Stephen Leather - The Hunting

Van der Sandt had often faced criticism for his hunting, but when he had killed he had never killed juveniles. Every animal he had ever killed had been an adult. And when he had killed, he had killed a single animal. A trophy animal. He had never, ever, killed indiscriminately.

A hunting friend of his, an English lord who was related to the Queen, had once asked Van der Sandt to go pheasant shooting with him. He had an estate in Scotland – a fraction of the size of Van der Sandt’s land – where birds were raised to be shot. Van der Sandt liked the man but he had always turned the invitations down. Shooting animals indiscriminately wasn’t sport; it wasn’t even hunting. There was no skill in shooting birds that could barely fly, birds that had to be startled by beaters to even get them into the air. Bird hunters used the excuse that they always ate what they shot, but that wasn’t true. On a single day’s shoot hundreds of birds would be shot and most of them were given away to the people in the nearby village. Maybe they ate the birds, maybe they didn’t, but they weren’t being shot for food, they were being shot because the shooters got a thrill from mass killing.

What had happened in Cyprus was like a bird shoot. The men had turned up with big guns and had shot everything that moved. Men, women, and children. Like the birds they would have been startled and tried to flee for their lives. But it wasn’t possible to outrun a bullet. One by one the holidaymakers would have been shot, most of them in the back. What sort of person would do that? They had killed without caring who they were killing. For all they knew, there could have been Muslims on the beach and in the hotel. They would have been killing their own. Van der Sandt shuddered. He tried not to think about the last moments of his wife and children. How scared they would have been. How the children would have called out to their mother for help. Maybe they had called out for him. He felt tears prick his eyes and he blinked them away. He put his water bottle back on his belt and started walking again. It wouldn’t be long now.

CHAPTER 44

Raj looked up through the branches of the redwoods around him. The trees were less dense than they had been and he was able to get a good view of the sky. There were clouds high overhead but they were white and wispy and didn’t appear to be threatening rain. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He really wanted a drink but there had been neither sight nor sound of running water since the stream they had found a few hours ago.

‘Can we forage for food for a while?’ asked Sid.

Raj wanted them to keep up the pace, but he knew that the lack of nutrition was sapping their energy. ‘Okay, but let’s not take too long.’

Raj took Sid into the undergrowth. Jaffar followed them. Raj scanned the smaller trees that were managing to grow among the redwoods and pointed at one. ‘There you go,’ he said. ‘Hazelnuts.’ The two men went over to the tree. It was a good size and the branches were dotted with clumps of nuts. Jaffar reached and pulled away a handful. He peeled one, chewed on it, and nodded. ‘Good,’ he said. He began ripping nuts off the tree.

Raj and Sid pushed their way through the bushes, looking for berries. They came across a redwood that had rotted and died, and fallen on its side. The bark was dotted with large snails. Raj picked one off and showed it to Sid, but Sid backed away, his hands up. ‘No way,’ he said. ‘I’m not that hungry.’

Raj laughed. ‘It’s okay, you wouldn’t want to eat one raw,’ he said. ‘But boil them for a few minutes in some wild garlic and they’re quite tasty.’ He put the snail back. ‘The woods are full of beetles and worms and termites that you can eat.’

‘Thanks Raj but I’m gonna stick to berries and nuts,’ said Sid.

Raj grinned. ‘If you’re hungry enough you’ll eat anything,’ he said.

Sid looked up through the tree canopy. The sky was a pale blue with only a few wisps of cloud. He sighed. ‘What the fuck is going to happen to us, Raj?’

‘We’re going to get out of here and get back to our lives,’ said Raj.

‘But that bastard wants to kill us. He’s out there somewhere with that fucking gun.’

‘I know. But we’ve got guns, too. He hadn’t planned that. He didn’t expect us to be able to fight back.’

‘Do you think he might have changed his plan? Do you think he might leave us alone?’

Raj shook his head. ‘You killed his family. He’s not going to forgive you for that. I wouldn’t. Would you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If someone killed your family, you’d want revenge. Anyone would. It’s the most natural reaction in the world.’

‘I didn’t kill his family.’

‘Yeah, you said that back at the house. I didn’t get what you meant. You were at the beach, right?’

Sid sighed. ‘Yes, I was at the fucking beach. And yes I was shooting. But I wasn’t shooting women and kids. I just couldn’t.’

‘Sid, that makes no sense at all.’

‘I joined ISIS because I wanted to fight for Islam. I wanted to be a warrior. I thought I’d be fighting troops. Shooting at soldiers. I thought it would be war.’

‘You must have known what they were planning.’

‘I don’t know what I thought. But when I got off the jet ski all I could see was women and kids. I fired high, I shot men, but I didn’t shoot any of the women or kids.’

‘You took part in a terrorist attack.’

‘I know, I know. I’m not saying I’m not a fucking terrorist, I’m just saying I didn’t kill his family.’

‘And he says he’s holding you all responsible.’ Raj wiped his forehead with his sleeve. ‘You weren’t born a Muslim, right?’

‘Nah. My dad’s Church of England. My mum’s a lapsed Catholic.’

‘So what happened?’

Sid laughed harshly. ‘What happened? I guess skunk happened.’

‘Skunk?’

‘Cannabis. Ganja. My dealers were a couple of Pakistani guys. At first I was just a customer and then eventually I started hanging out with them. They took me to their mosque and that was pretty much it.’

‘It’s a bloody big jump from buying cannabis to massacring tourists,’ said Raj.

‘They opened my eyes to the way the world is,’ said Sid. ‘Their imam is a really smart guy. He explained things to me. I did classes in the Koran and started to learn Arabic.’

‘And he’s the one who arranged for you to get trained?’

‘Yeah, he explained that all good Muslims have to fight for Islam. It’s our duty.’

‘You were groomed, mate,’ said Raj. ‘They spotted you and they groomed you. You’re the perfect weapon for them because of your colour.’

‘Nah, that’s bollocks. Islam isn’t about race, it’s about faith.’

‘And you believe? In Islam?’

Sid frowned. ‘Of course.’

‘But now you’re having doubts, obviously. Or reservations.’

‘I’m starting to think that maybe Allah’s word is being polluted. I tried raising it with the imams at the camp but …’ He shrugged. ‘They didn’t want to discuss it. They said that it would be best if I just listened to what they said and didn’t start trying to interpret the Koran myself.’ He sighed. ‘And now I’m fucked. Well fucked.’

‘Yeah. True that.’

‘This guy’s a fucking nutter,’ said Sid.

‘I don’t know about that,’ said Raj. ‘You can’t fault his logic. You murdered his family and he wants revenge. What he’s doing makes more sense than what you did.’

‘Yeah, well we’re going to have to agree to differ on that,’ said Sid. ‘But I’m sorry you got dragged into this. It’s not your fault.’

‘You can say that again.’ Despite the precariousness of his position, Raj couldn’t help but smile. ‘But at the end of the day I’m a kafir, right? Of less value than a dog.’