When he emerged, Ben and Squeezy were on the bridge, Ben apparently continuing their story, pointing out the waterfall. He dressed and breathed a deep sigh of pleasure at the feel of the clean, salt-free water on his skin.
They laid the bodies together for collection later.
Four down, six to go.
Madeline’s body was little trickier to retrieve.
Squeezy peered down the well with obvious curiosity. Now it was gone noon, they could see the bottom relatively clearly. He called down cheerfully, ‘You dead…’ and Ben finished under his breath, ‘Bitch?’
Squeezy confirmed happily, ‘Yeah, she’s dead,’ and, when they fetched the rope from the monkey swing, nimbly shimmied down to fetch the body so she could be reunited with her husband.
Five down, five to go.
The four by the lighthouse were very easy to find, and Squeezy spotted them as they began their ascent of the hill. But he seemed more interested in the squawking of the seagull he kept claiming he could hear. Aleksey and Ben couldn’t hear any gulls, so didn’t comment.
The incoherent screeching turned into, ‘What the fuck! Hey, fuckers! Hey!’ as soon as they appeared onto the headland, and only then did Squeezy get the full extent of the problem: the tenth body wasn’t actually dead. Yet. He took one look at Max on his personal Old Man of Hoy and burst into laughter. He went up to the cliff edge to have a chat with him while Ben and Aleksey dragged the four actual bodies into a neater pile. One came missing most of its head, but Aleksey didn’t comment on this. Sometimes warrior angels had to be given a great deal of latitude.
Finally, they sat together on the cliff edge. Max was pacing around the stack. The chimera wasn’t doing anything. Its creator had apparently realised this great weapon was now entirely useless to him. He was forty feet or so away from them and buffeted by the constant wind whistling up from the sea three hundred feet below. His precious blue cylinder lay forgotten on the green turf.
Squeezy, now over his intense amusement at the situation, was in a faux-caring mood, making helpful suggestions to the trapped man. Attempt to jump?—he’d catch him if he did, obviously. Dive off?—it was pretty deep around the stack; he’d probably be okay.
Ben, who was sitting close to Aleksey so their arms pressed together, declared dully, ‘I want this over. I want to go get Molly.’
Aleksey nudged him reassuringly. ‘It will be. Soon. One way or another.’
‘It could be days.’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘We could…get a rope over.’
Aleksey inclined his head. ‘We could.’
Ben turned to him, but before he could speak again, he frowned and put a hand up to Aleksey’s check. ‘This is looking better. I thought that bitch had pulled the flap off completely. But it’s clean and not so swollen and red. It’s going to heal okay.’
Aleksey grinned inwardly. ‘Yes, I think so too. It doesn’t hurt so much.’
Ben examined his ear. ‘Maybe you can get some plastic surgery on this? It’s all scabbed now, but it was just a nick. They should be able to repair something like that.’
Aleksey shrugged. He was planning to grow it back himself.
Squeezy had run out of amusing suggestions for Max, so was entertaining himself by walking around the lighthouse. They had not told him yet of its odd little occupant. Aleksey glanced up at the light, and fancied he saw a flash once more— what he now realised, when he’d seen this in the past, must have been Billy moving around in front of the lens. He wondered if Billy had another key, and if he did what he was making of the Max situation. Hopefully thinkingbad manand finding it funny, as they all were.
Max was obviously the only one who didn’t find his situation highly entertaining.
He’d given up trying to swear them into helping him and was now attempting the reasonable scientist approach. He’d started with a, ‘You know, I’m really close to that tinnitus cure I told you about. What’s going to happen about that if you don’t get me off here?’
Squeezy called over to Ben, ‘Did you hear that?’
Ben chuckled. ‘Nope. Must be something wrong with my ears, too.’
‘Ben,please, come on, man. I thought you were a really nice guy when I met you at—’ This train of thought apparently sparked a very interesting recollection for their prisoner, because he suddenly switched tack and addressed Squeezy, who was leaning against the lighthouse, drumming his palms on it. ‘What would Tim say about this? He loves you. What would he say about you doing this?’
This apparently plunged Squeezy into a fit of self-reflection. It lasted for the time it took him to jump off the lighthouse base and come and sit back with Aleksey and Ben. ‘Yeah, you’re right. This would really upset him. He’d want to do the ethical thing.’
Max actually looked hopeful.
Aleksey almost felt mean teasing him.
