Hex nudged the robber and tried to show him he should put his hands over his ears. The man glared at him; his usual expression whenever they brought him water or checked he was OK. Hex pointed to the others – they nodded back at him encouragingly, their ears protected, all looking like the monkey who would hear no evil. The man seemed to realize what was going on and did the same.
Alex squeezed the handle on the firing device.
There was a small flash. The sound of the explosion was like being banged on the head. It echoed through the jungle, sending birds and animals scattering.
As the ringing in their ears cleared there was a sound of splintering. In moments the tree was on the ground, a pale ragged disc of freshly exposed wood facing towards them. It had landed exactly where it was supposed to.
Alex punched his fist in the air. ‘Yes!’ Amber put her fingers between her teeth and let out a piercing whistle that scared away any lingering birds. Paulo and Li gave each other high-fives. Hex sat and grinned. The robber let out a string of angry-sounding words.
‘Go on,’ said Paulo. ‘Do the next one.’
‘Go for it,’ grinned Amber.
Alex and Li set up the next one and joined the others crouching in the middle. This time, when Hex mimed to the robber to cover his ears, he scowled and put his hands up immediately.
There was a furious bang, and another tree capsized away into the jungle. The group’s cheers and wolf whistles were almost as loud.
‘Could you do a couple at a time?’ said Hex.
Alex nodded. ‘Don’t see why not.’
When he and Li came back to take cover again, there were two trees connected by a garland of det cord.
Bang. They fell into the undergrowth. Five grinning faces looked around at each other. Even the robber was catching the spirit of triumph and smiling.
Hex looked up. For the first time in a few days, he was seeing sky. ‘Hey, it’s getting lighter.’
Paulo pushed his sleeves up and felt the sun on his bare arms. ‘The sun at last. Hurry up and take down some more trees, Alex.’
Amber sighed. ‘Ah, sunlight. Any longer in that tree canopy and I’d have seasonal affective disorder.’
‘What’s that?’ said Paulo.
‘It’s that thing called SAD – you know, it’s when people get depressed in the winter because they don’t get enough sunlight,’ said Hex.
Li and Alex came back. Everyone covered their ears. Another bang. Now they didn’t seem so loud. Hex and Amber carried on where they had left off.
Amber grinned like a snake. ‘I know how they treat that. You have to sit in front of a glowing box for hours every day. Just like Hex does.’
Paulo chuckled.
‘Who would have guessed you were going to say that?’ rejoined Hex.
‘For our next trick,’ called Li, as though she was talking to a circus audience, ‘we will do three at once.’ She gave a quick bow and was met with cheers and whistles.
Alex and Li retreated to their safe positions to detonate.
Three trees were swiftly dispatched.
The next trees were the big mahogany that Amber had spotted, plus several oaks. Li and Alex ran back to take cover. ‘These are big ones,’ panted Alex. ‘Might be a bit louder than before.’ He sounded very pleased about it.
‘The boy is definitely having too much fun,’ said Amber.
They put their hands over their ears.
The bang was certainly bigger. It left their ears ringing. The oaks fell immediately but the mahogany remained upright. There was a great sound of groaning wood. Alex patiently waited for it to fall. The tree had been standing for hundreds of years. Of course it was likely to resist. A hunter had to expect that sometimes its prey would put up a struggle.
Then he went cold all over. It was finally starting to tilt – towards them.
He jumped to his feet. ‘Run!’
9 C
HAINSAW
H
ELL
The tree’s huge shadow loomed over them as its canopy blocked out the sun. Paulo and Hex grabbed the stretcher. The others were already running for their lives.
The tree’s topmost branches rasped against another tree on its way down. A moment later they were lashing against Hex’s back as he ran with the foot of the stretcher. He put on a spurt as it touched him, nearly pushing Paulo over at the front. There was an almighty crash behind him as the tree hit the ground.
Cautiously, Amber, Hex, Paulo, Alex and Li looked up. The tree was right across the landing zone, a big hulk of wood like a beached whale.
Five faces looked at Alex. For once, even the robber was silent.
‘Just to let you know,’ said Paulo patiently, ‘the touchdown surface should be free of loose materials such as leaves and twigs. It should have no holes, tree stumps or rocks.’
‘I don’t suppose a blob of PE is going to fix that,’ said Amber.
Alex stood up, staring at the mess in disbelief. ‘I must have miscalculated the weight of the tree.’ He ran his hand roughly through his blond hair.
‘Or got the detonators the wrong way round,’ said Li.
Alex cursed himself. How could he have made a mistake like that? He’d done all the others correctly.
‘Where are our bergens?’ said Amber.
Paulo swore. ‘And the chainsaws?’ He scrambled to his feet.
Hex’s voice came out as a strangled scream. ‘The night vision goggles!’ He rushed forward after Paulo, lashing out with his arms at the branches in his way. Behind him, the others followed, cursing.
Hex’s bergen was nestling between two heavy branches, unscathed. One of the chainsaws was next to it, along with the fuel cans and an orange chain-mail suit.
Alex found his bergen. The main trunk had missed it by centimetres. Paulo was dragging his away from the tree, pulling at it angrily as the straps snagged on branches. Alex didn’t often see the laid-back Argentinian looking so annoyed. But if Paulo’s bergen was OK that meant they’d still got the medical kit. Maybe everything would be unharmed. Thank goodness they were all unhurt. Alex yanked his bergen out, taking it back to where they’d left the stretcher – their new ‘camp’. How had he made that mistake? Maybe he should have added P for plenty.
Behind him he heard Amber saying, ‘Oh lovely. That’s just swell.’
Alex reached the stretcher and looked back. Amber was surveying her bergen, her hands on her hips. She glared at Alex. ‘It’s squashed.’
‘So’s mine,’ said Li. ‘Flat as a pancake.’
‘One of the chainsaws is under there too,’ said Amber. She gave a tight smile. ‘But that doesn’t matter because the other chain-mail suit is there as well.’
Hex propped his bergen up next to the stretcher. He saw the robber looking at it rapaciously and realized he knew it had the mask in it. ‘Oh no you don’t,’ said Hex, and moved it well out of his reach. Then he had a vision of the priceless mask with a big dent in it. Just to be sure, he checked. It was fine: it was well protected.
‘So, Alex,’ said Li, ‘what happens now?’
Alex winced. He took a breath as though he was about to say something, and winced again.
Amber, staring at him from the wreckage of the tree, spotted his hesitation. ‘Spit it out, Alex. What else could possibly have gone wrong?’
‘We’ll have to spend the night here. The heli won’t stop if it can’t land and it certainly won’t come after dark.’
‘But it’s not going to be dark for another three hours,’ said Amber. She could feel her wait-a-while scratches flaring up again in protest. And the bite wasn’t feeling too good either.
‘It’s going to take a lot longer than that,’ said Paulo. ‘On the ranch we couldn’t shift a tree like this in three hours.’
Alex tried to make himself think positively. ‘We’ve got enough rations to go round for tonight and I’m sure we can double up on hammocks. Or you can have mine.’
‘Lovely,’ said Li frostily. ‘Who are you going to share with?’
‘I’ll sleep on the ground,’ said Alex.
Paulo began to feel sorry for him. He looked more and more miserable by the minute. ‘Don’t be silly. You can’t sleep on the ground in the jungle. Something will eat you.’ He heard Amber mutter something but thought he’d better ignore it.
‘All my dry kit’s in that bergen,’ said Li.
‘Mine too,’ said Amber.
‘You can have my dry kit,’ said Paulo. ‘I don’t mind.’
‘Yeah, you can have mine too,’ said Alex. He patted his waistband absent-mindedly. It was second nature to check he still had his knife.
It wasn’t there.
He looked at the hulk of fallen tree. Was his knife under there?
Li watched him as he crashed through the branches, panic written all over his face. ‘Alex?’ she called. ‘Here it is.’
Alex turned round and saw his precious knife. He crunched back to her. Her face was saying, All my stuff’s gone but at least you’ve got your knife. He was going to be apologizing for this catastrophe for quite some time.
Hex went first with the chainsaw. The protective clothing was zip-on orange over-trousers and a top – two layers of fabric with chain mail sandwiched in the middle. They felt heavy, the kind of garments you’d wear in cold weather. As soon as he fastened them he felt his sweat glands gush into overdrive. He put on the goggles and gauntlets and pulled the starting cable on the saw. First time it didn’t start. Second time it did, with a roar like a motorbike, and settled to a steady chugging. He pulled the trigger that activated the cutters and the chain with its vicious teeth became a blur. He put it against the spindly topmost branches of the tree and the blade sank through.
Alex took the collapsible water containers and went to fill them. Li, Amber and Paulo rigged a shelter over the stretcher with a poncho from one of the surviving bergens. The sun was beating down viciously on the area they’d cleared and although the robber’s dark skin could probably stand it, he’d get dehydrated quickly.
As Paulo unfolded the poncho the robber berated him – as usual. But Paulo reckoned this time he did have a point. ‘Don’t blame me,’ he said. ‘Blame the blond guy.’
Li hacked wood into stakes with the machete and passed them to Amber. ‘Anyone any idea what language he’s speaking?’
Amber drove the stakes into the ground. ‘Nothing I’ve ever come across.’ She was the linguist of the group. ‘But the ancient languages are still used in remote areas. Even Mayan – which was used by the people who built the tomb.’
Alex came back and set down two water containers the size of large beach balls, then picked up another two.
Paulo grinned at him. ‘Our patient’s just put an ancient Maya curse on you.’
Once Hex had cut up part of the tree, they started to clear wood. They used the remaining two ponchos, sweeping the smaller pieces of wood onto them and carrying them like a stretcher. They took load after load.
After a couple of hours Hex was exhausted. His arms ached. Whenever he pulled the saw away after severing a branch his shoulders quivered as though he’d received an electric shock. His mouth was dry with the taste of wood; sweat dripped down the inside of his chain-mail protection and sawdust stuck to him like feathers on tar.
The others were flagging too. They’d got to thicker branches, and the wood didn’t fit on the ponchos so easily. Amber and Alex tried to load one piece but it was such an awkward shape they couldn’t manoeuvre it. Amber threw down the poncho, hooked the branch over her shoulder and tried to drag it away. It was unbelievably heavy. Alex got under the other end and together they staggered away with it. Who would have thought wood could weigh so much?
Li and Paulo weren’t faring much better. Li’s hands were slippery with sweat and raw from the rough bark of the tree.
Finally Hex turned off the chainsaw and threw off the goggles. His arms and ears felt like the saw was still going. ‘Anyone else want a go?’
Amber stopped where she was, breathing hard. ‘What is that noise? Oh I know. It’s silence.’ She swallowed to take away the dryness in her mouth. ‘Is doing that more fun than doing this?’
Hex peeled open the zips of the chain-mail jumper and trousers and let them fall off him while he stood. He savoured the sensation of cool air on his sweaty camouflage gear. ‘Yes, terrific,’ he said. ‘I’m loving every minute.’
‘Actually, guys,’ said Paulo, ‘we’ve got about forty-five minutes before sundown. We’d better get our camp sorted.’
Alex looked down at the tree. The topmost branches had gone but they barely seemed to have made an impression on the massive trunk and sturdy lower branches.
Amber peered into the tangle of wood. ‘No sign of my stuff, I suppose?’
‘I didn’t see it,’ said Hex.
‘Rats.’
‘I think our lost luggage is staying lost,’ said Li. ‘We’ll have to file a complaint.’ She glugged back her entire water bottle in one go.
‘Alex, can’t you just wrap a piece of that plastic explosive around the trunk and give it a good blast?’ Paulo suggested.