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“I have lost both the truck and the lion, so getting out of here feels preferable. But that lion and truck are rather valuable and I would quite like to see my next birthday. That might be tricky without one or the other. I need you to take me to one of the cabins. One with people in preferably.”

“What? Why? To take more hostages? You’ve seen how Kelvin valued me. He won’t value who is left, I can promise you that much.”

“Irrelevant. I just need to find them.”

“Why?”

“That’s my business.”

“Then what’s in it for me?”

“I see you safely out of here afterwards.”

“Hang on. One minute you’re saying that Kelvin would have me dead, the next you’re saying I can be walked to the gate and everything will be all right after.”

“I never said that. What happens afterwards is up to you. Anyway, you’re the one who thinks Kelvin won’t have you killed so what’s the issue?”

“He won’t!”

“Then there’s no issue, is there?”

Steph’s head was spinning. What did she actually think? Something didn’t feel right; she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Then again, what else could she do? She needed to escape the whole situation; that much was obvious. What then? How strongly would Kelvin hold her to her contract? There was a contract after all, and it was lucrative.

Steph sighed. She knew what she should do was get out of the place and write it off as a bad experience. She should release herself from any contract by mutual consent. She should forget that Kelvin saw her life as less valuable than that of his project. She should even accept it when Kelvin inevitably sent lawyers to tie up her story. All of these were things she knew that sheshoulddo.

“Follow me,” Steph said slowly. “And I’d keep that rifle handy – I was serious about what I said about the wolves earlier.”

Ashley nodded and held out an arm encouraging Steph to lead the way. She looked around. She was pretty sure that she knew the way from where they were. She had a general sense of the direction at least. As long as she hit a landmark that she recognised, they’d be fine.

FORTY-SIX

It turned out that Steph should have been less optimistic with her sense of direction. She did find she remembered certain landmarks and physical features of her surroundings, but unless she was wrong again, they were not quite where she thought they’d be.

The pair continued to walk in near silence. It became awkward after a while. In the end, it was Steph who broke the impasse. She tried to discover more about who Ashley was. Nothing doing. She asked about what went wrong when the cave lion killed that little boy. Ashley stopped talking again at that. It appeared he was fine killing men as part of business transactions, but he drew the line at the death of children being collateral damage.

A sound in the distance made Steph freeze. She held out a hand as a signal to stop. She listened. Her heart was beating faster because of the walk over woodland terrain, and she could hear the blood pumping in her ears. Then she heard the noise again. The howl. Slightly closer than before.

Steph looked around. The trees surrounding them were large Caledonian pines. Some, Steph noticed, had low enough branches to climb. Nothing comfortable for an extended period, but fine for an escape. She began to climb.

“What are you doing?” Ashley asked.

“Being cautious,” Steph replied, eying her next foothold.

“What?”

“Didn’t you hear the howl?”

“Well, yeah, but I have a gun…”

“And how do you fire your gun?

“What? By pulling the trigger! How do you think you fire a gun?”

“My point is, unless I am mistaken, that you pull the trigger, then pull back the bolt to load another bullet into the chamber.”

“So?”

“So by the time you shoot one of them, the rest will be on us.”