Chapter 18

Christine could see that Fiona was becoming more and more worried that they still hadn't heard from Gavin. He had been gone for four days now and hadn't phoned for the last three. She herself was also concerned, as she knew her son was dealing with very dangerous men.

"Fiona, you need to calm down. You know how good your brother is, he can take care of himself," she said, partly to convince herself.

Fiona didn't reply, but her expression remained unchanged. Lizzie chose that moment to burst into the family room.

"Look what I've found," she panted.

"What is it?" Frank asked.

"I'm not sure, but it looks as if Gavin has been planning another vigilante thing," Lizzie answered.

She held out a sheaf of papers and Fiona rushed to be the first to snatch them from her hand. The pages were print-outs from Gavin's computer and they told the story of how David Bosman had abused his daughter until she had hung herself. As Fiona read each page she absently passed it on to Christine and before long they had all had the chance to read the harrowing story.

"What an evil, vile, man," Christine spat. "I sincerely hope Gavin is planning on paying him a visit. He certainly deserves to pay a high price for what he's done. I mean, how could he? His own daughter."

The first thing Gavin noticed was that there were no sounds of voices coming down from above. That gave him encouragement and he began to believe that Rose had managed to somehow administer the Mogadon. Reminding himself of his own earlier warning not to become complacent, Gavin focused on moving forward along the passage as silently as he could.

The light above him flickered and he guessed it was candlelight. There was just enough to allow him to make out the bucket framed at the top of the well shaft. The shaft looked to be about three feet in diameter and Gavin thought he would be able to use a climbing technique employed by mountaineers to climb 'chimneys'.

The hardest part was getting up into the shaft itself and he had to feel for possible holds in the darkness. Once he was high enough, Gavin forced his back against one side of the shaft and held himself there by pressing against the opposite side with his feet. His arms were by his sides, his palms turned to rest against the rock wall too. Now it was just case of 'walking' up the shaft one step at a time, using his hands to push his torso upwards in time with each step.

The closer he got to the top of the shaft, the more flickering light there was and Gavin realised that he would need to move the bucket out of the way before he would be able to climb out. He knew that this was risky — if there was anyone close by, they would spot the bucket moving immediately. He stopped when the bucket was bumping against his chest and listened to try to identify any sounds of movement in the room above. Deciding that he had to make his move, he braced himself with his feet again, grabbed the bucket and lifted it upwards before setting it carefully on the lip of the well. There were no alarms and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that there was nothing barring his progress, Gavin took the last few steps until he could slowly raise his head to peer into the room above. It looked eerie in the flickering candlelight and the constantly changing shadows gave the impression of movement in the room. Once he had adjusted for that, Gavin was able to see a large table with a number of figures slumped over it. Nothing was moving other than the flames on the candles and he quickly wriggled his butt onto the same lip that the bucket was on and then swung his legs out of the well.

Before going any further he tugged Oscar's gun from his belt and made sure the safety was off.

The mugs on the table suggested that Rose had opted to put the Mogadon in coffee. Gavin counted five bodies and experienced a moment of panic when he realised one of them was a woman. Closer inspection told him that it wasn't Rose however, and he relaxed again. He walked round the table to get a closer look at each of the sleeping figures — Osvaldo and Macheda weren't amongst them.

"Okay, I dealt with one outside and there are four more here along with Rose's maid. Where are the others? Where are Osvaldo and Macheda? Where are Rose and Donald?" he asked himself.

"Maybe this lot drank the coffee after the others had gone to bed? Are they all upstairs sleeping?"

Rose had described the layout upstairs and Gavin now stepped lightly across the floor to where he could see steps going upwards. The light from the candles only penetrated so far and it got darker with each step he climbed.

"Rose said there were four rooms — two on each side. Osvaldo's is the first on the left and Macheda is opposite him. Rose and Donald are next door to Osvaldo and Theresa's room is the last one."

By the time he reached the top of the stairs it was almost pitch black. One crack of light was visible along the foot of the second door on the left — the room Rose had said she shared with her son. His gun held firmly before him, Gavin was on full alert as he ghosted forward.

When he opened the door to Rose's room he knew at once that he was in trouble and he dropped and began to spin immediately. One glance had been enough to show him that Rose was bound and gagged on the floor, her eyes bulging as she tried to give him a warning.

As he spun, Gavin was aware of movement behind him and then he felt a searing pain in his wrist as Osvaldo's boot connected. Oscar's gun went spinning from Gavin's hand, clattering on the floor of Rose's room behind him as it fell.

Gavin ignored the pain for the moment. Maintaining his momentum, he also ignored the gun and instead swept his right leg round in the same direction as he was spinning. Osvaldo had yet to recover his balance from the vicious kick, one leg still raised, and Gavin's sweep knocked his standing leg out from under him.

As Osvaldo tumbled, Gavin sprang forward and reached for the knife he had in his belt. He could see that his opponent was trying to bring his own gun to bear however, and Gavin knew that there wouldn't be time to use the knife. Changing tactics, Gavin let his right knee drop with his full weight behind it. It sank into Osvaldo's gut and Gavin heard the satisfying scream of pain, as he took the opportunity of reaching for Osvaldo's gun-hand.

Gavin's superior upper body strength and in particular the power in his arms and wrists gave him a massive advantage in the close-up battle. He also had experienced life and death situations before and his ability to think clearly and quickly had been honed to a fine edge.

Osvaldo on the other hand was used to others doing his dirty work for him. He was unfit and out of his depth, helpless now as what felt like a vice squeezed his hand until he had to drop the gun. He looked into the icy blue eyes that were visible in the black ski-mask and quailed at the story he read there. His time had come. He knew it. This was it.

"STOP!"

The order was barked from Gavin's left and he recognised the voice as that of Macheda.

"Stupid! How could I forget the old man?"

A shot rang out and Gavin flinched both at the noise in the confined space and in the expectation of a bullet thwacking into his body. Instead, he heard a thud and then two thin legs appeared on the edge of his vision. Glancing up, Gavin saw Donald holding Oscar's gun by his side. The boy was staring at Osvaldo and then his arm came up.

"This is for Papa Johnny," the boy said and the gun barked once more.

Gavin actually felt the air move as the slug barely passed his face on its way into Osvaldo's chest. He rolled backwards and then sat up, seeing the crumpled body of Macheda now lying on the floor. Gavin also saw the boy swinging the gun towards him — it was almost as if it was in slow-motion and the black hole of the barrel suddenly looked way too large. Donald's eyes might have been brown instead of blue, but the fierce intensity in his gaze was no less than that of Gavin's own.

"Donald, put the gun down now. I'm on your side," Gavin said, his voice quiet, measured, and steady. "Didn't you see that I was fighting Osvaldo? Why would I do that if I wasn't on your side?"

Something flickered in the boy's eyes — a moment of doubt perhaps and he glanced at his mother as if for guidance. Still bound and gagged, there was nothing that Rose could say or do and Donald turned back to look at Gavin again, the gun still steady and pointing at Gavin's chest.

"I came to rescue you," Gavin told him. "And I have a message from your father."

The boy's eyes hardened again.

"You're lying. My Papa is dead. He killed him."

The gun wavered for a second as Donald used it to point at Osvaldo.

"I know he's dead," Gavin replied. "I found him just before he died."

Donald remembered his Mama telling him this story — could this be the man she was talking about? He glanced at Rose once more and this time she was able to nod her head to show that Gavin was telling the truth. Still he seemed unwilling to believe it and he returned his focus on Gavin.

"What did Papa say?" he asked, setting a test for Gavin.

"He asked me to tell your mother that he loved her very much. He also asked me to tell his son that he was proud of him. Now that we've finally met, I can complete your father's dying wish. Donald — your father told me to tell you that he was very proud of you. There, I've completed the mission your father set me."

The gun wavered and then dropped, as Donald heard the same words his mother had told him and knew that Gavin was telling the truth. Moving carefully so as not to spook the youngster, Gavin reached over and took the gun out of his hand. He thumbed on the safety and then crawled over to free Rose, the knife from his belt making short work of the bindings that were holding her.

"Gavin! Oh thank god you're safe!" she squealed, as she threw her arms round him and then raised her lips to kiss him soundly and deeply.

"Mama, who is this man and why are you kissing him?" Donald asked.

Gavin thought the sudden blush made Rose's face even more beautiful if that was possible. Rose gathered herself with some effort and got up so that she could hug her son.

"Are you okay, baby?" she asked, stroking his hair.

Rose was already worrying about how her son would react to having shot and killed two men.

"I'm fine, Mama. Are you going to tell me now what's going on?" Donald asked.

When she held him at arm's length, Rose saw that if anything, Donald looked happier than he had in several days.

Gavin pulled off his ski-mask and sat with his back against a wall.

"Yeah, I'm with Donald. Why don't you tell us what happened?" he asked.

Rose pulled Donald with her and sat them both down on the cot in her room.

"I put the Mogadon in a pot of coffee, but it was late and it would have looked odd if I had stayed up any longer. I guess that Osvaldo and Macheda didn't drink any and they knew something was up when the others fell asleep," she told them.

"Before I knew it, he was in the room. He slapped me and dragged me from my bed, all the while demanding to know what I'd done to his men and what was going on. I wouldn't tell him anything and he tied me up.

"Donald was still asleep, so he must have thought it was okay to leave him untied."

"I was only pretending, Mama," Donald informed her. "I was just waiting for my chance to help you. I knew that man was going to do something mean — I've been worried about you for the past few days, ever since you told me he killed Papa Johnny."

"You were worrying about me?" Rose asked in surprise.

Clearly she would have to re-appraise her views about her son. In the short time they had been back together, she had come to assume that he was acting all withdrawn because he was scared of Osvaldo or that the killing of Brenda and Graham had scarred him in some way.

"I thought you were scared. You know, scared of Osvaldo or of the men that killed your other Mama and Papa," she said.

"I couldn't do anything to save Mama Brenda and Papa Graham, but when I got my chance to avenge their deaths, I took it. You told me that man also killed Papa Johnny, so he sure had it coming," said Donald quite calmly.

"I'll be damned!" cursed Gavin, a huge grin on his face.

The similarities between his own story and that of young Donald were incredible, as was the youngster's reaction to what he'd been through.

"It's a long story, but let's just say that Donald and I have a lot in common," Gavin said. "I guess the world can live with more than one vigilante."

"What doo you mean?" Rose asked.

"Now is not the time. We need to get out of here, but there's a problem with that too. My plan was to use my phone to call for a helicopter to pick us up, but unfortunately there's no signal," Gavin explained.

"Use your phone to call who?" Rose asked.

"Henry, Henry Sinclair, Johnny's father," Gavin answered.

"Him! You have to be joking, why would Henry help me?" Rose demanded to know.

"That's another long story; I promise I'll explain everything later. For now we need to find a way of contacting him."

"There's a radio downstairs and I could probably get it to work, but how that helps us I'm not sure," said Rose.

"I'm pretty sure that Henry's communication centre probably has the capability of sending and receiving messages from something like that, but we have no idea of frequencies or anything else. I don't think that's going to work," said Gavin.

"Well, why don't we just sail the yacht closer to Haiti to see if we can pick up a signal on your phone?" suggested Rose.

"Are you telling me that you know how to pilot something that big?" he asked.

"Of course. You have to remember that I've grown up surrounded by wealth all my life. My Papa loved his luxuries and particularly his boats. I was piloting something that big while I sat on his knee when I was only three years old," Rose laughed.

"What are we waiting for then? The men downstairs could wake up at any moment and I'd rather not have to kill any more of them. I suggest you grab anything and everything that would leave any clues that you and Donald have been here," Gavin ordered.

Rose immediately began stuffing things into the bag she had brought with her. She even retrieved the cut rope and gag that had been used to bind her and stuffed those in too.

"Come on then, my gallant young heroes. It's time to go," Rose said to both Gavin and Donald.

"I've given the FAT orders to mount up, Henry. According to our intelligence nothing's changed on that island since the yacht docked. We're not gaining anything by delaying any longer and your grandson could be in danger," said General Wilder.

Henry held the phone tighter against his ear and tried to control his reaction. If the Special Forces went in now, Gavin might also be in danger. Of course, he still wasn't sure that Gavin had even made it to Isla Santa. The reference Gryffe had just made to his grandson was also something that was eating away at him. If Gavin hadn't made it, then Henry needed the FAT boys to rescue the boy.