Survive

by Tom Bale

  She collapses into an armchair, rests her head back and shuts her eyes. It’s a vulnerable pose, allowing him to feast on the view. She’s wearing her uniform of blue skirt and patterned blouse, but the top two buttons are undone. She hesitated over the third and decided that would be a bit obvious.

  Come home, darling, she hears her mother imploring her. Go back to university – whatever course you choose. Persevere with your studies and in time you’ll see that the life I want for you is the best life there is.

  Gabby waits, fully psyched for the performance of her career. She can feel the tension in the air dispersing, like morning mist.

  Time to move.

  She opens her eyes and Borko’s gaze is there, hungry and resolute. Gabby pushes herself out of the chair and walks towards him: three slow, deliberate steps. She places her hands on his knees and lowers herself to eye level before moving in for a kiss.

  Afterwards, she sighs. ‘I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.’

  ‘And yet you resisted.’

  ‘Couldn’t have you thinking I was easy.’

  ‘But what if you are?’

  She laughs, swatting at his arm, but she’s not sure if he’s joking. ‘How are the family?’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Have they decided…?’

  ‘They’ve taken the offer. Why wouldn’t they?’

  ‘Good. Well, I ought to go and say hi.’

  She straightens up but his hand whips out to encircle her wrist. ‘Just when we’re getting started?’

  ‘I won’t be long – and then you’ll have my undivided attention.’

  ‘I hope so.’ He releases her and turns back to the screen.

  Gabby exits on to the terrace and tries to steady her breathing. The smell of blossom is overpowering, like smoke in her lungs. The gardens are lit at night, in a subtle but complicated design that apparently cost a small fortune. Dozens of bugs flit across the bars and beams of multi-coloured light.

  She turns a corner, changing direction the moment she’s out of sight. She re-enters the main house through a door at the side, follows a narrow hallway past the kitchen and turns into a small office. She’d come past it this morning and noticed the family’s personal items sitting on a shelf behind the desk.

  She spots their phones and picks them up, but everything else is missing.

  Disaster.

  75

  Why us?

  Was that a memory, a dream, or a conscious thought? Sam isn’t sure. All he knows is that he’s now awake and alert, and the question that nearly tore them apart seems pointless, irrelevant.

  The space around him is dark but there’s a comfortable bed beneath him. They’re at Borko’s house. Tomorrow they should be going home.

  A quiet hiss: ‘Sam!’

  He rears up, disturbing Jody who is sleeping close beside him, the room almost cold because of the aircon. They left their door open a little, so they could hear if the kids woke up.

  But this isn’t Grace or Dylan. It’s Gabby.

  In a croaky voice, Sam says, ‘What’s up?’

  Jody’s waking, clutching at him in panic as Gabby moves across the room and turns on a lamp.

  ‘I didn’t realise you’d be asleep,’ she says. ‘The plans have changed.’

  ‘Wh-what time is it?’ Sam asks, expecting her to say two or three in the morning.

  Incredibly, it’s barely ten o’clock. After rubbing his eyes, Sam gets a clear view of Gabby’s face. She looks freaked out.

  ‘I told Borko I was popping over to say goodnight. I can’t find your passports.’

  ‘We’ve got them,’ Jody says. ‘We asked for them back.’

  ‘Oh, thank God!’

  It’s a sigh of such deep relief that Sam’s stomach does a flip.

  ‘Why…?’ he and Jody ask in unison.

  ‘You have to leave right away. No cases or anything heavy. Passports and phones, basically.’

  Sam climbs out of bed, a little self-conscious in his jockey shorts, but Jody doesn’t move.

  ‘How do we know we can trust you?’

  ‘Please, Jody, I’m risking everything here. It’s not safe to stay.’

  Sam pulls on jeans and a shirt. Jody was already wearing a t-shirt, and she gets out of bed on the other side, takes Gabby by the shoulders and turns her so they’re face to face.

  ‘Have you betrayed us again?’

  Sam can only stand and stare. If Jody lashes out, he won’t be able to reach her in time.

  Gabby drops her gaze. ‘I’m truly sorry about what I did. I swear I never knew how badly you’d be treated. That’s why I’m trying to make it up to you. This morning I overheard something that makes me think Borko might not honour the agreement.’

  ‘What’s he planning?’ Sam asks.

  ‘I don’t know for sure. But nothing pleasant.’

  Jody says, ‘So why not tell us earlier?’

  ‘Because I had arrangements to make. It was better you didn’t know – you might have given yourselves away. Now come on, please.’

  With Jody looking like she’s about to lose it, Sam quickly says, ‘But we negotiated with them. Four hundred grand.’

  Jody nods. ‘We’ve got the cheque.’

  ‘Right.’ They can see Gabby’s mind working. ‘Did they put up any sort of fight?’

  Sam feels his confidence evaporating as he makes sense of the question. ‘Not really.’

  ‘That’s why, then. It could say ten million for all they care. They know you won’t be around to cash it.’

  It’s clear from his face that Sam has bought the argument. Jody wants to hold out, but hasn’t it been bothering her that Borko agreed so readily? Her dad reckons that the rich hate to give money away – as he says, that’s how they get rich in the first place. But she didn’t voice her doubts for fear that Sam would think she was belittling his achievement.

  ‘Where are the children?’ Gabby asks.

  ‘I’ll get them,’ Sam says. Jody asks if they can take a rucksack, and Gabby nods.

  ‘If you’re quick.’

  Jody opens the case and digs around for a pair of jeans, plus clothes for the kids. Fleeces, in case it’s cold. She packs a rucksack with some basic toiletries, their phone chargers and a few other personal items.

  ‘But what are we going to do? We’re not scheduled to fly home till Tuesday.’

  ‘I’ve called in some favours.’ She picks up Jody’s bag and asks to check their passports. This is a Gabby so sombre, so tense that Jody has little choice but to believe they’re in danger if they stay here.

  She’s making an effort to adjust her opinion of the rep when Sam comes in with the kids, both of them grouchy and confused.

  ‘We’re going somewhere,’ Jody says. ‘It’ll be an adventure, but nothing like last time.’

  ‘Don’t wannoo,’ Dylan exclaims, far too loudly.

  Sam takes hold of him, kneeling down to eye level. ‘Dylan, listen to me. Do you want to go back to that beach?’

  The boy’s eyes widen in fright; he whips his head from side to side. ‘Noo-ooo!’

  ‘Sssh! No, you don’t. So that’s why you have to be a good boy.’ A glance at Grace. ‘You too, okay? We all do what Gabby tells us, and we get away from here.’

  Jody doesn’t approve of how he’s scared them into silence, but there was probably no better way. Gabby explains that the security presence around the house is fairly light. Borko’s reputation is such that no one seriously expects his property to be targeted – and in any case the focus is on intruders trying to get in, rather than anyone wanting to leave.

  ‘What about the dogs?’ Jody asks quietly. ‘There were guard dogs on the edge of the compound where they kept us.’

  ‘That’s a separate section. There aren’t any in the grounds here. Borko has a phobia of dogs.’

  ‘What?’ Jody isn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at the irony.

  In the hall, Gabby hesitates for a moment, undoing another button on
her blouse. Then she opens the front door, a big smile ready as she steps out.

  The night air is rich and humid, a sauna compared to their rooms. There are crickets chirping and a constant hiss of water from the garden’s irrigation system.

  The same man from earlier is sitting in his chair, a Game of Thrones novel open in his lap. He glances at Jody as she and the others follow Gabby outside, but his gaze quickly returns to the rep.

  She leans in a little, giving him a flash of cleavage. ‘Just going to see Borko.’

  The guard nods, leaning forward to unclip the radio from his belt.

  ‘It’s okay, he’s expecting them.’

  She straightens up and marches away as if the matter has been decided. Jody and Sam quickly follow, hustling the kids between them.

  They reach the corner of the main building, and Sam mutters, ‘I think it worked.’

  Too soon to be relieved, Jody draws alongside Gabby and whispers, ‘It’s that easy to wipe a man’s brains?’

  ‘Ridiculous, isn’t it? But right now we’ve got to be grateful for that.’

  Sam moves to the rear of the line as they make their way round the house. He’s haunted by a sudden vision of the guards opening fire and wants to shield his family as best he can.

  They have to duck low beneath some of the windows at the front, then they’re past the house and plunging into the gardens on the far side. It’s not as well lit here, which means they have to slow down, picking their way carefully on the stone paths and steps that link several terraces. In the moonlight a tennis court gleams faintly, the white net reminding Sam of the snake pit.

  They reach a small building that houses pumping equipment for the swimming pools. Gabby stops and checks her watch.

  ‘I need to go back before Borko gets suspicious.’ She instructs them to follow the path until it bears to the left. Another set of steps will take them to the boundary wall. ‘I checked it from outside and you’d struggle to get over, but from inside the garden it should be okay. There are trees growing very close.’

  Once they’re over the wall, they have to turn right along a dirt track for a hundred metres to the road, where they should find a black Jeep waiting for them, driven by a man named Nick.

  ‘What about you?’ It’s not lost on Sam that Borko might react violently when he finds out they’ve escaped.

  ‘I’ll be fine, don’t worry.’

  She doesn’t sound totally convinced. Sam feels bad about leaving her here, but one glance at Grace and Dylan tells him he won’t be able to do things any differently.

  ‘Come with us.’

  It’s Jody who’s spoken, and they all look surprised by her plea.

  But Gabby shakes her head. ‘Borko would only come looking for me, and then none of us would get away.’ She puts on a brave smile. ‘I need to go back in and… distract him.’

  76

  Gabby feels bewildered when Jody gives her a quick hug. If they were to have any physical contact at all, she’d have bet on it being a slap.

  Sam shakes her hand but finds it hard to meet her eye. He too seems to have picked up on her euphemism – ‘distract’ – and what it means in reality. For Jody there doesn’t seem to be any doubt: she’s worked out how Gabby plans to save them, and she looks both sickened and immensely grateful.

  Gabby rushes back, heading first to the outbuilding so that it looks as though she’s crossing from there to the main house. This time there are guards by the orange grove, smoking and chatting. They jump at the sound of her footsteps, one of them reaching for his gun until he sees who it is.

  Crumbling inside, Gabby manages to stroll past with a haughty look on her face. But the close call isn’t lost on her: a couple of minutes earlier and she and the escapees would have been caught red-handed.

  Borko hasn’t moved, which is something. She’s mindful of the extensive network of cameras that monitor the property and suspects that she wasn’t able to evade them all.

  He greets her with only a twitch of a smile. She crosses the room, trails her hand along his shoulders and perches on the arm of his chair. His silence is unnerving.

  ‘Turns out I caught them getting ready for bed. They’re exhausted.’

  Nothing. She tries caressing the back of his neck.

  ‘Hey, they’re really pleased about the extra money. It was very generous of you.’

  He grunts. Bored with this.

  On screen, Sam is chest deep in the sea, battling to keep his son’s head above the water while Jody dives for the key. Another thirty seconds and Dylan would have drowned, signing a death warrant for the other three.

  Gabby says, ‘Seems very quiet here.’

  ‘I’ve given most of the staff the night off.’

  She was right: no witnesses. Swallowing hard, Gabby shifts over, nudging her foot against his leg. That’s when she notices a smear of fresh mud on her shoe.

  ‘Naji not here?’ she asks, knowing Borko is more likely to spot the mud if she moves her leg away too quickly. He’ll think it odd because the paths close to the house are kept spotlessly clean.

  ‘He has a meeting at the Conchis. One of my guests wants in on the Turtle Bay project.’

  ‘Oh. Lovely.’ Gabby knows how vacuous she sounds, but she can’t care about that. She yawns and stretches in an exaggerated manner, at the same time twisting round so she can kick off her shoes. He watches her carefully.

  ‘Nervous?’

  It should be a flirtatious question, but it’s not.

  ‘Excited,’ she says.

  ‘So why the yawn?’

  ‘Tired.’ Oh shit, she’s making a mess of this. ‘And maybe a bit nervous. I want this to be special.’

  ‘It will be.’

  At last, Borko seems to relax. Taking her hand, he leads her up to his bedroom suite. She’s seen it once before, when he gave her a tour of the house, but on that occasion there was a party in full swing. The room isn’t as large or ostentatious as she’d expected: he told her he preferred bedrooms to be cosy. It’s still huge by any normal standard, and there’s a balcony with a hot tub, which he suggests they might want to use later.

  ‘But the bed first, I think,’ he says.

  ‘Oh, beds are best. Definitely.’

  He adjusts the lighting, unbuttons his shirt and sits down on the bed. She walks towards him, understanding that he wishes to watch her undress. But then, as she approaches, he undoes his belt and slowly pulls it free, wrapping one end around his hand.

  ‘You know, Gabrielle, I really ought to punish you.’

  It’s caught her off guard, and she gasps. ‘What?’

  ‘You lied to me.’

  Finally, Jody thinks, a lucky break. Because where the path runs out, there’s a vehicle parked on the grass close to the wall. Some sort of maintenance buggy. There’s no key to start it, of course, but by climbing on to the seat it’s a lot easier for Jody to reach the high stone wall.

  She waits on top while Sam hoists Grace up, then Dylan. She’s astonished by the children’s courage, the way they’ve managed to control what must be a desperate urge to panic.

  The drop on the other side is a couple of metres. A long way down. Jody knows that if she thinks about it she’ll chicken out, so she lifts both legs over, wriggles forward and lets go, trying to remember doing gymnastics at school: bend your knees and roll. The ground is hard-packed earth, but that’s still better than rock, and she lands without any real injury.

  Sam’s on the wall, gripping it with his legs as he leans over to lower the kids down to her, one by one. Then he joins them, wincing as he turns his ankle on impact.

  ‘All right?’

  ‘Yeah.’ He’s sweating, visibly in pain, but insists it won’t be a problem.

  They walk briskly, jogging when the kids can be persuaded to speed up, stumbling sometimes in the dark. At any moment Jody expects searchlights and sirens, 4x4s with machine guns mounted on the roof…

  Then a flash of red up ahead. Brake lights. She
grips Sam by the arm.

  ‘What if it’s a trap?’

  ‘If it is, we’ve had it.’

  The vehicle swims into view: a black Jeep. The driver’s door opens and a tall man in a grey t-shirt and shorts turns to greet them. Nick is about thirty, with bleached blond hair and a goatee beard. Australian, Jody thinks when she hears him speak, but later he mentions New Zealand. He turns out to be a fellow rep, albeit with a different tour company.

  ‘You’re the mates of the Gabster? Jump in, nice and quick. She says they probably patrol this road?’

  That’s all the warning they need. Sam takes the front seat while Jody and the kids pile into the back. The interior is pungent with a mix of diesel and cannabis.

  Nick drives recklessly fast, which is all the more frightening when he doesn’t turn his headlights on for the first couple of minutes. He’s setting out the next stage of their journey, and here’s another shock.

  ‘A boat?’ Jody says.

  Up front, Sam has gone rigid, and Grace says, ‘I don’t want to go on a boat.’

  ‘Sorry, guys, but it’s the only way. Sekliw is Borko’s island, yeah? You can’t move an inch without him knowing, and you definitely can’t get on a plane.’

  Nick’s driving them to a small village on the east coast, where another friend of Gabby’s is waiting to transfer them to the mainland. The boat owner’s brother will drive them to the nearest airport. Gabby has booked tickets on the last flight out at three a.m.

  ‘To Heathrow, not Gatwick. Best she could do at short notice.’

  Jody says nothing. It must have cost well over a thousand pounds for all four of them. And there she was, thinking of Gabby as nothing more than a phony double-crossing bitch.

  Which she is, of course, for her part in luring them to the Conchis. But clearly that’s not all she is, and Jody can’t help but feel a pang of regret that the rep wasn’t able to escape along with them.

  77

  ‘What do you mean? I haven’t lied.’