Chapter 10

Beck stood at the island’s highest point.

It had taken ten minutes to get up here from sea level, picking his way around fallen typhoon-damaged plant life. The centre of the island, out of reach of the tides, was completely covered in tightly packed undergrowth – a few palms, and the rest bushes and shrubs that he couldn’t immediately identify.

The island wasn’t big. He estimated he probably wasn’t more than ten or twelve metres above the water, and even at low tide it couldn’t be more than two hundred metres across. What Beck could see of its shape reminded him of an egg dropped into a pan to fry.

Ahead, and slightly lower than him, he could see the promontory that had stopped him earlier, when he had tried to get around the island. Good, he thought, I know what I’ll do with you.

He turned a slow circle, gazing out to sea, getting his direction from the sun. It was coming up to four p.m., which meant that it was halfway between where it had been at noon – due south – and the western horizon where it would set. Knowing that, he could tell what was in which direction.

Most ways he looked, there was only sea, and then more sea beyond it. Northwards, where he knew the land was, there was a haze on the horizon and he couldn’t see the mainland. He remembered from the chart that they were right at the far end of the archipelago. The only land nearby was…

He turned to look north-east. Another island, about one kilometre away. He narrowed his eyes as he studied it. Without binoculars, he couldn’t make out much detail. It looked larger than this one, maybe twice the size, also overgrown. It looked like the trees came further down towards the water. There was a light strip between blue sea and green leaves, which he guessed might be a beach. So, that island over there could be a friendlier place than this one.

But, this was the island they had at the moment, and one of the first rules of survival was to stay put, unless you have a very good reason for moving on. Rescuers are going to find it a lot easier to locate and rescue a stationary target. Plus of course, the only thing they had – at the moment – for crossing that stretch of water was a couple of life buoys.

No – unless this island proved uninhabitable, this was where they would stick it out.

When he had been exploring the shoreline, he had begun to build a map in his head of the island. Now he had seen enough of the island’s layout to fill it in. That would help plan their future movements. He turned to head back down to the shore and join the others, and put out a hand to move a bush aside.

The bush rustled violently as something large moved inside it. Beck stepped quickly back, just as a reptilian head shot forward and snapped its teeth at where his leg had been.

“Whoah!”

Beck slowly crouched down and, from a safe distance, looked into the face of a Chinese dragon. And it was poised to bite.