Cockatoo
Page 55
Only then did it dawn on Tina that she was next. ‘The current is dragging me towards the edge,’ she told herself. ‘Swim girl, swim!’
In desperation she did. But she was so exhausted and winded that it was a feeble effort and she knew she was going backwards despite her best efforts. Several times she cast despairing glances back at that horrifying line that marked both the lip of the spillway and the boundary between life and death and each time it was closer. Frantic to live she struggled to keep swimming. Almost blinded by panic she looked around for Andrew and his boat. ‘Oh where is he?’ she thought.
There he was. She saw the boat powering in towards her, angling across the current. Another glance backwards. The lip seemed very close. She could hear the roar of the fall now. ‘My worst nightmare come true!’ she thought.
Then Andrew was there. He brought the boat surging across the current so that she washed down against it. In an instant he had seized her wrist. Her other hand snatched at the gunwale and she clung on desperately. Andrew cast a worried glance over his shoulder towards the dam. Then he leaned down and grabbed her torn shirt and the waistband of her trousers and hauled with all his strength.
Tina tried to help but she was too weak. Worse still her breasts and bra got snagged on the side of the boat. Andrew heaved and grunted and then had to lift her, the boat rocking dangerously as he did.
Then he lifted and dumped her unceremoniously on the bottom. In a flash he turned, grasped the throttle of the outboard and twisted it open. The motor spluttered and coughed and then burst into a healthy roar. The stern of the boat dug in and it began to move across the current.
Tina lifted her head, noting Andrew’s worried frown and anxious glances over to port. He swung the boat to starboard and as she did Tina looked over the side. To her horror she saw that they were only metres from the lip of the dam spillway and she could see right down into the valley below. The water racing over the lip was smooth but streaked with white and looked to be running very fast. Fear made Tina gasp but all she could do was cling on.
By then Andrew had turned the boat to face into the current and he gingerly opened the throttle as far as it would go. For several seconds Tina was sure they were done for. The boat did not seem to be winning against the force of the current. But then she noted a tiny creeping motion and she began to hope. She was right. Ever so slowly the boat began to make headway. And the further it got from the edge the weaker the current became so the faster it went until it was surging away from the danger.
Tina just wanted to slump down but images of the Boss going over the lip swirled up to haunt her conscience. ‘What if Danny dies too? I will have killed him,’ she thought. So she struggled to a sitting position and mastered her dizziness. “Danny,” she gasped. “I kicked him out. We must save him.”
“Bugger Danny,” Andrew snarled.
“Please! I don’t want his death on my conscience,” Tina said. Already she felt responsible for the deaths of the others and it made her feel ill and terribly guilty.
“OK,” Andrew answered. So he went searching, zig-zagging back across the lake until they found Danny swimming feebly for the shore. He was obviously near the end of his strength as a swimmer and made no resistance when helped aboard. Tina ordered him to sit in the bow and he just slumped there looking glassy eyed until Andrew drove the boat up onto the beach at Camp Barrabadeen.
Andrew switched off and stepped into the shallows to help Tina up. As they did others crowded round and Andrew pointed to Danny. “He is a murderer. Tie him up and call the police,” he said.
Then he held Tina upright and hugged her firmly to him. Ignoring all the others crowding around and asking questions he said, “I love you Tina.”
Then he kissed her and she felt a surge of warmth and emotion such as she had never experienced.
*****
After that it was hospital for Tina. She collapsed from exhaustion, blood loss and hyperthermia and was carried up the slope in Andrew’s arms until a stretcher was organized. Then it was a ride in the Emergency Services helicopter to Cairns Base Hospital. The following day she was awake but very weak and Andrew was sitting by her bed. Her parents seemed to thoroughly approve of this, once they learned of his role in her rescue.
It was only then that Tina was able to ask the question that had gnawed at her: why had nobody noticed she was missing? Andrew told her that when he had asked before they even launched the canoes Stella had said something about her being with the army cadets at the fort. As she had just done a Control Group job it was assumed by everyone that she was doing that again. It was only after the dawn roll call by Major Wickham that her absence was noticed.
“We were standing on the lawn at Camp Barrabadeen ready to be briefed for the last battle when I realized you were not with the army cadets either,” Andrew explained. “Lieutenant Ryan got on the radio and checked who had been at the previous action at 0400 at Platypus Lookout and then we discovered you were not with them either.”
Andrew had then explained that he was sick with worry and while he was standing looking out over the lake watching the floatplane land and wondering where you were he saw a person in blue clothes stand up in a canoe and start sending semaphore. “It could only be you,” he said. “Nobody else would be trying to send an S.O.S. by semaphore. Then I saw the other canoe and the floatplane and realized it was the bird smugglers. I just ran down to the boats and took the safety boat without waiting.”
He then explained how he had seen her caught and bundled aboard and had reached the floatplane just in time to hook his anchor to the struts of the floats. “It was just enough to slow them down and prevent a take-off,” he explained.
“You could have been killed,” Tina cried.
“But thanks to you I wasn’t,” Andrew answered, and he kissed her again.
From then on everyone treated them as boyfriend and girlfriend and true romance did blossom. And Tina needed the support as she had been so traumatized by the experience that she suffered severe nightmares for a long time afterwards. Bouts of deep depression resulted from her deep feelings of guilt and she wondered if she would ever recover and be normal again.
It was made worse by the strong sense of guilt she had over the deaths of the three men. When a friend showed her a picture of the crumpled wreck of the floatplane at the bottom of the dam wall she broke down in hysterical weeping.
The knowledge that the trial of Danny was an ordeal she would have to face in the future, and the nagging worry that one day he might be out of jail and come to get her did not help her state of mind. But the best cure was love and she received that in big doses from her family, Andrew and her friends.
And the D of E expedition? Major Wickham signed off on that, assessing that their three days on the lake in boats had fulfilled the requirements. But there was no promotion course for Tina. She insisted that Andrew go and he did, to be promoted to the rank of Leading Seaman, but it took her another year to catch up- because no matter what her parents said she insisted in staying in the Navy Cadets.
THE NAVY CADETS SERIES
Davey Jones’s Locker
The Navy Cadets: Book 1
Christopher Cummings
Fourteen year-old Navy Cadet Andrew Collins enrolls in a SCUBA diving course on the Great Barrier Reef to impress Muriel, the girl of his dreams. There’s only one problem: Andrew is terrified of diving, not to mention the sharks, eels, and every other dangerous critter inhabiting the Coral Sea.
Despite his fears, Andrew inadvertently stumbles onto an old family mystery: the mysterious disappearance of his grandfather, lost at sea many years before. The deeper they delve into the mystery the deeper they are caught in a deadly web of lies and danger.
Andrew must face some agonizing choices and do battle with his worst nightmares.
THE AIR CADETS SERIES
Coasts of Cape York
The Air Cadets: Book 1
Christopher Cummings
Fourteen year-old
Air Cadet Willy Williams jumps at the chance to take a flight in a restored World War 2 PBY ‘Catalina’ seaplane along the Queensland north coast. During flight however he makes a shocking discovery, one that endangers his very life.
Willy is tested to his limits, both emotionally and physically, as he travels to the remotest and most dangerous parts of Far North Queensland. He soon learns that there is more to the world of aircraft wrecks and vintage planes than meets the eye – rivals, false friends, and dangerous enemies.
What is the mystery and how do Willy and his friends cope? To find out read on and join the flight up the coast of Cape York.
THE ARMY CADETS SERIES
The Cadet Corporal
The Army Cadets: Book 1
Christopher Cummings
Now in his 2nd year as Army Cadet, trouble-maker Graham Kirk is faced with the biggest crisis of his cadetship. The annual field camp has begun and over nine gruelling days he will be forced to face challenges and temptations that test his integrity, courage and loyalty to the limit.
Top of the list is Pigsy and his gang, soured by jealousy and resentment. And of course the girls. Will they stand in the way of his promotion to sergeant or will he rise to the challenge and become the leader nobody thinks he can be?