Authors: Chris Ryan
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #General, #Mysteries & Detective Stories
Desert Pursuit (21 page)
‘Let’s go,’ whispered Alex.
Alpha Force turned and ran for the edge of the roof. They stepped up on to the low wall and launched themselves into space, soaring across the narrow alleyway below. They landed on the next rooftop and continued running with hardly a break in their stride. All along the route the Land Rover was taking, the village men were doing the same. As soon as the vehicle was past them, they picked up their rifles and followed it, jumping from rooftop to rooftop like large, black bats.
By the time the Land Rover came to a stop in the main square, Alpha Force and the village men were in place on the surrounding rooftops. Samir, Jumoke and the others were hidden away in a village house well away from the square, with a reluctant Khalid to watch over them and keep them quiet. Now everything depended on the village women and the remaining men putting on a good act.
The plan was that they would come out to greet the Scorpion and his men, looking pleased and surprised to see them again. Samir’s mother would ask after her sons. Li’s guess was that the Scorpion would be brazen and tell the villagers that Samir had run away before he could be apprenticed. Samir’s mother would be outraged at this slur on her family honour – money had changed hands and her son had then broken the agreement. She would invite the Scorpion and his men to stay as their guests while they waited for her wayward son to return.
Alpha Force watched from the rooftop as the Scorpion and his men clambered from the dusty Land Rover. The traffickers were wary as they scanned the quiet square and they held their Kalashnikovs at the ready in case of a hostile reception. When the village men and women emerged from their houses, all calling and holding out their arms in greeting, the Scorpion relaxed. A slow smile spread across his face and he signalled discreetly to his men to shoulder their weapons.
‘It’s working!’ whispered Amber, watching the pantomime below.
Samir’s mother stepped straight up to the Scorpion, asking after her sons. The Scorpion began to talk, and as she listened, the eager expression on her face was replaced with outrage. She shook her head and put her hands on her hips as he told her about Samir’s ungrateful behaviour, then she and her neighbours took the Scorpion and his men by the arms and led them into the shady courtyard off the main square where, eight hours earlier, the whole village had planned their ambush.
Alpha Force moved across to the rooftop of one of the houses edging the courtyard, moving fast and silently and keeping low. They watched as the villagers brought out a carpet and cushions and settled the Scorpion and his men. The men sat cross-legged on the cushions and propped their weapons beside them. Of the three of them, only the Scorpion looked uncomfortable. His tight western jeans were not made for sitting cross-legged on cushions and he kept tugging at his waistband.
First the women brought water for the three men to wash the dust from their hands and faces. Then came glasses of green tea; finally the steaming bowls of food were brought out and placed in the middle of the carpet.
‘That’s it,’ muttered Hex, his green eyes glinting as he watched the men take their first bites of the food. ‘Eat up, boys.’
The men were hungry and the food was good. The two henchmen set to, stuffing it into their mouths and swilling it down with glasses of water. The Scorpion ate much more slowly, stopping often to ease his waistband away from his belly.
‘Will he eat enough?’ asked Amber anxiously.
‘We’ll soon see,’ whispered Alex.
It did not take long. Twenty minutes later the two henchmen were sprawled on the cushions with their heads resting together, snoring heavily. The Scorpion was propped up against the wall of the house behind him with his head back and his mouth open. Slowly, Alpha Force and the men on the rooftops clambered to their feet and looked down. In the courtyard below the actors stopped their charade, and for a few seconds everyone was still, staring at the three unconscious men. Then Hakim’s mother produced a coil of thin rope from within her robes and held it in the air. Quickly, three other village women stepped up to help her. They moved the two Kalashnikovs out of the way, propping them up against the house wall next to the Scorpion, then they flipped the first henchman over on to his belly and yanked his hands behind his back. The rest of the women began to clear away the contaminated food.
Up on the roof, Alpha Force stood in a circle and grinned at one another.
‘We did it!’ laughed Amber.
‘
They
did it,’ corrected Hex, nodding down to the women in the courtyard.
They
did it,’ corrected Hex, nodding down to the women in the courtyard.
Amber made a face at Hex. ‘Whatever. I’m gonna call my uncle and get him to send the cavalry in. You coming?’ She turned on her heel and headed for the steps that led down to the Land Rover in the main square.
Hex sighed and looked at the others. ‘What can you do with her?’ he said, shaking his head before he followed Amber.
Alex and Paulo headed the other way, leaping across the moonlit rooftops towards the house where Khalid and the children waited. Paulo wanted to be the first to tell Samir the good news. Li stood alone on the rooftop for a moment, hesitating. Her head was full of thoughts of Hakim and she was not sure she wanted to be in the middle of a crowd of excited children. She chose the quieter option and followed Amber and Hex towards the Land Rover.
Down in the courtyard the women finished trussing up the first henchman and moved on to the second, bending over their work. Behind them the Scorpion twitched, then his mouth snapped shut and his eyes fluttered open. He turned his head and stared blearily at the women for a few seconds, then his eyes sharpened as he realized what they were doing. Reaching out, he grasped one of the Kalashnikovs propped against the wall next to him and, using it as a crutch, he levered himself to his feet. The drug was making his brain slow and stupid, but he knew one thing. He had to get away. He turned and walked out of the courtyard with exaggeratedly careful steps, heading for his Land Rover.
Li stepped out into the main square, following Amber and Hex. She stopped when she saw that quite a crowd of villagers had gathered around the Land Rover to listen to Amber make her call. Li watched them for a moment. Everyone else seemed to be celebrating their success, but now it was all over she could only feel a deep sadness. It was as though she could only now start mourning for the brave young boy who had died trying to save his brother. Li looked down a moonlit side street. At the end of the street, the desert opened out. Hakim’s grave was out there in the dusty little graveyard. Li remembered her promise to go back to the grave later and say her goodbyes. Now would be a perfect time. She could let Hakim know that his brother was safe and his killers were caught.
Li turned away from the square, then stopped as she heard a retching noise in the street behind her. Someone was bending over and vomiting his stomach contents into the dust. Li stepped forward to see whether she could help, and the Scorpion straightened up and looked straight at her.
He recognized her instantly. His eyes and his brain were a lot sharper now that he had rid his system of the henbane-laced food. His face was hard and he only staggered a little as he moved towards her, raising the Kalashnikov to his shoulder. Li wasted two precious seconds while her shocked brain adjusted to this new threat, then she moved into a fighting stance, judging distances. She tensed, preparing to leap high in the air and knock the weapon from the Scorpion’s hands. It was a risky move but she was counting on the henbane he had digested slowing his reactions enough for her to reach him before he could fire the gun.
Just then, she heard the laughing voices and running feet of Khalid, Jumoke and the other children. They were coming closer, heading for the main square to join in the celebrations, and Li knew they were going to appear round the corner any second now. She hesitated. Suddenly the stakes had changed. If her leap failed she was putting all their lives at risk as well as her own. Li looked down the quiet alleyway leading out to the desert and made a split-second decision. Instead of leaping towards the Scorpion she dived down the side street, leading him away from the children.
Li flew down the alleyway. As she ran, her head-cloth fell off and her long black hair streamed out in the moonlight. She heard running footsteps behind her. The Scorpion was following. Li felt her back muscles clench as she imagined a few rounds from a Kalashnikov slamming into her spine. She found more speed in her legs as she pushed on towards the end of the alleyway and burst out into the open spaces of the desert.
Li sidestepped and pressed herself against the wall of the last village house as she looked frantically around the flat desert, trying to think of a plan. She had to lure the Scorpion away from the village and then try to take his weapon from him. She shuddered to think of the damage he could do in the crowded main square with a semi-automatic Kalashnikov. Her frantic gaze skittered over the little graveyard, then stopped on the oasis.
She headed for the grove of stunted date palms. If she could get the Scorpion in amongst the trees, she would be able to surprise him, she was almost sure of it. One good kick to the side of the head would finish what the henbane had started. As Li sprinted away across the desert, the Scorpion stumbled out of the end of the alleyway. He raised the gun to his shoulder and found her in his sights. The barrel of the Kalashnikov wove from side to side as he tried to focus and the back of Li’s head kept appearing and disappearing in the cross hairs.
With a curse, the Scorpion threw the gun to one side and headed off after Li, pulling his wickedly curved knife from its sheath as he ran. That was all he needed to kill this troublesome girl. He could finish her quickly and quietly, without attracting the unwelcome attention the noise of the Kalashnikov would bring, then he could make his escape.
The Kalashnikov clattered when it hit the stony desert floor. Li glanced back over her shoulder and saw the Scorpion jogging towards her. The knife in his hand glinted in the moonlight. Li smiled. Now he had been stupid enough to throw away the gun, all she had to do was hide until she had the chance to slip away. She could leave him stumbling about in the desert, while she headed back to the village to warn the others, picking up the Kalashnikov on the way.
Li reached the oasis and darted in amongst the trunks of the date palms, slipping between them like a shadow. Her confidence faltered as she saw that, close to, the trees were thin and sparse. The double trunks were too slender even for her to hide behind and the ground beneath the trees was flat and open. She glanced back and saw that the Scorpion was closing in. She looked up, thinking about climbing one of the date palms, but the feathery tops would provide little cover, and if the Scorpion spotted her, she would be trapped up there.
Li turned, desperate to find somewhere to hide. Her gaze swept past the village well, then stopped and returned to it thoughtfully.
When the Scorpion staggered into the oasis less than a minute later, it was quiet and empty. He frowned and turned in a slow circle, peering between the slender tree trunks, then he did the same again, this time looking at their feathery tops. There was no-one there. The Scorpion walked over to the concrete wall surrounding the well. He put one foot on the wall and peered down into the well. It was a deep well and the moonlight only illuminated it part of the way down. The rest was in darkness.
The Scorpion straightened, then spotted the bucket made out of a tyre inner tube. The bucket was tied to a long coil of rope, which was itself attached to a rusting metal ring set into the circular concrete wall. The Scorpion sneered at the makeshift bucket. He could not quite believe that this scrawny little village had tried to take him captive. When he had made his escape, he would come back here with reinforcements and make them regret what they had done. He lifted the pathetic inner tube contraption and flung it down the well.
Li was hiding deep inside the well. She had climbed down without a rope, using a free-climbing technique. Pressing her back against one side and her feet against the other, she had used her legs and elbows to move slowly down into the depths of the well. The shaft was lined with palm trunks and the spaces between the trunks had been filled with a mixture of clay and palm fibre. The surface was ideal for chimney climbing, with plenty of nooks and crannies for her to wedge her feet into. She sat comfortably, below the reach of the moon’s faint light, staring up at the pale circle at the top of the well and waiting for the Scorpion to go looking somewhere else.
When the bucket came tumbling down the well towards her, Li nearly fell. Quickly, she jammed her elbows into the walls, wincing as the rough surface grated the skin from her arms, then she spread her feet far apart for balance and jinked her body to one side. The bucket caught her hip as it passed and she bit her lip to stop herself crying out with the pain. The bucket careered on down the well shaft and splashed into the murky water at the bottom. Seconds later, it shot past her again, as the Scorpion hauled it up by the rope. Water showered over her, making the walls of the shaft slippery and harder to grip. Li cursed under her breath and held on.
The Scorpion let the bucket drop a few more times, then hauled it back up to the top of the well and dumped it on the wall. He turned and walked off, kicking stones out of his way as he went.
Li listened as the Scorpion’s footsteps died away. She waited for a few more moments, but the oasis above her was silent. Her arms and legs were aching from holding herself in position and she dared not wait too long in case the Scorpion was heading back into the village. She shook the water out of her eyes and began to chimney-climb back to the top of the shaft.
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