“She’s in shock,” came a voice behind me. I turned to see Richard.
He bent to scoop Poppy in his arms. He met my eyes as he rose, shifting Poppy’s weight so that she settled against his chest. He looked as terrified as I felt.
I nodded, both shocked to see him and unsurprised.
Yolanda and Hop ran around the room, desperately checking all the others.
“They’re all dead. All of them,” breathed Yolanda.
Louelle stood at the doorway, sweat glistening on her face and chest. “We get out of here now. Or we don’t.”
A straggly, unsteady group of people stood behind her, their faces numbed with terror—the people that had been freed from the cells. Kara was among them, her shoulders caved inward and head down.
“Only seven?” I asked Louelle.
Louelle expelled a quick, sharp breath. “We can’t wake the others. They’re unconscious. We have to leave them.”
Richard headed out with Poppy. I rushed behind him, shooting a glance back at Duncan. It was already too late for him.
“There’s another way out!” Yolanda gestured frantically past the cells.
In the dim light, I saw what she was pointing at. A door with a small glass section.
We charged towards it.
Cormack got there first, pulling Kara along with him. Kara shook her head, holding onto Cormack’s arm and stopping him from touching the door. “There’s an alarm. Do you see it? And how would we get through those locks? There’s no use. They’ll be back here soon. There’s no way out.”
Richard found a flashlight on a shelf nearby and shone its light onto the locks. There were two solid bolts securing the door—too large to cut through. I could see nothing but darkness through the glass panel, nothing to tell me what was on the other side.
Most of the people we’d released had already turned away and fled, rushing for the stairs.
Louelle steadied a disoriented Thomas as he fell against the wall, his eyes dazed. “C’mon, kid, you can make it,” she told him. “We can’t go this way. We’re going out up the stairs. Put your arm around my shoulder.”
Hop stepped across to support Thomas’s other arm.
How are we all going to get out?
Don’t think now.
Just run.
60. Constance
SETHI AND JENNIFER BEGAN MAKING PLANS, leaving Gray and me to our own devices. I grew increasingly nervous.
Wasn’t it time to bring in the police? We had a location now. And some names.
But Jennifer had insisted that going to the police with this would do nothing except to get us all killed. She was certain that there were members of the Saviours among high-level police, only she didn’t know who. In desperation, I’d suggested contacting the media. She’d levelled her gaze at me and asked me what I thought would happen if we did that. With a growing terror inside, I’d understood. Before such a thing even went to air, the Saviours would destroy all evidence, including their victims. Victims that included Kara and Evie. And then the Saviours would simply start up again, somewhere else.
I watched as Jennifer and Sethi packed a bewildering assortment of gadgets, speaking to each other in quick, rushed voices about ammunition, guns, cameras, signal interference, infrared devices and counter-surveillance.
They tried to shut Gray and me out of the discussion, but Gray was having none of it. He was adamant that he was going along on the trip. I decided that I would go, too. For all I knew, this might be the last time I would see Kara.
Jennifer and Sethi battled our assertions, telling us it was too dangerous and that we weren’t trained for this. But we won, in the end, partly I think because they knew that if we were with them, we couldn’t panic and run to the police.
Sethi went to get his boat ready—Gray going to help him. Jennifer excused herself and returned to the house.
Jennifer had instructed Gray and I not to contact anyone—not family members and not even Rico and Petrina. I hadn’t spoken to James since I was in Athens. No one was to be contacted until Jennifer and Sethi had been to the island and returned with evidence. All phones and tablets were to be kept switched off.
I was beginning to suspect that Jennifer had lived too long all alone. Except for Sethi, she had no one. She had no trust for anyone. But this was too big for Jennifer and Sethi to tackle by themselves.
Waves of rage, fear and frustration passed through me.
What if the four of us travelled to the Saviours’ island but then never returned? The knowledge of where the island was would die with us.
The photocopies of the Yeqon’s Saviours photographs were still lying on the table outside. I snapped a couple of quick pictures of the hill and the chapel with my phone and then headed away for a walk on the cliff edge. My heart nearly jumped through my chest as I sent the pictures through to Petrina, asking if she knew where it was. I didn’t tell her where the image had come from. If she and Rico had noticed it when they’d viewed the photocopies before, they hadn’t said anything.