Black River by Tom Harper

Author:Tom Harper [Harper, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2015-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

25

‘That was the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. If I could, I’d send you both back to P-T this instant. You two want to play George of the Jungle by yourselves? See how long you stay alive?’

I’d never seen Anton so angry. ‘It was stupid,’ I admitted. ‘We—’

Anton ignored me. ‘You,’ he shouted at Howie. ‘You knew the deal.’

Howie stood his ground. ‘Deal was, I get to see the Indians.’

‘This is not a democracy. This is not a town hall fucking meeting. This is survival, and I am in charge. What if there’d been Indians here, and what if they decided they didn’t want your company?’

Always a big lad, he looked bigger now: a monster in the dark. He also had a knife on his belt, and a machete on the ground beside him.

‘I took a risk,’ said Howie.

‘You were meant to be keeping guard. Protecting us.’ Anton put his hands on his hips. Breath ragged, red face black in the moonlight. In a funny way, he reminded me of Peggy, wearing herself out at the end of some spectacular tantrum.

‘If this was the army, you’d both be shot.’

He might have gone on longer. But just then, I heard Tillman swearing inside one of the huts. He came out, waving a small box at us.

‘What is this? A fucking reading group?’

It wasn’t a box; it was a book. Howie snatched it off Tillman and clutched it to his chest, mumbling something. The cover had no writing, just an embossed cross.

‘Is this the Bible?’ said Drew. She’d opened Howie’s backpack and was holding an identical cross-stamped book. How many did he have?

Howie nodded. Tillman laughed in disbelief.

‘It’s the fucking Gideons.’

Howie stared at Anton. He looked like someone determined not to cry. ‘Are you going to tell them?’

‘Sure.’ Anton ground an ant into the dirt with his heel. For once, he looked as if he didn’t relish the attention. In fact, he looked downright embarrassed.

‘I’m a missionary,’ said Howie. ‘My church sent me here to evangelise the natives.’

‘Jesus fucking Christ,’ snorted Tillman. Howie shot him a foul look.

‘I can’t believe you did this,’ Zia said to Anton. ‘You know what these people are like.’

‘Living like a hog, back in the Dark Ages, that’s any better? We’re ennobling their souls.’

‘Like those people in Esperanza were ennobled?’

‘Can we talk about this later?’ I gestured around the little village. ‘Noble or not, they might come back.’

Tillman picked up one of the feathers from the hut and stuck it in his hair.

‘Maybe they heard God-Boy coming and ran off.’

Howie stuck his chin out. ‘I’m not listening to you persecuting me.’

‘Persecuting? Persecuting?’ Tillman picked up a stone and shied it at Howie. It hit him on the arm. ‘You do something dumb like that again and I’ll fucking persecute you. Jesus.’

‘The village must have been abandoned weeks ago,’ said Drew.

‘Where’d they go, then?’

‘They’re nomads. They’ll trek days just to go fishing, or to visit relatives in another tribe. The same way you or I’d go down to the store.

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