Half Moon Bay Read Free Page A

don’t need to do this alone.’
    ‘Great. Then help. I need my satphone.’ She scrambled to her feet. It would be easy to abdicate her responsibility to the Australian Defence Force and Foreign Affairs, but she couldn’t do that. She needed to make this happen; take the lead. It was her sister’s life in the balance, not theirs.
    ‘Okay.’ Dave stood up and pushed her leather bag across to her. ‘We can go back to the meeting room. It will be quieter.’
    ‘No,’ Ellie replied, hauling her satphone free from the front pocket. ‘I’ve got reception here. I’m staying until they finish. And Dave?’
    ‘Hmm?’ He looked down at her and she mustered a glimmer of a shaky smile.
    ‘Thank you for everything you’ve done.’
    He bobbed his head, looking uncomfortable as she started scrolling through her numbers.
    She pressed send and waited for the satellite to route the call. A voice answered, but the line was still crackly.
    ‘Don? Don? Can you hear me? It’s Ellie, Ellie Wilding. I need your help.’
    Several hours later the medical staff finally left Nina cocooned in white sheets and bandages. They had no comfort to offer Ellie. They’d done their best, but that might not be enough. Ellie sat on the chair by the bed, holding her sister’s hand, as the machines beside her hissed and pumped, keeping Nina alive but buried in a coma. Her injuries were hidden. Nina could have been stretched out waiting for the luxury of a facial, so serene was her expression. It helped to steady Ellie’s hammering heart.
    ‘Talk to her,’ the doctor had said as he left. ‘She may hear you.’
    Ellie licked her lips and swallowed. Her voice croaked on the first few words. ‘You’re going home, Neens. Dad will be waiting for us. He’ll cook that lousy stroganoff he’s been dishing up since we were kids and we’ll be eating leftovers for days. I can just imagine Shadow going crazy having us both home to go for walks. And once you’re back on your feet you’ll be able to swim in the ocean. It’s autumn in the Bay, remember? The winter swells will be rolling in soon. Remember the last time we were home together – Christmas two years ago? It must have been thirty degrees in the shade and someone put a couple of prawn heads in the pot plant. Dad spent all week trying to find the source of the stink. I know who put them there, Neens. You always did like making trouble!’
    She tried to smile, but her lips only trembled. Nina’s pale cold hand lay still, unresponsive. ‘What were you doing out there, Neens? No one’s telling me exactly what happened and that makes me nervous. There’s a whisper that someone else was killed.’ Her fingers were intertwined with Nina’s now. ‘You can’t leave unfinished business. I only take the photos. This story will die without you. I promise to get you home and you have to promise to finish the story, whatever it takes.’
    There was no response but Ellie carried on talking, remembering, reliving their lives. Her tears ran out some time before dawn.
    By morning her voice was hoarse and Nina’s condition was unchanged. Dave Miller arrived back with his commanding officer at the same time as the private medical team. Ellie couldn’t remember the major’s name five minutes after they were introduced. The man looked like he needed to sleep for a week. The physical presence of the two army officers gave her an odd comfort, as though someone had her back covered, but she only had eyes for Nina. The mountain of paperwork was enough to break her, let alone the expressions on the faces of the medical staff.
    Late that afternoon, she was bundled into the back of an ambulance, holding tight to her sister’s hand. No one had actually said it, but Ellie knew the casevac team didn’t believe Nina would survive the journey. Yet it made no difference. There was no way Ellie was going to leave Nina to die in this harsh and battle-weary city that they’d come to know so intimately. Nina was