She chanced a look out the windows, from around the burly shoulders of the men sitting either side of her. She wasn’t really familiar with much of Queensland, having grown up entirely in country New South Wales and not having had much chance to holiday up north, but she did know Castle Hill – shehadbeen the star of her high school geography quiz team, after all.
Townsville, then. For some reason.
Well, she guessed, it was closer than Brisbane, and helicopters didn’t exactly fly all that far.
Rhys, where are you?
She had no doubt he’d come for her – there’d clearly been some incredibly bad misunderstanding. One day, they’d look back on this and laugh, she was sure of it.
Hey, remember the time you wrestled a snake in a pool? And then we had to escape a bunch of birds by running through a mini-golf course? Ha, and then a spy agency somehow thoughtIwas some kind of evil espionage artist! It is to laugh!
This whole thing wastooridiculous to be real, Maisie decided, as the helicopter came in to land next to… some kind of resort, she thought? It certainlylookedlike a hotel, anyway.
The men didn’t waste any time hustling her and Brent off the helicopter once they were on the ground, grabbing her arms roughly and pulling her along the tarmac.
“I can walk by myself, you know,” she snapped at them, trying to jerk her arms free – she might have been certain thiswas all just a misunderstanding, but she wasn’t about to let herself be manhandled either.
She got no answer. Not that she’d really expected one.
Maisie wasn’t really sure what the best approach was. Should she be silent and cowed – even though, inside, she was burning up with fury? Or should she act righteously angry, astounded that she, an innocent citizen, should be accused of… whatever it was they thought she’d done?
Clearly Brent’s carrying on hadn’t made a dent in their stony façade, she thought, as she watched him continuing to try to argue with them as they frog-marched him over the tarmac. Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut for now, and wait for Rhys.
I know he’s coming.
She knew it in her soul – she didn’t believe for a moment he wouldn’t.
Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off a bit, Maisie took the time to actually look around her, trying to figure out where, in fact, she was.
Definitely some sort of holiday accommodation,she thought, as they guided her down a path and through a gate. In the distance, she could hear the splash of a pool and the delighted screams of children.So… I guess out of the resort, into… another resort?
If they wanted to take her on a holiday, they could have just stayed where they were?!
“What exactly are we doing here?” she asked, unable to keep her vow of silence for more than a few minutes, as the agents who flanked her led her around a back way, to what seemed to be a service lift. “Is this a hotel or something?”
No one answered her. But again, she hadn’t really been expecting anything.
But in that case, why not talk more? Maybe acting clueless would be better than… whatever it is Brent is doing.
Brent, as it happened, was wailingI’m an innocent man! I’m an innocent man!over and over again. Shereallyhoped no one thought they were actually professional associates. Maisie decided she’d just conveniently forget they were exes.
What did I ever see in him?!
Oh, that’s right – she’d thought he was a fixer-upper.
Okay, lesson learned–fixer-uppers are fine for houses, not for men.
Not that she thought she’d have any particular use for that life lesson anymore.
Blinking, she couldn’t help but glance back over her shoulder at the endless blue of the sky as the liftding!ed, and the men began hauling her into it.
There was no sign of any griffin-shaped silhouette against the blue, but Maisie wasn’t any less certain Rhys was on his way.
“Um, so, is this like, your holiday getaway?” she asked, as the lift ascended. “Was it too crowded on Burr Island?”
Her voice was starting to sound weird to her own ears as it bounced off the walls of the lift. The agents were maintaining their silence, and it was getting disconcerting. Even Brent had reduced his output to the occasional sniveling whimper. It was just her and her own nervous ramblings.
Maybe I’ll shut up for a bit. Don’t want to go crazy before they’ve even done their first interrogation.
