Dead Cat Bounce (35 page)

“Nothing!” The first paramedic was pumping his chest again.

“Charging! Charged!” David’s body went into spasm again.

“Still nothing! Again!”

Jonah was helpless, strapped into his seat, shaking, and praying to a god that, save for a few minutes earlier, he had not prayed to since he had gone to boarding school. “Please, God, let him live. Please, God.”

“Nothing.”

Jonah waited for the second paramedic to shout “Charged!” again. But it didn’t come. He gripped the edge of his seat.
Why weren’t they doing it again?!

“Do it again! Don’t stop!” he shouted. “Why aren’t you doing it again?” he begged, but as the words came out his mouth, he already knew the answer.
He was gone. His father was gone
. Jonah could see the two paramedics still working, pumping his chest, trying to resuscitate him, but Jonah knew that the life had left his body. Jonah looked on, thinking how he’d gotten his dad back only to have him taken away again. David’s final words echoed inside Jonah’s head. “Make them pay. Make them pay.”

“I will, Dad. I will,” Jonah said to himself, the words seeming to extinguish his desire to cry and instead give him strength. “I will make them pay,” he said again and again, feeling stronger every time. He heard the poacher team call in on the radio that they’d caught one of the escapees, but not the other.

“I will make them pay,” Jonah repeated to himself once more.

To be continued …

I would like to thank all those people who have played a part in this book, in particular my parents; my wife Jo; Andy and Carlie; the Colonel; Slash; Tommo; Charles Curtis; Robyn Beer; Mike Cordy; Bruno Nebe at Mundulea; Jackie, Catherine, and Caroline at Felicity Bryan; Gillian and the team at Razorbill; plus all of the friends, family, and colleagues who have shown their enthusiasm and interest throughout its writing.

Finally, an apology to the jinxed generation who will carry the costs of the 2008 financial crisis in higher taxes and fewer jobs. Sorry, kids. Gekko was wrong. Greed wasn’t good.