Hearts' Desires (27 page)

             
“This tastes like shit.”

             
Thabo suddenly grinned. “I agree!”

Vance lowered himself to the ground in a corner and closed his eyes. Lauren was definitely right about the food, he thought. It felt like chewing on a mixture of dirt and paper. He coughed.

             
Lauren’s voice startled him. “Vance
?
”

             
He turned his head and was sure he looked tortured.

             
“
I just
wanna
say I
’m … sorry.”

             
He hadn’t seen that one coming. Judging from the look on her face, this kind of apology did not come easy to her. The young woman t
ook a deep breath and repeated:
“I’m sorry… about everything.” If the brief statement could have been m
i
sinterpreted, the look in her eyes could not.

             
“Me too.”
He looked away, feeling Allison’s eyes on them. Did she know, he wondered. Or at least guess? Women had very keen instincts about that kind of thing. If he only could get away from everything for a few hours! If he only could get one little cigarette!

             
Nora’s loud moan made everyone turn in her direction. She sat, arms crossed over her belly, her eyes wide with fear. No words were necessary to make the hostages realize that they suddenly had one more problem – and a huge one.

             
“Lay back,” Max commanded in a calm, low voice. Vance took off his jacked and handed it to him, and Max shoved his and Vance’s rolled up jackets under her head.

             
“We’re all going to die…” Nora was crying. “My baby is going to die…”

             
“No one is going to die! You’ll see, in two days we’re back in L.A., having a cool drink and bragging about our adve
n
ture!” Jake answered and even managed a cheerful face. “Ah, I’m looking fo
r
ward to annoy my ex-wife’s lawyer again! She is probably wonde
r
ing what happened to me.”

             
His words did nothing to calm Nora, if she had heard them at all. Vance wiped his face and cursed silently. This was the worst imaginable timing for his poor colleague! Where the hell were the police? They must have figured by now what had happened out here! They were in a perfect location for a rescue mission. Did the police want to wait until the kidna
p
pers had fuelled up and where on the run with them again, for heaven’s sake?!?

             
F
rom
one day to another, their circumstances had changed drastically – from routine to life and death! From that perspective, everything he had worried about earlier was quickly becoming insignificant! Paparazzi and tabloids, agents, appointments, work… even his regrets concerning his late wife, or Lauren – everything was blowing away like dust in the wind… and leaving what?
             

             
Max sat down next to him.
“Nora said something about co
m
plications; the doctors back in L.A. warned her about.”

             
“Crap! They should have forbidden her to travel at all!”

             
“Under normal circumstances she still had over a month left.”

             
“I’m going to speak with the commander again,” Alison d
e
cided. She just had to do something other than just sitting and waiting in a timeless cocoon!

             
“You already tried that; he is obviously not in the mood to n
e
gotiate. The worse our condition is, the more leverage he has to get what he wants,” replied Max, glancing over to the two rebels next to their Jeep.

             
“They’re probably just as desperate as we are,” Vance said. “And desperate people aren’t good to negotiate with, Alison.”

             
“So what do you suggest we do? Just sit here and do nothing?!” Her voice almost cracked, and she took a deep breath. She had to maintain self control – it was all she had left. She did not want to lose that too. She would not!

             
“I don’t care if you think I’m a chauvinist asshole, Alison. But I won’t let you go out there again and risk life and limb! There is no way!” The tone of Vance’s voice left no question that he was deadly serious. He would hold her back by force, if necessary. Alison glared at him.

             
“Calm down everyone,” Jake said. “Let’s not fight each other. I agree with Vance - we have to put our faith in the p
o
lice. We have to give these guys some time. We all know the police don’t move at the speed of light, don’t we? And we’re no action heroes … sa
d
ly.”

The morning fog seeped coldly into the bones of the e
x
hausted hostages. The kidnappers in search for fuel had not returned yet, nor was there any sign of the police. Maybe there were any other problems that kept the rebels from co
n
tinuing their flight – no one knew.

             
Nora’s labor pains had become more frequent; she was crying and getting weaker by the hour. Thabo had told them that he had helped a few times back home, with the
lifestock
. He tried to rea
s
sure Nora that he would know what to do if it came to that. Ho
w
ever, he knew it was one thing to help with a cow or goat in a township with his aunts and sisters next door, and another one to be out here in the wilderness all on his own, and his confidence was not as high as he wanted to lead the others to believe!

             
Alison raised her head. Was she really hearing the hum of an engine and the whop
whop
of helicopter blades in the di
s
tance or was wishful thinking getting the best of her?

             
“A chopper,” Vance whispered, and the word brought life into everyone. They sat up, listened, waited full of hope and apprehe
n
sion.

             
A moment later, a loud voice came over a speaker: “Su
r
render! There is no way out. Let the hostages go!”

             
Everyone cheered, but their initial excitement died down quickly as time went on. A police taskforce apparently had already caught the rebels who had left to find fuel, but now, instead of a quick rescue they had a standoff. The police didn’t want to co
n
cede anything, and on the other hand the kidnappers had nothing to lose. Everyone was hungry, thirsty, tired and overwrought. A bad combination!
The police chopper
circling above them was the only sign that they weren’t co
m
pletely abandoned in this godfo
r
saken place.

Vance had dozed off, only to be awakened by several voices.

             
“
This is your fucking fault!
”
shouted Lauren.
“YOU did not want us to leave when there was still time! ’Cause all you’re thin
k
ing about is getting that movie done in time so you look good with the producers! You push us around like we’re slaves!
Like we’re in fucking army boot camp!!!”

             
“Exactly
the words
I should have expected from someone like you!” Alison hissed back.

             
“What’s that supposed to mean? You think you’re better than me because I’m a not a big star yet and from the Bronx?”

             
“Because you have no discipline!”

             
“And you have no heart at all!”

             
Alison’s own anger bristled dangerously close to the su
r
face. “I’m done talking – I have nothing to say to you.” She turned away, determined to leave the girl standing there.

             
But what was left of Lauren’s self control was gone now. She had wanted to have it out with Alison for a long time. “You’re a cold-hearted, dried up old bitch!”

             
Alison whipped around, and Lauren shouted: “…Who e
n
joys hurting a great, gorgeous guy like Vance!”

             
That was enough. “Well you didn’t waste any time soot
h
ing his pain, did you? You slept with him, admit it!”

             
“So what?!
You didn’t want him – you had your chance!”

             
Alison’s anger flared beyond the point of no return.
“You little whore!”

             
She reached out, slapped the young woman. A second later, her reason kicked in again. And she took a step back. Lauren stared at her, too shocked to retaliate.

             
“I am… sorry…” was all Alison was able to say. Then, she ran out of the house, where her flight came to an abrupt end
through a kidnapper standing guard, of course.

             
Lauren was still standing there, not sure how to react. The ugly possibility occurred to her she might have killed her c
a
reer.

Alison cowered on the ground outside, curled up in the vain a
t
tempt to make
herself
invisible. The absolute worst thing had ha
p
pened, the one thing she had been so careful to avoid all her life: she had made a spectacle of herself in front of ot
h
ers, humiliated herself; she had acted like a moron. Everyone had seen it, including the rebel soldiers. And there was n
o
where to run, to hide,
to
somehow get away from the scene of her meltdown. Covering her face, Alison cried. She didn’t care anymore if she survived this o
r
deal or not. On the contrary, dying sounded pretty good right now.

             
“Alison?” Vance’s voice reached her, low and gentle, while his hands closed around her shoulders.
“Come inside.”

             
“Go away.”

             
“We are all under a lot of stress, we are tired and hungry. We all know neither you nor Lauren meant what you said or did.”

             
“Was she good in bed?” She snapped, bitterly.

             
“Alison. Please…”

             
“So it’s true,” she murmured under tears. “Oh
God,
and I… I…” She wanted to push him away, but felt too exhausted.

             
Vance cursed silently. This was the worst possible way for Al
i
son to have learned about his indiscretion.  “I screwed up – I wasn’t thinking, it just happened.”

             
“That’s the most pitiful excuse I heard for a long time!”

             
“Alison, I know it’s no excuse”, he whispered, “but I …”

             
“Hey, you two!”
The man standing guard stepped up to them, waving his weapon. “Get back into the house, to the others!”

             
Vance rose, dragging Alison up with him. The kidnapper shoved the barrel of his machine gun against his side.
“Move!”

Time was crawling along. Vance sat next to Jake and watched the barely changing
’
play
’
their kidnappers gave on the
spa
r
tan
stage in front of them, dozing off occasionally from the boredom and heat.

             
“
You know, I was just dreaming about a giant Pepperoni Pizza,
”
Jake said.
“
Like the one my Aunt used to make. I h
a
ven
’
t thought about her for years! And now
…”
He half closed his eyes.
“
I can almost smell that pizza, man
…”

             
“
Yeah, it
’
s funny the things we think about in a situation like this,
”
Vance replied.
“
All that stuff I thought I had forgo
t
ten
…
All that stuff I
didn
’
t want to remember.
”