"You have to go," said Turner to the girls with a croaking whisper, not even looking at them.
"What's going on? We were just getting started," said the blonde in a squeaky but well-heeled Afrikaans accent. "Is someone there?"
"We usually stay longer. We better get paid the full amount!" said the brunette in the same tone of voice. Although, from the looks on their faces, Lundt doubted they were interested in staying at all.
"Just go!" Turner said impatiently, his voice high-pitched. "Your money's on the table. Take it and get out!"
In a flurry of lingerie, exposed flesh and long limbs, the two girls gathered their earnings and clothes. They fled in obvious relief, leaving Turner naked in the centre of the room. He didn't know which way to look, when, waiting a few moments to be sure that the girls had left the house, Lundt emerged from hiding.
"Get some clothes on, Porky," said Lundt. "You're making me sick." "To hell with you," Turner spat the words as he fumbled around, pulling
on trousers and a shirt. He winced as the glass burrowed deeper into his foot. "I must see to this; must put something on it."
He started towards the bathroom. Lundt stepped in front of him, screwing a silencer onto the barrel of the Glock. When he levelled the gun, it was pointing straight at Turner's crotch.
"Wrap a sock around it; you're not going to bleed to death. Not yet, anyway. Sit down!"
Turner balked at the command, then, with gritted teeth, slumped back into the nearest chair, beaten. Lundt took up a chair opposite him with his back to the wall, keeping the whole room in sight. The gun never shifted from its fixed aim. A strengthening breeze rattled against the windows.
Lundt lazily lit himself a cigarette.
Turner's dark eyes remained transfixed, s1zmg up the man whom he barely knew, but who had figured so prominently in his life of late. Turner feared and detested the man. He was abrupt, brash and arrogant - a loose cannon, prone to violence without provocation. At their first meeting, Turner felt an immediate reluctance in his gut to proceed with the collaboration. He should have taken heed. Back then, Victor Lundt had presented an opportunity too good to be true. He had the connections and the guns. He was a means to an end, nothing more. But the prospect of discovery had nagged Turner from the outset. He had gladly washed his hands of Lundt after Malfajiri. He thought it was all done - the coup had happened, the government in ruins. And Turner had managed to ease out, having made his money with no one the wiser, except for Lundt and Cornell. Of course, they were outsiders. Not from the company.
But now Lundt had re-entered his life and Turner was back to square one.
"So," said Lundt, breaking the silence and blowing a cloud of smoke out of the side of his mouth. "University prostitutes with huge fake tits! Now, what would the board of directors at Alga Creek say about that?"
"What do you want, Lundt? Money? There's some in the safe. Take it all and leave me alone. I'm done with it. Done with you!"
"That's tough talk for a man with a gun pointed at his bollocks." Lundt smiled across the barrel. "Maybe you haven't grasped the magnitude of the situation, Turner. I'm not here for your small change."
"So, what are you here for then?" asked Turner. "Is the gun necessary?" 'I'm concerned that you've been letting the side down."
"I've been letting the side down?"
"You see, it was too coincidental that I was tracked down by someone outside of my old firm."
"This is outrageous!" Turner's face was beetroot red. "Who tracked you down? All I remember is that you vanished when you launched the coup. I assumed that's the way you wanted it to be. I've not breathed a word to anybody. I've a lot at stake too, you know."
"I think you're bullshitting. Are you bullshitting me, Turner?" Lundt didn't wait for an answer. There was no emotion in the tone of his voice, or in his manner. "I think you're just the type - when things get a bit rough
- you'll sing like a canary if it'll save your own miserable skin."
"Why would I?" Turner protested, "I was sticking to the plan. I kept everything tight at the Head Office, even when those new people arrived from London - Morgan and that woman. I told you straight away they were the law."
"Yes, Morgan," emphasised Lundt. "He happened to walk straight in on me while I was concluding some business with our friends. How do you explain that? Or, maybe it's your friend, Cornell? Perhaps you two are in this together, trying to get insurance by hanging me out to dry. I mean, you've got to admit ... of all the places in the middle of all that hell, Morgan found me. It was like he'd had a premonition. Now me, I don't believe in any of that shit. I do believe, however, that there are people in this world who would willingly sell out their business partners just as soon as shake their hands, if it means saving their own necks."