After a few seconds he said, “But you didn’t even have your BCD on. Even if you escaped how could you survive?” he said, gesturing out to the rippling sea to the west. “The current would have taken you that way if you couldn’t reach the reef.”
Carmen nodded again. “I know. We are a hundred kilometres from the mainland and there are no islands in between. I heard one of the men say that. He said, ‘Why worry Boss? She won’t last long out here.’ But that murderous mongrel Ivanoff ordered them to look for me and to shoot me if they saw me.”
Just thinking about Carmen drifting for hours in the vast blue expanse while she slowly died from exposure brought back the terrifying memories of his own harrowing experiences of being left for dead far out to sea.
“Oh, you poor bugger!” he cried, hugging her tight again.
For a minute or so brother and sister clung to each, both trembling with shock and emotion. Then Carmen, who was still facing the boats, said, “They are on the move.”
Andrew looked and saw that the game fishing boat had moved clear of the dive boat and was now turning towards them.
Bloody hell! I hope they haven’t seen us, he thought, fear beginning to pulse anew through his veins.
Chapter 5
Andrew felt a spasm of pure terror slither through his stomach. For a moment he felt as though he was going to lose control of his bladder and bowels.
“Here they come. We must hide,” he said.
Anxiously he looked around, seeking the best hiding place. Behind them was the main part of the reef. The tide was now well up over it, but many coral outcrops still showed above the surface. About a hundred metres away was the small sand cay that was exposed at low tide. This was about a hundred metres long and perhaps half that wide, but it was totally devoid of any cover.
We must get there later, Andrew thought.
But for a hideout their best immediate option looked like going back underwater into some coral crevice or cave. “We have to go under,” Andrew said, pulling up his face mask and groping for his regulator.
Carmen did likewise. But then she stopped. “Look. It is turning away,” she said.
Andrew pulled his facemask down again—it needed some spit anyway—and stared. To his enormous relief he saw that the game fishing boat was continuing to turn to port. It went on turning until it had passed astern of the dive boat. Then it went on south.
“I wonder where he is going?” he said.
“Out into the Boat Passage I reckon,” Carmen suggested. “To where that net is.”
“Yes, but why? What is the net for?” Andrew asked. He had a few ideas but was now very curious to know what was behind all the killing and sudden death.
What is so important that these men would just kill strangers on sight? he wondered.
Carmen shrugged but then said, “To RV with the submarine that Barry mentioned?”
Andrew nodded. “That’s what I was thinking,” he agreed. “But is it a submarine and whose is it and what is it doing here?”
“I don’t know. Spies maybe?” Carmen suggested.
Andrew shook his head. “I don’t think so. Smugglers more like. They don’t look like professionals,” he replied.
“Why do you say that?” Carmen asked.
“Because they have someone like Barry in their gang. He acted like a real loose cannon back there. I don’t think his boss Mr Ivanoff was very pleased with what he had done. Besides, if they were a government group I think they would all be the same nationality.”
Carmen nodded. “I suppose so. Killing Tristan wasn’t part of their plan, that is for sure.”
Andrew watched the game fishing boat turn to port again about half a kilometre away. “You are right. It is going into the Boat Passage. What language did Mr Ivanoff and the radio operator speak do you know?”
Carmen shook her head. “Not really but with a name like Ivanoff I guess he is a Russian. He called the radio man Igor and one of the crooks was named Viktor,” she added.
“Russian. I agree. But not Russian Navy or Special Forces. These are gangsters. But a sub?” Andrew said.
“Might be like those little ones the Yanks have been catching in the Caribbean, you know the ones we saw on the TV news, the ones the drug smugglers use to get cocaine into the USA from South America,” Carmen said.
“Could be, but it might just be an old Russian Navy one,” Andrew answered. “I read that back when Russia was the centre of the Soviet Union they had about six hundred subs and when the Soviet Empire fell apart most of them were just junked or scrapped and that lots were just abandoned in disused bases. It might be one of them.”
“Well, we will never know,” Carmen answered.
The moment she said that an idea leapt into Andrew’s mind and he was suddenly seized by a burning desire both to know and for vengeance.
“We might. I am going to have a look,” he said.
Carmen was appalled. “Oh Andrew, don’t be stupid!” she cried.
“Why not? Those men probably think I am dead. They won’t be looking out for me—and I don’t need to go close. It has to be near that net and you can just see that from the edge of the reef,” Andrew replied. The plan had seemed to form in his mind as he spoke.
“No! Not only is it too dangerous but it is more important that we try to rescue Ella,” Carmen answered, pointing to the anchored dive boat.
“Ella?” Andrew said. A spurt of guilt made him feel ashamed of himself. “Is she still alive?” he asked.
“I think so,” Carmen answered.
“Why would they keep her alive?” Andrew asked. But even as he said the words the concept of her being kept for sexual gratification occurred to him and a wave of embarrassment made him wish he could bite his tongue off.
Carman made a wry face then said, “For the radio. I think the crooks need her to talk on the radio so that our family and friends think we are all safe and happy.”
“But why? Why won’t they just get their goods and clear off. They could just sink the dive boat to get rid of the evidence,” Andrew said. By this time he could no longer see the game fishing boat. It had vanished behind the sand cay. He switched his attention back to the dive boat and tried to detect movement on it.
Carmen shrugged. “Because they have to stay here for at least five days or come back then,” she answered. “I heard that Ivanoff creature say that to Barry when he asked. So they don’t want this area crawling with search planes and boats looking for us while they do whatever it is they want to do.”
“So we had better try to rescue Ella,” Andrew said.
Carmen stared at the dive boat and frowned. “Yes, but it will be incredibly dangerous. I don’t even know if she is still on the dive boat and we have no idea if any of the crooks are on it. They have machine guns remember.”
Andrew did remember and he shuddered as horrific images of Mr Craig being shot down swamped his mind. Various concepts of swimming underwater to the dive boat flitted through his mind.
But the tricky bit is when you surface, he thought. You have no idea if you have been detected and are blind for a few seconds. The image of surfacing to find a gun aimed at his face caused him to shedder. And then I have to get aboard undetected and find some sort of weapon, he added. It did not appear possible and was very sobering stuff.
At that moment his eyes detected movement on the focsle of the dive boat. “There’s somebody moving