“As you can expect,” the man continued, “we need to know what happened, and how Sergeant Dobson was left behind.”
“Of course.It was quite a fluid and unpredictable experience.”She smiled at the men.“May I sit?It’s been an exhausting twenty-four hours.”
The colonel gestured to a nearby chair, and she rested her crutches against the table and sat, placing her hands together on the table.“What would you like to know?”
“Tell us what happened in your own words,” the colonel invited.
She nodded and took a deep breath as if bracing herself.“Damien and Ethan made contact not long after the earthquake hit,” she said.“I’m sorry, I don’t know the time.Agus, the man who kidnapped Vance, stole my phone.”
“Why?”the major asked.
“He said it was so I could give Vance’s proposal the proper consideration.”She poured herself a glass of water.“But I suspect it was because Vance told him about my parents and he has a sworn vendetta against my mother.He didn’t want me to communicate with anyone off the island until he could figure out what he wanted to do with me.”
“When was this?”the Major-General asked.
“The day before the earthquake.I was lying in bed trying to figure out how I could escape the island when the earthquake hit.”Before they could ask the obvious question she added, “Agus controls all the boats coming to and leaving the island and I was refused passage on the evening’s barge even though it was empty.”She paused a moment, so they understood the vulnerable position Vance had put her in.“I suspect if the earthquake hadn’t hit, my mother would have received a similar video to the one the Defence Minister received.”
Let them stew on that.
“I told your men that Vance had befriended Agus and as far as I knew, he was staying with him at the house on the cliff.I explained the security and the room layout.They left, but Damien told me to head for the mountains so I was out of harm’s way.”
“Did you?”the colonel asked.
She shook her head.“Every time I was about to leave, I heard someone else cry for help.I couldn’t leave them there to drown.”
A modicum of respect showed on all three men’s faces.
“Then the tsunami hit.The lady I was helping stole my moped and got out ahead of the wave, but I got caught in it.I saw Ethan fall out of the four-wheel drive just before I went under.”She shuddered and hugged herself.
“How did he fall?”
“They were trying to pull him inside.He was on the back, but I guess he must have slipped.”She swallowed hard at the memory.“We were fortunate we were at the end of the water’s push inland.It turned, sucking everything back to the ocean, and I grabbed onto a tree trunk and hung on until it receded.”
“You weren’t injured?”
“Battered, bruised and swallowed a heap of dirty water, but alive.I started looking for Ethan immediately and found him by the time the team returned.We had just enough time to find a stretcher for him and get him into the car before the next wave hit.”
“It sounds like we owe you a debt of gratitude,” the colonel said.“You saved that man’s life.”
She shook her head.“The team did.Damien had Ethan on the stretcher in what seemed like seconds.He was incredible.”A hero.
“What happened next?”
Mila continued to tell them the story, talking Damien up, and emphasising what she had done to get them off the island.When she spoke about Agus’s men trying to stop her from leaving, they glanced at each other.
“Honestly if Damien hadn’t come after me, I’m not sure what Agus would have done to me.He might have just held me hostage, or he might have been angry enough with my mother to kill me.”She took a deep breath to calm her heart rate.“The plan was to extract with the team, but Agus’s men caught up with us and there was another helicopter coming in, so they had to leave.”She gave a shuddery smile.“I was terrified, but Damien was so calm.He told me we would get away.We were lucky to find the Zodiac nearby, and he swam out in that swirling, dangerous, debris-filled water to salvage it.Agus’s men noticed the boat, so I distracted them so he could secure the boat.”
“How?”
“I let them see me and then ran.”She shrugged.“They chased me which gave Damien enough time to get the boat and hide it.”
“That was very risky,” the Major said.“Those men might have shot you.”
She exhaled.“I hoped Agus had told them not to hurt me.I was more valuable to him alive than dead.If I hadn’t done something, they would have seen Damien and the boat, and we would have lost our escape route.”
“Did they catch you?”
She nodded.“I twisted my ankle when I ran and Agus picked me up in his luxury cruiser.He took me to his house, but I escaped out the window to the ground and then Damien extracted me.We returned to the boat and then went to a nearby deserted island to contact the team and wait extraction.”
