Goosebumps pricked my arms and legs as I stood watching my fellow passengers get hugged by their loved ones before they jumped into awaiting cars or taxis, and disappearing into the cool, dark night.
I tried to tell myself that he could have run out of petrol or that the car may have broken down. But deep down I knew Marko would have still managed to show up somehow.
He’d have caught a taxi, flagged down a random car and given them a thousand dollars. He was like, a gazillionaire because of the Tollin fortune. He’d have done or paid anything to be waiting for me when I stepped off that plane.
Something was wrong. Something seriously wrong.
I dragged my phone out of my pocket and dialled his number. It went unanswered. He didn’t have a message-bank set up so I couldn’t leave a voice message. So I sent a text.
I’m here, waiting out front. Can’t wait to see you. Please msg back as soon as you get this xxxooo
My phone remained silent.
By 3am I was frozen to the bone and the airport security guards were starting to look at me funny. As one approached me I shrugged on my backpack and took off, heading to a nearby car-rental company, stopping at an ATM along the way to withdraw one thousand dollars cash from one of the credit cards Marko had given me.
The car-rental office smelled like Chinese food, and was fitted out with plush maroon couches and grey coffee tables, to match the grey and maroon company logo. They must have had the heaters turned up because suddenly I felt hot in my hoody and jeans.
The woman at reception seemed more interested in playing games on her iPad with her cute mohawked co-worker than helping me out, because she frowned when I said, “Excuse me.”
“Yes?” she asked, still staring at her iPad. “Oh shit, a creeper!”
I cleared my throat and she groaned and tore her eyes away from the screen to meet mine. “Sorry, I didn’t mean you.”
Her co-worker laughed and kept playing.
“Hi, I need to rent a small car, please.”
Sighing, she set the device down and approached the counter.
“I’ll need to see your licence, plus one other form of ID and a credit card.”
Lipstick smudged the corner of her mouth and she had a tiny bit of green between her teeth, probably the Chinese food I could smell.
“I’ll be paying cash,” I said, holding her gaze so she wouldn’t have any reason to be suspicious of me. Hopefully she wouldn’t look too closely at the picture on the license.
But I needn’t have worried as the guy behind the counter slapped his desk and shouted “Ha! You just bit the dust.”
“No way! How?” she said, as she scribbled down my licence number and handed it back along with a pile of company forms. With a flick of her hand, she motioned towards the nearest couch and coffee table for me to fill my forms out on, and quickly got back to her iPad.
“I can’t believe you killed me.”
Twenty minutes later, after everything checked out okay, the woman, iPad in hand, handed me some keys and a map of where the car was located in the mega car-park beside the airport. “I won’t walk you out because I’m busy, but you’ll find it, it’s easy.”
“Thanks,” I said, maybe a little too exuberantly. The less time she spent with me and my fake ID the better. I couldn’t believe my luck.
When I finally located the small, blue, bubble-shaped car I’d hired, I quickly buckled myself in and adjusted the seat forward before driving out of the airport. I had a three hour journey ahead of me so I swung into a small, drive-through coffee shop five minutes into the trip, where I ordered a large Latte and a chicken-and-salad roll.
After scoffing the food in the car-park, I pulled back onto the highway. I had to resist the urge to put my foot down and speed all the way to Bob’s Bay, because I couldn’t risk getting pulled over by the cops. Not when I had so many different forms of ID on me. I’d get tossed into jail just for that let alone all the questions I’d get after they worked out who I was. Miranda Sun, the missing girl whose entire family had now either died or mysteriously disappeared.
It wasn’t until two hours into my trip that I discovered the petrol tank of my car wasn’t as full as the woman at the rental company had promised. I hadn’t thought to check the gauge until it flashed red and beeped loudly at me. Luckily, right at that moment, a large green sign showed me that a roadhouse was ten kilometres away. And it wasn’t too far from Bob’s Bay, which was a relief.
No more than five minutes later, I pulled off the highway and into the petrol station. It was large, made for truckies, and lit up with invitingly warm lights. I vaguely remembered fuelling up here in the past, with Mum, Dad and Lauren. There was a restaurant attached and a parking area out back where you could safely park your car or truck and sleep if driver’s fatigue hit.
Me, I was far too awake, far too anxious to reach Marko and find out why he hadn’t shown at the airport, to worry about sleep. Though I kept trying to tell myself there had to be a good reason, like maybe he’d finally found a shuttle in the chute, a much louder voice inside my head screamed that something bad had happened to him. That maybe the sea had finally claimed him after all this time.
After filling the tank and screwing the cap back on with shaking hands, I entered through sliding doors into the warm store. The scent of meat pies and sausage rolls wafted up my nose. My stomach turned. I was still full from the chicken roll and too anxious to think about eating right now so I just grabbed an energy drink out of the nearby fridge.
A truckie was getting served at the counter in front of me. I was up next.
While I waited, my eyes flickered up to the TV that was hitched up high over the counter. The late night news was on. They were showing footage of a football game, but underneath it a newsreel for Crime Watch rolled onto the screen.
Two images flashed onto the bottom of the screen, making me drop my keys and energy drink.
One picture was of me—the real me—with brown hair and chubby cheeks. It was my old missing-person photo from last year. The other photo was of me as a blonde, as Nada. My fake ID. The one I’d left behind at the police station. The detective had figured it out. No wonder he kept looking at my hair. He’d recognised me as a brunette from when I’d originally gone missing.
The footy game disappeared and the screened opened up to live footage of my grandparents’ shack.
The sound was too low for me to hear what the reporter was saying, but a headline rolled along the bottom of the screen.
Man taken in for questioning for his involvement in the disappearance of the Sun family.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
The truck driver in front of me shook his head in frustration while he wiped off the excess red liquid that had sprayed down his trouser leg. Fizzy drink pooled all over the floor beside the damaged can.
“Oh, sorry.” I fished around in the purse for some cash and left a wad with the teenage boy behind the counter. “Number three. Sorry about the drink and mess. But I have to go.”
I ran out of the store and got into my car, only realising then that I had nowhere to go, that there was no point heading down to the shack because Marko wasn’t there, that he had been found after Detective Lewis had alerted the Western Australian police that I’d shown up at his station. He’d obviously recognised me from the missing persons list he said he spent his days combing through. Maybe after learning that my ID was fake he took a second look at his list and bingo, there I was.
Great. So now Marko was in trouble and was probably going to get arrested for kidnapping me. I punched the steering wheel. The longer it took for us to get back to Marin the more girls would wash up on shores all over the world.
The image of the dead girl on the detective’s computer screen flashed before my eyes. The chicken roll and latte from earlier threatened to come back up my throat.
She could have been Lauren. And though I was glad she wasn’t, I was no closer to finding out if my sister was safe than I had been twenty-four hour
s ago. Anything could be happening to her and the baby right now. The fact that Damir was trying to create mermaids again wasn’t a good sign. Why wasn’t he focussed on Lauren and the baby? Surely my sister wouldn’t approve of him cutting girls up.
My temples throbbed and my stomach churned. It was a horrible feeling. The feeling of being powerless despite knowing bad things were happening to your loved ones.
8
The girl with no name
One big blur of sleep and herbal teas pass by until the guy in the military uniform returns. Has a fortnight really gone by since he left? It seems quicker than that.
The smile on my lips is unplanned but automatic as he enters my room. Though his grandmother has been nothing but kind and has looked after me, for some reason the presence of this guy makes me feel safe and loved. Perhaps he saved me from something. Perhaps he and I are closer than I know.
Every time I touch my belly, I picture a woman with green eyes glaring down at me, shouting at me to hurry up. “Hurry up! Hurry up!” she keeps shouting while tugging hard at my hair.
Perhaps this man saved me from her, the woman of my nightmares.
He sits down at my bedside. “You look much better and it’s only been a week.” He must have seen the confusion on my face. I was certain he had said he’d be away for two weeks. He shrugged and explained. “I took leave early because I was worried for you. You have been eating well? My grandmother is good cook, yes?”
I nod and smile and even laugh when I see his grandmother listening in at the door with a grin on her lips. He shoos her away with a wave of his hand and mutters some words in his language that makes him sound even more gorgeous than he looks, before turning back to me.
“I suppose you have questions for me.”
I nod. Part of me is frightened to ask. I hadn’t said a word to the woman but today, I feel a need to know things.
“Who am I?”
He shakes his head sadly. “I was hoping you would tell me that.”
I close my eyes and try very hard to picture what the girl with the big brown eyes and long brown hair used to call me but every time I do so my head starts to ache and my palms sweat and my heart races in a panic. Panic because I don’t know myself.
“Where did you find me?” I ask, my breath coming short, my heart fluttering a million miles a minute.
He dips a clean cloth into a basin of water beside my bed and dabs at my sweaty forehead. The water is cool and refreshing.
“I was on a boat, fishing, and I see you floating in water, your golden hair spread around your head. I dive in and save you. You are very weak, bleeding. But after giving you...” he pauses and his handsome face flushes slightly but his blue eyes never leave mine. “After giving you the kiss of life you begin to cough much, much water and finally you breathe.” He whistles through his teeth. “It was magical. You are reborn.”
“Thank you,” I say, while wondering what I had been doing in the water in a country that doesn’t speak English as their first language when I clearly speak only English.
“How could I not save such a beautiful mermaid who swam into my life?” He smiles at his own joke but my blood runs cold.
Mermaid...
Why does that word make me feel so cold? Goosebumps dot my arms.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry. I have upset you.” He stands up and paces the room, his long, muscular legs working the floor, his blue eyes wide with concern. “Soon you will know your name and then you will go home to your loved ones. Don’t worry.” He makes a move for the door.
“Wait,” I say, feeling bad now. I want him to stay.
“What’s your name?”
He pauses at the door, turns around and smiles. “My name is Ivan Marin Jiravec.”
Again my blood turns to ice.
Marin.
I know that name. Images and memories flood my brain, of glittering lights, of blurred faces, of music, of laughter and good food, of a dark haired man with emerald green eyes, of darkness and then pain.
“Marin? What does that name mean? I think I know that name.”
He shrugs. “It is common name in Croatia. Like your John or Jack. It means “God of the Sea”.
The blurred memories hit me again and again. The mean, beautiful woman with the green eyes, again yelling at me to hurry up while the pressure inside my stomach is fit to burst. My huge, enormous stomach.
I glance down at my floppy, empty stomach and scream.
Yes. I did have a baby. It wasn’t just a dream. I had a baby and now it’s gone. The woman with the emerald eyes stole my baby and I want it back.
I scream and clutch at the bed sheets, twisting them around my fists.
Tears stream down my face and I wrap my arms and the sheets around my knees and start to rock back and forth. Ivan sits beside me and whispers soothing words in his language.
“My baby is gone, someone took my baby and I want it back.” I swallow thickly and meet Ivan’s kind eyes. “I need my baby back.”
He takes me into his arms and I crush my face into his warm neck. He smells good and manly and strong and I feel safe in his arms.
“It is alright. Shhhh. I will help you if you want me to. I will help you, draga. Shhhh. We will get this baby back.”
I cry some more but stop suddenly when a thought occurs to me.
Though I may not know who I am, I know something important, probably the most important detail of my life. And I know that today is the last day that I lie in bed thinking that I am nobody with nothing.
I’m someone’s mother.
And I won’t rest a single day until I have my child back in my arms.
9
Robbie
I took a step forward so that my arm brushed against Lily’s. We both stood in a crouch, ready for the guard’s attack, an automatic reflex from years of deeply ingrained training.
I gave Lily’s arm an extra nudge, willing her to press the location button, because all I would have to do is give the guard a shove, open the chute, strap Lily and myself in and we’d be on our way before the man had time to regain his footing. Our goggles were already on and I could quickly put the tablet in Lily’s mouth before take-off.
She nudged me back and leaned in towards the control panel. I silently prayed she remembered which button to press.
“You know I’ve called for reinforcements. More guards are on their way. You may as well tell me now what you’ve done to Redkin.”
At that moment, his features sharpened and I silently thanked my eyes for behaving at just the right moment.
“Now, Lily!” I shouted as I delivered a swift kick, disarming the guard with my boot. Unfortunately, he didn’t lose his footing and lunged for Lily with his bare hands.
I stood to block her and his forehead crashed right into my fist. With wide eyes and a slack jaw he stepped back before falling to his arse on the cold, hard floor.
“Done!” Lily shouted and I would have kissed her had we the time, but instead I pushed the tablet between her lips and led her to the shuttle. After strapping her in, I drew the hatch shut and buckled myself. I thought I heard the sound of footsteps but I couldn’t be certain and had no desire to check.
“Why did I have to take that horrible tablet?” Lily said, her voice already slurring from the effects of the drug. “It tastes... disgusting. Now I ... know what... Miranda...”
“Because this is your first time and you may go into shock. Or you may want to rip your goggles off and take a look and you could end up like me.”
My sweaty hands gripped the lever between Lily and me. “You sure you pushed the right location button?” I asked, not really certain if she could answer coherently.
Lily murmured numbers as we shot off like rockets through the light crystal chute, before she fell silent altogether.
A cold prickly feeling washed down the back of my neck.
“Don’t you mean four down and seven across?”
When she failed to respond I found her han
d and gave it a squeeze. It was warm and floppy. She was gone. The drugs had worked quickly.
My breath became short. The shuttle, already tight, seemed to shrink around me. No. No. No. Surely she’d pressed four down and seven across, like I’d asked, like she’d done only a minute ago. She was likely muddled from the drugs. That had to be it.
I rested my head back and closed my eyes. We were on the way to see Marko and Miranda. We were going to bring them back to Marin and restore order to the city. Everything was going to be okay.
A sigh of relief whistled past my lips and I concentrated on regulating my erratic heartbeat. Of course Lily had hit the correct buttons.
She had to have.
Because if she’d chosen seven down and four across by mistake, like she’d said, then... then we were on our way to the place I once called home.
We were on our way to England.
10
Miranda
After driving around town for around half an hour, thinking up a plan to get Marko back from the cops, I pulled up at a flashy Busselton hotel. The place was packed with people either enjoying a lavish holiday or on a business conference judging by the amount of suits walking around.
The car park was jam packed and I had to wait until a car pulled out of the reception parking to get a spot. The person who’d left must have only just checked out because the woman at reception informed me that I’d been lucky to get a room as they were fully booked and that the room had only been made available due to a last minute cancellation.
She didn’t seem impressed when she first clapped her hazel eyes on my scruffy self, with my bad dye-job that had stained my forehead. But after I flashed my wallet full of cash and credit cards, she was more than happy to help.
Her critical green eyes travelled up to my jet black hair and then appraised my face, which I hadn’t really looked at in the past twenty-four hours. For a second my blood ran cold. This woman could have watched the news.
“We have a hairdresser and beautician on sight,” she added in a sudden tone of sympathy.
Release (The Submerged Sun, #3) Page 7