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Chapter 17
In doing so he shocked himself. How had it all come to this? What could he have done to have changed his circumstances? How could he have prevented himself from being here? Why had he fallen for Andrea or whatever her name was? He should have taken Stone Cold Steve Austin’s advice to don’t trust anyone.
With this thought, he stopped crying and felt himself change. He got off the bed and went in to the bathroom to wash his face. He also wet his hair and went with a purpose back into the main room. He got his jacket that he had arrived in and retrieved the third gun he’d acquired on the plane. He checked to see that it was loaded, made sure the safety was in place and put it inside his trousers in the small of his back. He went to the wardrobe and looked through for a jacket that would hang loose over where the gun was. He found a leather jacket and tried it on. Unsurprisingly it fitted him perfectly, whatever else Norbert was, he was certainly thorough and had an eye for detail he hadn’t encountered in anyone he’d ever met before. He checked himself in the mirror and could not see any tell tale signs of the gun, even when the jacket was done up. If he left it loose, it would easily conceal the weapon.
He went to the door and again studied the map of the complex, especially the main hall. There were another two exits marked on the plan besides the one he’d used previously. One to the right rear of the hall which led into the kitchen, and what appeared to be a fire exit on the left hand side about half way along. He could do with a proper look at them and he would get it at lunch, which if the clock in his room was to be believed was only a few minutes away. He checked that the gun was securely in place and retrieved his sunglasses as he could do without making eye contact with anybody. He put them on and looked in the mirror and laughed despite himself. He hadn’t realised it until he put the glasses on, but he was going to look like the ultimate man in black.
He left the room and went down to the main hall. None of the other ‘guests’ had turned up for lunch yet, and there were a couple of staff setting up the food on the buffet tables. He walked over to the kitchen doors and straight through them. He got no more than ten strides before someone shouted.
“Oi! Staff only in here.”
“Sorry mate,” he replied, “I didn’t realise this was off limits.”
“Well it is, now fuck off.”
He turned his head to the general direction of the voice, while having a good look round, shrugged and then left.
A voice followed him, “And stay out.”
Once out of the kitchen he smiled to himself, he’d found out what he wanted to know. There was a door out the other side of the kitchen, and also that there were about ten staff working there. It would be best to avoid using that as a route out. He wandered over to the other side of the room to where the fire escape was. He checked around the frame of the doors and didn’t find any sign of the expected alarm wiring, though it could all be on the outside. There was only one way to make sure of whether it was alarmed, and therefore he pushed the bar and the door opened. There was no sound, but that was no guarantee as the alarm could be triggered anywhere on the island. He stood outside and looked at the outsides of the doors, and still saw no tell tale wires, or any obvious sensors around the doors. He stood outside for a couple of minutes and then went back inside, and left the doors ajar.
He took a seat at the table nearest to the doors facing the main doors and went and got some lunch, watching people coming in, and eating. It was nearly two o’clock when Norbert turned up, followed by a couple of his goons, and up to this point there had been no sign of Andrea / Siobhan. He wondered to himself if she was still alive, seeing as she’d probably reached the end of her usefulness. To be honest, he didn’t really care. Norbert walked through the room, and glanced in his direction as he made his way to the little stand at the far end of the room. Once there he started speaking almost immediately.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. If you’d all like to make your way to this end of the room, then I’ll fill you in on the reason for you all being here, and what we have planned over the next couple of weeks.”
With this a number of people got up from their seats and started to move nearer to the speaker. He got up as well, though he ha no intention of going anywhere near Norbert, and he quickly slipped out of the fire exit and started to make his way to the secure building he’d been at earlier.