The Amber Trail (29 page)

The thug thumped into Chook,
knocking him down and pinning him to the floor. The metal rail
dropped to the ground with a clatter.

A deep red rivulet of blood ran
from Maxine’s ear and pooled across the floor.

Raj arrived beside Maxine,
pulling at her shoulder, and rolled her over to her back. Her head
fell to one side; her vacant eyes were heavily lidded. Blood ran
from her nose and ears.

“
Mother!” Raj
shouted. “Can you hear me?”

Her last breath caught in her
throat with a gurgle.

Raj clenched his jaw and his
eyebrows knitted together.

Girish arrived beside him,
holding up her limp hand. His head was tilted to one side and a
tear ran down his cheek. “My darling.”

Shiv remained on the couch,
watching with his lips pressed together.

Raj’s gaze locked on Dig and he
pushed himself to his feet, his eyes wet with tears. He reached
down to pick up the solid handrail from the floor. It was covered
in a red sheen.

Dig tried to stand, but a wave of
vertigo clouded his head and he clung to the couch for support.
“Raj,” he said. “Take it easy.”

Raj scowled and stepped toward
him, the rail dragging a groove across the concrete behind him. His
lips quivered. “It’s your fault.”

“
I didn’t
know.”

“
I don’t care.” He
clenched his teeth and lifted the bar like a baseball bat, then
planted his foot forward. Dig winced and held up a protective
hand.

“
No.” Shiv appeared
behind Raj and locked his hand around the end of the bar. Raj
grimaced and tried to yank the implement away.

“
No more,” Shiv
said.

Raj glared at him. “You aren’t in
charge of me.”

“
I am now,” Shiv said
firmly. He stepped forward and stood over him. “I’m taking over
things now. Got that?”

Raj looked from Shiv to Girish,
and wrinkled his nose. “Taking over? Who gives you the right?”
Tears ran down his face as he tried to wrestle the bar away from
Shiv's grasp. “You’re nothing but a bastard. A treacherous
bastard
.”

Shiv shoved Raj in the chest, and
Raj landed heavily on his rear beside his father. Girish placed an
arm around his shoulders, and he hitched in sobs.

Shiv's chest rose up and down.
“
Anyone else here got an issue with
that?
”
He eyed the thugs. They shook
their heads.

Shiv turned to face Dig with the
bar still hanging from his grasp. Dig pursed his lips and met his
gaze. Silence hung in the air for a long moment. A rivulet of blood
tracked down the bar and dropped onto the floor.

“
You need to go now,”
Shiv said.

Dig wiped his forehead with the
back of a shaking hand, and nodded. “I’m taking Chook and Jules
with me.”

Shiv paused. “Okay. But you say
nothing about this place. You say she was attacked by a swarm
somewhere back in the hills.”

“
Fine. And we go
home, and you leave us be. Forever.”

“
But you get no hops
from us. The business is over for you, and you tell no one about
our production.”

Dig took a deep breath.
“Okay.”

Girish watched from the floor
with narrow eyes. “No Shiv, Max wouldn’t let that
happen.”

“
We aren’t doing
things Max’s way anymore.” Shiv tapped the bar against the stone
kitchen bench and glared at Dig. “Seriously. Not a word. Or I
personally come back for you, your family, and Chook’s family, one
by one.”

“
You’ve nothing to
worry about.”

Shiv stared at him for a moment,
then nodded. “Okay. Take our truck to town, but leave it
at the tracks
.”

The thick-jawed thug removed his
knee from Chook’s back. Chook crawled across the floor to his
sister’s body. He leaned in to see her swollen and battered face,
and his face contorted in a grimace.

Dig turned to Chook. “You hear
that?” Chook raised an eyebrow and nodded, then wrapped the
tarpaulin carefully around Jules like a blanket. He lifted her over
his shoulder, straightened, and shuffled out of the building toward
the truck.

Dig rubbed at the back of his
neck, then turned to the men in the room and nodded. He took two
steps toward the door, then stopped and turned back. He glanced
around the room and pursed his lips. “I’m...sorry,” he said. “For
everything.” He gave a small shrug. “For...Dad I mean.”

Shiv’s eyes dropped to the floor
before he looked up again. “Was he...a good guy?” he said. “You
know...as a dad.”

Dig gave a weak smile. “Yeah. He
was.”

Shiv’s forehead
creased.

Dig watched him for a moment.
“You already knew about Dad, right? Before today.”

Shiv folded his arms. “Why would
you say that?”

“
Back at our house in
Sydney, when you broke in. You smashed our family picture in the
dryer. That always seemed weird, but I think I understand why
now.”

Shiv’s eyes flared and he glanced
back at Raj and Girish. A flush crept across his cheeks. “I had
guessed,” he said. “But I still wanted to hear her say
it.”

Dig nodded slowly. “Look, if you
ever want to come and visit, and see some photos or
something—”

“
No,” Shiv said. “No
thanks.”

“
Okay.”

The half-brothers stood in an
awkward silence. From the carpark, a car door thudded shut. The
wind whispered through the overhanging roots of the banyan trees
beside the deck. Raj and Girish kneeled together on the floor of
the room, and watched Dig with narrowed eyes.

“
I’m sorry it ended
up this way guys,” Dig said, and hoisted his pack over his
shoulder.

There was no answer. He turned
for the door.

He stepped out into the sunlight.
Chook sat in the passenger seat of the hi-rail truck with his eyes
closed. The tarpaulin was wedged on the back tray, up against the
cab. Dig eased into the driver’s seat.

He adjusted the rear view mirror
and caught sight of himself. Dirt was caked through his greasy
hair. A red triangle was sliced out of his cheek, matted with dried
blood.

But he didn’t care. He was going
home.

He fired the machine into life
and pushed it into gear. They rumbled out of the carpark and
followed the dirt road that led up to the railway tracks. As they
reached the rails, Dig eased the machine to a stop. “Know how to
work the track wheels on this thing?”

Chook shook his head.

Dig prodded at the switches on
the dash. The wipers squealed across a dry windscreen, before a
whir emanated from below as the rail wheels dropped and slotted
into position. The truck lurched forward on the tracks.

As they moved up the rise, Dig
glanced at the field of hops spread out below them, and
sighed.

The tunnel opening neared, and
Dig dropped the truck out of gear and eased it to a stop outside
the entrance.

Chook opened his eyes.
“What?”

“
Just give me a sec.
I’ll be back.” Dig stepped out of the truck. Chook
frowned.

A few minutes later Dig returned,
and they were on their way again.

As the truck entered the tunnel,
they wound the windows tightly shut. He was in no mood to deal with
hornets inside the cab.

But his fears were unfounded. As
the truck passed through the heart of the tunnel the headlights
illuminated the smoking frame of the cabinet. Dig brought the
machine to a stop and leaned forward over the dash.

On the ballast floor lay the
hulking skeleton of the nest—black, smouldering, and split in two.
Scattered around it were piles of blackened hornet carcasses,
twisted and fried. Dig nodded to himself.

To one side of the nest, against
the tunnel wall, Dig’s eyes caught on a second crumpled lump of
fabric. He squinted at it, then sat back in his seat. He turned to
 Chook, but his eyes were closed.

Dig took hold of the door handle.
He stepped out to the ground and skirted through the headlight
beams at the front of the truck, then lifted the lump of
fabric.

It was Jules’ backpack. As he
returned to the cab he slammed the door behind him.

He threw the bag into Chook’s
lap. Chook opened his eyes, startled.

“
That was Jules’
bag,” Dig said.

Chook looked down at his
lap.

“
I think there's a
chunk of cash in there. Something like sixty thousand. It’s yours
now.”

Chook raised an
eyebrow.

Dig crunched the truck into gear
again, heading toward Hampi.

Sometime later, they stopped at a
building entrance of white concrete columns and faded
glass.

“
Hospital,” Dig
said.

Chook blinked and stretched.
“Okay.”

“
You want some
help?”

“
No,” he said. “I’ve
got her.”

“
Going to get your
hand sorted?”

“
Yep.”

Dig bit at his lip.
“Look—”

“
Don’t worry,” Chook
interrupted. “I won’t say anything. Just like your arsehole brother
wanted.”

Dig nodded, and they turned and
gave each other a stiff embrace. Chook stepped out of the car,
lifted his sister out of the back tray, and carried her into the
front entrance of the hospital.

Dig watched them go, then drove
back into the street.

A few minutes later he parked the
truck beside the old railway line. He wedged the keys above the sun
visor and stepped out onto the dirt.

He hiked back to the main street
of Hampi bazaar. It was early afternoon and crowded. Heat rose from
the dirt and clouded his vision to the end of the street. Dust
tickled his nose.

As he reached the bus terminal he
stopped, checked the timetable, and continued past it until he
stood outside the shopfront of
Helpful Hari’s Tourist
Information
. He pushed through the door.

Hari’s face was unshaven and his
hair tousled. He raised his eyebrows as Dig entered, and Dig
frowned.

“
You lost another
one?” Hari said. “The motorbike?”

Dig nodded.

Hari shook his head. “Well this
one’s going to cost you. Two thousand American.”

Dig extracted his wallet and
sifted through it. There were only a few dirty rupee notes
remaining. “What if I don’t have that much?”

“
Then I call my
friends at the police station.”

“
No. We don’t need to
do that.” He scratched at his face, then after a moment he pulled
his backpack to his chest and searched inside. He glanced through
the front window, then leaned in close to Hari, whispering. “Look.
I know you deal in some pretty unorthodox stuff, right?”

Hari also leaned in close. “It
depends.”

“
Would you take some
drugs as payment?”

Hari blinked, then turned to his
nephew. “Troy!” he shouted. “Cameras!”

The computer screen blinked off,
then lit up a bank of grainy CCTV images. Dig recognised the front
door of the shop amongst them. The boy studied the feed for a
moment, then nodded to Hari.

Hari straightened his tie and
turned to Dig. “What have you got?”

Dig took a second glance at the
front window, then reached into his bag. Down at the base, still
nestled in the hidden compartment, was the brown brick that Jules
had concealed inside. Dig tugged at it until it pulled free, and
handed it to Hari.

Hari stiffened, then dropped the
brick to the desk behind the counter. He leant down and gave a long
sniff, then looked back up at Dig with wide eyes and wobbled his
head. “Yes,” he said. “This can work. Where did you get it
from?”

“
I can’t
say.”

“
Is this all you
have?”

“
I think so,” Dig
said. “Let me check.” He reached into the bag again, pushing below
the false bottom. His fingers came upon a second package, and he
pulled it out. It was white, and had the consistency of
powder.

Hari’s mouth dropped open and he
grabbed it quickly to conceal it behind the counter. A rustling of
packaging could be heard, and then another long sniff. Moments
later, Hari’s head shot back up. His pupils were large and his
shoulders stiff. He fumbled with his shirt cuffs. “Er, I could be
interested in this too,” he said. “How much do you
want?”

Dig shrugged. “How much you
offering?”

“
For the two
packages? Hmmm, say...three hundred thousand American?”

Dig stared at Hari. “Are you
kidding?”

Hari frowned. “Okay!” he said.
“You can also waive the lost motorbike...but that’s my final
offer.” He tilted his head. “Deal?”

Dig blinked rapidly.
“Sure.”