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“Meaning, that I don’t know for sure, but I suspect he knew people who knew other people who knew of people in a certain area.”

“Right?”

“Essentially, he can cast a bigger net in the hope of finding something than the average man can. He probably didn’t even need to use his name, just numbers. Large numbers attract people and there are a lot of large numbers going around in this game.”

“What game?”

Another small pause.

“This, general… extinct animals game.”

Even through the torrential rain, there was a palpable new atmosphere. It is the atmosphere someone feels when something is said by mistake. Steph was just not sure what it was exactly she had said. But the slight hunch in Michael’s back suggested he had a stronger connection to the statement than he publicly acknowledge.

THIRTY-THREE

Eventually, they came across one of the dirt tracks created by the electric buggies as they navigated their favourite routes over the terrain. Michael stopped.

“What is it?” Steph asked, reaching down her leg to feel the top of the knife under her trousers.

“I don’t know,” Michael said, crouching lower. Steph walked up beside him to see what he was looking at. It was tracks. Tyre tracks. They were fresh. Fresh enough anyway. The buggy had clearly sunk deep into the mud as it drove along suggesting that it had been driven when it started to belt it down.

“You think it could be Martina and the others?” Steph asked.

“It could be. But I’m not really sure where it was going. I suppose there is another gate out that way. It’s not used much but…”

Steph watched as he got up. He seemed to hesitate for a moment as to which way to go. Then he turned to follow the tracks in the direction of the tread.

“Not used much but what?” Steph asked. He didn’t answer. He was a little further ahead and maybe he hadn’t heard her. She suspected that wasn’t the case.

They walked with their heads down. At one point, a lone deer crossed their path but that was all they saw. Everything else seemed to be seeking shelter from the rain. Then Michael stopped again. Steph saw why. His small circle of light from the torch still shone on the tyre tracks, but they began to lose definition now. They were becoming one long streak that started to vary in width.

“They lost control!” Michael said. “But why?”

Steph shadowed him as he followed the tracks more slowly,periodically looking up and shining his torch at random spots. Then they saw it. Steph noticed it first and let out a gasp. She didn’t mean to; it escaped her before she’d registered her feelings.

New tracks met the tyre tracks which were curving completely off their usual route. These tracks seemed to slide slightly too. However, one part of them was unmistakable. That of a paw. It was huge. Steph watched Michael instinctively flick the torch in the direction the tyre tracks had gone.

“Ah, shit!” he muttered. In front of them was one of the buggies, its bonnet hugging a tree, its doors wide open and its seats empty.

Steph had to fight her instinct to shout out names. Instead she reached down and pulled the knife from its sheath. Her heart felt as if it would explode. The darkness around them now seemed somehow gloomier than it had before. She was sure there had been some light before, but now she realised she could not see a thing beyond the torchlight.

At this point, for reasons Steph could not understand at the time, Michael then shone the torch back down to the ground again, crouching low.

“What are you doing?” Steph hissed, spinning her head around in wide circles and seeing nothing beyond her nose. She turned back to look at Michael. He waved a quieting hand.

“The bear didn’t chase them,” he said slowly, standing up.

“What do you mean?”

“Look!”

Steph looked down at the ground as Michael slowly followed the tracks. They were spaced evenly and reasonably close together. There was nothing to indicate a running gait. The tracks meandered towards the stranded buggy for a few paces before veering off and carrying on their way.

Michael snorted as he looked at the tracks swerving off intothe mud, already somewhat full of water where the animal had sunk deepest. Then he carried on towards the buggy. Steph followed.

There was nothing in the buggy of note. What was more interesting were the three sets of footprints that headed in the direction away from the path and the buggy. These did have an exaggerated gait suggesting they’d tried to move at speed. Steph thought it only suggested their intention because one set of tracks seemed to be a little streakier on the left leg as if they were dragging their leg slightly until the other pair of tracks joined them and the speed increased a little.

“It looks like they all got out,” Steph said.