Royal Ransom (15 page)

I stepped on another stone, balancing myself. Then another stone, and another. The last one rocked underfoot, threatening to buck me off. I stepped to the side and offered a hand, first to Andrew and then to Victoria, as they came to the teetering rock. They reached the end of the stones and took a few steps across some soft sand before they reached the rocks and debris at the bottom of the cliff. I followed behind them, walking backwards, bending down and using my hands to brush away the indentations that marked our steps.

“Do we really have to climb this?” Victoria asked.

I looked straight up the cliff face. It certainly looked a lot steeper up close than it had from a distance.

“We'll walk along the base until we see an easier way up,” I suggested.

Andrew was already ahead of me. I was amazed, but he seemed to be in much better shape than he'd been a few hours earlier. Somehow he must have gotten a second wind.

“How about here?” he asked.

There was a seam, a sort of small gully, stretching down from the top of the cliff. It was covered in loose rock, but it did look possible to climb.

I started to scramble up, bending forward and using my hands to help steady me. A few of the rocks slipped beneath my feet, but not enough to stop me from moving forward. I reached the top and practically toppled over. I spun around and offered a hand to the others.

“Thank you. That was more of a climb than I had anticipated,” Victoria said.

We were fairly high up now, and we had a good view up and down the river for hundreds and hundreds of metres. We were sheltered from view by the rim of the cliff. Behind us, trees and bushes offered enough cover that we could slip into the forest without being seen if necessary.

“As long as we stay low to the ground we have the perfect place to see, but not be seen,” I said.

“Is this low enough?” Andrew asked as he flopped to the ground.

“Just about perfect,” I said.

He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes.

“Do you think we'll have long to wait?” Victoria asked.

“I don't know for sure, but I doubt it. They've never been very far behind. Why don't you follow Andrew's lead and close your eyes, try to get some sleep.”

“I was thinking that perhaps I could find some food,” she said.

“Food?” Andrew asked, suddenly opening his eyes.

“I could go into the forest and search for something edible. There are roots and tubers that I've read about. I just wish I had some sort of digging tool.”

“Would a knife help?” I asked.

“Yes, that would be excellent!”

I reached into my back pocket, pulled out my Swiss Army knife and handed it to her.

“Hopefully I'll be back soon,” she said, and she started off for the woods.

“Don't go far,” I warned her. “The last thing I need is for you to get lost.”

“I will stay close by.”

“Should I go with her?” Andrew asked.

I shook my head. “You should just stay here. Rest.” I settled in on my belly beside him. It felt so good just to lie there. It would have been so easy to fall asleep. It had been so long since I'd slept. So long since I'd eaten. My mind started to fill up with the image of my bedroom. My bed. My covers and pillow and—I felt myself drifting off, so I pushed myself up. I had to fight the urge to close my eyes. It was important that I keep watch. Somebody had to look out for us.

“Jamie?”

I looked over at Andrew. I was surprised he was awake.

“Jamie … are we going to be all right?”

“We've been all right so far.”

“I mean, is this going to work? Are they going to chase the transmitters?”

“I hope so.”

“And if they don't?”

“Then we keep moving. We keep away from them.”

“How long before we get to the fishing lodge?”

“We're not going to the fishing lodge,” I told him.

“But why not?”

I took a deep breath. I wasn't about to tell him that I didn't even know how to find it. “Lots of reasons, but mainly because I'm afraid that we won't be safe there.”

“Why not?”

“These people aren't stupid. The fishing lodge is the only thing in this direction. They must have figured out that's what we were headed for.”

“Then why did we even bother going this way?” he demanded. “Why did you lead us in this direction?”

“Because at first we didn't know they could track us. We figured they didn't even know which direction we were heading.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“We're going to backtrack. Go in the opposite direction.”

“We're going back to the camp?”

“We're going back in the direction of the camp. We're going back to my village.”

“That'll take us days!”

“I think about four days.”

“We can't go another four days without food!” he exclaimed.

“We won't have to.” Victoria was walking toward us, holding something in her hands.

“What are those?” Andrew asked.

“Roots. I cannot guarantee the taste or tenderness, but from what I've read I know that they are edible.”

She sat down as both Andrew and I sat up. She handed us each a piece of the root. It was mostly white, with brown—dirt—covering some of it. It reminded me of a potato, sort of a long, thin potato. I brushed it against my shirt, trying to remove as much dirt as possible. Then I sank my teeth in and took a small bite. It was softer than I had expected. The taste was … well, it was like chewing on soft, wet chalk. Somehow I'd expected whatever I ate to taste wonderful, the way water is so good when you're really thirsty. Wrong. I swallowed anyway.

“Not exactly gourmet fare,” Victoria said.

“I don't know,” I said. “Best thing I've eaten in days.”

“It's the
only
thing you've eaten in days,” she pointed out.

I smiled in response.

“There they are!”
Andrew snapped.

I spun around. The three men were only a few hundred metres away, standing by the side of the river.

“Is that where we entered the water?” Victoria asked.

“They're farther downriver,” I said. “That means they weren't following our trail.”

“Then it
was
the transmitters,” Victoria said grimly.

“Let's see what they do. If they go straight downstream then we know for sure.”

On cue, the three men turned away from us and began working their way down the river.

“That seals it. If they were tracking they would have had to go both directions to look for where we exited the water. They're following the devices.”

We watched as they continued downstream. Finally they disappeared around a bend in the river.

“Now we have to pray for good luck,” I said.

“Good luck?”

“We have to hope that the piece of wood stayed in the current and kept going down the river. Hopefully it made it all the way to the lake and is drifting around out there. As long as it's moving, they'll keep following it. Once it stops, they'll catch up fast and realize what we've done.”

“So what do we do now?” Victoria asked.

“We give them a few minutes to go farther down the river, and then we head back down the river too.”

“We're going to follow them?” Andrew asked in amazement.

“Of course not. When they do find the transmitters they'll come back upriver and try to track us. They'll know we came down to the river to put the things in the water, so they'll look for tracks. I want to use our tracks into the river to cover our tracks out of the river, back to where we came from. We'll walk down the river to that same spot. Are you two ready to go?”

In answer, Victoria and Andrew both got to their feet. I stuffed the two pieces of root that I was holding into my pocket, and they both did the same. That was going to be our bedtime snack.

“Now what I want us to do as we're going back down this cliff is kick up a lot of rocks.”

They both looked confused.

“I want it to be obvious to anybody who's coming up the river that this is the spot where we left.”

I dropped over the edge of the cliff first. Rocks and dirt showered down ahead of me, and then I was overtaken by other rocks being dislodged from above me by Victoria.
I skidded to a stop at the bottom. There was the patch of sand where I'd brushed off our tracks. This time I
wanted
tracks.

“I want you to turn around and walk backwards across this section. I want us to leave prints that look like we came out of the water right here.”

I started across, looking over my shoulder as I moved. Victoria and Andrew did the same. I stepped into the water, where my tracks became invisible. I took first Victoria's hand and then Andrew's as they reached the water's edge.

“Now we have to move as fast as we can,” I told them.

I fixed my eyes on the river ahead. I hadn't said anything, but this was the most dangerous part of the trip. If those transmitters had travelled no farther than around the bend in the river, then the men would already be heading back. They could be right around the bend, right in front of us. There'd be no place for us to hide. I took a quick look behind me. Andrew and Victoria were falling behind.

“Hurry up!” I demanded of them. “Hurry!”

I turned my attention back downriver. We had less than fifty metres to go to the spot where we'd originally walked into the water. The bend was another two hundred metres beyond that. If they came around the bend now, there was no way they wouldn't see us. Maybe we'd still have a chance to get away … unless they shot at us. No, they wouldn't do that, because they wanted to capture Victoria and Andrew, not kill them. At least I was pretty sure they did. Of course that didn't mean they wouldn't shoot at me. If I were one of those guys I'd try to take
out the leader. A cold shiver ran up my spine that had absolutely nothing to do with the chilly water I was wading through.

Victoria splashed up beside me. “How long before the sun goes down, before we stop for the night?”

“What time is it now?”

She looked at her watch. “It is almost eleven o'clock.”

“Two and a half hours before the sun sets.”

“That is a long time,” she said.

“We have to get back down the trail as far as we can. As far away from
them
as we can.”

“I don't know if Andrew can travel another two and a half hours tonight.” She paused. “I do not know if
I
can travel that long.”

I didn't feel that strong myself.

“We'll see how far we can get. Let's just get out of the water, and out of sight. Look, here's where we came to the stream the first time.”

I waded out of the water and stood on the rocks. Victoria stumbled and almost fell. I reached out and grabbed her by the hand to help her. I felt embarrassed holding onto her and I quickly released her hand. Andrew was still twenty metres upstream. I was going to yell at him, then I changed my mind. I jumped back into the water and waded back upstream to help.

“You're doing okay. I just want you to do okay a little faster.”

“I'm trying.”

“Just try a little harder for a little longer. We'll get out of the water and travel a bit farther and then we'll go to sleep.” I took him by the arm and urged him along.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

We quickly reached Victoria. She was sitting on a rock with her feet dangling in the water. Andrew crawled out of the water and started to sit down beside his sister. I pulled him back to his feet.

“This isn't the time to rest. We're exposed here. You see those trees over there?” I said, pointing to a spot no more than twenty metres away. “You get there and you can rest.”

“Come on, Andrew,” Victoria said. “I'll take your arm and we'll walk together.”

“I can't,” he gasped. “Too exhausted.”

I felt a sudden rush of anger. I felt like dragging him by the scruff of the neck and … but I couldn't do that. It wasn't the way. Besides, I didn't know if I had the strength.

“Andrew,” I said softly, “I know you're tired, but we just can't stop right here. All I'm asking you to do is walk to those trees. You can go that far, can't you?”

He looked over. “I … think I can.”

“Good boy!” I exclaimed. “Let me help you up.”

I offered him my hand. Victoria did the same. Together we pulled him to his feet.

“And one more thing,” I said. “We all have to walk
backwards
. I want you to walk backwards away from the river. See if you can leave some clear prints that look like they lead into the water.”

“Do we have to?” Andrew whined.

“We don't have to do anything if you want to get …” I stopped myself. “It would be best.”

“How do we even know they'll come across this spot?” Andrew asked.

“That's a good question,” Victoria agreed. “Won't they simply continue to track our transmitters down the river and into the lake? That's how they have been tracking us so far, is it not?”

“It is, and they will follow the signals until they find them … which could be a day, or hours, or they might have found them already. And once they've found them they'll come looking for us again.”

“How do you know they will come looking here?” Victoria asked.

“For a number of reasons. Once they have the transmitters in their hands they'll know we figured it out and it won't work to track us that way. Second, they'll know that we had to get close to the water—upstream of where they found the transmitters—and they'll start working their way up the river to try to find some tracks.” I paused. “They could be working their way upriver right now.”

Andrew looked long and hard down the river. “I think we should move.”