Ryan and his friends emerged, blinking, into bright sunshine. The blacktop, which must once have provided the route in and out of the secret redoubt, wound down the side of a broken cliff for about three hundred and fifty feet before disappearing beneath the rolling white breakers of the ocean.
It wasn’t possible to see how big the island was, if indeed it really was an island. The crest of the rocks above them towered another two hundred feet high.
“Someone should go up there and take a look around,” Trader suggested. “Find out the lie of the land all the way about us.” He looked at Ryan. “I’ll go do it.”
“I’ll come,” Abe said eagerly.
“Rather go on my own.” He paused. “But thanks, Abe. No, a good stiff climb’ll shake some of the jelly out of my old legs after sitting around.”
Ryan nodded. “Sure. We’ll wait here. No point in going down to the water if there’s a better way.”
Trader set off, Armalite slung over his shoulder, climbing nimbly among the sharp crags, watched by the others. He made good progress for the first hundred and fifty feet, then began to slow.
“Should’ve let me go,” Abe muttered. “Old bastard won’t face up to being older than he thinks he is.”
Nobody else spoke.
Doc sat down, leaning his back against a guano-smeared rock, fanning himself with his hand. “Upon my soul, gentles all, but the odor of sulfur is devilish overwhelming. Would that I had me a pomander, studded with cloves, to remove the stench. It is worse than the jakes of Eastcheap in the midst of a visit to the court of good King Cholera.”
“You talk some nonsense, Doc,” Mildred protested. “I swear I can’t tell how much of it’s under your control and how much is plain gibbering madness.”
He bowed to her, the wind tugging at his silvery locks. “If it is difficult for your perception from outside, madam, imagine how impossible it is for me from within.”
TRADER REACHED THE CREST, waving both hands above his head. Dean responded to the old man, jumping up and down, waving energetically. “Made it, Dad,” he said.
“Yeah. So I see. Now all we have to do is wait for him to get all the way back again and report what he’s seen.”
“Don’t be bad-tempered, lover.” Krysty sat next to him, her head on his shoulder. “I know the air smells like someone just cut the cheese, but we’ve landed somewhere fresh. We’ve pulled through some dangerous narrows, and we should try to relax and enjoy things. Come on.”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Guess you’re right. Too many close calls for my liking. Be good if we really could relax awhile.” He looked up. “Trader’s making better time downhill. We’ll see what good news he brings.”
“ISLAND.” TRADER WAS out of breath. Mildred studied him, without letting him notice her attention. She noted that he was unnaturally pale, sweating profusely, his fingers trembling. He kept swallowing hard and coughing. Several times he rubbed hard at his left arm with his right hand. His respiration was too fast and too shallow. She guessed that he’d pushed himself a little too hard proving he was as capable as he used to be.
“Big?” Ryan asked.
“No. Mile across at the biggest. Can see what looks like the mainland, but it’s” He broke off as another coughing fit doubled him over. Jak passed across a water canteen, and Trader drank deeply before carrying on. “Thanks. Where was I?”
“Mainland,” Dean prompted.
“Right. Can only just see it through a lot of smoke and fog and stuff. Must be around three quarters of a mile from the nearest point of this place.”
“Any sign of life here or out there?” J.B. asked.
Trader shook his head. “No. Thought I saw seals to the north. Some pelicans. Nothing much else. No trees or nothing.”
“Then how do we get over to the mainland?” Abe asked.
“We don’t,” Trader said. “No way to go, so here we fucking stay. Looks like it’ll soon be jump time again, friends.”
Chapter Nine
Ryan took a chance and split their force in two, taking Dean, Krysty and Jak with him, down to the bottom of the old blacktop, until they reached the point where it vanished under the waves. Then they headed around the small, craggy island in an easterly direction. J.B. went with Mildred, Doc, Trader and Abe, in a westerly direction.