Powder Burn (Burn with Sam Blackett #1) (5 page)

Sam looked round and met Lens
’s gaze for a long moment. “That’s not an excuse for hitting women.”

“
I didn’t say it was – violence doesn’t solve anything – but nor is your mother an excuse for lashing out in a temper. I’m just telling you how it is, be careful unless you want to reap what you sow.”

She nodded, slowly, almost imperceptibly, then picked up the beer
, which she had dropped – most of it had spilt, but there was a final mouthful.

“
I just want us all to get along, for this to be a good experience,” Lens added.

They all fell silent, and slowly the sounds of the night gathered closer – the burble of the stream, the chirp of the cicadas, the crackle of the fire and the rustle from the trees in the light wind.

“I think ... maybe it’s bedtime,” she said, eventually.

Pete and Lens mumbled good
night, and she left them by the fire. As she crawled into the tent, she could hear the low murmur of conversation start up. She undressed quickly, climbed into her sleeping-bag liner and lay on her back, staring up at the roof of the tent. One thought dominated –
stupid cow.
She had risked everything by coming on this trip, and now she had risked getting thrown off it.

It was a long while later that she heard the zip start upwards on the tent door. She quickly rolled onto her side to face the nylon wall. She listened as Pete kicked his boots off, and then shuffle
d inside and zipped the door shut. She tried to even out her breathing, slowing it down, as though she were asleep. It seemed to work, or perhaps he had no desire to disturb her either – and soon she was listening to the sound of his gentle snoring.

Sam awoke in a flood of adrenaline, took a single heaving intake of breath and sat up with a jerk.

“
Unnhhh ...?”

She looked round. Pete’s voice was muffled by his jacket, pressed into service as a pillow. She let the breath go slowly and watched him settle back into sleep. The tent shivered lightly to some faint imbalance of air pressure or breeze around her. There was no sound of human activity from outside the thin walls, but the others were slow starters. Three days had passed since the argument with Vegas, and although the nightmare was an old one and nothing to do with him, she couldn’t help thinking that the fight was the reason it had returned. Still, at least it had woken her at the right time
– a hint of illumination through the fabric told of the dawn.

She pushed the sleeping bag down to her waist, reached out and unzipped the inner door of the tent. A hand’s width to the right was the stove; she fumbled for the lighter and quickly stabbed at the ignition wheel. Flames responded, first yellow then blue. Moving another hand’s width to the right
, she found the aluminum pot already full of water and placed it on the burner. She prepared it like that most nights, before she went to bed. Infuriatingly, Pete usually messed it all up again, but on this occasion she’d let him turn in first. Now she could enjoy the fruits of that strategy.

She settled down to listen to the comforting hiss, slowly joined by the gurgle and burble of the water stirring in the pot. It should have been the best moment of the day – alone
, with nothing to do, just the cozy anticipation of the coffee. Not this morning, it would take her a while to get over the nightmare. She watched the light steadily glow stronger through the tent walls. The pot lid began to rattle faintly, and she leaned over and made the coffee. She slipped almost silently out of the thin silk bag, dragged her trousers on, shuffling them up under her backside. Sitting in the doorway she put her boots on, taking some care with the lacing. Then, with a well-practiced flick of the upper body, she rolled herself onto her knees. She tapped Pete’s feet. “Coffee’s ready.”

“
Ngghhhmmm.”

There was no one about. An
early-morning mist lay eerily in the hollows along the forested ridge. As she walked away from the tent, she started to stretch gently, easing her head from side to side, and concentrating on her breathing. A pause for another couple of sips, and then she put the coffee down and started with some salutes to the sun.

“
Morning.”

She was startled by Pete’s voice. Engrossed in her exercise and thoughts, she hadn’t heard him as he came up behind her.
“You made me jump,” she said.

“
Sorry.” He sipped at his coffee as she resumed the exercise. “Is that Tai Chi?”

“
Yoga.”

Pete nodded.
“Good?”

“
Helps with flexibility, balance, strength – yeah, it’s good.”

Pete slurped loudly at his coffee, then said,
“You woke early, bad dream?”

“
Yes. Yes it was,” she said as she moved into the Warrior pose. His gaze stayed on her while he drank more coffee. “No sign of the others?” she asked. She wasn’t ready to tell him about her father.

“
I just poked my head through the door; they’ll be going in a minute.”

“
What’s today’s walk like?”

“
Fifteen miles, maybe a few hundred yards of elevation, nothing too serious.”

“
And then?”

Pete glanced at the other tent.
“You know I can’t say much, just take it as it comes ...”

“
I can’t believe you still won’t tell me,” she said, dropping her arms and standing up straight. The relaxed calm she had gleaned from the yoga evaporated like the morning mist.

“
Sam, please, it’s not my decision, you’ll know soon enough,” he replied.

She stared at him. This whole secrecy bullshit was beginning to seriously annoy her. Another in a growing list of irritants, barricades between her and the guys, all ratcheting up the tension
– they were supposed to be a team. She moved back into the Warrior pose and frowned.

“
Look, I shouldn’t tell you this,” started Pete, moving to just a few feet away. “But ... Lens is under a hell of a lot of pressure. He’s sunk everything he’s got into this film. If it goes bad, he’ll lose the lot, right down to the house. And his wife’s made it pretty clear that she isn’t going to stick around for that – they’ve got a little girl and, well, he thinks he’d lose her too.”

Sam digested this for several seconds.
“It still doesn’t explain why he won’t trust me.”

“’
Cos he’s freaked and he’s paranoid, that’s why.”

“
But it makes me an outsider. You all know where we’re going, what’s ahead of us, what to expect ...”

“
I know. As I said, I don’t agree with it, and I am trying to change his mind. But I’m just trying to tell you that there’s some powerful shit working in his head, and it isn’t necessarily helping him make good judgments.”

“
Oh. Great. That’s really reassuring headed into a twenty-thousand-foot peak in the Himalayas.” She could feel the emotion rising with her voice as she spoke.

“
No. Look ...” Pete stepped closer. The clear blue eyes were locked on hers. “It won’t affect the expedition; he’s given me total control on the mountain. I won’t let anything bad happen. Believe me.”

She held his eyes. Steady. Infinitely reassuring.
It’s not his fault
– the thought came to her and the anger subsided as quickly as it had risen. Pete was the best thing about the trip, and she didn’t need to alienate him as well. In fact, she wanted to hug him.

“
Whatever ...” she said, took a deep breath and, releasing it, started to move into the Trikonasana posture.

Lens struggled over the final few feet, each step kicking up a little spout of dust that hung on the still air.

“
Holy cow, it’s hot,” he said to Pete, who had watched his approach from a table at the teahouse. He dumped his pack on the floor by an empty chair, wiping a sweaty forehead with an equally sweaty forearm and grimacing. “Where did Sam and Vegas go?”

“
Vegas went on. I told him just to keep left and follow the river until he hits the town,” Pete replied.

“
He knows he’s got to ford the other one, at the junction?”

“
Yeah, he’ll be all right, it’s not far. And Sam’s down by the water. She swapped to a clean shirt and is rinsing the old one,” said Pete, pointing to where she was just visible.

“
Not a bad idea,” he replied, picking at the clammy cloth glued to his chest. He shuddered slightly as it fell back onto his skin. Then he sat, quickly adjusting his weight as the wooden chair wobbled precariously. He shifted the feet onto a slightly flatter piece of ground, and said, “Did you guys eat anything?”

“
They have some instant noodles, and they’re pretty quick.”

“
Sounds good.”

Pete called to the man squatted a few feet away, who looked up from watching a goat nose listlessly at the dirt. Pete tapped at the empty bowl on the table and held up his index finger. The man stood with some effort and moved into the shack. They lapsed into silence for a couple of minutes. Lens watched a young girl run upstream with an origami boat, folded from newspaper.

“So how’s the filming going?” asked Pete.

“
All right, I think,” he replied.

“
I’ve been meaning to ask – how are you going to stop people seeing the route we’re on in the interviews?”

“
Easy – I frame it tight and use a really narrow depth of field, then the background is out of focus, so no one will recognize it.” As he spoke, he watched the paper boat disappear into a stopper wave moments after it was launched. It didn’t reappear. The girl stared unhappily at the spot. He was struck with the urge to run down there and console her. Instead, he turned back to Pete and said, “Sam’s idea was a good one, no doubt about that. It’s going to add another dimension to the movie – but she’s a feisty one, your girl.”

“
She’s not my girl,” Pete replied, with a half smile.

“
I noticed that she seemed a little cool on you.”

“
Yeah, well, she was pretty cool on all of us when she got to the bus. And I figured, you know, girls like it to be romantic, and this is not romantic.” Pete waved at the ramshackle teahouse as he spoke. “Best to keep it friendly, lighthearted, it’s not worth making a move till we get back to civilization.”

“
So you’re still keen?”

Pete shrugged.
“Yeah, sure, if she is ...”

Lens studied him silently. In the limited time that he’d known Pete Halland, all the girls that they had come across had been keen, but maybe Sam would be the exception. Lens couldn’t help but feel a slightly warm glow at the thought. He’d never been much good at that game; at school, the cool girls had all gone for the football players, the jocks, just like every
high-school movie he’d ever watched. He’d been too busy watching those movies, with his cameras and his films. He’d been damn lucky to find Josey, and he couldn’t afford to lose her. He stared morosely down at the river. Sam was standing now, wringing out the shirt. “She’s got a temper and she doesn’t take any crap,” he said.

Pete nodded.

“If he ever stops sulking, Vegas will start up at her again, you know what he’s like,” he added.

“
I thought he wanted her to come with us as badly as you did,” said Pete.

“
Sometimes Vegas doesn’t know what’s good for him,” he said.

“
I heard he had a bit of a self-destructive streak,” replied Pete.

Lens glanced at him a little more sharply than he intended.

Pete raised his eyebrows quizzically.

Lens shrugged
. “You mean the little matter of the heroin addiction.”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
He’s clean now. Took six months out, in a clinic, got it sorted.”

Pete was silent.

Lens turned back to the river. He’d been expecting to have to explain this since he’d first asked Pete to join him and Vegas on the expedition. The only surprise was how long it had taken Pete to get around to asking – but at least he’d had plenty of time to think about his response. “I think with guys like Vegas, that compulsion for a rush, for action or drama or conflict or whatever, can reveal itself in a bunch of different ways. If it wasn’t for getting adopted by the owner of some skate shop back in LA when he was a kid, he’d probably be dead or doing some heavy time by now.”

Lens turned back to look at Pete.
“At some level, Vegas does understand that whatever he does, whatever he achieves, he’s never going to be more than one bad decision away from that fate. He’s just had a real close shave, and he knows how much he needs this ride, this mountain, this film, because it drags him back from the brink. Even so, sometimes he’ll need a little help from us not to screw it up.”

After a few moments, Pete nodded.
“I get all that, but it might chill her out a bit if we told her what we’re up to – that’s winding her up as much as anything Vegas might do, and I don’t really blame her. I thought she was going to have a go at me about it the other morning ...”

He was quick to shake his head.
“It’ll only chill her out if she doesn’t totally freak when she hears – no, it’s way too risky, there’s too much at stake. We just have to work at keeping them apart if it looks like it’s starting up again. I’m relying on you too, you know?”

Pete frowned for a moment, glanced back towards Sam.
“She’s coming,” he said.

“
So are my noodles,” Lens replied, as the teahouse owner reappeared in the doorway. “Do your best, OK? You’re still the one she likes,” he added.

“
I’ll try, but, for the record, I still think you should tell her now.”

“
Noted, counselor – but no dice. Let’s just keep it on the rails, and we’ll do it like we agreed.”