The little rotors began to spin and the machine rose from its position alongside them. So far so good. It crossed the expanse of the downed bridge, and Ben positioned it, hovering it over the spot of blue. Aleksey realised he was holding his breath and consciously began slow steady ones, hoping this would help Ben’s coordination.
Very quietly, Ben murmured, ‘It’s on.’ He could feel its weight.
Squeezy stood up. Aleksey copied him. Ben had the little machine a few feet up from the grass now.
The unknown nature of this weapon occurred to Aleksey once more. The obvious thing to do seemed to be to dump it deep in the ocean, along with its creator. But would it open eventually? And then what? He just didn’t know. He preferred his plan.
They were all holding their breath, he reckoned, as Ben brought the little copter back over the expanse of the churning waves.
The little drone seemed so incredibly fragile, almost brave, willingly taking its part in this personal battle of theirs. He decided then and there to name the drone K-9: a true dog of war.
But he kept this plan to himself. Ben didn’t need the distraction.
When K-9 landed safety alongside the lighthouse it seemed almost an anti-climax. But they all cheered nevertheless, and he and Squeezy slapped Ben a number of times on the back, probably a bit too hard, but that was just the way they all were together.
Aleksey had already planned what he was going to do with it. He’d had some time to think about this over the past few hours. So although all he wanted to do was sleep, he pushed beyond his exhaustion to see it through. He recalled Harry saying this to himselfsee it through, son, see it through, and grinned privately when he thought of the bet and his winnings. Most satisfactory.
They returned to Guillemot House together and Aleksey led them down into the cellar. Squeezy immediately spotted the ear, although he didn’t know what it was. He picked it up, wrinkling his nose, turning it around. It was fresh, clearly, but didn’t, even to Aleksey who knew what it was, resemble anything that might have been bitten off a human. Squeezy glanced up at the open hatch, shrugged, and chucked it out.
They took one of the buckets they’d discovered on their first visit and placed the chimera inside. It made a tiny clang as it was put onto the tin, almost a cry of alarm, Aleksey thought. As well it might—if it had now guessed its fate. Then they made concrete. They took one bag of cement. Squeezy fetched sand from PB’s beach, along with some grit. Ben brought water. Despite some mild arguments about proportions and consistency, they made a pretty good team together.
For all its scientific wonders, the chimera eventually ended up under a pile of grey sludge in an old tin bucket.
While they left this to set, Aleksey and Ben made a start on moving all the bodies to the dock. Squeezy went to get his concealed boat.
Finally, there was nothing to do but wait. The instructions had boasted that the cement, being quick-dry, would be ready in a couple of hours, but they presumed that referred to a thin skim used for a driveway, so in their bucket they allowed a little longer. Hungry again, they wandered over to the garden to see if there was anything they could harvest. Aleksey smirked as he sat in the sun watching Ben and Squeezy examine the glasshouse and the shed.
When they woke him, it was getting dark.
The cement was dry enough.
They loaded everything onto Squeezy’s boat, which was fortunately a small fishing vessel, rather than a sailing yacht, the only thing he’d been able steal—rent—at short notice, apparently.
It looked particularly bad with nine bodies stacked in a heap a little higher than the sides.
They motored out of the bay to the north and then up the coastline the same route Squeezy had gone only two days before. Now it was a startlingly beautiful evening, calm, warm and tranquil. The sun was setting ahead of them to the west and the sky was superb. It was pink from one extent of the horizon to the other, gradually darkening to flame-orange and then crimson. It was like sailing towards heaven. Although the dead bodies rather ruined the effect, Aleksey had to admit.
It took them some time to get toLes Dents. Here, the water was wilder, as they were further out into the Atlantic. The sea was preternaturally dark beneath them. He showed Squeezy where he wanted him to cut the engine and suddenly they were bobbing in complete silence upon the swelling ocean, only the last few rays of the setting sun illuminating their task. Squeezy was clearly a little puzzled by their desire to bring the bodies here. To him, it probably looked much like everywhere else: sea. Ben passed the location off by casually mentioning the depth—mountains and valleys—and this seemed as good an explanation to his friend as any other.
One by one, they put a rock liberated from Light Island into the clothing of each body, and consigned it to the deep, to join the others down there who’d had the hubris to think they could shape the future for other people. As Aleksey watched the bodies bobbing lower, until the darkness of the deep consumed them, he thought once more about Harry’s insistence that all death deserved to be recognised. They did not even know the names of four of these men who had been seduced by madmen into thinking they could live in palaces and castles, and that a post-pandemic, apocalyptic world would be their utopia. Somewhere, he assumed, they all had families, perhaps mothers missing them, children now without fathers. He reckoned they were better off not knowing what had become of their loved ones.
Finally, Ben and Squeezy got the bucket up from the deck and balanced it on the rail. It weighted almost a hundred pounds, and the boat tipped a little as they held it there. There didn’t seem much to say, so they let it go, and it was so heavy it hardly made a splash, but they missed the moment it sank anyway, as their boat, freed from its burden, shuddered and rocked delightedly upon being released.
It was finally done.
Aleksey and Ben let Squeezy take the helm and went below.
Although he made a few ribald comments and suggestions, they both reckoned their friend knew there was very little likelihood of anything interesting happening at all.
Unless curling up together on a bunk and not even having time to speak one word before tipping off the edge of the world was interesting to anyone.
* * *
Chapter Thirty-Four
The family were waiting by the jetty when they came in. Emilia had been on watch in the harbourmaster’s office, and Squeezy had radioed ahead. She’d run back to the hotel and there they all were, even Enid, who was in a wheelchair.
They weren’t a family that showed their emotions openly, so Ben only swept Molly up into his arms and walked a little way off with her while Aleksey told everyone the lies they needed to hear to accept that it was over, but not exactly how this excellent state of affairs came to be.
