Part 11 (1/2)

'h.e.l.lo?' he said. His voice was rough, Glaswegian.

Li saw him peer into the gloom at her.

Then there was a faint patter of feet on metal; a rustle in the heather. Some nocturnal creature had been exploring the ATV. The gamekeeper walked over to the bike to investigate. Li breathed out a long, careful sigh.

Hex rolled into the heather and lay still. The gamekeeper flashed his torch over the bike, took a last drag on his cigarette, then dropped it. Its red glow disappeared under the toe of his boot. He pulled his mask back on, walked back to the trapdoor, climbed in and pulled it shut.

Li stood up and jogged on the spot, trying to warm up. She was freezing. She could see Hex's pale blue palmtop light like a will-o'-the-wisp. She ran gratefully over to him.

'Phew that was close. Did you get the position of the trapdoor?'

Hex nodded. 'Roughly. We'll have to come back and look in daylight. It's too dangerous to do more now.'

They jogged away, prepared to duck down again at any moment, but the trapdoor stayed closed. It was a relief to move after holding still for so long.

Li slowed to a walk. She felt mentally exhausted. 'I really thought that guy with the cigarette had seen me. Thank heavens for small nocturnal animals.'

'Or large ones,' said Hex. His eyes were twinkling in the torchlight. Li looked at him, puzzled, and he ran his fingers lightly up her arm like a scampering animal.

'It was you!' She rubbed him on the arm. 'You probably saved my bacon.'

Li shuddered. 'They're making a big pick-up sometime tomorrow night, but we don't know when.' Her hands were around a steaming mug of hot chocolate, but lying still for so long in wet clothes had chilled her to the bone.

She and Hex were in the kitchen, giving the others a resume of what they had seen on the moor. Tiff had finally drifted into a deep sleep and Amber felt it was safe to leave her.

Paulo stared into his mug of hot chocolate Amber had just got him and Alex out of their beds. 'That's got to be the factory,' said Paulo. He looked sleepy but his brain had grasped the facts swiftly.

'Is that enough to go to the police with?' said Amber.

'I think we need more,' said Alex. 'We could tell the police to ambush them, but they might only get the gamekeepers.'

Hex nodded. 'We've got to get a good look at the factory during the day when they're not around, find the trapdoor. If we can't find it, the police won't.'

Amber sighed. 'If only we'd given you and Li the video camera, you could have filmed what you saw and that would be enough.'

'There's more than just the factory,' said Hex. 'There's a big deal going through. If we could find out when they're making the handover, we could get the hooded guy too.'

Li nodded. 'He's not just a dealer, he's a mega-dealer. He was talking about major clients, a string of dealers. He's big time. If the gamekeepers get busted too early, he'll just walk away.'

Paulo yawned. 'If we're going to do something, we'd better move fast. The police will probably question the gamekeepers sometime later today about the ”polystyrene”. That will put them on alert.'

'There's no point trying to get more evidence now,' said Hex. 'They're busy at night. We'll just run into them again. We're better off leaving it until the morning.'

Amber sat back thoughtfully. 'OK, we have two objectives: to find physical evidence of the factory; and to find out when the deal's being done.'

'Three objectives,' yawned Paulo. 'Get some sleep.'

'Four,' said Alex. His voice was serious. 'Stay alive. My dad's mate was on a mission watching the IRA when he stumbled across a drugs factory in someone's back room. The next day three guys came and cut his head off with a chainsaw.' He looked at his four friends earnestly. 'We've stayed undercover until now. Let's keep it that way.'

16.

RACE A AGAINST T TIME.

At 7 a.m. Li opened her curtains. Four hours' sleep wasn't really enough. The sun was already starting to evaporate the dew into a light mist. It was a captivating sight it almost made her glad to be up.

Someone pounded on the door.

'Yeah, it's OK,' she called. 'I'm up.'

Paulo's voice answered her. 'Tiff's gone again.'

She threw on some clothes and pounded down the stairs.

In the hall Alex was already making plans. 'Li, you search the attics, Amber the bedrooms, Paulo the ground floor. Hex and I will take the outbuildings.'

Amber, a slice of bread in one hand, spoke between mouthfuls. She was a diabetic and had to make sure she ate regularly. 'Hex, couldn't you just look her up on your thingy?'

'I've done all that,' said Hex. 'I couldn't see her so I tried calling her. Her phone's in her room.'

Amber gulped down the rest of her breakfast as she climbed the stairs.

Amber had found nothing. She strode out of the front door. Li and Paulo were standing in the drive.

'Anything?'

They shook their heads.

The mist was lifting, making the valley glow. From the garage came the clunk of the Range Rover door, then Hex and Alex came out.

Alex saw the group and shook his head. 'Zilch. She's vanished into thin air.'

'Most of her stuff's still in her bedroom,' said Amber, 'so she hasn't gone to the airport or anything. But her walking boots have gone.'

'Typical,' sighed Hex. 'The only way that lazy trout would go for a walk is to annoy us.'

'All the safety equipment's still here,' said Alex. 'Ropes, helmets, etc.'

'Pur-leeze!' exclaimed Li. 'She's not going to go for an energetic climb.'

'I looked at her alarm clock in case she'd set it to go out early,' said Amber. 'No clues there. It wasn't even on.'

Alex looked up into the hills. A gentle breeze made the heather ripple. 'We'd better find her before she blunders into something she shouldn't.'

The Ordnance Survey map was spread out on the kitchen table.

'She can't have got far,' said Paulo. 'She's not very fit.'