Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse

Chapter 17: Escaping the Island



The guards were scrambling to catch-up to the girls now. Alton pivoted them straight to catching brumbies, but they were at least half a day behind, and it would be dark before they had a rideable horse each.

The girls, meanwhile, had reached the old bridge to the mainland.

"Alright ladies, let's see if we can get across this thing," said Delphi, kicking her pony onto the ancient structure. "Single file in case anything gives way," she called out.

The bridge rose up incredibly high for what was not actually a huge span of water. They picked their way carefully along the old road. About three quarters of the way up, the road had collapsed into the estuary, leaving just the thin supports on each edge, with the ancient bitumen that still clung to them.

Delphi dismounted and peered down into the ocean where the bridge ended abruptly.

"It's a very long way to fall," she said unhappily. "We can't risk taking the horses along those narrow ledges. If the bitumen gives way, we might be alright holding onto the railing, but we'll lose the brumbies."

"Do you want me to test it with the spare horse Delph?" asked Feifei.

"Alright Feif, why don't you give it a go? It will be a whole lot faster and safer than waiting for low tide and trying to cross the estuary with the horses. Just give up straight away if it looks too crumbly. And let the horse go if you have to," she added, studiously avoiding looking at Ruby.

Feifei nodded with determination and set off alone. The girls all watched with their hearts in their mouths as Feifei lead the horse along the narrow piece of the bridge that remained intact. Large chunks of bitumen started to crumble and fall the long distance into the sea as the weight of the horse and the girl tested it. Before she had made it very far at all, the available road narrowed even further, and the horse stopped and refused to walk on. It didn't matter how Feifei cajoled or bullied her, there was just no budging the animal.

"Sensible filly," said Ruby. "She's just too terrified of falling into the ocean from up here. Bring her back Feif," she called. "She's done. You won't get her any further without blinkers and we haven't got anything handy."

Feifei tried to cover the mare's eyes with her hands, but she wasn't having a bar of that, flicking her head up and down and whinnying, as she tried to back away from the human. Feifei sighed. This wasn't going to work. She edged the pony backwards until she reached a remnant of the road wide enough to turn her around, and then walked the horse back to the group of girls.

"I don't think they'll do it Delph," said Ruby. "They've grown up on that flat island, so they have no experience of heights. They're frightened, and for good reason."

"Alright," Delphi conceded grimly. "Let's hope they're good swimmers then, because we're going to have to cross that estuary with them. We'll have to wait for low tide too, or we'll be swept away."

"They should be able to swim, they've lived on an island with wetlands and lakes," said Ruby.

"And crocodiles," added Loveday. "The tide's heading out now Delphi. Low tide will probably be around 5:30, 6:00."

"So long as it's not dark. We need to cross today," said Delphi. "Otherwise those guards could catch up to us on foot and we'll lose the advantage of the horses. They'll be busy right now catching their own. Let's head down to the bank and we'll work out the best place to cross. Indy, come and brief me on what went down at the lake."

Indy looked slightly shame faced as she joined Delphi and Feifei to bring them up to speed on her encounter with the guard. She explained to her captain what had happened with Niko, not leaving anything out.

"So in the end, after I asked him to kiss me, I kneed him hard in the nuts and he rolled off me and I ran off. Unfortunately," she said, looking ahead at where Loveday walked, "it was Niko Espey…"

Delphi stopped in her tracks. "Are you okay Indy? That must have been terrifying. He nearly raped you. And it was your friend's brother. You did amazingly well. You did everything right. You kept your head, you didn't panic, and you convinced him you were into it, even though you've never met him before and you clearly wouldn't be up for a bit of random sex with a stranger right after you almost got eaten alive by a crocodile. What was that thickhead thinking? Men only think with their little heads when they should be using their big ones."

"I'm okay. I'm actually very proud of myself. My honey trap training kicked in, even though I was really scared. And it all worked exactly like the consorts said it would."

"You're the first of us all to put that training into action, and you nailed it, literally. He'll think twice before he messes with you again Inds."

Indy remembered the smell and feel of the big man lying on top of her, and the way he killed that crocodile and wrenched her to safety, and she felt a twinge of guilt for hurting him in return. Then she pulled her shoulders back and reminded herself what they'd been taught. There are no good men. Don't be fooled by them. They just want to lock women up and own them like animals. They're all the same in the end.

"I need to go and make things right with Loveday," she said anxiously. "I don't feel good about doing those things with her brother."

"She'll understand. Don't underestimate her. Go on, you'll see."

While Indy made things right with Loveday, Feifei and Delphi scouted the crossing options. Thank god she'd had the foresight to bring the binoculars with her off the boat, thought Delphi, as she peered across the estuary.

"There are a few different options," said Delphi finally, "but I think we go for the one that takes us three quarters of the way across on the sandbar, before we have to swim the last bit. What do you think Feif? The alternative is to take that sandbar there," she pointed further upstream, "then swim that middle bit, then we have sandbar all the way to the other side."

Feifei took the binoculars and studied the two options. "I agree let's take the sandbar and deal with the channel on the other side," she said finally. "That channel in the middle looks very deep and swift and it might be very hard to for the horses to climb up onto another sandbank after swimming the channel. We can always backtrack if it looks too dangerous when we get there."


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