Alpha Force: Untouchable

by Chris Ryan

  The jaw chewed. ‘Where’s my crummy certificate?’

  One of the things Alex was especially looking forward to was seeing the back of her. He answered her question. ‘You don’t get one. You haven’t passed.’

  Tiff turned her chewing face in his direction. ‘They all got one.’

  ‘They earned them,’ said Li.

  Tiff shrugged. She reached past Alice and grabbed the certificate on the arm of the sofa. Alice tried to grab it but Tiff held it out of her reach.

  ‘Keep your hair on, I’m only looking.’ Tiff studied the certificate for a moment, mouth working. Her face broke into a humourless grin. ‘What a load of crap.’

  ‘Just give it back,’ said Alice.

  Tiff held the certificate teasingly between pinched fingers, threatening to tear it in two. Now she really had everyone’s attention. Slowly she ripped the certificate in two and let the pieces fall.

  The entire room gasped.

  Amber’s eyes narrowed; Alex was looking at the girl with loathing; Hex’s eyes were flinty; Li’s knuckles were white as she gripped the chair, as though she was having trouble keeping herself from jumping up and giving the girl a good slap. Tiff sat back and glared at them all, arms folded, her mouth still chewing.

  Paulo heard the chair scrape beside him. Mary slipped into the seat. ‘Er, Paulo, can I have a word?’

  Paulo grimaced. ‘Pretty dumb show of authority, eh? Thank God we’re getting shot of her.’ He smiled at Mary, but Mary didn’t respond.

  ‘I have a problem. I had a fax from Tiff’s parents. They’ve been delayed and asked if she could stay on for a bit longer.’

  Paulo looked at the others. After the outrage, the cheerful mood was returning to the room. He knew without a doubt that the others were relaxing because they would soon be getting rid of Tiff. He said reluctantly, ‘How long does she need to stay?’

  ‘Until the weekend.’

  The weekend. Today was Sunday. They’d have Tiff for another five days at least. That would be almost all of their time together. ‘Are you staying too?’ he said.

  ‘I’ve got to leave tomorrow. Her parents are happy for you to be completely in charge, do what you want. I know she’s a pain, but she hasn’t got anywhere else to go.’

  Paulo heard himself say, ‘All right, we’ll have her.’

  But he dreaded what the others would say.

  2

  UNWANTED GUEST

  Alex liked to sit outside last thing before going to bed. The sun had gone down, leaving a faint line of fire outlining the tops of the mountains. The white walls of the hostel were pinkish purple, the dark slate roof invisible against the black mountain. Lighted upstairs windows were squares of bright orange. Occasionally a shadow flitted across the curtains as the kids packed and got ready for bed. The hostel had started life as a couple of crofts nestled in the heather-covered hills. A two-storey house had been built to join them together, creating a sizeable building that could sleep twelve. They had rented it, through the holiday company, from the laird who owned Glaickvullin Lodge, further down the valley. All the land immediately around – a thousand hectares – belonged to his estate.

  It was so peaceful. You only got that deep silence in a huge open space. It reminded Alex of his solitary camping trips on the Northumbrian moors, practising survival skills learned from his dad, a soldier in the SAS.

  The north of Scotland was Alex’s kind of place – the lochs that ran like silver tongues between the brooding mountains, the thrashing sea, the mists that rolled in like smoke, the heather-covered hills like rumples of purple tweed. He could imagine nothing nicer than cooking mussels and cockles over a pit of fire on a rugged seashore, watching the birds and seals with his four friends. There was Paulo, medic, engineering expert. His charm and easy laugh had meant that he was the first member of Alpha Force to win over the reluctant guests. There was Hex, their computer expert, virtually Paulo’s opposite – a loner, preferring to observe or to retreat into the cyber-world of his palmtop computer. If Paulo had won the kids’ affections, Hex had won their admiration with his knowledge of arcane websites. There was Li, martial arts expert, so petite that she looked fragile. But Alex had never met anyone with such strength. There was Amber, their navigation expert, who had chaired the evening’s proceedings with relaxed assurance.

  The thought came into Alex’s mind, not for the first time: they were all getting older. They would be leaving school, making career choices. Amber’s new responsibilities were just the beginning. Would this be the last holiday together?

  Whether it was or not, he certainly didn’t want it spoiled by an unwanted guest.

  High up in a window in the central part of the building he saw a dim light and a familiar outline – Hex, his cropped head bent over his palmtop.

  Alex grasped the drainpipe, tugged it to see if it would take his weight and climbed up swiftly, hand over hand. Hex was clicking on his palmtop keyboard with each ear enclosed by a silver cup. They were cordless Bluetooth headphones – his latest pride and joy.

  That meant Hex wouldn’t hear him coming. Alex smiled as he slipped in through the window.

  Hex looked at him and gave a yelp, but a moment later Alex found himself slammed onto the window frame, his head dangling over the edge, the catch digging painfully into his back and a hand at his throat.

  Alex kicked Hex’s legs out from underneath him and he rolled away. Alex slid off the windowsill down to the floor and found Hex already crouching on his heels, ready to strike.

  Alex relaxed and sat back against the wall, laughing. ‘Sorry, mate, I couldn’t resist it – your window was open.’

  Hex relaxed out of the fighting posture. He retrieved his palmtop, which was upside down on the orange duvet, glowing blue like an upturned book of magic. He snapped it shut and sat on the bed.

  Alex dusted flakes of black paint from the drainpipe off his hands. ‘Great reaction time. Even with the headphones you didn’t miss a beat.’

  Hex pulled a face. ‘If you’d been Paulo, I wouldn’t have stopped. He must be off his head. It was going to be just the five of us; now we have to haul that sourpuss around.’

  Alex looked at him. ‘Mate, take those off, you look like an alien.’

  Hex remembered the headphones and unhooked them. ‘What was Paulo thinking? Why on earth did he say yes?’

  Amber had grabbed Paulo’s phone and was not going to give it back. ‘It’s a message from Fleur.’ She sat back on her bed, pulled her knees up to her chest and read out the text. ‘Lovely to meet you. If you’re ever in Manchester give me a call.’ Amber’s eyes opened wide. ‘Oooh, a fan.’ She tossed the phone back onto the purple duvet.

  Paulo watched from a chair, while Li sank back on her elbows at the foot of the bed. They were in Amber’s bedroom, keeping out of the way of the kids, who were searching the common areas checking they hadn’t left anything behind.

  ‘I bet Fleur’s hoping you’ll ask her to stay another week too,’ said Amber acidly.

  ‘Bet she can’t understand why you singled out a monster like Tiff to keep on,’ said Li.

  ‘Law of the jungle,’ Amber told her. ‘Nice girls finish last.’

  Paulo grimaced. He normally gave as good as he got when they started teasing but right now he was thinking, What have I done?

  Another bleep – another message. This time Li got to it first. Click, click-click. ‘Claire.’ She looked at Paulo. ‘She says, are you free for a party in Ipswich next week?’

  Paulo shook his head and winced again.

  ‘We could all go to Ipswich, wherever that is,’ said Amber. ‘Instead, what have we got to look forward to?’ Her voice took on a parodying whine. ‘I can’t do it . . .’

  Li joined in, matching Amber’s tone perfectly. ‘It’s minging. This harness won’t fit me, it’s not small enough.’

  Amber reverted to her own voice. ‘And the kayaks!’ she exclaimed. ‘She just sat in hers and drifted. She never even got her oars wet.�
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  ‘I think she just wanted Paulo to rescue her.’

  ‘Well congratulations, Paulo – you can spend the next week rescuing her,’ said Amber.

  Another bleep. Li snatched Paulo’s phone. ‘Ooh. It’s Tiff.’

  Paulo sat bolt upright, glowering. ‘It’s not.’

  Li tossed the phone to him. ‘No. It’s Alice.’

  Paulo caught the phone and lay back in the chair, one hand over his heart as though calming it down. ‘Dios, you nearly killed me.’

  Amber’s phone bleeped on the bedside table. She had a text. ‘Ah,’ she said.

  Paulo and Li looked at her. From the tone of the ‘ah’ the message was not good news.

  Amber looked up. ‘It’s Mary. Tiff’s parents are very grateful and have wired the necessary funds.’

  3

  THE CAVES

  ‘Geronimo!’ called Paulo. The tunnel was like a helter-skelter and he was sliding – fast. Millions of tiny fossils glinted in the light of his headlamp. It occurred to him that millions of them should also be grinding into his backside, too, only it felt nice and smooth. The tunnel must have been worn down by many sliding potholers.

  He landed on his hands and knees in a cave. It smelled of wet rock and algae. He looked around. On the roof was what looked like an immense, wide chandelier – thousands of tiny stalactites, glittering in the light of his headlamp.

  ‘Wow.’

  They were exploring the potholes on the estate, etched out of the limestone over millions of years by natural water courses. Alex and Paulo had done a week-long course in caving leadership, and were now qualified to lead expeditions.

  Alex’s voice came down the tunnel. ‘Paulo? Are you there?’

  Paulo scrambled to his feet. ‘Yeah, come on down.’

  He heard a thudding and the sound of waterproof overalls slithering on rock. It grew louder and combined with a female voice whooping in excitement.

  Amber was deposited at his feet. Like him, she looked around, saw the roof of stalactites and boggled. ‘Awesome.’

  Another body swished down the tunnel. Li slithered out and, unlike the others, landed on her feet.

  ‘Were you cheating?’ said Paulo. ‘That was twice as fast as Amber.’

  ‘I greased my overalls,’ replied Li. Then she too noticed the ceiling. ‘Wow.’

  Another person was in the tunnel. Amber listened. ‘I bet that’s Hex.’

  ‘How can you tell?’ said Paulo.

  ‘He doesn’t sound like he’s enjoying it. He’s very quiet.’

  Hex kept his eyes firmly on the spot of light beyond his feet. He just wanted it to be over. It was the thought of all that rock around and above him. No matter that it had been that way for centuries; today might be the day it moved – and then he would be crushed like one of those millions of insects that eventually became oil reserves. Whenever he’d been in confined spaces he’d had horrible experiences. And these potholes weren’t like he’d imagined caves. They weren’t the neat corridors of rock you saw in films. It was more like somebody had thrown a pile of rocks into a jar and they were squeezing between the gaps. There was no order to it – a big space could dwindle to a tiny crevice. It was all so haphazard; how could it be stable?

  When he popped out, he breathed out with relief. But the relief was short lived. He was still in a cave, and the floor sloped sharply. Why couldn’t anything be a simple, regular shape down here?

  A sound of cursing came from the tunnel. Hex jumped out of the way. ‘That’s got to be Tiff.’

  Tiff was deposited in the cavern. For a moment she looked around in wonder. Then her mask of indifference came down. She resumed tumbling the piece of gum in her mouth.

  Alex came down last and they set off for the next landmark.

  Paulo led the way, map in one hand, his other arm out to steady himself on the wet rock wall. He was enjoying himself – this hidden labyrinth was like a set of puzzles. Yes, it was wet and it was cold, but they were wearing fleeces under the waterproof overalls. Anyway, that kind of thing rarely bothered him. He’d spent most of his life out on his parents’ ranch and was practically immune to the weather.

  Alex was enjoying it too. Caving brought new challenges. Navigation was important. As they picked their way along, Amber kept a close eye on the compass. A wrong turning could get them seriously lost.

  ‘This place is minging,’ said a bored voice. ‘It’s really cold.’

  ‘Keep moving and you’ll warm up,’ said Li.

  Tiff stopped immediately, planting her feet. ‘My knees are hurting. It’s these pads.’ She pointed to the black rubber knee pads she wore over her boiler suit. Her face looked tiny under the purple plastic helmet.

  Hex, in front, grimaced at Amber. Being in the cave was bad enough. Having Tiff go on about it was like Chinese water torture.

  ‘Take the pads off, then,’ Li said.

  Tiff held one leg out to her. ‘You’ll have to help me.’

  Li raised an eyebrow. ‘I think you’re old enough to undress yourself.’

  Paulo, at the front, knelt down to peer into what looked like a jagged hole.

  ‘More crawling?’ said Hex. He tried to sound enthusiastic. If he showed the slightest weakness, that monster Tiff would pick up on it and make it ten times worse.

  ‘This mud,’ said Paulo, ‘has probably been here since dinosaurs walked the earth.’

  Hex appreciated Paulo’s attempt to cheer him up but it was still another hole.

  ‘We’re not all as keen on mud as you, Paulo,’ said Li.

  Paulo got down on all fours.

  A voice piped up from the back. ‘Can’t I go at the front? All I can see is everyone’s boots.’

  Paulo looked back. ‘There is nothing to see until we get out the other end. Anyway, as the guide I have to go first.’

  He didn’t hear what Tiff said next because he was already on his hands and knees in the hole. He heard the others coming behind him, then Hex said, ‘Paulo – stop.’

  Paulo stopped.

  ‘The others aren’t following.’ Hex turned to look round. His helmet scraped on the roof; his elbows rasped against the wall.

  Tiff was standing at the tunnel entrance holding her rucksack and the knee pads. ‘You see,’ she complained, ‘I just needed someone to help me.’

  Amber muttered, ‘She’s trying to waste time. She knows she can’t get out of it so she’s just trying to hold us up as much as possible.’ She sat back to wait.

  Eventually Tiff got into the tunnel with Li and Alex following. They had only gone on a few metres when a plaintive voice said, ‘Stop, please stop.’

  Paulo stopped. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I haven’t got knee pads.’

  ‘You wanted to take them off,’ said Alex.

  ‘You didn’t tell me we’d be doing this. And I can’t use those ones, they’re too big. I need the same size as she’s got.’ She pointed to Li.

  ‘Mine are exactly the same as yours,’ said Li. ‘You adjust them.’

  ‘These don’t adjust. You haven’t given me the proper equipment.’

  Amber could see Hex’s face pinching into a strained expression. He really didn’t appreciate having to hang around in this tunnel. ‘Let’s get going,’ she called, ‘or we’ll all die of cold.’

  It had the desired effect.

  ‘Die of cold?’ exclaimed Tiff.

  Paulo crawled on. Amber shut her ears and followed. At least they were all moving.

  ‘We can die of cold down here?’ insisted Tiff.

  ‘Yes,’ said Li behind her. ‘The first symptom is that you talk too much.’

  ‘You guys are dangerous,’ said Tiff. ‘You give me bad equipment, then you take it away so I’ve got nothing. This is minging. We could all die down here and no one would know. They’d find our skeletons in five hundred years.’

  ‘We won’t die down here,’ said Alex patiently. ‘We told the local caving club we’d be coming down. They know to come
and find us if we don’t check in with them later.’

  Paulo, at the front, had to flatten out and crawl on his stomach. The roof came down even lower. He stopped. ‘This is too narrow. We’ll have to go back. Backwards, guys.’

  Alex, who’d brought up the rear, started to squirm backwards on his hands and knees. Li’s boots came swiftly behind, almost dinning on his helmet.

  Back in the stalactite cavern again, Paulo and Amber checked the map and looked for another way through.

  Tiff sat on a rock and folded her arms. ‘Why did we turn round?’

  ‘It’s really small,’ said Paulo. ‘I couldn’t get my shoulders through.’

  ‘I could,’ said Tiff.

  ‘I could too,’ said Li. ‘But Paulo and Alex are our guides and they can’t. So we don’t go.’

  ‘We’ve come all this way and you’re chickening out.’

  Li refused to rise to the bait. ‘I thought you didn’t like it down here.’

  Amber tried to concentrate on her compass, although she dearly wanted to give Tiff a piece of her mind. She took a few steps towards a dark corner, then turned back. ‘The tunnel’s here, guys. This way.’

  Paulo picked his way in front of her and got down on his hands and knees.

  Tiff watched Hex follow Amber into the tunnel. ‘On my knees again?’ she complained. ‘I haven’t got any—’

  ‘Just shut up, Tiff,’ snapped Paulo. ‘Get in the tunnel.’

  Tiff sat back on her heels, her face outraged under her too-big helmet. ‘Man, you are well out of order. Did everyone hear that? I’m cold, my knees hurt, I’m doing my best and he abuses me.’

  The others looked at her coldly.

  Tiff got down and crawled into the tunnel.

  For a while they continued in a silent line. Paulo, at the front, was mortified. Losing his temper was unprofessional; it was bad manners; it was childish . . .