Mission Survival 8

by Bear Grylls

  ‘My mum told me a lot about you,’ he told it. Would a human voice do the trick? ‘She was nice. You’d have liked her.’

  Then another memory came to him. Sangmu had said that a family of snow leopards had taken over the crash site.

  ‘Maybe you met her . . .’

  And then Beck was struck by a sudden spark of hope. Sangmu and her people had been to the crash site. Which meant that there was a way up.

  Or, from his point of view, a way down.

  ‘Right, my snow leopard friend,’ he said. ‘It’s been lovely, but I’ve got to go . . .’

  He counted under his breath – one, two, three – and heaved himself upright. ‘Aargh!’

  He collapsed face down in the snow. His broken arm had given way under him . . .

  Chapter 51

  ‘This,’ Beck mumbled into the snow, ‘is going to take a while.’

  He struggled to his knees. With his good hand, he clamped his broken arm to his side. The snow leopard had jumped down from its rock and was pacing a couple of metres away.

  ‘Oh, give me a break. Don’t start eating me until I’m really dead. Deal?’

  The animal gave a kind of snort and padded over to a snow bank. It scraped a small hole in the snow with claws that could have disembowelled him with a single blow. They snagged on a bright orange strap. The snow leopard worked its mouth into the hole and grabbed the strap between its jaws. It growled and backed away, tugging the whatever-it-was with it.

  Then it let go, and looked at Beck with an expression that seemed to say, Go on, then.

  And Beck watched in disbelief as it calmly strolled away. ‘Huh?’

  He shuffled over to the strap on his knees. It seemed to be made of fluorescent plastic. He gave it a pull, then reached out with his good hand and scraped more of the snow away. The outlines of a plastic case began to emerge. Handwritten in black magic marker, he could just make out the words MELANIE GRAN—

  All at once he was digging with all the strength of his one good hand. The box came free with a final tug. It was the size of a food cooler bag, fastened with a pair of plastic catches. Parts of it had been badly scorched but the case was intact. The catches snapped up and Beck pulled the lid open.

  Inside was a satellite phone, nestling in a specially shaped layer of foam.

  ‘Oh, you’re kidding,’ he breathed. ‘Not that there’ll be any juice left after ten years . . .’

  He took the phone out anyway. The foam layer also came out. There was more equipment beneath it.

  A mini satellite dish, which opened up like an umbrella. He could set it on a little tripod and point it south to where satellites orbited the Earth’s equator.

  A small black panel which opened up at the flick of a switch.

  Of course, Beck thought. Genius. A simple solar charger. His mum and dad were smart! He could lay it on the snow and it gleamed like a mirror reflecting the sun.

  And cables, to join everything together. He fumbled excitedly.

  He sat with his back to the rock and the phone on his lap. The display glowed into life. The word CHARGING showed in one corner.

  And, in another, SIGNAL LOCK

  ‘I don’t believe it . . .’

  What were the chances?

  A mother will do anything for her cubs . . .

  Suddenly he felt it. She was here. Somehow she had brought her cub to this place and provided this phone. He was as safe as that cub in its mother’s mouth.

  He looked up for the leopard. ‘Um, thanks . . .?’

  It was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Thanks, Mum,’ Beck whispered to the world at large.

  Then, with a trembling finger, he touched the keypad. It lit up, waiting for input.

  What time was it back in London? he wondered. Six-hour time difference. Very early hours of the morning.

  Someone was about to get a disturbed night, but Beck expected he would be forgiven.

  He began to dial the number he knew by heart. The number for home.

  Chapter 52

  BLAKE TAKEN

  Al held the newspaper up for Beck to read the headline. It took up most of the front page. Beck glanced at it and smiled, but he already knew the story. He settled back into his comfortable, cushioned seat. Outside the plane, the taxiway slowly rolled past. They were almost at the end of the runway, ready to take off.

  ‘It worked.’ Al sounded immensely pleased with himself as he scanned the page. ‘He stepped off a plane right into the hands of the US Marshals.’

  Edwin Blake must have realized that, with the hard drive gone, his time was up. Later that day he had fled the monastery in his jet. He must have had half a dozen escape routes planned, just in case. He disappeared.

  But if Blake had moved fast, Green Force moved faster. He hid. They went public. They published everything that was on the hard drive. Every single little note, every figure, every slide, every file went online. It was posted on a hundred different servers around the world so that Lumos could never get them all taken down.

  All the corruption, pollution and deception. Rogue bank accounts, hidden environmental reports, lists of bribes – you name it. And one piece of evidence led to another. Lumos would be sunk – Al was certain of it.

  And Lumos turned on its creator. Someone, somewhere in the organization knew where Blake was, and they gave him away. He thought he was entering the USA anonymously. In fact, he was arrested the moment his feet touched the ground.

  The airliner’s engines went to full throttle and the plane surged down the runway. Its nose tilted and the ground fell away. Beck settled back into his seat. After several months, he finally got to leave Nepal.

  ‘How’s the shoulder?’ Al asked. He only asked it two or three times a day now.

  Beck gave it an experimental wiggle. Then he rested his head against the seat-back and closed his eyes. It had been a long day. ‘Still aches when it gets cold.’

  ‘Good.’ Al gave him a prod. ‘It can remind you that you’re mortal and maybe stop you from doing anything incredibly and utterly stupid ever again.’

  Beck opened an eye. ‘Are you ever going to forgive me?’

  ‘Ask me when you’re thirty. We’ll see how it’s going.’

  Beck smiled and closed his eyes again.

  At first Al hadn’t believed that Beck was alive. When he heard Beck’s voice on the phone, Al genuinely thought that he must have gone mad with grief. But once he accepted that it really was his nephew talking, he was on to the Green Force office in Kathmandu. Their helicopter had picked Beck up two hours later.

  Soon after that they found James, alive and well. Though, being James, he had managed to land in a river, and had almost been swept away to his death in a tangle of parachute cords, but had been pulled out at the last moment by some helpful Sherpas who had seen him drop from the sky. Good old James. The Sherpas had stripped him and wrapped him in yak blankets and sat him next to a warm fire and saved his life. He claimed it had been the most unpleasant experience he’d ever had.

  ‘Those blankets were scratchy, and they were right against my skin . . .’

  And then had come the months of wrangling.

  Getting out of Nepal wasn’t quite as easy as Beck had hoped. For a start the Nepalese authorities weren’t very happy to learn that there was no record of his entering the country. They were even less impressed when they learned that he was officially dead. He could truthfully say that he had lost his passport, but the UK passport office preferred to issue new ones only with birth certificates, not death certificates too. So while Al had been able to come and go, Beck had had to kick his heels in the care of the local Green Force office in Kathmandu until all the paperwork was sorted out. That was until James – who had always been alive, and still had a passport – had swooped in and put him up in a decent hotel. Beck had spent the time relaxing and convalescing, exercising gently to get his injured shoulder and leg back to full strength. His leg had been treated with antibiotics – which was way
less icky than maggots – and he would always have a deep scar. However, not many people would get to see it.

  Beck, Al and James had been to see Sangmu and had retrieved Beck’s mother’s ashes. The simple box was in a case in the hold, flying home with them. And now, finally, they were leaving.

  ‘You know another reason I didn’t recognize you on the phone?’ Al asked. ‘Apart from being dead? Your voice has changed. You’re getting older.’

  ‘Really?’ Beck replied. ‘No wonder you’re a professor!’ He rested his head on his uncle’s shoulder. Al wiggled his arm free and slid it round Beck’s shoulders.

  ‘How do you think you’ll cope without Lumos to fight?’ Al asked later as they ate their airline dinner together.

  Beck paused. The idea had come to him as they were looking out of the window and saw the Himalayas’ most famous peak. He had instantly recognized the grey-black hump of Everest. The peak was splashed with the last orange rays of the setting sun. Of course, Beck had thought. It was as if the plan had been staring down at him from the roof of the world all along.

  ‘I’ve got a bigger adversary now,’ he said lightly.

  ‘Oh . . .?’ Al tried to keep it light, but Beck picked up the hint of worry. And warning.

  He smiled. ‘I’m going to climb Everest one day. And I’m going to scatter Mum’s ashes from the top.’

  Al peered out of the window and sighed. He was quiet for a moment; then he felt Beck’s hand and turned to look into Beck’s eyes. ‘You just never, ever give up, do you, Beck?’

  ‘I’ve been taught well,’ Beck replied with a wry smile, and the pair started to laugh together.

  ‘Yes, you have.’

  The plane pointed its nose towards home and they flew west, into the sunset.

  BEAR’S SURVIVAL TIPS

  MAKING A FIRE

  In Lair of the Leopard, Beck makes a campfire to keep them warm in the mountains. Fire can seem like your one true friend when you are in a wild and hostile environment. But it is a friend that must always be treated with respect and care.

  With a match and something to burn, making a fire can be simple. Beck builds a pile of kindling – small, dry twigs – in a hollow in the ground.

  Bigger sticks are laid on top like the frame of a tepee. Beck strikes a match and holds it to the kindling.

  Once the fire has taken, he lays branches over the hollow to block out draughts, with a space for smoke to escape in the centre.

  The basic elements of laying a fire are as follows:

  LOCATION

  Wind direction and how close the fire will be to your shelter are the most important factors.

  TINDER

  Without a match, you will need a flint and steel and some tinder, such as cotton material that can be ignited easily.

  KINDLING

  Kindling must burn long enough to take the spark and allow the main fuel source to catch alight. It must be small enough to ignite easily.

  FUEL

  This must keep the fire burning, ideally slowly and steadily. Softwoods burn intensely, and with more smoke and less heat than hardwoods. Hardwoods are harder to ignite but leave smouldering coals.

  About the Author

  BEAR GRYLLS is one of the world’s most famous adventurers. After spending three years in the SAS he set off to explore the globe in search of even bigger challenges. He has climbed Mount Everest, crossed the Sahara Desert and circumnavigated Britain on a jet-ski. His TV shows have been seen by more than 1.2 billion viewers in more than 150 countries. In 2009, Bear became Chief Scout to the Scouting Association. He lives in London and Wales with his wife Shara and their three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry.

  HAVE YOU READ THEM ALL?

  GOLD OF THE GODS

  Location: The Colombian Jungle

  Dangers: Snakes; starvation; howler monkeys

  Beck travels to Colombia in search of the legendary City of Gold. Could a mysterious amulet provide the key to uncovering a secret that was thought to be lost forever?

  WAY OF THE WOLF

  Location: The Alaskan Mountains

  Dangers: Snow storms; wolves; white-water rapids

  After his plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, Beck has to stave off hunger and the cold as he treks through the frozen mountains in search of help.

  SANDS OF THE SCORPION

  Location: The Sahara Desert

  Dangers: Diamond smugglers; heatstroke; scorpions

  Beck is forced into the Sahara Desert to escape a gang of diamond smugglers. Can he survive the heat and evade the smugglers as he makes his way back to safety?

  TRACKS OF THE TIGER

  Location: The Indonesian Wilderness

  Dangers: Volcanoes; tigers; orang-utans

  When a volcanic eruption strands him in the jungles of Indonesia, Beck must test his survival skills against red-hot lava, a gang of illegal loggers, and the tigers that are on his trail . . .

  CLAWS OF THE CROCODILE

  Location: The Australian Outback

  Dangers: Flash floods; salt-water crocodiles; deadly radiation

  Beck heads to the Outback in search of the truth about the plane crash that killed his parents. But somebody wants the secret to remain hidden – and they will kill to protect it.

  STRIKE OF THE SHARK

  Location: The Bermuda Triangle

  Dangers: Tiger sharks; hurricanes; dehydration

  When Beck Granger is shipwrecked in the open seas, he needs all his survival skills to save a small group of passengers. But the sinking was no accident. In order to stay alive, he’ll have to work out who wants him dead. That is, if the sharks don’t get him first . . .

  RAGE OF THE RHINO

  Location: South African savannah

  Dangers: Rhino poachers; deadly fires; African wild dogs

  Beck Granger is on a mission to stop the poachers targeting rhinos in South Africa. But he soon discovers that he has fallen into a dangerous trap. He has enemies who will stop at nothing to track him down.

  MISSION SURVIVAL: LAIR OF THE LEOPARD

  AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 15765 5

  Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK

  A Penguin Random House Company

  This ebook edition published 2015

  Copyright © Bear Grylls, 2015

  Cover artwork © Paul Carpenter, 2015

  Map artwork © Ben Hasler, 2015

  First Published in Great Britain

  Red Fox 9781849418386 2015

  The right of Bear Grylls to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

 

 

 
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