Part 5 (1/2)

Amber held up her phone. As Li listened to the number she punched it in on the mobile. Then Amber took over and called the vet.

'Hi, we've got an emergency a dog has been bitten by an adder.'

Paulo didn't like the look of the dog's face. It was starting to swell, the flesh starting to balloon off the narrow skull. The dog's mouth was open, the tongue hanging out in a pink curl.

'Right. Thanks,' said Amber. She cut the call. 'Tiff, give me the map. There's a vet visiting the hunting lodge just down here. His receptionist is warning him we're on our way.'

Never taking her eyes off the dog, Tiff pulled the map case over her head and gave it to Amber.

Paulo scooped up the dog in his arms and staggered to his feet. He was a substantial weight, like a twenty-kilo sack of horse feed.

Amber inspected the map. 'Should be five minutes' walk.'

Paulo hoped five minutes wouldn't be too long. The dog was making a rasping noise as he breathed. That meant his airway was swelling already. Paulo set off at a run. The whole group followed, but Tiff and the couple slowed to a walk after twenty seconds, gasping.

Amber, still jogging alongside Li, turned round to call back to them, 'Meet us there. Glaickvullin Lodge.' And she sprinted on ahead of Paulo.

It was a single-track road, a straightforward route, but uphill. The dog was heavy and Paulo's biceps were soon on fire, but one look at the swollen head and the look of trust in the dog's brown eyes gave him the strength to go on. Maybe they could flag down a lift if a car came.

The dog's breathing was becoming more ragged. Paulo didn't know the exact effect of adder venom, but he knew one thing: as the dog's breathing got louder, his airway was getting smaller. Soon he would suffocate.

Moments later Amber came back, waving her arms like a semaph.o.r.e messenger. 'It's just around this corner,' she called.

Paulo's thighs and biceps were burning, but Amber's news gave him the determination he needed. He put on a final spurt and was rewarded with a fairytale apparition: a nineteenth-century baronial castle looking out over a wide expanse of green pasture. Glaickvullin Lodge.

But Paulo didn't have time to take in the sights. He saw a drive leading off the road, around the side of the building.

Amber sprinted away, came back and beckoned. 'Follow the drive round the back,' she yelled. 'There's a yard with agricultural buildings.'

Paulo's feet crunched on fine gravel, slipped, but on he went. He pa.s.sed a red Land Rover and glimpsed boxes of drugs and dressings in the back. Veterinary equipment. Then a man in a green surgical-looking coat rushed towards him, his arms out. Paulo handed Pip over, then bent over double, recovering. Li came alongside him and rubbed his back while Amber went with the vet in case he had any questions. Were they in time?

The vet put Pip gently on the ground and shone a pen torch in his eyes and mouth. 'Are you the owners?' he asked. In his top pocket were two syringes. He discharged one after the other into the dog's neck. He was well prepared.

'No, they'll be here any minute,' said Amber. Paulo and Li joined her, Paulo still breathing hard.

The vet felt Pip's face carefully. 'Do you know where the bite is?'

'We didn't see it,' said Li. 'He went off into a bush and-'

'Here it is,' said the vet. His fingers framed two garnets of blood on the side of the dog's jaw. A double puncture mark.

Li was looking towards the drive. 'Here are the owners,' she said and waved at the three figures approaching.

For the first time the friends noticed their surroundings. The place smelled comforting, of grain and farmyards. Two men wearing green tweeds were steadily sweeping the concrete yard. They must be gamekeepers; Alpha Force had seen a number of them out on the moors during the previous week.

Pip's owners rushed up to the vet. 'How is he?' panted the woman.

The vet got to his feet. 'He's stable for now but I need to take him into the clinic and put him on a drip.'

The woman gasped. Her husband put his arm around her. 'There is an antidote, isn't there?'

Tiff watched with big, horrified eyes.

The vet went to the back of his Land Rover and threw the discarded syringes in a special container. 'The poison isn't the problem. It's the swelling and the possibility of infection. Plus he's in shock. But you got him here just in time. Have you got a car here?'

The man shook his head. 'No, we were out walking. We're staying at the B&B in the village.'

'I'll take him in my Land Rover.' He looked at the group. 'But I can only take two pa.s.sengers.'

Tiff stepped back from the couple. 'I'm not with them. I was just helping.'

The vet called to a gamekeeper, who was walking past with a broom. 'Rob, do you have an old feed sack I can put him on?'

The gamekeeper nodded. 'No problem.' He went off into a long outbuilding with a row of open doors. Just beyond were high fences of wire netting.

Now that the emergency was over Paulo had time to be curious. 'What animals do they have here?'

'Those pens are for pheasants,' replied the vet. 'They breed them for release at the start of the shooting season. They've got a few Highland cattle in pastures further up the moor.'

Amber and Li were more interested in the lodge itself. It was magnificent. Fawn-coloured stone walls topped with crenellations, square towers at each end, a small hexagonal folly rising out of the far tower with a flagpole on top.

'Nice place,' said Amber.

'Very nice,' agreed the vet. He lowered his voice. 'Very exclusive. Eight hundred quid a night. Keep your eyes open and you'll see some A-list celebrities.'

Well, thought Paulo, that might explain why that other gamekeeper over there has stopped sweeping and is staring at us. He must be checking us out to see if we're famous. Paulo gave him a wave. The man didn't respond, but stole a glance at them from time to time as he swept.

Rob came back and handed a large flattened cardboard box to the vet, who opened the Land Rover and spread it on the back seat. Then he suddenly noticed a label on the box. 'Rob, where did you get this?' He held out the cardboard flap so that the gamekeeper could see the label.

Rob read it out: 'Ketamine.' He sounded unfamiliar with the word. He looked at the vet. 'Pesticides aren't my department.'

The vet shook his head. 'It's not a pesticide. You have to get it from a vet.'

Rob shrugged. 'You're the only vet we've had up here.'

'Your bosses haven't been getting veterinary drugs from somewhere else, have they?'

Rob shook his head. 'No, I don't think so.'

'Well, don't,' said the vet. 'They may be cheap but they're illegally imported and sometimes they don't even contain the drug you think you're buying.' Then he noticed the expectant faces around him. 'Sorry, lecture over. Let's get the dog in.'

Paulo realized that the second gamekeeper was still watching them. Still not quite sure, eh? he thought. Who do I look like? Enrique Iglesias?

Hex and Alex strode up the drive just as Pip's owners were putting the dog gently into the Land Rover. Hex had been tracking the other party on his palmtop.

Paulo went up to Alex. 'You look a lot better than you did this morning.'