Catch Your Death

  Ruby closed her eyes, and cursed herself. This must be Lorelei von Leyden.

  ‘Now what brand of bubblegum is it. . .? Yum-Yum? No, too fruity. Hubble-Yum! That’s it. Am I right little girl? Or should I say. . . Ruby Red?’

  Jeepers, thought Ruby.

  ‘I smell your shampoo; you teenagers just love Wildrose.’

  Ruby had indeed washed her hair with Wildrose.

  She could hear Lorelei’s foot on the bottom tread. She waited, one, two, three, four, five, six. Lorelei was about halfway up before Ruby sprang from her crouch and pushed at the ladder with every ounce of her being. It was enough: Lorelei was not heavy. The ladder toppled backwards and she heard Lorelei hit the floor. Ruby jumped down through the opening and clattered down the basement stairs, clambered into the vent duct and forced her way out into the night air. She could hear the sound of running boots and voices calling in the dark.

  Which way? She was a little disorientated.

  Where was the moon? A cloud had momentarily obscured it; a good thing – it was dark and it gave her some cover. She stood there, heart pounding, as she watched the guards spilling into the yard, all of them shouting, the security lights from the house illuminating their faces. She was just going to have to make a dash for it.

  She dodged out from the shadows and slid under a truck. No one saw, then she caterpillared her way from one vehicle to another until the only thing between her and the barn door was a few feet of empty yard. Quick as a flash, she rolled out and up and sprinted to the door.

  She almost made it without being seen.

  But a miss, as they say, is as good as a mile. Bang! The floodlights came on and the yard was lit up as bright as any baseball stadium and she was illuminated like the star attraction.

  Clancy, roused by the alarms and bright lights, leapt to his feet and managed to slide the great door open just far enough so Ruby could slip inside and then they rammed the door closed and bolted it behind them. They pushed every other thing – box, crate, feedsack – they could find against the thick wooden doors. It would hold for a bit, but not more than minutes Ruby guessed.

  They sank to the floor, breathing heavily.

  Then Ruby reached into her pocket and pulled out the Hunger Bites.

  CLANCY: ‘Hunger Bites? Really? I’m not so crazy aboutthem.’

  RUBY: ‘What?’

  CLANCY: ‘It’s the dried cherry, it sort of sticks in mythroat.’

  RUBY: ‘There’s gonna be a whole lot worse sticking in yourthroat buster; you should see the knives they got.’

  CLANCY: ‘And there goes my appetite.’

  RUBY: ‘Try and get it back, it might be your last chance to eat – ever I mean.’

  CLANCY: ‘Do I want my last meal to be a Hunger Bite?’

  RUBY: ‘ You’re choosing a fine time to get picky.’

  CLANCY: ‘OK, OK, I’ll eat it if it makes you so happy.’

  RUBY: ‘Good, you start fainting and you’re on your own.’

  CLANCY: ‘You’re planning on running?’

  RUBY: ‘How else are we gonna get out a here? ‘

  CLANCY: ‘Tunnelling?’

  RUBY: ‘I’m hoping there’s a back door.’

  CLANCY: ‘There is. But I wouldn’t use it if I were you.’

  RUBY: ‘Scared of the dark?’

  CLANCY: ‘No, I’m scared of the wolf.’

  Ruby stared at him. ‘The wolf’s here?’

  Clancy nodded. ‘I looked.’

  Ruby scrambled to her feet and crept over to the far side of the barn, where there was a stable style door. She could hear something pacing, sense something wild and fearful lurking there. She opened the upper half of the door a crack, no more, and stared into the darkness.

  The black seemed to be impenetrable, impossible to see into, but there must have been a hole in the roof, a skylight perhaps, and the moon must have found a way through the cloud because all of a sudden something appeared in the beam of light that shone down and Ruby found herself staring into the pale blue eyes of a savage-looking creature.

  ‘The only thing to fear is the Blue Alaskan wolf.’ The words of Samuel Colt echoed in her mind. She could see that he wasn’t wrong: this beast did look very dangerous. He had the same indigo-ringed eyes as the wolf trapped forever in her memory, the same black-tipped ears as the wolf in Mrs Digby’s photograph. This was it: this was the last Cyan wolf.

  Chapter 61.

  RUBY WAS THINKING HARD, her brain working fast, clicking through thoughts and ideas, possibilities and impossibilities. ‘So why didn’t it eat her?’ she muttered.

  ‘Eat who?’ said Clancy.

  ‘Mrs Digby,’ said Ruby. ‘Long ago she had her picture taken with a wolf just like this one and it didn’t eat her, but why?’

  ‘Maybe it had just eaten someone else,’ mused Clancy.

  But Ruby wasn’t hearing him; she was hearing the voice of Connie Slowfoot. ‘You meet that wolf, you better be sure you got the scent.’

  ‘. . .maybe it didn’t like the smell of her,’ Clancy suggested.

  ‘Maybe it did like the smell of her!’ said Ruby. ‘Maybe there was some scent that Fengrove’s people used to control it, calm it, keep it docile.’

  She was thinking about the zookeeper, the handkerchief he was clutching when Clancy found him. She realised it wasn’t just any handkerchief; it wasn’t scented with just any fragrance.

  Clancy had his eye to a crack in the stable door; he was watching the wolf. ‘It doesn’t look docile, that’s for sure, it looks kinda mean,’ he said. He was unusually laid-back. Ruby guessed he must still be suffering the effects of the sedative or he would be flapping his arms by now.

  ‘It better be mean,’ said Ruby.

  ‘Why do we want a mean wolf in our barn?’

  ‘It’s all part of the plan.’

  ‘What’s your plan?’

  ‘We’re gonna let it out,’ said Ruby.

  ‘I knew you were gonna say that,’ said Clancy.

  ‘So you shouldn’t have asked.’

  ‘I was hoping for a different answer.’

  ‘These guys won’t dare shoot; they want it alive, but they’re also gonna have to run for cover ’cause this creature is capable of ripping them limb from limb.’

  ‘And why won’t it rip us limb from limb?’ asked Clancy.

  ‘Because of this,’ said Ruby, pulling the handkerchief from her pocket.

  ‘We’re going to surrender to it?’ said Clancy.

  ‘No stupid, the smell. I think the smell on this handkerchief is what the keeper used to control it with. I think the smell is from another Cyan wolf; he must have kept a little of the scent somewhere – if you’ve got the smell, you can control the wolf – that’s what Connie Slowfoot must have meant.’

  ‘That wolf will rip you to shreds, soon as sniff you. . . Unless, of course, you got the scent.’

  ‘Connie who?’

  ‘It’ll work, I’m sure it’ll work. . . probably.’

  ‘You’re saying the smell from some old handkerchief is going to stop this wild beast attacking us?’

  ‘I’m saying I hope it will; the only thing is the scent is sorta wearing off now. . .’

  ‘Oh great, so have you got a plan B if your brilliant plan A doesn’t work?’

  ‘Run for it.’

  ‘That’s it, is it? I hate to be a downer,’ said Clancy, ‘but I’m not sure that I’m really capable of fast movement.’

  ‘Oh brother!’ She looked at him; he was looking decidedly feeble. The Hunger Bites had perked him up, but he still wasn’t his old self. Ruby kicked at the floor of the barn. ‘There has to be another way out,’ she said, and just then her foot struck something hard.

  She knelt down, cleared the straw and found a large metal ring, the handle to a trapdoor. She shone her flashlight into the hole; it appeared to be a crawl space that ran the length of the barn and into the next.

  ‘Clance, you’re gonna have to get yourself down here and
crawl along until you come out under the last building, then you got a find my bike, OK? It’s hidden in some undergrowth just of a small side track. Head as fast as you can eastwards. Just get away. I’ll follow you, but just get help as fast as you can.’

  ‘What about the guards?’ he asked.

  ‘Believe me, they’ll all be outside this barn door,’ said Ruby.

  ‘So how are you gonna get away?’

  ‘Well, I’m kinda hoping the wolf sees me as a friend on account of me having the handkerchief he likes so much, and I’m counting on the guys out there being unprepared so the wolf attacks them and I can get away.’

  ‘And what if you’re wrong, what if they are prepared and this wolf doesn’t go crazy?’

  ‘Then,’ said Ruby, ‘I’m gonna have to fall back on plan B.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘I use the handkerchief to surrender. I’m sure the wolf will be decent about it, I’m just not so sure about the murderers.’

  Clancy didn’t move.

  ‘Would you get out a here!’

  ‘No,’ said Clancy.

  Ruby by now had tied a rope to the stable door.

  ‘Look Clance, I’ve got a plan. I don’t know if it’s a good one, but I got a plan.’

  ‘How dya figure you’re gonna survive?’

  ‘I’m thinking positive.’

  ‘That’s the plan?’ said Clancy. His arms were almost beginning to flap; the sedative was wearing off.

  ‘Survival is ninety per cent attitude.’

  Clancy shook his head. ‘I think you’re gonna fall into the remaining ten per cent category.’

  ‘Would ya just scram before I open this stable door!’ shouted Ruby. ‘Or would ya prefer to be torn limb from limb?’

  ‘OK! I’m scramming,’ shouted Clancy. ‘Your plan sucks, but I hope it works.’

  He disappeared down the hatch and Ruby slammed the lid over him. How long would he have to reach the bike? Minutes? She hoped at least five; he needed a good head start.

  Ruby climbed the ladder to the hayloft and waited up there until she heard the final crash of the barn door and the shattered wood spun through the air. Ruby tugged hard on the rope, the stable door flung open and the wolf sprang out. There were screams and cries and the toughest-looking men scattered in every direction, running for their lives, taking cover where they could. Lorelei was screaming, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t anyone shoot! I need this creature alive!’

  The wolf was standing in the barn doorway, snarling, his fur spiked along his spine. Ruby would have to take her chances, put her theory to the test. She clutched the handkerchief and carefully, very carefully so as not to alarm the creature, stepped slowly down the ladder. It sniffed the air and turned to look at her, its pale blue eyes in hers, hers in its, and for a moment they seemed to know each other’s thoughts.

  Run, it seemed to say, run with me to the forest edge. And so she did – the wolf and the girl bolted from the cover of the barn and made for the mountain road. The kidnappers, too dumbfounded to react, simply watched as Ruby and the animal ran and ran, until they reached the forest edge and then the wolf stopped, looked into her eyes one last time, before howling a sorrowful howl and, like a wisp of smoke, it disappeared into the darkness of the trees.

  Chapter 62.

  RUBY RAN. She ran like a wild thing down the forest path. She ran as far and as fast as she could. She had no idea where she was headed, but she needed to get far far away, over towards Little Bear, to Camp Wichitino. As she ran, she saw tiny glows light up at her feet; Clancy must have found the ground glows in her saddlebag and left her a trail; he had not Forgotten her in his haste to get away. It felt like she was running for home; she would find her way out and everything would work out fine.

  In the distance she could hear the shouts and chaos of the men trying to recapture the Cyan wolf, but from what she could make out the wolf was long gone and she hoped, for his sake, would never be seen again.

  There was a crack of lightning, a rumble of thunder. Ruby looked up at the sky and felt a fat drop of rain on her cheek, then the heavens opened and the rain poured down.

  Up in a small lookout cabin

  high up on the mountainside

  a woman was standing at

  the window

  The pounding rain had woken her and she was staring out into the grey early morning.

  ‘What are those lights?’ she said, picking up a sweater and draping it over the floral dress she wore.

  ‘What are you talking about, lights?’ said the guy sitting next to the open fire. ‘We’re miles from anywhere.’

  But the woman continued to stand there, staring out.

  The man got up and walked to the window. ‘Well, I’ll be darned,’ he said. ‘I better go check it out; it might have something to do with Lorelei, the double-crossing snake.’ He pulled on his rainproof coat and big hat and stepped out of the door.

  ‘Don’t forget to take this.’ The woman handed him a heavy black object.

  ‘I doubt I’ll need it, but if it makes you feel better I’ll take it,’ he said.

  ‘A gun always makes me feel better,’ she said. ‘I’ll follow in the RV once the rain clears. I just need to make a house call.’

  Chapter 63.

  RUBY SAW THAT THE DARKNESS WAS LIFTING, the sun edging upwards, the rain had come to an abrupt stop and already the sky was turning blue.

  She looked behind her. She had come a long way; she could actually see her path very clearly because it was dotted with little glowing lights, all the way back up the mountainside. Their mirror-like sparkle was quite something, unmissable in fact. As the glows danced their way through the forest like pixie lights, so Ruby thought about the little warning at the bottom of the gadget card.

  This had to be the reason the ground glows had been taken out of service. When the ground was dry, they provided a discreet and careful trail, but when wet they told the whole world exactly where you were; these tiny turncoats were leaking her whereabouts to anyone who cared to know.

  Ruby began to run faster than she ever thought she could. She relied only on her instinct, letting go of any previous plan – she just listened to her gut, she was more animal than girl, determined to find her way home.

  As she made her way out through the trees, she saw a figure standing in the clearing, his back to her. The figure of a boy, Clancy Crew. What a sight for sore eyes. He turned and smiled.

  ‘Why did you stop?’ called Ruby.

  ‘I was waiting for you bozo.’ He turned back to look at the view. ‘Plus, I sorta came to the end of the road.’

  Ruby looked down and saw what he meant: the mountain fell away steeply and the only way down was to climb.

  ‘I think we should go round the other side of the mountain and then take the path down from there; you can sit on the back of the bike that way.’

  Ruby agreed. It would take longer, but would be less dangerous than climbing down the rock face.

  ‘Boy, is that ever some strange-looking storm cloud, it’s huge.’ Clancy was staring across the valley, towards Great Bear. The sky was clear blue but for an enormous, single, strangely-lit cloud. It mushroomed out from a dark grey mass which seemed to rise up from the forest.

  ‘Oh no,’ said Ruby in a hushed voice. ‘No way.’

  ‘What?’ said Clancy.

  ‘That’s no storm cloud, that’s a pyrocumulus,’ gasped Ruby.

  ‘A pyro-what?’ said Clancy.

  Ruby looked him right in the eye. ‘Fire,’ she said. ‘The forest is on fire.’

  The vehicle screeched to a

  halt in the middle of

  the floodlit yard. . .

  . . .and Eduardo ran to meet it.

  ‘Lorelei?’ he called.

  ‘No,’ said a different voice, one he did not recognise, ‘not Lorelei.’ The woman stepped out into the light and the young man instantly knew who she must be.

  ‘It’s not here,’ he said. ‘It was, but then that ki
d let it go.’

  The woman smiled. ‘A kid you say? A kid let my client’s wolf go? The one he paid for, the one he was assured would be delivered to him?’

  Eduardo looked out into the forest.

  ‘I can’t help wondering what Lorelei was doing hanging onto this wolf so long. Why would she not just hand it over as planned?’

  Eduardo was saying nothing.

  ‘I can only conclude, and of course I don’t know for sure so correct me if I’m wrong, but I can only conclude she was stealing some of the Alaskan Cyan from that wolf.’ She cocked her head to one side. ‘Is that right sweetie?’

  ‘It was just one vial,’ said Eduardo. ‘She just took one vial of scent from the wolf. I mean it’s not really like stealing, is it?’

  The woman looked at him pityingly. ‘Now there sweetheart, I have to disagree. To take such a valuable scent from such a valuable creature when it doesn’t belong to you is stealing; ask anyone.’ She put her hand in her purse like she was searching for a tissue. ‘So where is the vial?’

  ‘The kid took it, the girl,’ said Eduardo. ‘She ran into the forest – she’s out there.’ He gestured towards the trees. ‘She’s out there.’

  ‘Looks like we’re in a bit of a bind here, doesn’t it sweetie?’ She wasn’t smiling. ‘The wolf is gone, Lorelei’s gone, the kid has gone, the vial is gone and it looks like I’m going to have to fix everything all on my own.’

  Eduardo turned towards the house. ‘Wait, I’ll help you,’ he said.

  ‘And how are you going to do that sweetie?’

  ‘How do you mean?’ said Eduardo, puzzled.

  ‘You’re not going to be much use.’ She pulled a gun from her purse and shot him. ‘Not now you’re dead.’

  Chapter 64.

  SURVIVAL RULE 19:

  React as soon as you see the smoke. The fire may not be upon you, but if it’s heading your way and fanned by the wind it soon could be. When you start to see falling ash and burning leaves, it might be too late.