Hunted (18 page)

'We can't go asking questions around there,' said Gaston. 'I shot a poacher from Senga and they know me. They know Patrick and Joe too.'

'We could turn it over to the police,' said Alex.

'The police won't even bother to go there,' said Joe. 'No-one will tell them anything.'

'They don't know us,' said Amber. 'We can go.'

18
SENGA

Joe braked. 'If you get out here, Senga's about half an hour's walk. I can't take you any closer as the Teak Lodge Range Rover will he recognized.'

'Brilliant, Joe, thanks,' laid Alex. All five members of Alpha Force climbed out of the Range Rover into the bright morning sunshine. Joe was on his way to town to visit Tessa and then give evidence to the police about the wounded poacher.

Alex handed lightweight rucksacks to everyone: he had packed food and drink for them all. Joe's eyes narrowed. Li realized he recognized them as standard kit from the adventure race. Tessa had had one too. 'Sorry,' she said. 'Bit tactless of us to dress like this.'

Joe looked at their walking boots and sun visors. 'No, it's good cover,' he said. 'The locals won't think there's anything odd about you - Tessa used to train around there all the time.' He put the Range Rover into gear. 'Look after yourselves, and I'll see you in a couple of hours.'

He pulled out onto the highway and disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Alex checked his compass against the map. 'Senga is this way.'

They started to trek through the tall grass. Soon they were surrounded by clouds of butterflies, sucking sweat off their faces, fanning them cool with blue and yellow wings. Amber felt her spirits lift. Her ankle was now more or less OK to walk on and she had missed these moments so much: just her and her four special friends in the wilds together. It was like winding back time to when they were training for the adventure race.

'How's your leg, Amber?' said Hex. He looked at her carefully, watching how she moved.

'A tiny twinge now and again,' she said. She was lying, a little; her ankle was stiff and sore, but it was something she could live with. 'I'm being careful, don't you worry.'

They walked up a wide track with trees on either side to the crest of a hill. On the other side, where the ground sloped away, was the village, a small cluster of round wooden buildings with thatched roofs.

'I think we should split up here,' said Alex.

'Good idea,' said Amber.

'I think we two should stick together,' said Li to Amber, 'and one of you guys come too. Then we won't look too intimidating a group.'

'I'll come,' said Hex.

'OK, Paulo,' said Alex. 'That leaves you and me.' He addressed all of them. 'We'll look around, see what we can find, and meet back here in an hour, right?'

The others nodded.

'You go first,' said Amber. 'We'll give you a head start and then follow.'

Alex and Paulo set off at a jog down the track.

'Bet they've been dying to do that for ages,' said Amber.

'You weren't holding us up,' Hex said.

'Come on,' said Li. 'I reckon we should head for one of those huts there.'

Paulo and Alex followed the track. 'Where do you reckon they keep their drinking dens?' said Paulo.

Alex recalled some of his father's tales of jobs abroad. 'Probably in the dirtiest, nastiest place imaginable.'

They were in what looked like the centre of the village. The track became a large flat circle of earth, like a small roundabout. Several huts were arranged around its perimeter. There was a big building like a farm shelter, with a roof of corrugated iron and one side open to the elements. A few rusted tables and chairs stood along the open side, some of them occupied. A man lay flat out across a row of chairs, snoring.

'Fancy a drink?' said Alex.

Paulo wrinkled his nose in distaste. 'No way Jose. Not even if you're buying.'

The building was raised off the ground. The floor was dusty, grimy wood. In the corners were heaps of dust and detritus - cigarette butts, dried animal droppings, twigs and dead leaves blown in from the surrounding woods. A counter ran along the back of the room. Alex and Paulo approached it. Paulo put his hands on it and immediately peeled them off again. The surface was sticky and left sooty streaks on his fingers.

Two elderly men were sitting at one of the tables. One wore a tall pair of green Wellington boots with tweed trousers cut off at the knee. The other wore a bright red shirt with a big rip in the sleeve and a dirty stain of engine oil on the front. They looked at the newcomers with half-closed eyes, as though they had recently woken up.

Alex wondered if Paulo was thinking the same thing as him: were these two the drinking companions of the bitten poacher, recovering from hangovers?

Paulo walked towards them. Alex always envied Paulo his ability to turn on the charm, to make his face look so open and inviting that almost anyone would talk to him. When Paulo reached the table he squatted on his haunches so he wasn't looking down at the men. That would help put them at their ease, thought Alex.

Paulo started talking. 'Gentlemen, we found someone the other day who we think came from this village. He was injured so we took him to hospital. We're trying to find his family. Has anyone gone missing from here?'

The men looked at Paulo doubtfully.

Alex joined him and squatted down like Paulo. He added, 'Or did anyone drop in here, passing through? Maybe he came from somewhere else.'

One of the men turned to the other and spoke rapidly. They were willing to talk, all right; but neither Paulo nor Alex could understand a single word.

Li, Amber and Hex went round the back of one of the huts. A broomstick made of twigs leaned against a doorway. A tiny child, eyes deep-set in an ebony-coloured face, watched them as they walked past.

A woman came out of the wood towards them, a plastic water carrier on her head. She moved sedately, like a giraffe.

'Look at that bag she's carrying,' said Li quietly. 'Same as the one our poacher had. Give or take a bit of grime.'

'Is it?' said Hex, mystified.

'Handbag identification and recognition - it's a girl thing,' hissed Amber. 'That's our lady.'

'Well, she might not be anything to do with the poacher,' said Hex. 'She doesn't look like she's rolling in riches. The bag's not exactly Gucci.'

The woman approached them.

Hex suddenly drew Li and Amber close. He whispered, 'What's that on her arm? Take a good look as she goes past.'

Li unfolded the map so that it looked like they were lost. The woman came alongside and Li nodded hello to her. While Li kept eye contact with the woman, Hex and Amber looked at her wrists.

The woman was wearing several burnished brass bangles - and what appeared to be an expensive Rolex watch.

When she was a few metres away, Amber whispered, 'I bet it's a fake. What would anyone here be doing with a real one?'

'More to the point,' said Li, 'where's the best place to get fake Rolex watches? Hong Kong.'

'Bingo,' said Hex.

Amber said, 'I know a bit of pidgin French. I'll go and talk to her - see if I can find out where she got it. Give me that map.'

'We'll be here watching,' said Hex.

Amber hurried ahead, half hopping to save her bad ankle. Hex didn't like letting her go by herself but she was the only one who spoke the language.

Amber rehearsed some phrases of pidgin French in her head. At last her enforced period of study leave in the back-up van would come in handy.

She caught up with the woman and called to her. 'Hello, can you help me?'

The woman stopped and turned. She was incredibly beautiful, Amber thought; the water in the carrier rippled in the sunlight and threw shimmers onto her shoulders like jewels from a crown.

Amber held the map out. 'Can you tell me where exactly we are?'

The woman took the map with a graceful hand, moving in the same unhurried way. She frowned as she looked at it, then glanced at Hex waiting with Li a little way behind. 'Doesn't your man know where you're going?'

'No,' grinned Amber. 'He's useless. Can't find his way anywhere without a computer to help him.'

The woman laughed. 'It's always the way.' She pointed at an area on the map. 'You're here.' As she brought her wrist up the watch flashed golden in the sunlight.

'That's lovely,' said Amber. She put her hand out. 'May I see?'

Proudly, the woman held out her wrist. Amber inspected the watch. It was a good copy but the second hand moved in little jerks; on the real thing it swept around the dial in a continuous movement. Amber had seen enough real Rolex watches to be certain that this one was a fake. 'It's really pretty,' she said.

'My boyfriend gave it to me last night,' said the woman.

'You're very lucky,' said Amber. 'Where did he get it?'

'He said it fell out of the sky.'

Tell out of the sky? Where?'