Hindsight (54 page)

‘No point taking any risks on that ladder with my investment,’ he said with a sideways glance to Lockman and Mira. ‘Hook them up together.’

Greggie volunteered with a grin, hooking them by their bound wrists. ‘Not a bad shot, am I, considering you were running?’ He patted Lockman’s bandaged arm wound. ‘This may sting a little …’ but as the electric pulley whined and took up their weight, Mira’s feet lifted first, causing her to cry out in pain first.

Lockman grabbed hold of the hook with his bound hand while hugging her against him, taking the strain off both their bound wrists, but shifting it to his injured bicep and ribs. He winced and cried out as he cramped up, but tried to distract himself by concentrating on her as the crane raised them three storeys higher into the wind and rain.

‘Oh, I hate heights,’ he said, knowing from her file that she hated heights too.

‘Right now,’ she said, clinging tighter to him, ‘I think there are worse things down there.’

‘Yeah, I don’t suppose you brought my phone?’

‘Lost it, sorry.’

Glancing down anyway, he caught a glimpse of something completely unexpected wedged snugly down her cleavage, out of sight inside her lifejacket.

‘You’re packing heat?’ he asked, astonished.

‘Only one shot, sorry. I have to make it count.’

‘You’re magic,’ he said, feeling an urge to kiss her. ‘Mind if I borrow it?’

‘What? … Do you mean
now
? Aren’t we just a little outnumbered down there?’

He looked down further, glad for once that she was blind and unable to see just how much trouble they were in. ‘A bit, I suppose — at the moment.’ The trawler deck swarmed with half a dozen gunmen — six fake fishermen who left them swinging in the wind together while the last of Greppia’s people and Patterson’s traitors scaled the ladder, then poured fuel over the decks of the
Edukitty
and set her adrift as they set her aflame. ‘Looks like they’re arranging a decoy to see how many cops are willing to come out of hiding.’ He heard Gabby scream, and as lightning lit the sky, he spotted her amid the shadowy crowd of crewmen — her expression changing from passive victim to lustful for vengeance for the loss of her cat. ‘There’s no easy way off now,’ Lockman said, ‘but the trawler is packed with cylinders. If their contents are flammable, one shot may be all we need for a well-timed distraction. There’s only one lifeboat, but it’s plenty big enough for you and your friends. Take Tarin Sei with you.’

‘What about you?’ she asked, with such an expression of worry that she made his heart ache.

‘You heard Sergeant Patterson. I’ve got business with Colonel Kitching.’

‘Please don’t,’ she pleaded. ‘Just stay away from him?’

Lockman glanced up to his bound wrist. ‘I doubt I’ll have much choice in the matter.’

She rested her cheek against his shoulder, clenching her eyes as if trying not to cry. His body ached from supporting her weight to save her fine-boned wrist, but he could smell her hair, feel her softness and the caress of her warm breath against his ear, and found himself dreading the moment when he’d need to let her go — already imagining her in Chiron’s arms instead of his own, and hating the idea that she’d eventually forget all about him. She shivered, stifling a sob, and he admired her all the more for trying so hard to stay strong for the sake of her friends.

‘You’ll be safe,’ he promised. ‘So will they. I’ll make sure of it.’

She summoned a smile; such a precious gift when all he’d sensed in her was despair. ‘I doubt you’ll have much choice in the matter, Lieutenant.’

‘Lance corporal,’ he reminded her, trying to resume his emotional distance — so much safer for his heart that way — but she shook her head with the cutest belligerence.

‘You’ll always be my lieutenant.’

‘And you’ll always be my Mirage.’ His lips found hers before he could stop himself, igniting such a passion within him that he hugged her all the more, becoming one with her and ascending to a plane above pain as never before, swinging with her against an angry sky that charged him with renewed determination to keep her safe no matter what the cost to him.

Before he knew it, his feet touched the deck and he plummeted back into painful reality.

‘How interesting,’ Gregan said, watching Lockman grimace and endure his pain while supporting her weight until Mira Chambers had found her feet too. ‘I suspect we may be holding the wrong hostage.’

Lockman glanced from Gregan to Ben and saw Chiron, awake now and watching them — saw his expression darken from beaten to defeated, and knew he’d witnessed the kiss. Lockman’s gut twisted up, realising how much he’d also hurt Mira. She just didn’t realise it yet.

‘No way!’ Greggie argued, shaking his head. ‘Pops, you didn’t see the way Benny defended her. I must have busted every bone in his body twice and he still refused to give up her secret.’

‘You did
what
?’ Mira screamed, going wild and causing Lockman to hold her back.

‘Wait, no!’ he warned, struggling to keep hold of her. ‘You can’t help him like that. And he was exaggerating anyway. Maybe one or two fractures but mostly just beaten and bruised.’

‘Just beaten and bruised?’ She could hardly believe it. ‘Listen to your pet soldier,’ Gregan said. ‘Or I’ll send all your friends to Colonel Kitching for safekeeping.’

‘She’ll behave,’ Lockman assured them. ‘Just let her spend a minute with him. What’ll it cost you? Nothing, compared to the gain of a little goodwill with her.’

‘A minute then,’ Gregan conceded. ‘But you stay tied to her. Keep each other in check.’

Lockman nodded and led her to Ben through the forest of large, hairy crewmen, noticing that for every cylinder they unloaded over the side, another was raised — one set black and the other bullet grey.

To his left, he saw one of the largest crewmen groping the park ranger — frisking her like a horny bear against a rack of grey cylinders.

‘You know I’m not with them,
oui
?’ she said, turning up her French accent as she played up to his advances. ‘I’m with National Parks and Wildlife — see? I’m the wildlife.’ She glanced to Lockman and winked, while hugging the bear and succeeding in being drawn aside from the other two captives, and closer to the lifeboat and the gate in the guardrail.

Ben was lying on his side near the bridge with Tarin hugged up behind him, and she was using her body to keep him warm, but they were both shivering and conscious enough to see them coming — Tarin with relief and defiance in her eyes, but Chiron could muster only fear, his spirit absent, as if it had been beaten out of him.

‘Not long now, buddy,’ Lockman said as he crouched at Ben’s head, allowing Mira to kneel at his side while he checked both captives for their pulse and temperature. ‘We’re getting you both out of here.’

Lockman helped Mira to find Ben’s face, but Chiron flinched at her touch as if she’d stung him.

‘Ben?’ she called, leaning down against his cheek to wait for an answer. ‘I’m here, Ben!’

‘I can’t …’ He closed his eyes, and used what little strength he had to turn away from her, curling closer to Tarin Sei, who hugged him with the full length of her body.

‘He’s in shock,’ Lockman said, as he realised she could sense Ben’s rejection. She seemed confused by it. ‘He’s not himself.’

Mira collapsed against Ben, sobbing and pleading for him to acknowledge her, but Lockman could see from Ben’s pained reaction as well as Gregan’s growing distrust that she was only making the situation worse for all of them.

‘Come on,’ he said, encouraging her gently back to her feet. ‘He needs rest.’

‘He needs a doctor!’ she shouted, rounding on the Greppias, but again Lockman caught her before she could reach them. ‘You people disgust me!’ She collapsed against Lockman’s chest, sobbing.

‘So what now?’ he said, keeping one arm around her and noticing the positions of his old team were shifting; Patterson and Pobody towards the nearest row of grey cylinders while Uno and Cinq manoeuvred nearer to the control bridge, as if surrounding the crewmen. ‘Where’s Colonel Kitching?’

‘First things first,’ Gregan replied. The crane lowered yet another grey cylinder onto the deck, and Gregan signalled for it to be rolled over to him, then he twisted the control on the nose and popped open a long coffin-style lid along the top.

Inside, Lockman saw a rubber seal protecting large rolls of money — rolls as thick as his chest and wrapped in clear plastic — all seemingly mixed colours and currencies.

‘There are my babies,’ Gregan crooned to them. ‘Come here, son. Take a look at how well business is looking up … There’s eight hundred million aboard,’ he added in a whisper, then he clapped Greggie’s shoulder. ‘To make amends, you can launder all the Aussie dollars and keep half our cut for yourself. I need to be away for a few days anyway, organising all the franchises we’ll need to handle the foreign currencies, and you can have ten per cent for keeping an eye on things while I’m gone. How’s that, son?’

Lockman laughed. ‘Sounds like a con, Greggie. You don’t really believe he’d share so much with you after skimping for so long?’

‘I’d rather believe him than you,’ Greggie replied.

‘Family.’ Gregan kissed his son’s forehead. ‘Now go fetch a bottle of champagne from the bridge, Greg. It’s tradition to celebrate the sealing of a good deal.’

‘You called me
Greg
?’ He made it sound like the first time.

‘Yeah, go fetch,’ Lockman said, which resulted in Mira being pulled away to arm’s length, soon followed by a slug to his gut.

‘Show Greg to the fridge on the bridge,’ said the trawler captain, then he ordered one of his men to go with Greggie while another took his place beside Lockman.

Gregan turned away, ordering his two remaining men to fetch the last black cylinder on deck, and after they’d opened it too, Lockman watched them spill out its belly at his feet.

‘Sorry about the ice,’ Gregan said, as they scooped out the last cubes from the nose by hand. He smiled at Lockman. ‘It’s not just a handy subterfuge for port inspectors, it helps with the balance of weight and buoyancy for returning the empties — your body will too.’

‘Kitching’s down there?’ Patterson asked, keeping his back to the last rack of grey cylinders.

‘That was the plan,’ Gregan said. ‘But you’re the ones with the headsets to confirm if he’s made it in person.’

‘Must be the rain …’ Patterson smiled and tapped his helmet. ‘They may look slick, but they’re made by the lowest bidder.’

Greppia grinned and glanced at the trawler captain.

‘We sent two packages down to the colonel with the first drop, sir. He’s down there all right.’

‘You’re not putting me in that?’ Lockman said, feeling his pulse race. If he had one fear in life, it was tight, dark spaces — not heights.

‘Bound up like a fish,’ Greppia said with a broader grin, then he climbed in himself. ‘You can keep me company.’

‘No!’ Mira screamed. ‘You can’t!’ She squirmed against Lockman, as if his fear had amplified hers. ‘I see … I see
death
if you take him down with you!’

‘Whose death?’ Gregan asked. ‘His or mine?’

Lockman felt her panting with a fear that felt real — fear that made her voice crack as if the lie itself was cutting her up from the inside.

‘She can’t see the future,’ he argued. ‘That’s crazy!’

‘
Whose death
?’ Gregan demanded, and when she stammered over her reply, Lockman saw Greppia’s expression change as if assuming the worst for himself. ‘Send me down first,’ he told the captain, ‘and drink an extra glass for me with my son when he gets back out here.’

‘But, sir,’ argued the trawler captain. ‘Torpedo silos have a maximum capacity of thirty. After this one, they’re full.’

‘Then hold position,’ Gregan said. ‘If Kitching wants him, I’ll send it back up for him. I don’t want him breathing my air.’

‘Will do, sir. Get comfortable,’ said the captain, and Lockman noticed one of the six crewmen approaching with a mini-oxygen tank and torch. ‘One tank
is
enough for two people,’ he said as he handed it to Greppia. ‘From splash to delivery, the transit time is only ten minutes and the air tank lasts for thirty, but the lining is rubberised to minimise rattling, so we still have to mark you like this …’ He peeled off a long yellow magnetic strip from the side of the crane and adhered it around the cylinder beside the open lid. ‘That’s so they know to open it immediately upon receipt. Otherwise they’d never hear you.’

Greppia checked the strength of the magnetic adherence, then complimented the captain on the arrangements and laid down flat with his torch and mini air-tank. ‘When my son returns, tell him I’ve gone to make new arrangements for the next shipment.’ Then he glanced from the captain to Lockman. ‘Bind that dog tight. If you don’t hear from me in fifteen minutes, shoot him.’

The captain nodded and issued orders for his men to wrap Lockman in preparation for their marine postal service, but the moment he was sliced free from Mira, he shoved two crewmen off balance, stole the flare gun from her and fired it through the upper window of the captain’s bridge. A crewman at the helm screamed as his clothes caught alight, and Lockman screamed too, ordering Sei to get Chiron overboard while he grabbed Mira and ran for the nearest cover behind the cylinders, using surprise and confusion as his primary weapon. Gabby took her cue too, jerking up with her knee and driving it home into the horny bear’s groin, sending him backwards through the gate and overboard.

The deck heaved, and as crewmen fired warning shots and ran to recapture Lockman and Mira, the open cylinder rolled, closing the lid as it headed for the open gateway.

Pinned down between racks, Lockman looked up and through the stack of cylinders, wondering if he could unleash more to roll about as distractions, and as he glanced sideways to the gate, he saw Gabby plucking off the magnetic strip as Greppia’s cylinder rolled past her into the water.

‘Gabby, jump!’ he shouted, but she only waved to him as six armed crewmen closed in around him and he realised she was using the distraction to get to Ben and Tarin. Uno and Cinq were already there, fighting with the winch to the lifeboat, while Pobody stood guard over them and Patterson signalled out to sea with his arms as if directing a plane to land; a style of semaphor that was basically calling for a hosedown of the deck.