The Hunting (7 page)

Miller was about to dig into his pockets again but Ferry shook his head. ‘He has to pay in person. Gas station rules. And bring the beer.’

Miller smiled. He remembered now, Ferry used to play poker with his dad some years before. He took the keys.

‘I’ll remind him.’

‘Don’t worry about Genie. I got a good feeling about that girl,’ Ferry said. ‘She’s still alive until we hear otherwise.’

G
enie wanted to cry. She hadn’t found Rian. Nor Renée.

It was daylight already and she’d walked along the river and seen nothing, found no one, and she and Moucher were exhausted and, they admitted it, a little scared. She didn’t think she could continue without Ri. There didn’t seem to be any point. He was her whole life now.

Mouch looked up at her and seemed bewildered. Not to mention hungry.

A chopper flew over moments later, very low and slow, directly over the river. At first she was expecting a Mosquito attack, and panicked, but then she saw the word ‘Police’ painted on the bottom of it and clearly they were still looking for them. She and Mouch ran for cover under the trees and waited it out. She realized that the hunters must have told someone what had happened and they would be able to identify which part of the river they were in now.

She desperately wanted to shout out Rian’s name but that would have been dumb. If only they had a way to talk to each other.

‘Where are they, Mouch? Where are they?’

She tried to concentrate. If she could just concentrate. Why couldn’t she concentrate?

Mouch’s ears suddenly flattened and he cowered slightly. Genie looked at him. He rarely showed any fear. What was going on?

‘He’s scared of me, that’s all. Stroke his head. He’ll calm down.’ The voice was familiar but where was the person? Genie looked around and saw no one. She put out her hand to Mouch and he crawled closer to her for safety and comfort. Genie felt there was someone sitting right beside her, but she didn’t want to turn her head again. How had they gotten so close and not made a single sound?

‘You never showed fear last time,’ the voice said.

Genie turned. ‘Last time?’

Genie found she was looking at Grandma Munby. A younger Grandma than she remembered, and she was dressed eccentrically with feathers in her hair and a calico skirt, moccasins on her feet.

‘Am I dreaming now? You were in the raft with us? I thought I saw you.’

Grandma Munby shook her head. ‘No, dear. You’re wide awake. Got yourself in a pretty mess I can see.’

Genie nodded. Mouch squirmed beside her. Clearly he could see her too.

‘Will it ever end? Will the Fortress get me, Grandma? ‘Cause if it’s inevitable, let them get me now. I’ve lost my friends, lost Ri. I can’t live without Ri.’

Grandma Munby smiled, stroking Genie’s arm with one of her feathers. Genie could feel it; it was as if warm sunlight was covering her. Even Mouch began to relax beside her.

‘I’m here to make sure they don’t.’

‘They got me before. Where were you then?’

‘You lived. You found the others. You have power within you, girl. That’s what they want. The magic inside you.’

Genie noticed the ruby necklace hanging around her grandma’s neck. Her mother had been so upset that it had been missing when she died. Yet here it was.

‘This is yours, y’know. I left it to you. Here …’ She slipped it off her neck and put it over Genie’s head. ‘Perfect.’

Genie looked down and saw the ruby hanging there. It was impossible for a spirit to give something to the living, wasn’t it?

‘It’s to keep you safe,’ Grandma Munby told her, smiling.

‘But what about you? What keeps you safe now?’

‘Nothing can hurt me now. Nothing.’

‘Did you really kill my father?’ Genie asked, instantly regretting she’d asked.

Grandma Munby sighed. ‘It was an accident. Whatever I did was to protect your mother and you. I never regretted it. Not for a second. You too will do things to protect the ones you love, Genie.’

Genie didn’t believe for one moment that this woman had murdered her father. It had to be a mistake.

Grandma Munby looked around her for a moment. A breeze gusted through the trees and sunlight glistened off the water.

‘This is a pretty place,’ she declared. ‘I miss my river. I wish we’d had more time to get to know each other. Your mother and I were enemies almost from the time she was born. Such heartaches …’

Genie put a hand out to her grandma. She was as solid as any real person; it was quite a shock. She took her grandma’s old hands and held them, wishing with all her heart that she had gotten to know the old woman better. Her mother had done everything to ruin her life so far. Almost as if she had dedicated her life to the task.

Grandma Munby took a deep breath. ‘Can’t stay long. Rian is waiting for you. He needs you. He’s a good boy. I hope he’ll stay with you for ever, girl. Others will want him; you’ll have to guard him well. Your child will be wayward, but always honourable and he will respect you. He’ll have different talents to you. I can’t say what just yet. But your gift, like mine, is to help others live a better life.’

Genie didn’t understand why she was talking of her child. How could she know? She and Ri had so few intimate moments.

‘No, no, I can see what you’re thinking; don’t worry. Long after you marry. The child to come in the future.’

Genie felt relief, embarrassment and guilt all at once. It was good to know that she and Ri would marry. She hoped that was true.

‘There are surprises ahead, my treasure. Not all goes to plan. But you have more than one guardian. Marshall worries, his son frets. No one you meet forgets you. Remember this, the sky isn’t your friend and they won’t give up easy. But neither will you.’

Genie bit her lip. ‘Grandma, I feel guilty running away. My friends are trapped at the Fortress. I know we have to run, but can I help them?’

Grandma Munby just smiled. ‘First save yourself. You’re still in danger. Men are coming with guns. The situation has changed. They may not care if you live or die.’

Genie’s heart skipped a beat.

‘Listen, gather your friends. Go east to the old Cariboo and she’ll be waiting for you.’

‘Who?’

‘She who waits. And, Genie, people love you, but never take it for granted. It is the one regret I carry with me – you never knew how much I loved you.’

‘Till now.’

‘Till now,’ Grandma Munby replied with a smile and a sudden sense of realization. She stood with remarkable ease. ‘The ruby belonged to your great-grandmother Snowdancer. Duty is the Munby burden and never to be taken lightly.’

Genie looked down and felt it. It was real, hard; the setting silver and the necklace seemed to be made of a curious entwined fabric. It was delicate and she closed her eyes a moment. It was totally impossible, but Grandma Munby really was there.

Moucher barked suddenly and Genie looked at him to hush him. He was standing three metres away from her, looking downriver and wagging his tail.

Genie looked back. Grandma Munby was gone. Perhaps she had never been there. To her immense surprise she discovered she was lying on her back in a pool of sunshine. She’d been fast asleep, dreaming. But such a vivid dream! Great-grandmother Snowdancer. She tried to hang on to that memory – she wondered if it was real. She felt for the ruby, but that too had disappeared. The weird thing was that she could still feel it around her neck. How weird was that? She realized that she was disappointed it was gone.

Moucher was still barking besides her.

‘Moucher? I hope it’s you?’ Renée called out. She was wading up through the river, easier going than the overgrown riverbank.

Genie sat up and watched Renée approaching. She was so happy to see her and scared to ask about Ri. She hauled herself up and went to greet her. They hugged as Moucher tried to get some attention too.

‘I was scared I’d never see you again.’

‘Likewise.’

‘Ri?’ Genie asked. ‘Any sign of him at all?’

Renée shook her head. ‘He’s not downriver, for sure. He couldn’t have got ahead of me, I was stuck in the raft long after he bailed.’

‘He needs help. He has be somewhere, Renée. We have to look for him.’

They both heard the sound of an approaching outboard motor – someone on the main river in a hurry. They ran for the trees and dived into the undergrowth.

Genie glimpsed an inflatable go by with four men carrying shotguns. They were still looking for them. They just
had
to get away from the river.

Moucher kept his silence. He understood this game now.

‘The raft?’ Genie whispered into Renée’s ear.

‘Gone. Man, those guys looked mean. You think they’re the same hunters?’

Genie shrugged, but she knew they couldn’t risk finding out.

‘What do you think Ri would do if he couldn’t find us?’ Genie asked her, standing up again and trying to get a view both ways of the river.

‘Check all the rocks and deep-water pools between here and where we capsized. You think he … ?’

Genie shook her head. ‘He’s alive, I swear it. He would have tried to find us if he could.’

Renée agreed. They were uncannily close. She was a tad jealous of that.

‘I’m sticking with you,’ Renée stated.

‘I’m not leaving without him,’ Genie said. ‘I can’t.’

‘
T
he alarm sounded at eight fifty-five, sir.’

The technician looked pensively into the camera above the monitor. Behind him four of the test subjects lay completely still.

‘What happened?’ Strindberg asked. He could tell by the panic in the man’s voice that it was much worse than he had been led to believe.

‘They began to exhibit signs of extreme stress and all complained of not being able to see their legs or their arms. Two couldn’t feel their torsos at all.’

Strindberg frowned. ‘Not feeling? Their legs and arms were in place? Nothing missing?’

‘Yes, sir. They were all complete, sir. Nothing missing at all and the electronic monitors indicated their heartbeats and blood circulation were all functioning normally. Heartbeat and blood pressure were rising as the sense of panic grew, however. It’s a psychological condition, we believe. Latent memory from the previous transmissions.’

‘And then?’ Strindberg sensed disaster. Everything at the Fortress seemed to be run by amateurs.

‘At ten-sixteen precisely all four slipped into a coma, sir.’

‘Coma? All of them?’

‘Yes, sir. All continue to be in a coma. We have them on life-support. It’s very deep, sir. Very deep.’

‘And the same thing has happened in Spurlake?’

‘At the same time, sir. One of the test subjects we had not been able to return is now in the hospital there under intensive care. We have a twenty-four-hour security in place there.’

‘Five in a coma? All at the same time?’ Strindberg swore. ‘Does that mean that the other test subjects we haven’t managed to get hold of could also be in a coma? If so, why? I want to know.’

The technician was dreading the question but knew it had been coming.

‘Could be the MAT 7 sub-sonic signal we sent out earlier. Level Twelve experimented with a more specific targeting of the Mosquito shut-down and squirted it down a particular frequency. It was supposed to incapacitate the test subjects for perhaps an hour. Enough to make people panic and rush them to hospital. It was Dr Bellingham’s concept and the signal went three hundred and sixty degrees in a sixty-kilometre sweep, at the very least.’

‘MAT 7? In English please.’

‘We sent a powerful Mosquito shut-down signal to the test subjects and squirted it to a sixty-kilometre radius.’

Strindberg sighed. ‘So, instead of incapacitated they are in a coma or possibly out there on the river someplace, dead.’

The technician grimaced. ‘Yes, very possibly, sir. If they aren’t on life-support they will be dead.’

‘Did no one think to test this transmission out first?’

The technician shrugged. It wasn’t his call.

‘So
we
did this. We destroyed our own billion-dollar assets. I can’t believe the incompetence in this place.’ Strindberg swore again and slammed his desk. ‘I want this Dr Bellingham in my office within thirty minutes and he’d better have a plan on how to wake up our test subjects. Thirty minutes, you understand. I will not tolerate these sloppy standards for a moment longer. Get this message out. Get it right or get the hell out.’

‘Totally understood, sir.’

The technician switched off the link and turned to the others watching him. ‘Soon there won’t be anyone left to fire.’

He looked back at the monitor measuring Cary’s heartbeat. The kid was barely alive at all. Same for the others. Be kinder to switch them all off.

I
t had to be past midday already. Renée and Genie still hadn’t found Rian. It was impossible. They had gone up and down the river twice, looked in every crevice. His body wasn’t there. He wouldn’t have walked off without them. He just couldn’t have.

They sat on a rock mid-stream on the river bend with a good view up and downstream. Moucher would be listening for trouble and Genie knew that every hour they tarried here those hunters could be back, or anyone else for that matter wanting to claim the reward.

‘Dammit, Rian, please give me a clue!’ Genie wailed.

Renée felt her stomach groan. She was starving. The only berries they had found were end-of-season blueberries and they were too sour to eat, having been growing in the shade.

‘Would he go on without us? I mean, what if he couldn’t find us and assumed we’d been taken?’ Renée suggested.

Genie shook her head. ‘Me, or you, might be missing, but Moucher too? They wouldn’t take a dog. He would have found Mouch.’

‘But he isn’t looking for us. He just isn’t on the river.’

Genie wasn’t sure where to go or what to do. Grandma Munby had said go east, but how could she do that without Ri? And which way was east anyway?

‘Grandma Munby said he was still here. I believe her.’

Renée nodded. ‘Uh-huh. You know you’re like crazy, right? You talk to ghosts and see stuff and …’