Desert Pursuit Part 5

'We have to do something!' said Li, her face tight with misery as she watched the boys walk away from their home.

Alex s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably. The truth was, none of them had thought this through properly before racing off into the desert after Khalid. 'I'm not sure what we can can do,' he admitted. 'There's no way we can take on three men with Kalashnikovs. Even if we wait until dark and try to creep up on them, that dog is going to raise the alarm.' do,' he admitted. 'There's no way we can take on three men with Kalashnikovs. Even if we wait until dark and try to creep up on them, that dog is going to raise the alarm.'

'Couldn't we put the mutt out of action?' asked Amber.

'Then what?' asked Alex. 'We can't just grab Khalid and leave the rest of the kids behind. But we can't take them, either. We don't have the room. And what if one of those kids gets hurt even killed because of us. No, I think we must...' Alex hesitated, reluctant to admit defeat.

'What?' asked Li.

'I think we must hand this over to the authorities. Hex can send a message on his palmtop, giving them all the details-'

'No,' said Li flatly.

'No?' asked Alex. 'What do you mean, no?'

'I'm not leaving Khalid,' said Li. 'He stayed for me, back at the minefield. He risked being arrested by those Moroccan soldiers. So I'm not leaving him now.'

'Oh, yeah?' mocked Amber. 'So what are you gonna do?'

Li stared defiantly at Alex and Amber. All the shame and fear and frustration of the last few days was beginning to eat away at her and she knew she just had to do something to help Khalid. She had to take action. But what?

'I suppose you could just walk right up to them and ask nicely,' continued Amber sarcastically. 'The nice men might give Khalid back to you...' She tailed off as a slow smile spread across Li's face.

'Good idea,' said Li, scrambling down to the quads.

'What's a good idea?' demanded Alex, sliding down after her.

'Walking right up to them,' said Li, rummaging in the box that was strapped to the back of her quad.

'Li, you can't-'

'Maybe I I couldn't,' said Li, finding the first aid kit and yanking out a length of wide, crepe bandage. 'But Liang could. Look away, Alex.' couldn't,' said Li, finding the first aid kit and yanking out a length of wide, crepe bandage. 'But Liang could. Look away, Alex.'

Alex frowned. 'Why?'

For answer, Li lifted her s.h.i.+rt up over her head. Alex gaped, then spun round so fast, he nearly tripped over his own feet.

'Listen to me,' he said over his shoulder. 'Whatever you're planning, it's not a good idea. I think we should just head back to the others-'

'OK. You can turn round now.'

Alex stared at Li. She looked like a boy. Her slight figure had been flattened by the thick crepe bandage that was wrapped tightly around her chest under the s.h.i.+rt, and she had twisted her long, silky black hair into a tight knot under her headcloth so that not a single wisp was showing.

'Li-'

'I'm not Li. I'm Liang. I came here from China with my father. He was a foreign oil worker, a labourer. He died in an accident at work and I've been left on my own. I need to find work an apprentices.h.i.+p maybe. I speak Chinese and French. I'm strong and I'm a hard worker-'

'OK, I get the picture,' snapped Alex. 'You're planning to walk out there and let yourself be taken by a bunch of armed slave traders. That's very bright. Don't you realize yet how dangerous these men are? It was you who was telling us how they sell the girls into the s.e.x industry!'

'That's why I'm going in as a boy. I'm less at risk that way.'

Alex made a disgusted noise and turned away from her.

'Listen to me, Alex,' said Li, hooking the tracker locket out from under her s.h.i.+rt, 'and you'll see it's not such a bad idea. I'm wearing my tracker. You've got the tracker unit. Once I'm in that truck, I can lead you straight to their base! Then you can call in the authorities and they can mop up the Scorpion and his whole organization in one operation.' She dropped the locket back into her s.h.i.+rt, tucking it under the bandage to keep it hidden.

'You know,' said Amber softly, 'it really isn't such a bad idea.'

Li grinned at Amber and handed over her watch and the little opal ring she always wore. 'Keep these safe until I can be a girl again,' she said.

Amber took the jewellery, then gave Li a hug. 'Be careful.'

Li nodded. 'I'm going to work my way over to the oasis first. Then it'll look as though I've just walked out of the village.'

'Good idea,' said Amber. 'We'll stay to make sure they take you on board, then we'll head back to the Unimog. We'll be right behind you with that tracker.'

'Wait! Wait a minute,' said Alex. He was floundering. Events were moving rapidly out of his control and he could not seem to get a grip on the situation. 'You haven't even got a weapon-'

'I can look after myself,' smiled Li, adopting a fighting stance. 'Paulo can vouch for that.'

Alex grinned despite himself, remembering how Paulo had once tried to make a move on Li. He had only tried once. Li had thrown him clear over her shoulder.

'OK,' he said, raising his hands in defeat. 'I give in.'

Li's smile widened and her uptilted eyes sparkled at the thought of getting into some action at last. She turned and headed off towards the oasis, keeping low and moving at a steady trot. Amber and Alex watched her go until she slipped out of sight, then they crawled to the top of the rise again and waited for her to walk out of the oasis.

'She'll be fine,' said Amber, noticing Alex's worried face.

'I hope so,' muttered Alex, watching as the Scorpion and his men roughly bundled the two young brothers into the back of the Unimog. 'Because if she isn't, I'll never forgive myself for letting her go.'

ELEVEN.

Li hurried out from the oasis, calling and waving to the traffickers in broken French, her face a picture of anxiety in case they left without her.

'She's good,' breathed Amber admiringly, peering over the top of the rise. 'She even runs like a boy.'

Alex tensed as the man with the Kalashnikov slung across his back spotted Li and reached for his weapon, but the Scorpion put out a hand to stop him. As Alex and Amber watched, Li stood in front of the Scorpion and pleaded with him to take her along too and find her a good apprentices.h.i.+p. The Scorpion listened, arms folded across his chest, then turned to his men with an amused look on his face. They grinned back. It was not often a boy walked right into their clutches without a struggle.

Turning back to Li, the Scorpion made a show of reluctance. He reached out to test the muscles in her wiry arms, then pulled down her chin to check her teeth. Finally he shrugged and pulled open the canvas flap at the back of the Unimog. Li boosted herself up on the tailgate and disappeared inside the vehicle. The dog jumped in after her, the three men climbed into the cab and the Unimog trundled away, heading north.

'Right,' said Alex. 'Let's move it. We need to get back to the Monster and hit the road double quick. That tracker unit only has a five-kilometre range so we need to catch up and then keep on their tail. It took us twenty minutes to get here on the quads, but we should do the return trip in half that time because we can move straight and fast-'

'What's that?' interrupted Amber, pointing south. Alex turned to look. The whole of the southern horizon was lost behind a thick, red wall of dust. Within the wall, the dust was constantly moving, swirling in the hot, strengthening wind and rising into the sky in tall spiralling columns.

It was a sandstorm and it was heading their way.

Alex and Amber raced for the quads, pausing only to grab black ski goggles and thin pigskin gloves from the panniers on the back of the machines. They pulled the ski goggles down over their eyes, jammed the gloves on to their hands, then revved the quad engines and blasted out into the desert, standing astride their machines to ride the uneven ground.

They were moving fast, but the sandstorm was faster. Within five minutes it was upon them, and suddenly they were lost in a red, twilight world with only a few metres of visibility. Particles of sand as sharp as pins blasted through every gap in their clothing and the wind that drove into their faces was thick with dust.

It was impossible to breathe. Coughing and choking, they brought the quads to a stop and turned their backs to the wind. The ski goggles kept out the worst of the dust, but still their eyes were streaming. The howling wind made talk pointless, so Alex leaned close to Amber and pointed back to the village.

Amber nodded, understanding. They had to find shelter quickly. She brushed the red dust from the GPS unit strapped to her quad handlebars and peered down at the little screen. She had already waymarked the village on her unit and now she was hoping the system would keep them on track as they struggled to make their way back. Otherwise they might pa.s.s within ten metres of the little settlement without even realizing they had missed it.

They were only five minutes out from the village but it took an age to retrace their tracks through the swirling sand. The visibility was so bad, they could only move at a crawl and Amber had to keep stopping to wipe clean the screen of her GPS unit. She was peering at the screen and beginning to think they had overshot despite the navigation system, when Alex reached out and thumped her hard on the shoulder. Startled, Amber looked up and slammed her foot on the brake as a building loomed out of the dust right in front of her.

It was one of the derelict houses on the outskirts of the village. One of the two rooms was open to the desert where the corner of the mud-brick wall had crumbled away. Alex and Amber drove their quads through the hole in the wall and left the machines there, while they staggered through to the shelter of the second room. Alex carried the pannier from the back of his quad bike through with him. He pushed the rotting wooden door shut behind him, then hurried over to the narrow window and closed the shutters.

The sudden drop in the noise level was stunning. For a few seconds they simply stood in the relative quiet and stillness of the dim room, coughing and spluttering and sucking air into their lungs. Then Amber burst into tears.

'What about Li? We were supposed to follow her! She's on her own!'

Alex gritted his teeth. He was worried about Li too. Dread had settled in his chest like a dull pain, but he had to make the best of the situation. He straightened his shoulders and pulled his survival kit from his belt pouch.

'The Scorpion's Unimog won't be going anywhere,' he said rea.s.suringly. 'Nothing can move in this. They'll have to stay put until the storm's over, just like us.'

He fumbled open his survival tin and hooked out his beta-light. He held the little crystal out to Amber and she took it, finding comfort in the pale circle of light emitted by the little crystal. Next Alex searched through the rubble on the floor of the little room until he had found enough pieces of rotting wood to make a fire. He cleared the floor beneath a small gap in the roof that would act as a chimney, then arranged the wood. He always carried dry kindling in his belt pouch and he pulled out a handful now and stuffed it under the wood. Finally he took his flint from the survival tin and struck it until the sparks ignited the kindling. 'There,' he said, as the wood began to catch.

He guided Amber to the fire and sat her down. 'You need food and a hot drink,' he told her. 'You'll feel better after that.'

Amber's sobs subsided into hiccoughs as she busied herself with checking her blood sugar levels. Once she had done that, she took her insulin pen from the pouch and injected herself in the stomach. With a flourish, Alex produced two high-energy bars and a small container of water from the quad pannier. It was important that Amber eat something now, otherwise she could have a hypo attack. If the attack was serious enough, she might pa.s.s out, descend into a coma or even die.

As Amber chewed on the energy bar, Alex used his survival tin to heat up some water over the fire. He crumbled in a stock cube and they shared the hot drink in silence, listening to the howling storm outside and wondering what was happening to Li.

Li made eye contact with Khalid as soon as she clambered into the back of the Unimog. His face lit up with incredulous delight, but Li gave him a warning look and shook her head ever so slightly. Khalid was quick on the uptake. He wiped the delighted expression from his face while Li was still blocking the Scorpion's view into the truck. By the time she sat down on the last available bit of bench s.p.a.ce, he had replaced it with an expression of dull misery.

The dog jumped in after Li and the Scorpion patted it on the head before glancing around the crowded bench seats, then lacing shut the canvas opening. The inside of the truck was plunged into sudden darkness and Li closed her eyes to help them adjust after the brightness outside. Even though she could see nothing, she was picking up plenty of information about the inside of the Unimog from her other senses, and none of it was good. The heat inside the truck was stifling, the bench she was sitting on was sticky with grease and dirt, and the combined stink of urine and unwashed bodies made her want to retch.

Li opened her eyes and gazed around the dim interior, sizing up her fellow captives and trying to get a feel for who was who in the group. The two boys from the village were sitting opposite her. The younger one was still crying softly and his brother was awkwardly patting his shoulder and staring straight ahead, stony faced. Li guessed he was struggling not to cry too.

'Bonjour,' said Li, taking a gamble that the common language for the mixed group in the back of the Unimog was French. 'Je m'appelle Liang.' They all nodded, seeming to understand her.

'Hakim,' said the older of the village brothers, meeting her eyes with an honest, open gaze. 'And this is Samir.'

Li smiled at Hakim. She liked him immediately and thought she could rely on him as an ally if things turned bad. She turned her attention to the youngest one of the group, a little girl of about five who seemed to have attached herself to Khalid. She was sitting next to him now, clinging on to his arm.

'What's your name?' asked Li.

'Jumoke,' whispered the little girl shyly. 'And this is my friend, Khalid.'

'Jumoke. That's a pretty name.'

The little girl smiled. 'It means Beloved One,' she said without a hint of irony.

Li felt her heart twist. The chances were Jumoke's parents had sold their Beloved One to the Scorpion for a down-payment of ten dollars. 'And where are you from?' she asked, returning Jumoke's smile.

'Nigeria,' said Jumoke.

'Us too,' said the boy sitting next to Li. 'I am Juma and these three are Ajani, Zaid and Rafiki.'

The other three boys nodded but did not speak. Li nodded back to each of them and made a mental note to remember that Juma was the leader of that particular foursome. If she could get Juma on her side, the others would follow.

'I am Kesia,' said one of the two older girls who were sitting together in the far corner of the truck. 'And this is Sisi.'

'We are from Benin,' said Sisi, looking at Li from under her lashes with a coy smile.

Li watched this performance with a puzzled frown until she remembered that, as far as Sisi was concerned, she was a boy called Liang. Li felt a blush spreading across her face and hastily looked away. She met Khalid's amused gaze and raised her eyebrows at him, then casually hooked the locket from her s.h.i.+rt and twisted the chain around her finger. Khalid looked down at the locket, then back to her face, his eyes full of a sudden hope. He knew the locket contained a hidden tracker device and Li could see that he understood exactly why she had made a point of showing it to him.

The Unimog's engine started up, the vehicle lurched forward and Li nearly slid off the bench. Hastily, she shoved the locket back under her s.h.i.+rt and grabbed on to one of the struts supporting the canvas covering. The dog flopped down on to the floor, lying full stretch between the benches and resting its muzzle on its front paws. Li gave the animal a shove to get it off her foot and it rose to its feet again and gave her a yellow-eyed stare. It was a big, lean animal, high in the shoulder, and its long muzzle was on a level with her face as she sat on the bench seat.

Li returned the stare and the dog began a low, rumbling growl in the pit of its belly.

'Don't look it in the eye,' warned Khalid, following her lead and speaking in French. 'It bites if it thinks it's being challenged.'

The growl turned into a snarl and the dog's muzzle wrinkled back, pulling away from a set of sharp, saliva-coated fangs. Hastily Li looked down at her feet. The dog rumbled for a while longer, then pushed its snout into her neck and sniffed suspiciously. Li held perfectly still, aware that the dog's sharp, curved teeth were centimetres from her jugular vein.

It seemed an age before the dog subsided to the floor again. Li let out her breath and slumped back, trying to ignore the heat and the stink and hoping the rest of Alpha Force were right on her tail.

TWELVE.

While Alex, Li and Amber took the quads to reconnoitre the village, Hex had found a rock in the shade of the dune that gave him a view of the village. He was sitting with his palmtop activated, ready to call for help if things went bad, but he was not expecting any trouble. Alpha Force were all trained in covert surveillance techniques, but Alex was a natural. Keeping out of sight of the slavers would be no problem for him.

Hex focused on the slavers' Unimog once more, but nothing much was happening. He yawned, lowered the binoculars and gazed around the quiet camp. The Monster was parked directly below the towering dune, in the shelter of the wadi. Paulo was sprawled out on the back seats of the cab, deep in an exhausted sleep after his day of extreme driving. A container of water was coming to the boil on the stove that Hex had positioned on a patch of flat ground; five silver-foil packages were lined up beside it.

His stomach gave a loud rumble as he looked down at the boil-in-the bag rations. After a day without food they actually seemed appetizing. He caught the faint note of an engine starting up and turned to look across the plain to the village. He did not need the binoculars to see the Unimog pulling out and heading north in a cloud of dust. The two smaller clouds of dust heading his way must be the quads. Hex grinned, put his palmtop down on the rock next to the binoculars and sprinted down to heat up the food.

As he busied himself at the stove, Hex was vaguely aware that the wind was getting up, but in the lee of the ma.s.sive shoulder of the dune he was protected from both the sight and the noise of the approaching sandstorm until it was right on top of the camp. The whirling ma.s.s of red sand and hot air blasted over the crest of the dune and swirled in from either side in the s.p.a.ce of a second. Hex barely had time to jump away from the pot of boiling water as it overturned.

He yelled in shock, but his yell turned into a choking cough as his mouth and throat filled with sand. His eyes felt as though they had been stuck with needles. He closed them tight against the storm, wincing as the sand already trapped under his lids sc.r.a.ped across his corneas. Blind and choking, Hex stumbled in what he thought was the direction of the Unimog until his foot stepped out into thin air and he tumbled down into the stony bottom of the wadi. With a groan he picked himself up again, but he had lost all sense of direction and could not decide which way to go. If he headed the wrong way, he could be staggering along the stony bed of the wadi until he collapsed. As he stood there, hunched against the howling storm and trying to see out of his streaming eyes, a dark shape loomed up beside him.

It was Paulo. He had wrapped his headcloth round and round his face like a bandage and plonked a pair of sungla.s.ses over his eyes. Hex had never been so glad to see the big South American, even if he did look like a cross between a mummy and the invisible man. Hex grabbed Paulo's arm and allowed himself to be guided to the Unimog and up into the shelter of the cab. Once he was in, he collapsed across the front seats, coughing up sand and wiping his streaming eyes as Paulo climbed in after him and pulled the heavy door shut.

It was nearly dark inside the cab. The wind was strong enough to rock the big vehicle on its wheels and the sand hissed and rattled against the metal bodywork, but at least it was possible to breathe again. Hex took several deep, sand-free gasps of air, then sat up and looked across at Paulo.

'Thanks,' he said gratefully over the noise.

'The others?' asked Paulo, unwinding his headcloth.