Stephen Leather - The Hunting

Raj bent down to look at Jaffar and Mo. All he could see was their eyes. ‘Okay, we’ll leave you to it,’ he said.

‘You are coming back, right?’ said Jaffar.

‘Of course,’ said Raj.

‘You fucking better, bruv,’ said Jaffar.

Raj nodded. There was nothing else he could say. He’d do everything in his power to keep his word, but he knew that there were armed men waiting for him in the house and a hunter with a rifle on their trail. He was between a rock and a hard place, and all he had was the Heckler and its remaining rounds. He headed through the ferns, slowly and carefully to minimise any damage, and rejoined Sid and Erol. Sid was right: the hide was totally invisible from a distance. He checked the compass in his knife and pointed south. ‘That’s the way,’ he said. ‘We need to move as quickly as possible.’

‘We’re not going to reach the house before dark, are we?’ said Erol.

‘It’ll be touch and go,’ said Raj. ‘But if we can get to within sight of the house we might be able to approach it in darkness.’

‘Then what? We’ve got one gun and how many of them are there? Ten? Twelve?’

‘Mate, all we can do is take it one step at a time.’ He patted Erol on the back. ‘Come on. I know your ankle is still hurting, but we need to quicken the pace.’

Erol nodded and gritted his teeth in frustration. The three men headed through the trees.

CHAPTER 47

Van der Sandt stopped when he saw the dried blood on the grass. There had been regular blood drops after the bear attack but this was different, and the grass had been pressed flat. He looked at the footprints, knowing that they would tell the story. Boots had knelt by the injured man, and gone to and fro. There were leaves that didn’t belong in the area – they had clearly been stripped from bushes nearby. He picked up one of the crushed leaves and sniffed it. It was yarrow. The plant could be used as an antiseptic and a blood coagulant. They had obviously rested here after they had escaped the bear and Boots had treated the wound.

He took a few steps back and looked around. The wound had been bleeding badly but once they started moving again, the blood had stopped. Whatever Boots had done had obviously worked, but the injured man still needed help to walk.

He followed the tracks to a stony area where there were fewer footprints. They were still heading south, towards the house. Van der Sandt slowed, looking for tracks among the rocks and stones. Eventually he was walking on grass again but he realised immediately that something was wrong. There were still three sets of tracks but the points weren’t as deep and the strides were greater, so they were no longer carrying the two injured men. He frowned, stopped, and looked around. There was no mistake. Boots had passed that way, and so had the guy wearing sandals. And the guy who was using a stick was still there. That meant they had left the two injured men behind. He turned and walked back to the rocky area. That must have been where the other two had taken a different direction. His frown deepened. Why would they be travelling separately? Had they argued? Or had Boots decided that they would be able to move faster without the injured men holding them back? And how had the injured men been able to move without help? He scratched the back of his neck, trying to work out what was going on.

CHAPTER 48

Mo nudged Jaffar in the ribs. Jaffar glared at him. ‘I see him, bruv,’ he whispered. ‘Leave me the fuck alone.’

The man was about thirty metres away, walking slowly as his eyes scrutinised the ground. He was holding his rifle in both hands. He was dressed pretty much as he had been in the house, though he now had a floppy hat on his head.

‘Are you going to shoot or not?’ hissed Mo.

Jaffar had the Glock in both hands but he wasn’t aiming it.

‘You’ve got to take the shot,’ whispered Mo.

‘If I shoot and I miss then he’ll shoot back,’ said Jaffar.

‘He can’t see us,’ said Mo. ‘That’s the point of us lying up here.’

‘I’m not sure I can hit him from here.’

‘Then give the fucking gun to me. I’ll do it.’

Mo reached for the Glock but Jaffar moved it away. ‘I’m a better shot than you and you know it.’

‘Then take the fucking shot,’ said Mo. ‘If you don’t, he’ll catch up the others.’

‘Yeah, well Raj kept the big gun for himself, didn’t he?’

The hunter had stopped and was looking down at the ground.

‘Come on, shoot him,’ hissed Mo.

Jaffar sighted the Glock and tightened his finger on the trigger as he aimed at the centre of the hunter’s body. He took a breath, let half of it out, steadied himself, and pulled the trigger.

CHAPTER 49

Van der Sandt heard a muffled bang off to his right and then the crack of a bullet as it whizzed past the back of his skull. For a second he froze, not realising what had happened, then he ducked down and ran forward. A second shot rang out but the bullet must have gone wide because he didn’t hear it zip by. He veered to the left and ran behind a huge redwood, then stopped and listened, turning his head from side to side. The birds had fallen silent and he couldn’t hear anyone in pursuit. It had been an ambush rather than an attack. They were lying low. Van der Sandt wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of gunfire but he was pretty sure that it had been a handgun. Two shots. It had been an amateur move; a handgun wasn’t generally accurate beyond twenty metres or so, even in the hands of a professional. If they’d had the Heckler they’d probably have used it, which reinforced his belief that the group had split into two. He continued to listen but heard nothing. They were hiding somewhere. Van der Sandt smiled to himself. It was time to go stalking. Often he took as much pleasure from the stalking and the hunt as he did from the kill itself, and this time would be no exception.

A bird began to call high overhead. He looked up but it was hidden in the foliage. The cuk-cuk-cuk call, rising and falling in pitch, was distinctive to the pileated woodpecker. He heard a rustling to his left and he whirled around, bringing up the rifle. The rustling continued but it was moving away from his position, and whatever was causing the noise was clearly small – a chipmunk perhaps, foraging for food.

Van der Sandt slipped his finger off the rifle’s trigger. He had a pretty good idea where the shot had come from.

CHAPTER 50

Mo narrowed his eyes as he looked left and right. ‘I don’t see him,’ he whispered. ‘What about you?’

‘Maybe he’s gone,’ whispered Jaffar.

‘Why would he go? We shot at him. He knows we’re here.’

‘Yeah, but he knows we’ve got a gun.’

‘What, you think we’ve scared him off? He wants to kill us, he’s not going to just leave, is he?’

Jaffar gestured with his chin. ‘He went that way, right? And he’s not come back.’

‘How long ago, do you think? Five minutes?’

‘More than that. Closer to ten.’

‘What do we do?’ asked Mo.

‘What can we do? You want to get out and go looking for him?’

‘Maybe we hit him. Maybe he’s lying out there bleeding to death.’

‘No way did I hit him, bruv,’ said Jaffar. ‘This gun’s a piece of shit.’

‘Give it to me, then.’

‘That won’t make no odds. The sights are off. Keep looking, bruv, he’s going to come back, I’m sure of it.’

‘I wish we had a fucking watch, I’ve no idea how long we’ve been here.’

‘Yeah, well Raj has the watch and the knife and the only decent gun. He’s not one for sharing.’

‘He’s okay. He stopped you from dying.’