Posted by Lee Montana
It took me a while to realise that I was awake. My dreams had seemed so real that when I came to I was so confused I couple not remember who I was, let alone that I had been out cold. I found that I was in a small tent, maybe designed for hiking expeditions. I could not remember what I was doing there, but I could not remember where I had gone to sleep. My head was pounding. For a moment I thought I must have been on a drunken binge the night before, but I could not shake the feeling that a man was dead and I had to do something about it.
I unzipped the tent door and put my head out. I was in a clearing in a forest. There were no other tents and no other people in sight. It was morning and there was birdsong, and also the distant sound of the ocean.
I searched my pockets, but found them empty. The tent was also empty, apart from the gear I had been sleeping in.
It came back, or at least some of it did. Professor Rhegin, the impossible text message, the burly man at the academic conference in Mumbai. I had done as Verity asked and snuck into the meeting. It had been a lecture about Indian Historiography. However, neither the Professor or his wife were present. As I was scanning the auditorium, I noticed that a young woman was watching me. I realised that she was the woman in the red sari, the one who had been pictured with the professor the night before. I smiled at her and sat down.
"Looking for someone?" she said, with a cut-glass English accent which took me somewhat by surprise.
"I was looking for Professor Rhegin," I replied. "I was supposed to meet up with him. Sorry," I added, "I'm Lee."
"Juanita," she said, shaking my hand. "So you're looking for Thomas? Well, it was a long night for him, and he's not as young as he was. I expect he's in his room. He and his wife are next door to me. Room 102."
"Thanks," I said, and left as discreetly as I could. When I found the room, I was not surprised to discover that there was no response to any knocks.
"Here, allow me," said Juanita from behind me. She leaned past me and unlocked the door.
"This is your room," I stated.
"Yes, it is," she said as she slid past me.
That was all I could remember. Leaving the tent, I looked around at my surroundings. The trees were tropical, I thought. They were sparse enough that I could see, a few hundred yards away, a beach. The sun glinted through the canopy, and the day was already getting hot. Near the tent was the remains of a campfire, but it was cool to the touch. Nowhere else was there any sign of life, or indeed, human activity of any kind.
I decided to wall along the coast until I found some civilisation. The sand was firm underfoot, and walking was easy despite the unsuitable nature of my plimsolls. In the middle distance, I could see several islets of different sizes, covered in trees. My heart began to sink. Sure enough, it only took about half an hour for me to arrive back where I started.
Marooned, then. I found myself strolling back to the tent, wondering how I had been so foolish. For the first time, I noticed a strongbox on the far side of the tent. It was unlocked, and contained a dozen litres of water, and thirty six foil-wrapped packs of freeze-dried rations. So, my captors had left me food, water and shelter. They wanted me alive.
After I had eaten one of the reason packs, I decided to explore the interior of the island. Before long, the trees became thicker, and the undergrowth became almost impenetrable. Nevertheless, I persevered and managed to find a tall outcropping of rock near what I judged to be the middle of the island. It took me at least an hour to climb to the summit, by which time the heat was getting very intense. The view was spectacular. I was at the centre of a vast archipelago of islets of golden sand covered in intense green foliage, set in a perfect blue ocean that seemed to go on forever. There was absolutely no mainland in sight. It was a beautiful prison, but a prison it was. And there did not seem to be any escape.
Just as I prepared to scale back down the outcropping and head back to the camp, I noticed a thin column of smoke coming from one of the nearby islets. As I watched it rise, I thought I could hear the distant sound of voices.
My heart leapt in my chest. I was not alone.
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