Survival

TWENTY-TWO

Alex stood hack to let the others see. They stared out through the leaves and their faces slackened with shock. There was the rivermouth, the sandy beach and the sheltered cove, all as Alex had predicted. But there was also something else. Floating in the middle of the cove like a shimmering, white mirage, was a beautiful, sleek, ocean-going motor yacht.

'Dios Mio,' said Paulo as he saw the bristling collection of communications masts and aerials rising from the highest deck of the yacht. 'We are saved!'

Alex said nothing. He was too full of emotion to speak. He pushed past the others, knelt by the stretcher and squeezed Hex's hand, trying to let him know that everything was going to be all right.

Li turned her head as she heard shouts coming from further down the beach. Three dark-haired men were standing on the shoreline, waving their arms and arguing fiercely.

'That must be the crew,' said Amber. She cupped her hands around her mouth and took a deep breath, preparing to call out for help. Then her eyes widened as Li clamped a hand over her mouth and nose, stifling the shout in her throat. 'Mmmppllfff!' she protested.

'Shhh,' hissed Li, her mouth next to Amber's ear. 'You must be quiet. Something's not right.'

'You're not right!' whispered Amber furiously, rubbing her crushed nose. 'What on earth-?'

'They're not speaking any of the Indonesian dialects,' said Li. 'They're speaking Chinese.'

'What does it matter where they come from?' asked Paulo.

'Oh, it matters,' said Li grimly, scanning the beach. Her lips tightened as she spotted what she was looking for. 'Over there. See?'

Alex joined the others as they followed Li's pointing finger. Right at the top of the beach, on the fringe of the rainforest, someone had built a large, bamboo cage. Huddled inside the cage were a man, a woman, a girl of about eight and a boy who was barely more than a toddler. The father was slumped against the bamboo bars at the back of the cage. He had been badly beaten and his face was bruised and swollen. The mother – a slim, fair-haired woman – seemed to be in shock. She was clasping her sleeping son to her chest and rocking back and forth. The girl sat at the front of the cage, holding a toy giraffe made out of brightly coloured plastic tubes. Her solemn brown eyes were unblinking as she stared at the three men on the shoreline.

'Who are they?' gasped Amber.

'The owners of the yacht,' said Li flatly. 'And they,' she added, pointing to the men on the shoreline, 'they are pirates.'

'Pirates?' repeated Amber.

'That's right,' said Li. 'Modern-day pirates. They're a real problem in these parts, once you move off the main shipping routes. They board stray ships and boats, then steal the cargo or kidnap the owners.'

'Then we are not saved?' asked Paulo.

'No, we are not saved,' said Li. 'They would shoot us on sight.'

At that moment, as though to prove her point, the three men finished their argument. The older two turned away from the younger one and sauntered along to the little motor launch which was drawn up on the shore, and everyone saw the rifles slung across their backs. The younger one appeared to have lost the argument. He walked up the beach towards a pile of firewood, muttering unhappily to himself. Grabbing an armful of sticks, he set about building a cooking fire, sending angry glances back over his shoulder at the other two.

'Let's go,' whispered Alex.

Quietly, they eased out of the bushes, picked up the stretcher and hurried back into the cover of the rainforest. Alex's grey eyes were hard and his face was tight with anger as he stood over the stretcher. Hex lay at his feet, edging slowly towards death while a boat full of communications equipment and medical supplies was floating in the bay.

'Right,' he snapped. 'Li. Paulo. You stay here with Hex. See what you can do for him. Amber, you come with me.'

'Where are we going?'

'We're going to talk to the hostages.'

The two of them hurried silently through the forest until they reached the other end of the beach, then they dropped down onto their bellies and crawled the last few metres through the undergrowth, trying to ignore the thorns digging into their elbows and knees. The cage came into view as they parted the long grasses. It had been set right at the top of the beach, with its back pressing against the undergrowth. The man was still sitting against the bars and Amber winced as she saw that his hands had been lashed to the bamboo poles with twisted wire.

Alex inched to his left so that he was hidden directly behind the man, then he crawled out onto the narrow strip of sand at the back of the cage.

'Don't turn round,' he whispered. 'We're here to help.'

Instantly the woman in the cage jumped to her feet and began screaming out a torrent of French words. The little boy fell from her lap into the sand and began to cry with shock. The two men by the boat looked up.

'Be quiet!' hissed Alex, but the woman dropped to her knees, still shouting hysterically. Alex could only recognize one phrase. 'S'il vous plaît,' she kept repeating. 'Please, please…'

Suddenly, she thrust her arms through the bars and grabbed hold of Alex's hair. One of the pirates threw down his cigarette and started walking up the beach towards the cage.

'Let go!' said Alex, reaching up and trying to prise the woman's hands out of his hair. She would not loosen her grip. Then Amber thudded down onto the sand beside him. She started talking softly to the woman in fluent French. The woman stopped shouting and began to listen.

Alex twisted his head painfully to the side. The pirate was halfway up the beach now. Soon he would be close enough to see them clearly. Alex pulled his head back, tugging hard and, this time, the woman let go. Amber hissed one last, urgent sentence, then she and Alex crawled backwards into the bushes and lay flat and still, peering through the leaves.

In the cage, the woman turned and sat down beside her semi-conscious husband. She was trying to get control of herself but she was still sobbing loudly. The pirate walked right up to the cage and peered in with narrowed eyes. He looked at the sobbing woman, then began to walk round to the back of the cage. Alex tensed as he saw the twin crawl-tracks he and Amber had left behind in the sand. If the pirate saw those, they were in trouble.

Then the little girl stood up and spoke to the pirate. He stopped and looked down at her, trying to understand what she was saying. The little girl pointed to her mother, then acted out a mime. First her arm twisted through the air, imitating the sinuous movement of a snake. Then she became her mother, screaming and jumping about on the sand. Finally she imitated the snake again, moving the other way this time, back into the undergrowth.

The little girl smiled up at the pirate and shrugged her shoulders. He nodded his understanding, then gave the sobbing woman a disdainful look before turning away and heading back to the boat.

Alex slowly let out his breath.

'The little girl told him it was a snake,' whispered Amber, admiringly.

'Yeah, I gathered that,' said Alex softly. He peered out through the bushes. The pirate was back at the motor launch and lighting up another cigarette. In the cage, the woman had calmed down a lot. The noise had brought her husband round and he was sitting up, listening alertly as the little girl whispered into his ear.

'Ready for a second go?' asked Alex.

Amber nodded. Together, they wormed their way up to the back of the cage again and Amber began to talk.