"None of your bloody business, that’s for sure..." Nigel replied, his tone acid, inviting Mark’s immediate wrath. Sydney’s eyes widened at the remark and she braced herself for the worst. Mark kicked him so hard in the ribs that even Sydney could feel it! Nigel buckled over, feeling something inside crack. He couldn’t breathe, his eyes watered and he felt like he was going to throw up!
"You son of a..." Sydney spat out, but didn’t bother to finish, and turned her attention to her friend. "Nigel, Nigel talk to me!"
"Mark, how could you!" Cameron yelled at him as she fought to break free from her tethers.
Mark started to laugh at them, two stupid women and a little dorky Englishman. What the hell next, he thought. "Listen ladies..." he shot Nigel a deadly look, "if you could get boy wonder here to behave himself, he wouldn’t have such a problem now, would he?"
"You’re going to have one hell of a problem when I get my hands on you!" Sydney promised.
"All I want to know is where the damned pearl is, and then I’ll be happy to let you all go home." He lied. "Or to the hospital, hehe..."
"We did our best Mark, it’s obvious we aren’t going to find it!" Cameron spoke out trying to reason with him, and gradually began to loose from wriggle her ties.
"Well, I think Austin Powers here knows exactly where it’s been all along, and he’s led me on a damn wild goose chase! If I don’t get that pearl in my hand as of YESTERDAY, well, dammit, I’m just gonna have to start killing people..." He lowered his rifle to Cameron’s head and gently caressed her face with the ice-cold tip. "Starting with you, my love."
"You wouldn’t..." Sydney gasped.
"Oh, wouldn’t I?" He turned his attention to Sydney now, and squatted down beside her. She was such an exotic beauty, he thought, sliding his fingers through her silky hair. She tried to pull away, but he grabbed a fist full of that hair and viscously yanked her towards him. "So, who wants to be a hero? What about you, Double-Oh-Seven?"
Nigel, unable to stand the way he was torturing Sydney and Cameron, finally raised his head and lifted his hate filled eyes up to his tormentor. "You’re right..." He started to cough. "I, I do know where it is..."
"Well, that’s more like it!" Mark stood up and walked over to his canteen, taking a swig. "I’m waiting."
"No Nigel, don’t give it to him, he’ll just kill you afterward!" Sydney’s protest was short lived, interrupted by a single shot resonating in the still night air.
"You let that fella make up his own mind sweetheart. Looks to me like you been calling the shots a little too long." He narrowed his eyes, taking another drink.
"It’s all right Syd, really..." Nigel turned to her and saw the fear in her eyes as well as hear it in her voice. He knew what she was thinking... this is no time to start being brave. "He isn’t getting anything until you and Cameron are on the plane and out of here!"
"Oh Nigel no..." Cameron was free, finally, and she nudged Sydney. "You don’t want to do that! You can’t trust him, look how bad he lied to me!"
"Shut up!" Mark shouted at her.
Nigel looked like a wild animal, his expression fatally serious. "Let the women go and you might get the pearl, if not, we all die and you’ll never have it."
Nigel yelped when Mark brutally grabbed the front of his jacket, manhandling the injured teaching assistant into a standing position. "And then there were none..."
Before Mark could reach for his gun, Sydney had his feet kicked out from under him and pinned him to the ground. "Cam, untie Nigel, and hurry!"
"Can you walk on your own?"
"Not a problem..." He forced a smile despite the sharp pain in his left side each time she tugged at the knots. "I’m good, really I’m good!"
Seconds later Nigel was free and he and Cam were picking their way through the rocks towards the cave’s exit. "Hurry Sydney!" Cameron called back. It only took a moment, she went to take another step, lost her footing and started to fall. She sailed off the embankment in what seemed like slow motion, her arms waving wildly in the air towards the icy waters of Pachena Bay.
"Cam!" Nigel cried out, his heart caught in his throat. She was still wearing her pack and it was loaded, weighing her down! Feverishly scanning the water it seemed like an eternity before she finally clawed her way to the surface. He turned to look for Sydney, but there was no way she could help until Mark was down. Swallowing hard he threw off his backpack and taking as big a breath as his ribs would allow, jumped in after her! She disappeared below the black waters just as Nigel came close enough to grab her. Hooking his arm around her neck he started to swim back, but she was hysterical. Struggling madly to control her they sank below the surface himself a couple of times before feeling bedrock and sand below his feet. Shoving Cam up onto the mossy bank, Nigel fell beside her, exhausted in aching all over. He was too upset to be cold. That was when he noticed something was very wrong...
"Cam, wake up." He muttered softly, and turned her onto her back. "Oh my god... you’re not breathing! Sydney, she’s not breathing!" Nigel slapped his forehead with his hand in frustration and swept the wet strands of hair from his face. He had to do something, and do it fast. Closing his eyes he tried to focus on those CPR lessons he had taken not six months ago... "Okay, it’s A, B, C. Ah... A, airway, clear the airway..." He gently tipped Cameron’s head back and opened her mouth to make sure there was nothing blocking her airway. "Uh...B, breathing. We know she’s not breathing... C, God help me C... Oh yeah, circulation!" Placing two fingers at her throat he waited for a pulse. He knew not to do chest depressions if there was a pulse. "Oh good girl, your heart’s still working!" Pinching her nose closed Nigel began to breath for her in small, brief puffs.
One, two, three, four, five... he counted in his mind and intently watched her chest for any signs of voluntary breathing. Nothing... he checked her pulse again, only this time fainter. One, two, three, four, five... Still nothing and her lips were turning blue.
"Come on Cam, this isn’t funny!" He begged her, his voice faltering. "What about that little baby? What about him? Cam, to save him you have to come back to me!" The severe pain in his side was nothing compared to the anguish his heart was presently in. One, two, three, four, five...
Suddenly Cameron’s whole body began to shake and she choked out a deluge of salt water. Her eyes popped open and she started to cry.
"Yes! Oh God Cammie yes! You’re all right!" Nigel scooped her quaking body into his arms. "You scared me half to death..."
Sydney had laid Mark out flat and came running to Cameron’s aid, but did not interfere. Nigel was in control of the situation already, and he had her captivated in more ways than one. She had just watched her teaching assistant give another person back their life at great risk to his own. Sydney didn’t realise it, but her eyes started to well at the edges, listening to Nigel’s pleas. Now he was holding her, cradling her. A cool breeze skirted through the treetops in a moonless sky and Sydney had never felt more alone.
Go to Part Twelve.