‘Must be twenty or thirty of them,’ he muttered to himself.
‘Thirty-two,’ Jacqui stated clearly.
She was no longer shivering. Suddenly he understood that she’d been forcing herself to count them in order to keep a hold on herself, determined not to give way to hysteria this time. That uncontrolled look in her eyes died even as she spoke.
‘I’m going to get them out,’ he said.
‘How?’
‘Carry them.’
He stared through the opening into the cave once again, trying to work out a route through those menacing jellyfish. It would be like walking across a minefield, but he couldn’t leave the kids there.
‘I’m coming with you,’ Jacqui announced. ‘One each. You can take the big one.’
Tim hesitated. ‘I don’t like it.’
‘D’you think I do?’ Her gaze met his challengingly. ‘Isn’t it better if there are two of us?’
At that moment Jane arrived. ‘So what goes on?’ she demanded pushing between them for a clearer view into the cave. Then she gasped and her voice dropped to a chill whisper. ‘Bloody hell! Oh — those poor kids…’
Tim interrupted her. ‘Jane, love, I’m going in with Jacqui to get them.’
‘But I can—’
‘No, listen!’ He spoke urgently. ‘I need you to stay here just in case something goes wrong. If it does — well, please, no heroics. Promise? Just run like hell to fetch help.’
‘OK, if you think… Oh, I don’t know.’ She looked at him, troubled. ‘Be careful, Tim.’
He nodded.
He went in first, stooping for the first few feet at the cave entrance. Once inside he was able to stand upright. The rough, uneven walls rose to a height of some twenty or thirty feet, he estimated. A shaft of daylight illuminated one side of the cave roof, but it was pale and diffuse compared with the more intense illumination from the jellyfish.
Jacqui joined him, an expression of pure determination on her face. She was shit-scared, he guessed, and using all her will-power to suppress it. That greenish light added to the impression, giving her a pale, sickly hue. But she managed a smile.
‘So far so good,’ she said.
‘Keep close behind me,’ he advised. Then he raised his voice, calling out to the children. ‘Listen, you two. We’re coming to get you out of here, but I want you to stay absolutely still. Don’t try to run or anything. Wait till we reach you. All right?’
He thought he saw the girl nodding.
The pink speckled jellyfish lay in a sweeping half-circle around the plateau of rock on which the two children stood, as if deliberately barring their way out. Of course, his reason told him — not for the first time — such invertebrates can only move in water. They must have been left there by the tide, which meant the children would be in no danger so long as they remained where they were.
And yet — in that case, how did the children get there in the first place? Had they walked between the jellyfish — for a dare, perhaps — and then found they hadn’t the courage to make the return trip? It didn’t seem likely.
He turned to Jacqui. ‘Come on. But avoid treading on them.’
‘Yes.’
Between the first two jellyfish was a gap of a couple of feet, which gave him no problem, but then came two close together and he was forced to skirt around them to reach the next opening. As he went on, stepping from one clear space to the next, he felt Jacqui’s hand from time to time touching his back; it reassured him. However much he tried to convince himself that the jellyfish were stranded where they lay, he could not quite believe it.
One wasn’t so flat as the others, but had a slight hump in the centre. A hump-backed jellyfish, misshapen from birth perhaps… It wasn’t impossible — but when he glanced back the hump had disappeared and the creature seemed just as level as its neighbours: but was it in exactly the same position?
He could have sworn it was not.
A sudden gasp from Jacqui. Tim half-turned to see what was wrong, but she shook her head and motioned him on.
‘Don’t stop!’ Her voice was urgent; she was whispering, as though scared the jellyfish could overhear. ‘Let’s grab the kids and get out of here!’
They reached the rock plateau. With a sob the girl threw her arms around Tim’s waist and buried her face against his anorak. ‘It’s all right,’ he murmured, holding her. ‘It’s going to be all right.’ He glanced towards Jacqui who was looking after the boy. ‘Can you manage him?’
‘Of course we can manage, can’t we?’ She hugged him quickly. ‘What’s your name?’
‘P-Paul.’
‘And is that your sister?’
‘Cousin.’ Gaining more confidence, he added: ‘She’s Barbara and I’m Paul.’
Both children were barefooted, Tim noticed. That made it all the more remarkable that they had been able to get this far into the cave without being attacked. It also meant he and Jacqui had no choice about carrying them; it was too much of a risk to let them walk. He explained this to them, and then crouched down to allow her to sit on the crook of his right arm.
‘You’re that actor, aren’t you?’ the girl said. ‘In Gulliver — you’re Jon.’
‘That’s right. Now hold on tight.’
‘You’re not in Gulliver,’ Paul informed Jacqui pityingly. ‘You his girl friend or what?’
‘Jacqui’s the director,’ Tim told him. ‘The film director.’
Paul looked her up and down. ‘That’s a boy’s name.’
Jacqui seized the boy with both hands; before he could say anything else, she’d swung him on to her shoulders with his legs either side of her neck. ‘Just you sit still up there or I’ll drop you in the middle of those jellyfish. Boy’s name! What do you know about it?’
The boy turned pale and clung on to her.
Tim indicated that Jacqui should go first. Now she was carrying the boy he wanted to be able to keep an eye on her. As for Barbara, she sat comfortably on his arm with her head against his shoulder. His bandaged hand tingled as he surveyed the army of jellyfish.
‘They’ve moved closer,’ Jacqui said.
But she did not wait for an answer. She stepped down from the rock plateau and began to make her way between those little glowing pink islands, choosing each step carefully. Tim followed a yard or so behind, and felt Barbara’s arm tightening slightly around his neck in apprehension.
‘It’s going to be all right,’ he said without conviction.
A sharp intake of breath from Jacqui. She hesitated about the next step, then stopped. Looking down, Tim saw a large jellyfish — eighteen inches across at least — was exploring her foot. A ripple passed like a minute wave through the rash of pink and red spots on its jelly-like back.
‘Tim…’
‘Go on!’ he urged her. ‘It can’t harm you. I’ll hold it while you go on.’
Only half the jellyfish covered her boot. Deliberately, Tim trod on the other half to help her pull her foot clear. Its tentacles fastened around her ankle, but he pressed down more firmly, digging his heel into that writhing, disgusting muscle. He felt it go slack as it allowed her to escape, but it was only a second before those tentacles were wrapping themselves hungrily around his own boot.
He tried stamping on it, then kicking his foot against the rock, but still it held on. It was then he noticed a sudden worm-like shifting among the other jellyfish as they slowly surrounded him. It was an obscene slithering motion, leaving phosphorescent trails of slime marking their paths. Once again he attempted to rid himself of the jellyfish, this time scraping his boot against the sharp spurs of hard rock, but it had no effect.
Barbara turned her face away. Her little body was quivering.
Determinedly, he began to walk through the jellyfish towards the cave mouth, though with each step he felt that hard, slippery muscle beneath his foot. Its tentacles were probing, he knew, but his boots should be tough enough to keep them out. They were solid flying boots which zipped up the side, and the legs of his jeans were tucked firmly inside them. The biggest danger was that he might lose his balance and fall; he found himself sliding forward whenever he put his weight on that foot.