The Island Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the families, sir? Of the ones who don’t survive.”
    Maurice paused as the Brazilian model whose name still escaped him sauntered downstairs and disappeared into the kitchen, giving him a glimpse of her smooth thonged behind as she went. “The families won’t complain. The world is a desperate place filled with desperate people who are looking for an opportunity to get out of the gutter. You think the families will have anything to say if we have the contestants on camera talking about why they are doing it or how much it means to their families? It would capture the imagination.”
    “I’m not so sure,” Maurice said, which Lomar knew actually meant , I’m close to getting on board, sway me a little more.
    “Think about this, Maurice. With ratings through the roof and billions of dollars in sponsorship in the bank, a media executive that was wily enough to take such a risk might be rewarded with a promotion. Say on to the board of directors of the entire company rather than just the media arm.”
    Lomar, of course, had the power and authority to demand the show be put into production no matter what Maurice thought; however, he also knew that having staff who worked with him rather than against him made all the difference, and even if it meant dangling the carrot of a promotion that probably wouldn’t ever happen, so be it. “Well? Do I have you on board?” Lomar said, rolling another snooker ball across the table where it ricocheted off some of its companions.
    “What about costs? I mean rigging the contestants up for TV will be easy enough, but The Island is huge. Not to mention the danger involved with the…things that are in there.”
    “Don’t worry about that. I’m giving unlimited budget to this. I want it to be spectacular. I’ll make sure we have camera coverage of the whole island, don’t you worry.”
    Lomar expected Maurice to be excited, or at least a little enthusiastic. Instead, that annoying silence greeted Lomar from the other end of the phone. “What is it now, Maurice?”
    “Sorry, sir, this is all a little bit much to take in. I was just thinking about the contestants. What if nobody applies for the show?”
    “They will. You mark my words. People are desperate.”
    “Desperate I understand, especially with the poverty and unemployment so high. But desperate enough to risk their lives? That I’m not so sure about sir.”
    “Let me tell you something about people, Maurice,” Lomar said, enjoying the irony that he was about to advise his employee about the same techniques just used against him. “You give them something they want, or an opportunity to get something they want, and you would be shocked at how far they will go. Trust me, if they get desperate enough, and they want the chance to change their lives bad enough, they will do it no matter what the potential risks might be. Now what I need from you is to make it happen. Can you do it?”
    “It’s going to take time. Planning. When were you thinking of going to air with this?”
    “Spring.”
    “Next spring?”
    “ This spring. Early summer at the latest.”
    “I’m not sure that’s possible, Mr. Lomar.”
    “Make it possible. At all costs.”
    Lomar hung up the phone then basked in the quiet. He could hear the Brazilian model in the kitchen moving things around in the fridge. He wasn’t sure if she was expecting to stay, but she was about to be disappointed if she did. He had used her for what he wanted, and now had more pressing matters at hand. The more he thought about it, The Island was an all-consuming idea, the perfect way to get the one blemish from his business history, to rectify the one thing he had got wrong and banish the ghost of his father’s voice as it chastised him for it on a daily basis. He couldn’t wait to get started.
     
     
                 

 
    PREPARATION
    THE ISLAND, ATLANTIC OCEAN
    JANUARY 19 th 2044
     
     
    The armoured truck cut through the undergrowth, the wet