by Chris Ryan
‘No, we’re on our own,’ said Alex. ‘We don’t know how far the general’s influence goes. If we talk to someone in authority here and they turn out to be working with him, then we’ve just blown our only chance of reaching Paulo and Eliza.’
‘But he can’t have corrupted the whole army,’ insisted Li. ‘There must be someone—’
‘And how do we know who to trust?’ interrupted Alex. ‘Like my dad said, the general’s men would do anything for him. And if they don’t,’ he added, remembering the two bodies at the truck stop, ‘then he kills them.’
‘What about your dad, then?’ demanded Li. ‘Can he help?’
Alex came to a sudden stop. He had been so busy worrying about Paulo, he had forgotten about his father. ‘I have to warn my dad,’ said Alex, pulling his cellphone from his pocket. ‘I have to warn him about the general. But what can I say? I’m supposed to be in Argentina with Paulo.’
‘OK,’ said Amber. ‘Call to tell him you arrived safely. Then . . . um . . .’
‘Does he trust your judgement?’ asked Hex.
‘Yeah, I think so.’
‘Then tell him you didn’t like the general,’ said Hex. ‘Tell him you think he was too good to be true - something like that.’
Alex nodded as he keyed in the number of his father’s cellphone. It was a good plan. Planting a doubt about the general in his dad’s mind might be all that was needed. The ringing tone was replaced with a click as the call connected.
‘Dad!’ said Alex. ‘I was just calling to say—’
‘Hello, Alex,’ said a familiar voice. ‘Luis Manteca here.’
Alex felt his blood turn to ice. His mouth opened, but no words came out.
The general laughed softly in his ear. ‘Alex,’ he chided, ‘you weren’t expecting your father to answer, were you? You know you cannot talk to him.’
‘Why not?’
‘Have you forgotten? Your father is deep undercover. He cannot be contacted. He left his phone with me.’
‘Oh, right,’ said Alex, thinking furiously. ‘Um, I was just calling to let him know I’ve arrived safely in Argentina.’
‘I will let him know when he gets back to Quito,’ said the general.
‘When will that be?’
‘I have no idea,’ said the general. ‘Now you must excuse me, Alex. I have to go.’
‘Where are you going?’ asked Alex, hoping for a clue to help him find Paulo.
‘Hunting,’ laughed the general. ‘I am going hunting.’
The general hung up and Alex was left staring at the puzzled faces of the others as they gathered around him.
‘Who were you talking to?’ asked Hex.
‘General Manteca.’
‘What!’
‘He said he was going hunting.’
They all stared at one another, trying to guess what the general meant. Then Amber jumped as her own phone started to ring.
‘Uncle? You’ve got the satellite photos? He’s where? OK. We’ll meet you at the shop.’ Amber disconnected her phone and smiled at the others. ‘The satellite located the tracker signal. Paulo’s up in the mountains, in some sort of prefabricated building on the edge of a glacier. My uncle reckons it must be the cocaine factory. We’re meeting my uncle at the climbing supplies shop in the city centre, to get kitted out. Then we’re going in after Paulo and Eliza.’
‘At last!’ grinned Li. Then her smile disappeared as two pairs of hands grabbed her from behind. The others barely had time to register what was happening before they were grabbed too and twisted round to face a grinning Leo.
Li kicked and struggled, trying to break free, but two more street kids moved in and held her still. ‘What does he want?’ she gasped, wincing as her wrist was twisted back.
‘Revenge,’ said Hex grimly, glancing up and down the road. Apart from the four of them and a gang of about sixteen street kids, the road was empty.
Alex opened his mouth and yelled at the top of his voice. ‘Help! Somebody help us!’ His cries were cut off as a very dirty hand was pressed over his mouth, mashing his lips against his teeth. He twisted his head, trying to see whether anyone was coming. The street remained deserted.
Leo grinned and walked towards Li, who started struggling even harder. ‘We have to go find Paulo!’ she shouted. ‘We don’t have time to hang around here while this idiot tries to look big in front of his mates! We—’
Li’s head snapped to the side as Leo back-handed her hard across the face. She turned her head back and spat at him.
‘In front of his mates,’ repeated Amber in a dazed voice as she watched the knife appear in Leo’s hand. She forced herself to focus on the story she had heard Eliza tell Paulo. There was something in that story Leo would not want her to repeat in front of his friends. Amber’s eyes brightened as she remembered. Yes! That was it!
Alex and Hex were both yelling at Leo, warning him not to touch Li.
‘Shut up!’ shouted Amber. ‘Leave this to me.’
Amber began talking to Leo in halting Spanish. ‘Good odds, Leo. Sixteen of you against four of us. That tells me one thing about you. You’re a coward. I know another thing about you, too.’
Leo frowned and turned towards her, the knife still in his hand. The two boys holding her gripped her arms more tightly as Leo walked towards her.
‘I know what you did to Eliza and her brother,’ continued Amber hastily. Leo stopped. ‘Send your friends away, Leo. I want to talk to you alone. Send them away, or I’ll tell them what you did to Eliza.’
Leo sneered at Amber and turned back to Li. The knife glinted in the sun as he lifted it towards her face. Li closed her eyes. Amber thought furiously. OK. So Leo did not mind his friends knowing he was a scumbag. But what if she threatened to tell them something which would isolate Leo from all the other street kids?
‘Wait!’ shouted Amber desperately. ‘If you do that, I’ll tell your friends who else was in the alleyway that night. And - I’ll tell them you saw him!’
A look of shock appeared on Leo’s face. ‘Be quiet!’ he hissed.
‘You want me to say his name now?’ asked Amber. ‘If you hurt any of us, I promise you, I will say it. I’ll tell your friends you saw him that night, unless you make them go away. Now!’
Leo glared at her. He knew that, if the other street kids thought he had seen the face of the Rat-catcher, he would be on his own. A kid alone on the streets of Quito would not last long. Like any true survivor, Leo knew when to retreat. He lowered his knife, then barked orders at the other street kids.
Amber turned to Li, Alex and Hex. ‘Stay still,’ she ordered in English as the street kids let them go. ‘Still and quiet. OK?’
They nodded and Amber turned back to Leo as the other street kids moved off to the end of the street. She talked to him earnestly in Spanish for a few more minutes. Leo scowled as he listened, watching Amber suspiciously and snapping a few short replies. Finally he gave a reluctant nod before he loped off down the street to join the other street kids.
‘Come on,’ said Amber to the other three. ‘Let’s get out of here.’ She turned and jogged away in the other direction.
‘Thanks, Amber,’ said Li, catching the other girl up. ‘I think you just stopped him playing noughts and crosses on my face.’
‘I did more than that,’ smiled Amber smugly.
‘What did you do?’ asked Alex, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure that the street kids weren’t following them.
‘I persuaded Leo to help us,’ said Amber.
‘Out of the kindness of his heart?’ asked Hex.
‘No. I blackmailed him,’ grinned Amber.
‘But how could he help us?’ asked Li.
‘He says he knows the gringo soldier with blond hair and grey eyes,’ said Amber. ‘The one who always gives money to the street kids.’
‘Does he mean my dad?’ asked Alex.
Amber nodded. ‘Leo promised me that he will try to warn the gringo soldier about the gen
eral, as soon as the unit comes back to Quito.’
‘You don’t really think he’ll do it, do you?’ asked Hex cynically.
Amber shrugged as they jogged on towards the climbing supplies shop. ‘Who knows?’ she said.
FOURTEEN
‘That’s a cocaine factory?’ cried Amber, staring down at the black and white satellite photograph in disbelief. She was looking at two tiny, battered, prefabricated huts, which were clinging to a large flat rock on the edge of a glacier. ‘It’s pathetic!’
‘What were you expecting, Amber?’ asked Hex. ‘A big, bright industrial unit with a neon COCAINE FACTORY sign on the front?’
Amber made a face at Hex, then turned to look out of the front windscreen of the van. She glanced down at the map on her lap. ‘Next left,’ she called, and John Middleton turned the van off the main road onto a rutted, dirt track.
‘’Fraid it’s gonna be like this the rest of the way,’ said Amber, as the van bounced and shook, making slow progress up the lower slopes of the mountain. ‘We can take the van along to the end of this track, but we have to walk from there.’
It was mid-afternoon. They had been on the road for nearly an hour and most of that time had been spent sorting, stowing or getting into the piles of gear that they had picked up in the climbing supplies shop. They were all kitted out in climbing boots and socks and they were wearing thermal tops and bottoms beneath breathable waterproof jackets and trousers. One hundred per cent UV-proof, wraparound glacier glasses hung from their necks and their faces and hands were smeared with high-factor sun cream. At this altitude, so near the equator, the ultraviolet light was extraordinarily strong, even on overcast days. Once they were above the snow line the risk of severe sunburn would be even greater. The power of the equatorial sun reflecting off snow could burn unprotected skin under the chin, behind the ears and even inside the nostrils. The glacier glasses were essential. Without their protection, it would take as little as fifteen minutes for the ultraviolet light to fry their retinas, causing severe snow-blindness to set in.
There were four rucksacks resting against the back wall of the van, packed with fleece jackets, balaclavas and thick waterproof gloves for the higher slopes, including spares of everything for Paulo and Eliza. Each rucksack was festooned with equipment. There were ice axes, coils of rope and pairs of twelve-point crampons to attach to the soles of their boots once they reached the glacier. A thick sleeping bag, rolled up in a waterproof bivvy bag, was tied to the bottom of each rucksack frame.
The cost of all the equipment had come to thousands of dollars, but John Middleton had paid the overjoyed shop owner without batting an eye. Li had been anxious to get going right away, but the others had insisted on wolfing down a quick pasta meal before they left Quito, to give them energy for the climb. Li had agreed only because she knew Amber had to eat regular meals in order to keep her diabetes under control. Now they were so close to reaching Paulo, Li was nearly bursting with impatience. Ignoring the bone-shaking bumps as the van careered along the rutted track, she frowned down at the satellite photograph, planning their route over and over again.
Alex watched her anxiously. They were all very worried about Paulo, but Li was the closest of them all to the big, gentle Argentinian boy, and Alex was beginning to get concerned about her state of mind. ‘How are you doing, Li?’ he asked.
‘Fine,’ muttered Li, flipping him away with an impatient hand. She leafed through a book of climbing routes until she found the right page, then she laid the open book on top of the satellite photograph. ‘General Manteca chose his site well,’ she said. ‘The factory can’t be seen from the air except from directly overhead, because it’s hidden away at the base of that rock spur, see? And no-one’s going to bother to climb up to that particular spot.’
‘Why not?’ asked Alex.
‘There’s nothing to attract an experienced mountain-climber. The route up to the glacier is too easy. It’s only classed as a Grade One climb. More of a tough walk, really. And any tourists wanting an easy climb-up-to-a-glacier experience are going to head for the bigger, well-known ones, where you get spectacular views and a cup of coffee once you reach the top. There are no views at all from this glacier, because it’s hemmed in by bigger mountains on all sides. It’s not worth the climb, basically.’
‘What about our route, Li?’ asked Alex. ‘Any danger of us being spotted?’
Li shook her head as she studied the route book and the satellite photograph. ‘I don’t think so. See how the glacier splits into two forks near the top to pass round each side of that big spur of rock? The cocaine factory is at the base of the rock just there, at the top of the right-hand glacier fork. If we head up the left-hand fork, we’ll be hidden by the rock spur. They won’t be able to see us.’
‘How the hell did the general get those huts up there?’ asked Hex, peering over Li’s shoulder.
‘Easy,’ said Alex. ‘He has the hardware of the Ecuadorian army at his disposal. My guess is he had the huts flown up there, on cradles, hanging from army helicopters. And look there. See that?’ Alex pointed to the side of one of the huts. ‘Those five drums? I think that’s the consignment of sulphuric acid the general was supposed to be tracking. He probably had them flown in the same way.’ Alex shook his head at the sheer nerve of the man.
‘That must be the plane that took off from Quito airport with Paulo and Eliza,’ said Hex, pointing to a small Dakota at the top edge of the glacier. ‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ he asked. ‘Trying to land on ice?’
Amber shook her head. ‘No — see, I know about that. I landed on a glacier once, with my mom and dad. We were on vacation in New Zealand. What they do is they bring the plane in to land pointing up the glacier slope and they take off down the glacier slope. See those marks in the snow on the satellite photograph? They’re splashes of red-rhodamine dye, put down to mark out the landing strip. There’s even a little caterpillar snowplough parked between the huts, see? That’s to keep the landing strip clear of soft snow.’
They reached the end of the track a few minutes later and Li slid the side door open while the van was still slowing to a stop. She jumped out and stared up at the mountain. Directly ahead of them were the rich, green pastures of the lower slopes. They gradually changed to the bleak, high-altitude grasslands known as the paramo. The snow line cut horizontally across the top edge of the paramo slopes as though someone had drawn a line with a ruler, and above the snow line was the glacier and rock landscape of the summit. Li stared up at the stark, black rock outcrop which stood out against the white of the glacier. Paulo was in a hut on the other side of that rock outcrop, and she was going to rescue him, whatever it took.
Li shouldered her rucksack and set off up the mountain at a blistering pace, leaving the others scrambling to catch up with her.
‘Wait!’ called John Middleton.
Amber sighed. ‘I knew it. When it comes down to it, he’s scared to let us go off alone.’
Reluctantly, Li stopped and Amber hurried back down the slope to her uncle, followed by Hex.
‘Sweetheart,’ said John Middleton. ‘I’m really not sure about this—’
‘Listen to me, Uncle,’ said Amber, firmly. ‘We have to go get Paulo. You can’t stop us now.’
‘Then I should’ve stopped it earlier,’ said John Middleton.
‘You couldn’t’ve stopped us,’ said Hex, flatly. ‘Alpha Force would’ve happened whether you wanted it to or not.’
‘Maybe I should come with you—’
Amber giggled and poked the middle-aged paunch around her uncle’s belly. ‘You? Mountain-climbing? No way! Stick to what you’re good at. You make a really great anchor man. Things would’ve been a lot tougher without you.’
‘But, to let a bunch of kids go into danger—’
‘You want to talk about danger?’ said Amber, suddenly serious. ‘If it wasn’t for Alpha Force, I wouldn’t be here now. In the year after Mom and Dad died, I was admitted to hospital four times
with hypos and suchlike. You know why? Because I didn’t care. I didn’t care about my life enough to manage my diabetes. Since we started Alpha Force, I’ve been fine. I have a reason to care now - and I feel closer to Mom and Dad. We can do this, Uncle. Really, we can.’
John Middleton sighed, then reached out and cupped Amber’s face in his hands. ‘OK,’ he said.
Amber grinned and gave her uncle a quick kiss on the cheek, then she and Hex hurried back up the slope to join Li and Alex.
‘Be careful,’ called John Middleton. ‘Remember everything you’ve learned in training! And keep in touch!’
Amber waved her cellphone at him. ‘Every six hours,’ she promised. ‘See you back here, Uncle.’
‘I’ll be waiting,’ said John Middleton gruffly, folding his arms and blinking rather more than was necessary.
For the first few hours the going was easy. They trekked up the lower slopes, past terraced fields full of flowers. Hummingbirds darted everywhere in a bright blur of feathers, dipping their long beaks into the flower heads. The sun was warm and the grass in the paddocks was a rich green. There were flocks of sheep there, and an occasional belching llama, standing head and shoulders above the milling flock and watching them with big, soulful eyes. As they walked, Alex picked up dry twigs and sticks along the way and pushed them into the side pocket of his rucksack.
‘Force of habit,’ he grinned, when the others looked at him in bewilderment.
Gradually the slopes steepened as they climbed further up the mountain, and the sprinkling of tiny thatched houses where the mountain farmers lived began to thin out. The flocks of sheep were replaced by goats, roaming freely on the mountainside and tearing hungrily at the spiky, tough grass. Clouds moved in to cover the sun. A cold wind began to blow and the temperature gradually dropped from T-shirt mild to teeth-chattering cold. They had reached the start of the paramo.
‘I think I need to stop for a while,’ gasped Amber, after they had been climbing through the high-altitude grasslands for two hours. The air had been growing steadily thinner as the altitude increased and they were all having to breathe faster in order to force enough oxygen into their blood, but Amber seemed to be suffering more than the rest of them.
