated somewhere below them but above the wave’s reach, or taken boats out to sea.
It was far too lumpy for the moped to navigate over carrying the two of them with its small tyres.
They had thirty minutes until evac.He debated going back for the four-wheel drive, but it might not make it down the sharp drop either and he didn’t want to risk rolling the vehicle.
They would have to go on foot.
At the roar above him, he whirled to face the main road, as a car raced past without stopping.He waited for the squeal of brakes to indicate they’d been seen but the noise faded into the distance.
He exhaled.
“Can we lift it down?”Mila asked, getting off the back.
“No point.The tyres won’t make it over the dirt.”He pushed the bike into the jungle, covering it.“We need to move before the guy from the village realises you’re not in front of him.Follow me.”
He slid down the slope and then turned ready to catch Mila, but she was right behind him.
“Have you heard from the team?Did Agus leave?”
He smiled.Wasn’t that just like her?They’d barely stopped after racing down the mountain and her first thought was of other people’s safety.“Yeah.We’ve got about five minutes before he arrives.”He took her hand and set a fast pace down the road.“Good news is, he won’t be able to get his car down here either.”He scanned her.“Are you all right?I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but it didn’t look good.”
It had been the longest fifteen minutes of his life watching her move through the square, talking to people.
“Agus wanted his man in Desa Agung to bring me to him,” Mila explained.“I panicked trying to figure out how to change his mind.”
By his estimate they had a couple of kilometres before they reached the northern coastal village.If they didn’t make it, there wasn’t enough space between the trees to get a ladder down from the helicopter.They needed to hustle.
Dobby glanced up at the road.They were in clear view, so they’d have to hide when they heard another car.
Hopefully Agus would divide his men.He may think they’d hid and doubled back to Desa Agung.
“What did you say?”
“I wanted to marry Vance there.”
Though he knew it was a lie, his chest squeezed uncomfortably in an emotion that felt like jealousy.
“Then I asked to call my mother.The old woman who stole my moped offered to lend me her son’s phone, and that’s when Agus said he would come.”
“Quick thinking.”
She winced and he noticed the exposed part of her right foot was covered in scratches.
“I should have given you Hawk’s boots.”
