Hostage

by Chris Ryan

  'You might as well not bother with your broadcast. You won't be running for office because you'll be on trial for murder. We have evidence that you arranged to have Papaluk killed because she found out about you dumping cyanide into the river.'

  'Yes, what a pity you and your four friends became . . . involved in that,' he sighed. 'Killing the Eskimo would have been such a neat, simple solution.'

  'Inuit,' snapped Amber. 'Papaluk was an Inuit.'

  'And what became of my colleague?'

  'You mean your hired killer?'

  Daniel Usher sighed as though he was finding this whole business a tedious nuisance. 'I'm presuming he is dead .. .'

  'Yes, he is,' said Amber.

  'So, it was you and your friends who sent me his final text message?'

  'Yes.'

  'Very good, Amber! I must admit it fooled me for a while. But I'm way ahead of you now.'

  He picked up his mobile phone and flicked it open.

  'What are you going to do?' asked Amber.

  'I'm going to have a little chat with your friends.'

  'You don't have a contact number.'

  'Ah, now that's where you're wrong,' smiled Daniel Usher.

  EIGHTEEN

  Hex was hunched over his palmtop in the middle of the forest, still dressed in his dry suit.

  Li, Alex and Paulo were watching the screen over his shoulder. Hex had already downloaded the images from his camcorder into the palmtop and now he was waiting to connect to the Net so that he could send the evidence to the police.

  'Come on! Come on!' he muttered, glaring at the screen of his palmtop. The flat aerial in the lid had not yet connected to the communications satellite and the time was ticking by. It was twenty-five minutes since Amber had been captured and for every one of those twenty-five minutes, Hex had bitterly regretted leaving her behind in the mine. He could not get it out of his head that virtually the last words he had said to her were, 'Don't be so stupid.'

  'Yes!' he hissed as the palmtop finally made the connection. 'We're through.' He flexed his fingers, held them poised above the keyboard – and stopped. A mobile phone was ringing. It was coming from his jacket, which was bundled up on the sled behind him. Someone was calling Daniel Usher's hired killer.

  Hex looked at the others, then reached back and pulled the phone from his jacket. He flipped it open, put it to his ear and listened. His face twisted with anger. 'Usher!' he snapped. 'If you've hurt her—'

  Hex stopped and listened some more. 'Yes. I understand.'

  He switched off the phone, then reached out to his palmtop and changed the destination address of the downloaded information. 'I'm sending a copy of this to a hacker friend of mine. He'll store it for me, in case something happens to us.'

  'What about contacting the police?' asked Paulo.

  'Change of plan,' said Hex, severing the connection to the Net. He looked up at the others and his green eyes were full of a cold anger. 'That was Daniel Usher. He's holding Amber hostage. He's taken her insulin away from her. He reckons she's got a couple of hours left before she falls into a coma. If we bring the camcorder tape to the mine, with the camcorder, he'll give her back her insulin. If not, she dies. Luckily, he doesn't seem to know about my palmtop, but he warned me that he has men monitoring police frequencies and news sites. If there is any hint of a leak about this before we get there, Amber dies.'

  Alex swore softly. 'So he wants us to just walk in there?'

  'He knows there are four of us. He wants us all. He says they'll be expecting us at the main gate.'

  'I bet they will,' muttered Alex.

  'If we do walk in, do you think he'll keep his side of the bargain?' asked Li.

  'Hell, no,' said Hex grimly. 'Total containment. That's what he's after.'

  'But we can't leave Amber to die!' cried Li.

  'Of course not,' said Hex, packing away his palmtop.

  'So what do we do?'

  'We go in there and get her out,' said Hex.

  While Hex changed out of his dry suit, the others dumped all the baggage except for the medical kit and Amber's arctic clothes and boots, which eased the load for the dogs and made just enough room for three passengers on the sled. Paulo took Amber's spare insulin pens from the medical kit and carefully stored them in the inside pocket of his jacket before joining Hex and Alex on the sled. Li grabbed one of Amber's mittens and walked to the front of the team. She squatted down in front of Ice, who regarded her with his blue eyes full of haughty disdain. Li held out the mitten to the dog. He sniffed it, then let out a whine.

  'We're going to go find her, Ice,' said Li. 'We're going to find Amber!' The dog's ears perked up at the name and he rose to his feet. Li hurried to her place on the back of the sled, released the brake and cried, 'Let's go!'

  Ice took off like a bullet and the other dogs picked up his excitement. They ran smoothly and the sled raced through the trees, heading away from the river and towards the quarry end of the mine in a long, shallow curve.

  An hour later, Alpha Force was in position on the quarry side of the mine. They had left the dogs in the woods behind the quarry, still harnessed to the sled in case they needed a fast getaway. The sled brake was rammed down hard into the snow, and for extra anchorage they had attached a snow-hook to the gangline and embedded it in the ground.

  A few metres away from where they were lying, the perimeter fence of the mine stretched across the snowy ground. Beyond the fence was the open pit of the quarry, cratered and pitted like the surface of the moon.

  Hex glanced at his watch, then looked impatiently at the setting sun. Time was short, but they had to wait until dark before they moved in. Beyond the quarry, armed security guards were patrolling the main gate area and the perimeter fence below the ridge, but the quarry itself was deserted, apart from the quarry workers.

  Alex peered down at the workers. The slab of rock that had been blasted away from the quarry side in the earlier explosion had now all been broken up and hauled over to the leach pads in the big-wheeled trucks. The quarrymen were busy preparing another explosive charge and Alpha Force had deliberately positioned themselves close to the section of quarry wall that was to be blasted.

  'This might just work,' muttered Alex, watching the progress of the blasting work. The sun was dipping below the horizon. In a few minutes it would be dark.

  Below them, the generator that powered the floodlights started up with a clatter, then built up to a steady whine. All around the site, the floodlights came on, lighting up every dark corner and giving each security guard a four-pointed shadow.

  'Something's happening,' whispered Li, pointing to the helicopter pad. The pilot of Daniel Usher's private helicopter had clambered into his seat and was starting up the machine. As the rotor blades began to turn, Usher emerged from the windowless building with a fur-trimmed parka over his suit jacket and his trousers tucked into fur-lined boots.

  'He's getting out before the dirty business starts,' said Li, watching as Usher climbed up into the helicopter.

  'It's his broadcast tonight,' said Hex, remembering what he had read on the Net. 'He's heading for the airport, then on to his company's nearest television studio.'

  The helicopter took off and banked away over the trees as the sun disappeared below the horizon. In the quarry, the men waited for the helicopter to move well out of the air space above the mine, then they returned to their preparations with a new sense of purpose.

  Alex looked up at the darkening sky, then down at the quarry. 'Is everyone clear about what they have to do?'

  The others nodded.

  Alex looked down at the quarry again. Someone was hoisting the red flag. 'Showtime,' he said.

  NINETEEN

  They each pulled their goggles down over their eyes and laced their hoods tightly around the goggles so that their noses and mouths were covered. Paulo and Li wormed forward through the snow to the fence. As soon as they had cut a hole in the mesh, Alex and Hex came up to join them, with Alex squi
rming along on his side in an attempt to protect his injured shoulder.

  The klaxon went off with a howl that echoed around the quarry, and all the workers retreated to a safe distance. Alpha Force squirmed through the hole in the fence and crouched in the darkness, waiting for the explosion. When it came, it was deafening. As the detonators went off, a huge slab of rock lifted out of the wall just over to their left, then crashed down to the quarry floor. The ground under their feet shook violently and the shock waves from the blast buffeted them. Then they were on their feet and running as the thick dust cloud they had been waiting for filled the quarry.

  Lumps of stone and dirt rained down on them. The dust was thick and choking, swirling in the air, but they had all memorized their route as they lay hidden in the trees and knew exactly where they were going. Their eyes and noses were protected from the worst of it, but still the thick dust coated their goggles and clogged their throats and noses in a gritty layer. Alpha Force kept running. They all had to be in position by the time the dust cleared and already they could see the milky glow of floodlights through the haze.

  As they reached the edge of the quarry, Alpha Force split up, each running for a different target. They were now coming out of the thickest part of the dust cloud, and for a few seconds they would be in the glare of the floodlights and in great danger of being spotted.

  Alex ran for the guardhouse next to the main gate, keeping his head down and clutching his injured arm to his chest. Every time he jumped or swerved to avoid a lump of rock, the pain twisted in his shoulder like broken glass, but he gritted his teeth and kept on running. He had insisted on being part of the rescue mission, so now he could not let Amber down.

  Hex and Li swerved off to the left, running for the shelter of a fleet of trucks parked next to the leach pads. Li could feel her heart beating in her ears. Every second she was expecting a shot to ring out, but the armed guards were concentrating on the land beyond the perimeter fence and she managed to reach the first truck without being spotted. She slid under the truck to safety, and a split second later, Hex flung himself down beside her. They shared an incredulous look through dust-smeared goggles. They had made it! Then they both closed their eyes tight and waited for Paulo to do his bit.

  At the same time, Alex reached the back of the guardhouse by the main gate. Like most buildings in this part of Canada, it was built on short stilts to insulate it from the frozen ground. Alex eased himself underneath the building and lay there with his nose centimetres from the raised floor, trying to slow his breathing. Two guards were standing at the front of the building next to the gate and he did not want them to hear him. It was dark under the guardhouse, but still Alex raised his good hand and covered his eyes. It was all up to Paulo now.

  Paulo had had the shortest distance to run. While the other three were still racing for their hiding places, he was already in position. He was crouched on a concrete platform in the shadow of the big generator that was powering the floodlights. Peering under the vibrating generator, he located the fuel pipe and gripped it in his gloved hand. Shutting his eyes tightly, he counted to twenty then tensed his muscles and ripped the fuel pipe out of the generator with one hard yank.

  The big machine sputtered, caught, sputtered again, then chugged to a stop. An instant later, all around the complex, the floodlights winked out.

  Shouts erupted from all sides. Paulo and Hex both scrambled out of their separate hiding places and started running towards the windowless building where Amber was being held. For a short time, they had an advantage over the armed guards in the complex. They had their night vision.

  Li crept out from under her truck and began working her way along the line of vehicles, easing open the cab doors and pulling the keys from the ignition. She worked as quickly and quietly as she could but she did not have much time. Already, torches were being turned on and their beams bobbed and dipped in the hands of running guards.

  Alex waited under the guardhouse. The guards inside had turned out the lights and then stumbled from the building, not wanting to be a well-lit target. Alex waited until he was sure the guards had all gone, then he crawled out and slipped up the steps into the building. Once inside, he quickly found what he was looking for. The green and red buttons on the panel that controlled the main gate were glowing softly in the darkness. Alex pressed the green button, and outside, unnoticed, the big double gates swung silently open. Alex was heading out to join Hex and Paulo when a torch beam skittered past the guardhouse window.

  Alex dropped to the floor and crouched there, listening for any movement outside. He gave it five seconds before deciding that the torch beam had been a random event and the coast was clear. He was about to stand again when a waste bin under the desk caught his eye. Alex frowned. Something familiar was sticking up out of the bin. Reaching inside, he pulled out Amber's insulin pouch. His face tightened with anger as he opened the pouch and saw broken insulin pens inside. This was final proof, if he had needed it, that Daniel Usher had never planned on keeping his word. Total containment. Those were the instructions he had left with his guards.

  Paulo and Hex had reached the windowless building without being spotted. Hex tried the door and was surprised to find it unlocked. They flattened themselves against the wall on either side of the door and Hex pushed it open. Silence. Hex stuck his head round the door. He saw an empty, carpeted corridor, with several closed doors leading off it. Quietly they slipped inside and the door sighed shut behind them. It was warm and quiet here. They pulled off their goggles and flung back their hoods.

  'Amber!' called Hex softly.

  There was no reply.

  Paulo and Hex shared a look, then Hex pointed at the first door and Paulo nodded. Together they moved silently towards it.

  In the vehicle compound, Li jumped from the step of the last truck in the row and eased the door shut. She had a dozen sets of ignition keys clutched in her hands. She looked around for a place to dump them and spotted the first of the leach pads a few metres away. She hurried over and threw the keys into the murky brown liquid. They splashed into the cyanide solution and sank amongst the crushed rocks below the surface. Li nodded in satisfaction then gasped as an arm came over her shoulder and locked around her throat.

  She simultaneously rammed her elbows back into her attacker's solar plexus and stamped her foot down on the inside of his ankle bone. While he was still reeling in pain, she tried to twist out of the crook of his arm. She nearly made it, but at the last second the guard caught hold of her hood. She let out a cry as it was yanked back, along with a handful of her long, black hair. She spun to face him and her hair fanned out around her.

  The guard gaped. 'You're a girl!'

  'And you're an idiot,' snapped Li, kicking the gun from his hand.

  The guard lunged, arms outstretched. Li turned sideways, grabbed one of his arms and braced her leg. One heave and the guard soared over her shoulder into the cyanide pond. He surfaced, coughing and spluttering. A smell of bitter almonds filled the air as he threshed in the brown liquid. Li turned to run but the man began to choke in the fumes from the liquid. He stopped struggling to reach the edge of the pond and went under. Li hesitated, then grabbed a long hooked pole lying by the pond. The next time the man surfaced, she hooked the back of his jacket and hauled him up on to the edge of the pond. She nodded. Now he had a chance. She left him slumped there, picked up his pistol, dropped the pole and ran.

  Li and Alex arrived at the windowless building together, eased open the door and disappeared inside. All the doors leading off the carpeted corridor were open, but there was no sign of Paulo and Hex.

  Alex pressed his good hand against the wall and leaned over, retching. His face was drawn with pain.

  'Are you OK?' hissed Li. 'You don't look so good.'

  'Have you seen yourself lately?' whispered Alex, grinning despite himself. Li was covered from head to foot in quarry dust, except for two white circles around her eyes where her goggles had been. With her tangled
hair sticking up all over the place, she looked like a startled koala.

  Alex straightened up and headed down the corridor. 'Paulo? Hex? Have you found her?' he hissed, checking each doorway in turn. 'We have to move it. We've been lucky so far but those guards are starting to get themselves organized out there.'

  'Where are they?' whispered Li, then jumped as two dark shapes emerged from the end doorway. It was Hex and Paulo and their faces were grim.

  'What's the matter?' asked Li.

  'We've searched everywhere,' said Hex. 'The building's empty.'

  'What!' gasped Alex.

  'She is not here,' said Paulo. 'Amber is not here.'

  TWENTY

  'Well, Amber. It's been delightful, but I have to leave now.'

  Amber lifted her head from the table and stared blearily at the man standing over her. 'OK,' she mumbled, grimacing at the pains in her abdomen. Her tongue felt too big for her mouth and her throat was as dry as ashes.

  The man flicked open his mobile phone. 'Prepare the 'copter and send Harris over here,' he ordered.

  Amber licked her lips and tried to focus on the table in front of her. She needed a drink desperately and she had a vague memory of a jug full of iced water. She spotted the jug and, with a great effort of concentration, managed to grab the handle and pull it towards her. It was empty. Amber could have sobbed with disappointment. Why was she so thirsty?

  A faint warning bell began to ring at the back of her mind. She was thirsty because she needed . . . 'Insulin.'

  For a few seconds Amber puzzled over this strange word that had popped out of her mouth, trying to figure out what it meant. Then she focused on her insulin pouch, lying on the table by the man's perfectly manicured hand. With a jolt, her mind cleared and she remembered what was happening to her. Daniel Usher was holding her hostage. He had taken her insulin away from her, and unless she did something soon, she was going to die.