Cockatoo

by Christopher Cummings

  “You’d think they would have noticed,” agreed Danny.

  “They must be slack lot,” Marco opined.

  Tina thought the same. ‘Surely they have noticed? Surely Andrew knows I am not in his canoe?’ she puzzled. But it seemed that they had not and she was plunged into even deeper despair.

  A lantern was lit and then a gas stove. The two men began cooking tea. As they did they talked and Tina gathered from what she overheard of the conversation that the navy cadets had indeed gone but that the army cadets were still at the clearing. ‘They won’t be leaving until midnight,’ she remembered. ‘So I must escape before then.’ The smugglers were particularly annoyed as they could not drive their vehicles out and did not want to risk the sound of the plane taking off being heard.

  “As soon as we have had a feed I will go and check if those bloody cadets are still there and you can take over from Kostis as guard at the track junction,” Danny said.

  The smugglers settled to their eating and Tina lay in the tent, her moods alternating between terrified despair and frantic hope. Once again she set to work on the knots but after another half hour nothing seemed to have loosened. By then it was quite dark, the sun having gone and no moon being up. Inside the tent it was pitch black.

  When Danny again checked her bonds ten minutes later he had to use a torch. Seeing that she was still tied up he called out, “OK Marco, you come with me and take over as guard at the track junction just in case there are more of these bloody kids around.”

  Tina then heard the sound of the men’s voices fading away as they walked off up the track. ‘Now is my chance,’ she told herself. ‘There is no-one here.’

  But how to get the knots undone? Her mind turned to knives and other sharp tools but she had seen none in the tent. In the hope that there might be one outside where the men had been cooking she rolled and squirmed across to the front of the tent. But to her dismay she found she could not push her way under the laced up flap. She tried the side of the tent but it was pegged firmly down. Black despair engulfed her and she began to sob and shake. Then she prayed as she had never prayed before. Images of being thrown out of the floatplane, presumably still tied up, to fall into the ocean caused her to sweat with terror.

  After a few minutes she lay back exhausted and quietly cried. But she was now dehydrated and her eyes became hot and scratchy. In the grip of chest-tightening apprehension she slumped down and shook her head. ‘Oh what am I to do? Why haven’t the others noticed I am missing?’ she thought miserably.

  Then her hopes crashed once more when she heard voices. The men came back: Marco and Kostis. ‘Danny must be guarding the track,’ she decided. A torch shone on her through the tent window and she heard Marco say she was still there and well and truly tied up.

  ‘I am too,’ Tina thought. Despair welled up and she wept a few more scratchy tears. For a while she lay there all but overcome by black despair. The men sat outside and talked, a lantern providing some light.

  Then Tina became desperate. ‘Time is slipping away. I must get free,’ she told herself. Having failed to undo the knots she set herself to try to cut a rope. She wriggled around feeling for something sharp but was unable to find anything. That disheartened her but she stubbornly persisted. For several more minutes she tried to get her wrists free. Then she stopped and lay back panting from the effort. ‘Silly!’ she told herself. ‘Get your feet free. You can walk away then and worry about the hands later.’

  So she concentrated on the ropes binding her lower legs. Arching her back she reached behind her to get at the ropes more easily. For lack of any other plan she set to work with her fingernails, sawing at a single strand of the sisal fibre.

  It took her perhaps ten minutes to sever just one strand but she was able to peel it back and felt better. The exercise also helped to take some of the numbness out of her fingers and wrists. She then picked and sawed at another fibre. This one was cut through in only a couple of minutes. With each one Tina improved her technique until she was able to slice a fibre a minute. With each one she cut she was able to feel the rope getting thinner.

  Finally she was able to sever the entire rope. It took her more than two hours, during which the men outside twice looked in. They saw nothing unusual and then she heard Marco say it was time to relieve Danny. He walked off and Kostis sat down again. Tina resumed her work on trying to unravel the severed rope.

  Danny returned and shone a torch on her. Tina pretended to be asleep and Danny just grunted and moved away. He began talking to Kostis but she was unable to hear most of what was said. What she did understand was that the smugglers were going to fly out over the Coral Sea to rendezvous with a motor launch at some atoll or reef. That was obviously how they had been operating.

  But it was sour satisfaction to learn this if she was about to die and could do nothing about it. That, added to her terror of imminent death, sent her to work again, twisting and pushing the loose strands of fibre through the tangle of ropes. Cramps and aching muscles caused her to sob and stop from time to time and dehydration and dizziness added to her woes. But she kept on trying.

  Suddenly Tina went still. Very cautiously she moved her fingers. ‘Is it?’ she wondered. Yes it was! The rope around her ankles was definitely loose. Hope surged and she flexed the finger tips on her left hand. For several more minutes she tried to get her wrists free. Then she stopped and lay back panting from the effort. Almost at once she found the ropes were looser. She was just able to grip with her fingers enough to twist and push at the coils. To her joy the rope began to move. Wanting to rush but knowing she must be careful she kept on pulling strand after strand of the hairy sisal rope back through the tangle.

  Suddenly the ringing of a mobile phone broke the silence. Then Danny’s voice spoke. “Yes boss. No, I don’t know if they are still there. Yes boss. Call you in half an hour.” Tina heard him ring off and then he said, “Kostis, you guard the camp and the girl. Marco, come with me. The boss wants to know if he can drive here.”

  “What time is it?” Marco asked.

  “Nearly ten O’clock. If they are still there they are probably staying all night so we might have to risk them hearing us and take off. Come on Marco.”

  Tina heard the sound of receding voices. Then Kostis shone his torch in on Tina. Satisfied she was still there he resumed his seat, muttering grumpily in some foreign language. Tina set to work on the ropes in feverish desperation. ‘This might be my only chance,’ she thought.

  Then suddenly the bindings came undone. Tina found one end loose in her hand and she sobbed with happiness. ‘Oh yes!’ she told herself. In a fever of impatience she began unwinding the rope from around her ankles.

  ‘Nearly ten,’ she told herself. She wracked her brain to try to remember what time the army cadets were going to move but could not. ‘They had 16 kilometres to march. How long will that take in the dark?’ she wondered. She fervently hoped they were still there. ‘I must try to get to them,’ she thought.

  Suddenly she went tense. Foot steps were approaching the tent. ‘Oh no! They are coming back!’ Tina thought, the terror clutching at her heart again. Trembling with anxiety she quickly wound the rope back around her ankle, then lay on her side, arching her back to keep hold of the rope behind her so that it looked tight.

  It was Danny. He unlaced the tent and said, “Bloody cadets are still there. I am going to have a lie down. Marco is on guard. You have a sleep and take over from him at midnight Kostis.”

  That dashed Tina’s hopes. She lay still and pretended to be asleep while almost quivering with fear as Danny came in. ‘Oh I hope he doesn’t discover I have cut a rope,’ she thought.

  Danny’s first act was to walk over and shine his torch on her. Tina lay still and tried to not tense up. To her intense relief Danny apparently saw no problem as he walked to the stretcher nearest the front and lay down on it. Kostis also came in, carrying the lantern. He rearranged the bedding on the stretcher right next to Tina. He also glan
ced at her before turning off the lantern. Tina was left lying in the dark only a metre from the man.

  At first she was gripped by a sense of bitter defeat but after a while, when it became obvious that the two men had gone to sleep, she determined to try to escape. ‘They have left the front unlaced. If I can get my legs free I can walk away,’ she told herself.

  Quietly she set to work on the ropes again, tensing and stopping every time Marco moved. But when he began to snore loudly she moved with more confidence. Even so it took her more than an hour to completely unwind the ropes from her ankles. The hardest bit was untying the knot that secured one end of the rope to her right ankle.

  But it was done at last and Tina lay and gently eased her legs and tried to warm the cramped muscles by moving them. By then she was in a lather of anxiety despite the cold. ‘If I don’t hurry then Kostis will wake up and find I am free,’ she thought. She presumed Kostis had an alarm in his wrist watch.

  As soon as she felt sure that her legs would work she rolled onto her front and tried to stand up. But that proved to be much harder than she had expected. With her hands still tied behind her all that seemed to happen was to push her face into the mud and grass. But fear of death gave her the desperate strength to ignore such petty discomfort and she quickly found she could recline. Even then it took some struggling to get over onto her knees. Twice she fell and each time she lay still for fear the noise might have woken the men.

  Then she was on her feet! Very carefully she stood upright. For a few seconds she stood listening while her legs trembled almost uncontrollably. Then she began tip-toeing towards the front of the tent. A sudden noise and movement by Kostis caused her to freeze and she stared hard at him in the darkness. Then he grunted and let out a huge fart.

  ‘Men!’ Tina thought. ‘Disgusting creatures!’ But she had to smile and continued moving cautiously past the sleeping men. Passing Danny she found more of an ordeal but a few seconds later she was at the front flaps and very slowly pushed them apart and slid through.

  ‘I’m out. Now I must free my hands,’ she thought, as a sense of exultation surged in her chest.

  It was dark with no moon but it was light enough to see and Tina noted the folding table and barbeque. And there was the instrument she wanted. A knife lay on the table, its blade gleaming in the starlight. Then she discovered that having the knife and being able to use it were too quite different things. For a few seconds she was tempted to start walking up the track without waiting but now she paused.

  ‘Marco is on guard somewhere along the track,’ she reasoned. ‘How do I sneak past him?’ But the only other choice was down to the lake. ‘Do they have a boat?’ she wondered. With that in mind she turned and walked slowly down past the side of the tent, still with her hands tied.

  There was a boat, a large ‘tinnie’ with an outboard engine. But it was on a boat trailer and was ten metres away from the water. ‘I will never be able to get that in the water without making too much noise,’ she thought. Once again a feeling of defeat gripped her. There seemed to be no option but to try to locate Marco and sneak past him. So she turned and started walking back past the tent.

  But as she did she heard a twig snap up the track and then the crunch and thud of footsteps. A dark bulky figure came into view among the trees. ‘Marco! He is coming back!’ Tina thought in panic.

  CHAPTER 45

  TRAPPED!

  Tina froze in shock. ‘Oh no! Marco is coming back.’ Panic welled up but she managed to keep control. ‘Hide!’ she told herself. The nearest place was behind the boat. In two steps she was behind it and then she crouched. But even as she did her whirling thoughts told her she was in real trouble. ‘They will discover I have escaped. I must get away,’ she told herself.

  ‘Trapped!’ she thought as Marco reached the tent and went inside. Through her mind flitted the concept that the devil was in front and the lake behind. Trembling with apprehension she tried to think out what to do. There seemed to be only three options: run up the track as soon as Marco went into the tent; try to escape through the forest- or the water behind her.

  Suddenly her thoughts crystallized. ‘The lake!’ she thought. She felt sure that the men would hear her and catch her if she tried to run or if she attempted to push through the forest in the dark. Knowing she had only seconds to act she turned and walked quickly down to the edge of the water. Here she hesitated, but only for a second as an angry yell erupted from the tent behind her.

  ‘They know I have gone,’ she thought. Impelled by fear she waded slowly into the water, trying not to splash or make ripples. To her surprise the water did not feel cold and she was soon knee deep. By the time Danny’s angry voice sounded as he woke Kostis she was up to her waist. The bottom was sludgy mire but she did not hesitate.

  Moving sideways out of the cleared lane leading up from where the boat had been launched she waded in among the reeds. To her dismay she found that water weeds were entangling her feet, making it hard for her to move or keep her balance. ‘If I slip over I could drown,’ she thought. So she slowed and edged further along the outside edge of the reeds. There she stopped and turned her attention to trying to cut the ropes without dropping the knife.

  “If I drop the knife I am done for,” she muttered.

  By then the camp was in uproar with Danny roundly abusing both Kostis and Marco. Tina saw torch beams flashing in various directions and lowered herself until only her head was out of the water. Someone ran off up the track and another person went hunting around the tent. Then a torch beam was directed out onto the creek. This lit up the floatplane which was floating at the end of a rope just near Tina. Tina could see numerous ripples caused by her movements but apparently the man noticed nothing and most of the time the beam was swept over the aircraft.

  Then she heard Danny call and say, “Check the edge of the forest Kostis. Look for tracks, look for vegetation that has been crushed or flattened.”

  As soon as the torch beam moved away Tina resumed moving to put more distance between her and the camp. It was only after she had moved another ten metres that she realized she had instinctively moved in the direction where the navy cadets had beached their canoes. That direction led her towards the open lake and away from the army cadets. ‘I should have gone up the creek.’ she thought.

  The thought that she could not swim with her hands tied stopped her and she resumed her sawing at the ropes. It was difficult as she had to turn the knife around and shove the blade upwards through the bindings. Then she could only push it up and down without much pressure on the actual rope. But desperation lent her strength and she kept cutting until she realized she was stirring up quite large ripples.

  She paused and found she was panting for breath. ‘Slow down! Get control!’ she told herself. For a minute or so she stood shivering in the water and recovered her breath. The search was still going on and she could hear angry mutterings but it seemed the men were focused on the forest up the track from the camp.

  Tina resumed her efforts to cut the rope and she was rewarded by feeling a rope come loose. By then she had cut herself several times but she ignored that and began flexing her hands while continuing to saw. Suddenly the bindings all came loose and several coils fell down over her hands. She wanted to cheer and felt such a surge of hope she gasped and trembled. Then she carefully wriggled, plucked and cut at the ropes until they fell away and her wrists came free. With a sob of relief she moved her hands around to her front.

  For another couple of minutes she could do nothing but stand and shiver as waves of pain swept through her wrists and hands. Then she gingerly cut or untied the remaining bonds. As she recovered she began to plan her next move.

  She was helped by hearing Danny say, “Kostis, you guard the camp. I am going to check if those army cadets are still there.”

  “What if the girl is there?” Kostis queried.

  “Then I will shoot the bitch and then we get out of here. Now keep watch,” Danny snarled.
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br />   That comment chilled Tina and also told her that Danny was armed. Memories of him shooting at her at Koombooloomba made her very conscious that it was no idle threat. ‘I must be very careful,’ she thought.

  At that moment a torch beam swept out across the creek and lit up the floatplane again. It then moved away and Tina saw it moving around the tent. Suddenly an idea came to her. She was still clutching the knife and now determined to use it.

  Placing the knife between her teeth in the best pirate fashion Tina lowered herself into the water and began a slow breast stroke towards the plane. It took her a real effort of willpower to swim out into the dark, deep water as all the horrible images from her nightmares welled up to frighten her. But now she was determined. Being very conscious of the danger of either drowning or being shot she swam out across the creek to put more distance between her and the men. Then she angled in until the floatplane was between her and the camp. A minute later she was clinging to the port float and peeking over it.

  It was the smell that gave her the next idea. ‘I need to disable this plane if the crooks are to be caught,’ she told herself. But how? She knew very little about the mechanics of aeroplanes and she saw that to do anything she would have to haul herself up out of the water. ‘That will be hard to do without making a lot of splashing noises,’ she thought.

  Reluctantly she opted for the lesser nuisance of casting the floatplane adrift. ‘That will at least hold them up for a while,’ she thought. She knew it was only petty revenge and that it could backfire on her by telling the crooks which way she had left the camp but she went ahead with the plan. ‘They won’t know which way I swam after I set the plane adrift,’ she decided.

  The knife came into use and a few seconds later the mooring rope was cut. Tina slid the knife into her waistband and then gripped the end of the rope in her teeth and began to breast stroke towards the lake. It took an effort to get the aircraft moving but once it was she was able to tow it fairly easily. At each stroke she glanced back at the camp to check that she hadn’t been seen.