The rest of the afternoon passed without incident. The eight new friends used the electric carts to explore the rest of the complex and the island itself. Every turn revealed something new, an Olympic sized swimming pool with retractable roof, football, rugby and American football pitches and of course, an eighteen hole golf course which provided the carts.
One thing that did surprise them was the army base. Not the fact that it was there but the sheer scale of it. There were barracks at the centre of the compound which housed some 200 troops, there was the fuselage of an airliner, an office block and what looked like a small street with shops and houses. At the opposite end of the compound, stood a few small hangars surrounded by attack and transport helicopters. Tom explained to everybody the type and performance of each one of them. Nobody had asked for this information but they all listened patiently. The compound was surrounded by a high wire fence and the sea. A small marina was lined with a number of secure boatsheds and what looked like a comprehensive selection of high performance boats.
As they looked on, bangs and flashes could be heard from the street in the compound. Six soldiers appeared a few seconds later, dressed entirely in black and screaming “CLEAR!!!” This really was a fully operational anti-terrorist camp.
It was 5.55 p.m. when they made their way back to their block. Lela turned to Oleg and asked him whether he had received any telephone calls.
“No,” said Oleg, “but I don’t have my mobile on me. Why?”
“Oh, no reason, just wondered,” said Lela mysteriously.
It was not until Oleg was back in his room and noticed his phone on the bedside table that he thought back to Lela’s strange question. He walked across and picked up the phone. He had two missed calls and one message. He dialled the voicemail number and after hearing the message, he dropped the phone and screamed.
Tom was the first of the group through the door to find Oleg sitting in a daze on his bed.
“Oleg, are you OK?”
“Perfect,” came a subdued response.
“What’s happened, is everything OK?”
“They couldn’t be better.”
“What the hell has happened? First you scream and now you’re like a zombie who can’t speak.”
Oleg stood up and faced the group.
“I have just picked up the most wonderful message ever. I need to call my father back. But basically, Yuri has been kicked out of school. He went to the Headmaster and confessed to being the leader of his gang and that he had bullied three students including me. The Headmaster expelled him immediately for having hit me and severely reprimanded the rest of the gang. If they even so much as swat a fly, they’re out. It appears the school rule is very serious. My father also apologised for not believing me when I complained about Yuri. He’s going to have a very frank chat with Yuri and his mum which should prove very interesting.”
“Unbelievable,” said Chen.
“Yep,” Oleg agreed.
Tom had been watching Lela. At no point had she shown the least sign of surprise. He caught her eye and mouthed “we’ll talk later.” Lela smiled back and winked.
Oleg called his father back and after a very emotional call for both of them, he updated the group on the rest of the breaking news.
“It just gets better and better. My father has just had a huge fight with my step-mother or should I say ex step-mother. It turns out that when my father got tough with her, she confessed that she had only married him for the money and would take him to the cleaners in a divorce. He’s got the whole thing on tape which means she’ll more than likely get nothing.”