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“Well – and I am not saying I buy into this although I can see his point – what correlates strongly with most countries and a rise in education?”

“All sorts,” Steph puffed.

“Yes, true, one being a fall in birth rates.”

“OK?”

“Well, that means a lot of things,” Davey continued, pausing just before the ridgeline. “There’s a problem for the economists about a top-heavy population and how they might sustain the elderly with the age of death rising. However, Kelvin is interested in something else. An opportunity, as he sees it – I am not completely sure myself. We have encroached onto the wilderness in different countries for years. Our population has exploded like algae on a pond. We have built on it and put in place the infrastructure to deal with it all. Yet if the population decreases significantly – which it is already showing signs of in many countries – what happens to it all?”

Steph thought about this. She supposed the answer was obvious, but she didn’t want to appear stupid by saying so and yet proved to be wrong – at least in Davey’s eyes.

“It gets left?”

“Exactly,” Davey said. “And it gets reclaimed by the wild. Wildlife is incredibly resilient; it has gone through mass extinctions before and always bounced back. It’ll reclaim areas we abandon in the blink of an eye.”

“What’s your point?” Steph replied, looking around. “I don’tsee what this has to do with anything going on here.”

“Of course you don’t,” Davey scowled. “Kelvin believes that the mood of people is changing to one of more cooperation and coexistence with animals, rewilding in other countries, the replanting of forests, people eating far less meat and people looking for alternatives to fur and leather.”

“And so… so this is just an example of what Kelvin thinks life could be like in the future?” Steph frowned. “But with a dash of dangerous prehistoric predation thrown in for good measure?”

“I wouldn’t say the predation itself is prehistoric,” Davey replied, itching his arm.

Steph grimaced.

“Sounds a bit pointless to me, crossing a bridge we haven’t reached and might not even arrive at. Anyway, even if he does prove a point somehow, what does it matter? What use is it to him to demonstrate that people can live amongst the wild?”

“That I am not quite sure of,” Davey said. “Although men like Kelvin know how to pivot. I think that’s why he got the prehistoric animals in. They were his insurance.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning if Kelvin is wrong about humans eventually getting closer to nature again, he can at least offer the opportunity to live amongst wildlife as a sort of holiday-type thing. With the extinct animals thrown in, he could make a bit of money back. Not to mention the rights he has to Martina’s research.”

Steph did not think much of his explanation. It felt weak. The only part that seemed to her to have any clout was the part about genetics. But why buy all the land? Was it pure vanity?

“Surely he won’t regain the cost of the land with a simple holiday park?”

Davey was about to reply but put a finger to his lips instead.

FOURTEEN

There was a slight downward slope of open heathland leading to another treeline. To their right, there was an incline up a small ben. Grazing in the partially cleared field was a herd of red deer, with a large stag visible in the middle surrounded by a harem. Steph studied them. Something didn’t seem right.

“They seem very skittish,” Steph said.

“What do you mean?” Davey replied.

“Look at the edges. They are constantly moving and jumping as if they have seen something or think something is there. They seem agitated all the time. Is that normal for your herd?”

“I suppose so. I’ve never really thought about it. I guess I have become so used to it that it just seems normal to me. The deer are a good target for predators as they are easier than the moose or the bison.”

Steph didn’t reply but took her binoculars and tilted them to one side. She tried to see if there was anything that could potentially be bothering them or whether there were any patterns to their movements.

“Are the other prey animals that move in herds acting like this?” she asked.

“In their own way, I suppose,” Davey shrugged, checking his tranquillizer gun. “I mean, the bison are a little more assured of themselves when we bring them in.”

“Bring them in?” Steph put her binoculars down.