by Chris Ryan
'Cutting it fine,' whispered Alex.
'I had to stir. He would've noticed it otherwise,' whispered Li.
They crouched together, watching as the pirate picked up the spoon and stirred the pot. Would he notice anything? But the pirate hardly looked into the pot. He was concentrating on sending sullen glares across at the other two pirates who were back at the motor launch. He lifted out another spoonful and tasted, then stopped suddenly and stared into the stew. Alex and Li held their breath. The pirate looked over his shoulder at the other two. They had their heads down, sorting out their cards. The pirate smiled slyly, leaned over the pot and spat into the stew. Then he turned and called the other two to dinner.
Alex and Li grinned at one another, then eased out of the undergrowth. They joined Amber, Paulo and Hex behind the bamboo cage. Amber had already whispered the plan to Philippe while she loosened the twisted wire around his wrists and eased his hands free. Now all they had to do was wait.
'Are you sure those seeds were poisonous?' whispered Paulo an hour later.
'Yes,' snapped Li. 'The oil in them is a powerful purgative.'
'A what?'
'She means it comes out at both ends,' said Amber. 'Am I right?'
Li nodded. 'It's pretty violent.'
Paulo peered out through the bushes at the three pirates. They had finished their meal and were lounging around the fire, smoking cigarettes. 'If it ever gets going,' he muttered. 'Are you sure we used enough of them?'
'Well are you sure you crushed the seeds properly?' flashed Li, glaring at Paulo.
'Yes I did!'
'Calm down,' said Alex, from behind them. 'You should've seen the ingredients in that stew. They must have stomachs of steel. It'll probably take a bit longer than normal.'
The other three lapsed into silence, watching for any sign of the poison seeds taking effect. Alex leaned over Hex where he lay on the stretcher. He had some colour in his cheeks again, his fever was lessening and he was starting to come awake. Alex gripped Hex's shoulder and squeezed. 'You'll live,' he breathed.
'Here we go!' whispered Li excitedly.
Out on the beach, one of the pirates was standing up, clutching his stomach. He leaned forward and vomited onto the sand. The other two pirates staggered to their feet. One clutched the seat of his pants and sprinted for the rainforest. The other one threw up into the cookpot.
'Come on,' said Li. 'They're not going to be noticing anything much for quite a while. It's time to open the cage.'
Alex used his knife to saw through the vine lashings at the back of the cage, then he and Paulo lifted out a whole section of the bars. Paulo and Li dashed in, helped Philippe to his feet, then walked him quickly into the cover of the rainforest. Beatrice followed, carrying Robert. He clung to her neck and his legs were wrapped around her waist. Amber put out her hand to Emilie and smiled down at the little girl. 'Come with me, little one,' she said in French. 'It's time to go.'
They marched as fast as they could. Alex, Paulo, Li and Amber led the way, carrying Hex's stretcher. Beatrice was next, still carrying Robert and muttering 'Merci, merci, merci' over and over again in a dazed voice. Little Emilie marched along behind her mother and Philippe Larousse took up the rear. He was suffering from the beating he had taken, but the escape had given him new hope and energy and he held his head high as he stumbled along.
It was easy for them to find the way back through the rainforest. Alex's trail-markers dotted the route. The party made steady progress and soon they were struggling up the rising ground which led to the lower slopes of the mountain.
'We'll rest when we get out of the forest,' called Alex and the others nodded behind him, saving their breath for the climb. The leaf canopy became thinner and, gradually, the trees became smaller and more spaced out until finally, they left the dense green forest behind and came out onto the shoulder of the mountain. They found a shade tree and collapsed underneath it.
Paulo pulled three mangoes and the last of the water from the rucksack and shared them out. They chewed the juicy fruit and sipped the water slowly, letting the moisture ease their dry mouths. For a while, nobody spoke. The march through the forest had exhausted them all. They lay flat on their backs, staring up into the leaves of the tree. Robert fell asleep against his mother's side and Emilie came to sit beside Amber, gripping her hand and looking down into her face with solemn, brown eyes. Finally, Philippe sat up with his back against the tree and turned his bruised, swollen face towards them.
'I do not know how to thank you,' he said in accented but perfect English. 'I thought our lives were over. Then you appeared like – like a miracle! I wonder, where did you come from?'
'That's a long story,' began Amber.
'We fell asleep in a ship's tender. It came adrift. We washed up here,' said Alex simply.
'Yeah, OK,' laughed Amber. 'Not such a long story.'
'And what are your names?' asked Philippe.
'Right,' said Amber. 'The guy on the stretcher, that's Hex.'
'Ah, the boy with the blood poisoning. He is recovering now?'
'He's doing fine,' said Alex, looking down at Hex and swatting a fly away from his face.
'That's Alex,' said Amber. 'He's our survival expert. He showed us how to build our camp.' She turned to Emilie, speaking in French. 'Wait till you see our camp, Emilie! We have beds and shelters and even running water!' The little girl nodded seriously.
'OK,' continued Amber. 'That's Li over there. She fought a komodo dragon and won. And that's Paulo. He can build or fix anything. Back at the camp, he built us a bamboo aqueduct.'
Emilie tugged at Amber's fingers. 'He is very handsome,' she whispered in French.
'What did she say?' asked Paulo.
'She said you're ugly and you smell,' said Amber.
'No she didn't,' said Paulo, smugly. He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Emilie and, for the first time, they saw her smile.
'And I'm Amber. Amber Middleton.'
'Middleton?' Philippe leaned forward, looking more closely at Amber. 'The software Middletons? I thought you looked familiar. I knew your mother and father.'
'You did? How?'
'I spend a month every year as a volunteer, working in refugee camps or in Third-World countries. Plastic surgery is not just about face-lifts, you know. I can help with burns, for instance, or injuries from land mines. A few years ago I was working in Africa. There had been another ethnic "cleansing" and I was working with children who had been scarred by machetes. That is where I met your parents.'
'They were – in Africa?'
'Yes. I admired what they did after they sold the company. They were very brave.'
'Were they?' said Amber.
'Yes. In their fight, they stood up against powerful business cartels and corrupt governments – that was brave.'
'Their fight?' said Amber, struggling to understand.
'They fought for all the little people. Exposing child labour in sweat shops, fighting for human rights. They knew they were putting themselves into danger. I was so sorry to hear of their deaths. Tell me, Amber, have they tracked down the people who did it?'
Amber's eyes grew big and a hand went up to her mouth as she stared at Philippe. 'I don't understand,' she whispered.
'Ah,' he said. 'You did not know. I am sorry.'
A rifle shot broke the silence, sending an explosion of birds winging out of the forest. Alex leapt to his feet as another shot rang out, then a third. He ran out into the open and stared down the side of the mountain towards the cove. He could just see the top of a wooden mast poking above the rainforest fringe. The pirates' ship had sailed into the cove and dropped anchor while they lazed under a tree as though they had all the time in the world.
'They're back!' he yelled, racing to pick up his rucksack. And I think they just executed your three guards. Come on! We need to move fast!'
TWENTY-SEVEN
They scrambled to their feet and set off round the shoulder of the mountain.
> 'Hurry,' panted Amber. 'Once we're round the other side, we'll be out of sight. We'll be safe.'
'We should have set a watch,' gasped Paulo.
'I know,' said Alex. He was getting very tired now and making basic mistakes. As he sweated and panted up the steepening slope he felt uneasy. He was sure there was something else he had forgotten – another basic mistake he had made – but his weary brain could not grasp what it was.
He was still trying to figure out what was bothering him when they came out on the southern side of the mountain and stumbled to a halt at the top of the rock outcrop. They dumped the stretcher onto the slope and rubbed their aching shoulders. Hex opened his eyes and looked around him.
'Are we still here?' he said weakly, gazing up at Alex.
Alex grinned down at Hex, forgetting the worrying niggle in the back of his mind. 'You've been further than you think,' he said. 'You've been out of it for a good few hours. We're heading back to the camp now.'
'There and back again,' said Hex, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep once more.
'Alex, cut this bunk blanket into strips,' instructed Li. 'We're going to be abseiling down and people will need protection against friction burns.'
Alex set to work with his knife, while Li pulled their two ropes from the rucksack. She worked quickly, doubling each rope and then anchoring them to the same boulder she had used earlier in the day. In a very short time, the two abseiling ropes were ready.
'Who's abseiled before?' asked Li. Paulo, Alex, Amber and Philippe all raised their hands.
'Philippe, do you feel strong enough for this?'
Philippe nodded confidently. Li studied him. He was tall with a good physique and stood with a straight back, despite the bruising. 'OK,' she decided. 'You and Paulo are going down first.' Li grabbed the two rucksacks and emptied them. 'You'll be carrying Robert and Emilie in these. Strap them on back to front, so the kids are facing you and there's nothing on your backs for the rope to get tangled in.'
Alex hurried over with the blanket strips and Paulo and Philippe wrapped them around their hands and thighs, to serve as protective padding against the friction of the rope. They strapped on the rucksacks and Emilie and Robert were loaded into them, Robert with Philippe and Emilie with Paulo.
'Look after her,' pleaded Philippe as they each grabbed a doubled rope and stepped backwards over the cliff.
Once Philippe and Paulo were down, Li and Alex rigged up a cradle and lowered Hex down on the stretcher. Amber and Beatrice went next, with Amber encouraging and advising a sobbing Beatrice every step of the way. Finally, only Li and Alex were left at the top.
'You go,' said Li. 'I'm going to untie the ropes afterwards so they can't follow us down.' She nodded over her shoulder in the direction of the cove.
'I shouldn't worry about the pirates too much,' said Alex. 'We're out of sight now. Even if they find our trail, it'll take them hours to follow it.'
'Best to be safe,' insisted Li. 'I can throw the ropes down, then free-climb. Easy-peasy.'
Alex grinned at Li, then grabbed the rope and disappeared over the edge. As soon as he reached the bottom, Li loosened the knots at the top and threw the ropes over, followed by her boots.
Alex and Paulo stuffed the ropes and boots into the rucksacks, then stood back to watch Li's descent. She moved easily, feeling for remembered hand and footholds from her earlier climb, but descending was always a slower process. She was less than a third of the way down when shouts and running footsteps came from the mountain slope above her head.
Li flinched and nearly fell. She gripped the rock with her strong fingers and flattened herself against the cliff. Alex stared up in horror as five men appeared at the top of the outcrop. How had they managed to follow so quickly? With a sickening rush, he suddenly realized what had been bothering him. He should have destroyed each of his trail-markers as he passed them. Instead, he had left every single one intact. The pirates had simply followed the arrows.
One of the men barked an order as Li continued her descent. The men unslung their rifles from their backs.
'Run!' yelled Alex, flattening himself against the base of the cliff. 'Down the slope! Into the forest! Now!'
Beatrice dumped Robert onto the stretcher with Hex, then she and Amber grabbed the head end of the stretcher and Philippe grabbed the back. Together they raced for the cover of the trees, Emilie running along beside them. Alex stayed where he was. He was not going to leave Li now. It was his mistake which had got her into this trouble.
'I told you to run!' he yelled as Paulo slammed into the cliff base beside him.
'I am not leaving her either,' scowled Paulo.
They both covered their heads as a shower of stones rattled down the face of the cliff. Twisting their necks, they looked up. Li was halfway down now, descending with dangerous speed. Above her, the men cocked their rifles and aimed them downwards. The leader shouted again, repeating the same words three times. Li guessed he was ordering her to stop, but she kept going. The leader shouted again and the men fired.
Li brought up a hand to cover her head as bullets ricocheted from the cliff face all around her. She cried out and nearly fell as needle-sharp splinters of rock speared into her cheek.
The leader shouted again and the bullets stopped. Li forced herself away from the protection of the cliff and carried on descending, her face bleeding and her head ringing. She was only a metre or so further down when the shots rang out again. Li flattened herself against the cliff. Again, none of the bullets hit her. The angle of the cliff was too steep for the men to have a good chance of finding their target. But Li was still in great danger. Her head was reeling and she was finding it harder and harder to make her shaking toes and fingers grip the rock.
She started to descend again, then she heard the men reloading above her head. Her courage failed her and she flattened herself against the cliff. Tears flowed down her face and she felt her fingers weakening. Just as she was about to give up, she heard Paulo's voice coming from directly below her.
'Li! Listen to me. Alex and I are right underneath you.'
'I thought you'd all gone!' she cried. 'I thought I was alone!'
'As if we would,' said Paulo, his voice full of affection. Li smiled through her tears.
'We have a blanket ready to catch you,' said Paulo. 'Just let yourself fall backwards. Do you hear me? You are already two-thirds of the way down. It is not far.'
Li hesitated. It was against all her instincts to let herself fall back into space, but the men had finished reloading above her and the leader was barking orders once more.
'Li. Trust us,' called Paulo.
Li closed her eyes, made herself go limp and tumbled away from the cliff, arms outstretched.
TWENTY-EIGHT
She landed squarely in the middle of the blanket. The shouting of the leader became more frantic as Paulo and Alex picked Li up under the arms and ran with her down the mountain slope. Li could only hold her bare feet out of harm's way as they raced towards the shelter of the forest, bullets thudding into the ground and pinging off rocks all around them.
Amber stood just inside the sheltering trees, waving frantically to show them the way to the game trail. They raced towards her and she stepped back as their impetus carried them helter-skelter into the forest. Alex stumbled in the sudden dimness and the three of them fell full-length into the soft leaves that covered the game trail as the bullets tailed off behind them.
'Here,' gasped Amber, dropping Li's boots at her feet. Li yanked them on and the four of them hurried to join the others further up the trail.
On they went, hiking through the rainforest with dogged determination. No-one knew how long it would take for the pirates to catch up with them. If they were carrying rope, they might be on the trail again very quickly and it would be an easy matter for them to follow this game trail all the way to the beach, even if Alex destroyed all his markers. As he marched, Alex tried to figure out what to do next. He thought about hi
ding in the forest, but then dismissed that idea. If the pirates found them, they would not be able to run again. He thought of leaving Hex and the children somewhere, but one look at Beatrice's panicked face told him she would not tolerate that. There was a hiding-place behind the rockfall in the cave, but there was only one way in or out. It could equally easily become a trap. He stumbled on, his tired brain going around in circles. One thought kept coming back to him again and again. If the pirates tracked them all the way to the lagoon, there would be nowhere else to run.
They had passed the waterfall and were on the game trail heading to the beach when the pirates reappeared. Amber heard a shout from behind them and her heart sank. She turned and saw the five men, running towards them along the track in single file.
'They're here!' she cried.
Desperately, the exhausted group tried to pick up their feet and run but all they could manage was a tired shuffle.
'They're gaining on us,' whimpered Amber, glancing behind again. As she did so, her foot caught on a tree root and she fell, dropping her corner of the stretcher. She hit the ground hard and all the wind was knocked out of her. Thrown off-balance, the others dropped the stretcher. One of the poles snapped in two and Hex slid off onto the forest floor, groaning with pain as his injured leg folded beneath him.
Behind them, the leader of the pirates smiled and held up his hand, ordering his men to slow to a walk. He slipped his rifle from his shoulder and his men followed suit. His smile grew broader as he sauntered towards them.
Alex picked up the broken stretcher and threw it into the undergrowth. He and Paulo each took one of Hex's arms and draped them around their shoulders. Then they pulled him to his feet while Li helped Amber up. They moved on, with Alex, Hex and Paulo at the back, but it was hopeless. The men were gaining with every step.