Read Online Capital Punishment by Robert Wilson - Free Book Online Page B

anxious than she’d like to feel. She needed a horizon. She had always avoided situations that might put her out of sight of land. She also did not like the abstract, preferred the figurative. In her state of sensory deprivation, these were the fragments of truth about herself that she was facing up to. But there were other fears, of a more personal nature, that would normally have remained subliminal but were beginning to nudge at the surface of her consciousness. This was why she wanted to see. Darkness encouraged doubt. Light would give her balance. But she didn’t want to show them that darkness was a weakness. She was forcing herself to endure this state for as long as possible to show them that being blindfolded was no problem.
    The formulation of this minor strategy gave her some small strength. She raised her knees, crossed one leg over the other and set her foot nodding as if she was connected to her iPod. She would not ask anything of them, but rather force them to come to her as often as possible and this would give her the opportunity to negotiate.
    Her brain calmed down. She could concentrate. She sifted through memories for unlikely things that might help her. The rare afternoons of cable TV, watching survival stories. People in impossibly extreme situations and how they coped. Survivors all talked about giving themselves things to do and think about, so that they didn’t get overwhelmed by the direness of their circumstances. They focused on immediate problems, like making their rations last. What did she have? What was the equivalent of making her rations last?
    She needed something more active than the passive strategy of waiting for them to ask her questions. There might be long hours of boredom to get through. Prioritise your needs. That’s good. A top ten of what would improve her current situation. Number one was obvious: removal of the sleeping mask. Number two: wash. Feeling clean had always been important to her, especially when she had been in Mumbai. Number three: how about a JCB digger? What sort of question would you have to answer to get one of those? Something really, phenomenally intimate about her father. Yes, well, she knew a few things that nobody else knew about her father.
    ‘You’re smiling, Alyshia.’
    She shouldn’t have smiled. That was bad. Must have been the thought of the JCB.
    ‘I was just imagining myself elsewhere,’ she said. ‘I have to keep myself amused.’
    ‘Like where?’
    ‘On a beach in Goa.’
    ‘With anybody?’
    ‘A friend.’
    ‘A friend like Duane?’
    Silence. How did he know about Duane? Nobody knew about Duane.
    ‘Who’s Duane?’ she asked, but she knew the beat had blown it.
    ‘Try again, Alyshia.’
    She uncrossed her legs, planted her feet to steady herself. All the strength she’d just built up dissipated. These people knew her.
    ‘I wasn’t thinking about Duane, no.’
    ‘He’ll be sad about that, but Curtis won’t. Curtis will be happy, even if you weren’t thinking about Curtis.’
    ‘Have you spoken to Curtis?’
    ‘
I
haven’t, no. We don’t do that sort of thing,’ said the voice. ‘Did you know that Curtis had an unfortunate accident the other day?’
    ‘No,’ she said, concerned. ‘You didn’t hurt him, did you?’
    ‘No.
You
did,’ said the voice. ‘He saw you with Duane. Young guys like that find it hard to take. They get jealous. You might think it’s all fair in love and war—’
    ‘And kidnapping.’
    ‘Good one, Alyshia. You’re one tough cookie. But then again, secretive people are tough. Knowing things that others don’t gives you strength. Your father’s the same.’
    ‘Nobody gets ahead by letting others know what they’re thinking.’
    ‘Did Frank tell you that?’
    ‘My father always used to say: “If you’re straight with people, they’ll take every opportunity to block you”.’
    ‘That includes Frank’s most loyal employees.’
    ‘Are
you
one of his
ex
-employees?’
    ‘It’s