Cockatoo

by Christopher Cummings

  ‘I wish I was with them,’ she thought. That desire increased when she heard the firing reach the other side of the west ‘wall’. The defenders on that side fell back inside the fort and began firing over the top of the wall, their faces flushed with excitement. By that time the army cadets had driven back the outposts from the direction of the Indian village and were in action with the defenders of the fort. Tina was able to spot some of the attackers flitting through the edge of the pine plantation as they encircled the fort.

  There followed a series of probes and attacks that revealed that the fort was surrounded. There was a lot shouting and pretend shooting and then a twenty minute lull. During that the girls were allowed to have a drink and sit in the shade.

  Then came what Tina had expected. From the west sounded the loud shouted ‘boom!’ of the cannon pretend firing. She had to smile at that and when one of the army cadet OOCs walked over and untied one of the ropes holding a hutchie, allowing it to drop she grinned at the other girls and teased the French.

  Carmen grinned back. “Our cannon is blowing down their wall,” she said.

  The army cadet OOC nodded and said, “Making a breach to assault through.”

  As that was the whole point of dragging the cannon all that way Tina felt really pleased. “I wish I was one of the gun crew,” she commented.

  Carmen gave a nod and answered, “We will make sure we have a go next time.”

  The cannon ‘fired’ four more times and each time a section of the north or west wall was ‘blown’ down. Then the British infantry attacked from the north. As they did the cannon fired from their flank and the OOC told half the defenders to die. “They have just fired grape shot,” he explained.

  The battle then raged fast and furious for a few minutes and Tina saw a yelling and wildly excited Graham clamber up over a pile of logs to shoot down at the defenders. ‘He is really having a good time,’ she told herself. Then she blushed at her memories but that made her sure that she did not love him. ‘It is Andrew,’ she told herself. This idea was reinforced a few minutes later when the navy cadet team came running in to join the attack and she saw Andrew run across.

  When he saw her he immediately detoured and set to work untying her. While he puzzled over the knots Tina grinned and just unwrapped the ropes.

  “It’s alright Andrew. They are only pretend knots,” she said. For several seconds the pair stood looking at each other and Tina experienced a strong desire to fling her arms around his neck. He must have been feeling the same way as he suddenly leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

  “I love you,” he murmured.

  Then Tina did put her arms around his neck and return the kiss but this time on his lips. “My hero!” she whispered.

  She was then interrupted by Stella calling loudly, “Hoy! None of that you two!”

  Carmen turned and added, “Save that for later. Come on, we are being called in for roll call and briefing.” Then she met Tina’s eyes and smiled.

  Tina saw that the battle was over and that the army cadets were moving to sit in their section lines. She smiled and blushed but felt extremely happy. ‘I have succeeded,’ she thought. ‘He has noticed me!’ Feeling almost euphoric she joined navy cadet team and sat to have her name checked off.

  There was then a twenty minute briefing by Major Wickham who explained the action. A prisoner was then questioned and he explained that the Indians had captured a group of missionaries and nuns and that they planned to kill them at sun rise in a ritual sacrifice at a place called Platypus Lookout. This was located on the map and Major Wickham told them it was 16km away.

  “We will march there during the night and try to rescue the prisoners. The navy cadets will transport the cannon there in case it is needed as the lookout may have been fortified. We will now have orders for these moves,” he said.

  Lt Ryan then called the navy cadets aside. Once they were away from the army cadets he said: “Navy, listen in. We will drag the cannon back to the lake and have our orders there. We will be moving in daylight to camp near Platypus Lookout. We have 7km to go and that will take about two hours so we need to move. It is 1600hrs now and if we move we can be afloat by 1630 and at the Platypus Campground by 1800. So work parties to the gun and you girls get out of those costumes and come and join us. Let’s move!”

  They moved. Tina and the other three girls walked back across the clearing to where Lt Hamilton was collecting items of costume from a group of army cadets. While standing in line Tina learned that these cadets had only been in the Control Group that day. The exercise was planned so that every section was rostered to provide the Control Group with extra numbers at key times.

  By the time the girls handed back their clothing the navy cadets and the cannon had vanished back along the road through the pine forest. Tina was last in line and as she turned to follow them her eye noted the nearby portable toilet. Thinking it might be more pleasant to use than squatting in the long grass and weeds she turned to Stella. “I will just go to the toilet. I won’t be a minute.”

  Stella made a face and kept on walking while Tina hurried over to the toilet. But she was a few seconds too late and a female army cadet beat her to it. So she stood and waited. When the other girl came out Tina went in- and wondered if the bush might not have been better as the tiny cubicle had a horrible chemical and waste smell. But she did what she had to and then hurriedly dressed.

  To her annoyance when she stepped out there was no sign of Stella. ‘She could have waited,’ Tina mentally grumbled. But she was not worried as she knew the canoes and rafts were only a few hundred metres along the road. So she hurried across the clearing and on along the dirt vehicle track through the pine forest. Her only concern was keeping the others waiting. With that in mind she walked as fast as she could. At almost every step she expected to see the other girls or the team dragging the cannon.

  The pine forest was very peaceful in the late afternoon and she sniffed the odour of resin and felt very happy. ‘I am really enjoying this exercise,’ she thought as she hurried past a road junction. A minute later she came to the second one. Here she hesitated but only for a second or so as she could clearly see that the left hand one had been recently used, the grass having been crushed by wheels. So she went left.

  The vehicle track curved slightly and went downhill through more pine forest. As Tina hurried along a niggling worry came to her that things didn’t quite look right. ‘Have I taken the correct track?’ she wondered.

  Now feeling somewhat worried she hurried on around the bend. Ahead of her she caught a glimpse of water glinting in the sunlight. ‘The lake. Not far now,’ she thought.

  Then the back of a vehicle came into view and that bothered her more. She came to a stop and looked around. As she did she heard the undergrowth crackle beside her and she glanced that way. Into her horrified gaze stepped Danny the Smuggler!

  ‘Oh no! I have taken the wrong turn,’ she thought. Even as she did she spun round and started to run, fear pulsing into her veins.

  CHAPTER 44

  KNOTS AND LASHINGS

  But this time there was no escape. Within ten paces Danny had caught up with her and grabbed her shirt from behind. Tina was so terrified she almost lost control of her body. Frantically she struggled to break free but then his arm went around her neck.

  “Help! Hel…” she cried.

  Whack!

  A smashing blow to the side of her head half stunned Tina and she staggered and gasped. Danny held her up and then clamped a hand over her mouth and gripped her throat. Tina began to choke and as the panic stabbed through her she was sure he was going to strangle her to death.

  But he didn’t. Instead he changed his grip and then shoved a dirty, oil-soaked rag into her mouth. The fumes at once caught at the back of Tina’s throat and she began to cough and feel nauseous. She tried to pull the rag out but Danny smacked her again and snarled, “Leave it in! Stop struggling or I will really hurt you.”

  Ti
na did. Danny was much too strong for her and she was almost paralysed by terror. She was so afraid she was sure she was going to lose control of her bowels or bladder. Only a residual shred of pride helped her keep control. ‘Wait your chance,’ she told herself, hoping there would be an opportunity. At the front of her mind was the certainty that the cadets would come looking for her in a few minutes and she would be saved. ‘These men won’t dare do anything to me with all the cadets in the area,’ she told herself.

  Danny then disconcerted her more by dragging her down the vehicle track to where two vehicles were parked. As she was hauled around the bend Tina was dismayed to see both Marco and Kostis sitting in folding chairs under a tarpaulin strung between the trees. Further down she saw a tent and then got a glimpse of the floatplane floating under a camouflage net.

  ‘I was right. I did hear the plane land,’ she told herself.

  But it was small compensation for the fear that was gripping her. Danny held her tight and said gloatingly. “Look who I caught!”

  “Her!” Marco cried angrily. “What is she doing here? Hey girl, how come you always finding us? Who tell you eh?”

  Tina could only shake her head. Marco went to pull the rag out and snarled, “Answer me!”

  But Danny held her away. “No Marco. Leave the gag in. There are hundreds of those bloody cadets just up the track and if she screams they will hear her.”

  “So they come looking for her anyway when they find she missing eh?” Kostis suggested.

  “Yeah, but we will say we ain’t seen her and then we will help them look for her,” Danny replied.

  “What we do with her?” Marco asked.

  “Put her in the lake,” Kostis answered.

  Tina was so shocked and terrified when the meaning of that sank in that she whimpered. Ghastly images from her nightmares of the clutching hand sticking up out of the lake swirled across the screen of her mind. She would have begged but was only able to shake her head vigorously and use her eyes to plead.

  To her relief Danny said no. “We can get rid of her later, out over the sea,” he said, chilling Tina even more so that she was almost reduced to a quivering wreck.

  “What we do with her until then?” Marco asked.

  Danny answered, “We tie her up and hide her in the tent or in the plane. Then we keep the cadets from looking in the tent,” he answered.

  “But I want to know how she find us each time,” Kostis said.

  “We can question her later, after these cadets have left the area,” Danny replied.

  “What if they stay?” Marco countered.

  Danny shook Tina and turned her to look into her eyes at very close range so that she could smell his foul breath and sweat. “Are the cadets staying here? Answer me girlie.”

  Tina shook her head and got a smack for her pains. Danny snarled, “You better be tellin’ the truth kid.”

  Marco looked worried. “We better tell the boss eh?” he stated.

  “Yeah. I will call the boss on my mobile phone. We will keep her out of sight until he tells us what to do. You two tie her up and I will go back up the track and keep any nosy cadets from coming down to the camp. We don’t want them to see the plane,” Danny answered.

  On hearing that Tina’s hopes plummeted. To her dismay Marco took hold of her, clasping his huge hairy arms around her body, squashing her breasts as he did. But Tina was so frightened she barely noticed. He picked her up and carried her down to the tent pitched near the edge of the lake. Tina got a chance to look around but was disappointed to see that a screen of reeds and bushes largely hid the tent from the creek that the plane was moored in. She realized it was the creek that had all the dead reeds near its mouth. ‘Oil from the plane has killed the vegetation,’ she surmised.

  What really galled her was knowing that Swallows Island was just out of sight around the bend and that meant the HQ houseboat. To add to her distress was the knowledge that Andrew and the others were only a few hundred metres away. ‘Just around at the end of the peninsula,’ she thought. Then she heard faint shouts which could only come from her friends. ‘Oh they must notice I am missing soon,’ she thought.

  Marco stood her in the tent and gruffly ordered her to turn around and to put her hands behind her back. Tina reluctantly did as she was told. But as she did she remembered something she had read about a person escaping by holding their hands as far apart as they could. So she placed the sides of her hands together and hoped that Kostis would not notice. He didn’t. He picked up some rough sisal rope which lay in a tangle on the ground amid the litter of camping gear and personal possessions. Using it he quickly and roughly bound her wrists together. As he did Tina tensed to stop her wrists slipping together. In this she was only partly successful as it felt like the whole of her forearms had been wrapped up by some sort of lashing.

  While this was being done to her Tina looked hopefully out through the open back of the tent. As she did she again heard distant shouts and that sent her hopes up. But then a canoe appeared out on the lake. It was being paddled rapidly away. ‘They aren’t leaving surely?’ she wondered in dismay. Her hopes received another blow when she clearly heard the command ‘heave’. That told her that the navy cadets were loading the cannon onto a raft. ‘They must have noticed I am not with them,’ she thought anxiously.

  But more canoes appeared out on the water. By then the first was well across the lake and as she watched it vanished from view behind a headland. Tina felt such a sense of desperation she began to hyperventilate. Coupled with the fumes from the oily rag it made her dizzy and nauseous. She reeled and staggered and was then roughly pushed down.

  “Lie down bitch so we can tie your legs,” Marco ordered.

  Tina had no choice but obey. She was so shocked she did not even kick or struggle. But she did have the presence of mind to place her ankle bones touching each other. Marco took another piece of rope and quickly bound her ankles together. That was painful as the ankle bones pressed on each other but Tina could not explain and could only whimper and shake her head. Tears came and trickled down her face. She was rolled into the corner of the tent behind a row of stretchers and the two men set to work to close the flaps.

  As the tent was laced up Tina felt crushed by despair. She rolled on her side to watch but felt too ill and frightened to do anything. Then she heard Kostis say he would check the plane was ready. “Just in case we need to make a da quick getaway.”

  Silence settled, broken by an occasional sound that indicated that Marco was still outside. Twenty minutes went by during which Tina was tormented by fear of dying and images of death.

  Then she heard voices. Marco said, “What the kids do Danny?”

  “I think they are gone,” Danny replied.

  “Both lots? The ones at the clearing too?” Marco answered.

  “Don’t know,” Danny replied. Then he asked, “Where’s the girl?”

  “In the tent.”

  Tina heard footsteps and the flap over a small window was lifted. Danny looked in and their eyes met. Danny nodded and let the flap drop again. “Good,” he said.

  Marco asked, “What the boss say to do?”

  “Keep her prisoner and Kostis is to take her with him in the plane. The boss wants to question her to find out how it is she always seems to be bumping into us.”

  “What we do with her after that?” Marco asked.

  Danny grunted and said, “Get rid of her somehow. Chuck her out over the sea would be a good idea. Now, let’s check that these bloody kids are gone. Get Kostis. He can wait at the track junction while I go one way and you go the other.”

  On hearing that Tina felt a surge of hope. ‘If all three leave I might have a chance of getting away,’ she reasoned. But she waited until she heard the three men walking away before she began feeling the knots and lashings which bound her.

  Almost at once her hopes went up. The knots did not feel right to her. Frequent competitions at Navy Cadets where she had raced others in tying kno
ts blindfolded made her familiar with them. ‘These noddies don’t know their knots,’ she thought. Carefully she explored the knots with her fingers and having found an end tried to push it back through the knot.

  When that didn’t work she wriggled her wrists and was gratified to feel a slight easing of the pressure as her hands slipped off each other so that the narrower wrists were together. She then moved her legs so that the ankle bones slid off each other. The relief from the burning pain made the effort worth while she decided. But more squirming and wriggling did not seem to loosen the ropes.

  Despite that she did not give up hope and began to patiently feel around each rope and then to work out which way it had to be pulled to loosen it. Using fingers that were rapidly going numb she twisted, tugged and pulled. Her training on knots and lashings at Navy Cadets told her that the way to get a rope to move was to twist it in the direction of the ‘lay’. This tightened it and made its diameter smaller. But twenty minutes of struggling and twisting did not seem to have any effect.

  Then she heard the men coming back and bitter despair welled up in her. ‘Oh blast!’ she thought miserably. Feelings of absolute failure and terror swamped her for a few minutes.

  The tent was then unlaced and Danny came in and he roughly rolled Tina over and examined the knots. With a grunt of satisfaction he left the tent and laced it up again. “She’s still trussed up like the proverbial turkey. You did a good job Marco,” he said with a cruel laugh.

  When the tent had been opened Tina had noticed that the light outside was considerably dimmer. Dusk was setting in and the sunlight had already gone off the tree tops. ‘Surely my friends have realized I am not with them?’ she thought.

  The men thought so too as Marco said, “I’m surprised nobody come looking for her eh?”