Hostage

by Chris Ryan

  Amber reached down, retrieved his own mask and mouthpiece and brought them up to his face. For a few seconds Hex would not let go of Amber's mouthpiece, but then he reluctantly allowed her to make the exchange, grabbing at his own mouthpiece with the strength of panic.

  Minutes passed as Amber worked first to free his safety line, then to unhook his tank harness. Hex sucked in air and concentrated on staying calm. Finally, he could move again. Amber held his arms as he eased away from the stalactite that had nearly killed him. Once he was out, he gave her hands a squeeze of thanks, then he took up the slack on his safety line and they moved off through the dark water together, weaving through the stalactites until they emerged once again into the pool at the end of the high-roofed chamber they had started from.

  'I have never been so scared in my life,' groaned Hex as he waded to the edge of the pool. He stood knee-deep in the freezing water and waited for his panicked breathing to slow back to normal. 'I am never, ever doing this again. I nearly died.' He looked at Amber. 'Thanks,' he said simply.

  'No problem,' said Amber, grinning at him. 'Give me a minute. I'll see if I can find the right tunnel this time.'

  As Hex waited for Amber to emerge from the pool, he dried off and reassembled his mask and mouthpiece. He fussed with the equipment for a lot longer than was necessary, to stop himself from thinking about what he had to do next. Even if he gave up now and turned back, he would still have to make his way through the wormhole with the kink at the end. Hex shuddered. He did not know whether he could do this.

  'Found it!' yelled Amber, emerging from the pool and ripping off her mask. 'We're nearly there, Hex!'

  Before he could think about it too much, Hex put on his mask and dived into the pool after Amber. This time, she led him to a long, narrow horizontal crack splitting the rock wall. Hex felt a surge of hope. This looked like the sort of fault that might be caused by mining. Amber could be right. They could be about to reach their destination.

  They squeezed through the crack and emerged into a flooded shaft. The floor was littered with rotting timbers, rusting buckets and other mining debris. They swam up until they broke surface, then trod water as they looked around. The shaft rose up above them, climbing to a rock ceiling as high as a cathedral. Over to one side of the shaft, a floodlit metal platform was suspended above the water and a metal staircase zigzagged up the shaft wall to a floodlit tunnel three quarters of the way up. Thick lengths of industrial hosing hung like spaghetti from the high tunnel, ending just above the water.

  'We've got him,' whispered Hex, pointing to the dirty brown liquid dripping from the pipes into the clear water at the bottom of the shaft.

  They climbed out on to the metal platform and, while Hex filmed the incriminating scene, Amber leaned as far as she could over the edge of the platform to hold a sample jar under the dripping hoses.

  Suddenly, a motor started up in the tunnel above the shaft and the pipes began to quiver. Then the top of the pipes bulged as cyanide waste was pumped into them. Amber yanked her arm away and fell back on to the platform as gallons of dirty brown liquid spurted out of the bottom of the pipes. The air filled with the bitter odour of almonds as the pipes swayed crazily back and forth, spraying the waste all around the bottom of the shaft.

  Amber and Hex had removed their masks and air hoses while they collected their evidence, but now the air was filled with a fine mist of cyanide solution. 'Mask!' yelled Hex, above the roar of the pressurized liquid and the clattering of the swinging pipes. He grabbed Amber and dragged her with him into the furthest corner of the platform. 'Put your mask on!'

  They huddled in the corner, using their tanks to breathe while the waste cyanide poured down around them. Hex filmed the outpouring from the pipes for five long minutes until, finally, the flow began to slow down. Up in the tunnel at the top of the shaft, the note of the pump engine changed as the reservoir of waste it was tapping drained away. Then the pump engine was turned off and the pipes slowly settled back against the wall again. Amber and Hex clambered to their feet and walked to the edge of the platform, pushing their masks off their faces. The water below them was now a foaming, brown soup.

  Hex felt his stomach churn. It had been a nightmare journey through the silt-filled tunnel. Could he do it again? Even as his mind told him there was no other way out, he could not help looking hopefully up at the metal stairway with the dry, bright tunnel waiting at the top of it. As he looked up, his heart clenched with shock. A man was standing at the end of the tunnel looking down at him.

  For an instant they stared at one another, both equally shocked. Then the man ducked back into the tunnel and Hex could hear his shouts of alarm echoing down the shaft. 'Come on,' he said, stepping on to the edge of the platform and turning back to Amber. 'Time to disappear.'

  Amber stared at him wide-eyed, but made no move to join him. 'I can't,' she said.

  'Don't be stupid!' snapped Hex. 'If I can do it a second time, why can't you!'

  For answer, Amber held out her arm. Her dry suit was ripped open from elbow to wrist.

  'I caught it on the edge of the platform, when I pulled back from the pipes,' she said in a trembling voice.

  Hex stared at the ripped dry suit in horror. There was no way Amber could go back into the cyanide-laced water now. If she didn't die of hypothermia first, the poison would get into her system. Either way she would be killed.

  'All right,' said Hex, desperately looking about him. All right. We'll try to get out another way.'

  'No,' said Amber, her voice firming up as she realized how it had to be. 'I'll try to get out another way. You're going back through the caves. You've got the safety rope to guide you all the way back to the others.'

  'I'm not leaving you,' said Hex, shaking his head.

  'This is no time to play the hero!' snapped Amber. 'You have to get out!' She reached out and touched the camcorder strung around his neck. 'This is my only chance, Hex. We already know Usher is prepared to kill us. If we both stay here, he gets the evidence – and we're dead. You have to get out and take this to the authorities. Get them here as soon as you can, Hex. It's my only chance.'

  Hex's shoulders slumped as he realized Amber was right. Claustrophobia or not, he had to make the journey back through the tunnels – alone – or all their efforts would have been wasted and Papaluk would have died in vain. And there was no time to simply swap suits.

  Amber untied her safety line and handed it to Hex, then she reached up on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. 'See you later,' she whispered.

  Hex groaned, then pulled down his mask, turned and jumped into the shaft.

  Left alone on the platform, Amber ripped off her tank and weight belt and threw them into the flooded shaft. Then she turned and sprinted up the metal staircase in a desperate attempt to get to the top before the security guards appeared and cut off her escape.

  'They must've reached the mine,' said Li, as the line in her hand stopped unravelling. 'Amber's not moving.'

  'Yes, Hex too has stopped,' confirmed Paulo.

  Alex had been sitting on a snow-covered rock on the river bank, resting his shoulder, but he stood up and came to join Li and Paulo. 'Do you think they're OK?' he asked, peering down into the water.

  'Amber's an expert diver,' said Li. 'They'll be fine. You watch, they'll be back out any time now—'

  She stuttered to a halt as the water flowing out of the hole in the rock face suddenly turned brown and increased in volume until it was filling the opening. 'Oh, no!' cried Li, catching the odour of bitter almonds rising from the water. 'They're dumping cyanide! What can we do?'

  Paulo shook his head grimly as he stared down at the water. 'We can only wait. They will get out when they can. Their dry suits will protect them.'

  Five anxious minutes later, Li felt a tugging on the safety line she held. 'Amber's on the move!' she yelled.

  'And Hex,' said Paulo. 'Shall I start to pull in the rope?'

  'No,' said Alex. 'As long as
they're moving, let them swim at their own pace. Just reel it in enough to keep the line straight, so they've got something to guide them. I don't think they can see much in this water.'

  'Here they are!' cried Li as she heard someone wading along the tunnel towards them. But only Hex burst out of the opening in the rock. He was clutching Amber's safety rope in his hand and his eyes were wild behind his mask.

  'Top of the ridge,' he panted as he ripped his mask and safety line off and dumped his tank. 'We have to get to the top of the ridge! Amber's trying to find another way out.'

  They followed Hex as he sprinted off without waiting to explain.

  By the time the others caught up with him he was lying full length at the top of the ridge. His breath was tearing in and out of his throat with ragged gasps and his gaze raked back and forth across the complex below.

  'Her suit tore,' he gasped. 'She was going to try to find another way out through the mine—'

  Hex stopped and the hope faded from his eyes as he focused on a group of five figures emerging from behind the carbon processing huts. Four of the figures were security guards. The fifth figure was slumped between two of the guards, with her head down and her feet dragging through the snow. It was Amber.

  Hex cursed and slammed his fist into the snow. The guards dragged Amber over to a low, window-less building situated next to the helicopter pad. As they approached the building, the door opened and a man who they recognized as Daniel Usher stepped out. The two guards with Amber's arms draped around their shoulders half-carried, half-dragged her up the steps and into the building. Daniel Usher barked instructions to the other two guards and they ran off, speaking into their radios.

  Usher lifted his head and stared around the perimeter of the mine workings. He seemed to look straight at Alpha Force as they lay at the top of the ridge and they all ducked, even though they knew they were hidden from sight under the trees.

  There were security guards running everywhere on the site. An alarm was sounding and vehicles were roaring off to the perimeter fences. As Daniel Usher went back into the building and closed the door, the company helicopter's rotors began to turn.

  'We have to hide,' said Alex, as the helicopter rose into the air and began quartering the site. 'Come on! The tree cover's too thin up here. We can't help Amber if we get caught too.'

  They raced down the slope and into the thicker trees below, just as the helicopter flew low overhead. Alex was wincing with pain as his injured shoulder jogged up and down, but he ran as fast as the rest of them. Alex, Hex and Paulo squeezed on to the little sled while Li grabbed one of Amber's mittens and took it around to Ice. 'Come on, boy!' she said, holding the mitten under his nose. 'For Amber!'

  Ice rose to his feet and snarled at the other dogs to get them up. Li hurried round to the back of the sled and climbed on. The team was one dog short and, with three passengers, the sled was overloaded, but as soon as Li released the brake, Ice leaned into his harness with all his strength. 'Hike!' called Li. The other dogs took up the strain and, as the helicopter passed overhead for another sweep, the dogs took off, pulling the sled deeper into the woods below the ridge.

  SEVENTEEN

  Amber frowned as she came to. Her head hurt. She lifted her hand and gently probed her scalp, just above her ear. There was a tender lump there.

  'How did that happen?' she wondered aloud, and as she said it, she instantly remembered everything. She remembered the headlong dash up the metal steps and the frantic scrabbling to get into the tiny space between the pump generator and the tunnel wall. Once there, she had crouched, motionless, as security guards ran back and forth searching for her. She had waited until enough time had passed for Hex to make it safely out of the tunnels, then she had made her own break for freedom. It had been a doomed attempt. Instantly, four security guards had spotted her. She remembered fighting hard in their grip until one of them had cracked her across the side of the head. The thick, vulcanized rubber of her dry suit had absorbed most of the blow, but it had still been enough to send her crashing to the concrete floor. She remembered trying to get up again, but then a red mist had come down over her eyes and she had passed out.

  So, where was she now? And was she alone?

  Amber listened. She could hear the gentle hum of a heating system and, faintly, the rise and fall of classical music. She opened her eyes just a crack and peered out under her lashes. She was lying in bed, in a luxurious bedroom, and she seemed to be alone. Opening her eyes, she sat up. The cream silk sheet that had been covering her slipped down and Amber realized that she was naked. She snatched up the sheet and held it up to her chin as her reeling brain tried to get a grasp on the situation. She had passed out in a cold concrete tunnel in a gold mine in northern Canada. She had woken up in a bedroom that would not be out of place in Hollywood's Hotel Bel-Air. Except that there were no windows.

  She looked around for something – anything – to wear and saw a dinner dress laid out at the bottom of the bed.

  'Just call me Bond. Amber Bond,' she muttered, hooking the dress towards her. It was a designer dress, made of a soft, white material, and it was exactly the right size. Amber slipped it on and swung her legs out over the edge of the bed. Her feet sank into the thick carpet as she made her way to the bedroom door.

  As the door swung open, the classical music grew louder. Amber stepped out into the corridor and walked towards another door, which was slightly ajar. She could hear the clink of silver cutlery on bone china. Amber eased up to the door and peered through the gap on the hinge side of the frame.

  'Come in, Amber,' said a familiar voice.

  Daniel Usher! She felt a huge rage sweep through her as she realized that the man who had paid to have her parents killed was on the other side of the door. She wanted to rush into the room, put her hands around his neck and squeeze until he stopped breathing. With a great effort, she brought herself under control. This situation needed very careful handling.

  Amber drew herself up to her full height and stepped through the door. She walked into another softly lit, windowless room. Daniel Usher was sitting at the head of a long dining table, surrounded by plates of beautifully prepared food.

  'How good to meet you again, Amber,' he said.

  Aren't you supposed to be stroking a Persian cat or something?' said Amber.

  'Excuse me?'

  'You know. "Come in, Mr Bond. I have been waiting for you,'" said Amber.

  Daniel Usher laughed softly. 'Ah! I see. I am the villain. I haven't seen you since, oh . . .'

  'Since you had my parents killed,' said Amber flatly.

  'You have been busy,' said Usher, without missing a beat. 'It must be three years since then. You've grown. The dress fits you well. It belongs to my daughter. She left it the last time she was here.'

  'Where's here?' demanded Amber.

  'Oh, we're still at the mine.' He smiled. 'All that snow and ugliness is right outside the door of my little hideaway.' Amber suddenly remembered the windowless building next to the helicopter pad that she had seen from the top of the ridge.

  Usher lifted the lid from a serving dish and helped himself to a pork chop. As the rich smell of the grilled meat drifted over to her, Amber felt a stab of pain in her abdomen. Her legs went weak and she staggered slightly. She frowned and focused on the jug of iced water, suddenly realizing how terribly thirsty she was.

  'How long have I been .. .'

  'Unconscious? Not long. Fifteen minutes or so. Don't worry, you don't have a cracked skull. It was more of a faint, really. Are you sure you're quite well, Amber?'

  Amber tore her gaze away from the water and glared at him, trying to ignore the way her eyes kept blurring.

  'I had the site nurse brought in to check you over,' he continued. 'It was she who undressed you, by the way, in case you were wondering. She found this around your waist.' He held up Amber's belt pouch, containing her insulin pens and blood sugar testing kit. 'I wonder, Amber . . . How long is it since you had a dose of i
nsulin?'

  Daniel Usher stared at Amber and she felt a cold chill run through her. Her last dose had been early in the morning, before breakfast. Even on a normal day, she would be due another dose by now, and the emotional stress of the last few hours must have really pushed up her blood sugar levels. Usher was right. The blow to the head was not the reason she had passed out. The abdominal pain, acute thirst and muscle weakness she was experiencing now were all early signs of dangerously high blood sugar levels, or hyperglycaemia. If she did not get insulin soon, the symptoms would worsen. The abdominal pains would become more severe and she would start vomiting. Her breathing would become laboured as she became more dehydrated and then she would fall into a coma.

  Amber shrugged. 'I'm fine,' she said, sauntering over to the water jug and pouring herself a glass. She must not show him how important that little belt pouch full of insulin was to her. As she poured, her vision blurred again and the water slopped over on to the table.

  'Oops,' he said. 'Looks like those nasty old blood sugar levels are rising.'

  'I said, I'm fine,' grated Amber. She lifted the glass to her lips and tried not to drink too fast.

  'If you say so.' Usher slipped the little pouch into the inside pocket of his beautifully cut suit jacket and frowned at the bulge it made. 'Hmm, best not,' he said, removing the pouch and laying it on the table. 'I need to look good for my broadcast tonight. I'm announcing my intention to run for governor. In fact, I must be leaving for the airport quite soon if I'm to get to the television studios in time. So, let's get down to business, shall we? Please sit.'

  Amber wanted to refuse, but her legs were in danger of collapsing under her. She pulled out a chair and sat at the table, giving him a cool stare. It was time to make her move.