by Chris Ryan
Hex felt as if he was dead on his feet but he forced himself to match Alex's upbeat tone. 'No time to lose,' he replied.
Li straightened up. 'We're not tired, are we? Other people have given up but we won't. We've come through the worst and soon it will be over.'
'Everyone ready?' said Paulo. 'Then let's go.'
They set off, jogging in a row at a good fast pace.
Amber took care of her horses and made her way back to the Land Rover. She checked her watch. Time for her insulin. Amber was a diabetic and had to carry insulin with her in a hi-tech injecting pen to take twice a day, but that didn't cramp her style.
As she prepared to give herself the injection in her thigh she was aware of eyes on her. Someone from one of the other back-up teams was watching her, his face curious and pitying. Amber gave herself the dose, then stared pointedly at the man. He quickly looked away, but Amber was annoyed. She felt like saying, No, I'm not an invalid or ill. I'm a fully active, fully functioning member of Alpha Force.
As she put away the injection pen, John Middleton came back from the stabling area, brushing hay off his clothes. 'We're allowed to follow the teams for the last phase,' he said. 'Shall we go?'
'Good idea,' said Amber.
The course took them out onto an unmade road. A team had just set out, running slowly with laboured steps. The road stretched ahead, long and straight; to either side, scrubby grass grew. It was a monotonous view with no landmarks.
'Oh, that is nasty,' said Amber. 'That's a real test of endurance – it's so tedious.'
John Middleton was having to keep his foot steadily on the gas pedal. 'It's uphill too. Even worse.'
He overtook the runners by swerving onto the grass and bumping over the rough ground. As the Land Rover passed them Amber saw their exhausted faces, locked in their own private hell. 'This is a real killer,' she said, 'especially after all they've done before.'
They passed another team, who had slowed to a walk. 'That bunch look beat,' said John.
Amber spotted Team Alpha Force. 'There they are!'
They were walking, heads down, determined. Paulo, Li and Hex had linked arms, with Alex walking on his own, but their pace had slackened since they'd set out. 'That does not look good,' muttered Amber.
'And there's the finish,' said John. In the distance, about two kilometres away, was a crowd of people gathered around two flagpoles supporting a fluorescent yellow banner.
In front of Alpha Force were another team. A Land Cruiser crawled along beside them. A figure leaned out of the window, waving and yelling at them.
Amber grabbed the rule book, which was sitting on the dashboard. 'Are they allowed to do that?' She riffled through the pages. 'Aha, here we are. "During the last phase only, members of the back-up team may accompany the competing team, in vehicles or on foot, and are permitted to offer encouragement and training tips. They must not, however, touch the teams in any way." So long as we don't give them a lift or tow them, we can do anything we want.' She threw the rule book back on the dashboard and grabbed her crutches, which were propped in the passenger footwell. 'Uncle, stop the car.'
John Middleton braked in a cloud of dust and looked at her quizzically.
'Guys, I'm hallucinating,' said Hex. A slim black girl on crutches had just come out of nowhere and was now alongside him. What's more, she was grinning at him.
'Hi,' said Amber. Her teeth were brilliant white and her eyes glittered.
'Guys, I'm having a nightmare,' groaned Hex.
Paulo finally registered what was happening. His reactions were so slow he felt like a sloth coming to.
Alex was staring at his feet, putting one in front of the other. He looked up momentarily. 'Hi, Amber.' His voice was groggy.
Li mumbled hello.
Amber kept up with them easily, poling herself along on the crutches as though she was punting a boat along a river. 'Hex,' she said, 'move your ass.'
Hex looked at her distastefully. 'Oh no, it's Miss Motivator. Go away.'
Amber looked at the team in front of them. One of them had fallen over. Now was the chance for Alpha Force. 'Hex,' she said, 'if I beat you to the finish there will be hell to pay.' She took off at a surprising speed, the crutches allowing her to vault over the ground in long strides.
Hex's arm was still linked around Li's. He disengaged. 'Well, I won't be beaten by someone on crutches,' he muttered, and took off in pursuit.
The judge, looking through binoculars from the finish line, could not believe his eyes. A girl on crutches was powering past the leading team, and turning to shout at someone behind her. Team Alpha Force found a burst of energy and began to run. They ran past the leaders, Team Hunter, pursuing the girl on crutches like greyhounds chasing a hare.
The trainer in the Land Cruiser gave his team a loud wake-up call. 'Come on, Hunters!' He was leaning so far out of the window that he was in danger of falling out. Team Hunter suddenly came to life. They began to run, fast.
At the finish line, Amber stopped and looked back. Team Hunter were gaining. She suddenly recognized their trainer: it was the man who had been staring at her when she took her insulin. She remembered the look of pity on his face. She opened her lungs and gave a great bellow. 'Move it, Alpha Force!'
Team Hunter had caught up. The teams were neck and neck. Eight runners in a row, pounding out the last hundred metres of their extraordinary marathon.
'Come on!' shouted the Hunters' trainer.
Hex, Li, Paulo and Alex were running hard. Their legs were on fire and their lungs were bursting. But the finishing line was merely ten or twenty strides ahead. After all they had gone through, Alpha Force were not going to give anything less than their best. Alex was the first to put on a spurt, and when he did, the others found reserves they had not dreamed existed. Adrenaline gave them raw power. Little by little, they drew ahead of the other team, intent only on reaching Amber – and at that moment a great cheer went up.
They had done it. They had finished their first adventure race – and in fine style.
Li, Paulo, Alex and Hex sat on the tarpaulin floor tent at the finish, their bare feet in bowls of warm water. All around were exhausted, relieved athletes who had finished the course, nursing their wounds while the results were calculated.
'Oh that feels good,' said Hex, wriggling his toes. 'I'm not going to wear shoes for days.'
'What I want right now,' said Li, 'is a huge plate of chips with mayonnaise. And I never want to see another fruit bar or packet of nuts.'
'I want a steak with garlic butter,' said Paulo.
'I second that,' said Alex. 'In fact, I'll have two.'
Amber was on her way back from the Land Rover, the medical kit in a red bag over her shoulder. Picking her way through the throng of bodies was like walking across a crowded beach – especially difficult with crutches. People took up so much room when they sat down. And why did they all put their hands on the floor?
She reached the others and dropped to her knees, lowering the medical kit to the ground. 'Doctor's here,' she said briskly. She brought out the bottle of antiseptic and a pad of cotton wool. 'Who's first?' Her mouth split into a grin of pure sadism.
'There's your uncle,' said Li.
From their seated position, John Middleton looked even taller than he actually was. He grinned at them. 'I've got your results. Out of forty teams that started, only twenty completed. So you've already done well to be sitting here in this tent. And . . .' He paused.
Five faces looked back at him. They were hanging on his every word.
'Spit it out, Uncle,' said Amber. 'It's been a long day.'
'You made no mistakes at the checkpoints, no mistakes in navigation, you got time penalties in the abseiling and hiking phase but I'm working on the judges about that because of the mitigating circumstances . . . you were first in the final sprint and . . . third overall . . .'
His voice was drowned in the cheer that followed. Water bowls went flying as the five all grabbed each other i
n a gigantic, boisterous hug. 'Oh,' added John Middleton, 'and you were voted friendliest team in the race.'
'That must have been you, Li,' said Paulo. 'You'll bat your eyelashes at anything—' His words became a splutter as Li upended the one surviving water bowl over his head.
'It can't have been you, Amber,' Hex was saying. 'You've been like a bear with a sore head.'
'I still beat you to the finish,' retorted Amber, picking up her crutch and poking him in the ribs. Hex grabbed it and yanked hard, and she fell over on top of him with a shriek, then rolled onto her back laughing.
'Listen, guys,' said John Middleton, 'I've got to go and see to something. But you should take this up properly. There are teams that do this semi-professionally. You'd be world class in no time.' His voice was serious.
Amber propped herself up on one elbow, frowning. 'But Uncle, that's not what Alpha Force is about.'
'Yeah,' said Alex. 'How would that help anyone?'
John Middleton spread his hands as though what he was about to say was a great revelation. 'Raising money for charity. You could do a lot of good like that. Think about it.' He looked at his watch. 'I've got to dash. See you later.' He raised his hand in a wave as he moved away.
Amber watched him go and let out an exasperated sigh. 'That's typical of my uncle. Now he's going to be finding us nice safe competitions instead of proper work. I don't want to be an athlete; I want to solve real problems.'
Alex lay flat beside her and closed his eyes. 'Then we do what we always do. We find our own missions.'
'Hear, hear,' said Hex, prodding his blister. Li and Paulo murmured in agreement.
'Team Alpha Force?' called a voice. A figure wearing a steward's T-shirt was picking his way through the bodies towards them.
'Over here,' Li replied, putting her hand up.
The steward hopped over a few pairs of outstretched legs and held out a piece of paper. 'Message for you. And by the way, congratulations.'
'Thanks,' they chorused.
Li opened the note. It was a printout of an e-mail. She read it out. '"I have just visited my daughter in hospital, where she is making good progress. I would very much like to meet the brave team who rescued her. This is an open invitation to them to join me for a few days at Teak Lodge, my small conservation reserve in the north-eastern corner of the Luangwa National Park, so that I can thank them in person. Sincerely, Joe Chandler."'
Paulo's eyes lit up. 'Cool,' he said enthusiastically.
'That'll do nicely,' grinned Amber.
'Just as long as they have some nice soft beds!' said Paulo. 'I could sleep for a month.'
5
BIG GAME
A few days later John Middleton came down the steps of the hotel and folded his tall body into the back of the cab. He had business to get back to in New York, and Amber and the others were waving him off on his way to the airport.
'By the way' he said, 'two sports equipment firms are interested in sponsoring Team Alpha Force in this year's Eco Challenge in Patagonia. It'd be right on your doorstep, Paulo.'
Paulo felt he should say something appreciative. But if he sounded too keen he might upset Amber. 'Patagonia's nice,' he said.
'What did you tell them?' Amber asked her uncle.
'I said you'd think about it, of course.' He pulled the door closed. 'Have fun at the game reserve and don't feed the lions.'
As the taxi pulled away, Amber folded her arms crossly. 'I said he wouldn't let this go. He's like one of those pushy parents who want to put their kids on the stage.'
Hex poked her in the ribs. 'I don't think anyone would want to put you on the stage.'
Amber gave him a steely look. 'Your parents clearly abandoned you to be brought up by computers in a darkened room.'
'Hey, guys,' said Paulo. He was looking towards the end of the drive. A dusty open-topped Jeep had pulled over to let John Middleton's taxi pass. 'Do you think this is Joe Chandler?'
As the Jeep came closer, they saw the driver was a powerfully built jet-black African. 'Not quite Tessa's colouring,' quipped Li.
Alex was looking at the steel bars that formed a skeleton roof on the Jeep. The underside of the vehicle was also reinforced. 'Interesting,' he said. 'The last time I saw accessories like that, they were on a Land Rover my dad had been driving around a minefield.'
'So how is Tessa?' Paulo asked the question but it was the first thing everybody had wanted to know. The introductions had been made and they were on their way, speeding along a dual carriageway with the breeze in their faces. Four of them sat in the back, with Alex in the front passenger seat.
Their driver was one of Joe Chandler's rangers, Patrick Nabwalya. He had the kind of rugged features that suggested a lifetime spent out of doors and made his age impossible to guess. The Jeep also looked well worn: the steering wheel was bent out of shape like a tin can that had been stood on.
'Tessa's much better and Joe's been able to bring her home,' said Patrick, 'but she'll be out of action for a while. The wound's infected and she's on massive doses of antibiotic. If you hadn't done what you did, she wouldn't be here at all.'
'She's a very brave girl,' said Paulo.
'Yeah,' said Amber beside him. 'After you told me about her pulling her leg off that stake, I don't think I'll eat for a week.'
'She was in a lot of pain,' said Hex. 'To do that took real guts.'
The road became narrower as they left the town behind. The crash barriers disappeared and on either side was bush – a wide plain of waving grass the colour of sand, studded with thin teak trees and bulging baobabs. Mountains formed indigo shadows on the horizon.
'Sorry about this old truck, by the way,' said Patrick. 'The smart Range Rover's being used to ferry some guests to the airport.' He shifted into four-wheel drive. 'However, that means we can take the scenic route.' He swung the wheel and swerved off the road into the golden grass.
'Hey, good move,' grinned Amber from the back seat.
A cluster of baboons skittered up a baobab tree. One sat in the branches with its long fingers in its mouth as though wondering what to do next.
'So what do you do at Teak Lodge?' Li asked Patrick.
'We're part of a network of game reserves. Our bit's about forty kilometres across. We run safaris and tours for small family groups, and sometimes we have gap year volunteers helping out for a few weeks, but our real work is protecting the elephants. At one time the poachers nearly wiped them out so we tag them with radio markers to track them. Then we know if the numbers are falling.'
'How much poaching is there now?' said Li.
'They used to set up snares all over the place. Now they can get machine guns and ammo on the black market.'
'And mines?' said Alex. 'We seem to be carrying some heavy armouring here.'
'No, the poachers don't set mines. There are grenades all over the place, dating back to the troubles.'
'The rebel insurgences in the seventies and eighties?' said Alex.
'Right.' Patrick nodded. 'Most of the park has been cleared but if you come across a fenced-off area with red tags, don't go in.' He checked the compass on the dashboard and made an adjustment to their course. 'It's mainly safe, though.'
'What about all these man-eating animals?' said Amber.
'They're generally frightened of people and keep their distance. Partly we have the poachers to thank for that. When clients want to see the animals we take them to hides high up in the trees – so they can get close to the animals in safety. But Tessa said you looked like you really know what you're doing with these animals. What's your background?'
It was Alex who replied. 'Oh, this and that. Li and Paulo grew up working with a wide variety of animals; my dad's in security and Hex and Amber are into communications.'
'While we're here we'd love to help out if we can,' said Amber. 'See how it all works; make ourselves useful.'
'Definitely,' said Li. 'We like active holidays.'
Patrick nodded, smiling to himself. 'Tha
t's just like Tessa. She's never happier than when she's getting her hands dirty or training for races. Her mother died in the election riots in the eighties so Tessa was kind of brought up by Joe and me and any other rangers who happened to be around. Right from when she was really small she's helped with the animals. Since Joe brought her home from hospital she's been going stir crazy because she can't do anything. We've just had a pool installed and she's really annoyed she can't use it.'
Patrick swerved around a deep rut in the ground, his hands gripping the kink in the steering wheel.
Amber pointed at it. 'What happened to that?' she asked.
'A matriarch elephant charged at Joe,' replied Patrick. 'He only just got away in time.'
Li whistled.
'Hey, you've got a flare pistol in the door,' said Amber. She recognized the telltale shape of the handle sticking out of the pocket. 'What's that for?'
'All sorts of things,' Patrick smiled. 'Scaring animals . . . but mainly it's in case someone gets stuck after dark. Both our vehicles carry them.'
A hundred metres ahead, the ground levelled out and a fence appeared. The Jeep headed along it until it reached the road, where there was a gateway. Two figures in dark green stepped out from behind the fence. Patrick slowed. One of the men carried an AK-47 in the crook of his arm. The other, a small wiry man with the build of a jockey, grinned at Patrick.
The five members of Alpha Force stiffened. 'Poachers?' said Alex quietly to Patrick.
'No, this is the checkpoint for entering the park,' he replied. 'That little guy there is Gaston – he's the other ranger at Teak Lodge.'
The warden waved them on as they drove through. Gaston smiled at them before climbing onto a quad bike parked on the other side of the checkpoint and roaring off into the dust.
'The guy at the checkpoint had a machine gun,' said Alex once they were clear of the gates. 'That's pretty serious protection. Are the poachers heavily armed?'
'Yes. They're shot if they get caught with ivory, so they'll stop at nothing. And just recently they've been getting even more daring. See that bullet hole down in the door beside Amber? That happened three weeks ago – I was out with Gaston and we must have scared them off. It came out of nowhere. We never even saw them.'