Red Fever (8 page)

“Hey, when did you get that?” asked Toby.

“I stole it when your dad was carrying you in from the boat, after you’d collapsed,” Jamie said sheepishly.

“What a cheek — fancy nicking stuff from a mate!” Toby smiled at the nervous-looking boy. Jamie smiled back.

He’s not so bad, after all
, thought Toby.
And Belle will come in useful. At least we’ll have some protection
. He had wished he was going on his own, but now the mission was about to get underway, he was glad the two of them were coming with him.

The compound gates squeaked loudly as the boys pushed them slightly open and squeezed through. Toby’s eyes went to his bedroom window near the top of the lighthouse. Had his dad heard? Or was he still sleeping? Toby locked the gates behind him then threw the keys through the gates, as hard as he could back towards the lighthouse door. If they had forgotten anything, it was too late now. There was no going back.

Toby scanned the headland for any sign of the dogs, as the boys dragged the cans of fuel and the heavy rucksack down to the jetty. Belle gambolled beside them, delighting in this new game. As the summer’s day heated up, the sun had warmed the sea and a grey misty haar rolled towards the village.

Ideal
, thought Toby.
Just what we need. We can sneak out under this mist and the dogs won’t spot us. I bet they’re keeping watch from the cliffs
.

The dinghy sat tied to the jetty. Toby climbed in and started to stow the two cans of fuel in the bow.

“Hup!” Jamie commanded Belle, who with one great leap sprang into the boat.

“Watch out!” hissed Toby as the large dog thumped
down beside him. He lost his balance and grabbed hold of the side of the boat, which rocked violently. A can of fuel slipped from his grasp and fell into the water. Toby lunged to save it but was too late. It had sunk.

“Ah, no!” he gasped. “We’ll not have enough fuel to get home now!”

“I’m sorry,” said Jamie, climbing in beside Belle. “Shall I go and get some more?”

“No, you can’t. I’ve locked the gates and we can’t get back in,” snapped Toby.

It’s all going wrong already and we haven’t even left the jetty!

“Is there any on the
Lucky Lady
?” Jamie asked.

“No, Dad never leaves any onboard in case someone tries to steal the boat,” replied Toby sullenly. Why hadn’t he decided to go on his own, after all? “Let’s get going. We’ll find some in Aberdeen. There must be lots in the harbour. There’ll be storage tanks somewhere.”

Jamie slipped the rope from the mooring, then he and Toby swapped places so Toby could operate the outboard motor. The dinghy drifted quietly away from the shore.

Toby stood up and gripped the starter cord. He pulled hard on it. It had to start first time. They couldn’t take the risk of the dogs being alerted to them leaving. They had seen that the dogs were powerful swimmers and wouldn’t stop at following them into the water. The engine whined and then roared into action.

Yes! We’re away!

Toby swung the tiller over to push the nose of the dinghy out towards the grey banks of fog rolling in from the sea. The dinghy bumped steadily over the waves, heading south-east.

“What’s that?” cried Jamie, holding hard on to Belle. His face was taut with fear. Through the haar came a growing cacophony of yelps and whines, gruff barking and howling. The dinghy was passing close to the cliffs which jutted out south of the village.

“The dogs!” Jamie yelled over the roar of the motor.

Toby looked up to where he was pointing. Through the scudding clouds on the top of the cliffs they could make out a pack of large dogs jumping around excitedly. The dogs had seen the dinghy and were desperate to get to them. As the dinghy sailed away from the cliffs, taking a course parallel to the sands on the other side, the dogs took off at a gallop. A flurry of tails and flying limbs cascaded down the steep path to the beach.

“Speed up a bit, can’t you, Toby?” croaked Jamie. “They’re coming fast!”

When Toby half-turned to see how close the pack was, he caught a glimpse of one lone dog standing still at the top of the cliff. It was Cerberus.

They watched the dogs following them along the beach, screaming and yapping, until the small boat pulled
away from the shoreline to clear the next headland. The noise receded into the distance as the mist swirled around them.

“Not good,” Jamie sighed. “That was not good, eh, Belle?” He patted her. She had been strangely quiet since they left the jetty.

“Belle must be the only one of us who’s putting any weight on,” observed Toby. “I’m sure she’s got fatter in the few days she’s been with us.”

Jamie gave him a strange look.

“What is it?” asked Toby. It now seemed obvious there was something Jamie wasn’t telling him.

“She’s having puppies,” he said. “That’s why that man wanted to kill her. He was scared she was going to have wild puppies, like those dogs.”

“Puppies?” Toby smiled. “Sylvie loves puppies. She’ll be so happy.”

“I thought Sylvie hated dogs,” said Jamie.

“Only big, grown-up dogs. And that’s because …”

“Because of what happened to your mum?” interrupted Jamie.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Toby curtly, turning his head to stare out to sea.

The journey continued in silence as the dinghy bounced and bobbed down the coastline. Toby knew that as long as they didn’t stray far in the mist, they couldn’t get lost.
Aberdeen was more or less due south of Collieston. He kept his eye on the map, though, ticking off places in his mind as they passed them. They were soon crossing the side current from where the estuary at Newburgh flowed out into the sea. Hundreds of ducks were bobbing on the waters close to the shore.

“Those are eider ducks,” Jamie told him, pointing to a group of fluffy-looking brown half-grown chicks. “They used to use their feathers for stuffing duvets and pillows.”

Toby nodded.
Just what I always wanted to know!

But he couldn’t help smiling. Here they were, two boys and a dog cruising along in a dilapidated old rubber dinghy, heading towards what was probably a complete disaster, and all Jamie could talk about was stuffing pillows with duck feathers.

The light was starting to go early, with the cold mist still sitting on the east coast. The boys pulled on an extra jumper each and their waterproofs as the dampness crept into their bones.

“Do we need to camouflage ourselves?” Jamie broke the silence. “Y’know, put mud on our faces or something?”

“Mud is hardly camouflage for a city, is it?” scoffed Toby. “I’d be more worried about Belle — she sticks out like a sore thumb.” Jamie sat quietly for a while.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said eventually. “What if we shave her fur off and put oil all over her?”

“She’ll look like a body builder then. What’s the point in that?” chortled Toby.

They were now cruising past the giant dunes that spilled out on to the clean white sands of Balmedie. The wreck that Toby and his dad had seen almost a year ago was still sitting up from the sand. But now more of it had been sucked into the seabed and only the rusted bow remained.

Jamie passed Toby a boiled egg and a carrot. “Got to keep your strength up!” he said, trying to smile cheerily.

Toby was beginning to feel sick. There was a tight knot in the base of his stomach, and when he tried to swallow, the pieces of egg got stuck in his throat. His head pounded with a dull beat, and his hand had started to throb too.

I bet real heroes don’t feel like this before an adventure.

He pulled back on the throttle, and the boat idled in the water. They were approaching the Don estuary now and the cross-current was bouncing them around.

“What have we stopped for?” asked Jamie. “Are we there?” He peered through the murky light.

“Yeah, nearly. It might be better if we row from here in. If anyone or anything is on the lookout, we don’t want to go roaring up the beach,” said Toby. He reached down and passed an oar to Jamie.

“Now remember, we have to row together or else we’ll
just go round in circles,” he told him. “Now, one — two — three … PULL!”

The dinghy lurched forward, listing precariously to Jamie’s side.

“Get Belle to sit in the middle, can you? She’s capsizing the boat!”

Jamie pulled the dog into the middle and pushed her bottom down. “Sit. Sit there. Good girl.”

The boat bounced across the estuary opening and followed the line of the beach, creeping slowly towards the harbour. The towering skyscrapers of Aberdeen dotted beyond the sandy links pushed their heads above the mist.

“I recognise this,” said Jamie. “We’re nearly there. We need to be at the beach promenade. There’s a café there called the Inversneckie. My mum and I used to go there every Sunday. She’d have a skinny latte and I’d have a banana smoothie.”

“Yes, well, you can spare me the details. Tell me where it is — can you remember?” Toby panted as he threw his weight on to the oar. “Keep rowing, Jamie. Never mind the trip down memory lane!”

“It’s past a really old building called The Ballroom, or something,” he replied, struggling to speak and row. The boat was making no headway in the tossing swell.

“I think we’d better dump the boat and walk the rest of
the way,” grunted Toby. “We’re not getting very far.” He dropped his oar to his lap and let the boat glide towards the bank of sand at the foot of the beach. The rubber dinghy slid on to the wet shingle, and Toby jumped out.

“Out you get,” he whispered to Jamie. “I’m not pulling you and that fat dog up the beach.”

Toby and Jamie dragged the boat up over the sand and on to a large bank of pebbles under the beach promenade, whilst Belle picked up large pebbles with her teeth and threw them at the boys.

“We haven’t got time to play now, Belle,” chided Toby, as a large pebble bounced off his foot. He took a long chain and rope out of the dinghy and secured the boat to the railings that ran along the granite wall, separating the walkway from the beach. He took out the telescope and pointed it inland.

“It’s hard to see anything in this mist,” he said, “but there looks like a funny-shaped building further down. We’d better keep down here, below this wall. Let’s go.”

The other two filed behind him as they walked down the side of the beach wall, along the stony shingle. They had to go slowly. The stones cracked and banged beneath their feet, making noises which, in the still air, sounded like canons going off.

After a while, Toby crawled up some steps to see if they were anywhere near the building. He came back to
where Jamie and Belle were crouching on the pebbles.

“Yeah, we’re about ten metres past it. How much further d’you think this café is?” Toby asked.

“Not far. There used to be an amusement arcade on the corner and then there’s a row of cafés. It’s one of them,” answered Jamie, who was shaking with cold and fear.

Toby glanced at his grey frightened face, peering from an oversized woolly hood, and smiled.

“It’s going to be all right, Jamie,” he reassured him. “We’re nearly there. And think, your mum might be waiting for you!”

Jamie smiled wanly back.

Ummm, can see I’m going to have to be the strong one here
, thought Toby.

They climbed the next set of steps up from the beach on to the wide path that swept along the beachfront. Ahead of them was a line of semi-derelict single-storey buildings. Most of them used to be cafés or ice-cream parlours, but now they were boarded up with bits of plywood and metal bars across the windows. The boys and Belle crossed the road to get a closer look. The faded signs over the doors said: The Blue Water Café, Harry’s Fish and Chip Café, and then …

“Here it is!” exclaimed Toby. “Jamie, this one’s the Inversneckie Café. It’s here!”

The boys tried to peer inside the grimy door. The door had been broken and the sign saying OPEN fluttered in the breeze through the smashed glass. Toby pushed the door but it was locked from inside.

“Let’s go round the back and see if we can get in there,” he suggested. They trooped round behind the row of cafés to a tarmac car park, where empty bins rolled around in piles of rubbish. Toby counted the doors.

“It was the third one in from the right,” he told Jamie. “This must be it.” He pointed to a filthy back yard. A dirty green door was half hidden under the mounds of soggy cardboard and empty coke cans. Toby pushed his way through to the door and pushed it hard. It swung open slowly.

Inside the café kitchen, the cold dark air smelt fusty and of something long since dead.

“Poo!” retorted Toby. “Wouldn’t pass a hygiene inspection now, would it?”

Jamie didn’t laugh at his joke, but stared around in dismay. “Doesn’t look like she’s been here, does it?” he moaned.

“She’s not likely to have brought her rubber gloves and given it a spring clean, is she?” remarked Toby. He looked around at the mess. It was like everywhere else these days, a clutter of rubbish and junk.

“Well, let’s make ourselves comfy; we might have a
long wait. What time were you supposed to be here?” asked Toby.

“Er, well, now. I think it was midday, but I might be wrong. It is the sixth of June today, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s the fifth today,” groaned Toby. “I know that because it’s Sylvie’s birthday in two days time, and I want to be back for that.”

The chances of us getting back at all are looking pretty slim. This nutter doesn’t even know what day it is!

“Oh, is that right?” said Jamie in surprise. “We’ll have to wait until tomorrow at twelve noon to see if she’s coming in that case.”

“OK, we’ll have to wait here,” said Toby. “We’ll take it in turns to keep watch, while the other one sleeps. I’ll go first. You find somewhere to bunk down.”

Jamie pulled out some cardboard boxes from a cupboard, climbed into the biggest one and curled up inside it. Toby positioned himself behind the counter of the café. From there he could see the back door of the kitchen, and if he peered round he could see the front door.

This is going to be a long wait
, he thought.
I hope Jamie’s mum shows up. Then I’ve got to see if she can help us and find some medicine for Sylvie. And then I’ve got to find us some fuel to get home. And then I’ve got to get us all home safely
.

Toby sighed. It all seemed totally impossible.