Page 27

Steph was awakened the next day by the light slanting through her curtains.

For a brief moment she had forgotten why she felt so tired.

But then her head began to whir into life.

She swung her legs out of bed and sat for a while, simply contemplating.

She had no idea what the day would hold for her, nor what the decisions of others would be.

What she did know was that she needed to take hold of some sort of direction for herself.

She was quite aware that she was allowing herself to be buffeted around by circumstance.

She needed her own direction again.

She needed clarity.

Why was she here in the first place? Because of the death of the boy.

Why had she taken a job with Kelvin? Because of the boy? Partly.

But if she was honest with herself, it was also because she had a chance to be part of something that had the potential to be big.

Even if unsuccessful it would be big, and that might be enough to soothe that spiky feeling that her parents weren’t impressed with her.

She rubbed her eyes.

They were still sore with the longing for a bit more sleep.

She shook her head and tried to think.

No direction came.

She was nothing more than an undercover journalist.

She was no field biologist.

Just another person looking for a story to tell about others because she couldn’t write her own.

She put a pin in finding clarity for the time being and left the room.

There was a quiet in the house downstairs.

Steph had something to eat but saw nobody else.

In the circumstances it was unnerving.

With little or no idea what to do with herself and all plans of studying the surrounding man-manufactured ecosystem having been thrown out the window, she went looking for people.

Even Martina would do.

Her first thought was to take herself to the small warren of concrete corridors below the house, but upon walking past a window she heard raised voices.

She looked outside.

Davey was sitting on an upturned crate, his back hunched.

To the side of him stood Roger.

In front of him – one with his arms crossed and the other gesticulating angrily – were two more men that Steph had yet to meet.

The one with his arms crossed was tall and thin – he reminded Steph of an old maths teacher she had once had.

The other was slightly shorter and stockier, his face ruddy.

Out of curiosity, Steph went to investigate.

She was worried she might be too late to hear anything of interest by the time she had navigated her way outside, but the firm, elevated voice that met her as she rounded the corner of the house said otherwise.

“What exactly have you been doing?”

“Nothing that you don’t already know; we’ve been through this!”

came Davey’s tired response. This sounded like a different Davey. A tired and deflated Davey.

“Well, what does Kelvin intend to do about it?”

“I told you! I don’t know! I’m not his spokesperson.”

“Aye, well, you’re close enough to him to know his mind though, aren’t you!”

“Oh, hello dear!”

Sensing an opportunity to take some of the tension out of the situation, Roger turned and drew attention to Steph’s arrival.

“Come and take a seat; up you get, Davey.”

“No, it’s all right,”

Steph replied. Davey was already up. Steph, to her surprise, had already begun to sit before she had even finished suggesting she wanted to stand.

“Davey has just told us what happened last night,”

Roger explained, gesturing to the two other men who nodded with single short jerks of the head and poor attempts at smiles.

“These are the other two cabin dwellers. The tall one who looks like an accountant is Calum, whilst the one who looks like he has been chewing on a wasp is Thomas. Both are good poker players when you get to know them. Too good. I suspect Thomas marks his cards somehow.”

The two men tried a little harder to smile and mutter greetings this time, with the stockier one briefly shooting Roger a reproachful look, which seemed much to his delight, at least to Steph.

“Where is everyone else?”

Steph asked.

“Michael has gone out to find the lion again,”

Davey replied.

“By himself?”

“Set out in the early hours this morning. Left a message saying he would clean up the mess. Kelvin and Martina are busy keeping an eye on the trackers for him.”

Steph nodded, although she thought it stupid.

“And you?”

“Me?”

“What are you doing?”

Davey shot a look at Thomas.

“PR work.”

“You could do with more training,”

Thomas replied, putting his hands in his pockets.

There was silence, save for the birds in the trees.

“Thomas and Calum here are a little concerned about what’s going on,”

Roger explained to Steph.

“Concerned would be an understatement,”

Calum said. His voice came out deeper than Steph had expected.

“Worried then,”

Roger said, rolling his eyes.

“Two people have died!”

Thomas snapped.

“Does that mean nothing to you people?”

“Of course, it does!”

Davey shouted. His sudden vehemence silences the others. He took a deep breath.

“Of course, it does! Which is why we are trying to sort things out.”

“You said you were sorting things out last night, and all that happened was another person died!”

Davey shrugged, shaking his head. Thomas spat in disgust at this response whilst Roger gave Steph a sheepish look. There was a glint in his eye that suggested he was thoroughly enjoying himself. It was as if his straight face was doing little to suppress the grin underneath.

“Did you know we were in this level of danger when you put us in those twig huts?”

Thomas continued.

Roger decided to step in.

“I hardly think that’s fair; they are a bit more luxurious than a twig hut. Besides, nobody made you stay here. I rather think you, like me, Fergus and Calum,”

Calum blinked at the mention of his name.

“Were more than happy to take part in this and not just for the money.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that this is a very convenient place to get away from things for a stretch and not be disturbed…”

“I am not escaping anything!”

“We are all escaping something If it is not someone else, then it is ourselves.”

Thomas shut his mouth and put his hands in his pockets.

“Michael will find the cave lion and that will likely solve the issue,”

Steph said, tying her hair back into a ponytail.

“It might solve a few issues.”

Davey raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Steph wondered whether she had spoken the truth.