Stephen Leather - The Hunting

Raj rested his back against the trunk as he considered his options. He could try waiting the hunter out, stay put and see if he’d reveal himself eventually. Or he could try to get back to the house and call for help from there. Or he could go on the attack. The Heckler could fire off far more rounds than the hunter’s gun. And there were thirty rounds in the Heckler’s clip and another sixty in the two magazines in his back pockets. But firepower wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Raj had no idea where the hunter was holed up.

He heard a rustling to his left and he swung up the Heckler with his finger on the trigger. He relaxed when he saw it was Sid. ‘What’s wrong?’ Sid whispered.

‘I think he got Erol.’

‘Fuck,’ said Sid. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’

‘He must have ditched the GPS. It was a trap. I should have seen it coming.’ Raj shook his head. ‘This guy is a cunning bastard,’ he said. ‘And I can’t see where he is so we’re pretty much stuck here.’

Just then, an idea suddenly struck him. He leant his carbine against the tree and shrugged off his backpack. He crouched down and took out the night vision goggles.

‘We’re going to wait until it’s fully dark, is that the plan?’ asked Sid.

Raj shook his head. ‘Nah, these goggles are special. They’ve also got a thermal imaging system, which means we’ll be able to see the hunter’s heat signature. Get yours out and I’ll show you what I mean.’

Sid took the goggles from his backpack. Raj showed him the on–off switch and another switch that toggled between the two functions, infrared and thermal imaging. ‘The infrared system works in the dark, but the thermal imaging system can be used any time,’ whispered Raj. He set the goggles to thermal, and switched them on. There was a faint buzzing sound as they booted up, but it soon stopped and Raj put them on. Sid did the same. Everything was green, even the darkening sky. As he looked up through the dark green branches of the trees overhead Raj could see two small blobs of a lighter green. Birds. He looked straight ahead. All he could see was a wall of ferns.

‘These are awesome,’ whispered Sid.

‘Okay, so what we have to do is to get down low and creep, as slowly as we can, through the ferns,’ said Raj. ‘We should be able to pick up his thermal image. As soon as you see anything, let me know.’

‘Okay,’ said Sid.

The both got down onto their hands and knees, and they lay flat on the ground. They began to slowly crawl around the tree and towards where they figured the hunter was hiding. Raj felt as if he was moving in slow motion but he knew that to move any faster would risk giving away his position. Left arm. Right leg. Right arm. Left leg. Check. Still just a wall of green. He inched forward, trying to disturb the ferns as little as possible. It took him almost five minutes to cover twenty metres. Sid was slightly behind him. Eventually Raj could see the end of the patch of ferns, and through it, a clearing. Beyond the clearing, redwoods and smaller trees. Pines and oaks. Raj stopped. His face was bathed in sweat and his muscles were aching, from the tension as much as the physical exertion.

He motioned for Sid to join him. Sid crawled slowly through the ferns until he was at Raj’s side. Raj raised his head to just below the tops of the ferns and slowly looked around. The heat signature of the trees was pretty much the same but he could make out the different shapes. High up in the branches he could see the brighter shapes of birds and the occasional blotch of a squirrel or chipmunk.

He scanned left and right at ground level. The resolution was good enough to pick out the different plants and bushes that had grown up between the redwoods. Here and there were small brighter patches, some almost white. Rats or mice, probably. Raj continued to check out the forest around him. There was nothing larger than a small rodent or a bird. Had the hunter already left? Maybe his plan had always been to hit one target and then pull back. It made sense. He could have moved to another ambush point, somewhere closer to the house. Or he could be still holed up in his vantage point, waiting. Raj had no way of knowing which option he was facing. The only way to know for sure would be to stand up and see what happened.

His mouth had gone dry. He slipped off his backpack and drank from the water bottle. His head was throbbing so he swallowed two paracetamol tablets and washed them down with more water. He gave the bottle to Sid who drank and then returned it. Raj put the bottle back in the backpack and lifted his head again. He looked around cautiously. He could hear a woodpecker high overhead, attacking a trunk. Two rats were about fifty metres away, scuttling around a redwood. An insect buzzed by his ear.

He stiffened when he saw a white smudge above a fallen tree. Just a smudge, not much bigger than the rats, but it wasn’t moving. Raj focused his attention on the patch. Could he make out an eye? Maybe. And a dark patch where the other eye should have been. The gun? Raj stared at the image but it was hard to be sure.

He tapped on Sid’s shoulder and pointed to where he’d seen the smudge. Sid peered through his goggles and shrugged. ‘Maybe,’ he said.

Raj figured he’d be able to get a better look if he moved to the right. He hugged the ground and began to inch his way slowly through the ferns. After he’d crawled ten metres he stopped and lifted his head. He was looking at the white blur from the side now, and this time he could make out the barrel of the gun. He’d found the hunter. He sighed and rolled over onto his back as he considered his options. The man was about eighty metres away – a reasonable enough distance for a kill shot with the Heckler if he was on a shooting range, but if he fired from the ground through ferns, it could be touch and go. He could fire from a kneeling position but as soon as he moved, the hunter would probably spot him. The best bet would be to fire as he moved, laying down a hail of bullets as he ran, but running while wearing night vision goggles was a recipe for disaster. It was impossible to look down and see the ground, which meant it was a simple matter to trip and fall, especially when moving at speed.

He waved for Sid to join him and waited as the man crawled slowly towards him. ‘It’s definitely him,’ Raj whispered. ‘But we need to stand to see him. We need to move apart and then start firing together. With two angles of fire we should be able to pin him down and then we can move towards him.’

‘Okay,’ said Sid, hesitantly.

Raj patted him on the shoulder. ‘It’ll be okay. We’ll catch him by surprise. But we’ll need to take the goggles off, it’s hard to run wearing them.’

They both pulled off the goggles, rolled over onto their fronts, and raised their heads cautiously. It was easy enough to see the fallen tree but the hunter was well camouflaged and it was only after several seconds of staring that Raj was able to spot him. He had taken up position next to a branch that provided cover above his head and had placed ferns and branches all around himself. The barrel of the gun was resting on the trunk, pointing towards where Erol had fallen. Even from his changed position, all Raj could see was the man’s left cheek, and that appeared to have been rubbed with dirt.

‘See him?’ he whispered.

‘I think so.’

‘Okay, so you crawl ten metres or so that way so that we can get converging lines of fire on him. When you’re in position, watch for my signal. We go on three.’

‘Got it,’ said Sid.

Raj waited as Sid crawled through the ferns. He breathed slowly and deeply as he stared at his target. He checked the carbine again, patted the two magazines in his back pockets as if to reassure himself they were still there, and prepared himself.