Aftermath

32

“You’re bloody lucky. Another couple of minutes and we’d have been gone,” Harry said as he passed Harte a bottle of water and a towel. Harte wiped his face dry and drank thirstily, then tried to ask the first of the hundreds of questions which had flooded into his brain. He could barely speak, let alone think straight.

“Why…?” was all he could manage.

“Why what? Why are we still here?” Michael asked. Harte nodded. “Like Harry said,” he explained, “we weren’t planning on hanging around much longer. Did you see Cooper and Richard? We were supposed to be following them.”

“We put the supplies on the other boat and left this one empty for all the passengers we were supposed to be taking,” Harry said. “We stopped back to try and load up a few more things before we left. I swear, mate, you caught us by the skin of your teeth.”

“Anyway,” Michael said, leaning back against the cabin wall and watching Harte intently, “more to the point, why are you here?”

“You’re making a habit of abandoning your mates, aren’t you?” Harry added unnecessarily.

Harte finished his water, wiped his face again, and tried to explain.

“It’s Jas,” he said. “The fucker’s completely lost the plot. We were getting ready to clear out and he went ape-shit. We were just trying to get our share of the supplies and he flew off the handle. Before we knew what was happening there were guns going off and he was fighting with Jackson and all sorts.”

Michael looked at Harry. “Sounds about right from what Cooper and Donna said. That’s the guy who thought living on an island was a bad idea? Cooper said there’d probably be some trouble with him.”

“You can say that again.”

“So what exactly happened?”

“I didn’t see it all—”

“Too busy plotting your escape?”

Harte ignored Harry’s cheap jibe and continued. “Jas reckons the island is too restrictive. Thinks it’s too cut off.”

“Doesn’t make any difference these days,” Michael said quickly. “Where you are is far less important than—”

“Listen, you don’t have to convince me,” Harte interrupted, “I’ve already had this argument. I was planning to go with you, remember? Look, no one really knows what the best long-term option is anymore, no one can, but most folks seemed to have decided that going with you guys was the safer option.”

“And this Jas wouldn’t let them?”

“That’s about it.”

“So what do we do now?” Harry asked. “Just head back home like we agreed?”

“You can’t,” Harte said, an uncharacteristic urgency in his voice. “The only reason people aren’t here is because they couldn’t get away, not because they didn’t want to.”

“And what about you? Are you just here because you were still hoping to catch a lift?”

Harte shook his head and looked at both of the other two men. He wasn’t sure what they thought of him. Did they believe anything he said?

“I came back because I want your help,” he said. “I know I ran away before and yes, I did it because I was a coward and I didn’t want to go back to the castle. But you’ve got to believe me, this is different. My friends are trapped back there, and I want to get them out.”