by Chris Ryan
She had to believe she would see more tracks, but the blank ground was scary. Be logical, she told herself. You’re not seeing tracks because Pirroni will be doing his best to cover them. Alex would have to be careful leaving her clues in case Pirroni noticed. She might not see one for a while. She just had to trust that there would be more.
Every so often she used the scissors to cut big arrows into trees. The scorched trunks were particularly good as the wood underneath showed up pale.
Someone else would follow; she told herself that. She had made the plane visible, and people would be looking for Pirroni. Once she started thinking about what she would do if she caught up with Pirroni on her own. She put it swiftly out of her mind. One step at a time, she told herself. Look for Alex’s signs. She put all the mental strength she had developed in training into concentrating on her job.
Everywhere there were signs of recent fires: the ashy floor; the scorched trees. Her every footstep crackled as tinder-dry twigs snapped under her. Forest fires were a real possibility here.
She saw a red skid mark with a bootprint. Her spirits lifted; it didn’t look accidental. She walked a little further. There was another bootprint, not a Timberland. A twisted twig lay on top of it to form a letter. She avoided stepping on the footprint; the letter N must be a warning. She was relived to see a deliberate sign. As if to comfort her even more, she heard rustling and cawing in the distance. A flock of birds had been disturbed by something large. Her quarry must be quite close. ‘Bless you, Alex,’ she said softly.
Hex clamped the cover of the PC back on, reconnected the monitor, keyboard and power supply and switched on. The machine hummed, the hard drive started spinning and the screen flowered into life.
Amber and Paulo were sitting with him at the bench. Paulo looked impressed. ‘What was it, Hex?’
‘Some of the lovely indigenous wildlife had eaten through one of the IDE cables.’
Paulo looked blank.
‘The cable from the motherboard to the hard drive,’ Hex explained. ‘The computer thought the hard drive was missing. Most PCs have a second cable going to the CD-ROM, so I put the hard drive and CD-ROM onto the same cable, made the CD-ROM the slave device by re-jumpering the device selector and—’
Amber was pulling a face at Paulo. ‘Don’t you wish you’d never asked?’ She took a swig of water. They now had freshly boiled water from the settlement.
Tommy sat at the working computer and beamed. ‘It’s marvellous,’ he said.
Hex concentrated on talking to the more appreciative members of his audience. ‘I also changed some more jumpers on the motherboard to overclock the system, so in effect you now have a faster PC. While I’m here I’ll just have a look at your setup and data management.’ His fingers flew over the keys.
More people had come into the schoolroom, among them the woman in the flowered T-shirt. They crowded around the bench. Hex was clicking through systems boxes on the screen and they exclaimed in amazement, clapping Tommy on the back.
‘They seem pleased,’ said Paulo.
‘Yes, but have you noticed something?’ said Amber. ‘They’re congratulating Tommy. It’s as if the three of us are invisible.’
Tommy indicated the three friends. ‘These are the people who had helped me make the computer work,’ he said.
All of a sudden, the woman in the flowered T-shirt turned and spoke directly to Amber and Paulo. ‘Hello, I’m Suzu. The computer is very important to the school. Our children need to know how to survive in a foreign culture.’
Now she was perfectly friendly, thought Amber. That one introduction had changed everything. It was as if we didn’t exist until our relationship to them was explained.
Hex finished zapping boxes on the screen. ‘I’m just defragmenting your hard drive and removing Findfast, which should make it run even better.’ He looked at Suzu. ‘How many children use this computer?’
‘All the children in this outstation - around thirty.’
Hex goggled. ‘Strewth, you need more machines.’ He brought out his palmtop, then a small power lead. ‘Do you have anywhere I could plug this in?’
Tommy pointed at the device. ‘When I saw him with this I thought they could help,’ he told Suzu. Hex pointed to a black box on the desk. ‘Would you pass that transformer?’
Suzu handed it over. Hex inspected it, tweaked some switches on his palmtop to make it compatible, then switched the machine on. As its screen lit up, he smiled at it like an old friend, then got to work and fired off a few e-mails. First he sent a grid reference to Sergeant Powell and copied it to Amber’s uncle. Then he sent a general e-mail to several of his friends: ‘Does anyone want a deserving home for an old machine?’ Hacker friends who used the latest technology often donated their old computers to local schools or charities.
After a few minutes he looked up from the screen. ‘OK. I have three Pentium Pros for you. They can be couriered to anywhere you like.’
A look of deep gratitude spread over Tommy’s face. ‘And now we must do something for you. I think we might be able to help you find your friends.’
Hex was about to unplug his palmtop, but Amber stopped him. ‘Before you shut that down, have you still got the co-ordinates of where we last saw Pirroni’s plane?’
Hex flicked the display to a different screen and she picked up a pencil and writing pad that were on the bench and began to scribble.
Suzu bustled off. Tommy said to Paulo, ‘I will drive you where you need to go. But first, you must have food.’
Paulo smiled. ‘That is very kind; thank you.’ He noticed Amber calling up a map on the GPS. ‘Amber, what are you doing?’
‘This is our current position here. We know where we last spotted Pirroni, and what his bearing was. He’d have had to land too because of the storm, so he can’t be that far from where we came down.’ She scribbled as she talked, doing the calculations and constructing a diagram with the results. ‘We can allow for the storm because we know the wind speed reading was sixty-four k.p.h. . . .’ She looked up. ‘What speed were we flying at, and what speed do you reckon Pirroni would have been doing in his aircraft?’
Suzu returned with a wooden bowl. Hex’s nostrils caught a delicious smell. Then he checked himself. He had heard stories about bush tucker; indeed, some of the games in the TV show involved making contestants eat revolting things.
‘Oh wow!’ exclaimed Paulo. He looked as though he was about to die of bliss. ‘Corned beef hash.’
Amber looked up from her calculations. ‘All riiiiight,’ she grinned as Tommy handed out bowls.
In less than an hour they were ready to set off. Hex and Paulo sat on a striped rug in the back of the Toyota truck. Tommy and Amber were in the front. As they drove out of the camp, several youths carrying flaming torches headed out into the clearing. Their charcoal-coloured limbs resembled slender twigs poking out from the legs of their shorts, which was all they wore.
Amber turned to Tommy. ‘What’s going on?’
‘A fire is coming. We burn the area around the camp to get rid of all the grass and trees. It goes out before the real fire arrives. Then the real fire cannot reach our homes.’
One of the youths touched his flame to a clump of scrubby grass. Tinder-dry, it caught immediately, sending a line of flame along the ground like a burning fuse.
Tommy took them out over the plain. There was no road, only a faint track where other vehicles had passed. Amber spread out her map on the dashboard. The calculations had come easily to her thanks to her experience navigating aboard yachts, and she was confident she had pinpointed a small area where Pirroni was likely to have landed. It was quite close to where they had come down themselves. They would patrol a radius around their own wreck and look for signs of a landing. Even if Pirroni had taken off again, he would not have gone far.
Tommy braked and the truck skidded to a halt. He called over his shoulder to Hex and Paulo, ‘You must come and sit in the cab. Another dust storm is coming.’
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Hex and Paulo scrambled in, jamming Amber’s thigh against the gear lever. As they pulled the door shut, the sky darkened and a thick red haze cloaked the windscreen. Tommy drove on without slowing. He steered as though he could still see. Hex looked back and saw as the dust thinned that the bushman had just piloted them around a tree. He knows every tree and boulder, he thought.
Tommy’s face was grim. ‘Where the dust storms come, the fire comes too.’
20
RACING THE FLAMES
The dust storm lashed the trees. Alex and Holly huddled together. Pirroni sat hunched by a tree trunk. Alex opened his eyes briefly and couldn’t even see his hand. It was like being in a thick fog, but a fog full of nails. He could hear nothing but the wind in his ears. Which way was up? He had no idea. Holly clung to him like a koala; he had to be strong for her. Pirroni was immobilized too but there was no possibility of using this as a chance to get away. The storm blinded and deafened them.
The wind slowed. The quiet came like relief. Tiny noises seemed magnified. Alex could hear Holly breathing next to him. But it wasn’t normal breathing; it was a rasping wheeze. The wind got up again and he still seemed to hear Holly fighting for breath, but that might have been the memory of it preying on his mind. Did she have asthma? If she did and she had a bad attack, she might die.
Another lull came, and this time it lasted. Pirroni got to his feet and Alex helped Holly up. He felt as if he had been spun around in a blindfold. Which direction had they been going in?
A flock of birds rose in a shrieking cloud. Pirroni stopped and looked at them. It seemed to ring some alarm bell in his mind. He turned to look back the way they had come.
Alex turned to look too. Grey smoke hugged the ground and filled in the gaps between the termite mounds. It looked like morning mist on a winter’s day - except this was no mist. A smell of burning reached Alex’s nostrils.
‘Fire!’ he yelled.
Pirroni ran. Alex gave chase. Holly kept up, adrenaline powering her alongside Alex. Terrorist and hostages alike ran for their lives. About a hundred metres ahead was an outcrop of rock thirty metres high, with a hollowed-out entrance, like a cave. A sign lay on the ground; it said: ‘DANGER: MINE WORKINGS’. The entrance was blocked by a wire gate, but a big hole had been cut in it and the edges were curled inwards. Danger or not, it was shelter. Alex and Holly dived after Pirroni into the gloomy depths.
Inside, Pirroni clamped a hand around Holly’s arm. She wanted to collapse and catch her breath but he held her fast and forced her to stay on her feet. ‘This way.’ He took her further into the cave and drew his gun. She saw it and sobbed, stumbling alongside him. Alex’s blood thundered in his head. Was he about to shoot her?
Pirroni turned to face him. ‘You,’ he said. ‘Take her other arm.’
Alex obeyed, a thousand possibilities going through his mind. Was Pirroni about to kill them? Or was he threatening Holly simply to make him behave? The terrorist led them further into the cave. Where was he taking them? Was he looking for a quiet spot to shoot them and dump their bodies? Or was he trying to find a hiding place in case they were followed into the mine by someone else looking for shelter - or looking for them?
They passed decaying pit props. No wonder the place was locked up and condemned, thought Alex. Holly sobbed quietly. She feared for her life and Alex didn’t dare say anything to her. She stumbled. Alex pulled her upright and heard a skittering of rocks as though they had dislodged some stones.
Then the whole floor slid away from underneath them.
Alex was thrown onto his back. Rocks dug into his spine and he was moving fast. The floor was giving way, roaring down into a big hole that had suddenly opened up. Holly screamed, sliding past him like someone caught in an avalanche. Alex grabbed her hand and her momentum pulled him down too. They hit the bottom together. Boulders bounced around them as they crashed down to the lower level, splintering into sharp, razor-like fragments.
Alex saw a large rock. If they could hide behind it, everything would go past them. Keeping hold of Holly, he got up, but his feet slithered on the unstable rubble. All he could do was dive for the rock and roll behind it, pulling Holly with him. It probably wasn’t comfortable for her being dragged like that but it was better than leaving her. If he let go of her, he’d never find her again because he couldn’t see anything. He had no idea what had happened to Pirroni.
The noise was earsplitting, crash upon crash like claps of thunder. Boulders rained down like hail. They shattered and the shrapnel cut his exposed arm like needles. The ground shook. Dust choked every breath he took and he tasted it in his mouth like cement.
Li was running hard. Behind her the orange glow of the fire ate up the trees, catching on the twigs, bark and dry leaves that littered the floor of the wood. It engulfed the termite mounds. All the animals had fled; she was the only living thing struggling to escape the flames.
She saw the entrance to the mine and dived in without hesitation. Inside, she collapsed against a rough-hewn wall, gasping for air.
At first she thought the roaring sound she could hear was the blood in her ears. But it was coming from deep within the mine. Dust was roiling towards her like smoke. But she knew it wasn’t smoke. An experienced mountaineer, she knew only too well the sound of a rockfall.
Li didn’t wait to see boulders raining down. She spotted a steel cabinet and dived in, wedging the door wide open. She didn’t want to be trapped if something fell in front of the door.
Tommy drove onto the road and braked. ‘This is where I found you.’
‘But the wreckage of the plane isn’t here,’ said Amber. She was mystified. For miles in either direction the road was clear.
‘Maybe it blew away,’ said Hex. But privately he thought Tommy was wrong too. How could he ask the Aboriginal if he was sure about the location without offending him?
Tommy seemed to read his mind. ‘This tree was here,’ he said, pointing. The three friends followed his gesture with their eyes. It did look like the tree they had sheltered under during the first storm, but they had passed many other trees that looked just like it too.
Tommy got out of the truck and walked round to the passenger door. ‘One of you drive,’ he said. ‘I’ll check the ground.’
Paulo shifted to the driver’s seat and started the engine. ‘Here’s where we’re going, Paulo,’ said Amber. She pointed to a mark on her map.
Paulo took the truck very slowly in a big circle, covering the area identified by Amber. Then the plan was to head straight across to the centre of the circle, to the point where the seaplane was most likely to be. Tommy hung out of the open door, inspecting the orange ground for signs.
He’s never going to find anything, thought Hex. There’s nothing to see. The ground was so hard they could barely see the tracks of their own truck, which weighed a couple of tonnes. How would a human weighing far less leave any sort of mark? But maybe he would be able to tell if a plane had landed - or taken off again.
Tommy held up his hand. ‘Stop.’ Paulo braked gently, aware of his precariously balanced passenger.
They were at the edge of a wood. Tommy jumped out and squatted down on the ground. ‘Animals have been this way. Two kangaroos fleeing from the fire. We must be careful.’ He paused and traced his fingers lightly above the dust as though uncovering something. He added, Also people moving.’
Amber, Hex and Paulo jumped out of the truck. Hex and Amber squatted down on either side of Tommy. Hex peered over Tommy’s shoulder. No matter how closely he looked, he could see nothing there.
‘One woman, two men,’ said Tommy. ‘The man walks with a limp.’ He stood up. ‘Come. We follow them further.’
Amber glanced at Hex. She could see the same question on Hex’s face as was on her own. They hadn’t told Tommy about the people they were looking for. Yet Tommy knew Pirroni had a limp. Just how had he worked that out?
Paulo drove along the edge of a wood. Tommy hung out of the side looking for mo
re tracks. But he stayed quiet for ages, finding no more sightings.
He straightened up and put a hand in the small of his back, easing the muscles. ‘The storm must have wiped the other prints away,’ he said. ‘I can’t see them any more.’ Then his face changed.
‘What’s the matter, Tommy?’ said Amber.
Tommy sniffed the air and pulled the door closed with a slam. He pointed towards the open clearing. His voice was urgent. ‘Quickly, take the truck over there and stop.’
Paulo steered around the termite mounds to where Tommy had indicated.
Tommy hopped out. ‘We’ll have to leave the truck here on the grass. The fire is coming.’
Amber climbed down after him. ‘Wouldn’t we be safer in the truck?’
Tommy shook his head. ‘The truck will get too hot.’
‘Like an oven, I suppose,’ said Paulo. ‘But why are we leaving it here?’
‘If the grass catches fire it won’t set fire to the truck. But if we are in the forest the truck will burn. Follow me.’ He stalked off towards the wood.
Amber, Hex and Paulo followed. ‘Does that make sense?’ said Amber quietly to Hex.
‘I suppose the forest provides more fuel - with all that leaf litter and twigs and stuff.’
Tommy reached the wood and squatted down on his haunches. When the three friends caught up with him they found him tracing a mark on a tree with his finger.
‘Cut with scissors, recently,’ he said. ‘And here’ – he placed his hand on the ground, palm down - ‘here we have the footprint of a woman.’
The rockfall was over as suddenly as it had started. When the silence came Alex stayed stock-still, listening. Any moment it might start again. He held his breath. The mine stayed quiet.