Page 107 of The Island

“No, you haven’t!” Ivan said.

“I have. She come running at me with a bloody great knife and I knocked her on her arse,” Jacko said, licking his lips and leering at her triumphantly.

“Serious?”

“Fair dinkum, mate. She tried to get the drop on me and I got the drop on her!”

“Well done, mate! And you got both kids too?” Ivan asked.

“Her and the girl.”

“Ask her where the boy is,” Ivan said.

“Where’s the lad?” Jacko said.

“We separated. I told them to hide somewhere. I don’t know where he is,” Heather replied.

“Bollocks! Where is he?”

“We separated. I thought we’d have more of a chance.”

“Balls you did. You wouldn’t leave the bloody kids.”

“They’re not really my kids. They’re Tom’s. We’ve been married less than a year. I told them to hide and I’d get help. I didn’t mind separating. The kids hate me,” Heather said.

She said this with such passion that Jacko went for it for a few beats but then smiled a horrible graveyard smile and shook his head.

“Nah. It’s not you. Is he in the bush over there?”

“I don’t know where he is.”

Jacko put the walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Listen, mate, she says the boy isn’t with her. If you send a couple of lads over in the Toyota and bring one of the dogs, we’ll soon flush him out. We’ll have all of them in one bloody swoop.”

“Did you really get them or are you pissing us about?” Ivan asked.

“I got them! I saw the girl and ran her down, clobbered her, and this one comes at me with a knife. I got ’em both!”

“Well done, mate. We’ll be there. Over and out.”

Jacko put the walkie-talkie in his pocket and lifted the rifle and looked down the sight at her. “Tell the boy to come out or I’ll blow your bloody tits off.”

The Lee-Enfield was pressed against his shoulder. He was squinting at her with one eye closed, his finger on the trigger.

She shook her head.

“Big mistake. You know what we’re going to do with you? We’re going to rut you. Every man and boy on this island. Me first. And then it’s Terry’s anthill.”

Heather caught her breath as she saw Owen stand up from the undergrowth. He was holding a long tree branch in his hands, one of those brittle, dry eucalyptus branches that looked as if they would snap in half if you gripped them too hard. He was going to try to use it as a club or spear.

She tried to catch Owen’s eye. She didn’t want to shake her head, because if she did, Jacko would almost certainly spot the gesture and spin around, and, startled, he might pull the trigger.

“Your life is worth nothing out here, Heather. Not after what you done to Ellen. I could bloody kill you right now and nothing would happen. No cops. No nothing. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “I completely understand.”

Owen was walking closer. It was madness. That spindly branch would barely irritate Jacko if Owen got near enough to swing it.

She tried telepathy. Go back, go back, go back! Go back to the bush and run!