His voice seemed to come from far away and there was a slight echo to it. ‘Thinking.’
‘About what?’
‘Leaving you here and negotiating. You’ll never get up that rock face.’
That made me wonder about Twizell and the backpacker but it was no time for wondering.
‘Forget it, Jack. Half the money’s with me. They’d send you down for it or Templeton’d come after it himself and I’m in no state to fight him. He’d leave me here and you’d have done your last cave for sure. The odds are in favour of not upsetting them. I don’t like it any more than you do, but...’
The beam flicked away.
‘Yeah, yeah. Come up. You can’t live forever, right?’
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but he let go of the rope and I went up more easily than I’d thought I could. We stood together looking down the narrow, lower and wet rest of the way out.
‘When you’re caving,’ Twizell said, ‘you have options— left or right, up or down, go on or go back. You know?’
‘Yeah, like in life, but not right now.’
We went on; I crouched where I had to and ploughed through the mud towards the clean air and the light.
~ * ~
26
Twizell propped at the entrance and I had to push him to get out. I hadn’t expected anything good, but I hadn’t anticipated anything like what I saw when I lurched through into the light. Three men in tracksuits wearing balaclavas and carrying pistols stood about twenty metres away. Hector and Templeton were on their knees in front of them with their hands behind their heads.
The one in the middle gestured with his pistol. ‘Come on out, boys, and join the party. Have to say you don’t look so good.’
Twizell and I were wet and muddied to our knees. We moved forward.
‘Take off the backpacks and put them on the ground.’
‘Who the fuck are you?’ Twizell said.
‘All in good time. Do it.’
We did it. He waved one of his companions, who, unlike the others, was wearing gloves, forward. He put his pistol on the ground, knelt and undid the Velcro fasteners and lifted out a block from each of the backpacks. Then he shoved them back in.
‘Good,’ the one who was doing the talking said. The third man, a big guy, handed his gun to the one who’d opened the backpacks, lifted both bags by their straps and walked away. I tracked him as he moved past the Bobcat and the SUV. The Mitsubishi sagged to one side on slashed tyres.
Templeton let his hands drop but he didn’t stand up. The spokesman barked an order which Templeton ignored. ‘Don’t you get it, Jack? They’re the ones who lifted the money in the first place.’
‘Shit,’ Twizell said.
‘That’s not very eloquent,’ the leader said, ‘but that’s right. That’s who we are. You caused us a lot of trouble.’
‘How did you know Twizell had moved the money?’ I said.
The leader laughed and his gun didn’t move a fraction. ‘Johnnie here got on the gunja when he was inside and told someone what he should have kept to himself. Just once, but we heard about it.’
‘Fuck,’ Twizell said. ‘How did you track us here?’
‘We’ve kept tabs on you from the minute you got out.’
‘The helicopter,’ I said.
‘Right, and bugs in certain cars,’
Templeton started to rise. ‘Who cares?’ He looked challengingly at me, inviting me to make a move, risk casualties, upset the controlled scene. The other man moved quickly; he kicked the back of Templeton’s right knee, collapsing him.
‘Bad idea,’ the leader said, ‘but marks for guts.’
He lowered his pistol and shot Hector in the back of the neck, Chinese execution style.
Twizell yelped. Hector twitched twice and lay still. Twizell threw up. I shut my eyes for a split second then turned to look at the shooter. He’d lost interest and shook his head at Templeton and me.
‘Just him. Old score settled,’ he said. ‘You lot keep cool and you’ll be all right. Now, my friend with the money’s got a rifle with a scope in his hands by now and he can hit your left or right ball at this distance. Stay cool and we’re out of here and no one gets hurt.’
I looked down at Hector.
‘He was nothing,’ the leader said.
The two of them put their pistols away and spread out as they backed off to give the guy with the rifle a clear field of fire. Templeton got to his feet. There was a sharp report and a bullet clipped the trees just above where we stood. A motor started. Birds flew up at the noise and then there was silence.