Aleksey hissed gleefully, ‘What time is it?’
Max was lowering himself extremely gingerly off one side of the stack.
Aleksey had known the man would attempt to climb down. In some ways, he supposed, Max reminded him of himself—intelligent, superficially charming, ruthless and, indeed, courageous. After all, this man had worked tirelessly for his ambition, and had been willing to murder his way to his desired end: extreme wealth. He was no different to many people who thought they could bend reality to the shape of their desires. Aleksey had once thought all these things too. Then he’d met Ben, and now he understood that to keep such as one as Benjamin Rider-Mikkelsen, it was not the universe that was required to change. Still, it did amuse him to watch this attempted climb while he was sitting here in the sunshine with hisbeloved. He laid his hand on Ben’s calf and lightly stroked over the bronzed skin and taut muscle as they watched together.
Ben turned to Squeezy. ‘You could climb that, yeah? You said you’d done Old Man of Hoy.’
Squeezy raised his eyebrows. ‘I climbedup, matey. Iabseileddown. And I had those useful long things, like…what are they fucking called? Oh, yeah, ropes.’
Max was off the top now, clinging bodily to the side, limpet-like above the three hundred foot drop. It wasn’t a totally sheer stack; there were ledges where the white, chalky rock had been weathered over the years, but still.
Aleksey wondered if, in his extremity, Max had genuinely forgotten about his chimera. It was ironic if he had. It still sat where he’d left it, azure blue on green turf.
He was about ten feet from the top now, and going impressively well, considering.
Ben sat down again and leaned against him, putting his hand over his, playing with his fingers. ‘If he makes it, we let him live, yeah?’
Aleksey agreed. It was easier—one way or the other, this man wasn’t going to greet another dawn.
He made it another five minutes. Possibly three feet lower. Then a foot slipped, and in trying to get that one back onto a tiny ledge, his other one came off.
They all stood up.
He hung on for a moment more, turned to his spectators and opened his mouth to say something, but his fingertips could not take the weight urging them off the rock and he fell.
It was almost graceful at the end, for the stack was slightly narrower at its base than at the top, weathered and battered as it was by the Atlantic swells. So as he fell he appeared to be entirely free of all constraints.
Then he hit the rocks below, which wasn’t so graceful. But Aleksey was glad. He hadn’t wanted to be unsure about the man’s death. He’d wanted to prove Rachel wrong: some things, if you did it right, stayed dead.
It was over.
Ten down, none to go.
Until Ben asked, almost amused, ‘So, what do we do about that?’
Like a large egg laid poorly by a nesting seabird, the little blue cylinder sat smug and innocent perched on the top of the stack.
They sat back down to consider their options.
* * *
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ben was all for Squeezy showing off his impressive climbing skills. After all, as he pointed out, they had a rope. Squeezy, naturally, wasn’t too keen on this idea. He claimed once you’d done Hoy, any other stacks would just be embarrassing. One thing they all agreed—they couldn’t just leave it there. This was Light Island. It didn’t belong.
Annoyingly, in Aleksey’s opinion, it was the cretin who came up with the solution. Squeezy suddenly asked Ben, ‘What was the name of that new thingy you bought Chainsaw for the island? The one he wasn’t to let Squirt swallow any of the bits from?’
Ben pursed his lips, thinking, possibly trying to decode the question. Finally, he volunteered hesitantly, ‘The little magnetic blocks and rods building set?’
Squeezy smirked. ‘Guess what else our wee genius brought with him for his squirrel hunting?’ When all he got back from both of them was brows lowered in confusion, he cajoled with some noticeable asperity, ‘Hello? The drone?’
No one actually broke into a run getting back to Guillemot—they were grown men after all. They tried to stay laconic and adult about the whole project, but they were making a magnetic drone to fly across to a sea stack to retrieve a deadly bio-weapon. It was hard to take it seriously, let alone not enjoy themselves immensely. If it hadn’t been for the apocalyptic bio-weapon part of the endeavour, Aleksey wished Miles could have been there to help. It would have been a task worthy of his genius.
As it was, they tied some very light fishing line to the bottom of the drone and to that attached one of the magnetic bars. As both Ben and Aleksey knew from experience, the cylinder was very light. They all thought the plan might actually work.
Ben was nominated as pilot, which seemed only fair as it was his toy. Drone.
They sat together on the edge of the cliff once more.
