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whole darned shooting match seems to have sunk.’ Abi’s fake cheer sounded flat even to him.
    ‘The sun’s coming up. At least we can see the cliff face now.’
    ‘That’s a comfort.’
    Rudra cocked his head to one side. ‘Are you sure you’re up to this, Abi? You still look washed out from all those dives. Your skin looks kind of grey.’
    ‘I haven’t checked in the mirror recently, Rudi, but thanks for the testimonial. You always did know how to make a girl feel good about herself.’ Abi floated on his back for a moment, gathering his thoughts. The effort at producing the banter was beginning to take its toll. He fought down an urge to throw up his hands and slide beneath the surface of the sinkhole – signing off at this early stage would be a mug’s game. ‘The straight answer to your question is no. I’m not sure I’m up to it. But as the only one amongst us who has ever done any climbing, logic dictates that I take first shot at the summit. But maybe you have an alternative idea? Along the lines of an alien spaceship, perhaps, arriving from a galaxy far, far away, to spirit us off?’
    ‘Stranger things have happened, Abi.’
    ‘I don’t know when.’
    Abi twisted in the water and struck out for the base of the cliff. The others, after a brief hesitation, followed him. They looked like a family of ducklings shadowing their mother. The four of them stopped and trod water, their eyes fixed on the fifty-foot rock face above them.
    ‘It doesn’t look so far.’
    ‘Neither did Mars and those alien spaceships of yours, Rudi. If I happen to drop one of the tyre irons, for fuck’s sake try and catch it. With your teeth, if necessary.’
    Nawal pitched some water at Abi with the flat of her palm. ‘Leave Rudi alone. We’re all mourning our brothers and sisters. Not just you.’
    Abi felt like shouting that he wasn’t mourning anybody – that he didn’t give a damn about any of them apart from Vau. But at the last moment he turned onto his back and frog-swam towards the base of the cliff.
    The next time he spoke, his voice was detached and formal. ‘If the worst comes to the worst, we can always hammer the irons into the cliff foot and attach the tow rope to them. That would give us something to hang onto. It might even buy us a couple of days.’
    ‘A couple of days of what?’
    ‘ Nascentes morimur , finisque ab origine pendet .’
    Rudra shook his head. ‘Jesus, Abi. I wish you wouldn’t spring all that Latin stuff on people all the time. What does it mean?’
    ‘It means “from the moment of our birth we begin to die, and the end of our life is closely linked to the beginning of it”.’
    ‘Great. That’s just what we all wanted to hear.’
    ‘It is great. I saw an old English gravestone once. Its occupant had paraphrased Manilius perfectly: “When we to be to be begunne, we did beginne to be undonne.”’
    ‘I don’t get you, Abi. Are you trying to drive us all to collective suicide?’
    ‘No, frater meus . I’m simply trying to put things into perspective. Classical literature helps with that. They’ve been through it all before, you see.’
    ‘What? Floating in a cenote with a bunch of dead bodies?’ Nawal was holding the jack out of the water as if she feared it might rust and start to break up in her hands before she could get around to using it.
    ‘When you get a bit older, Nawal – which I agree, at the moment, looks a little unlikely – you’ll realize that there’s nothing new under the sun.’ Abi’s eyes travelled along the tangled fissure in the rock face he was intending to use on his way up. ‘Pass me the extinguisher.’
    Rudra handed it over.
    Abi took out the restraining pin and squeezed the trigger. A thin stream of foam jetted across the surface of the cenote.
    ‘Christ, Abi. What are you doing that for? Isn’t the water polluted enough already?’
    ‘Weight, Rudi. I’ve earmarked the extinguisher jacket as a hammer, not as a receptacle to put out