"We'll call you what you want," said Ellie. Her teeth weren't quite gritted. She was trying ever so hard to keep them apart. It was commendable. "Why don't you come get to know us?"
"If you like," said Abbie. This answer they found surprising enough that both Ellie and Dean were temporarily stumped, and Abbie got to go again. "In a minute, though. First, I have to go inside that little cave thing between the rocks."
Behind Abbie's back, Dean and Ellie shared a glance. Abbie rolled her eyes but let them get on with it. They were perhaps thirty seconds from the crack.
"Why would you want to go in there?" said Dean.
"I'm looking for something."
"What's that?"
"An answer."
"To what?"
"A question."
As though his frustration was a jagged stone, jutting from the sand, Dean seemed to stumble, to almost trip. He might have lashed out. Abbie could sense he was close. Maybe Ellie did too because her following words came in a jumbled rush. Abbie had to ask for a repeat.
"What question are you looking to answer?"
"Oh, simple," said Abbie. "I want to know who's in the cave."
Dean was going to speak. His words would have been neither friendly nor reasoned. Luckily for him, Ellie had kept her head.
"I can tell you that," she said. "Two of our friends are in there. They're up to something for which, uh, they needed a little privacy."
"You mean they're getting hot and heavy?" said Abbie. "And being good friends, you're trying to protect them from peeping Toms. Or Tinas.”
"Right," said Ellie. She was smiling. She looked relieved.
"That's pretty good," said Abbie.
"Pretty good?" The smile disappeared. "I don't know what you mean."
"The lie," said Abbie. “Nine out of ten for content. You've introduced the perfect deterrent to me entering the cave while keeping the untruth within the realms of believability. You have no idea how many people screw up even that simple step. Your boyfriend here—" she jerked her thumb at Dean "—would no doubt have cried unstable nuclear warhead or invented a race of evil gnomes who bear a grudge against humanity. You might laugh, but I hear that kind of crap all the time."
Ellie could not have looked further from laughing. Now it was Dean who looked stunned. Abbie half expected him to pinch himself and proclaim he had to be dreaming. That was good.
"So, content great," Abbie continued. "You fell down on delivery—five out of ten. Expression, tone; it wasn't convincing. Work on those. Deceit is a valuable skill if you can nail it."
Dean had had enough. Jogging ahead, he turned and placed himself in Abbie's path. Raising his hand, he pressed his palm into her chest, ceasing her progress.
Sighing, Abbie turned to Ellie. "Your boyfriend's touching me up. Please ask him to remove his hand from my chest and his person from my path."
Ellie was still next to Abbie. She was pouting.
"I'm not lying. Our friends are in that cave. Why can't you just leave it alone? You some kind of pervert or what?"
"I'm not the one practising inappropriate touching," said Abbie. She turned to Dean. "Move your hand. Get out of my way."
Dean shook his head. Ellie huffed. She hadn't expected it to go like this. Couldn't understand why it was going like this. Abbie got that. Anyone else would have turned away. Probably wouldn't have approached the crack in the first place. They wouldn't have heard the yell. But Abbie was attuned to the sounds of human distress. Years of experience, plus training provided by the company that paid her mortgage, had seen to that.
"You have five seconds," she said.
Still, Dean said nothing.
"Four."
"Why can't you just piss off?" said Ellie. "What's your problem?"
"Three."
The crunching feet of the second couple stopped. They were two metres behind. When Abbie acted, they would react. She would have to be fast.
"Two."
It didn't look like they were going to move.
"One."
Dean smirked. He wanted her to try something. That, he was going to regret.
"Zero."
There was silence. No one moved. Abbie only stared at Dean. Experience with plenty of people like him told her what would happen next.
He laughed. Shook his head. Lost focus. Big mistakes.
"Well—" he said.
Abbie grabbed his wrist with her left hand and, with her right, unleashed a vicious jab to his nose.
Ellie gasped, stepped back. The second couple reacted as quickly as expected.
Abbie was faster.
The moment she hit Dean's nose, Abbie was retracting her hand. She brought it to the wrist she already held. With both hands on Dean's arm, she swung him, twisting her body and using all her force to throw the yelling man into the approaching Francine.
In a tangle of limbs, they dropped.
Howard swung a punch. Abbie ducked, came forward, slammed her knee into his groin. Shoved him atop Dean and Frannie. Span to Ellie.
"Remember," Abbie said. "Content good. Delivery bad. Work on the latter."
Advice dispensed, Abbie floored Ellie with a perfect right hook and stepped over the collapsing woman, smoothing her hooded top as she went.
"Right then," she said, focusing again on the opening in the stone. "Trouble, here I come.”
Two
The crack in the rocks was not the gateway into hell. The small cave was set to become a kind of hell for one unlucky entrant.
A guy stood just inside the cave's mouth. In his hands, a phone. A light blared on the handset's back, pointing into the cave. As Abbie approached the guy's rear, she saw he was filming.
Beyond the cameraman was enough room for a tall woman and thickset guy to face each other. With their backs pressed to opposite walls, space remained for a slight teenage boy to kneel between them.
The teen was shaking. Even in the dark, Abbie could tell he ,was fighting not to cry.
"Ana," he said. His voice trembled. Before he could continue
