Endgame (Agent 21) (18 page)

It was uncomfortable on the floor, but it was warm. And although Zak knew he should be staying awake, he soon found his eyes and limbs getting heavy. The flickering of the candle almost hypnotized him. A tiny voice in the corner of his mind urged him to stay awake. But the exhaustion was too great. The flickering shadows in the room receded into darkness as he fell asleep.

‘Where is it?
WHERE IS IT?
’

Zak woke with a start. It was light in the shack. Tyler was leaning over him, and his thin face was furious.

‘Wh-what are you talking about?’

‘My gun – the red one – it’s missing.
Where is it, kid?
’

Zak sat bolt upright, cursing himself for having fallen asleep. Ricky and Malcolm were still sleeping beside him. He looked at his watch. It was 8:30 a.m. Panic surged through him. He had slept too long. There was just under forty hours until Cruz’s deadline, and they were no nearer to Little Diomede Island than they had been the night before.

Tyler was very agitated. He pulled Zak roughly to his feet, then dragged him across the shack, opened the door and hurled him outside. The snow had obviously been falling heavily while he’d been sleeping, because there was no sign of their tracks from the night before. And the weather was still foul. Tasha and her family were standing ten metres away by a small fire, obviously arguing. They fell silent as Zak tumbled into the snow. They stared at him in a very unfriendly manner – except Tasha herself, who looked slightly apologetic. Snow, as always, was by her side.

Tyler loomed above him. ‘He stole my gun!’

‘I didn’t steal anything,’ Zak snapped back. ‘Search me if you like. Search my friends. Search the packs.’

His offer silenced Tyler momentarily. ‘I will,’ he said. But he didn’t turn back into the shack.

‘Maybe you dropped it in the snow,’ Zak said, trying to sound as calm as possible. ‘I’ll help you look.’

‘What do you’s think I am?’ Tyler retorted. ‘An idiot?’

‘That’s enough, son,’ growled the father. ‘We’ll find the weapon soon enough.’ He looked at Zak. ‘You’s can’t stay here,’ he said. ‘Those city folk don’t like us living out here on our own. If they think we’re harbouring good-for-nothings, they’ll be out here, knocking down our house, messing with our way of life . . .’

Zak pushed himself up to his feet. He could feel the enmity coming from this strange, wild family. He needed to choose his words carefully. ‘I haven’t got much time,’ he said. ‘I really need your help.’ He directed this towards Tasha, since she seemed the least hostile.

But this seemed to enrage the father all the more. He stormed up to Zak, his face red. ‘I’m the head of this family. You speak to
me
. . .’ he fumed.

Zak nodded. ‘I apologize,’ he said calmly. ‘I need
your
help. I have to get to the Diomede Islands. It’s incredibly important. Life or death. There are no planes from Anchorage, so I need to get there cross-country.’

The old man stared at him for a moment, his eyes narrowed as if he thought Zak was having him on. Then, slowly, he broke out into a mirthless laugh. He turned to his family. ‘You’s hear that?’ he called. ‘You’s
hear
that? Kid’s out in the snow for a couple of hours, almost gets mauled by a grizzly. Now he wants to cross Alaska off his own back in the middle of winter!’

The two brothers started laughing too. Tasha and her mother, however, didn’t even break a smile. The old man walked back to his family, waving one arm in the air. ‘Take my advice, kid. Pack your bags, take your friends and get the hell back to the city. You ain’t cut out for the wild life.’

Zak didn’t move. He kept his gaze on the old man as he stomped back to the fire and held his hands out to warm them. When he saw that Zak was still staring at him, a shadow crossed his face. ‘I said, get out of here, kid!’ he barked.

‘I’ll pay the rest of the money we have to the person who gets me to Diomede,’ Zak said.

Travis walked up to him. ‘You heard of the Kuskokwim mountains?’ he asked.

Zak shook his head.

‘They lie between here and where you want to get to. No roads. No one living there. Impassable in winter. Pop’s right. You’s best to forget it. Only way to head north-west is by plane. And weather like this, only a fool’s gonna put one of them in the air.’

As he spoke, he glanced over at the rest of the family. Something seemed to pass between them.

‘You’re not telling me something,’ Zak said. ‘What is it?’

‘Forget it, kid,’ the old man ignored him. ‘You’re heading home. Go wake the others. My boys will put you on the right path, but I want you out of here.’

Zak strode up to him. ‘Listen to me,’ he said. ‘If someone came out here and killed you, what would you expect your family to do?’

The old man’s face creased up menacingly. ‘Don’t go thinking of anything stupid, kid . . .’

‘Just answer the question,’ Zak said.

The father licked his dry old lips. ‘I’d expect my boys to run them down like the dogs that they are.’ He glanced over at Tasha. ‘My girl too.’

‘Two days ago,’ Zak said, ‘the man who was like a father to me was killed. My brother and sister – as good as – were kidnapped. I’m chasing the guy who did it. If you don’t help me, I
will
walk across those mountains to find them. I don’t care how high they are, or if I die doing it.’

‘That’s your funeral, kid,’ said the old man, turning back to the fire. But Zak could sense that something had changed; there was a note almost of respect in the man’s voice now.

Tasha cleared her throat. ‘I’ll take them, Pop,’ she said quietly.

The old man frowned at her. ‘Hold your tongue, Tasha.’

‘It’s not far,’ she said. ‘Only a day’s walk. An’ if it earns us some money—’

‘
What’s
not far?’ Zak said.

‘Moriarty,’ Tasha said.

Zak caught his breath; he didn’t want to let on that he’d heard this name before. ‘Who’s Moriarty?’ he said carefully.

Tyler stepped forward. He seemed – for now – to have forgotten about his gun. He kept a careful eye on his fuming father, but spoke before he could be interrupted. ‘He’s just some guy, lived in these parts best of ten years now. Lives out in the wilds like us. More so. Used to fly army planes, and has a plane of his own too. Heard it said, he’ll put that plane in the air when no one else will.’

‘But only for a price,’ the father cut in. ‘These kids ain’t going to have the money to pay for that kind of trip. And even the airplane man won’t fly in this kind of weather.’

‘Take me to him,’ Zak said. He was addressing Tasha and her brothers now. ‘I’ll pay you.’

‘How much you got?’ Tyler asked.

Zak totted up the money he thought they had left between them. Ricky had given his to the cab driver. Zak had given his to the brothers. Only Malcolm’s money remained. ‘Three hundred bucks,’ he said weakly.

‘Ain’t gonna be enough, son,’ the father cut in. ‘Not to pay us
and
the pilot.’ His sharp face suddenly had a hungry look. ‘A thousand bucks will get you to the pilot, but no further.’

‘It’s all I have,’ Zak stated. But then an idea dropped, fully formed, into his brain. ‘The farmstead,’ he said. ‘Where the drug dealers are. How far did you say it was?’

‘Couple of miles,’ Tyler muttered.

‘How many people live there?’

‘’Bout ten.’

‘Tasha said they were sitting on cash they made in the city. What is it? Some kind of hideout?’

Tyler shrugged. ‘Bad people come out here in the wintertime to lie low. They know people ain’t so likely to follow them through the snows. Gives law-abiding folk like us a bad reputation.’ His eyes widened slightly as he guessed what Zak was thinking about. ‘You don’t want to go messin’ with them types, though. They know not to come harassing us – they know we give as good as we get – but anyone approaches their territory, they got plenty of guns to shoot ’em back. We’ve been trying to think of ways of chasin’ them out of this neck of the woods, without involving them in a pitched battle.’

‘We don’t want their kind around here,’ the father cut in.

Zak’s mind was suddenly working fast. ‘I know how to get rid of them,’ he said. ‘Lend me a couple of weapons, I’ll make sure they never come back.’ And when the father’s eyes narrowed aggressively, he added: ‘No bloodshed. That’s a promise. I’ll scare them away.’

The father’s eyes narrowed. ‘How?’ he said.

‘By thinking like a criminal. Where I was brought up, if a place gets robbed, chances are it’ll get robbed again, because the thieves know how to break in, and that there’s stuff there worth taking. Criminals know this. So if
they
get robbed, they move to a different location.’

The family were all watching him carefully now. ‘You can’t be planning on
robbing
them?’ the father said incredulously.

‘That’s exactly what I’m planning.’

A pause. A conflicted look crossed the father’s face. Tyler walked up to him. ‘Think of the money, Pop,’ he said. ‘We
need
it. And taking it from folk like that ain’t doing no wrong.’

The old man frowned. ‘One of you three stays here, so we know you ain’t just stealing our firearms,’ he said.

Zak nodded his agreement. The way he saw it, his plan meant everyone was a winner. Tasha’s family wanted these drug dealers gone. But they would also certainly have cash with them. Zak wouldn’t feel at all guilty about taking it from them. His need was greater. They just needed someone subtle enough and skilful enough to get on site and steal it.

Snow, who was looking towards the shack, inclined his head. It was an oddly friendly gesture. Zak glanced back to see what the dog was looking at. Ricky and Malcolm had woken, and they were standing outside the door. They both looked a lot better for a night’s sleep. Zak focused on Ricky – Snow’s new friend and the street kid who, if Zak had heard properly, could pick the pocket of the Artful Dodger himself . . .

It seemed to Ricky that Zak’s personality was changing hour by hour. The more desperate his situation grew – and the closer they got to the deadline – the more determined he became. His eyes were like flint. It was sort of impressive. And sort of scary. Ricky couldn’t stop wondering exactly what he intended to do when –
if
– they finally caught up with Cruz Martinez.

‘This is the plan.’ Zak, Ricky and Malcolm were back in the shack. Zak spoke urgently, and in a low whisper. ‘Malcolm, you have to stay here.’ He caught Ricky’s eye, and Ricky wondered if he was thinking the same thing as him – that with no laptop and no internet, Malcolm’s skills were no good to them. ‘If we leave you with them,’ Zak continued smoothly, ‘they’ll lend us some weapons.’

‘Weapons?’ Ricky breathed. ‘What for? Mate, you’re not thinking of—’

‘I’ve already told you once,’ Zak said. ‘I don’t kill people. The weapons are just a diversion.’

‘And they definitely said this guy was called Moriarty?’

‘Definitely.’

‘Mate, it’s pretty thin.’

‘If you’ve got a better idea, now’s the time to say.’

Ricky sighed and shook his head. There was no point arguing with Zak. ‘No better ideas,’ he said.

He listened carefully as Zak explained his plan.

– He’s crazy. It’s too dangerous. Ripping off a bunch of drug dealers in the middle of the Alaskan snows isn’t the same as picking a pocket in a London side street.

– Like the guy said, have you got any better ideas?

The voice in Ricky’s head fell silent. ‘When do we do it?’ he asked. His voice was shaking slightly.

‘Tonight. After dark, when nobody can see us approaching.’ He sniffed. ‘We’ve got thirty-nine hours until Cruz’s deadline runs out. That doesn’t give us any time to waste.’

They spent the day in the wild family’s shack. They were under the watchful eye of one of the brothers at all times. Travis didn’t let go of his weapon. Tyler insisted on patting them down again and emptying out their packs in his search for his lost gun. He found nothing, of course, and had to concede that he must have misplaced it in the confusion of the night before.

But Ricky sensed that the attitude of this strange family had changed. They seemed a bit more respectful. It was as if they were grudgingly impressed by what they intended to do. That didn’t make Ricky feel much better – it meant they thought it was very dangerous. And they were dead right. It crossed his mind that maybe Malcolm had the best role in Zak’s impromptu plan . . .

Around midday, the mother handed round small bowls of stew. The meat was tough and strong-tasting. Ricky didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t ask. Snow gnawed on a bone in the corner of the shack.

As the sun set over the silent, snowy terrain, Zak and Ricky prepared themselves. Tyler gave Zak back the hunting knife, and the family also reluctantly supplied them with an old rifle, fully loaded. Zak checked it over – he was the one who’d be using it.

‘We need a guide,’ Zak told the family. ‘Someone who can get us through the woods to the far side of the farmstead. It’s important that our tracks don’t make it look like we’ve approached from this direction.’

The two brothers looked at each other, then at Tasha. ‘She moves quickest,’ Tyler said, ‘and knows all the back ways. Snow will take care of her.’

Ricky smiled as Snow allowed him to scratch his neck. ‘Not sure this softy would be much good in a fight,’ he said.

Tyler and Travis exchanged a meaningful look. ‘Snow can take care of himself,’ Tyler said. Then he walked across the shack to where Zak was standing. With their faces only a couple of inches apart, he said: ‘Anything bad happens to
her
, something bad happens to
him
. . .’ He pointed at Malcolm, who blinked heavily.

Ricky watched Zak give a determined nod. ‘She’ll be fine,’ he said.

Ricky wasn’t so sure.

It was 9 p.m. when they left the house. Twenty-six hours until the deadline. As he walked over the threshold, Ricky looked back over his shoulder. Malcolm was sitting on the floor, hugging his knees and looking frightened. ‘You’ll be OK, buddy,’ Zak told him. ‘We won’t be long.’

Outside, the blizzard was at least as bad as the previous night. As Tasha and Snow led them quickly away from the shack, Ricky and Zak had to increase their pace to keep up with her. ‘Use my footprints,’ she called over her shoulder. ‘Easier to walk in.’