by Chris Ryan
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 shores 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 prong 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 scraps 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 carcasses.
He watched them go in. One. Then another. Three altogether. There was another man in the boat; he pulled a big tarpaulin over the carcasses.
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 massive, 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? She nodded.
Li, Hex and Amber looked around for Paulo. He was still in the water – had he been dragged down when the whale submerged? But no, there he was, hanging onto his kayak. He heaved himself up with his arms and folded his long legs back into the vessel. He pulled up the plastic skirt that kept the water out around his waist, and the seal spooked and scooted away.
Amber saw out of the corner of her eye a network of white bubbles on the surface, like a lace doily. It was the whale’s blowhole. She glanced at Hex. ‘Get outta here!’ she yelled. The two friends paddled like mad in different directions. Moments later the whale exploded onto the surface, drenching them.
Hex stopped paddling and looked back. From the side the whale’s mouth was like two giant mussel shells, its dark glossy back like a small submarine as it arced through the water. Beyond, Amber bobbed on the water like a doll in a shoe. The whale slipped into the water again.
The kayakers watched the water, enchanted, poised to flee if the whale came up again. But the water remained still. The whale had gone.
Ahead was a small island, a rocky hump about ten kilometres long. It stuck out of the water like a tooth. Birds wheeled in the air above it and tiny figures moved on the rocky outcrops, as though the surfaces were covered in ants. Amber, as lead scout, pointed her oar towards it. That was where they were going.
Back in formation, they paddled closer. Bird lime streaked the cliffs like white paint, making the cracked grey rock underneath look forbidding. The island was covered in seals. A family of them humped awkwardly down a rocky incline into the water. They looked like people trying to crawl in sleeping bags, thought Amber. The moment they hit the water they transformed into torpedoes, their streamlined bodies looping up and down through the waves, their skin glistening like shiny rubber.
The kayaks picked up speed. The current was getting stronger as the sea became shallower, but Amber had expected this. An experienced sailor, she had planned the route so that a novice like Tiff could cope. She checked her wrist-mounted compass and led the group to the left, around the end of the island. Gannets soared off the cliffs above them.
Tiff shrieked. She pointed with her oar and Alex’s head snapped round, looking for the danger. A small dorsal fin was slicing through the surface near Alex’s boat.
‘Shark!’ she shouted, although most of the sound was lost in the cries of sea birds.
It wasn’t a shark. Alex tried not to smile. He let go of one oar and mimed a dolphin swimming.
Tiff mouthed something at him in reply. He didn’t bother to lip-read.
A dark hole appeared in the white-streaked rock. Amber adjusted her course so that they were heading straight for it. A cave. They paddled closer to the rocks. Little eddies of foam splashed up against them. Then they slipped inside the dark hole and the sound changed.
The roaring wind and the calling birds were muffled. Instead they could hear the soft splash of their paddles, the water lapping against the rock walls.
‘Ah, peace and quiet,’ sighed Amber. It was the first time they’d been able to talk.
‘Where do we have lunch?’ said Paulo. His curly hair was plastered to his head after his dunking.
At the end of the cave was a small sandy beach and a cluster of rocks. The group climbed out of their kayaks into the water and secured them carefully, then flopped down on the sand, stretched their cramped limbs and enjoyed freedom.
Amber crawled over to her kayak and pulled a waterproof bag out of the foot. ‘Chocolate, guys?’
Paulo didn’t need to be asked twice. As soon as Amber offered the bar of Galaxy his hand whipped it away. She passed another bar to Alex.
‘Hope you haven’t got any fish-paste sandwiches,’ said Li. ‘We could get pecked to death.’
Tiff refused the chocolate and popped a piece of gum into her mouth. ‘Who’s picking us up?’
‘No one’s picking us up,’ said Alex. ‘We’re going back the way we came.’
‘I can’t,’ said Tiff. ‘I’m knackered.’
Amber didn’t think Tiff looked any more tired than usual, just bored. She shouldn’t have found the trip that taxing. ‘You could wait for a passing ship,’ said Amber coldly. ‘Flag down a lift.’ She was fed up with Tiff and her difficult moods.
‘Have some chocolate,’ said Hex, passing her a bar. ‘It’ll make you feel better.’
Amber got to her feet and went over to her kayak. She didn’t need anything, she just wanted to get away from Tiff. Otherwise she might say something she’d regret. She pretended to inspect the kayak but instead she looked into the water as the waves rose up the little beach and withdrew again.
There was a shape in the water, coming towards the shore. In the gloom it was difficult to see it properly. As it came closer she caught a glimpse of eyes and a snout. She stood up. ‘Hey, guys, I think there’s an otter here.’
Li picked her way over and peered into the water. ‘I can’t see any movement,’ she said.
The waves came up the beach and withdrew again. Again the glimpse of dark eyes, cl
oser still. But it looked like it was drifting, not swimming. ‘It’s dead,’ she said.
She picked up her paddle and reached into the water. A wave brought it close and she held it. She turned to the others. ‘It’s a deer.’
Alex got up and clambered over. ‘A deer?’ He remembered what he’d seen in what he thought was a fishing boat.
Li looked at the wet hide. There was a long incision in the pale fur along its abdomen. It flapped open. ‘And – uh – this is weird. It’s been gutted.’
‘Gutted?’ repeated Amber.
Alex bent down and gingerly pushed the flap of skin aside.
Tiff shrieked. ‘Ugh, you are gross.’
‘Just checking,’ he said, and carried on.
Inside was a big red cavity where the heart, lungs, liver and intestines had been.
‘It’s quite fresh,’ said Alex.
‘Well, it can’t have been in the water long,’ said Paulo, and popped a piece of chocolate into his mouth. ‘The birds will have it in no time.’
‘But where did it come from?’ asked Hex.
‘Sainsbury’s,’ muttered Tiff. ‘Who cares?’
Li gave Alex a significant look. Alex knew what it meant. The boat they had seen earlier, taking delivery of deer carcasses.
‘Conference later,’ she said quietly. ‘When we’ve got rid of Little Miss Muffet.’
‘What are you whispering about?’ said Tiff.
Li pushed the deer back out with her oar. ‘Just saying a prayer while we bury this dead deer.’
Instead of floating out, the deer came back in. The waves deposited it at Tiff’s feet. The head bobbed and touched the toe of her boot.
The friends stood, waiting for the tantrum. But Tiff simply kicked the deer’s nose away. ‘Dead things. In a cave on a desolate rock. What a surprise. I’m having such a good time here. When are we going?’
Amber looked out towards the cave mouth. Where before there had been a clear blue sky, there was now a wall of grey. ‘Picnic over, guys. We’d better get back. It’s got rather misty out there.’
11
SEA FRET
‘Keep to the middle of the channel, guys, in case there are rocks near the surface.’ Amber led the group cautiously out of the caves. They paddled slowly, in single file.
One by one they slipped out into the open sea. Immediately the air sang with the cries of birds. Amber checked her compass. They were heading back towards the Kyle, the big inlet of water, but the massive bridge had vanished in the fog. She could see Hex beside her, and he could see Alex and Tiff behind, but she couldn’t see anyone else.
‘Paulo? Li?’ she called.
‘Here,’ called two voices.
They were only about eight metres away but she couldn’t see them.
Amber took her compass off her wrist and fastened it to the loop at the front of her spray skirt. That way she could keep an eye on it all the time. She took a glow stick out of her lifejacket pocket and broke the vials inside. It gave off a pink light. She slipped it into a see-through panel on the shoulder of her lifejacket.
In the gloom behind her, another appeared, and another. Five fluorescent blobs, like lights seen through opaque glass. OK, now she could see everyone. She just had to get them back.
She had navigated her parents’ yacht through bad weather before, in the open sea – far further from land than this. But a yacht felt substantial. Right now she felt like she was sitting in a sleeping bag on the water. Any moment she expected the whale to heave up and capsize one of them again.
She put such thoughts out of her mind. She had to stay calm, give confident leadership. She paddled steadily, decisively. The others followed.
A bird loomed out of the mist and brushed against her shoulder, a heavy, fluttering shape. The shock nearly made her capsize. Behind, Tiff let out a cry.
‘They’re attracted by the glow sticks,’ said Alex. ‘They won’t hurt you.’
Tiff let out a storm of expletives.
Alex’s voice soared above the sound of the wind. ‘Tiff, don’t throw the glow stick away. If you fall in or drift away we could lose you.’
Amber glanced back. Tiff had the glow stick in her hand, about to throw it into the sea. Another bird buffeted against her and she cried out again.
A bird screeched next to Amber’s ear. Her heart turned somersaults as wings brushed against her face and she wobbled crazily in her kayak. Somewhere behind her, Paulo and Alex were pleading with Tiff.
Amber recovered her balance, took a deep breath and checked her compass again. Just as she thought: a little off course. She adjusted, then looked behind to check the others were still there. Five eerie fluorescent blobs, like alien life forms. Good. Paulo and Alex had persuaded her.
Amber kept her strokes slow and sure, aware of every variation in the current. It would be so easy to drift, the fog was completely disorientating. ‘Sea fret’, that’s what sailors called a mist like this. It was a good name.
Tiff paddled on. She couldn’t see anything but acres of white, and the five shadowy figures of the others. Inside her was a cold, numb fear. In her mind’s eye she saw the sea stretching endlessly away, with her floating helplessly like a speck of plankton. A bird swooped out of the whiteness like an arrow. She threw her arms up to protect her face, imagining hooked beaks and claws.
Somewhere dimly above her, Tiff heard a swish of car tyres on a wet road. ‘Hey!’ she yelled. ‘I can hear cars!’
‘It’s the bridge,’ said Alex beside her. He sounded so calm and confident. Tiff felt angry. Why had they brought her out kayaking if they knew something like this could happen? Another bird dive-bombed her. She clamped her lips shut and batted it away, determined not to scream. If they’d planned all this to frighten her, she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her fear.
‘Land!’ There was a rasp as a kayak bit into the pebbled shore.
Thank goodness, thought Tiff. She splashed out into the water. It was freezing but she kept her complaints to herself.
‘Are you OK, Tiff?’ asked Paulo.
‘Fine,’ said Tiff, tight-lipped.
‘You’re doing really well.’
If this is some kind of test, thought Tiff, I’ll make you regret it.
The beach was white and featureless, like the sea. ‘Hey – where’s the Range Rover?’ asked Hex. He actually laughed. The steel in Tiff’s heart hardened even further.
Amber put her compass back on her wrist. ‘This way.’
They stowed their paddles in the kayaks and picked them up. Amber began to walk and the others followed her pink glow.
Tiff picked up the kayak. She could barely get her arm around it. Not like Paulo, who found it easy to carry because his arms were as long as a gorilla’s. But they probably wanted her to stop and complain. Her feet were slipping on the wet rocks, she was freezing cold and the sea birds still kept coming after her. She stopped and took her glow stick out of its see-through pocket.
‘No, keep it,’ said Li urgently. ‘You might still get lost.’
Tiff put it back wordlessly. You really are going to regret this, she thought. Somehow I’ll make you pay.
They reached a slope strewn with boulders. The group slowed, working their way up carefully. Tiff’s kayak bumped on the rocks. She lost her footing and crashed to the ground. Her kayak boomed like a drum roll in a circus. She got laboriously to her feet, fuming, and picked it up again.
The others had got ahead already. Their glows were like a stain of candy fading into the liquid mist. ‘Hey!’ she shrieked.
‘We’re here,’ called Paulo, glowing orange. ‘Follow the lights. Are you all right?’
‘Yes.’ Tiff spoke through gritted teeth.
‘Not far now,’ said Alex. ‘Just keep going.’
On they trudged again. The ground changed under her feet. Soft springy turf, not those slippery boulders. Suddenly something made an electronic chirruping noise. Two sets of orange lights flashed. Tiff nearly jump
ed out of her skin.
‘Ah, there you are,’ said Amber. Tiff heard a car door opening. They had found the Range Rover.
Tiff felt like sitting down and having a good cry. She had never been so frightened in her life.
Alex was carrying an armful of lifejackets in through the front door of the hostel when he heard a door slam emphatically upstairs.
Li, unlacing her boots in the arched porch, had heard it too. ‘That’s the bathroom, unless I’m very much mistaken. Think she’s going to be a long time?’ The mist was thinner up here. Li could see the others outside lifting kayaks and paddles down from the roof rack.
Alex smiled. ‘Long enough for a conference.’
‘I saw the men in the boat too,’ said Paulo.
Amber tapped a pen on the desk, turning it over and over. ‘Yeah, I wondered what they were up to.’
They didn’t think Tiff would disturb them, but just in case, they held their meeting in the office. Wetsuits had been swapped for T-shirts and shorts.
‘You say they had deer?’ said Hex. ‘The carcass in the cave must have fallen out of that boat.’
‘Would it have got into the cave in that time?’ said Li.
‘There was a strong current system,’ said Amber. ‘It could have been washed in quite easily.’
Paulo sat back in the easy chair. ‘So it looks like there’s poaching in the area.’ He looked at Li and Alex. ‘That explains why you’ve seen people behaving suspiciously.’
‘Should we try and do anything?’ said Li.
‘Be careful who we run into,’ grinned Paulo immediately.
The others laughed but they all understood the seriousness of his words. They had come up against poachers before in a game reserve in Zambia and had barely escaped with their lives.
‘They’re probably in a stinking mood too,’ said Hex. ‘They lost thirty per cent of their stock over the side this morning. I think we should drop a subtle hint with that gamekeeper we met yesterday and then make sure we don’t run into them again.’