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“I don’t think anything is here,” Steph whispered. “Thewindows are all shut – not sure someone would shut themselves in with something.”

“Unless they didn’t realise it was there.”

Steph rolled her eyes and strode past him. She headed for the lift. She could not help but notice the sound of Davey’s footsteps behind her, matching her pace. She rolled her eyes again.

The two of them headed down to the room where Steph had seen the monitors for tracking the movement of the animals. It was strange seeing it empty yet with all the systems working, lights flickering on maps. Life continued without anyone to witness it. The animals were seemingly unaware of the turmoil that had descended on the area.

Davey peered at the screen, muttering to himself. He clearly had a better understanding than Steph of what all the lights meant and which one represented which creature. He flicked his head slightly from one direction to the next as he studied the screens.

“This seems odd,” Davey said, not taking his eyes off a screen whilst aiming a lazy beckoning hand in Steph’s direction. “That light there is the lion.”

Steph looked at where he was pointing. “It’s heading north.”

“Right. But it is the speed at which it is heading north.”

Steph studied the screen again. It did seem as if the dot was covering ground quickly. Was it running? The problem she had was that she didn’t really know the scale of the map. That, and she had always struggled with ratio and proportion in maths. Her parents had got her a tutor but to little avail.

After another thirty seconds of silent study, Steph finally said, “It couldn’t sustain that speed chasing something for that long.”

“Right.”

“So… Michael has it?”

“That’s what I’m assuming, but why is he heading north?”

“Is there another gate there?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t lead to any main road and he’s still in the buggy. The whole idea was that the lion was transferred to something more secure and roadworthy in the house compound. Kelvin was going to call someone in.”

Steph frowned.

“So what are you saying?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, slowly stepping back from the monitor. “I don’t know.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

A quick sweep of Martina’s lab showed that Davey’s hunch was probably correct as a large amount of sedative was missing from the store cupboard. Davey took what was left before marching down the corridor with Steph trotting behind him, then opened a door she had not really noticed before. The door opened to a small, well-lit room with rows of tranquillizer rifles on one side (with gaps where some were missing) and real rifles on the other. There was one real rifle missing. Steph saw Davey momentarily frown at the gap before taking a rifle and handing it to Steph. He paused. Steph saw his eyebrows furrow and was then surprised to feel him wrench it from her grip and place it back on the rack. He filled the gap in her arms with a tranquillizer rifle whilst pouring a couple of darts into her pocket.

“Two darts?”

“Well, I need more as I’m going to do any shooting, and Michael has taken the rest!”

Steph had her retort ready, but Davey was seemingly in no mood to listen to it. She had not really seen this side of him before. There was a cold efficiency about what he was doing. It was as if he was bothered by something for reasons he had not explained to Steph. Yes, it seemed that Michael was up to something, but it was still not apparent what exactly – not to her anyway. Also, even if he was causing mischief, there was nothing in the way Davey had behaved in the short time she had known him that suggested he should care quite so deeply about how Michael chose to act. He wasn’t responsible for the man, Kelvin was.

At some level, Davey must have felt the same as his next act was to lead Steph back to the tracking room. There he tookcontrol of a radio and proceeded to contact Kelvin; previous plans out the window.

“He’s doing what?”

“Heading north.”

“In the same buggy he’d used originally?”

“Yes.”

“But the thing won’t be fully charged unless he managed to charge it last night and move damned quickly about his business. Even then it won’t get all the way to…”

Steph saw Davey raise his eyebrows in the silence. The type of look you give someone when they realise something slower than they should. Steph was embarrassed to admit she still had no idea what that was.