Then his weight was gone and I let out a shuddering breath.
I looked up – I was almost there. I leaned my helmet on the wall and took a deep breath. My blue T-shirt was black with sweat.
“You all right, Ben?” Lizzie called.
“Yeah.” I pushed upwards as the sun beat down.
Instead of pulling myself to safety, the first thing I did when my fingers gripped the top of the cliff was look back. I saw Curtis immediately, his red hair easy to spot. His team was racing alongside the riverbank, about to enter the treeline. I exhaled shakily; we had a little time.
I looked down. Lizzie wasn’t far below me. Grady was just above my cam and Will was climbing with Carmen attached to his back, dangling from him like an apple from a branch. She swung about two metres below him, using her feet and her good hand to help as much as she could.
“I thought you were going to pull Carmen up behind you?” I yelled.
Will glanced up. “I decided not to leave her by herself.”
“We’ve got time,” I called. “Curtis is only just at the grove. Go back and start again. I can pull Carmen up from the top if I have to.”
“Don’t leave me down there on my own,” Carmen cried. She gripped the rope tightly.
“I’m fine, Ben. Stop hassling me.” Will reached for another handhold, using the ropes I had left to help him climb.
“Your harness won’t hold both of you if you fall.”
I ground my teeth.
“Stop mothering me,” Will snapped. “I won’t fall.”
My pulse pounded as I watched them climb higher; a slip could kill them both. But as Lizzie came up behind me, I realized I had to get out of her way. It was time for me to climb over the clifftop.
Could there be another team up there, waiting for us? There was only one way to find out. I unhooked my rope and propelled myself up and over.
I rolled and came to my knees, fists held in front of me, looking frantically around.
I was on a wide, flat plateau. There was nothing to see but a few scrubby bushes and some kind of beacon in the middle – the kind that would have been lit in the old days to spread news of an attack. Could it be the checkpoint? A gust of wind slammed into me, almost knocking me back over the cliff and I hunched lower, shaded my eyes and looked around one more time to be sure. We were alone.
I shuddered in relief and turned to help Lizzie over the edge. She clambered over the top and gripped my shoulder, gasping.
Grady was close behind. I let him pull himself to safety, ignoring him as he crawled to my side; I was watching Will.
Carmen was doing her best to take some of her own weight, but still Will’s face was strained.
I held my breath. As soon as he was within reach, I stretched out my hand. He caught it, and Lizzie and Grady helped to pull him over the top. Immediately, he turned to pull Carmen the rest of the way.
Once we’d untangled her from the harness, we looked at each other wide-eyed.
“We made it,” Lizzie gasped.
Grady snorted a shocked laugh and I wrapped my arms around them all.
After a long moment, we pulled apart and Grady got to his feet. The wind almost knocked him flying over the drop. Lizzie shrieked and Will tackled him back to the ground.
Grady swore and pressed himself flat.
“We need to get away from the edge.” Lizzie raised her voice over the wind.
We all crawled closer to the beacon before attempting to stand once more.
When I was on my feet, I sheltered my eyes from the biting wind and looked out. The whole island was laid out below us. I could see the yellow-green moorland, the lochs and rivers, the chapel, the cottage where we’d sheltered. To my right was the jetty where we had started and to my left…
I swore.
“What is it?” Lizzie turned.
“It’s a plane.”
“It can’t be.” Grady followed my gaze.
“It is.”
Carmen’s face lit with hope. “Someone’s come to help?”
But Lizzie took my hand. She’d seen the same thing I had. The plane below us was a small passenger craft, just a little bigger than the one we’d arrived in. It was hunched on a narrow strip of beach, broken.
“It’s crashed,” Lizzie said. “The right wing is damaged. Who knows how long it’s been there.”
“Those poor people,” Carmen whispered.
I raised my binoculars. “I can’t see anyone.” I glanced at Will. “But you know what will be in that plane?” I smiled. “A radio.”
“You mean … we could call someone?” Lizzie straightened.
Grady looked sceptical. “My satphone wouldn’t work. What makes you think a radio will?”
“Actually, it is possible,” Will said. “It seems like someone is blocking phone and satellite, but would they have thought to block radio? I mean, how many teens would bring a radio? One hundred and twenty-one point five is the emergency frequency, isn’t it?”
I shrugged.
Will folded his arms. “I’m pretty sure it is.”
“You think we should climb back down there?” Grady stared at him. “That radio might not have survived the crash.”
Carmen gave a slight smile. “We’ve got Ben. He can fix anything – remember?”
Lizzie hummed thoughtfully and again it struck me how long it was since I’d heard her singing. She was like a broken radio herself. Finally, she shook her head. “We know the plane’s there. There’s a chance it’ll have a working radio. But we’re up here now and we haven’t found the last checkpoint. There could still be someone waiting to help us.”
Will avoided my eyes and looked instead at Carmen.
She nodded. “If we can find that last checkpoint, I want to. If it’s not up here, then we can talk about going to the plane.”
“Grady?” I said.
“Hey, I’m still hoping for the win.” He grinned suddenly and then turned serious. “We’ve got a chance, right? We’re here first?”
“It does look that way.” I frowned.
“We don’t have any geocaches,” Lizzie pointed out.
“There’s still a chance if we’re fastest,” Grady said stubbornly and crossed his arms.
“Will?”
“You know what I think.” The wind dragged his hair across his face and he held it out of his eyes. “Finding the last checkpoint could be our only chance to get off the island.”
The others started towards the beacon at the centre of the plateau, but I stayed, staring down at the plane.
“Come on, Ben,” Lizzie called.
I jogged over to join them. That radio wasn’t going anywhere.
The beacon was ancient – an eroded granite monolith with a giant fire-stained metal basket attached to the top with rusted bolts. Completely exposed, the only living things I could see were a few weeds clinging to the base. There was no box anywhere to be seen.
Lizzie wrapped her arms around her chest. “We could light a fire. It might bring help from one of the other islands.”
“What’re we going to burn?” Grady asked. “Have you felt the wind up here? To make a blaze big enough to stay alight and be seen from Fetlar or Unst, we’d need a ton of fuel.”
Will crouched by the beacon. Then he frowned, leaned close and rapped it with his knuckles. He put his ear to the rock and tapped it again.
He pulled me to my knees at his side. “Listen.”
“It’s hollow?”
“Is this the last checkpoint?” Lizzie got to her knees beside us. “But … if it is, then where is everyone? Where’s the Foundation?” I put an arm around her.
Carmen slumped to the floor.
Grady pulled half a packet of gummy bears from his trouser pocket and offered them around, but no one wanted any. He took a handful for himself, tipping their colourful little bodies into his mouth. “Maybe this isn’t the end,” he said as he chewed. “If it’s hollow, there could be more instructions inside – one final plac
e to go.” He touched Lizzie’s back. “You’re right. There has to be someone waiting at the end – otherwise how will they know who’s finished first and how many of the geocaches they collected?”
Lizzie smiled up at Grady. “OK, then how do we open it?”
Will was running his fingers along the base of the beacon. Eventually he shook his head. “I haven’t a clue.”
Chapter Nineteen
Grady, Will and I explored every inch of the beacon. Lizzie even pressed her thumb against any spots on the rock that looked smooth, but nothing happened.
Carmen rose and started to walk slowly around the concrete base, looking at the ground. Then she widened her circle. She stopped about ten metres out, the wind whipping her hair like dark flames. She called something, but the wind stole her words.
I stood, holding on to the beacon. “What was that?”
“Behind this stone,” Carmen croaked as she clutched her arm against her chest. “There’s a plaque.”
We raced to join her, fighting the dragging wind.
When we reached her, Carmen crouched and pointed. There was a low stone with a commemorative plate attached. It told us the beacon had been erected during the Napoleonic Wars.
“If the beacon is that old,” Grady said, “are you sure it’s hollow?”
“It’s hollow.” Will touched the screws on the plaque. “And these seem new. Anyone got a screwdriver?”
I passed over my Swiss army knife and he got to work. The rest of us stood shivering around him, the wind tearing at us angrily.
Finally the screws dropped out and Will lifted the plaque. Beneath it was a familiar screen.
Lizzie looked at us.
“Do it,” I said.
She kneeled and pressed her thumb to the sensor. The screen lit up.
Her fingers hovered over the keypad. “All right, you guys, what was the answer to the riddle?”
I looked at Will and he blinked. “I haven’t even thought about it.” He looked shocked. “I completely forgot.”
Lizzie looked up. “How much time do we have before they catch up?” She gestured back towards the grove.
“Not long now.” I shifted from foot to foot. “What was the riddle?”
“I wrote it down.” Grady licked his lips.
Lizzie stared. “Tell me we didn’t leave the book in the rucksacks … down there.”
Grady nodded, his face pale.
“OK.” I swallowed. “OK … we just have to try and remember what it was.” I looked at Will and Grady. “Between us, we should be able to. Didn’t it start with something about being hurt?”
“We hurt without moving,” Will said faintly.
“Yes,” Grady brightened. “Now I remember. Then it was, We poison without touching.”
“Didn’t it finish, We are not to be judged by our size?” I asked. “I remember because it made me think about the girls.”
“Yes, but something’s missing.” Will frowned. “It doesn’t scan. It needs something that rhymes with size.”
“Eyes,” Lizzie suggested. “Cries. Dies?”
I rubbed my temples. “I don’t know, I can’t—”
“Thanks for leaving the ropes for us!” The yell shuddered up the cliff.
I jerked and met Lizzie’s eyes.
“How did we forget to cut the ropes?” she cried.
“You’re in tro-o-o-uble,” came a higher male voice, singing.
Grady pressed his palms against his eyes. “I didn’t think!”
“Neither did we.” Will had caught hold of Carmen, whose face had turned phantom-white.
“We’re co-o-o-oming!”
“What do we do?” Sweat had broken out on Grady’s forehead. “There’s nowhere to hide up here! We’re trapped.”
Will’s eyes were flickering, considering scenarios and rejecting them.
I closed my fingers around my axe.
“We can’t take them on.” Lizzie’s wild eyes met mine. “Car can’t fight – we’re outnumbered.”
“We could climb down the other side and head for the plane.”
“We haven’t got the ropes,” Lizzie said.
“But we’re so close,” Grady wailed. “There’s no one else even here. We started last and we’ve beaten everyone to the final checkpoint. It’s not fair!”
Grady slumped. I put my arm around Lizzie and leaned my face against her hair.
Suddenly Grady straightened. “Hey!” He looked at the cliff and his eyes hardened. “We’ve been so scared, we forgot something.”
“What?” Carmen turned her tear-stained face towards him.
“That team is dangling about fifteen metres above the ground.” Grady showed his teeth. “Right now, they’re the vulnerable ones.”
Carmen’s eyes widened. “He’s right.”
“I’m not dropping anyone off a cliff.” Lizzie shoved her glasses higher up her nose. “It would be murder.”
“And what would they do to us if they could?” Carmen raised her arm.
“You aren’t dead, Car,” Lizzie said. “Even that bastard Reece didn’t kill you.”
“He might as well have done,” she snarled.
“But he didn’t. Anyway, we’re better than they are … aren’t we?”
“I know what to do.” Will stalked towards the cliff edge. “Follow me.”
Will lay on the clifftop and leaned his body over the edge. I copied him. Grady, Lizzie and Carmen stayed back, holding our legs.
Curtis was about six metres below us. The skinny boy with the sharp eyes was just behind him.
Spread out below were his remaining three teammates – one was climbing properly, wearing real climbing gear, like Lizzie’s, carefully picking out handholds. He was quite a way to the left of the others and higher. The final two were stuck further below, using the ropes secured in the vertical crack, unable to move up further until the next ropes had been freed by Curtis and his skinny mate.
“Hey,” Curtis yelled. “We’re gonna tear you apart!” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You better run.”
“Or not,” Will said calmly.
Curtis stared at Will and then back at the skinny boy climbing below him. He saw what I had seen. Although the two boys looked nothing alike, there was something there, some appalling similarity between the two.
“You see, we’re at the top.” Will smiled horribly. “And you’re not. In fact, it wouldn’t take much effort to push you off that cliff. All we have to do is wait till you’re in reach.” He pointed at me. “See Ben’s axe?”
I pulled it from my belt and brandished it over the edge.
“That’s for your fingers.”
“You’re bluffing!” But Curtis had stopped climbing.
“Curtis, whatcha doin’? Get up there and sort ’em out!”
“Shut up, Ryan.” Curtis didn’t even turn his head. He kept his eyes fixed on Will. His Adam’s apple moved up and down. “Maybe we can make a deal.”
“Maybe.” Will shrugged. “But we’ve got all the cards here – right, Ben?”
I nodded.
Curtis winced. “What was in the box you tossed?” He licked his lips. “Tell us. We’ll go back and finish that geocache. When we get back here, you’ll be done, right? And we could still finish the course in a faster time than you.”
“That means you’ll hurt someone else!” Carmen shrieked. “We’re not telling you anything.”
Curtis frowned.
“Yeah, as you can hear…” Will spread his hands helplessly. “We aren’t the ones in charge, so there’s no point in arguing.”
“You want us to just … back off?” Curtis was red-faced now, his shoulders trembling with his own weight.
Will leaned further out. “We’ve got rocks here to drop on you,” he lied. “But we haven’t. Not yet.”
“Why not? What do you want?” It wasn’t Curtis who spoke this time, but the boy behind him.
“We haven’t been completing the geocaches – not since another team
stole our first one.”
Was it me, or did Curtis flinch a little at that? I frowned. Will went on.
“So here we are at the end of the course, but we’re going to need your stash to win.”
Grady’s hands tightened on my legs.
“Ain’t gonna happen, you chancer,” the big lad called from below. “Just eff off.”
“Sticks and stones may break my bones,” Grady yelled. “You want a rock dropped on your head?” He was almost breathless with glee.
“Just hang on a minute.” Curtis called quickly. “We were only joking before, right?” He gave a shaky laugh. “I mean, we’re all on this island together. Maybe we could … team up? I mean, you’ve got there first, obviously. I get it. But we’ve got the geocaches. You know what we need for the one in the loch. We don’t. We could work together. Get the money, divvy it up fairly. Fifty–fifty. Half a mil each – that ain’t so bad.”
“That—”
“Shut up, Ben.” Will didn’t even look at me. He shouted down to Curtis again. “What’s to stop you from going back on the deal once we’ve told you what the geochache was? And which of us gives up the body part? You? I don’t think you’d be up for that, mate.”
“We could set up an ambush – there’ll be other teams coming,” the skinny boy murmured.
“You already heard the boss’s view on that one,” Will called with a sigh. “We’re helpless, really. I do think the best way is for you to climb up here, pass us your geocaches and then be on your way – back down, obviously.”
I looked up as a great skua cried out and wheeled overhead.
Abruptly the wind changed and brought with it the sounds of waves smashing on rocks. I looked back down. Curtis was flushed with fury and frustration. “The thing is,” he called finally, “I’m not carrying our geocaches. Max has them.”
“That true?” Will asked.
“Show ’em,” Curtis shouted.
“It’s a bad idea, Curt.”
“Show ’em, Max.”
Max rolled, so that he was holding on to the rope with one hand, then he reached behind him and opened the top of his rucksack. On the top, I could clearly see bloody T-shirts wrapped around misshapen lumps and, tucked to one side, Lizzie’s familiar floral glasses cloth.
Savage Island Page 18