Lost Worlds (29 page)

‘OK,’ Rhino said grimly. ‘Let’s go find us an Almast.’

Natalie had run out of things to tell Craig Roxton. In silence she stared out of the passenger window at the passing countryside while he drove and three of his men – his
troops,
she thought – sat in the back and glowered.

The landscape they were driving through was probably the most depressingly flat and boring she had ever seen, and she had lived in El Paso for a while when her mother was working with –
never
for,
as she kept pointing out – the US Department of Defence. It consisted entirely of swathes of rocky ground interrupted every now and then by a scraggly bush or a misshaped
tree. Life seemed to be just about hanging on in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, and it didn’t seem too happy about it either.

As the three Humvees had set off from their hiding place and driven off after her friends, Craig Roxton had patiently and politely asked a series of questions that cut right to the heart of what
the expedition was doing there, what its plans were and how it was equipped. He seemed to know many of the answers already, and Natalie assumed that he was testing her by asking her things that he
already knew. She tried telling him a couple of lies and exaggerations, but he spotted each one and threw it back at her. He didn’t seem to mind that she was trying to deceive him – in
fact, he almost seemed to be expecting it, and smiled each time he caught her pulling the wool over his eyes. He really was the most exasperatingly patient man she had ever met.

And the scariest. She was pretty sure that he was capable of killing her and leaving her lying in a ditch. The only reason he kept her with him was that she was useful. So she had to keep on
being useful.

Inside, Natalie could feel a fluttering sensation, as if butterflies were congregating around her heart like moths around a lamp. She could feel a trembling in her hands. She tried to suppress
it – no way was she going to let these gorillas know that she was scared – but the more she suppressed the trembling the more it came out as occasional jerky motions of her hands or
arms. Every time she jerked she tried to turn it into a deliberate action, like smoothing her hair down or scratching her nose, but she knew that Roxton realised what she was doing, and was amused
by it.

He was very interested in Calum Challenger, she discovered. He kept coming back to questions about him – what was wrong with him, what did he expect to achieve if his expedition found the
Almasti, why hadn’t he come out to Georgia himself, what was his website actually
for
? He seemed to think that there was a big conspiracy going on somewhere, and that Calum was
covering something up – some motive or reason for arranging the expedition. Natalie tried to convince him that Calum was just a teenager exploring his own obsessions with a lot of money
behind him, but he obviously didn’t believe her.

The other men in the Humvee remained silent and almost immobile, like robots, or statues. They didn’t seem to be listening to Roxton and Natalie talking, or looking around them, or doing
anything that someone normal would have done. Natalie suspected that they just came alive when Roxton needed them and settled back into suspended animation when he didn’t. In a strange way,
there were only two personalities in the car.

Roxton was mad. Natalie had spotted it straight away. His faded blue eyes were open too wide and didn’t blink, and he could talk calmly about hurting and killing people as if they were
nothing more than rabbits or sheep or pigs. There was something deeply wrong with him. Natalie was very, very scared.

There was a device attached to the dashboard of their Humvee. It was something like a large satnav, but as well as showing where they were it also showed the position of something ahead of them.
Natalie suspected that it was the van with Rhino, Tara and Gecko inside.

Roxton caught her looking at it. ‘You’re wondering how I can be following your friends,’ he said in a genial tone. ‘You assume I have placed a tracking device somewhere
on them? In fact, no. I have a
much
cleverer solution.’ He smiled. ‘Now,’ he continued conversationally, ‘let us talk about ARLENE.’

‘Arlene?’ Natalie replied. ‘I don’t think I’ve met her.’

‘I’m talking about that very clever robot that Captain Gillis is using to transport his equipment. But I think you knew that already. So – tell me all about it.’ He
paused for a moment, then added quietly, ‘You know what will happen if you don’t.’

Calum stared at the ten screens of his computer, and swore.

They weren’t telling him anything that he wanted to know. Yes, they were full of information, but they didn’t contain a single fact that would help him do what he most needed to do
– locate Natalie Livingstone.

He slammed his fist on the computer desk. The pile of pizza boxes stacked on the edge fell off, scattering crusts and splattering
puttanesca
sauce across the floor. He felt so helpless.
He knew where Rhino, Gecko and Tara were. He knew where the scavenging Almast was, pretty much. But he didn’t have a clue where Natalie was.

If only she had kept her mobile phone on her, he could have tracked her. But then, if she had kept her mobile phone on her, he wouldn’t be able to track the Almast, and the whole
expedition would have ground to a halt. She’d done something really clever and quick-witted, but the implications of that act were going to come back to haunt her. And him.

How could he tell her mother that he had lost her?

He scanned the screens again, just in case he had missed something. Three of the screens were showing the views from the cameras on the headbands of Rhino, Tara and Gecko. The fourth screen was
blank – reserved for the headband camera that Natalie had been wearing but which had disappeared. The fifth screen showed what ARLENE was looking at, while the rest were showing a mixture of
maps, Google Earth and various search engines that he’d been using.

Not for the first time, Calum wished he had the computer skills and the nerve to hack into the American reconnaissance-satellite network. The US recon satellites had telescopes so powerful that
they could read the headline on a newspaper left on a park bench. The trouble was that none of them were pointed at Georgia, as far as he knew, and he would be risking a lengthy spell in an
American prison if he even tried to retask one for his own purposes.

Ironic, he thought. Tara has the skill to do it, Gecko has the nerve and I have the equipment. Between the three of us we make a pretty competent human being.

Or between the four of them, if he included Natalie.

As if prompted by the confusion of his thoughts, Rhino Gillis’s voice suddenly spoke in the headphones he was wearing. ‘Any news on Natalie, Calum?’

‘Nothing yet,’ he said as calmly as he could manage.

He typed some instructions into the keyboard. ‘Rhino, I’ve isolated our channel from the others. Tara and Gecko can’t hear me – can they hear you?’

‘Not if I’m quiet,’ Rhino responded. His breath was audible on the loudspeakers as he walked uphill into the Caucasus Mountains. ‘They’re about six or seven metres
in front of me – you can probably see them on my headband camera.’

‘OK. Look, I’m worried about her.’

‘You and me both, kid.’

‘I’ve been racking my brains, trying to work out what might have happened to her, and I’ve come up with nothing.’ He paused. ‘Actually, that’s not true.
I’ve come up with everything from her falling down an abandoned mine shaft to being kidnapped by aliens from space. The trouble is that there’s no evidence for any of them.’

‘I’ve been thinking as well,’ Rhino said. ‘You want to know my three top theories, in reverse order?’

‘OK.’

‘Third – one of the villagers took a fancy to her and has her captive in his house while he tries to persuade her to marry him.’

‘Ouch. I don’t like that one much.’

‘Fortunately for Natalie, I don’t think it’s what’s happened. Before I left I talked to the village head man, Shota Gigauri. He just laughed when I suggested the
possibility that she’d been kidnapped by someone in the village. He said, and I quote, that she’s too thin, too pale and too talkative to make a good wife for anyone in Ruspiri.
Regardless, I’ve asked Levan Ketsbaia to keep an eye out for her.’

‘That’s reassuring. So what’s the next theory?’

‘Second – she decided she doesn’t want to be on the expedition and she’s paid one of the villagers to drive her back to Mummy in Tbilisi.’

Calum considered the idea for a moment. ‘Possible. She certainly didn’t want to go to Georgia in the first place. I guess I could phone Gillian to find out if Natalie’s been in
contact with her, or if she’s suddenly appeared back at the hotel, but that would tip her off that something was wrong.’

‘Calum, if Natalie suddenly appeared back at the hotel in Tbilisi, Gillian Livingstone would be straight on the phone to
you
to find out what had happened.’

‘Good point. We can rule that one out, then. So what’s the front runner?’

Rhino paused before answering. When he did speak, his tone was more serious than before. ‘There’s a slim chance the Almasti have taken her, but given how timid they are, that’s
unlikely. What bothers me is the other expedition, the one Gillian warned us about, the one that left Tbilisi shortly after we did . . . If they’re looking for the Almasti as well, and if
they’re unscrupulous enough, they might just decide to take one of our expedition prisoner to find out whether or not we know where the Almasti can be found.’

Calum felt a cold wave wash over his heart. ‘You think they would
do
that?’

‘Depending on who they’re working for, yes.’ He paused again. ‘It’s what I would do.’

‘Hmm,’ Calum said, not quite sure what the best response was to that admission.

‘Did you manage to find out anything about the expedition?’

Calum shook his head, despite the fact that Rhino couldn’t see him. ‘Nothing. There’s no trace of these people going into the country, no trace of them booking into any hotels,
no trace of them renting or buying any Humvees or supplies . . . absolutely nothing. Assuming that Gillian’s information was correct, of course, and there
is
a second expedition
heading out into the Caucasus Mountains. It could just be a mistake, or a misunderstanding.’

‘I tend to believe her.’

‘So do I,’ Calum admitted. ‘Look, I’ve got a suggestion,’ he continued after a few moments. ‘You’re not going to like it, and Tara and Gecko are going
to hate it.’

‘Go on.’

‘Unpack ARLENE and give it orders to stay back and scout the area behind you. If this second expedition is following you, then ARLENE might be able to find them.’

On the screen showing what Rhino was seeing, the view suddenly slewed around to show ARLENE, lumbering along behind the expedition members. Rhino was obviously looking at the robot,
considering.

‘Interesting idea. I presume the idea is that we carry what we can ourselves, and leave the rest cached here to recover later.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Is ARLENE up to handling a mission on its own?’

‘I think so. Check with Tara. She’s read the technical manuals, and she’s got the control software on her tablet. She can tell you if ARLENE can be reprogrammed to
independently search for a party of people in three vehicles, and she can also tell you if ARLENE’s visual sensors and control algorithms are good enough to pick Natalie’s face out from
a group of others.’

‘There’s a lot of terrain to cover back there. Just based on probabilities, there’s little chance that ARLENE will stumble across this other expedition.’

‘You’re missing something,’ Calum said forcefully. ‘Let’s assume that this second expedition is following us. Let’s also assume that they were responsible for
the attempted theft of your equipment back at Tbilisi airport. It makes sense to assume that they have some means of working out where you are. Maybe the Mitsubishi Delica has a tracking device in
it, maybe it doesn’t, but the terrain being as limited as it is, at some stage that expedition is going to pass through where you left the van. They’ll probably have to ditch their
vehicles at around the same point. Send ARLENE back to the van, using bushes and trees as cover. If the other expedition isn’t there, then ARLENE can wait for them. If they’ve already
got there and moved on, ARLENE can follow their tracks.’

Rhino was silent for a few minutes, thinking. Eventually, he said, ‘You’re right – it’s the only option we have, short of just forgetting about her. I’ll tell the
others and get started.’

‘Keep me in the loop.’

Rhino raised a hand to his headband. His fingers appeared huge in the field of view of the camera. ‘Calum, while we’re wearing these things you’re in the loop whether you want
to be or not.’ His voice suddenly became louder. ‘Tara, Gecko – stop for a minute. I’ve got something I need to discuss with you . . .’

The Nemor Inc. expedition had got just about as far as it could on wheels – even wheels as wide and robust as those on the Humvees. Ahead of them the ground rose up more
steeply than before. It also looked to Natalie as if it was softer, muddier.

The van that Rhino and Gecko had liberated from the thieves at Tbilisi airport sat in the middle of an area of open ground. Seeing it, Natalie felt a momentary pang of loneliness. She was trying
not to think too much about what was going on, just living from moment to moment, but knowing that her friends had been there only a little while before made her feel tearful.

Her
friends?
When had that happened? When had they gone from being just people she was stuck with to people she kinda liked being with?

When they had been so concerned for her, back in the village, that was when.

Roxton had stopped the three vehicles and was standing out on the sloping grassland next to the van, obviously making a judgement about what to do next. The wind was ruffling his fine blond
hair. Three of his team were standing with him, consulting maps and compasses. Natalie was in the passenger seat of the lead Humvee, where she’d been ordered to stay, watching them all with
little interest.