The Last Resort(83)

So, my dear Anne – the choice is yours, and yours alone.

Choose well.

Your Loving Friend, your sister by blood, George.

Amelia closes the box and her eyes. She sits quietly, barely noticing the whine of the plane’s engine. She thinks back to the morning, when the pressure dropped and that lurch of turbulence had thrown everyone into a panic – and that turned out to be the least of their worries. But what’s done is done.

And she knows how to fix it.

The plane lands smoothly and the engine is turned off. Harvey comes through into the cabin and unlatches the door. He folds the steps out and slides them from the plane. Then he turns to Amelia, offers a hand to help her out of her seat.

She smiles. ‘I read the letter. I don’t think I was meant to read it on the plane. You’re meant to be back with the rest of the staff, helping them through this.’

‘I’ll be back there soon enough,’ he says. ‘Ready to go home?’

Amelia takes his hand. She leaves the box on the seat.

‘Wait,’ he says. ‘You need to take it . . . she left you instructions.’

Amelia shakes her head. ‘I’m in charge now. I’ll decide what happens next.’

He looks her in the eyes, and she sees his face flash with fear. ‘I understand. You don’t owe us anything. Not after what we’ve all put you—’

‘No.’ She cuts him off. Gives him a careful smile. ‘Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to fly the plane back. Then you’re going to get rid of the bodies. Take them out to sea. Dump them. Then sink the boat.’

He nods. ‘But—’

She raises a hand, then points at the box. ‘Take out the contents of the box. Smash all those memory sticks. Crush the phone. Rip the letter into a thousand pieces. Get everyone out of the big house. Then take all the candles from the centrepieces and move them as close as you can to the curtains. Let the place burn to the ground. Don’t fly back here. Go further – anywhere you can land safely – and tell everyone to disperse. You’ll need to sort out new lives for yourselves, but I’m sure you’re all resourceful enough for that.’

He stands staring at her, open-mouthed.

‘I’m setting you free, Harvey . . . and getting rid of that place the best way we can. I don’t want to risk an explosion. I couldn’t bear it if destroying that island led to any more deaths.’

‘We’ll need a cover story . . .’

‘I’ll deal with that.’ She walks past him and out of the plane, down the steps.

The airfield is in darkness, apart from the runway lights, sparkling like diamonds in the inky night. She doesn’t turn back. And after a moment, she hears the sound of the steps being retracted, the door closing.

She’s not sure how she’s going to get home from here. Her plan is to get to the main road and start walking. And whatever happens after that, she knows she’ll be able to handle it. Tomorrow, wherever she ends up, she’s going to call her parents – she needs to stay with them for a while. Get her head together and decide what to do next.

She’s been gone for too long.





Epilogue

SIX DEAD IN BOAT PARTY TRAGEDY OFF CONDEMNED ISLAND

The Cornwall Coastguard has reported six dead after a party boat sunk off the island of Nirrik, on the Cornish coast.

Nirrik has been uninhabited and certified condemned since 1895, when the last settlers were evacuated. The island was removed from council jurisdiction and purchased by the Timeo Corporation, a technology company headquartered in St Helier, Jersey. No information about the CEO of Timeo or their links to the tragedy has been uncovered at this time.

The dead have been identified as Theresa ‘Tiggy’ Ramona (25), an Instagram influencer from Chelsea; her partner, Giles Horner (28), a games designer from Essex; celebrity gossip columnist Lucy De Marco (38); James Devlin (31), a photographer; Brenda Carter (62), a venture capitalist; and Scott Williams (35), a nutraceuticals executive from Los Angeles. While it is not yet known why they were gathered on the island, an anonymous source, who alerted the coastguard, has suggested that a private party was underway.

The island’s only building, a large, stone dwelling, has been burnt down, but it is not yet clear if the events are connected. Investigators have yet to access the island, as it is not known what type of contamination led to the island being abandoned many years ago.

Timeo has owned the island since 2010, according to the registrar general’s office and the land registry, but it is still classified as uninhabitable amid concerns of a leaked biological agent.

The island was previously recorded under the name Father’s Island, and local sources report stories of shipwrecks, drownings, extremist religious practices, child abuse, incest and more – although this is anecdotal and not officially recorded in either the parish notes or the council archives.

The families of the deceased have been informed.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A few years ago, in an in-flight magazine, I read about the Swedish company Biohax International. Set up by a former body piercer, the company makes microchips that are inserted into the user’s hand, just above their thumb. These chips are just like the ones used in any contactless technology – and they can be used for all the same purposes, such as paying for things, information transfer and replacing keys. I was fascinated by this, and the fact that the users are more than happy to be almost ‘experimented’ on, with an actual device under their skin. Being a crime writer, I immediately thought about how this could be exploited for nefarious means – hence the tracking device I invented for this book.