The guy quickly climbs onto the boat and comes back with a small pistol. He hands it to me and with trembling hands, I take it. Huck takes my shoulders and turns me towards the trees. He quickly shows me how to position my arms and goes over very briefly how to load it, then tells me to pull the trigger. I do and it jerks me backwards, Huck steadies me and tells me to do it again. I do, firing the gun repeatedly until I’m not so shocked by the backfire.
“I hope you don’t have to use it, but I can’t let you go on there unarmed.”
I nod, still in some sort of mild shock. I put the safety on and slide the gun into my pants. Huck turns to the man watching us with curiosity.
“Thanks Kyle, I appreciate it.”
“I had nothing to do with this, remember?” Kyle says. “I owed you one, now we’re even.”
“Got it.”
“Take care, Huck. You’re in for a dangerous ride.”
Kyle slaps him on the back, nods at me and then gets into his car and leaves. I stare at the slick speed boat and Huck nods, indicating towards the boat with a hand. I climb in with shaky legs and sit on one of the small swivel seats at the front. Huck prepares a few things as I stare out in a daze, then he gets in the front seat beside me and roars the engine to life. It grumbles a moment, and then begins purring loudly.
“Ready?”
“I have to be,” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat.
He pulls a leaver and the boat surges forward. Soon we’re flying so fast that water almost seems like it doesn’t have time to flick into the boat, because it’s moving so quickly. We bounce over waves, and as the city fades and the water is all we can see, I wonder if we’ll be able to pull this off. I swallow back my fear, right now I can’t think about what might happen. I just have to do my best. If they die and I haven’t done everything I can, I’ll never forgive myself.
I wish it were as simple as being able to call and warn them, but only special satellite phones work on that island and they left too hastily to be able to get one. It was stupid on all our parts, really. If we had made sure they had a phone, we could have stopped this from going ahead. It’s too late for that now, I can only pray we make it in time. If they blow the island before plan, it’ll trigger Mick’s bombs and they’ll all die.
They said they were going to wait to save the girls before they blew it and that would take a bit of work. I close my eyes, exhaling. I hope we make it. I am silently praying that we do. If we don’t, it could be the end for all of us and that includes me.
I hope I’m doing the right thing here.
There is no turning back now.
16
JAGGER
It’s dark and this side of the island is quiet. The guys will be here soon, and I’ve done everything I can to ensure the plan will go as well as it can. I flick the flashlight on and quietly walk through the trees towards the back of the island where I’ve told them to come in. When I see a faint light in the distance, I ready my gun, just in case. As it moves closer, I see a familiar figure jump off the side and wade through the water to help pull the small boat close enough.
“Ace?” I say quietly.
“It’s us. We’re here.”
I shine the light towards them and watch as they all jump off the boat and drag their legs through the water. When they hit the sand, I move closer. This is the only time there isn’t surveillance on this side of the island. It shuts down for the guards to load all of the tapes for about an hour a night, and so this was the only chance of getting them on here without anyone noticing.
Walking over, I lean into Ace, slapping his back as he wraps an arm around me. “Good to see you, boss.”
“Yeah, you, too.”
“Is it all ready?” he asks, stepping back.
“Yeah, all set. I’ve wired a massive explosive to one of the cars in the middle of the island. I’ve got it connected to a trigger, when I press it, all the infrastructure of the island will blow, and they’ll have no use for it. It should shut it all down, nobody will want to pay the money to get it going again, not to mention the time it would take. We’d want to be a good distance away before I press it.”