MYSTERY MAN [2]

The "People themselves … well, they're dead. They're just shells."

"No such thing as demons," muttered Purna. "What's got inside them is just a virus, that's all. A germ. There's nothing biblical about it. It's not evil. Only people are evil."

Sam shrugged. "Well, I guess that depends on what you believe."

The expression on Purna's face suggested she was prepared to take the argument further. To prevent her from doing so, Xian Mei said quickly, "So what about you, Logan? Has anything happened here?"

Logan raised his eyebrows. "Apart from the clam bake and the beach volleyball tournament, you mean? Yeah, our mystery man's tried to get in touch a couple of times. Reception was so bad, though, he didn't make a whole lot of sense. Said something about the satellite transmitters being down and some fucking offshore storm causing radio interference. You ask me, it's here where the fucking storm is."

"He say anything else?" asked Purna.

"Only that he'd try to call back around noon today." He glanced at his watch. "Hey, which I guess is about now."

They all looked at the radio expectantly, but it remained silent. They had to wait another fifteen minutes before it crackled into life.

Instantly Sinamoi scuttled across and put on the headphones. He twiddled dials and knobs, trying to get the best reception. At first, the voice trying to get through was so engulfed in static they couldn't make out what it was saying. A few more tweaks from Sinamoi and all at once it came through loud and clear.

"Hello," it was saying. "Hello, can anyone hear me?"

Logan nodded at the chunky old microphone on its stand, his raised eyebrows forming a question, and Sinamoi nodded. Talking into the microphone while simultaneously carrying it over to the table, its long lead trailing behind it, Logan said, "Hearing you loud and clear. Well … clear-ish anyway."

"Who is with you?" asked the voice. "Is everyone safe?"

Logan glanced around. "Yep, the gang's all here."

"And everyone is safe? No one has been infected by the virus?"

"Well, it's pretty hard to tell with Sam," Logan said, earning himself a finger and a grin in response, "but … yeah, they all seem pretty healthy."

"How come you don't already know?" Purna said challengingly. "I thought you were monitoring us? Last time you called you seemed pretty aware of our movements."

"Nothing sinister in that," the voice reassured her. "We simply have some extremely powerful monitoring equipment here. We're able to intercept satellite signals from anywhere on the island, including CCTV footage. Unfortunately, the satellite transmitters are behaving somewhat erratically at present. Adverse atmospheric conditions, I'm told."

"And where's 'here' exactly?" Purna asked.

"Please," the voice said, "as I explained before, our windows of opportunity for speaking to one another are so limited that you must refrain from asking quest—"

"Fuck that," interrupted Purna. "You expect us to trust you for no reason? To follow your instructions blindly?"

"I'm trying to help you," the voice said.

"Yeah, that's what you say," muttered Sam.

"See, the thing is, we've been talking," Purna said, "and we're maybe not as stupid as you'd like to believe."

"I don't think you're stupid at all," said the voice smoothly. "On the contrary, I believe you to be intelligent, resourceful individuals. That's why I think you have a chance to escape from this mayhem – and that's why I'm prepared to help you."