Alpha Force 10 - Untouchable by Chris Ryan

Author:Chris Ryan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: RHCB Digital
Published: 2011-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

16

RACE AGAINST TIME

At 7 a.m. Li opened her curtains. Four hours’ sleep wasn’t really enough. The sun was already starting to evaporate the dew into a light mist. It was a captivating sight – it almost made her glad to be up.

Someone pounded on the door.

‘Yeah, it’s OK,’ she called. ‘I’m up.’

Paulo’s voice answered her. ‘Tiff’s gone again.’

She threw on some clothes and pounded down the stairs.

In the hall Alex was already making plans. ‘Li, you search the attics, Amber the bedrooms, Paulo the ground floor. Hex and I will take the outbuildings.’

Amber, a slice of bread in one hand, spoke between mouthfuls. She was a diabetic and had to make sure she ate regularly. ‘Hex, couldn’t you just look her up on your thingy?’

‘I’ve done all that,’ said Hex. ‘I couldn’t see her so I tried calling her. Her phone’s in her room.’

Amber gulped down the rest of her breakfast as she climbed the stairs.

Amber had found nothing. She strode out of the front door. Li and Paulo were standing in the drive.

‘Anything?’

They shook their heads.

The mist was lifting, making the valley glow. From the garage came the clunk of the Range Rover door, then Hex and Alex came out.

Alex saw the group and shook his head. ‘Zilch. She’s vanished into thin air.’

‘Most of her stuff’s still in her bedroom,’ said Amber, ‘so she hasn’t gone to the airport or anything. But her walking boots have gone.’

‘Typical,’ sighed Hex. ‘The only way that lazy trout would go for a walk is to annoy us.’

‘All the safety equipment’s still here,’ said Alex. ‘Ropes, helmets, etc.’

‘Pur-leeze!’ exclaimed Li. ‘She’s not going to go for an energetic climb.’

‘I looked at her alarm clock in case she’d set it to go out early,’ said Amber. ‘No clues there. It wasn’t even on.’

Alex looked up into the hills. A gentle breeze made the heather ripple. ‘We’d better find her before she blunders into something she shouldn’t.’

The Ordnance Survey map was spread out on the kitchen table.

‘She can’t have got far,’ said Paulo. ‘She’s not very fit.’

‘But we don’t know what time she left,’ said Li. ‘We went to bed at three; she could have been gone for hours.’

Amber looked at the map. ‘She hates hill walking. So she won’t have gone up here.’ She pointed to the contour lines that indicated the steep hill that rose at the back of the hostel.

‘Most likely she went along the road,’ said Hex.

Alex looked at the map, mentally dividing it up. He had learned a number of ways of searching for a lost person. You covered the area according to a set pattern, which meant you didn’t miss anywhere. ‘I think we should take two quad bikes; the rest of us can go in the Range Rover and search the roads.’

‘I’ll take a quad,’ said Paulo.

‘Me too,’ said Amber. She looked at Hex. ‘You coming?’

Hex snorted. ‘Not if you’re driving.’

‘Actually, Hex,’ said Alex, ‘you’d better come in the Range Rover. You can monitor everyone on tracers. And we’d better have just one person on each quad so we’ve got something to bring her back on.

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