Page 45 of The Rewilding

There was a lot to take in. Too much to absorb when just stood still. So Steph walked. Her heart still hadn’t got the message that her legs had stopped pumping, and the air hurt her tired throat with every inhale. Where was she walking? She didn’t know. There was just some innate part of her that knew she must walk. She was dimly aware that Ashley was trailing behind her, his own heavy breathing even more clearly audible than hers. It didn’t bother her that he was following. She assumed he would follow. She was not sure that her being a hostage was really still a lucrative option for him if she was one. Either way, she didn’t care as long as he was quiet. She needed to walk. She needed to think.

Something had snapped within her. She wasn’t broken – there was nothing that dramatic going on – but something had definitely shifted. An understanding. An expectation. An assurance that she thought she had was now gone. When had it happened? Had she noticed it before? Was it when she saw Michael bleeding to death with a bullet in his guts? Stumbling on the tattered human remains of Fergus? Kelvin throwing her life away for that of his own interest? Davey sacrificing himself for… for what?

“Where are we going?”

Steph ignored the voice.

“Hey!”

A hand on Steph’s arm tried to stop her. She wrenched it free and continued walking.

“We need to come up with a plan!”

“We?”

Steph shrieked, surprising even herself as she spun around to face Ashley.

“What the hell do you mean we? There is no fucking we! If you’ve forgotten, you just had a knife at my throat negotiating for some bloody car keys!”

She stalked off once more. Behind her, she could hear Ashley’s heavy footsteps.

“Look, whatever was going on, we still need to talk. You knew the situation. You pretended that you didn’t, but you knew. We all just acted in the circumstances as it was. It was business. Business for you; business for me.”

Steph snorted.

“Business? What the hell do you even mean by that? It literally doesn’t mean anything. People are dying! How was this business? Even if by some twisted grasp on things you thought it was business for you, how was it for me? What business was I getting from all this?”

“Book sales,”

Ashley shrugged.

The next barrage of words suddenly caught in Ashley’s throat.

“Excuse me?”

“Hanging around longer would make for good material, I’d guess,”

Ashley said, looking around and unslinging the rifle from his back.

“How do you…?”

“It’s my job to know,”

Ashley replied, checking the rifle.

Ashley’s words were as sobering to Steph as they were shocking. They raised questions. Questions that distracted her from feeling sorry for herself.

“Who do you work for?”

she asked, her hand dropping to the hilt of her knife as she pretended to tie her laces.

“That’s not important,”

Ashley replied, a practicality returning to his voice. Steph could see that he had sensed his in and was going to be efficient with his words.

“Look, despite appearances, I have nothing against you. Here is the situation and it is nothing you do not already know. I was hired with Baz to collect sample specimens for my employer. Michael was working on the inside looking for a quick payday. Personally, I thought the man was a rat and couldn’t be trusted, but it was Baz who shot him, not me. He tried to be smart; thought he was owed more than he was. Our boss was quite clear on the cost of his previous blunder.”

There was a slight pause. Steph wondered whether Ashley knew about the boy who had paid the price for the blunder; the family that were still paying the price.

“Anyway, the point is that we were to collect samples as and when the opportunities arose. If it was just the lion, then it was just the lion. However, we saw an opportunity for the bear and then you came along. Maybe we were a bit blinded by previous bad feelings with Kelvin, but we allowed you to take us into what we assumed was at least a half opportunity. I thought it was anyway. Goodness knows what was going through Baz’s head, poor man.”

“What was the previous business… with Kelvin?”

Ashley wrinkled his nose for a brief moment. Then he sighed.

“All you need to know is that it was a rather well-preserved specimen from Siberia.”

“Of what?”

Again, Ashley paused before saying.

“That’s for me to know.”

“How well preserved?”

Steph asked, her investigatory habits kicking in.

“Very,”

Ashley said, with a slight smile.

“if you get my meaning.”

“Wouldn’t something like that make the news?”

Steph replied. What could it have been? A mammoth? She knew mammoths were often found in Siberia under the ice. A rhino?

“Usually,”

Ashley replied with a knowing look.

Steph nodded. She assumed that she was thinking correctly. The black market was far more powerful and wider reaching than she had ever thought. Then again, had she ever actually thought about it? Not really. Her recent experiences were her first real ones except for friends talking about some tiger hides and ivory. It was scary in a way. It made her more aware of how much of society lived in a comfortable bubble of ignorance whilst others worked dark arts on the peripheries, seizing opportunities and forcing openings.

“Anyway, as I was saying, you brought us to an ambush – I don’t blame you as it was your business – and we went thinking we could either overcome whatever you had planned or that you actually were working in good faith. Either could have been the case. Your ambush worked. Baz died. Kelvin took the keys and thus control of the lion that we all knew was in the back of the truck despite your pretence. Kelvin – coldly if you ask me but again understandable considering who he is – valued the lion and his work over your life. The curveball was the bear coming out and that guy – I assume it was Davey – sacrificing himself. I can’t explain that bit. But the result is that Kelvin and Martina have got the truck and the lion, whilst you are now here with me – I thought it safer to follow you as I don’t know who else Kelvin could have hidden with a gun pointed at me. You have reason to dislike Kelvin and I have no reason to hold you hostage anymore… from a literal transactional point of view. Your value is apparently not that high.”

When he’d finished talking, he held his rifle under one arm and looked at Steph expectantly.

Two things bothered Steph: how he could talk about death in such a matter-of-fact tone, and why he knew so much.

When Steph could not find anything to say, Ashley then said.

“So that all being the case, I suggest we stick together for now until we get out of here.”

“Together?”

“Look, whether you like it or not, we have somewhat been put in the same boat.”

“How?”

“Kelvin has thrown you under the bus and can’t trust you now, so you’re not safe. He’d obviously have me killed – just look at Baz,”

Ashley said, taking a few steps past Steph and looking into the distance.

“Yeah, but he wouldn’t kill me!”

Steph said. Did she believe that.

“He might kill me with lawyers but not literally.”

Ashley turned towards Steph. She didn’t like the dark smile on his face.

“I’m not sure how well you really know Kelvin. I’m not sure anyone really knows him. Whatever happened to him all those years ago brought about a change in him. With one step at a time he has become who he is today. The man is ruthless. I don’t like him, but I do appreciate that he is both brilliant and ruthless.”

Ashley looked at the ground, smiling.

“But also a complete bastard. You can trust that you can’t trust him. Besides, death by lawyers could be just as bad as literal death, unless you keep your mouth shut. Of course, it would be more convenient for him if you simply disappeared.”

Steph wasn’t convinced. She was still pretty sure that her life was in no real danger. Not from Kelvin at least.

“Surely the police would hold him accountable. In the end, the system would get him. It has to.”

Ashley laughed.

“Look around. Why aren’t the police here now?”

“Well, I suggested that we contact them but…”

“But they aren’t here, are they? Whatever the reasoning, they aren’t here! Instead, two guys intent on stealing and who aren’t afraid to put a bullet through someone are here! Well, one of them is still here.”

This was factually correct. Put to her in that way, it was no wonder parts of her assurance on what was and what wasn’t had started to break.

Steph took a deep inhale of air and exhaled through her nose.

“Considering you are one of those men happy to put a bullet in someone, why should I trust you? Especially as I helped set you up?”

“Firstly, it is willing to put a bullet in someone, not happy. I’m not a psychopath. Secondly, because the situation has changed. Like I said, you were just conducting your business as I was doing mine, but now we are somewhat in the same boat. Besides, you can trust me as much as you can trust anyone right now.”

“Fair enough.”

“And I have a gun which is somewhat useful given the circumstances.”

“True. But why do you need me?”

“You know your way around here better than I do. I also don’t think you have anything against me personally. Not relative to Kelvin anyway. Not anymore.”

It was an odd assessment. Yet Steph supposed it was accurate enough. He was right: she found that she didn’t really have anything against him despite him putting a knife to her throat.

“So what’s your plan?”

she asked.

Ashley looked out into the distance once more.

“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 she should do.

“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.