Lind woke up with a start, his eyes skittering around the cave. He was still shackled and so thirsty his tongue was stuck to the top of his mouth.
‘Water,’ he croaked.
Halliday sighed in annoyance. Lind could hear a pencil scratching across the paper on the easel.
‘Keep still will you. I don’t have long to get this right. There’s really not much point in me giving you water. It will only prolong the inevitable, but I suppose if it will shut you up and let me get on …’
Halliday walked over to him and dribbled some water into his mouth from an open bottle.
Lind gulped greedily. His head felt woolly and swollen. He needed urgent medical attention, but could see no way, shackled as he was, to gain the upper hand in the situation.
He knew Farrell would be looking for him by now, but he could already feel the sands of time running out. His thoughts drifted off again, to Laura and the children, and he took refuge in their company as his eyes closed once more. Suddenly, he heard the drone of a search-and-rescue helicopter coming closer. For a moment, hope flared within him. But the sound soon receded into the distance, until all he could hear was the scratch of the pencil as he retreated deep within his mind.