Aleksey shrugged. Clearly Ben’s thoughts were moving on the same track as his own. ‘I honestly don’t know,min skat. Maybe it is already escaping and we are nothing more than dead men walking. I don’t know. We can only do what seems best with the little information we have. It will not take them any time at all to realise the house was abandoned at very short notice. The fire is still lit. One way or another, Rachel will tell them we are still here and that we have the chimera. I do not intend for these people to leave Light Island. But if they find us, they will not find this.’
They slid off the little headland into the water, clinging to rocks against the battering of the waves. The last time they’d been lying at Lookout Point, waiting for rescue, the bay had been so calm they’d been able to see their reflections in the water. It was a salutary lesson in the awesome power of nature. Their clothes weighed them down, denim and cotton clinging unpleasantly in the salty water. Aleksey told himself the immediate stinging from his wounded cheek was a good thing. This stoic philosophy never worked well when he tried it with Molly when he was ministering to her cuts and scrapes, however, and it didn’t work all that well for a gunshot to the face either.
From this position, hidden behind the rocks, they watched as the new arrivals came out of the boat shed. Madeline had joined her husband. Max was with them, one of the soldiers shoving him along. His four comrades were slouching along behind looking cold and wet. One of the soldiers was missing. Aleksey held up one finger, pointed to the shed, and Ben nodded. When the group was out of sight on the path, they swam across past the dock and the wreckage and up to the doors which had been closed from the inside. Diving down, they swam under them and surfaced silently in the dark water on the other side.
The shed, sturdy and well built, had already stood for almost a century, as its construction had been captured in one or two of the pictures Aleksey had retrieved from the pavilion. However, it had taken a battering over the years from the various storms that swept up from the Atlantic, and there were now gaps in the planking. It was one of the things on Aleksey’s list to repair, once insane megalomaniacs stopped trying to kill him. Now, though, they were an advantage, for even in the gloom of the storm outside, streaks of light penetrated the darkness. They stayed low in the water at the stern of the boat, breathing silently until their eyes adjusted.
The man who’d been left on guard was smoking and wandering around the walkway, inspecting stuff with interest.
Aleksey glanced over at Ben. Ben was already removing his clothing, slipping out of the smart shirt and cargo pants he’d donned that morning to, Aleksey suspected, look more pilot-like for his test. He took everything from him.
The smoking man began to sing along to some imaginary music in his head, making drum rolls and jerking his neck to a pounding beat. He pulled out one of the old tattered lifejackets from its box and tried it on.
He didn’t even know what killed him.
Ben propelled himself, naked and powerful, from the black water, his muscles rippling as he exploded up onto the walkway. He was at least a head taller and many, many pounds heavier than the other man, and all of his size was purposeful power. He snapped the rapper’s neck so fast that the cigarette didn’t even fall from his lips until he hit the deck.
Ben heaved Aleksey up out of the water and retrieved his clothes. As he was dressing, Aleksey took the opportunity to shed his jacket.
The seacock was located in a small cupboard in the galley. Aleksey turned it on and immediately a huge spurt of water started gushing in. He checked there was no bung to make quick repair and took the valve with him.
Ben had found a knife in one of the galley drawers and handed it to him. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. They both had the same thought at the same time, and once more turned trousers into shorts, hacking at the material with the serrated blade. Now, movement was far easier.
They waited for a few moments more. Ben even jumped up and down a few times just to see if that increased the gush, but it wasn’t needed. The boat was going down fast. Just to make matters even more certain, they opened the fuel cap so the salt water would flood the engine.
Back on the walkway, Aleksey suddenly grinned, returned the knife to Ben and rummaged in a bag. He pulled out the harpoon he’d had such fishing success with only the previous month and held it up to inspect in the slants of light. The expression on Ben’s face told Aleksey that alongside his bloodied and ruined face, the jagged-edged spear was now wickedly at home.
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Six
One by one.
That was their plan.
They’d hunt them down one by one.
But they were being hunted too.
Their foe had discovered the empty house, and Rachel had apparently given up her knowledge of their situation extremely quickly. They hadn’t heard any screaming from her, anyway.
Lying up in the woods, observing Guillemot, Ben and Aleksey could both hear shouting and arguing. Then Austin emerged with the soldier from the armoury called Wright, who still had his Walther down by his side. Aleksey now knew who had kicked over the stove: Austin was wearing a baseball cap.
The pair had a conference neither of them could hear, and Wright went back inside, apparently to gather the others.
When they came out, Austin directed them with his arm, and it was clear they were going to do a slow, meticulous search of the island in a line, exactly as Ben had once suggested they do for their mapping.
The sweep began.
Each man was just in sight of the ones on either side of him. It was impossible to tell how many guns they had. Aleksey and Ben backed off to consider their options, but the line came on, and they had to keep retreating.
They were good, these soldiers. Not only did they take their time, stopping, listening for movement, they checked up too, in case their quarry had climbed. They were men used to hunting other men.
Aleksey and Ben kept giving ground.
They had little choice, and could make no use of their weapons, primitive as they were.
Aleksey had little doubt, given his injuries, that each one of their pursuers could outrun him. Ben was his warrior angel, but even he couldn’t take on seven armed infantry soldiers with just a knife and a short spear. And they both knew, without it having to be discussed, that being taken alive was not an option. Despite declaring it was not so, they were only too aware that if they were caught, they would eventually—one way or another—reveal the location of the chimera.
