گرفتار

Chapter nine

Caught

‘Don’t shoot her, Mike.’ It was Mr John. ‘I want to talk to her first. Hey,’ he shouted at me. ‘You there! Stand up! Put your hands on your head!’

I was almost back on the beach now. I stood up. Mr John had a gun too. I put my hands on my head.

‘What are you doing here,’ he asked. ‘How did you get here? No-one saw you swim round the rock.’

‘Well, I did,’ I said. ‘I swam round the rock. How else could I get here?’

I wasn’t going to tell him that Takis knew you could swim under the rock.

‘I ask the questions,’ said Mr John. ‘But you weren’t swimming towards the beach just now,’ he said, ‘You were swimming away from it.’

‘I wanted to get away,’ I replied. ‘I didn’t know where I was going. I was afraid.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ said Mr John, ‘And I don’t think you’re as stupid as Mike thinks you are. But I haven’t got time for you now.’ Mr John turned to Mike. ‘Mike,’ he said, ‘tie up the woman and put Takis in the cave with her. We’ll come and get them tomorrow morning. We have to meet our friends tonight. I don’t want these two on the yacht when our friends arrive.’

Mike came and tied me up. I could see that he enjoyed doing it. He pushed me down onto the beach. I hit my head. It hurt.

Then someone carried Takis off the yacht onto the beach. Mike picked him up and pushed him down beside me. Then they took most of the boxes and put them onto the yacht, And the yacht left.

I didn’t know if Takis was dead or alive. It was getting darker now, but there was still just enough light to be able to see.

‘Takis,’ I said, quietly. ‘Takis!’ Takis opened his eyes. He looked terrible. There was blood on his face.

‘Liz,’ he said. But it was difficult for him to speak. His teeth were broken, And there was blood on his lips.

‘Why didn’t you go into the mine’ said Takis.

‘I wanted to help you,’ I said. ‘I had a knife. I thought I could cut you free.’

‘Have you still got the knife,’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Mike didn’t look in my pockets. But I can’t get it. My hands are tied behind my back.’

‘Maybe I can get to it,’ Takis said. He slowly sat up. I could see that it was difficult and that it hurt him.

‘Are you OK,’ I asked him.

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘My head hurts and my leg hurts. I think it’s broken. But I’ll do what I can.’

I moved round so that his hands were beside my pocket. It wasn’t easy for him to get the knife out of my pocket, but he did it. He opened the knife and cut himself free, And then he cut my hands free, too.

‘Now what do we do,’ I asked him. ‘We can’t sit and wait for them to come back. We have to get out of here.’

Takis tried to stand up but then fell down again.

‘I can’t stand,’ he said. ‘I’ll have to stay here. Get me a gun from that open box and then go, Run into the mines. Don’t let them find you!’

I went to the box and pulled out two guns. I gave one to Takis, but he couldn’t take it. There was blood on his shoulder.

‘I’m not leaving you,’ I told him.

‘Then they’ll kill both of us.’

‘Show me how to use the gun,’ I said. Takis showed me what to do.

‘They aren’t Greek are they, these men,’ I asked Takis. ‘No,’ said Takis. ‘They come from different countries.’

‘But why are they here in Greece?’

‘That’s a good question,’ said Takis. ‘You see,’ he began, ‘Greece is the centre of the world.’

I smiled.

‘Why are you smiling,’ he asked me.

‘It’s just that a friend of mine often says that.’ I thought of Stavros. I was never going to see Stavros again.

‘It’s true,’ said Takis. He drew a map in the sand with his finger. ‘Greece is here, in the centre. You have Russia and the Balkans here, and Africa here, and the Middle East is here,’ he said.

‘Greece is in the middle, And all the terrorists come here. And we don’t want them. It makes us very angry. We don’t want these people in our country. My job is to stop them.’

We talked a little. It wasn’t easy for Takis to talk because he was badly hurt. He needed to go to a hospital, but there was nothing I could do.

‘Do you have a wife,’ I asked Takis, ‘Children?’

‘No,’ Takis said, ‘Only my mother and father. I don’t think I could do this job if there were children in my life.’

‘Are you married,’ he asked me.

‘I was married,’ I told him.

So, we talked. Takis spoke very good English. He was also interested in archaeology and books and music. We were interested in lots of the same things. He told me about his own home which was in the north of Greece. I told him about my job and he told me about his.

‘I studied English at university,’ he said. ‘But I didn’t want to be a teacher.’ Then we started to talk about Greece.

After a while we stopped talking. Then Takis began to sing a song very quietly. It was an old song, a very unhappy song about dying. Greeks always sing. They sing when they are sad and when they are happy.

After an hour or two, I heard the yacht again.

‘They’re coming back,’ Takis said. He lay back on the ground, his hands behind his back.

The first one to come into the cave was Mike. He was smiling. I think he had the worst smile I have even seen. He turned his gun towards Takis.

‘Mr John has decided that he doesn’t need to talk to you. So, it’s goodbye.’