“I think that the hostage plan can work, actually,” Bartosz mused, “we just need to get the timing right.”
I gripped Jin Woo’s arms around me tighter. I had a bad feeling about this, a feeling that made my knees feel like Jell-O; something was going to go very, very wrong.
Chapter Thirteen
The sun had just dipped below the horizon when we saw the boat approaching. Bartosz, who apparently had the best eyes, had been keeping watch. He booked it down the hill, skidded as he stopped in front of the cabin, where we had all gathered when we heard him hollering.
“It’s-it’s two boats,” he said, after partially catching his breath.
“Fuck,” I swore, two boats meant more Rats, which made our plan even harder.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jin Woo said calmly, "we do our plan as we planned, we knew that it was a likely situation and, honestly, I’m happy that it’s only two boats and not three or four.”
He looked around at all of us, catching the eyes of each and every person, as if checking for something, for some weakness that he was wary of finding there. He seemed not to find what he was looking for and nodded and hummed before he spoke again.
“Ok, everyone, head to your positions.”
Ettore pulled Jin Woo into one of their bruising kisses and then grabbed me and kissed me in the exact same way before stalking off to the northwestern side of the island. Catching my hand, Jin Woo leaned over and spoke.
“Ettore has a thing about goodbyes; he’ll be fine, he’s just a bit worried and doesn’t know how to show it properly.”
I nodded as Bartosz sidled up and landed a quick kiss on my lips before he turned and headed off to the southwestern sideof the island. The rest of us: Jin Woo, Oskar, and I headed to the eastern side of the island. Jin Woo was our frontman, popular and well known, so he would be the one to greet the rats, and for the rest of the plan to work, we needed to be close, but not too close.
Jin Woo stood on the beach, hands shoved into his pockets, leaning slightly backwards as if he was waiting in line for a coffee and not for rescue, as the boats landed. I watched what unfolded halfway up a tree. Oskar was crouching behind its large trunk, and a strip of torn cloth was wrapped around his head to prevent his vibrant hair from giving us away. We were just close enough that I could hear what was being said, though I cursed my heart for beating so loud and making it so hard to hear.
“It took you all long enough,” Jin Woo sounded nothing like the kind, affable young man that I had come to care for; instead was an icy prince. My heart beat faster as I waited for the fourteen or so soldiers to turn their long, powerful-looking guns against him. Instead, they split like the Red Sea as a final soldier climbed out of the boat. His hair was a shock of brilliant white, and, even from a distance, I could make out that there was something of a dead-eyed shark about him.
Oskar looked up at me and nodded slightly. So he was Constantine, around whom this entire scheme hinged. I gripped the trunk that I was clinging to harder.
“Jin Woo Oh,” Constantine said flatly, “the helicopter pilots said that there were several people on the island, where are they?”
“Ettore went to find Bartosz, Bartosz Saniglecias; he wandered off to the far side of the island somewhere.”
Exactly as we wanted, Constantine flicked his hand in both directions, and two groups of soldiers peeled off from the maingroup, one going around the island to the left, the other group going to the right.
“And the others?” Constantine continued.
“While it’s not serious, Oskar has a mild case of hypothermia, and he’s in front of the fire in the cabin keeping warm. We can go to him.”
Jin Woo gestured to the cabin behind him with his chin, and Constantine waved his hand, and two more soldiers peeled off, running silently in the direction of the cabin. My muscles tightened; it was nearly time. There were three soldiers left, two of whom were standing on either side of the boat, submerged to their knees in the water. Only one soldier remained behind Constantine, scanning the space around us. One soldier was more than enough to give us serious trouble.
“Come on,” that was the signal, “let’s go up to the cabin.” I loosened my grip on the trunk and leaned out slowly into nothingness. Wind fluttered through my hands as sweat gathered on my palms. I fought to keep my breath even, as I slowly pulled one hand from the trunk and slid it over my mouth, I looked down. The distance between me and Oskar felt much farther than it had been before. He nodded, another tiny nod, making my heart jump even more.
In the background, I could hear the soft crunching of leaves, which alerted me that Jin Woo’s little group was coming closer. I had to do this now, or not do it at all. I was tempted to just stay up in the tree. They couldn’t get me down without exposing me to more danger; they would have to let me stay on the island, and none of them would be in peril. That’s what Mina of two weeks ago would do. She was used to being alone, liked being alone, and could rely on no one but herself. I wasn’t that same person anymore, even though old patterns were hard to resist. No, new Mina knew that trust was part of anyrelationship. I had to trust the guys that this would go well and all of us would get out of this safely.
I took one more deep breath and released my grip on the tree.
It felt like I was falling forever and only for a second. I was glad that I had clasped a hand over my mouth, the meat of my palm muffling any sound of shock that I uttered. Oskar caught me silently and lowered me to the ground, and then crouched again. He only had seconds.
The soldier walked in front of Constantine, scanning the path. He passed our tree and thankfully didn’t notice us. Then,thenConstantine appeared, and Oskar leapt into action.
Almost too quick to see, Oskar had grabbed Constantine and, after an incredibly brief struggle, held his pocket knife to his throat and then was dragging him back to the tree where I waited. Three guns were trained on him, the guns from the soldiers guarding the boat and the soldier who was supposed to be protecting Constantine. I ducked into the small space between Oskar and Constantine as we had planned for me to do. I was pressed tightly between both men, Constantine in front of me and Oskar behind me.
“What is this, Oh?” Constantine only sounded mildly annoyed, like someone was blocking his way on the sidewalk and not holding a knife to his throat. I shivered as I felt his heartbeat, slower than mine; he truly wasn’t perturbed at all.
“We have picked up a regular human during our adventure, and she’s not going to reveal us. This is just to ensure that no…accidents happen and no fingers accidentally flutter on triggers.” Jin Woo raised an eyebrow at the soldier who didn’t move a muscle and didn’t lower his weapon.
I could feel Constantine suck in a breath in preparation to speak, but Oskar dug his knife in deeper, a thin red line barely visible in the rapidly dimming light of dusk.
