Spike barks.
‘Yeah, yeah.’ It prompts Corey to tie the ends of rope together. He whispers: ‘The weasel pops out of the hole and runs around the tree and jumps into — into —’ He stops, still has no idea what the weasel jumps into.
Spike barks.
Corey stares at the half-tied knot. ‘Again with the hole. I can’t see any hole.’
Judd turns from his search, clearly frustrated. ‘You still doing that?’
‘Just deciding which knot to use.’
‘One that won’t come loose.’
‘Yep, that’s what I was — thinking.’ Corey stares at the half-tied knot.
Judd grabs the rope from his hands. ‘You’re wasting time.’
‘Hey!’
Judd ties the knot so quickly Corey doesn’t see how it’s done. ‘How’d you do that?’
Judd ignores the question. ‘I need you to help me find the satellite phone.’
‘What? No, we’re going.’
Judd exhales. ‘I’ll show you how to tie the knot if you help.’
‘Okay. Show me.’
Judd resumes the search. ‘After we find it.’
‘How do you know there’s a phone here?’
Judd nods at Doug. ‘He said there was.’
‘Was that before or after he tried to kill you?’
‘Well, ahhh — before.’
‘So he could have said that so you’d do what he wanted, like follow him into the room where he tried to kill you?’
Judd sees his point. ‘Yes. But I still have to look.’ He continues searching.
Corey turns to Doug. ‘Where’s the satellite phone?’
‘Fuck off.’
‘Charming.’
Spike barks.
Corey looks at him. ‘I’m not putting the gun in his mouth.’
Another bark.
‘I’m sure there’s nothing like steel clinking against teeth to jog a memory but I’m not doing it. It’s important to maintain certain standards.’
Doug watches the conversation between man and dog with growing concern.
Another bark.
Corey sighs, takes a moment, then draws the pistol from his belt. ‘Fine, but I don’t feel good about it —’
‘Found it!’
Judd pulls a satellite phone and a backpack out of a small cupboard on the far wall. He empties the pack’s contents onto the control desk. There’s not much inside: two bottles of water and a folded map of the Northern Territory. The phone is a chunky Globalstar 1600. Judd flips out its fat antenna and works the keypad. The screen lights up, and so does Judd’s face. ‘Works.’
A sharp beep emanates from the open MacBook Pro. Judd realises it’s important because Doug immediately reacts to it. The astronaut moves to the laptop and swipes a finger across its trackpad. Its blank screen blinks to life, shows a circular black and green radar grid overlaying a topographical map. The sweep refreshes the screen every two seconds. Judd takes it in. ‘The dish is feeding it real-time data.’
A small blip curves across the screen. Every time the sweep passes over it, its position is updated. Judd studies it.
Corey moves beside him. ‘What’s that?’
‘The shuttle. It’s coming down now. It’ll land in fifteen minutes, give or take.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘It’s performing an S-turn, to shed speed before landing.’
Corey takes it in, astonished. ‘That thing is, is —’
‘Moving at 13000 kilometres an hour.’
The blip travels off the edge of the screen. Judd puts an index finger on the point where it left the screen then drags it in a looping journey that proscribes what he believes will be the shuttle’s flight path as it completes Terminal Area Energy Management manoeuvres to slow it down, then curves around the Heading Alignment Cylinder to pass Waypoint One, then Waypoint Two, until it lines up with the runway. His finger stops at a point on the screen. ‘Here. Where is this?’ Judd unfolds the map, spreads it out. ‘On the map.’
Corey studies the screen, then looks at the map, then the screen again, tries his best to identify the topographical representations, then looks back at the map again, jabs a position. ‘Here?’ He doesn’t say it with a lot of conviction. The place has no name, it’s just a rust-red smear on a map full of rust-red smears.
‘There’re no mountains or valleys or anything? It’s flat, right?’
‘As a pancake.’
‘How far away is it? In the chopper.’
Corey looks at him uncertainly. ‘Ten minutes, give or take. Why?’
‘We have to leave now.’
‘I knew you were gonna say that.’
‘Come on! We gotta go.’
‘Sorry. No. I only stayed so you’d teach me how to tie the knot.’
‘I have to know where it lands.’
‘You know where. Here.’ Corey presses his finger into the map.
‘Exactly where it lands.’
‘‘Exactly where I’m pointing to on the map.’
‘You didn’t sound so sure before.’
‘Well, I am now.’
‘I need visual confirmation.’
‘I’m not going out there, mate. If that’s where they’re gonna land then there’ll be more like these two.’ He nods at Petra and Doug. ‘Forget it. I got more than I bargained for on this job already.’
‘Please, we don’t have much time.’
Corey fastens his eyes on Judd and speaks slowly: ‘Have you not been paying attention? They tried to kill us. No, they went out of their way to kill us — over and over. We should be flying away from them, not towards them.’
Judd unclips the PloProf from his wrist, holds it out to him. ‘It’s worth five grand US, minimum.’
‘I don’t want your expensive watch, I want to live, and going out there will greatly decrease that possibility. Now just ring your mates, tell them what you know and call it a night. Really, for your own health.’
Judd exhales, anger fused with frustration. ‘I’ll call them when we’re on the way but I need to know exactly where it lands.’
‘Why?’
Judd stares at Corey. ‘Why do you think? I’ve gotta see that she’s okay.’
‘How are you going to see that? How are you going to see anything —’
‘I don’t know. But I have to do something. I can’t just sit here.’ Judd can feel moisture at the corners of his eyes again. Christ. He looks down, studies the green linoleum floor.
‘You crying again?’
‘No.’
Corey bends, looks him in the face. ‘The corners of your eyes are wet! Come on, man, you’re embarrassing the dog. There’s no crying for men in Australia. It’s frowned upon, makes the blokes not crying uncomfortable. If you’re upset, keep it to yourself.’
Judd turns to him, eyes firm. ‘I need you to do this. Please.’
Corey looks at him.
‘Come on, there isn’t much time.’
‘I’m thinking!’ Corey takes a breath, then nods. ‘Okay. Jeez.’ He can’t believe he’s agreeing to it.
‘Thank you.’
The dog barks.
Corey glances at the animal. ‘Yeah, well, last time I checked it was my chopper. Of course, you can always stay here and hang with this pair if you’ve got a problem with it.’ He jabs a thumb at Petra and Doug.
Spike barks.
‘Language, please.’
Judd sweeps the satellite phone, the bottles of water and the map into the backpack. ‘What should we do about them?’
‘Dunno. What do you think?’
‘Fuck ‘em.’
Corey nods at the dog. ‘That’s what he said.’
They both stride towards the door, the dog in tow. Judd turns to Corey. ‘Thanks for this.’ It’s heartfelt.