Hunted

by Chris Ryan

  'Yes,' shouted Amber.

  A bullet ripped through the basket, leaving a smouldering hole in the wicker. Amber screamed. Li folded her body around the camcorder; she had to protect it at all costs.

  'You hit?' gasped Li.

  'No,' said Amber.

  Li looked up at the burner and its supports silhouetted against the sky. It all seemed so fragile. Slender struts and suspension cables were all that held the balloon together. 'What if we're hit?' she said. 'What if they put a hole in us?'

  Amber kneeled up and managed a peek at the altimeter. A bullet dinged off it and she threw herself back onto the floor. 'We're going up fast.' She swallowed and tried to sound calm. 'We should be out of range soon.' Then she winced.

  'What is it?' asked Li. 'Are you hit?'

  'No,' said Amber. 'But I just realized those cylinders hanging around the outside of the basket are spare tanks of propane for the burner.'

  Li's mind froze. She didn't even dare to speak.

  Amber managed a smile. 'But look on the bright side. At least the balloon's filled with helium, not hydrogen.'

  The rat-a-tat of bullets stopped.

  'Hey,' said Amber, looking around, 'we must be out of range.' She kneeled up carefully again. No more bullets came. She pulled herself to her feet and checked the regulator. 'I'll just close this down.'

  Li felt giddy, as though she had been hyperventilating. She looked at Amber standing confidently in the basket and wondered for a moment whether she'd be able to. Then she told herself not to be silly, and forced herself to get up.

  'Oh,' said Amber. She was twisting the regulator.

  'What?' asked Li.

  'Well, I'm trying to turn off the gas and nothing's happening.' Amber's voice was serious. 'And I think this bullet mark might have something to do with it. They hit the burner.'

  'What does that mean?'

  'It means we're going up and up and we can't stop.'

  25

  OUT OF CONTROL

  'I'll phone Paulo,' said Li. As she put her hand on the phone, she felt it vibrate. Hex's name came up in the window. 'Well, that's good timing.'

  'Alex sent me a text,' said Hex. 'He said you were being shot at. Are you OK?' |

  Amber pulled the sleeve of her fleece over her fingers for protection, and tried again to turn off the gas.

  'The regulator's been hit,' said Li. 'The balloon's going up and we can't stop it.'

  Hex was silent at the other end.

  'Hex? Hello? I suppose it's OK – I mean, it will just carry on up until it runs out, won't it?'

  'No,' said Hex, 'it will get hotter and hotter and eventually explode.'

  Amber, still trying to turn the gas off, watched Li's face intently. She saw the girl's expression change.

  'How long?' whispered Li.

  'I don't know. You'll have to jump.'

  Li echoed the word back to him faintly. 'Jump?' Surely that wasn't necessary. The burner was roaring, but it sounded like its normal sound. Surely it couldn't be that much of an emergency; not like if a plane was climbing out of control. 'It doesn't feel like it's going up very fast,' she said. Her voice was almost a whisper. 'Are you sure we need to jump?'

  'Yes,' said Hex. 'Jump now; you haven't got much time.' He rang off.

  Amber gave a great yell as she tried to twist the knob. It wouldn't budge. Exasperated, she let her hands fall to her sides. 'Hex is right. We've climbed at least forty metres in about a minute. Have a look out there if you don't believe me.' She bent down to her parachute, which she had removed so that she could move around the balloon more easily. She manoeuvred her shoulders into the straps and did up the waist belt.

  Li felt numb. She didn't know how she was going to do this. She looked over the rim of the basket. The trees were now a long way below. Jump into all that space? She would die.

  Amber looked at the altimeter. They were at about five hundred metres, much lower than the usual height for deploying a parachute. They could wait longer before jumping, which would be safer, but how long would they have before the tank blew?

  Amber picked up the camcorder, which Li had put in its shockproof carrying case, and clipped it carefully to her own waist belt. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the lights of the buyer's plane as it lifted up through the trees and away into the sky. They were getting away; the evidence in the camcorder was the last hope of catching them. Amber looked down at Li.

  Her friend had frozen; she was kneeling in the basket staring over the edge. She should have had her chute back on by now. Didn't she understand how much danger they were in? 'Come on, Li – Hex is right,' Amber said. 'We've got to go now.'

  Very stiffly, Li reached for her parachute. She looks horrified by it, thought Amber. 'Here, I'll help you on with it. It's easier.' Li turned like a robot. Her shoulders were rigid as Amber hefted the parachute onto them. 'Li, are you OK?' she said.

  The phone flashed up a message. Someone had sent a text. Li opened it.

  Amber looked over her shoulder. It was from Paulo. 'UR v brave. U volunteered when scared. Tell Amber. She will help.'

  'Tell Amber what?' asked Amber. Her eyes bored into Li's like gimlets.

  'I can't jump,' said Li. The words came out as a tumble. 'I nearly had an accident and I'm terrified the chute will break or won't open. And I'm terrified I'll freeze when I'm meant to pull the rip cord.'

  Amber shivered; inside she had gone cold as ice. She turned Li round, opened the top of the chute, pulled out a handful of fabric and showed it to Li. 'Li, you know what this is?'

  Li nodded. 'The pilot chute. It pulls out the main chute.'

  'Right,' said Amber. 'I will hold this while you jump. Then your chute will definitely open.' She glanced nervously at the regulator. The altimeter was still climbing; indeed, it was climbing ever faster as the air pressure dropped. She pushed Li to the edge of the basket. 'I'll take the camcorder. Go now. I don't know how long we've got.'

  Li grasped the basket. She put one leg over the wickerwork sill and gripped it hard while she put the other over too. Her limbs felt weak and her insides were like jelly. Every ounce of her body was fighting to stay in the basket.

  'On a count of three,' said Amber, 'and I'll see you at the bottom. Three . . . two . . . one . . .'

  Li put her hands over her eyes and tipped forwards.

  It was like the nightmare. She was falling. In thin air, with nothing to catch her. Pictures flashed through her head like a newsreel played at high speed. A rope breaking loose from a rock face, snaking down through the air past her towards the ground. The rocks waiting below to smash her body. She would scream and scream until medics put her to sleep. Then the pain would go but the agony would remain as she was condemned to a living death. That was what would happen if she didn't get it right; that was the pressure she had never really thought about in her whole life until a few weeks before.

  She felt the parachute straps tug her shoulders. The chute was open.

  Amber watched Li float away. Her chute had opened safely and her descent slowed.

  The balloon continued to soar. Amber lost no time in baling out herself. As soon as her legs pushed away from the hard wicker basket she pulled the chute open. The balloon seemed to shoot up away from her, it was rising so fast.

  As Amber's chute opened she had time to look at what was down below: trees, sandy scrubland and a river. Two out of three of those would be bad places to land.

  A loud blast hit her head like a blow. She shut her eyes but the flash burned through her eyelids and lit the entire sky. A wave of heat assaulted her, and the flying smithereens of wicker basket lashed her like needles. She tried to shield her face, curling up in the air, but her arms were pulled this way and that by the wind.

  It was like being hurled into a rough sea. The shock wave picked her up and pushed her like a giant hand. She had a sudden vision of the air currents turning her upside down, tangling the chute around her so that it no longer carried her but became a useless, crumpled b
all of material as she plummeted to the ground. She had to keep her feet pointing downwards – she simply had to.

  The canopy of the balloon drifted past her, a huge tangled, twisting mass of orange and silver floating on the turbulent air. Gradually everything steadied. Keeping her position wasn't so hard. After a short while she trusted the parachute to carry her.

  Now she could turn her attention to where she was going to land. She had come down quite some distance; the tops of the trees were now a lot closer and the river was below, a slick, glassy surface in the dwindling light.

  As her hearing recovered from the blast she heard a loud bellow and a splash. Great. The river was full of hippos. She also remembered there were crocodiles. She felt for the cord to steer the parachute; it operated a flap similar to the one in the top of the balloon. She pulled hard, hoping it would take her away from the river. Would she be in time?

  The ground was coming closer. The dark surface of the water was expanding. It must be the Luangwa River; nothing else was that wide. She was now drifting in the direction of one shore. That was a relief. Yes, she was definitely heading for the shore – in fact past it to an escarpment like a small cliff four metres above the water line.

  Then she saw the dark shape ambling towards the escarpment. Its head bore a heavy pair of horns like elaborate handlebars. A lone buffalo. And she was going to land right beside it.

  The ground was coming up fast – too fast because she had jumped from such a low altitude. She'd have to go with the flow. Amber prepared to roll on impact.

  Landing was like hitting a wall. The shock jarred right through her body and she fell. Something ripped inside her ankle, the same sickening sensation she had felt while out running when she originally injured it. All she was aware of was a white, burning pain in her foot. She tried to stand but the pain erupted up her leg.

  Then she spotted the buffalo again, ten metres away. The massive pair of horns curled over the top of his head. He looked straight at her and blew air loudly through his nostrils; he had got her scent. He shook his head, slinging saliva and grass in a wide spray. He grunted and stomped with his right front hoof and snaked his head from side to side like a bull facing a matador.

  Then he charged.

  Amber forced herself to get to her feet. The wind was blowing towards the river. This bank was much higher than the other: it was her only chance. Adrenaline made her forget the pain. She sprinted to the escarpment. The parachute flared out behind her. The bull thundered behind her. Her boot touched the edge of the cliff and she leaped into the void.

  The wind caught her parachute. She glided over the surface of the river and touched down in the mud on the opposite bank.

  Li heard the explosion and saw it light up the darkening sky like a giant firework, turning the clouds brilliant orange and yellow. Where was Amber? She had seen a brief silhouette at the moment of the blast. It was burned on her retina like the flash of a camera. For a few seconds Li forgot her own troubles. Was Amber all right?

  Then she saw her drifting, away from her and towards the river. She looked OK.

  What now? Li had to find somewhere to land. She looked down. She was floating above the trees near the runway. She saw a flash of something moving below – vehicle headlights. It was difficult to work out the shape, but it wasn't the Teak Lodge Jeep or Range Rover. It must be the poachers' vehicle.

  She pulled on the cord to change direction. The vehicle below changed direction too, weaving in and out of the trees. She changed direction again. The same thing happened.

  The poachers were following her. They were waiting to see where she came down and they were going to ambush her.

  She couldn't keep going for much longer. She was losing height all the time. She would have to land very soon. Where would give her the best chance of escape?

  She searched the ground. There was only scrubby land and trees – they would have her in no time. Her only chance was a tree. She could at least hide.

  She should try to double back a little, too. If she made them go in a circle it would give her time to hide. She would worry about how to get down later.

  She spied a group of tall trees. The tops were just metres away from the soles of her boots. She didn't have any choice now. This would have to do.

  Her feet grazed the leaves, then sank through the top canopy. Li realized she was going to crash through the branches, pulled her elbows in and hid her face. In moments the tree was crashing and splintering all around her; leaves and branches whipped at her. How far would she fall? She didn't seem to be stopping. Would she go all the way through to the ground?

  With a jerk she came to a halt. The harness had caught on something. The blue canopy of the chute floated down like a cloud and turned the twilight into sapphire darkness.

  She was dangling nine metres above the ground. She had been wrong to choose a tree. The parachute canopy made her even easier to spot. She had to get moving, now.

  She felt over her shoulder for the quick-release catches on the harness. There were none. She undid the waist buckle. When it was released she fell until the shoulder straps caught her. The old panic came back. There was nothing beneath her feet but thin air. No branches to support her weight. The dream came back. The fall. There was the ground. She knew the next thing she had to do was get her shoulders out of the harness, but she couldn't. She would fall.

  She heard shouts and the sound of a vehicle reversing. Lights swung through the trees. The poachers were coming. She swung one leg out and caught a branch with it. She hooked the other one over. Now she was suspended between the harness and the branch she had her legs around. She eased one arm out of the harness, then the other. The harness dropped away. Now there was nothing holding her onto the tree but her own raw strength.

  She heard the rattle of bullets. The poachers were shooting at the parachute canopy.

  She had to get clear of it. She clasped the branch with her hands, pulled herself up to a sitting position and began to climb. The branches were grey and gnarled, as though the trunks of narrower trees had been twisted together. Up and up she went, past all those branches she had broken on her way down. It took seconds for her to get clear of the parachute canopy, but she went on climbing.

  Sparks flew off the tree as the poachers peppered the parachute with bullets. How long before they looked across and saw her?

  An electronic bleeping pierced through the sound of shooting. Suddenly there was silence.

  Li froze. She could just about see them. One of them took something that looked like a mobile phone from his belt. He said a few words in his brutal-sounding dialect while the other poacher gave the parachute a final blast of bullets. Then he sat down and floored the accelerator. The Land Rover turned in a wide arc and left in a cloud of dust.

  The moon was taking shape in the dark sky like an image on a developing photograph. Li rested where she was and caught her breath. She was alive.

  26

  A GOOD NIGHT

  Amber saw the headlights coming through the grass. She was sitting on the edge of the river, just far enough away to be out of range of crocodiles or hippos. Her chute was bundled beside her and she couldn't get up.

  The headlights gleamed ahead of her. Was it the poachers, come to get her? Could she run from them? The nerves in her ankle were screaming every time she tried to put weight on it. It was worse than last time – possibly even broken. She felt sick, but she would have to force herself to move.

  She got onto all fours. She could crawl slowly until she was under cover, leaving the chute where it was.

  Then she heard a voice. 'This is where it says she is. But I can't see anything.' It was Alex's peculiar flattened accent.

  'Alex?' called Amber. She kneeled up.

  Alex was standing up in the Jeep. He saw Amber rise from the reeds by the river bed.

  Hex was behind him, Paulo at the wheel. Hex was holding the elephant-tracing device. 'Told you she'd be here,' he said.

  'How did you
find me?' Amber's face relaxed in a wide, relieved smile. Her eyes gleamed in the headlights.

  Paulo answered: 'While you were sleeping, Hex tranquillized you and Li and put tags in you.'

  The gleam in Amber's eyes changed to a different sort of look; a steely glint.

  It was enough to make Hex's blood run cold. 'No I didn't,' he said quickly. 'I put tags in your parachutes. Just in case.'

  'Did you get the shots of the poachers?' said Alex.

  Amber's eyes were round and horrified. 'Oh my God, I left the camcorder in the balloon.'

  The three boys all chorused, 'What?!'

  Amber grinned at them. 'No, it's here.' She held up the camcorder, safe and sound. 'But one of you will have to come and carry me.'

  Amber aboard, Paulo drove slowly off, following Hex's directions. 'This,' said Hex, looking at the bleeping detector, 'should be Li.'

  Paulo braked and looked around. 'Where?' The Jeep's headlights picked out the base of a strangler fig tree.

  Alex squinted into the darkness. There was a shape, greyish looking, clinging to the side of the tree. 'There . . . I think.' He got out a torch and flashed the beam over it. It showed up royal blue. 'That looks like a parachute.'

  Paulo looked at the tree. If Li was up there, she'd need help getting down. Should he try to conceal it from the others? And how would they get her down anyway? He didn't think he could get up something like that.

  From the tree came a crackle as branches snapped and twigs broke. A shape was coming down through the branches – possibly a baboon.

  But it wasn't. A slim, female shape dropped confidently out of the foliage and landed like a trapeze artist.

  'What took you so long?' Li grinned.

  Paulo, Alex and Hex got out to help her pull the parachute out of the tree. They got the canopy down but the harness was caught about two metres up. 'Li,' said Alex, 'you'll have to go back up for it.'

  Li put her hand on the tree, ready to climb up again. Then she felt a prickle at the back of her neck, as though someone was standing right behind her. She turned and found Paulo looking at her, his face a question. Her upturned eyes met his for a moment in the light from the headlamps, reassuring him.