Lost Worlds (34 page)

He hoped it didn’t have anything to do with his friends.

He speeded up, and very nearly tumbled head first into a crack in the ground that suddenly appeared in front of him. It was only a sudden updraught of cold air that told him something had
changed. Cautiously, he bent over and felt forward with his hands until he found the edge. There was no knowing how far across it was. If it was narrow enough, then he could jump it. If it was too
far across, then he would have to walk along the edge until it narrowed, or he could find something like a fallen tree that he could use to get across.

He scooped up some stones from the ground and threw them out into the darkness with various amounts of force. Some of the stones hit a rocky object out in the darkness, and tumbled away. Others
– the ones he threw more strongly – seemed to hit solid ground. He estimated that the gap was about five metres – too far to jump in the dark.

He dropped a stone into the darkness and counted heartbeats. His heart beat barely twice before he heard the clatter of the stone hitting the ground. Just over five metres, then. His best bet
was to climb down and then follow the crack either left or right.

It took him less than a minute to scramble down the side of it. The ground at the bottom was flat – so flat that he couldn’t tell which way to go in order to get to the foot of the
mountain slope. Randomly he chose left, and ran.

It was the wrong direction. Within a minute he began to see the glow of firelight illuminating the walls of the defile. He thought he recognized the walls as belonging to the same defile that he
and his friends had been pushed along before, but he kept telling himself that it might just be coincidence, that it might be a different one entirely.

Until he turned a corner and found himself staring out across a rocky bowl lined with cave mouths. Thirty or forty Almasti were gathered in the centre. Seven of them were wearing robes, and one
was standing, cowed, in front of them.

Despair flooded through him as he realized he had come full circle. He was barely seven or eight metres away from the cave where Rhino, Tara and Natalie were imprisoned.

The scarred Almast who had led the hunting party was standing in front of the seven . . . what? Seven
judges?
He shouted something in the Almasti language. As Gecko watched, he stepped
towards the accused and reached into the creature’s shirt, which was tattered now from all the shoving and tugging that had gone on during the journey to the cave town. The accused Almast
tried to resist, but the hunter grabbed his throat with one hand and used the other to search him. He pulled something out triumphantly and waved it above his head.

‘Oh,’ Gecko muttered to himself. ‘That’s not good.’

It was Natalie’s mobile phone.

The crowd of Almasti all seemed to gasp in unison. Even the judges were taken aback.

The scarred warrior spat out a stream of barks, grunts and snarls. It was clear to Gecko that he was saying something like,
Look at this! He carries the strangers’ magical devices on
him! He is contaminated by their sorcery!

‘Dá um tempo!’
Gecko said under his breath in Brazilian Portuguese.

His brain was racing. He could turn round and follow the defile in the other direction, towards the place where they had all been ambushed, but that would take time, and he had a terrible
feeling that the trial going on out in the bowl was coming to a climax, and that climax might involve his friends being ceremonially slaughtered. He had to do something, but what?

Gecko closed his eyes for a moment. He relaxed, as best he could, letting the moment take over. Letting his body tell him what to do, the way it always did when he was free-running.

Before he quite knew what he was doing, he found himself walking forward. He opened his eyes in surprise, but his brain caught up with his body and he suddenly realized what to do. What he
had
to do.

His sudden appearance took the Almasti by surprise. He pushed through a circle of warriors armed with spears and axes and walked straight towards the scarred warrior who was holding the mobile
phone, and towards the accused. He didn’t look towards the cave where his friends were imprisoned. He had a feeling they were watching him. They were undoubtedly wondering what the hell he
thought he was doing. He was beginning to wonder himself.

Both of the Almasti – accused and accuser – were staring at him. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking from their half-human, half-ape faces.

Before his better judgement could come into play, he reached out and took the mobile phone from the hand of the scarred hunter.

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘This belongs to us.’

The warrior’s empty hand was still upraised. His gaze was fixed on Gecko, wondering what was coming next.

Gecko slowly turned round, trying to meet the eye of every single Almast – the warriors, the crowd, the judges and the two standing directly beside him. He wanted there to be no doubt
about what he was doing, no ambiguity. He wanted them to be absolutely sure.

When he felt as if he had milked the moment for long enough, he dropped the mobile to the rocky ground. He heard something break, but it wasn’t enough. Stepping forward, he brought the
heel of his boot down on the phone. It shattered into pieces of plastic and metal.

Gecko spread his arms out wide and turned again, so that all the Almasti could see him. ‘We do not mean to pollute your tribe with our magic,’ he said loudly. He knew they
wouldn’t understand his words, but he hoped that they understood his body language, or maybe his tone of voice. ‘We are here by accident. We mean you no harm.’

Silence. Every eye in the rocky arena was on him.

Natalie watched, incredulous, from the cave as Gecko spoke. She’d been momentarily shocked by the destruction of her phone, but she thought she could see what Gecko was
doing.

As she watched, the Brazilian boy gestured to the rows of cave dwellings that surrounded them, and then raised his right hand to his mouth and mimed sewing his lips shut. ‘I will be silent
about what I have seen!’ he shouted. He turned towards the cave and gestured to the Almasti guards. Nothing happened for a few moments. He gestured again, and stared around at the circle of
judges. One of them nodded, and suddenly the boulder was being dragged away from the mouth of the cave.

‘What is he
doing
?’ Rhino breathed. ‘He was supposed to be going for help!’

‘Whatever he’s doing,’ Tara said, ‘it’s having an effect. Go with it.’

The guards pulled Rhino, Tara and Natalie out of the cave and pushed them towards where Gecko was standing. As they got close, they could see that he was covered in cuts and scrapes, and his
clothes were ripped.

‘Hi,’ Natalie said, smiling uncertainly. ‘Something you want to tell us?’

‘Sorry,’ he murmured. ‘Got turned round somewhere back there.’ He looked at the judges and the scarred hunter, and then gazed at his friends. He raised a hand to his
mouth and tapped his lips. ‘Your turn,’ he said.

After a moment, Rhino nodded. He stepped forward, gestured around – a little theatrically, Natalie thought – and also mimed sewing his lips shut. ‘I will be silent about what I
have seen!’ he said loudly.

Tara did the same. Her voice shook, but maybe that was good. Maybe the Almasti needed to see a little bit of emotion.

When it came to her turn, Natalie called upon all the resources she had developed in the school debating society.

She waved both her arms, encompassing the entire crowd and the town as well. ‘I will be silent about what I have seen!’ she called, her voice echoing across the bowl.

The echoes died away into silence. Nobody spoke, nobody moved.

It wasn’t enough. Natalie thought that the message had got through, but it wasn’t enough. Maybe the Almasti just didn’t believe them.

Now it was Tara who stepped forward. She waited until everyone was looking at her, and then she bent down and scooped up a handful of grain that had spilt from the bag stolen by the accused. She
held the handful up for everyone to see. Natalie didn’t have a clue what she was doing.

Tara walked slowly across to the accused Almast. She reached up with her other hand and touched the turquoise stone that hung round his neck on the leather thong. She pulled it gently. The
Almast stared at her. She pulled it again, still gently, and gazed into his eyes.

The Almast nodded, as if suddenly understanding what she was getting at. It reached up, pulled the thong off and held the turquoise stone out to her.

Slowly, Tara took the stone with one hand. With the other she held out the handful of grain.

The Almast tilted its head to one side questioningly, and then reached out its own hand, open and flat.

Tara tilted her hand and poured the grain into its palm in a golden stream.

Natalie could hear the crowd talking in excited tones. The seven judges were looking at each other, confused, uncertain what to do.

‘What the
hell
is going on?’ Natalie hissed.

‘I think,’ Rhino said quietly, ‘that we’ve just told the Almasti two things – firstly that we can be trusted to keep quiet, and secondly that they can trade their
carved stones for grain from the village. They don’t even have to meet the villagers face to face to do it – I’m sure we can arrange some system where they can leave the stones in
a safe place, and the villagers can do the same with the grain.’

‘Will it save the Almasti?’ she asked.

He shrugged. ‘In the long term, probably not. I think they’re doomed to extinction. That’s evolution for you. But in the short term at least their babies can be fed.’

‘Will it save us?’

He smiled. ‘You know, I think it just might.’

Gecko glanced at the accused Almast. He was standing staring at Tara with his head tilted to one side.

Rhino looked around at the judges. They were conferring among themselves. Finally, one of them waved at the guards and said something. The guards stayed where they were, but they lowered their
weapons. Suddenly, a lot of tension seemed to drain from the scene.

‘I get the impression he’s going to be all right. He may even find himself a local hero.’

‘The question now,’ Gecko said, walking over to them, ‘is how we’re going to get those DNA samples that Calum wants. Somehow, I don’t think I can convey
that
message to the Almasti.’

‘We don’t need to.’ Tara had joined them as well. She held up the turquoise stone that the accused Almast had given her. Caught between the stone and the leather thong were
five coarse black hairs. ‘We have the samples we need right here,’ she said, ‘and all it cost us was some grain.’

‘And a whole load of pain and grief,’ Natalie added in a heartfelt voice, ‘not to mention the heart-stopping tension, but don’t worry about that.’

C
alum realized that the team was still alive when their headbands came back to life simultaneously.

He had been on the verge of calling the British embassy in Tbilisi to report them missing. His hand had actually been resting on the phone when his screens suddenly lit up. Each screen showed
their faces – Rhino, Natalie, Tara and Gecko – as they all stood in a circle, looking at each other. Gecko’s face was scratched, but apart from that they all looked OK, thank God.
They seemed to have recovered their rucksacks, and at least two of them were holding mobile phones. In fact, Natalie was making a call as Calum watched – probably, he thought with a pang of
guilt, to her mother. That was still a conversation he was going to have to have, and which he wasn’t looking forward to at all.

‘What happened?’ he cried. ‘I’ve been worried
sick
.’

‘Lots of things happened,’ Gecko replied. ‘Some of which we may even tell you about.’ He was smiling, as if at a private joke. In fact, they were all smiling.

Tara was looking around nervously. ‘Hey, I’ve just had a thought. What about the Nemor Incorporated expedition? The last thing we want right now is for them to turn up –
especially after where we’ve been. Calum, do you know where they are?’

Where we’ve been
? Her words sent a thrill through him. It sounded as if they had a story to tell, and he was desperate to hear it, but first . . .

He weighed the bugging device that he’d found beneath the desk in his hand. He had disconnected the battery as soon as he had found it, rendering it mute, but he could reconnect it in a
few moments if he had to. And he thought he had just found a reason to do so.

‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I think I can send them on a wild goose chase. They’ve had my computer bugged – that’s how they were able to track you all, and how they
got Natalie. They pulled your mobile-phone locations right from my system. Now I know what they’ve been doing, however, I can set some software running that will gradually distort your
positions. When I switch the bug back on, it will faithfully transmit the wrong locations, and Nemor’s team will head off into the wilderness. I could keep this going until you’re all
back here and they’re heading into Azerbaijan.’ He paused. ‘Did you . . . ?’ he started to ask, and then stopped. He wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted to know.

‘We’ll tell you after we’ve got back to civilization.’ Rhino smiled. ‘But first we have some negotiations to conduct. For now, we need to get back to Ruspiri, if
only to stop the locals sending out a lynch mob.’ He glanced around at the other three. ‘Right – everyone back in the van. Calum – I’ll brief you later.’

‘OK,’ said Calum cautiously. He leaned back in his chair and watched as the circle broke up and they headed back to the van. ARLENE, he noticed, was still with them, trotting
faithfully along with their equipment on its back.

As he relaxed, his gaze moved upward, to where one of his screens was showing a photograph that had just come in to the Lost Worlds website. It showed what at first glance was a scorpion, but
this scorpion seemed to be swimming across a river, and judging by the size of the trees in the distance it was about two metres long.