The man shot her a contemptuous look. ‘Yeah, and go where? There’s an electric fence out there and then two miles of mined ocean, if you hadn’t fucking noticed.’
‘So what’s
your
plan?’ asked Logan.
The man hesitated, then to their surprise the question was answered by a voice on the far side of the room.
‘I’m thinking maybe we should hear
your
plan first.’
They turned to see a man rising from behind the row of steel serving units off to their left. Another prisoner, this man was tall and skinny, his inquisitive fox-like face and dark-framed spectacles giving him a studious air. In contrast to his colleague with the knife he seemed calm and composed, though Sam got the immediate impression that beneath his cool exterior his mind was working away, that even now he was assessing the situation and how best to turn it to his advantage.
The man with the knife gaped at the skinny guy. ‘What the fuck you doing? What you showing yourself for?’
The skinny guy shot the knife-man an almost dismissive look. ‘I thought an exchange of information might be mutually beneficial.’
‘But we coulda got their guns!’ protested the knife-man.
The skinny guy smirked and jerked his head at Purna. ‘That one would never have given up her gun. She’s too pragmatic for that. And too ruthless.’ He gave a thin smile. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’
Instead of answering his question, Purna asked, ‘Are there just the two of you?’
The man smiled again, as if this was not a tense stand-off between two groups of desperate people, but simply a game of strategy. Glancing down to either side of him, he murmured, ‘Gentlemen?’
Bemusedly, bad-temperedly, more men in orange overalls began to rise up on both sides of the skinny guy – three on his right and four on his left, making nine prisoners in all.
‘Do you want us to put up our hands?’ the skinny guy asked mildly.
Again Purna ignored him. Glancing to her right she said pointedly, ‘Xian Mei, check there’s no one else hiding down there. They could be keeping a couple of men in reserve. We wouldn’t want to be lulled into a false sense of security, would we?’
The skinny guy chuckled as Xian Mei nodded and moved forward.
‘Do I need to say that if anyone tries to grab Xian Mei’s gun I’ll shoot them?’ Purna added.
The skinny guy looked amused. ‘No. I don’t think you do.’
‘All clear,’ Xian Mei called a few seconds later.
‘Good,’ said Purna. ‘In that case, gentlemen, I think we’ll have you out here. Why not make yourselves comfortable at one of these tables so we can chat?’
The men resentfully shuffled out from behind the counter and sat at the table she had indicated. When they were all seated, the skinny guy nodded at the knife-man and said, ‘You asked my friend his name earlier.’
Purna nodded. ‘He was reluctant to give it.’
‘He’s cripplingly shy,’ said the skinny guy, ‘whereas I am not. My name’s Kevin. I won’t embarrass either of us by offering you my hand. So what’s
your
name?’ He gave Purna a piercing look.
‘Purna,’ she told him.
‘Purna.’ He rolled the word around in his mouth as though tasting it. ‘That’s a new one on me.’
‘It’s Australian,’ she said. ‘I’m half Aborigine.’
‘How exotic,’ said Kevin. ‘So tell me, Purna, why are you and your friends here?’
Purna looked at him for a long moment, as though deciding what – if anything – she should tell him. Then she said, ‘We were contacted by a man called Ryder White. He told us that if we could make our way to this island, he could get access to a helicopter and get us all out of here.’
Kevin regarded her shrewdly. ‘Why should White help
you
?’
‘His wife’s sick,’ replied Sam. ‘We got something for him.’
‘Oh? And what’s that?’
‘A vaccine. We hope,’ said Purna.
‘You hope?’
‘It hasn’t been properly tested,’ she admitted.
‘We had a whole bunch of stuff going on at the time,’ added Logan. ‘We just never got round to it.’
Kevin glanced at the other prisoners, who were sitting stoically, allowing him to do the talking. ‘Maybe we
can
help each other,’ he said.
‘No offence, but how can
you
help
us
?’ said Sam.
‘I’m pretty sure Ryder White will be holed up in Sector Seven,’ Kevin said.
Xian Mei nodded. ‘Sector Seven, yes. That’s where he said we had to make for.’
‘In that case, I can show you the way there,’ said Kevin, ‘though in return I’d need a guarantee from you that as part of the deal for the vaccine you get White to agree to safe passage for myself and my friends off the island. As things stand, we’re trapped in here and rapidly running out of food and water, and no one seems to know or care. From the little I’ve been able to glean, I gather the situation on Banoi isn’t much better – in which case I doubt we’ll be high on anyone’s list of priorities.’
‘We don’t need you to show us the way,’ said Sam. ‘We got Ryder White to do that.’
Kevin sighed. ‘In that case, let me put it another way. If you don’t help us I’ll order Rafa there to cut your friend’s throat.’
‘He does that, we’ll shoot the lot of you,’ retorted Logan.
Kevin raised his eyebrows. ‘Will you really? You’d be prepared to gun down nine men in cold blood? If so, then frankly you’d be doing us a favour. Better to die quickly in a hail of bullets than slowly from starvation.’
Purna sighed. ‘No one needs to die. You described me as ruthless earlier, but I wouldn’t leave you to starve to death. You have my word on that.’
‘Your word,’ said Kevin. ‘Well, that’s wonderful. I’m sure that has set
all
our minds at rest.’
A couple of the prisoners sniggered.
‘Why not ring White now?’ Xian Mei suggested.
‘Yeah, do the deal so
everyone
can hear,’ added Logan.
Purna shrugged, took out her phone and punched in White’s number. All that came through, however, was static. She tried again with the same result.
‘Shit, I can’t get through,’ she said.
‘How
convenient
,’ mocked Kevin.
‘So how’s he gonna help you get through to Sector Seven now?’ one of the other prisoners said snidely.
Purna glanced at him. ‘He’s monitoring our progress on
CCTV
, unlocking doors for us as we reach them.’
Kevin looked thoughtful. Finally he said, ‘All righty, here’s what’s going to happen. We’ll keep your friend there as insurance just in case you decide to run out on us. Don’t worry, she won’t come to any harm. You have my personal guarantee on that.’
Hearing his words, Jin whimpered. Sam said, ‘No way. She’s coming with us.’
Kevin raised his hands and said mildly, ‘Now come on, be reasonable. Do you honestly think—’
‘Fuck reasonable!’ barked Sam.
Raising a hand to take the heat out of the exchange, Purna explained, ‘We tried that once before. It didn’t work out for any of the parties concerned.’
Kevin sighed. ‘If
this
particular girl is the issue, then we’ll happily take that one.’ He nodded at Yerema.
‘No way.’ Sam shook his head. ‘We all stay together. No one gets left behind.’
Kevin pursed his lips, his brow furrowing slightly as if he were puzzling out a tricky conundrum. ‘In that case, that leaves only one alternative.’
‘Oh yeah? And what’s that?’ said Logan.
‘I’ll tag along personally. Make sure you do the deed.’
There was a rumble of discontent among the prisoners sitting around the table. One, a heavy-set black man with elaborate swirls shaved into the stubble at the side of his head, said, ‘What good that do? Soon as you leave this room, they shoot you dead.’
Kevin shook his head, his eyes never leaving Purna’s. ‘No,’ he said quietly, ‘I really don’t think they will. This one is the most dangerous, but she’s not dishonest. In fact, she’s a woman of
honour
.’
‘How you know that?’ said the black man.
Kevin flashed a smile that was almost charming. ‘I’m an excellent judge of character.’
‘What about the crazies?’ said another of the prisoners, a raddled, balding man in his fifties with a prominent Adam’s apple.
‘What do you think these are?’ Logan said, brandishing his gun. ‘Designer accessories?’
‘There’re too many of those things out there,’ said a rat-like man with spiky yellow hair. ‘They bite you, they even
drool
on you, you’re fucked, dude.’
‘Not us,’ said Sam. ‘We’re immune.’ He rolled up the leg of his jeans, peeled back the bandage on his calf and showed them his bite. ‘Check it out.’
There were murmurs both of wonder and disquietude. ‘You
all
immune?’ said the big black guy.
‘All except for Jin,’ said Purna. ‘Speaking of which …’
‘Oh, of course. Sorry,’ said Kevin. He raised a hand and flicked a finger. ‘Unhand the young lady please, Rafa.’
Rafa did so, albeit reluctantly, and Jin gasped and dashed forward, all but collapsing into Xian Mei’s arms.
‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ Rafa muttered.
‘Yes, well, thinking’s never been your strong suit, has it, Rafa?’ Kevin said, eliciting a few titters from the other men.
He stood up slowly, then clapped his hands together and smiled, like a vicar contemplating a church outing.
‘Right then,’ he said. ‘Shall we go?’
‘SO WHAT’S
DIRECTLY
behind this door?’
‘Let me draw you a diagram,’ Kevin said in answer to Purna’s question. ‘Rafa, if I could borrow your knife for a moment?’
Eyeing Purna, Sam and the rest of the group with the sullen resentment of a small boy who fears he is about to have his favourite toy taken away from him, Rafa pulled the knife from his belt and passed it across the table to Kevin.
‘Thank you,’ Kevin said, and turned briefly to beam at Purna. Waving the knife casually he said, ‘I promise I won’t try anything silly with this. Just in case you were wondering.’
‘I wasn’t,’ Purna replied.
Smirking as if at some private joke, Kevin turned back to the table and began to scratch a pattern into its surface with the knife’s tip. Working patiently and laboriously he said, ‘It’s ironic, isn’t it, that because pens and pencils are regarded as dangerous weapons in our sweaty little hands, I have to resort to using a knife as a writing implement. What a crazy world we live in.’
When he was finished he passed the knife back to Rafa and stood back, revealing his handiwork with a flourish. Purna glanced suspiciously at the seated men before stepping forward. What Kevin had drawn was a series of five circles – two at the top and two at the bottom, with a smaller one in the middle – linked by a series of spokes she assumed were corridors. A longer spoke leading away from the central circle led to a sixth circle on the right.
‘If I may explain?’ said Kevin, holding up his hands to show he had nothing in them.
‘Go ahead,’ said Purna.
‘Although it doesn’t look it from the outside,’ Kevin said, ‘the interior of the prison is built “in the round”, by which I mean the cell areas and the dayroom areas are circular. Apparently this design functions more efficiently as an incarcerating facility. There are no shadowy corners, which means that sight lines are clear and there’s a better view of all that goes on. Now, we’re currently in this area,’ he pointed at the top left-hand circle, ‘though as you can see
this
particular room isn’t round, because it’s simply one element of the space – a square within a circle, so to speak.’ He looked up and smiled. ‘Still with me so far?’
‘Go on,’ muttered Purna.
‘We need to get to Sector Seven, which is here.’ His finger moved across to the larger circle on the right. ‘This is the tower you can see from Banoi, and it’s connected to the rest of the facility primarily by this long corridor here. However, although this is the most direct route, it will also be the most populated. What I propose, therefore, is that we move diagonally across the central Panopticon here, and down to the door leading into the high-security section through here.’ He pointed at the lower right-hand circle. ‘There is access through a corridor here into the lower left quadrant of the tower. Where we’re aiming for is here.’ He indicated a cross at the end of the long corridor, which extended almost halfway into the right-hand circle depicting the tower.
‘What’s that?’ asked Purna.
‘A lift,’ said Kevin. ‘It will take us up into the operating heart of the facility. And that’s where we need to be. That’s Sector Seven.’
Purna studied the diagram carefully. ‘Explain the layout of these circular areas to me,’ she said.
‘They’re very simple,’ said Kevin. ‘Cells on four levels around the outside and a large central area in the middle where inmates congregate during the day. Right in the middle of each central area, like the hub of a wheel, is a security tower, maybe ten metres high. The tower has a door at the bottom, opening on to steps which lead up to a panoramic viewing area.’
‘Are there individual windows?’ Purna asked.
Kevin nodded and narrowed his eyes, visualizing it. ‘Eight in all, I think.’
‘And can they be opened?’
‘I don’t know. I guess.’ He smirked again. ‘I’ve never been up there. I’m an observ
ee
not an observ
er
.’
‘I’m guessing these areas will be crawling with the infected?’ said Logan.
Kevin nodded almost gleefully. ‘Oh, absolutely
swarming
with them.’
‘What do you think our chances are of getting through?’ asked Xian Mei.
‘Honestly? I’d say the chances of us
all
making it through are slim. We’d have to run very fast and shoot very accurately. And even then some of us would probably be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.’
‘Yet you’re still prepared to come with us,’ said Purna suspiciously.
Kevin looked at her without blinking. ‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘’Cos he crazy,’ muttered the black man.
Kevin looked pained. ‘Thank you, Clarence, for that pithy character assassination.’ He turned the full force of his gaze on Purna. ‘Because I honestly think you’re our only chance of survival, minimal though that may be. And because I’d rather go down fighting than sit here and rot.’