Stephen Leather - The Hunting

‘Water would be good,’ said Abdullah. ‘I’m so thirsty.’

‘Yeah, me too,’ said Sal.

The two men started down the slope. They had to weave their way through the trees which was easy enough, but the bushes that blocked their way were harder to negotiate. Some had wicked thorns that tore at their clothes and scratched their skin. Even though they were heading down it was tough going and within half an hour they were both bathed in sweat and breathing heavily.

They reached a clearing and Sal stopped to catch his breath. Abdullah joined him. A thorn had scratched his right cheek and there was a trickle of blood dripping down to his chin. ‘You’re bleeding, bruv,’ said Sal, gesturing at Abdullah’s cheek.

Abdullah lifted his hand but before he could touch his face it exploded into a bloody pulp. Abdullah dropped to the ground and blood splattered across the grass. Sal threw himself down and as he moved he felt a second shot whizz above his head and thwack into the tree behind him. He looked up but there was no sign of the shooter. He hadn’t heard a gun being fired, but then he remembered that Raj had told them the man’s gun had a silencer fitted on it. He took a quick look down and he grimaced when he saw that Abdullah was definitely dead. Most of his face had been blown away and there was brain matter mixed in with the blood spatter. Sal was hyperventilating. He had to move – the hunter knew where he was and was clearly a marksman.

As Sal straightened up a third shot missed him by inches, passing so close to his face that he felt the air flick against his skin. Again there was no sound from the gun. Sal bent double and started to run. As he reached the nearest tree, another bullet thwacked onto the bark sending splinters flying. He ducked behind the tree and looked around, panting for breath. He knew he had to keep the tree between him and the shooter, but that meant he’d have to fight his way through a thicket of bushes that were almost as tall as he was. He realised he didn’t have a choice; if he tried to go around the bushes he’d be exposing his back to the shooter. He grunted, pushed himself away from the tree, and ran towards the bush. He crashed into it and began to fight his way through.

CHAPTER 38

‘That’s a kilometre,’ said Sid, coming to a halt. He turned to look at Raj. ‘Do you want to rest or not?’

Raj wanted to press on, but it was clear that Mo was struggling. For the last few hundred metres, Mo had been leaning heavily on Raj and he was grunting with every step. ‘We can take a breather,’ he said, and lowered Mo to the ground. Erol used his makeshift crutch to sit down next to him. Raj looked at his watch. The last kilometre had taken the best part of half an hour. The ground was uneven and they could only go as fast as the slowest member of the team, and that was Mo.

‘I’ll take Mo from here,’ said Sid. He took the stones from his pocket and gave them to Raj. ‘That’s a neat trick. They teach you that in the Marines?’

‘It was an American Ranger who showed me,’ said Raj. ‘I did a three-month exchange with the Rangers and they sent me to their HQ in Fort Benning. The Navy sent three Marines to Fort Benning and three Rangers went to our HQ in Plymouth. The idea was we’d learn from each other.’ He held up the stones. ‘This is one of the things I learnt. The Rangers use a string of beads in two sections. Nine beads and four beads. That means you can count up to five kilometres.’ He put the stones in his pocket and then tilted his head on one side. ‘Can you hear something?’

Sid frowned. ‘Like what?’

‘Water,’ said Raj.

The men all listened intently. ‘I hear it,’ said Erol. He pointed off to the left. ‘It’s coming from over there.’

Raj and Sid headed in the direction of the sound. They threaded their way through towering redwoods, through bushes and shrubs, then broke through into a rocky ravine, a dozen or so feet deep, at the bottom of which was a babbling stream.

‘Water!’ said Sid. ‘Do you think it’s drinkable?’

‘Moving water is always a good bet,’ said Raj. ‘But it’s not guaranteed to be pure. There could be all sorts of parasites and bacteria in it.’

‘But we can boil it, right?’

‘We’ve got nothing to boil it in. And like I said before, we don’t want to light a fire because it’ll give away our position.’

‘I really need a drink, bruv,’ said Sid.

‘I hear you.’

‘So what are the odds?’

‘Of getting sick from the water?’ Raj shrugged. ‘Impossible to say. Like I said, running water is generally safe but we don’t know what’s going on upstream. An animal could shit in the water or even die in it, and that obviously wouldn’t be good news.’

‘But we could follow it upstream to where it starts, right?’

Raj nodded thoughtfully. ‘You could. It’s not rain run-off because it hasn’t been raining so it must be coming out of the ground. If you could find the source, that should be pure. But we don’t know how far away it is.’

‘Come on, let’s give it a go.’

‘We don’t have time.’

‘A couple of minutes. Come on.’ Sid started heading up the ravine. Raj stared after him and then he sighed and started to follow.

‘What’s happening?’ shouted Jaffar.

‘We found a stream, we’re checking it out,’ shouted Sid.

‘Wait for me!’ Jaffar rushed over and whooped when he saw the water.

‘Don’t touch it until we’re sure it’s safe,’ said Raj. ‘We’ll check out the source, you stay with Erol and Mo.’

Raj followed Sid as he went up the ravine. It got deeper the further uphill they went. ‘I see the source,’ said Sid excitedly. He began to clamber into the ravine.

‘Be careful,’ said Raj. He didn’t want Sid breaking his leg or twisting his ankle.

Sid reached the bottom of the ravine and pointed at a spout of water gushing from the rocks. ‘There it is,’ he said. He scrambled across the rocks to where the water was emerging from the ground, knelt down and used his hands to scoop water into his mouth. He sat back on his heels, grinning. ‘That tastes good,’ he said.

Raj carefully climbed into the ravine and knelt down next to Sid. He scooped some water into his mouth too. It was ice cold and he gulped it down. Sid started drinking again, then threw handfuls of the water over his face.

Eventually the two men had drunk as much as they could and they stood up, laughing. ‘I fucking needed that, bruv,’ said Sid.

‘Yeah, it hit the spot, didn’t it?’ said Raj. ‘Let’s give the good news to the guys.’

They climbed out of the ravine and walked back to the clearing, where Jaffar was waiting for them anxiously. ‘I thought something had happened to you,’ he said.

‘We’re good,’ said Sid. ‘We were just checking the water. It’s good.’

‘We can drink it?’

‘It’s clean,’ he said.

Jaffar grinned and hurried towards the stream. Sid helped Erol to his feet, then gave him his branch. As Erol hobbled over to the stream, Sid and Raj pulled Mo up. ‘We can’t bring you the water, we’ve got nothing to carry it in,’ said Raj. ‘But we can get you close to the stream and you can help yourself.’

Mo nodded and the two men helped him through the undergrowth and over to the water. Erol was already there, kneeling and drinking.

Jaffar was lying on the bank, his face in the water.

Raj and Sid took Mo over to the edge of the stream and helped him sit down. Mo cupped his right hand and began drinking.

Jaffar lifted his head from the water, roared with pleasure, then submerged it again.

Raj waited until they had all drunk their fill, then told them it was time to start walking again. ‘I’ll take Mo,’ said Sid.