TAYLOR ERSKINE SQUINTED as he got out past the side door of the Airbus H155 helicopter and onto the edge of the landing pad. He hadn’t changed clothes since he arrived the day before at the Trivandrum office and took a direct flight to Lemuria. By now the sticky, accumulated sweat had permeated his suit, and he would need to have it dry-cleaned. The midday sun over the Lakshadweep islands was scorching, and he had misplaced his sunglasses, forcing him to place his palm over his forehead as he made his way towards a nearby hangar.
Another man wearing a tan suit and collared office shirt came out from the cavernous shed and walked towards him. Rakesh Budrani was the resort’s general manager, and despite his beefiness, seemed completely comfortable in the heat. Erskine never saw the man sweat, even when he wore a jacket out in the open like this.
Rakesh wore silver rimmed sunglasses and he held out his hand the moment they got close to each other. “Namaste. Welcome back, Taylor.”
Erskine shook it as he continued walking. “Let’s get out of the sun, shall we?”
“The men you wanted are waiting for you inside,” Rakesh said. “When I passed this along to Mr. Dhar, he was most bothered by it.”
Erskine stopped and looked at Rakesh, his matted hair quickly dripping more sweat over his steamed eyebrows. “You didn’t need to let him know about this. The situation is under control.”
Rakesh let out a deep breath. Erskine was the chief of security for the entire island, and on paper, was supposed to be subordinate to him, yet Erskine was appointed by Mukesh Dhar’s partner Kazimir Morgenstern, and doing so had created a dysfunctional chain of command in Rakesh’s view. “Mr. Dhar is the managing partner, and he told me to always inform him of everything going on in this resort.”
Erskine pointed towards a sand dirt road cutting through the line of palm trees beyond the chain-link fence. “Over there happens to be the private zone of the island, and that area isn’t part of the resort, Rakesh. None of this stuff concerns you.”
Rakesh had an instant dislike towards the man he was talking to, for he felt that Erskine continued to undermine his authority. Nevertheless, he remained calm. “I am responsible for the staff and the guests here in Lemuria, Taylor. One of the kitchen staff in Mr. Morgenstern’s estate is related to one of the resort receptionists, and she hasn’t heard from her older sister since the cyclone hit the island a few days ago. I cannot stop rumors from spreading if I don’t tell her anything.”
“Then get rid of her. Send her back to whatever island in Lakshadweep she’s from.”
Rakesh shook his head. “That will only make things worse. She will spread more rumors at the other islands, and it could then spread to Kerala and the rest of the mainland. We are already on bad terms with the locals.”
“Fine. Keep her here, but confine her or something. I’ll have my security people detain her for awhile. What’s her name?”
“You cannot do that. The people we have here are employees, not slaves,” Rakesh protested. “The security personnel are refusing to allow anyone to go into the restricted areas and do not answer questions, so the staff are all nervous.”
Erskine wiped the sweat from his brow and began walking again. “Fine, just tell them everyone is doing okay on the private side of the island. Tell them the power is out or something.”
“Is that what’s really happening over there?”
Erskine wanted to slap the little brown bugger, but he was already in hot water with his boss. If I knew I would have told you already! “I’ll know by tonight, okay? I’ll update you as soon as I can. Just keep a lid on things until later.”
“The first set of guests is coming in less than two hours, are you sure everything is fine?”
“I just told you, didn’t I?” Erskine said loudly before lowering his voice. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted at you like that.”
Rakesh kept his cool as they both approached the open hangar bay. “Look, I don’t know what Mr. Morgenstern has or is doing on that side of the island, nor do I really want to. But if there is any danger to the resort, you must inform me about it, yes?”
Erskine took out his damp handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his face as he stood underneath the coolness of the overhanging roof. “I guarantee you there’s no danger. Now please, I need to get to work.”
Rakesh felt exasperated. This fool doesn’t want to tell me anything. He pointed at the four tough looking men sitting around at the far end of the hangar’s interior. “Are those people carrying guns on this island?”
“No comment,” Erskine said tersely. “If you got a problem, take it up with Mr. Morgenstern.”
The general manager said nothing and walked away, back out into the sun. Erskine watched him until Rakesh made his way into the guest transfer building and out of sight. Turning around, Erskine moved deeper into the cavernous hangar’s interior until he was within a few meters of the small group lounging by the crates.
Erskine placed his worn suit jacket on a nearby folding table as the men began gathering beside him. The other four still had the beards they’d grown during their past combat tours with special ops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, their eyes partly hidden by the ubiquitous baseball caps over their heads. He could even smell their military grade leather and tobacco dips all the way from the landing pad.
“Which one of you is Howie?” he asked them.
The tallest of the bunch, the one with a stiff red beard that covered his throat, raised his hand. “I am.”
“I believe one of my assistants already briefed you on what this job is about, right?”
One of the other three made a slight, sarcastic chuckle. “Sure. Which was jack squat.”
Erskine hated these men. He had tried to join the military back in his younger years, but his asthma never got him past basic training. Since then he had built himself up by going to the gym every day, but the lost opportunity to serve always bugged him, and he envied the ones who did.
He placed his smartphone on the table and cycled through the device’s picture gallery until it showed the mugshot of a gaunt man with a receding hairline. “Let me tell it to you plain and simple. You’re going in to find this man. His name is Emeric Morgenstern. I need him alive.”
Howie and his team leaned in closer so they could get a good look at the picture. “So let me get this straight. You want us to go into the big mansion on this here private island to go find this guy? Is that it?”
“It is a rather large house, yes, but there are research laboratories located several levels below the estate,” Erskine said.
The other men looked at each other in confusion. Howie spoke up first. “What kind of labs? Hazmat?”
Erskine knew he meant hazardous materials. “In a way, yes. But it’s not what you think it is.”
Howie crossed his arms. He didn’t like taking operations without knowing the full story, but the money they offered was just too good to turn down. “You need to be straight with us. Is there any sort of opposition in this place we’re going to?”
Erskine knew he was going to lie when it came to this. They wouldn’t believe me if I told them the truth anyway. “There’s ah… a potential serial killer on the loose within the private area.”
One of the other men raised his right eyebrow. “Are you freaking serious?”
Erskine doubled down. “Yes. The facility is a sort of experimental treatment lab. He got loose, and he may have possibly harmed the staff.”
Howie wasn’t buying it. “Harmed? Did he kill them?”
“There is a possibility that he did,” Erskine said.
Howie began tracing his finger on the map. “How many staff are there?”
“Around a dozen science personnel, four house servants, and a team of six security guards.”