Cathy shook her head. “Kim’s my daughter too. I’m going with you.”
“What about me?” Scott asked.
“You’ve got to keep Scotty safe here,” Nick said to her. “There’s no telling what we’ll find over on the other side.”
Cathy raised an eyebrow. “Safe? Here? I stood outside for a bit and I could hear a woman screaming that her husband was torn apart by some creature. I think it’s better we stick together.”
Nick nodded in silence. Cathy did have a point.
“She said rakshasa,” Scott added. “I looked it up yesterday, before the net went down since I was reading up on god stuff here. I think it’s some sort of demon.”
“I’m guessing that whatever’s out here must have made its way over from the private estate,” Quentin said. “If it’s only one, then we ought to be safer on the other side of the island.”
“This is just like those monster movies,” Scott said.
“Except that it’s real,” Nick said. “We might need some weapons.”
“I’ve got this.” Quentin pulled up his loose shirt, revealing the gun tucked in his elastic waistband. He had taken it, along with the stun gun, from the guard he had disabled outside his room.
Scott’s eyes focused on the Glock pistol and he moved closer to the tabloid reporter. “Is that real? Can I see it?”
“Not now, Scotty,” Cathy hissed. “We’re trying to decide the best course of action here.”
Nick pulled out the stun gun from his pants pocket. Quentin had given it to him. “I’m going to have to get close to use this.”
“Hopefully we’ll find your daughter and be out of there quickly,” Quentin said. “Let’s be off, shall we?”
Cathy grabbed the handle of her suitcase stroller and began pulling it towards the door. “Scotty, don’t forget your backpack.”
Nick glanced back, annoyed. “What are you doing? Just leave those things for now.”
Cathy sighed and let go of the luggage. It was instinctual to pack one’s bags in preparation to leave, but given the current context it now seemed downright stupid. “I’m sorry, I guess I wasn’t thinking straight.”
Nick turned to look at Quentin. “So we just walk through the jungle to get to the other side?”
“Might be a tad dangerous, mate,” Quentin said. “I think it’s better if we take one of the boats moored at the dock.”
“How do we do that, those things are like cars, aren’t they? Do you know how to hotwire a boat?”
Quentin didn’t answer right away. He hadn’t thought about it.
Scott raised his hand. “There’s a locker box near the entrance of the pier where I think they keep the keys.”
42
THE FOUR OF THEM RAN along the beach, keeping well away from the shadows of the trees and the darkened cover of nearby buildings. Quentin Everett trotted alongside Nick Dirkse, who would occasionally glance backwards to make sure his wife and son were right behind him. They were.
Two large burly staff members remained on the pier, trying to keep the small crowd of panicked guests from stealing the remaining boats. The tallest of the pair placed himself just above the steps leading up to the dock but quickly backed away when Quentin started to wave his pistol around. The other guests stared in shock at the gun, and all of them started to run back towards the hotel.
Nick helped his wife and son onto the pier’s wooden deck. “Come on, let’s go find a boat we can use.”
Quentin had gone shooting at the range with an American friend once, and he knew the basics of gun safety. He motioned the weapon towards an upright wooden cabinet that was embedded in a post while addressing the attendants who had raised their hands in surrender. “Open it up so we can get the keys.”
The shorter of the two shook his head. “Sorry, sir, but all the boat keys were taken away this evening before the grand ceremony began. There is nothing in there.”
Quentin cursed. “We need one of these boats!”
“If you don’t know where you are going you will be lost out there,” the taller staff member said. “The closest island is over a hundred and fifty kilometers away.”
Nick shook his head. “We only want to get to the other side of this island to find my daughter.”
Cathy sensed it might bring more results if she pleaded with them instead of making threats. “Please help us, we’re only trying to find our child.”
The two staff members looked at each other and began hurriedly speaking in Malayalam. Nick sensed they were arguing about something, but he wasn’t sure what it was about.
Quentin didn’t trust them, and he walked up to the storage cabinet and threw it open after smashing through the small padlock with the butt of his gun. Sure enough, it contained only the empty pegs where the boat keys should have been. The tabloid reporter cursed a second time.
The taller one nodded to the shorter one before taking a step forward, his hands still in the air. “I will help you. Two nights before I piloted the boat to the other side of this island. I brought along four foreign men to the beach, and they carried big guns with them. I feel sad about your daughter, and I will do what I can.”
Nick nodded, gesturing at Quentin to put his gun away. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
“My name is Gopalan,” the staffer said as he walked briskly towards one of the small dive boats. “We will use this one.”
Cathy took Scott’s hand as Nick led them both towards the edge of the boat, and all three of them clambered onto the narrow deck just behind the bow. Scott nearly fell sideways as his sneakers slipped along the slippery fiberglass gunwale, but Nick managed to use his strength to steady him.
Quentin stood beside the driver’s seat. He still held the gun but now kept it pointed down. “Is there a trick to getting this thing started?”
Gopalan knelt over the stern seat cushions and leaned out, using a screwdriver he always carried to help get the top off the Evinrude four-stroke outboard motor. With his deft fingers he then disconnected the main wiring harness before he pulled at the cord starter. In less than a few seconds the motor had started up, its incessant whine louder than ever due to the top cover having been removed.
Quentin blinked in amazement and stood to the side as Gopalan replaced the top of the outboard motor before turning around and settling down in the driver’s seat. Nick gestured at his family to sit down while the other staff member untied the rope to the dock and threw it to the side along the gunwale.
Gopalan reversed the propeller flow as he expertly pulled out of the dock before turning the boat around and began piloting it parallel to the island, heading past the jungle and towards the private estate.
The diving boat’s passengers looked to the south, and they could see a fishing boat anchored close to shore, a large crowd wading past the beach and into the shallow water in a desperate hope to climb aboard.
IT TOOK LESS THAN HALF an hour for them to get round to the other side of the island. Instead of bringing the watercraft close to the private beach alcove where he had dropped off the mercenaries a few nights before, Gopalan slowed the boat as it got close to the private pier before drifting close enough to dock it.
Quentin was the first to clamber up onto the dock as Nick tied the boat’s line to the pier while leaning out over the bow. Turning to his left, he couldn’t help but move towards the luxury powerboat that was moored a few steps away.
Nick turned to look at Cathy. “You and Scotty can stay here on the boat.”
She looked up at him before placing her hand on his right forearm. “I think it’s better if we stick together from now on.”
He nodded. The last thing he wanted was to lose them too. “Alright.”