Page 43

The walk was a slow one. Firstly, there was the slope to deal with. There was no man-trodden footpath worn into the ground over the years; there was only the light outline of the preferred route probably taken by the bear. A large footprint in the dirt made clear that this was the case. On top of the need to navigate the terrain, which sloped upwards at a gradient steeper than Steph expected and yet still seemingly able to anchor a healthy number of trees, there was the worry of the bear itself. In fact, there was the worry of more than the bear. There were other bears, that was true, but it was the wolves that really concerned Steph now the lion was secure – or at least was assumed to be secure. There was a reckless abandon that enveloped the wolves. They were willing to take risks in a way the bears weren’t from what Steph had seen. Would they risk venturing close to the cave bear’s actual cave? She wouldn’t put it past them.

As they moved up the slope, Steph noticed collections of bushes here and there that seemed out of place; blackberry, raspberry. Davey’s doing, she assumed. Food for a creature who was, after all, an omnivore.

As they ascended the slope, Steph kept her eyes peeled for any sign of the others. She knew the plan was to actually reach the cave before they revealed themselves, but plans changed. In the current climate, it would make more sense to expect it to change than stay the same. Perhaps it would help if the strategy altered slightly, and they ambushed early; Steph was not wholly sure she was going the right way. It was only the assumption the faint outline of an animal highway would lead them there that made her think she was even possibly going the right way.

“What do you keep looking around for?”

the larger man said, jerking his balding head in the direction of the bushes Steph had just been looking at.

“Keeping an eye out for danger,”

she whispered.

The man looked around again. Then he said, matching Steph’s whisper,

“Wouldn’t the danger come down the path we’re following if it’s going to come from anywhere?”

“Or up it,”

Steph replied, using a partially exposed rock as a step to power herself upwards.

“I would assume the bear wouldn’t really deviate from this track, but you never know. That said, we’d hear it before we saw it in this vegetation. It’s the wolves I’m more concerned with.”

“Why wolves?”

the smaller man whispered, stopping.

Steph turned around. The smaller man was clearly calling a break as he sat down on a naked tree root which curled into the air before plunging back underground. He took out a flask of water as he awaited a reply.

“Why not wolves?”

Steph said, holding out her hand for the water. The man hesitated a moment and then passed her the flask which she greedily tipped back.

“Wolves are hardly a big issue for people these days,”

the man replied.

“Basically, big foxes, aren’t they?”

“Not these ones.”

“Why? They dire wolves or something?”

Dire wolves? Were they? Nobody had ever said. Did anybody know? Steph hadn’t really thought about it before. She supposed they were on the larger side of things for a grey wolf, but nothing obscene. Was it possible that they’d found a preserved specimen from which they could extract the DNA? From what Steph was experiencing, it was possible. However, as far as she was aware, it was only the lion and the bear that had been genetically modified. Popular television dramas had made dire wolves out to be gargantuan in size when really the truth was less impressive. That’s certainly what she remembered one of her dates saying once. His shoe-horning dire wolves into the conversation as a way to impress her was why he was only one of her dates.

“As far as I’m aware, they’re just wolves,”

Steph said.

“Although they have rather unforgiving competition all around them, so I don’t doubt only the largest of the pack survives. Or the most ruthless.”

The smaller man shrugged and then nodded back up the slope. Steph groaned slightly but began moving once more, followed by the others.

Although the direction in which they walked filled Steph with anxiety, she was once again struck by how peaceful the place could be. Sure, the birds were singing, but apart from that you could hear nothing except the larger man’s panting. A chill ran over her skin.

She stopped walking and listened. The others stopped too.

“What is it?”

asked the larger one, not working too hard to keep his voice down.

Steph turned and mouthed ‘shut up’ before cocking her ear again.

“You’ve got a bit more wind in your sails since whimpering in the cabin,”

the larger man snarled, at least attempting to lower his voice this time.

“Well, then I only had your rifle to worry about; now your rifle is the least of my concerns.”

She let that hang in the air for a moment and then carried on walking, leaving the two behind her a little more wary. Perhaps that was a mistake. Would they be more alert to movement other than the bear’s?

In fairness to herself, she genuinely felt as if something had been nearby. This was no place to throw any degree of caution to the wind. Yes, she could have been being watched by Davey or one of the others, but it was just as likely it was something else. Hell, she wouldn’t have put it past the cave lion if it had escaped from the truck and was now stalking them. Come to think of it, the lion had been awfully subdued in the back of the truck. She wondered how much tranquillizer they had given it.

They carried on up the slope for another hundred metres or so. After that the small pathway widened slightly onto an opening on the incline where the land flattened briefly. Again Steph stopped walking. She crouched down. The other two copied her. Ahead of her, reaching into the slope that continued around the small relief from the incline, was a cave. It looked fake. It was clearly fake. In fact, even the small levelling of the land seemed unnatural.

Steph studied the rocky outline of the cave. It looked like concrete. It was definitely concrete. It was, Steph reckoned, probably housing some sort of metal support. The whole thing was artificial. She supposed it had to be. The chances of there being a perfectly habitable cave in the surrounding land were wishful thinking. Artificially you could guarantee it. She edged back down the slope. The other two, having had a look for themselves, also edged down, ensuring their heads were below the lip of the small plateau.

“Right, so what’s the plan?”

the larger of the two asked. He made sure not to look at Steph when he said this. However, the smaller man was not so exclusive. He moved a dark lock of sweat-pasted hair away from the corner of his eye as he looked at Steph.

“If we go in there, what’s the risk?”

Steph screwed up her face in what she hoped looked like concerned thinking.

“It depends how far back in the cave he’s gone.”

This seemed plausible. They might have built the cave to go back a way.

“The further you go the darker it is and the more chance of something going wrong. You don’t have night-vision goggles with you, do you? Torches?”

The men looked at each other before turning their heads back in the direction of the truck.

“So you’re saying that it would be better to coax him out?”

“I’d say so.”

There was a definite strangeness to organising a plan for people when you were already part of a counter plan to ambush them, despite not being privy to the finer details of the original plan.

“If he is in there, I’d suggest wolf howls.”

“If he’s in there?”

the larger one said, looking down the length of his rifle at something in the distance.

“Well, I can’t guarantee anything,”

Steph said.

“but I assume he’s in there.”

“Why do you assume?”

asked the smaller one.

“Because the most recent tracks were the ones going up the slope.”

Was that true? It could have been. Steph hadn’t really paid enough attention. It didn’t really matter to her. Staying alive and stopping these two making off with any of the animals was what mattered. Although, thinking about it, why? Why should she care if they made off with the animals? Kelvin had made it seem in her best interests to care, but without him there, his reasons didn’t feel nearly as compelling.

Frowning, the smaller man held out the tranquillizer rifle to the larger man. The larger one sighed and handed over his own rifle.

“He would make a great talking point in my snooker room.”

“Well, that’s not what we’re being paid for,”

said the smaller man.

“Anyway, you won’t be able to afford a snooker room if you don’t shoot your tranquillizer straight, and you can’t use those damn pistols either.”

“Come off it! I could hit a squirrel between the eyes at two hundred yards, I’m hardly going to miss a great fucking lump like that, am I?”

Then taking Steph a little by surprise, he got up and began walking off to their right. The smaller man had seemingly expected this and simply sat on the slope raising his eyebrows at Steph for want of nothing better to do.

“Where’s he going?”

Steph asked.

“What about the wolf sounds?”

“When he’s in position!”

the smaller man said.

“I can’t claim to be an expert at making such sounds. You?”

Steph recalled trekking to trace a man-eating wolf in Alaska. Certainly, that was how she sold it in one of her books.

“I’m not bad. But why is he changing position? Why’s he not going up the slope?”

“Good, you can do it then. As for his moving, it is so we don’t put all our eggs in one basket in terms of a safe position. It also means we can confuse the bear momentarily if need be. Us, we will make the howls – you’ll make the sounds – and the bear should come towards us, exposing his wide flank to… to my associate, who should be appearing over at the side by some trees…”

He poked his head over the lip of the small plateau.

“Any time… now!”

A balding head poked out from between two trees a mere thirty yards away. He nodded and then slipped back out of sight.

“Right then,”

the smaller man said, suppressing a smile.

“get howling!”