It’s terrible watching him, imagining what’s he’s going through.
Tanya once again fights against her restraint. Haanstra notices, breaks away from the laptop and steps towards her.
‘Keep still, bitch,’ he says, slapping her across the face.
It stings hard, her eyes watering in response. But she keeps them defiant, stares at him as if to say, I’m not afraid of you.
Which earns her a second slap on the opposite side.
‘You want some more?’ Haanstra asks.
This time she ducks her eyes, and Haanstra nods before going back to the laptop.
She finds herself watching the screen again.
After Jaap had knocked Arno out he started picking his way down to the quarry floor itself, towards the car.
He’s doing this for me, she thinks.
She’s been watching Haanstra too, but apart from the one moment when he’d gone outside and held a conversation with someone, he’s been at his laptop. Tanya can’t quite see, but she thinks he may have the drone controls there.
The camera has swung out, giving a larger view of just what Jaap’s up against.
She can see the route he’s chosen is leading to a large drop, a sheer face of limestone which will be too high for him to jump down. A few metres above it he slips, feet shooting out, and he’s scrabbling with his hands against the rough slope, speed gathering as he heads towards the edge. Stones and dust form a waterfall, marking out the route he’ll soon be taking.
At the last moment he manages to grab a small outcrop, gets both arms round it and stops himself, just as his feet go over the edge.
Tanya can see him panting hard, and the drone moves closer again, getting right into his face, until it take up the whole screen.
It’s so familiar, and yet she’s never seen it look so twisted up with fear and anger.
He pulls himself up the slope, slowly, the drone moving in close before zooming right out again. This time he picks the right route, although it takes him another ten minutes before his feet finally touch the quarry floor.