‘Please, Tomak. Just sit with me for a while. I want to hold you.’
‘No.’ They were both silent for a moment, Lorna shocked by the absolute refusal. Then he said, ‘I shouldn’t even be here now.’
‘What’s going on over there? On the island? What is it that has taken you away from me?’
‘The danger. The importance of what’s being built there.’
‘Can’t you even tell me what it is?’
‘Officially, it’s a communications network. That’s all I can say.’
‘Is it something to do with the tunnels?’
‘What makes you think that?’ Tomak’s tone of voice had changed, confirming something.
‘Or the drones. You used to talk about the drones, how useful they are, the potential they have. You always used to call them passive communications devices, passive receptors.’
‘I can’t say anything. I’ve got to go.’
‘Please don’t!’ She started to get off the bed, to stand against him, but he seemed to sense what she was doing and moved quickly in the dark. She felt his hands on her shoulders, pushing her down. ‘Couldn’t you just put your arms around me?’
‘Lorna, I needed to say this personally, because I want you to believe me. It’s impossible to break it to you gently, but I won’t be coming back. It’s over. I’m really sorry, but that’s all I have to say. Stay away from the island, stay away from me.’
He was already heading towards the door, because his silhouette moved away from the curtains. Lorna swivelled around, fumbled with the light switch and threw it on. For two seconds, three seconds, she saw Tomak in the electric light as he dived hurriedly for the door. He was wearing green-grey fatigues that made him look bulky and overweight. His hair was long, rolling around his neck, but there was a bare patch on top. Something had happened to his head: it was larger than she remembered, a different shape.
As he reached the door, in the final half-second, he turned back to look directly at her and then she saw his face. Burn scars bulged and reddened and sucked at his features: he had become disfigured, scarred, broken for ever.
The door slammed behind him and moments later the outer door closed too. She heard a key pinging as it bounced across the wooden floor.
She sat there on her bed and almost at once she began to cry. The tears broke out of her, an unending outpouring of misery. She soaked half a dozen tissues, wept into her bed covers.
Then she stopped.
She remembered the time she had spent with Patta earlier that evening, consoling her friend. Quickly, her unhappiness turned to anger against Tomak, and she remained awake the rest of the night, loathing him for what he had just done and the way he had done it. Then, in distress, she would remember loving and missing him so much and for so long, and in hot confusion she would veer inwardly from rage to wretchedness.
When the sun came up she dressed and went to walk along the edge of the cliffs. Tremm lay golden-hued across the blue-white sea, glowing in the morning light.
Three weeks later, after several sweltering, steamy days of unbroken summer rainfall, Lorna and Bradd went down to the harbour in Meequa Town and loaded food and drink on to his sailing boat. It was much smaller than Lorna had imagined, but it was almost new and was fitted with modern navigation and steering devices. In particular Bradd pointed out the two main sails, which were of material that was non-reflective and almost transparent. Undetectable after dark by sight or by radar, he said, and made of the same material used on the wings of the drones.
The sun, heading down towards evening, was still radiant and waves of humid air rolled in across the harbour. Bradd pulled off all his clothes except a pair of shorts, and set to work preparing the boat to leave. Lorna also stripped down to her bathing costume, and sat half in shade, half in the blistering sunlight until Bradd said they were ready to cast off.
Once they were beyond the harbour wall there was enough wind to provide at least an illusion of temporary coolness. Tremm stood towards the horizon, green-brown in the distant shimmering marine heat.
Bradd steered the boat away from the town, hugging the coastline of Meequa, and within an hour they had reached a small secluded inlet where no other boats were moored. They anchored the yacht, then dived in and swam in the calm cove until the shadows from the setting sun were dark across the water.
Back on board, they snacked on some of the food they had brought. They both kept looking out to sea towards Tremm, where the mountains were catching much of the sunlight slanting horizontally from the west. As night fell the humidity seemed to increase. Lorna lay breathless on the prow of the boat, dangling an arm towards the water, watching the movement of phosphoresence in the shallow sea below.
Bradd went below decks and switched on his night-time navigation gear. Lorna continued to doze in the muggy air, feeling Bradd’s movements in the cabin directly beneath her but thinking yet again about Tomak, what had happened, what he had said that night, the suddenness of everything. It continued to hurt, but it also made her feel resentful of him. It was torment if she dwelt on it but she believed she was recovering at last.
When Bradd emerged from the tiny cabin she sat up to look at him, admiring his supple back, his strong arms. She watched him working one of the hand-winches, liking the calm way he moved, the compact angles of his torso, remembering the times when they had been lovers, thinking the best of him.
By some unspoken accord this trip had been arranged almost as if it had been planned in detail and agreed in advance. Bradd announced two days earlier that he was ready to sail across to Tremm, and Lorna quickly said she would go with him. They had both taken days off work, not knowing how long they would be away. Lorna told herself she needed a break, was owed some time off by the MCI.
There was only a single bunk in the confined space of the cabin. Lorna noticed this as soon as they were on board, but she said nothing. Too much had been said between them in the past. But then before they sailed Bradd casually showed her that in one of the lockers there was a hammock that could be slung on the deck in the open air. She was assuming nothing, and it seemed that neither was Bradd.
With the aid of the inboard motor they left the cove, then Bradd and she hoisted the nearly invisible sails and they began to move out to sea, silent but for the sound of the water against the hull.
Several minutes later one of the instruments gave a quiet warning signal and Bradd immediately used night-sight binoculars to scan the sea near Tremm. After staring through them he handed them to Lorna, indicating where to point them. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the artificially enhanced image, but she was soon able to make out a long power launch, lying low in the water. Because of the foreshortening effect of the powerful lenses it appeared to be close against the foot of the Tremm cliffs. It did not seem to be moving.
Bradd took the glasses back and stared at the vessel for a long time. Meanwhile their yacht sailed slowly on, using the automatic steering device.
‘What do we do?’ Lorna said.
‘Nothing. We’re in international waters. We’ve every right to be here. In theory, we also have the right to land on that island. Every island in the Archipelago is neutral territory — that’s what the Covenant is for. But in reality the moment we cross into Tremm’s waters that launch will come out to find out what we’re up to. It’s a fast-response patrol boat, armed to the hilt. Those people have moved in, grabbed the island, and set up armed patrols to keep everyone else out. It makes me angry! They’re abusing our neutrality by making it into their domain. They do what they want and we can’t stop them, because if we tried to get rid of them they’d claim we were breaching our own neutrality by doing so.’