Alpha Force: Untouchable Part 6

Hex calmed down first, tried to get the conversation back on track, but started chuckling instead, which set everyone off again. Gradually their mirth subsided.

Li felt a lot better. Paulo had cleverly cleared the air. 'Listen,' she said, 'didn't the vet say there was a drugs black market? Maybe that suspicious guy got the ketamine a bit cheap for general use around the animals and was trying to hide the fact.' She glanced at Paulo. 'What do you think, Enrique?'

Amber began chuckling again, then Paulo. That started Hex and Alex and before they knew it they were all helpless again.

Amber wiped a tear from her eye. 'Alex, just get this out of your system. Why don't you go and look at the bothy again now? There are enough of us here to sort out the kayaking gear for tomorrow. Go and do what you need to do.'

Li felt mean for being irritated with him earlier. 'I'll come with you,' she said. 'Kayaking's not my thing. I feel like another walk.'

Li and Alex climbed into the hills just as the sun was setting. The clouds had turned to purple and crimson; the mountains stood out black against a golden halo, as though there was a glowing fire just behind them. The two friends carried torches but preferred to keep them switched off, soaking up the silence, the vast purpling sky, the fresh cooling air. An owl rose out of the trees, its wings a wide silhouette, silent as a glider.

'This is so lovely,' said Li. 'What a pity people come here to kill things. That lodge rears pheasants and grouse for people to kill. And that pop star, or whoever she was, was out shooting deer today who'd want to shoot a deer?'

'I suppose people pay a lot of money to hunt,' said Alex.

'They do in that place,' said Li. 'You know what annoys me, it's not necessary. It's not like some of the parts of the world we've been to, where you have to be self-sufficient. If we were in the middle of the jungle and we had to kill something to get a meal, I've no problem with that. But a bunch of rich Hooray Henrys they can't eat a whole deer and they probably wouldn't want to.'

They started to climb more steeply, pulling themselves up on rocks that jutted out of the wiry gra.s.s. 'Have you seen Glaickvullin village?' said Alex.

'No.'

'I saw it last week when I took Amber down to get more insulin.' Amber was a diabetic and had to take regular medication, but she didn't let it cramp her style.

'And?' said Li.

'Well, you know Tongue?'

'Yes.' Tongue was a tiny village; they went there to get petrol and diesel for the vehicles. Aside from the petrol station it had a hotel, a bank, a farm and some cottages. That was all.

'Glaickvullin's like a different planet,' said Alex.

'How?'

They reached the top of the hill. Below, the white walls of the hostel reflected the sunset glow.

'It's got a posh country clothing shop and a gift shop selling lots of things marked WITH LOVE FROM SCOTLAND WITH LOVE FROM SCOTLAND. There are a lot of local people making a living out of the people who come here to shoot. And then there are the gamekeepers it's a traditional job. They have to look after the environment, farming the heather, making sure the animals on the estate are healthy...'

Li paused, hands on hips. 'But they shoot so many birds they have to keep rearing more of them or they'd die out.'

'Many more of them are released than are shot. A lot of them go and live in the wild.'

They marched on again. 'That doesn't make sense, Alex. If there are a lot of them in the wild, why do the keepers have to breed them?'

'Too many natural predators. And the weather's so cold up here that partridge and pheasant don't breed. The point is, it's a natural resource, like oil. The gamekeepers make sure it's managed in a responsible, sustainable way.'

'You sound like you've been finding out a lot about this.'

'My mum has. She doesn't want me to have a job where I might get shot at, like my dad. My careers officer told her about gamekeeping and she thought it would be perfect the outdoors, and a few guns, but-'

'But nice and safe. Birds and deer can't shoot back.'

'Precisely,' said Alex. 'She's worried I'm going to try for the armed forces again.' Some time ago Alex had applied to join the army but had been turned down. He'd been gutted, but he'd never quite let go of the dream.

They walked on. Instead of wiry gra.s.s swishing against their legs they felt brittle twigs which smelled charred. The gamekeepers had been out burning heather, which kept it in good condition to provide cover for the birds.

'Parents, huh?' said Li. 'Always trying to wrap you in cotton wool.'

'Yeah,' said Alex. 'Can't be easy for Mum, though. She gets so worried about Dad. Hey were you checked out by the police before this trip? To see if you had any criminal history before they let you look after the kids?'

Li nodded. 'Yeah. I was dead scared what they'd turn up. All these things we've done over the past few years I know it wasn't illegal but I'd hate my parents to know about it.'

Alex agreed. 'I was scared stiff until they gave me the all-clear.' He turned his torch on to check his compa.s.s. It was fully dark now; the torch would have to stay on.

'So what does the future hold for you, Li?'

'I have an uncle with a traditional martial arts school in Shanghai.'

Alex asked, half joking, 'Is there a Cheong style of martial arts?'

'Actually there is. There are thousands of traditional family styles of martial arts throughout the country.'

'And might the Cheong academy be getting a dynamic new sensei?'

Li sighed. 'I don't know. I'd really, really like to carry it on. They all say I'm the natural successor, but I don't know if I'm ready to settle down.'

Settle down. The words made Alex feel sad.

Li stopped and shone the torch around. 'Hey,' she whispered. The beam caught a stone wall twenty metres away.

'That's it,' said Alex.

They crept up in silence. The bothy was dark. Alex's torch reflected off the windows in a white slick. He peered inside. It all looked much the same as earlier that day.

Li tried the door. 'Locked.'

Alex stood back and shone his torch over the building. It looked peaceful and quiet, like an empty house.

Li went and stood close to him. 'What now?'

'I feel like a right twit. But I'd like to stay for a bit, see if anything happens.'

There was a low stone wall that went round one side of the bothy, like a garden wall. They sat down beside it, huddling into the shadow. The two friends could have carried on their conversation, but now things were different. This was a mission.

After about ten minutes a new sound joined the peaceful night sounds. At first it was barely noticeable, like a buzzing insect, but bit by bit it became louder. An engine. Coming their way.

Li gripped Alex's arm. Two pinpoints of light bounced up the hill. Headlights.

Alex's mind raced. He hadn't expected a vehicle by the sound it must be a quad bike; he'd thought it would be somebody on foot. Had there been a vehicle the previous night? There could have been, parked behind the bothy.

Would the driver see them in the headlights? They hadn't come kitted out for camouflage. Alex's combat trousers were khaki, which looked pale at night. Why hadn't he worn black? They hadn't got camouflage cream on either. 'Hide your face,' he hissed to Li.

The bike pulled up beside the bothy and the engine stopped. A torch flashed around, then a figure was at the door. The lock clicked and the hinges creaked open. A shadow pa.s.sed inside, its footsteps like sandpaper on the gritty floor inside. There was a golden flare as a match was lit, followed by a softer glow that lit the room gently. The paraffin lamp.

A second figure remained on the bike, a cigarette glowing red and lighting up his hands. The acrid tang of the smoke drifted over to Li and Alex. He was only ten metres away from them. They stayed very, very still. The other figure came back out of the bothy. The lighted cigarette was mashed under a boot. Then they both went inside.

Li and Alex could see the pale square of light on the ground, occasionally darkened by shadows moving across the window. It allowed them to make out the vehicle a six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, or ATV, similar to the quad bikes they had at the hostel.

Li decided it was safe to whisper. 'Should we go closer-?'

Suddenly the door opened and the two figures came out again. A deer carca.s.s swung heavily between them. They loaded it onto the flat bed at the back of the ATV, went back in, then came out with another. Their torches illuminated the name on the flat bed: 6x6 POLARIS POLARIS, and a dent in the f.l.a.n.g.e of metal that arched over the wheel. One of the men pulled elastic ropes over the carca.s.ses to secure them while the other went back into the bothy. The pale square of light in the window disappeared, leaving only the pinpoint of torches. The door was locked, then the engine chugged into life and the headlights came on. The second man climbed on behind the driver and they sped away, the headlights questing into the night.

Li and Alex breathed out a long, grateful sigh. Alex got up and looked through the window of the bothy, shining his torch in.

'Anything?' said Li, coming up behind him.

'Can't see much,' said Alex. He turned to look at her. 'But Rob at the lodge specifically said n.o.body went shooting at night.'

'There wasn't any shooting,' said Li. 'Those deer were already dead. The guys were probably catching up with work.'

Alex searched the ground with his torch. 'You always gut them immediately they're shot. If you leave them they blow up with gas and smell awful. And I can't see any entrails here.'

'So those deer were already gutted.'

'But that's weird,' said Alex agitatedly. 'Those people who went shooting this morning had their carca.s.ses with them to show off their catch.' He looked at Li, who was standing with her hands on her hips. Her body language was saying 'sceptical'. Alex sighed. 'I'm going off on one again, aren't I?'

Li prodded him gently in the ribs. 'At least they showed up. You didn't imagine it entirely. However, I was expecting them to do something a bit more exciting.'

Alex turned away from the bothy. 'Come on, let's get back.'

For a while they walked in silence. Li could tell that Alex was lost in his thoughts. Although he was trying to laugh it off now, there was something still bothering him. Whatever he thought he saw here must have been quite upsetting. She'd heard that people who had a bad trip on LSD could be deeply scarred. In a way, she understood. She'd had a bad experience abseiling once, and it took her a long time to put it behind her. Perhaps it was a similar feeling.

'Go on,' she said, 'tell me what you're thinking. I know you're still fretting.'

Alex sighed. 'I just keep thinking there's something important I've forgotten.'

Li's torch picked out a shiny object in the darkness. She stopped, startled. Her voice dropped to a whisper. 'That wasn't there before.'

They went closer. Their torches picked out six tyres, shiny green paintwork, handlebars. The name on the flat bed: 6x6 POLARIS POLARIS. The same dent in the wheel arch.

'It's the ATV from the bothy,' whispered Li. 'What's it doing here?'

Alex put his hand on the bonnet. It was warm, but had probably been stopped for about five minutes. Li flashed her torch around. There was no sign of the drivers. She peered into the darkness for torches, but the night was pitch black.

Alex inspected the flat bed on the back of the ATV. 'The deer are gone. But where are the drivers?'

Li looked at the map. She laughed quietly.

'What's funny?'

'Oh it's nothing.' She felt silly. Then she felt dishonest. Here was Alex, trying to get to grips with a weird experience; the least she could do was confess about her own. 'You know the cave where Tiff got stuck and I had to rescue her? The cave with the noise?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced it sounded like a generator. When we got back I got out the map of the pothole and matched it up with the Ordnance Survey map. I really was thinking there might be a machine buried in a hidden cave there, doing something clandestine. But it was just open moor.'

Alex shrugged. 'Maybe what you heard was somebody driving nearby. Or an underground water course.'

'No, it didn't sound like that. It was constant, but it didn't really sound like water. Paulo came in while I was looking and asked what I was doing. I pretended I was looking at the map for another reason. Anyway, just as a matter of interest, it was right here. And now here's the Mary Celeste Mary Celeste ATV.' ATV.'

Alex chuckled and linked his arm through hers. 'Glad I'm not the only one going mad. Come on, let's get back. Thanks for coming out with me.'

10.

WHALE.

A grey seal swam alongside Paulo's kayak, its dark eyes looking at him curiously, its long snout ending in two narrow nostrils. It had been following them since they pushed off from the stony sh.o.r.e.

A road bridge crossed high above them, making a dark shadow across the choppy water. Six yellow Day-Glo kayaks paddled out of the V-shaped inlet, on their way to the sea Amber and Hex at the front, Alex and Tiff in the middle and, bringing up the rear, Li and Paulo. Plus one seal.

Paulo grinned at it, gliding with the current, not wanting to put his paddle in the water in case he hurt it. His hair had gone especially wild in the sea spray, wiry like the seal's whiskers, thought Li. What was it with him? Animals always seemed to like him.

Beyond the bridge the sh.o.r.es opened out and the water merged with the sea. Far behind, the village looked like a small collection of white dolls' houses, the ruined castle that stood on the bluff a tiny double p.r.o.ng of brickwork. Gulls and cormorants soared in the thermals, calling to each other.

The only other sound was the splash of oars. The kayaks were perfect for seeing the wildlife in the open water they made hardly any wake, unlike a motorized vessel, and were safer than swimming.

Suddenly the sound of the birds multiplied by a thousand. The clear blue sky was full of black shapes, swooping towards a point on the rocky coastline. Alex was reminded of his grandmother in Sunderland: she used to put out chicken sc.r.a.ps on the patio, and what seemed like a hundred birds appeared from nowhere and dived onto the little garden. There must be a freshly dead animal over there, he thought perhaps a sheep had fallen from the cliff. His gaze drifted that way.

It was a boat, being loaded by a couple of figures. Fishermen? They were swinging a heavy load into the boat. At first Alex thought it was a tarpaulin full of fish. Then he caught a glimpse of a delicate head, fine legs. Deer carca.s.ses.

He watched them go in. One. Then another. Three altogether. There was another man in the boat; he pulled a big tarpaulin over the carca.s.ses.

Li had seen it too. She tried to alert Paulo but he was still teasing the seal as the boat pulled away. The birds followed a little way, but gradually dispersed. The two men walked back inland and disappeared behind a rock. The boat put on a burst of speed: even Paulo looked up at the sound of it. It speed out round the coast to the east.

Suddenly a louder noise claimed Li's attention. A rumble underneath her, like water coming to the boil. One moment she was up in the air, the next she was falling face first into dark blue water. The cold closed around her head like an iron vice.

But her reactions were well honed: she twisted and the kayak rolled right over. As she came up and shook her head, blinking salt water out of her eyes, she saw Paulo treading water beside his kayak, his arms around it like a big drum, his lifejacket like two orange pillows at his ears. The seal was still beside him, a snout and eyes bobbing up and down on the same wave as Paulo. It looked like an earless Labrador.

'Look,' called Amber. 'Quick!'

A plume of water rose from the choppy surface, showering them in fine mist. The water slid away to reveal a giant curved tail. It waved gracefully in the air, a ma.s.sive, black, barnacle-encrusted tower, the height of a small building. It slid back into the water with a splash, leaving a small swirling current. A humpback whale.

Tiff's kayak was thrown against Alex's. He looked at her quickly and mouthed, OK? OK? She nodded. She nodded.