CHAPTER ELEVEN

Charlie's 'things to do' centred on a coral cay- a wondrous underwater world that made the bit of snorkelling they'd done on the wreck back on Bright Island seem like a Sunday snooze. The cay was teaming with wildlife, and the prospect of exploring it had even Hex looking mildly interested. The others were chomping at the bit and quick to don snorkels and flippers and stinger suits and slip off the back of the boat into the water. Charlie had stayed on board, tapping his foot and alternating between checking his watch and the horizon, until insisting that the teens get back on board and head below. They complied, but not without some measure of grumbling, and back in the saloon below deck set about organising some sandwiches out of what minimal supplies existed in the galley.

Li cast an annoyed glance towards the stairs and through the hatch that Charlie had closed after their descent. "He goes on about us staying out of the way, and how he has stuff to do, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything."

"Does he seem a bit twitchy?" Amber said.

"No more than he has before."

She didn't look entirely convinced, but lunch proved a more pressing concern than whether or not Charlie's behaviour was in the realms of unusual for him or not.

The teens settled in the saloon around the table, and silence rolled in as they ate. Li was the first to finish, woofing down her sandwich like it would struggle out of her grasp and escape if she took too much time between bites, and she immediately started fishing about for the deck of cards they'd used earlier. She had 'put them somewhere safe', a phrase she continued to mutter to herself as her unsuccessful hunt stretched on and on.

"We don't have to play a game all the time, Li," Alex said, hoping she would get the hint.

Standing in the middle of the lower deck, in front of the staircase, Li planted her hands on her hips. "What, you want to just sit here in silence? Or listen to those two argue?" She directed her last comment at Amber and Hex, nodding in their general direction. She headed for the second sitting area, off to her left. "I was sure I put them in-"

Crack.

A splash followed, almost in the same instant, but the teens barely registered it as a sound. Instinct had them hitting the floor- or, in the case of everyone still sitting in the saloon, bar Li, ducking and freezing, like terrified wildlife caught in the beam of a torch. In the pause that followed, the rumble of an outboard motor belonging to a boat that had pulled alongside The Sandpiper filtered down from above deck, along with the soft slap of waves hitting up against the hull.

The shot fired had been the only one, as had the splash that had followed. Charlie hadn't so much as shouted out, and six pairs of terrified eyes widened in a silent, unanimous understanding. The outboard was still idling, and it sounded like whatever it was attached to was bumping the boat. Footfalls followed, as a person- people boarded The Sandpiper.

"What do we do?" Stella- perhaps remembering the snake incident or maybe just finding Alex's face the most dependable in a room full of otherwise shaky options- delivered the question in a panicked hiss, coupled with an immediate searching look at Alex. She waited expectantly for an answer, and suddenly the others were looking at him too, none of them doubting for even a second that he would have a solution.

He didn't; not with a certainty, at least, that he'd want to bet on the lives of himself and five fourteen year olds he'd only known for a matter of days. He found himself cataloguing their earlier actions, desperately piecing together a mental timeline complete with physical markers. Had they packed away the snorkelling gear? Was it still piled up on the deck, in plain sight for the intruders to see? Towels? Stella had one wrapped around her hair, and Paulo's was draped over a chair in the saloon. Where were the others? Sitting next to the snorkel gear on the deck, like a shining beacon to order the intruders to search the boat and find the other passengers clearly on board?

If they lucked out, if the snorkelling stuff wasn't obvious on the deck, the unwelcome visitors might just not realise they were even below. The expensive stuff was above, anyway: the dive gear, radio, navigating equipment, it was all beyond the hatch that was the only thing baring the teens from the hostile arrivals above. Maybe they wouldn't even bother looking below. Maybe they'd be fine where they were.

Alex wasn't keen on taking the chance, though. "Hide," he said, slipping along the bench, shoving Amber ahead of him.

On the opposite side of the U shaped seating area, Paulo copied his motions on Hex and Stella.

"Not in the storage area," Alex added, stopping Li as she spun and went to seek out a spot in exactly that location. "If they're going to ransack the place, that'll be the first spot they'll look."

It made sense, but unfortunately it also left them with few options. The boat's living quarters were small and without much cover. Doors separated the cabins, shower and toilet area from the main space, but behind those doors hiding opportunities were thin on the ground. They just had to do the best that they could, and Alex was the last to melt out of sight in the second single cabin just as the hatch at the top of the staircase opened.

He held his breath as footsteps descended the steps, just metres in front of him, a thin door all that shielded him from the eyes of whichever one of the intruders that had come below deck to scope out the place. Just as those steps quietened, softened now by the marine grade carpet cladding the floor, another set started clunking on the steps.

Overhead, on the deck above, Alex thought he could pick out a couple of other sets of footsteps; so definitely multiple hostiles. Good to know, of course, but not a positive piece of information to discover. All they could do was stay hidden, keep quiet, and hope that whoever the intruders were, that they'd leave without discovering the terrified teens tucked away below deck.

A sudden, piercing scream shattered any illusions of a non-confrontational resolution that might have been in the possibility of being entertained. The first- and, really, only- thought across Alex's mind was to burst out of the cabin, hopefully succeeding in capturing the intruders off guard and giving the teens… What, exactly? A slight, temporary advantage against violent, armed criminals who probably had already murdered Charlie and left his body for fish food?

There was nothing else to hold onto, though, so he did as instinct dictated and exploded from the cabin, whirling on the balls of his feet, more defensive than ready to attack as his eyes raked the space, piecing together what was going on.

The scream had come from Amber, who'd been pulled from the second single cabin, tucked behind the saloon. She was on the ground, her legs folded beneath her like she'd been knocked off her feet, and a man loomed over her, Amber's wrist gripped in one of his large hands.

The surprise part of Alex's 'plan' (although the term was indeed used at its loosest) worked; the man did indeed look shocked, no doubt still recovering from the discovery of Amber and now adding Alex's sudden appearance to the growing sense of surprise. The emotion etched even deeper into his harsh features as, one by one, the remaining four teens materialised from their hiding spots. For a moment, the man holding onto Amber looked almost worried, like he was perhaps rethinking his morning's choice of activities, but then Alex felt the hard barrel of a gun pressing flush to his temple, and the unease on the first man's face was replaced by a far harder, almost victorious smirk.

Ah. Yes. The second guy. Alex had forgotten about him. Momentary advantage lost.

"Walk," a low voice ordered in Alex's ear, accompanied by the gun barrel digging into his temple and a rough shove in the small of his back.

As soon as they were in the centre of the room, the man behind Alex beckoned for Li to come closer. She hesitated, but only until she caught Alex's wince as the gun was once again ground into the side of his head. The implication was clear.

"Okay, okay," she muttered. "Keep your shirt on."

As soon as she drew level, Alex was shoved away, traded in favour of Li. Alex spun quickly, as soon as he felt the man's clammy hands break contact, and was just in time to see Li seized and subjected to the same treatment he'd been enduring. The change of hostage seemed somewhat pointless, but Alex figure that the men had decided two of the girls would be easier to control, and provide better leverage for co-operation out of the others. They were somewhat right on one account; Amber wasn't moving a muscle, and she hadn't so much as made a murmur since the blood curdling scream she'd unleashed before that had pulled everyone from hiding.

Li, however…

Alex watched, heart in his mouth, as Li shifted onto the balls of her feet. Her movements seemed so slight, so delicate, that the man didn't even seem to notice; he was busy jerking his head at the other three teens hovering in the doorway of the quad share cabin in the bow, directing with his wide chin where he wanted them lined up.

Li's face was set and determined, and Alex knew exactly what her next idiotic move was going to be. Don't, he mouthed, as he caught her eye.

She ignored him.

Lulled into the false sense of security that his weapon combined with Li's gender and tiny stature provided, and distracted with his marshalling of the other teens, the man didn't see it coming. Before anyone could even think of reacting, Li had ducked her head out of the direct firing line, her hand snaking up to seize the man's thick wrist in her slender fingers. Her grip didn't even come close to meeting around the man's beefy wrist, but she didn't need to have more than a superficial hold anyway. She spun around behind the man, dragging his arm with her as she forced the limb up against his back at an angle that had his tendons singing and socket bulging. On reflex, the man's grip loosened on the gun, and a second later Li had turned the tables, gun now in her hand and aimed squarely at the man's head. Her aim was shaking, she looked well out of her depth, but she had the upper hand.

The man recovered from the shock quicker than the teens did, none of them having foreseen Li's plan actually working. Their collective hopes were dashed a second later, though, as the man looming over Amber produced his own weapon. He didn't even bother aiming it at anyone; the point was clear. Only one group had the upper hand, and it wasn't the teenagers.

Scowling fiercely, Li tossed the gun to the floor. The man she'd stolen it off snatched it up, then backhanded Li across the face for her effort. The blow caught her off guard and sent her stumbling as Paulo hurled a string of Spanish expletives at the men.

"Shut up," the man snapped. Clearly his pride was more than a little dented; a pixie of a fourteen year old girl had just managed to disarm him. That smarted.

He shoved Li at Paulo, then headed for the stairs, climbing them without a backwards glance. He hovered at the top with his gun pointed down at them below deck.

The second man hauled Amber to her feet and nudged her towards the steps. She glanced warily up at the armed guy waiting at the top; was this the final steps to their execution? Were they just waiting to get them above deck to shoot them and toss them overboard like they had with Charlie?

The gun in her back said that even if that were the case, it still remained her only option. Swallowing the lump in her throat, setting her expression and forcing all thoughts of terror and anger from her mind, Amber ascended the staircase in a manner that would have made a Disney princess look like a drunk ice skater. Alex half expected her to hastily tell the man waiting at the top something about her lawyer being told exactly what had transpired on the boat, but thankfully (and unlike Li) common sense prevailed and her mouth stayed firmly shut. For a change.

Li seemed to have learnt her lesson- although she didn't look happy about it- and Paulo seemed more concerned with her than picking a fight with the guys. So long as Li behaved herself, he probably wouldn't prove a potential loose cannon. Stella looked like she was trying to channel a chameleon and mould herself into the wood panelling; definitely no fight there. Alex would never have been so stupid as to do anything that might piss off the guys with the guns, which only left Hex: definitely the worrying wild card. So far he'd been quiet, but his face was stoney and Alex was certain that his silence thus far was less down to smart choices and more that none of the intruders had paid much attention to him yet.

Li was next up the steps, followed by Paulo, all under the watchful eyes of the second man who, after pushing Amber up the steps, had stepped to one side to monitor the others. Hex slipped into line behind Paulo, and Alex beat Stella into his footsteps.

"Don't do anything stupid," he warned Hex quietly.

Hex snorted. "I'm not an idiot."

"I know, but what Li just did: that was stupid. Don't do anything like that. Or anything similar. Or anything at all."

"I'm not a closet ninja."

"Hex-"

They were up on deck and Alex immediately took stock of the situation. He'd been right about the multiples: in addition to the two men who'd retrieved them from below deck, there were two who'd stayed up top, one up in the cockpit and one on the deck. The last remnants of the pirate theory Alex had been entertaining vanished. The men were all very white, clearly Australian going off the accents, and looked more like four mates out on a fishing trip- except generally people on such a trip wouldn't be taking guns with them.

The boat was moving away from the cay; not very far or fast, but despite all the teens instantly scanning the water for signs of Charlie, there were none to be found. A RHIB bobbed along in The Sandpiper's wake, tethered to the dive boat with a thick rope. One of the men who'd stayed above deck had his hand on the knot, like he was making absolutely certain that the RHIB was going nowhere without him knowing about it. At his feet sat a large black duffle bag.

Alex could only just hold in his groan as he felt, rather than saw, Hex's curiosity pique. He was shoved to the ground beside the hacker, and a swift, subtle elbow into Hex's ribs got him on the end of an irritated frown from the Londoner.

"What was that for?" Hex hissed.

Alex didn't answer. He'd only wanted to pull Hex's focus from the duffel bag- admittedly, undoubtedly, an intriguing and suspicious duffle bag, but drawing attention to the fact that they'd noticed it would certainly not help their cause.

"Where'd they come from?" the guy guarding the RHIB and bag asked, shifting his head to eyeball the row of teenagers now sitting up against the air canisters opposite him. "He was supposed to be alone."

"Shut up." That man's phrase of choice, perhaps.

"But-"

"I said shut up, Max." His tone left no room for negotiation and duffle bag watcher- Max- meekly did as instructed.

Having been relieved from the cockpit by one of his newly returned companions, the second man who'd been left up on deck moved from teen to teen, binding their wrists with rope and deftly crafted knots. He avoided their eyes, almost like if he didn't look into the kids' faces, what was happening to them- what might be happening to them in the not too distant future- might not occur; or, at least, he could feel less a part of it.

It was clear who was in charge. Max, the capable knot tier, and the one who'd held Amber at gunpoint and was now captaining the boat, all seemed almost out of their depth and were looking for their answers and direction to the man keen on silence- although, judging by his own tense expression and equally as wired movements, he was about as capable of providing those as the other three were. The six teenagers had put a massive spanner in the works, and none of them really seemed sure what to do about that.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Alex noticed Hex's interest in the bag returning. Before he had a chance to run interference again, the hacker looked Max straight in the eye and enquired, "What's in the bag?"

A dull thud, like someone's head bumping into the side of the boat, came from Amber's end of the line. Alex would have echoed it if he hadn't been frozen in horrified anticipating of what might come next: a reaction from the men, or yet more probing and unwelcome questions from Hex.

The RHIB, the cay, the guns, the bag, the four guys on the boat, Charlie's twitchy behaviour, the fact that he was probably contributing to the ecosystem below them: it all spelt out 'drugs' in massive letters, lit up on top of a building with lights and flashing signs. Asking what was in the duffel bag- particularly in such a plainly obnoxious way- was basically the same as requesting a prompt burial at sea.

Instead of snapping out the 'shut up' he'd opted to use for the last two rounds of unwelcome interruptions, the leader stepped closer to Hex, crouching down in front of him. As Hex's face stayed poker straight, without so much as a twitch under the man's scrutiny, Alex decided that the brown haired fourteen year old beside him was either really brave, or really stupid.

The guy still had his gun out, and there were several sharp intakes of breath from along the line as the man twitched his hand. Even Hex looked marginally rattled, but their fears proved unfounded. Before anyone could move, the man had snatched Hex's palmtop pouch from his waist, snapping the clip as Hex shouted an indignant, "Hey!"

"What's in your bag?" the man said.

"None of your business."

"Precisely." Despite his answer, the man unzipped the pouch attached to the now broken waist band and fished the small computer out. He weighed the device in his hand and turned it over, inspecting it.

As Hex watched, forlorn and powerless to intervene, the man shrugged, unimpressed with the confiscated technology, and tossed it overboard without a second's thought.

"No!" Hex struggled against his tethers, glowering at the now smirking man. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"Shut up," he said conversationally, and turned his back on them.