Part 14 (1/2)

Paulo looked up at the sky. 'Well, the rain should help cover our tracks.'

Amber slumped in her quad seat, exhausted. 'That was horrible. They would have shot us. Alex, you must have sixth sense.'

Alex looked stunned too. 'I suddenly thought that hostel is owned by the laird. The gamekeepers knew where to find us.'

Hex kept seeing the figure mirrored in the window; the brutal sawn-off shotgun. He suddenly sat up, alert. 'What if these bikes have got tracers on them? We hired them from the laird. I wouldn't rent out vehicles without making sure I could trace where they were.'

'You're right.' Alex jumped up. 'They don't need to search for us, just track us. We'd better get moving.' He swung the rucksack off his back, pulled out five pairs of thin waterproof trousers and handed them around. Swiftly they put them on.

Outside the rain came down harder; the kind of drenching storm you only got in summer.

Hex had the map he rescued from the kitchen and Alex checked the compa.s.s from his survival tin. 'Best to head up as high as possible,' he said.

They climbed up on top of the ridge fairly quickly. The rain brought the noise of traffic from the road far below. Three jets screamed overhead, making the five friends jump. Alex broke into a run. He was too wound up to keep still. Like spooked deer, the others followed. They ran up the slope and off into the hills.

After a good twenty minutes Alex slowed to a walk. They had probably gone far enough for now. The rain was teeming down, but they were warm from running.

'They obviously intended to sort us out,' said Hex. His short hair was even more spiky than usual in the rain. 'What will they do now?'

Paulo said, 'Maybe if they can't find us, they'll cut their losses and run. Before the police close in.'

'If they do that,' said Li, 'they've got a big bad dealer who'll come after them. I saw that guy and they are scared of him. I think they'll do the deal before they get out.'

'I saw a tall guy in a kilt,' said Hex. 'Not one of the gamekeepers. There are more of them than we think.'

'What did he look like?'

'I don't know. I only saw him from behind.'

Rain was dripping down Amber's nose. She wiped it away. 'Hey, guys, reality check. Things have changed. Those gamekeepers are now out for our blood. We should go straight to the police.'

'No,' said Alex.

Amber stopped walking and stared at Alex. 'No?'

Alex looked away into the distance, as if thinking. 'The police don't know where to find them. They've got the whole of this estate to search. The gamekeepers know every inch and they'll probably get away and then what? We might be safe in the short term, but there are a bunch of drug dealers out there with a score to settle. We don't know if we'll ever run into them again, but if we do our lives will be in danger.'

'We've got to put them behind bars,' said Li.

'For a long time,' added Paulo. 'So we need the police to see all the evidence and and catch all the dealers.' catch all the dealers.'

Alex knew he was right, but he wanted to make sure everyone was with him on this. 'Hex, what do you think?'

'It's a no-brainer,' said Hex. 'We go to the police now and look over our shoulders for the rest of our lives. We wait a few hours and set up a nice trap, and then we can all sleep easily. I say we have to stick to our plan.'

Alex looked at Amber again.

Amber nodded. 'I've had school friends whose lives were ruined by drugs. And do you know what? I don't like being threatened by guns. Let's put them away.'

They started walking again slowly, still lost in thought. Over the top of a ridge they came to a single-track road. As they crossed it they took advantage of the view and looked carefully in both directions. The only moving things were two bedraggled Highland cattle in the distance, swis.h.i.+ng their tails in the rain.

'Next question,' said Alex. 'Where do we go from here? How do we find out when the buyers are coming?'

'We need two teams,' said Hex. 'One to go close in, follow them around at the lodge, and one to stay hidden in the field. Which of us can they identify?'

Alex thought. 'They might have seen me up close in the bothy this morning. I don't know how long they were watching us for. Paulo, they'll have seen you too.'

'They could identify me anyway,' said Paulo. 'They saw me that day when I caught their pony.' He turned to the others. 'How close did you get to them at the factory?'

'It's hard to say,' said Amber. 'We were all running around. I certainly didn't get a good look at them, so maybe they didn't get a close look at us.'

'I gave one of them a good kicking,' said Li. 'I don't think he'll forget me. And I was there when the pony bolted.'

'What about that day when we took the dog into the yard?' said Amber. 'They must have seen all of us. Alex, you talked to one of them, when he wanted the ketamine box.'

'Yes, but I'm out of the close surveillance team anyway,' said Alex. 'Did he talk to anyone else?'

'He was looking at all of us,' said Paulo.

'But it was at a distance, right?' said Hex. 'With a complete change of clothes and context, there are two of us who could maybe slip past them unnoticed.' He stopped and unfolded the map.

'You're forgetting something,' said Amber. 'I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb at the lodge. There aren't many black people in this part of Scotland.'

Hex shook his head. 'Except for that celebrity singer and all her friends who are staying there. The lodge is over-run with sa.s.sy black Americans. Just dress like them and you could easily be part of her entourage.'

'I'm not part of anyone's entourage,' sniffed Amber.

'We don't have to stay there long, so a superficial disguise is fine. We find out when the delivery is scheduled, tell the others and get out.'

'We?' said Amber dubiously. 'You think they'll let you into a place like that?'

Hex grimaced. 'I promise not to drink the fingerbowls.'

Alex recapped the plan so far. 'OK, so you two are in the lodge. You get the information. Meanwhile we'll go to ground on the moors and check out the factory in detail.'

Li said, 'I think we should take a closer look at the stalagmite cave too. It's very close and we never explored properly underground I did hear the generator from there. There could be other tunnels nearby and they might have an escape route.'

The others nodded in agreement.

'How,' asked Hex, 'are you going to pick up a mobile signal from there? Most of the moors are dead zones.'

Four blank faces looked back at him.

Hex unclipped the palmtop from his belt and handed it to Alex. 'I got an upgrade this morning. It uses a communications satellite to bounce signals off the nearest phone cell. Sort of a hacker's version of a satellite phone on a s.h.i.+p. When we've got the information, we'll give you a call.'

Alex took the palmtop almost reverently. 'I'll take good care of it.'