He opened the door and the smell of floor cleaner and window polish greeted him. His cleaner had to work overtime to find something to clean. He looked around: same plasma TV, same two chairs and same rattan elephant table with a glass top. Same everything, except him.
He took his bag into the bedroom and unpacked it on the bed. He tried to ignore the look of the crisp white cotton and the thought of the last woman to have slept in this bed. Two years after Helen had left in the taxi, Georgina showed up. He remembered the first time he’d seen her in Club Mercedes. His eyes had started at the feet and worked their way up. And his heart had stopped more than once. She had made him feel alive again, but that was when Helen’s body had turned up and all hell broke loose. He took his eyes away from the sheets and the memory of Georgina wrapped in them and knew he had to acclimatise and to think things over. His head was in turmoil. The gym helped him think. His body was designed to be used. If he didn’t, it got tetchy. He saw his body as his tool, his weapon and his protection—it was vital to keep it strong and supple. He stood six foot and two inches and weighed fourteen stone. Mann worked out most days. His body was firm and lithe, naturally muscled without being bulky. He had studied weight training schedules and alternated high reps and light weights days with maximum power days and he ran ten kilometres every other day. He liked being powerful but he didn’t like it showing. He liked to be light on his feet—he needed to be. He went to the gym on the top floor and spent an hour running through everything in his head. Magda had opened up new roads to emotions he had either buried or didn’t even recognise. The feelings he had towards Jake had unlocked his memories of his father. Jake was the same age Mann had been when Deming was murdered. At the time when Mann was pinned down and made to watch his father’s execution, Magda must have been nursing a newborn, Jake. That summer had changed Mann forever. And this one would change Jake. If he survived this he would never be the same. He would be strong, resilient but also vulnerable. He would always have an Achilles’ heel, just like Mann. Mann hadn’t got the answers to his questions about his father’s death and that was one of the reasons he had accepted Magda’s invitation. He wouldn’t rest until he knew everything he could about his father. Maybe Magda held one big piece of the puzzle over his execution. There were few coincidences in life: Deming died at the same time as he had a secret family on the other side of the world. If there was a connection, Mann would find it.
Saw ran past, distracted, and stopped to talk to Toad. He was agitated and preoccupied.
‘Shit! Lucas, get up, quick.’ Thomas and Jake looked at one another and both knew that the moment had gone. Toad had looked up just as Lucas fell at his feet and called ahead to Weasel.
‘Watch it, Lucas, Weasel is coming,’ Jake said as Weasel’s tall, lanky frame trotted back, his pin head swivelling round to watch them and his small shifty eyes always looking for someone to inflict pain on.
Lucas didn’t answer. His hands were tied and he struggled to lift himself from the ground.
Weasel was over him in a flash. He grinned and tilted his head from side to side as he looked at Lucas struggling. He picked up a stick and jabbed Lucas with the point of it. Lucas flinched and groaned as the stick found its mark. Weasel giggled manically. He jabbed at Lucas like a cat toying with a mouse. Jake stepped forward between them and knelt down to help Lucas. He managed to get his hand under Lucas’s shoulder and started to help him to his feet but Weasel put his foot against Jake’s back and pushed him down on top of Lucas. He held his foot against Jake’s back as he kept him squashed on top of him. Lucas groaned in pain. Toad appeared beside them. At first the tone of his voice was jokey, then it became serious and Weasel reluctantly released his foot. Jake got another hold of Lucas and helped him up.
‘You okay?’ He examined Lucas’s face. It looked grey. The blood had left his face and he had messed himself. There was a foul sulphuric smell. ‘Lucas?’ Lucas stood but his legs were buckling. He looked in a lot of pain as he clutched his stomach and turned away to vomit. It was bright with blood.
Weasel picked up another stick and started poking Lucas in his back as he was bent double. When he finished there was blood smeared across his hand as he wiped his mouth. Jake grabbed the end of the stick and wrenched it out of Weasel’s hand. Weasel’s face contorted in anger as he took one long stride to reach Jake and he began to shout, his words a torrent of rage. He spat into Jake’s face as he took hold of his throat and squeezed it, and began whimpering softly like an excited puppy. The expression on his face turned to desire as, with his left hand, he reached down and cradled Jake’s testicles before he began to twist and squeeze and pant like a rabid dog.
Toad finished talking to Saw, then he pushed Weasel away from Jake and stepped between them as he looked down at Lucas. He stared at him and then he said something that made Weasel laugh as he pointed to Lucas. He shouted something to one of the men and the bags were pulled off the mule’s back and it was led forward, its back shining with sweat.
Toad picked Lucas up as if he weighed nothing, although Lucas was a foot taller than him, and he dumped him onto the animal’s back. It stood patiently waiting, taking the opportunity to eat the young shoots that sprung from the forest floor.
Saw was coming up behind them. Jake felt his fingers tingle with adrenalin and his guts twist. Saw stopped at Anna. Anna stared back. Jake admired her for her courage. She was always defiant. Saw walked past Silke and Jake’s breath caught in his throat as he watched Saw pull at her clothing. He saw Thomas twisting the piece of wood in his hand. He hadn’t been able to drop it without attracting attention. Jake looked at him. Thomas glared back as if begging Jake to let him try. Jake shook his head and his eyes dropped to the piece of wood in Thomas’s hand. Thomas let it fall.
Silke flinched away from him and Saw’s eyes rested on Jake. For a minute Jake thought he knew everything. He knew about the failed escape attempt.
Saw spoke to Toad before turning to Jake.
‘Friend?’ Saw gave his men a sidelong glance as he sneered and pointed towards Lucas. ‘Friend?’ He repeated it and pointed again towards Lucas as if the word conjured up a ridiculous image.
Jake nodded. Saw turned to Weasel and grinned. Weasel giggled and mimicked Jake. ‘Friend. Friend.’ He wiggled his hips like a woman.
‘Friend sick—maybe fall from mule, huh?’ Jake didn’t answer. He knew that it was best to keep quiet. Saw wasn’t looking for conversation. Saw jabbed him to make Jake look at him again. ‘Soon, come Steep Pass—only room for one person.’ Saw looked back at his men; he was speaking to the audience, not to Jake. ‘Your friend fall, I think?’ He called to Handsome to pass him some rope. As the mule looked at him incuriously, Saw tied the rope around Jake’s waist and looped the other end around Lucas; pinning Lucas’s arms around the mule’s neck, he secured them together. Jake’s side was pressed against the mule and he would struggle both to keep up and to avoid catching his legs in the mule’s hooves. His body would get in the way on the narrow path. Beside him the steep ravine plummeted and, below, the tops of the teak trees seemed a long way off.
‘He fall—you fall. He friend? You keep him alive.’
Saw laughed and his men whooped and seemed to walk with a new energy as they dragged their captives onward.
Saw stopped by Anna and looked back at Jake and grinned—his mouth dark red, he spat phlegm into Jake’s path. He looked Anna up and down and nodded knowingly in Jake’s direction as if he knew that they were lovers. Saw did know. His animal senses detected every weakness, every failing. His perception of the world was animalistic. He smelt her body on Jake. He smelt her sex. Saw walked back past Jake, fixed him with his black eyes as he grinned, leaned towards Jake as if about to strike him, then slapped the mule hard on its rump.