The Hunting (9 page)

‘White-water rafting is dangerous,’ Francis was saying. ‘I mean, look at Rian’s head. You are supposed to stay
in
the raft.’

Rian sat on a chair in a guest bedroom as Francis worked his magic. He patiently read the Vancouver paper
The Province
, left by a visitor. Francis had already rubbed some magic anti-swelling cream on to his wounds, which helped reduced the bump, and Betty was fussing over Genie, wanting to buy her a dress in the next town. Good luck to that, he thought. As far as he knew Genie had never actually worn a dress since she was about six. He tried to imagine what she’d look like and just couldn’t. He’d only ever seen her in jeans.

Genie had returned from feeding Moucher out in the car and was looking at her head in a mirror. She noticed her hair was starting to grow again but there was something odd about it. If she looked carefully she thought she saw some white hair growing, like a streak across her head. No way. She’d be a freak. She was about to investigate further when Betty distracted her with some task or other.

‘Anything in the paper about us?’ Renée asked, walking stiffly out of the bathroom, Francis smiling behind her, proud of his handiwork.

Rian shook his head. ‘A nuclear bomb could fall on Spurlake and we’d probably still not make the news. Anything outside the city doesn’t exist, Renée.’

‘Good,’ Genie said, returning to the room. ‘We don’t want anyone to know about us.’

‘Bear attacked a Korean man who chopped all the trees down behind his house in the Kootenays,’ he read out.

‘Bear was probably pissed off. You’d feel the same way if someone chopped your house down,’ Genie declared.

Rian suddenly found something.

‘Hey. Check this …’

High school graduate Miho Tanaka (eighteen) of Spurlake was found dead possibly from suicide at her home Thursday morning. The mailman raised the alarm. According to neighbours, Miho, who previously has been missing since graduation, returned to discover her mother had died of cancer and was deeply depressed by this. She is survived by her father, Ito Tanaka. Spurlake has been plagued by a spate of teen runaways in the past three years, five times the national average, with thirty-six children going missing. Recently eight returned after a long absence, only to disappear again. No one is able to offer an explanation for this. Rumours have circulated that these missing teens have been attracted by a paid offer to participate in a drug trial locally but no drug company has admitted to running any trials in the area. This suicide added to the local tragedy of Spurlake where one hundred and twenty-eight people recently perished in the floodwaters. Although there have been recent rumours of UFO abductions of children, these were dismissed as ‘ridiculous’ by Spurlake’s sheriff’s department.

‘Miho!’ Renée exclaimed. ‘She hardly spoke. She was so shy. Remember how she carved that beautiful angel out of an apple? She was like so talented.’

‘She was the girl who used the phone and nearly got us discovered. I remember that I wanted to kill her,’ Genie said. ‘God, now I feel guilty. I feel so sorry for her.’

Rian shook his head. ‘No way suicide, not after what she’s been through. She was upset about her mother, but she knew she was dying. She was supposed to have gone to Vancouver to art school, remember? Miller gave her the bus fare. It was a Mosquito attack. The Fortress killed her.’

‘We don’t know that for sure.’ Genie said. ‘But it does kinda disprove your claim that the paper doesn’t cover Spurlake, Rian Tulane.’

‘Yeah, but why weren’t they there when we exposed Reverend Schneider and the Fortress?’

‘Because teen suicides are sexy. Teens abducted by aliens are just weird. You going to try and explain the Mosquito attack to them? You think they’d believe that?’

‘Mosquito?’ Betty was saying as she returned to the room.

‘It’s how they find us,’ Rian explained to her. ‘They can target Genie and Renée’s brainwaves and shut them down. They’ve been trying to get them ever since they left the Fortress.’

Betty had no idea what he was talking about. She gathered her things.

‘We have to go. Did you thank Francis?’

Renée grinned. ‘I gave him a hug.’

Betty nodded, satisfied. ‘Good, a hug is important. Come on. You’re refugees remember, no dawdling.’

They left. Genie’s brain was clouded by the news of Miho committing suicide. After all she had been through? She didn’t think so.

Betty was herding them into her car. Moucher was all excited to see them again.

They didn’t notice the busboy making a phone call, giving Betty’s car registration number. Negotiating a piece of that twenty-thousand-dollar reward for two runaways.

‘I’m going to drop you at the Shell station on Mission road. You will wait there for Mr Collins. He grows organic vegetables near Harrison Lake and he’s a good friend. He’ll drive you in to Vancouver. But he won’t be there until about five. So you must wait. You can trust him. I already called. He has no idea why or who, only I have asked him to pick up three friends and a dog.’

Genie smiled at her. ‘You’re more than generous to us.’

‘I am very fond of Ferry and if he likes you, you’re OK with me.’

A chopper swooped overhead. Probably got a good eyeball on the make of vehicle and licence plate. Genie and Renée had near apoplexy expecting pain from a Mosquito attack.

‘Oh no,’ Rian exclaimed, craning his neck to see up in the sky. ‘It’s them.’

‘Them?’ Betty asked.

‘Fortransco. They found us. Someone must have—’

‘Nonsense, those were my friends. They wouldn’t call anyone,’ Betty told him crossly. ‘I trust them completely.’

Nevertheless she sped up. Genie noted she was going pretty fast for these country roads now. ‘Besides,’ Betty added confidently, ‘they can’t hurt us as long as they are up there and we’re down here.’

On the second swoop shots were fired, a sharp burst from an automatic rifle. A spray of bullets cut across the road and car. Betty was screaming then abruptly slumped forward, a bullet in the back of her neck, blood spurting everywhere. She was instantly dead at the wheel. They didn’t have to time to react. The car suddenly swerved left and began to buck and jerk over an empty field as they headed fast towards the cliff edge and the river. Renée was yelling, Rian had bashed his head again and was howling with pain and Genie tried to wrestle with the wheel as the chopper came in for another run. The river was just metres away. She couldn’t get Betty off the wheel.

‘Bail out! Bail out!’ Genie screamed.

A shot slammed into the car again, smashing glass, and Genie felt hot metal slice through the tip of her shoulder. Moucher was howling and they careened into a rock, tipping over, but still moving forward at speed. Even as Genie bailed, the car was going over the edge of the cliff, sliding down towards the river on its roof with everyone still inside.

She watched the chopper bank over the trees, ready to come back in and land.

Genie looked around. She was the only one who’d bailed. She yelled after the car and ran, jumping down the sandy rock cliffside, falling, bouncing, crashing through undergrowth and rocks and following the vehicle down to the deep-green river spread out below.

The car landed upside down in the water and instantly began to sink. Genie bumped and scraped her way all the way down. She sucked in some air and plunged in after the car, praying that Ri and Renée were still alive.

She tried to see underwater, but the water was murky. She’d have to feel her way.

Her hands found the rear door. Being upside down, it was complicated to open it. Moucher flew upwards past her, searching for air. She finally entered the vehicle; there was still some air at the top but it was filling fast. Renée was struggling with her seatbelt, upside down in the car, Rian trying to free her, desperately trying to get at the last air. It was totally disorientating being upside down.

Genie sucked in some air and signalled for Rian to go, she had it under control. Indeed she got Renée free, but hauling her out was tough and Genie felt her chest about to burst – she had to let some air out and then it all escaped and she was suddenly desperate.

Renée abruptly untangled herself, trying to control her sense of panic. She was a second away from drowning. Genie pulled one last time and at last Renée came free and they both rose to the surface, coughing and gasping for air.

Rian was there waiting as they broke surface, his head bloody once again as the old wound had reopened. Moucher was already on the shore, shaking. Rian wasn’t about to make them swim to shore though. ‘Get air, go back under, swim over there.’ He pointed to trees at the water’s edge. ‘Get under the trees.’ Their low branch overhang shaded the river. ‘Now! Before they see you.’

Genie took a huge breath. Renée followed suit, bewildered and shocked by what had happened. All three swam underwater towards the trees.

Moucher was astonished by their actions. He ran, shaking and vexed, alongside the river, going this way and that, not knowing what to do. They had all disappeared.

Air bubbles and debris were still coming up from the sunken car.

Moucher saw men up high on the cliff looking down and yelped. They had guns. Mouch tried to hide behind a rock, but there was nowhere.

The men fired three rounds into the submerged car and waited a moment. More debris floated up. They seemed satisfied. One was trying to get a signal for his cellphone and not succeeding.

Moucher watched them leave and lay there, panic-struck. Genie had gone. He had no idea what to do and whined piteously.

‘I’m beginning to hate this bloody river,’ Renée whispered as she clung on to one of the lower branches. ‘Genie, I’m getting tired of thanking you for saving my ass, as well.’

Genie smiled, her heart rate returning to normal now. She could hear Moucher howling but she dared not call to him yet. Not till she saw that chopper take off.

Rian lay on his back and floated, his arms keeping him steady in the current. He appreciated the cool water on his sore head.

‘One thing we know now. They no longer want you back alive,’ he said.

Genie had picked up on that herself. It was disappointing. It was the only card she had in her favour before.

‘Poor Betty. It’s my fault. Should never get anyone involved. She was such a good person too. I feel so bad …’

Renée looked at Genie and then looked away because she knew she would cry. That woman had been really nice and so completely the opposite of her own mother. Why couldn’t she have had a mother like Betty? Why hadn’t Genie? Life just sucked.

They heard the chopper engines begin to whine.

‘Stay put. You don’t know what they can see from the air. Stay put until they have really gone,’ Rian instructed.

Moucher continued to howl – like he was in mourning, and it broke Genie’s heart. But she couldn’t call him. Not yet.

‘We gonna swim to Vancouver from here?’ Renée asked. ‘’Cause I got to tell you, I very seriously doubt I can make it.’

Rian just smiled. But Renée was right. Just what to do now? The river wasn’t safe. Neither was the road. Just what did they have to do to get to the city and safety?

‘I’d kill for a toothbrush right now,’ Genie stated out of nowhere.

Rian watched the chopper rise through the cover of the leaves. It flew right over the crash site, just to be sure.

‘They won’t leave it at that. They’ll send someone to get the bodies out before the cops make a fuss,’ Rian stated.

‘Then let’s get out of here,’ Genie said, swimming to shore. ‘Mouch, Mouch baby, it’s OK. I’m here. I’m here.’

Mouch looked at her with astonishment. He had been so sure he’d been abandoned.

‘I’m not leaving you,’ Genie told him.

He desperately tried to lick her dry as she came ashore.

Renée walked out of the river and looked down at Genie, trying to discourage Moucher and just sit.

‘Wasn’t he supposed to go get help from the friendly farmer up the road who’d come and save our asses, and also has a very good-looking son who will like take on the Fortress single-handed and win?’

‘That, I believe, will be in the sequel,’ Rian told her. ‘Right after we teach Mouch to write our names in the dirt.’

‘Oh right, we haven’t told him how to write. Stupid us.’

Genie hugged her damp dog. ‘Lay off him. He’s here, he’s looking after me as best he can.’

Rian looked up the cliff they’d just come down and then back at Genie. He realized she was bleeding and had cuts and abrasions all over her.

‘I can’t believe you ran down this cliff – and lived.’

‘I can’t believe you survived the crash.’

‘Volvo,’ Rian stated calmly. ‘They test them in rivers like this. I knew soon as I saw the car we’d be safe.’ He winked at her and Genie couldn’t but help smile back.

‘What next, Ri?’

Rian pointed south. ‘Walk along the riverbank to the bend, then head in towards the road. We can hitch. But we’ll never meet up with that guy in Mission by five p.m. That’s for sure.’

Renée pulled off her top and wrung the water out of it. She’d given up on modesty. Being dry was her priority now.

‘We have to go,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be anywhere near here if they send someone. They’re going to be angry when they don’t find our bodies.’

Genie nodded, pulling off her T-shirt with difficulty. Both Renée and Rian winced at her cuts and bruises.

Genie squeezed all the water out of it and pulled it back on.

‘That cut on your shoulder? How did … ?’

‘Bullet,’ Genie said matter-of-factly. ‘Weirdly, it doesn’t hurt as much as my knees. I don’t even want to look at my knees.’

Renée inspected Genie’s shoulder. ‘Wow. Bullet must have just nicked you. Clean though, more like a burn. It’s going to leave a scar.’

Rian came over and kissed her shoulder then hugged her. He whispered something in her ear and Genie smiled, hugging him back.

‘Let’s go, guys,’ Renée said. ‘No time for sweet nothings.’

They moved off, more determined than ever to survive the Fortress and all it could throw at them. Genie said a little prayer for Betty Juniper as they passed the submerged car. No one that nice should have to die.