Page 29

Michael leapt out of the buggy, with a smile on his face. His entrance had sparked the arrival of Thomas and Calum around the corner. Attached to the buggy was the trailer and in the trailer was the cave lion.

The three waiting men both edged around to inspect the animal who lay unconscious, taking slow, long breaths.

“How the hell did you manage to get that thing in the trailer by yourself?”

Calum asked.

Michael flicked an eye towards Kelvin before laughing slightly and saying.

“With great difficulty. I could have done with waiting for Davey really. I had to use a blanket and manoeuvre the winch around a tree and all sorts of nonsense. Took longer than I expected. He’s all right though.”

Steph could see by Kelvin’s positioning that he was somewhat irritated by Thomas and Calum’s presence. He tried ever so subtly to have part of his back to them.

“We had best let Martina know,”

Kelvin said.

“Is he OK?”

“Like I said, he’s fine,”

Michael responded.

“Full belly and look…”

Michael pulled at the lips of the lion to expose large white fangs.

“His teeth are in good condition, which is a reasonable indication of health.”

“Looks like he has had to fight for his slice of health though,”

Kelvin said, eying the scaring along the animal’s flank.

“Hopefully his ribs are in as good order too after the winching.”

“Yes, well, we have told you that this one likes a scrap.”

“True,”

Kelvin said.

“Even so, Martina will be eager to see him before we transport the animal.”

“Transport where?”

Thomas asked, prodding the animal in the stomach.

“The thing needs to be shot!”

Kelvin ignored him.

“Steph, would you be so kind as to go and notify Martina that…”

“I said, transport it where?”

Kelvin turned to face Thomas.

“That is none of your concern. In fact, I would rather you go and wait inside the house as you are interfering with matters.”

Kelvin tried to turn back to Steph again, but Thomas’s hand pulled him around by the shoulder.

“That thing is completely my concern!”

Thomas snapped, his voice raising a couple of decibels.

“We have been out there living amongst the animals and this thing and that oversized monster that you call a bear! Now, I want to know why you’d risk our safety over its life?”

Steph caught Michael’s eye. He raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

“I think you will find,”

Kelvin said, his voice gaining a steely edge.

“That if you check your contract, it is none of your business once inside this fencing!”

Kelvin swept an arm around the fencing that marked the house boundary.

“I don’t give a damn about your contract!”

Thomas shouted. Steph noticed that Calum, on the other hand, still did, as he edged towards the front door of the house.

“Oh, but you should!”

Kelvin sneered.

“For you see, if you do not adhere to what we contractually agreed, not only will you be out of pocket, but I shall ensure my lawyers do to you what Charles II had done to the men who killed his father – in a legal sense… obviously.”

Calum was at the door now. Steph got it. She was not sure what a court equivalent to being hung, drawn and quartered was, but she doubted either Thomas or Calum could afford the lawyers to prevent it.

Thomas, all sense having floated off with the breeze, pushed Kelvin hard in the chest. Somewhat surprised, Kelvin stumbled back. Michael moved forward to catch him, but Kelvin steadied himself and then thrust an arm out to stop any potential aid from Michael. He then inhaled deeply through his nose and rolled up his sleeves on the exhale.

“What the fuck do you think you can do to me?”

sneered Thomas, moving forward once more.

“You jumped-up tech-nerd prick! Having lots of money doesn’t make you any less of a slithering piece of shit who…”

Thomas bent double as Kelvin’s fist buried itself deep within his stomach. Steph winced. In the background, she noted how Calum had the door open. He clearly wanted to distance himself from his associate. Perhaps his need for the money was more desperate.

Kelvin stood back to let Thomas gain his breath and stand up.

“Sorry, I interrupted you…”

Thomas’s face contorted. It was clear that this was going to get out of hand. He tried to gather himself to his full height. It shamed Steph to admit part of her was somewhat curious as to who would win out of the two men. Even so, a larger part of her felt she should do what was morally right.

As Thomas stepped forward, Steph made to get in the way. However, something stopped her. It not only stopped her, it yanked her back. She turned to see Michael’s outstretched arm. She was becoming sick of this. It was not the eighteen-hundreds. She could not be manhandled every two seconds.

She looked Michael in the face ready to give him a piece of her mind. His expression stopped her.

His pulling of her arm turned into a dragging, his eyes fixed firmly over her shoulder. She allowed herself to be dragged, moving her feet to match the direction of Michael’s desperation. She turned her head over her shoulder which very nearly threw her balance. Her stomach fell.

Kelvin was just turning himself as Steph looked over. His expression was one of panic. Thomas’s was clear enough too. One of scorn. One of disgust. One of petty triumph as his foe ran off.

Why hadn’t the lion been tied down? Why was it free to move?

Steph didn’t think she would ever forget that moment. It etched itself on her memory more like a photograph than a moving picture. Time slowed down to an almost still image. And yet, there was movement. The way Thomas’s glare contrasted with the danger behind him with muscles silently screaming to be allowed to snap. The speed at which Thomas’s expression changed as heavy paws caressed his shoulders and lethal jaws fitted themselves around the back of his neck. That was all Steph saw. She had the sense to turn and run after that. The rest of the memory was all noise. Low focused growls intermingled with high-pitched guttural screams. In the middle of it, Steph was sure that she heard the slamming of a door.

More happened in the moments that followed. They must have done. However, the next thing Steph was conscious of was that she was no longer in the vicinity of the house. Both she and Michael were very much outside the fencing, in amongst the trees and running. There were footsteps behind her. She dared not look back, but Michael did.

“Come on!”

They ran. Steph’s muscles clawed at her for mercy but she would not rest. She could not. She didn’t know how. It was as if her brain had got itself stuck in a single command loop. The message ‘run’ was all that was getting through. It was only when Michael finally shouted at her to stop that awareness kicked in.

She turned around. She had not really noticed that she had put any distance between herself and Michael, but there it was. A figure running out from behind a tree just ahead of Michael made her start, but it was only Kelvin who came to a stumbling stop and put his hands on his knees, panting loudly, matching Michael.

Steph controlled her breathing and put a finger to her lips as she stared back in the direction of the house. At least, she thought it was the direction of the house. Through the trees and the preceding chaos it was hard to tell.

The other two kept their hands on their knees but turned their heads in the same direction, working harder to keep their own breathing quiet. They all listened. Nothing. There was only silence. That was a dangerous sign in itself.

Steph turned slowly on the spot, scanning their surroundings. It seemed that Michael had gained enough air back in his lungs to similarly do what he thought prudent. Steph put her hands on her hips and looked at the other two.

“So what do we do now?”

she asked.

“Calum and Martina are still back there.”

Michael looked at Kelvin. Kelvin looked at the branches above him. Steph could see his mind whirring as he looked at nothing in particular. You could see up to the sky through the leaves above but it was merely a grey canvas. Nothing worth distracting oneself about. She assumed that was the point. With nothing to look at, Kelvin could focus on his thoughts. He lowered his head and looked at them both.

“We get to safety.”

“What?”

Steph spat.

“What about the others?”

“They’re both in the house. I’m sure Calum will have told Martina by now and they are both taking the necessary precautions. Roger seems to know how to look after himself. Besides, objectively speaking, they are in a better position to try and ensure our safety than we can help them. We have no weapons,”

Kelvin looked across to Michael who nodded ruefully.

“We also have no radio and no idea where exactly the lion is. On the other hand, Martina has access to the tranquillizers, has video surveillance and only has to worry about the lion.”

“What do you mean by ‘only has to worry about the lion’? That thing is killing people!”

“Yes, but we are currently out in the enclosure with all the other animals that, if my memory serves me correctly, are also capable of killing and are – as you made very clear – not behaving in a normal way as we have not quite got the balance of the place right yet!”

He had a point. Steph knew it. It didn’t sit right with her, but she knew what he said was all true and that, despite her gut feeling that they should be doing something to help the others, the evidence suggested they were the ones in more immediate danger.

“Look,”

Kelvin continued, his voice softening now he had more breath back in his lungs.

“If we can get to a cabin, at least we will have four walls around us, some food and there will be a radio transmitter so we can get in contact with Davey or Martina to make sure things are all right.”

“Fine,”

Steph sighed.

“So which direction?”

Michael pulled a small battered-looking plastic compass from his pocket. He must have clocked the look Steph gave him because he smiled wistfully and said,

“My dad gave it to me when I joined the Scouts as a kid.”

He went back to studying it, turning himself slightly to his right.

“I would suggest that we go this way,”

he said pointing.

“There’s not much in it between Thomas’s place and Roger’s. However, this way tends to keep us further away from the cave bear’s territory.”

“Isn’t it all his territory?”

Steph snorted.

“Well, yeah, but there is less going on for him in that direction, generally speaking.”

“Oh good, so it is just all the other big animals that will be there trying to stay out of its way.”

Michael shrugged and began walking. Kelvin, without looking at Steph or even acknowledging her points, walked after Michael in the way one would a paid guide.

Steph looked down at the ground, swore and followed the other two.