Stephen Leather - The Hunting

CHAPTER 54

Raj transferred the ninth stone into his pocket. Sid saw him do it and smiled. ‘Nine hundred metres?’

‘Yeah. I know it looks crazy but you’d be surprised how easy it is to lose track. Your mind can start playing tricks on you, but the stones don’t lie.’

They were on a relatively flat section of the forest, but they could see a hill ahead of them. Erol was a short distance behind them. His ankle was holding up well and on the flat he barely needed the stick for support. ‘Are we resting for a bit?’ he asked when he reached them.

‘Let’s keep going,’ said Raj. He gestured at the hill ahead of them. ‘I’d prefer to be up there looking down rather than down here looking up.’

‘A drink would be nice,’ said Sid.

‘Yeah, and a burger and chips would go down a treat too,’ said Raj.

‘First thing I’m doing when we’re out of this is getting a curry,’ said Erol.

‘How do we get out of this, Raj?’ asked Sid. ‘What’s the plan? We get to the house and then what?’

‘We call for help,’ said Raj. ‘There has to be a phone there. We call the cops. Or we steal a car and drive to the nearest town. To be honest, I don’t know for sure yet. We just have to take it one step at a time.’

‘If we do call the cops, how do we explain what we’re doing here?’

‘That’s easy enough. We’re being hunted by a madman.’

‘I don’t mean that. I mean, if we tell them we were brought from an ISIS camp in Syria, they’ll send us to Guantanamo Bay and waterboard the fuck out of us.’

‘He’s got a point,’ said Erol.

‘Like I said, one step at a time,’ said Raj.

‘I heard you,’ said Sid. ‘But what will you tell them, about us?’

Raj wiped this forehead with the back of his hand. ‘What’s on your mind, Sid?’

‘Okay, assume we get back to the house. And assume we get a car or a phone and get to the cops or the FBI or whoever. Are you going to grass us up? Are you going to tell them who we are?’

‘Sid, mate, I just want to go home.’

‘And if we say we were working for an NGO when we were kidnapped, what will you tell them?’

‘I won’t tell them a blind thing. You tell them whatever you want.’

Sid nodded slowly. ‘Okay.’ He looked at Erol. ‘You okay with that?’

‘I don’t see we’ve got any choice,’ said Erol.

‘We really don’t have time for this,’ said Raj. ‘Come on.’ He started walking again. Sid and Erol hurried after him.

CHAPTER 55

Emmett and Holland had been assigned adjoining staff cottages. There were a dozen in all and theirs were at the far right-hand side. ‘Two minutes and we’re out of here,’ said Emmett.

‘Roger that,’ said Holland.

Emmett’s cottage contained two single beds and he had set his equipment out on the one closest to the door. He stashed his radio into one of the pockets of his Kevlar vest, along with two magazines for his carbine. Van der Sandt wanted the men turned away from the house and not killed, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to return fire if he was attacked. He put two bottles of water and a couple of energy bars into the backpack, along with a first aid kit, a trauma kit and the GPS unit. His thermal vision goggles were charging on his bedside table. They were a special batch of dual system goggles – infrared and thermal imaging – being tested by Delta Force. All of Bell’s team had been issued with them. They were too expensive to be issued to all American troops but Delta Force were hoping they would become standard special forces issue. The IR system was fine for general night-time use, but it wouldn’t work in fog, dust storms or places where there was zero ambient light, such as caves. The thermal imaging system sensed changes in temperature and so could be used anywhere day or night, and was perfect for spotting snipers – their thermal footprints could be detected no matter what the light conditions. They weren’t quite good enough to see through walls but they would pick up enemy troops at night or hidden in the jungle or forest. Emmett unplugged them and put them in the backpack.

He paid a quick visit to the bathroom, then shouldered the backpack, picked up his carbine and put on his Kevlar helmet.

Holland was already outside, grinning. Like Emmett he was wearing a helmet and had his backpack on. He had ditched his trademark sunglasses as night was closing in. ‘You said two minutes.’

‘Fuck me, bro, is everything with you a race?’ laughed Emmett.

‘The quick and the dead, man,’ said Holland. ‘I know which I’d rather be.’

They hurried over to the west gate where Bell was already waiting for them. It was a black-painted barred gate set into the high stone wall. Bell unlocked it for them and wished them well.

Emmett checked the GPS unit, showed it to Holland, and then pointed west. The two men entered the undergrowth and moved apart. Their camouflage fatigues helped them blend into the undergrowth and within a few minutes Emmett had lost sight of Holland, though the occasional snap of a twig let him know that he was still close by.

CHAPTER 56

Raj and Sid stopped and waited for Erol to catch up with them again. The sun was dropping low in the sky but the tree cover was so thick it wasn’t making much of a difference. They were heading down a long slope and ahead of them was a steeper hill dotted with boulders. ‘I need to take a dump,’ said Sid.

‘Sure, go ahead,’ said Raj.

Sid went behind a large redwood as Raj scanned the area. The trees were tall but the widest was only a couple of feet across, which suggested that it was secondary forest, replacing the original trees that had been chopped down to satisfy the country’s never-ending appetite for building materials.

‘How much further?’ asked Erol.

‘A few kilometres,’ said Raj.

In the distance a bird flapped into the air and headed for the treetops. Raj stiffened as he saw movement on the slope ahead of them, appearing from behind a tree. A man, in camouflage fatigues, cradling a carbine. As the man stepped around the tree, another bird broke cover and flew skywards. The man was short and stocky and wearing a Kevlar helmet.

‘Get down,’ said Raj, pushing Erol to the ground. He looked over at the tree that Sid was hiding behind. ‘Sid!’ hissed Raj, but there was no reply.

The man was working his way down the slope opposite where Raj was, some three hundred metres away.

‘Sid!’

There was no response. Raj narrowed his eyes as he scrutinised the slope. He doubted that the man would be out alone. ‘Can you see anyone else?’ he whispered to Erol.

They scanned the undergrowth. It took Raj almost a minute to spot another man, to the left of the first one. He was further up the slope and moving slowly. Raj’s jaw tightened as he recognised the man. He was one of the team who had been in the helicopter when they had been dropped in the clearing.

‘What do we do?’ whispered Erol.

Raj pressed his finger to his lips and shook his head. Erol nodded. ‘Sid!’ hissed Raj. Still no answer. Raj cursed under his breath. If Sid walked out from behind the tree, there was a good chance he’d be seen. He put his Heckler to his shoulder and aimed at the first man he’d spotted.

‘Sid, can you hear me?’ hissed Raj again. The two men were about two hundred metres away now. He could see them clearly despite the camouflage gear so he was sure that if Sid started moving they would see him.

He heard a rustling sound to his left and he whirled around, his carbine at the ready. The sound continued but there was no movement. It was probably a rat, he realised. He switched his attention back again to the two men coming down the slope. They were heading right for him. It was either a coincidence or somehow they had worked out his heading. The bush he was crouching behind was a little over three feet tall. If he stood up they’d see him immediately.