Geoffrey looked from him to his prisoner, back and forth, the terror on his face clearly visible. Then he let go of the rope, taking a step away from it. He still pointed the blaster at Marcus, though. And his hand was shaking as much as ever.

‘No, Geoffrey, sound the alarm!’ shouted the guard in Marcus’ grasp! ‘Now, boy! Do it!’

‘I will kill him,’ said Marcus softly.

‘Do it, Geoffrey! That’s an order!’

‘Don’t! ’E ain’t bluffin’!’ shouted Kieran, even as Geoffrey shifted to the right.

Geoffrey froze, hand still in mid-air, reaching for the rope, his face white, staring at Marcus, mouth working furiously. Then his shoulders slumped and he threw his blaster away, into the Pit, and stepped away from the rope again.

All this while, Colby had been standing there, breathing out heavily, staring at Marcus. Then, almost as if with a life of its own, the question burst forth. ‘How did you get out?’

‘I climbed.’

‘But—but—the Pit, man! The Pit!’

‘I have seen worse,’ was the calm reply, and Marcus turned to look at the rock face to his left.

‘Look, there’s no way out,’ said Colby.

Marcus ignored him, continuing to look at the wall, before turning to gaze at Albert again. ‘Why are you here?’ he said, and though he spoke softly as ever, his voice seemed to fill the tent.

‘To—to—um … talk to you,’ said Albert, feeling suddenly embarrassed. It seemed an odd thing to say to this man who stood nonchalantly at the edge of that foul hole—the inescapable prison that he had just escaped.

And it seemed that it had cost him no effort. He stood there, light and easy on his feet as ever. For all that Colby had said about the horrors of the ordeal that was the Pit, Marcus seemed almost relaxed, like he’d gone for a long, leisurely swim and had now decided to come back to shore and look around.

He was looking at Albert now, his face as unreadable as always. ‘Why?’ he said.

‘We need your help. We need to ask you something.’

‘The distraction you provided was useful, but I have nothing to say. You can leave.’

Albert looked at him, feeling a sudden panic, a fear that everything they had done would be for nothing, unless he could convince this strange, remote, scary man that they were not his enemies, and that they needed his help.

‘We know you didn’t do it, Marcus.’

‘Either way, it matters not,’ replied Marcus, eyes shifting towards the rock wall behind him.

Albert looked at him, the desperation growing quickly in his chest. This was not going the way he had hoped. ‘But we need your help!’

Marcus said nothing, turning once again to look at the wall at his back.

‘Look Marcus, Theo has been kidnapped!’

He whirled around immediately, but his face was still impassive. ‘When?’

‘Early this morning.’