Black Tide (13 page)

Toby stood shivering in the dark and cold while the men bustled busily around outside the cave. As their flashing torchlight swept over him, he searched for signs of the battle that had raged between the dogs and the wolves. There was nothing to see but the outlines of the black craggy mountains with the sun starting to rise over them.

“Get on!” yelled Tom, pointing to the back of a skidoo. Toby clambered tiredly on behind one of the men driving, and hung on to his thick waist. Casper jumped up in front of another man, who tucked him into his jacket. The skidoos set off down the steep snowy mountain, with Snowy running alongside the one that carried Tash.

Help! I might have enjoyed this on a nice sunny day, but now I just want to be safe and warm.

The skidoos moved fast along the snow, bouncing and rocketing down the precipitous gully, their headlights sweeping the white ice to the front. Sometimes they skidded sideways to avoid large boulders in the way, sending Toby’s stomach lurching. He couldn’t see where they were going in the dark, and the freezing wind chilled his face, setting it into a frozen mask. He began to think he would never be able to smile again.

Eventually the skidoos pulled up outside a pair of tall metal gates at the entrance of what looked to Toby like a country park. A large notice was attached to the gates and, in the beams of the headlights, Toby could make out the words:

The gates swung open and the skidoos stormed through into an area that had once been mown parkland. They sped across the snow-covered grass and stopped in a large yard. Toby couldn’t see any buildings as he peered into the darkness.

Where are we now? What is this?

The men got off the vehicles and undid Tash’s stretcher. Toby and Snowy were following behind when suddenly the men in front disappeared.

Where have they gone to?

“Down here!” a gruff voice shouted. Toby made out a large concrete ramp descending to an enormous pair of metal doors set in the snowy ground. One of the men spoke into an entry phone and the doors slid slowly back to reveal a stairway going down into the bowels of the earth. The men carefully manoeuvred the stretcher round the bends and corners as the stairs wound deeper and deeper. Toby kept up beside them, leaning heavily on the hand railing. His tired legs still ached and his foot was sore. Snowy trotted quietly along in his shadow, never letting Tash out of his sight.

At the bottom of the stairs was a corridor. They seemed to be in a giant underground bunker.

Is the army hiding down here? Is the government running this place? I wonder how big it is? How many people are down here?

At the end of the corridor, one of the men typed a series of numbers into an entry lock, and a heavy metal door clicked open. They stepped into a large room full of equipment. Toby stared around; it was stashed with hand guns and rifles, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, magazines of ammunition, boxes of shells, alongside helmets, stab vests and camouflage suits in grey, white and mottled green. He could now see that the men were wearing winter camouflage: white suits with white boots, helmets, gloves, goggles and rucksacks.

These are no ordinary mountain rescuers. This looks like the SAS or something.

Tash was whisked away. Tom, seeing Toby looking worried as the stretcher disappeared, said,

“Don’t worry, Toby, we have a doctor and he’ll know what’s wrong with her. We have medicine and anything else she might need. And Snowy can go along, too.”

“This place is fantastic!” exclaimed Toby, relaxing a little and staring around him. “You’ve even got electricity down here!”

“Yes, part of the bunker is based inside a
hydroelectric
dam so we’ve our own electricity supply. We’d better get you warmed up. Go with Simon here and he’ll sort you out.”

Simon showed Toby into a small warm room lined with lockers, and handed him a pile of dry clothes and a towel. He pointed to a cubicle at the back,

“Get yourself cleaned up, son. There’s a shower over there. Come back through when you’re ready.”

Toby slumped onto a bench and peeled off his cold wet clothes. His head throbbed, his feet throbbed and he had a large angry bruise on his knee where Daisy had kicked him.

I look and feel a right mess and I don’t smell too good! And I’m starving. Seems ages since I last ate. Wonder what they’ve got to eat here? But I still need to keep my wits about me and think about how to get to Dad and Sylvie in Stirling.

He stood in the shower for ages, letting the hot water pummel his aching body until he was warmed through. He’d to scrub hard with the soap to get rid of the layers of grime that stuck to his skin, and was surprised to see how pink he was under all the muck. Then he dressed in the man-sized clean clothes, which hung limply from his scrawny frame.

Back in the main room, Toby found Tom staring at a large map of central Scotland pinned to a desk.

“That’s better, Toby. Now, you must be starving – go and help yourself to something hot over there.” He pointed to a canteen area at the back of the huge room. There were tables and chairs set out. Simon came with him to show him what there was.

“Good grub…” said Toby, his mouth stuffed full of hot creamy porridge. There was chunky vegetable soup, drop scones, oatcakes, scrambled eggs, bowls of jam, and tinned peaches.

“Take it steady,” said Simon. “Don’t go overdoing it. Don’t want to make yourself sick.”

Toby nodded, biting into a warm, jammy scone.

Later, warm and full, Toby wandered over to the map table where several of the men, including Tom and Simon, stood chatting.

“So Toby,” said Tom, “it was good thinking on your part to stick that walking pole out of your snow hole. You might have suffocated if you hadn’t. And it was the pole that Casper smelt out, so well done you.”

“My dad told me that,” smiled Toby.

Would Dad be proud of me remembering that? I saved us! Well – Casper helped too.

“You said before, Toby,” said Simon, “that you were heading towards Stirling. Why’s that then?”

“That’s where New Caledonia is.”

I’m surprised they haven’t heard about it. It can’t be far from here, surely?

“So, Toby, what do you know about this New Caledonia?” asked another of the men. This man had a dark unsmiling face, and he stared with cold unflinching eyes, as if he didn’t believe what Toby was telling them.

I don’t like him. He looks as bad as the raiders.

“I don’t know anything, honest. I just want to get my dad and my little sister, Sylvie, back from the raiders. I… I just…” Toby almost burst into tears. It was bad enough to deal alone with cold, soreness, terrible worry and disappointment, to then be disbelieved and mistrusted by people he’d thought were the good guys was simply too much.

“It’s ok, Toby,” said Tom kindly, “You’ll have to forgive Bill, he’s used to interrogating terrorists and the like. Give the boy a break, Bill. He’s been through some serious stuff and come out of it very well by all accounts.”

“I do know that the place is run by someone called the General,” said Toby, wondering if telling them more might help his dad and Sylvie. “I met his Captain, who was scary enough, but all the raiders were seriously terrified of this General bloke. And I know he’s kidnapping people but I’ve no idea why. I mean, what would he want with my dad and Sylvie?”

“He’s a nasty piece of work,” said Simon. “You wouldn’t want to cross him.”

“Yeah,” said Bill. “He’s got no scruples when it comes to torturing people to find out what he needs to know.”

“Torturing people? To find out what?” cried Toby. Was the General torturing his dad right now? “What do you mean?”

“He’s set up his own state,” continued Bill. “He’s collecting up survivors to do the dirty work for him so that he and his private army can live in luxury while he starves the…”

“I think Toby’s heard enough, eh, Toby?” interrupted Tom, scowling at Bill. “We don’t want to frighten him, do we, Bill?”

Bit late for that! As if I’m not already worried about Dad and Sylvie –now I find out that the General is probably torturing and starving them.

“Just tell me one thing,” pleaded Toby, fighting hard to hold back his tears. “What sort of information would the General be trying to get out of my dad?”

“We think he’s probably running out of fuel,” said Tom, putting his hand on Toby’s arm. “He’ll be looking at different ways to make electricity – like putting up wind turbines or solar panels. It’s unlikely that he’s got anyone there who knows anything about those sorts of things. What he needs is an engineer.”

“Oh! My dad’s an engineer!” blurted out Toby.

“In that case, he’ll be very useful to the General. If your dad chooses to cooperate with him, he should be fine,” said Tom reassuringly.

“And what if he doesn’t want to cooperate?” asked Toby, feeling his face redden. The men looked away: Toby could see that wasn’t something they wanted to discuss.

Great! I can’t imagine Dad going along with the plans of some mad man!

Toby didn’t want to hear any more.

“Can I go and see Tash now?” He rubbed his hot face on the nice new jumper they had given him.

Simon showed him to the emergency room, where Tash was lying, propped up on a pile of clean pillows. She had a pink glow to her like she had been scrubbed clean. Beside the bed was a drip-stand with a line going into a pad on her arm. Snowy was lying nearby on the floor, tucking into a large bowl of porridge.

“Look Tobes!” she called, on seeing him pop his head round the door. “I’ve got medicine going straight into my arm! I’m feeling much better already.”

Toby smiled. She did look so much better. He sat for a while and chatted, but he could soon see that she needed to sleep. As he left, the doctor came over to speak to him.

“What was wrong with her?” asked Toby.

“Your friend has been very lucky. She had an impacted tooth that had been festering away for some time. It became infected and naturally made her really poorly. She was very sick when she came in. I extracted the tooth immediately, so she’ll feel much better now. Also, we’ve got her on some intravenous antibiotics, which will kill any infection. She’ll be right as rain in a few days time.”

Thank goodness for that! Poor Tash – there was I calling her moody and all the time she had serious toothache. How awful. Why didn’t she tell me?

But Toby knew why – Tash was trying to prove that she was as brave as Toby could be. She wouldn’t have wanted to moan in case he’d thought she was a sissy.

Silly Tash. I would never have thought that.

Toby sat down suddenly as his legs buckled under him.

Now he had been relieved of some of his worries, he was overwhelmed with exhaustion.

“Come on, young man, looks like you need some care and attention, too,” said the doctor, helping him to a nearby bed. Toby smiled weakly and then passed out.

“So, young man,” a voice boomed in Toby’s ear. “How are you feeling today?”

Toby opened his eyes and wriggled up in his pillows to see Tom standing next to his bed, gazing at him.

“Eh? Fine, I think,” Toby rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Where is this?”

“You’re in the medical bay,” replied Tom.

“No, I mean, what is this place? Where is it? And who are you and all these men? Have you been here all the time since the red fever?”

“What a lot of questions! I tell you what, I’ll give you a guided tour and explain as we go along,” said Tom. “Get dressed and I’ll come back for you.”

Good – I need to see what they’ve got here. Then I can work out how to get to Stirling, and whether they might even help me.

Ten minutes later Tom escorted Toby around the underground bunker, showing him all the facilities. Toby was amazed to see that not only was there a kitchen, sleeping quarters, offices, a canteen and a medical bay, but there was also a gym, a games room, a library and a huge garage for maintaining a fleet of vehicles. There was even a laboratory where two young women in white protective suits were peering down microscopes.

“That’s our experimental unit,” Tom told him. “We’re trying to work out why some people were immune to red fever, and others weren’t.”

As they walked round the vast compound, Toby told Tom the story of his dad and Sylvie being kidnapped by the raiders, following them to Fort George, meeting Tash, and then how he and Tash had fled just as the dogs attacked.

“There were hundreds of dogs. Some had been following me along the coast, and they must have told the others about Fort George…” But Toby could see Tom didn’t believe him.

“Really? Sounds strange. I’m amazed the dogs got into Fort George. I used to be stationed there years ago, so I know what a strong fortress it is,” said Tom thoughtfully.

“Cerberus is so cunning and clever he could get in anywhere.”

“Cerberus? This is the dog you claim is leading the others to attack places? Well, I’m not sure about that, Toby.”

“You don’t know Cerberus. Jamie’s mum called him that ’cause he’s so evil, and he’s clever and she thinks —”

“Ok, so Jamie’s mum, whoever she is, thinks this dog is clever. But we know a dog is just a dog don’t we, Toby?”

“But Cerberus is different. You’ve no idea what he’s capable of!” cried Toby, defiantly.

“No – and I don’t think I want to!” Tom laughed. “You’ve had a very adventurous time, Toby, and I
expect a very stressful one too. Stress can do funny things to you, makes you imagine things. You’ll see things in a different light once you’ve had a rest and feel safe again.”

Toby blushed.

I haven’t made it up! It did all happen! Why do adults never believe me?

“Have you seen any dogs?” he asked, trying to hide his disappointment. If Tom and his men didn’t believe him, how could they help him find his family and keep them all safe – from the dogs as well as the raiders.

“Dogs? No, no dogs. We’ve only seen the wolves that have been breeding in the mountains. There are a lot of those now. Besides, I thought you said all the dogs were at Fort George? They couldn’t possibly have got this far south so quickly!”

Oh yes, they could have.

Just then the scary-looking man, Bill, strode up to Tom.

“You’d better come – we have some new information just in.”

Tom nodded and left Toby to find his own way back to the medical bay. Toby found Tash sitting in bed reading a book, with Snowy lying near her feet.

“Look what the doctor found for me: a Russian book!” she said excitedly, holding it up for Toby to see.

“Yeah, great isn’t it? They’ve got a library full of all sorts of books. It’s an amazing place, Tash. There’s a lab where they’re doing experiments, and a gym, and the hugest garage with loads of tools to mend stuff. And…”

“But what is it all for?”

“Tom says this was a Scottish base for one of the SAS regiments, sort of covert undercover operations and all that. It’s been here for years, long before the red fever.”

“Like in James Bond?”

“Er, that kind of idea. Anyway, some of the men from the regiment survived the red fever and came back here. They’ve been gathering intelligence on the effects of the illness on Scotland, and seeing who’s left.”

“So why haven’t they got soldiers’ names then?”

“What? You mean like Tom’s not called a Major or Captain? Well, Tom says that there are only a few real soldiers. Most of the people who stay here now are civilians: engineers, scientists, mechanics, teachers – about fifty altogether.”

“Does Tom know all about the raiders?”

“Tom told me last night that the General is creating a new state where he’ll be in charge and live in luxury. I’ve told him about the dogs and Cerberus, but he doesn’t believe me. They have seen loads of wolves. I bet it was wolves we heard when the ponies got spooked and took off.”

“I’ve never seen ponies so scared,” she sighed wistfully. Toby could see she had been blaming herself for losing the ponies.

“I’m going back to sleep now. I still feel a bit yuk.” Tash yawned.

Toby went to look for Tom.

He found him looking serious, talking to a group of men including Simon and Bill. The men all
appeared fit: tall and well muscled. They were talking enthusiastically about going on a job.

What job? Where are they planning to go? They look like they’re kitted out for a mission.

The men were wearing their winter camouflage gear again, with white snowsuits on and goggles slung round their necks. As Toby approached they fell quiet and stared at the map on the desk. He followed their gaze and realised that the area around Stirling had been circled in red pen, and there were arrows marking a route.

“So you know exactly where New Caledonia is?” asked Toby bravely. He sounded much bolder than he felt.

Tom frowned at him and Toby thought for one moment he was going to get a row, but Tom’s face softened and he said,

“Yes, Toby, we know all about the activities of the General, we’ve been spying on him and his New Caledonia for months. Give him his due, he’s intelligent, well organised and he must have some charm to be able to persuade the others to do what he says. He’s made a good job of fortifying the boundaries of his new country. We’ve been planning a mission for a while now —”

“Can I come?” Toby blurted out. A couple of the men laughed.

“I’m sorry. It does sound likely that they have your family, and I realise you must be very worried about them. But let us handle it – these men are trained professionals. They know what they’re doing.”

“But I can be useful. I know things about the raiders,” said Toby, trying to keep Tom’s attention. “For instance, the General’s henchmen all have a special tattoo on their wrists, just here.” Toby pulled back his sleeve and pointed to the place where he had seen NC on the men’s arms.

“Thank you. That’ll be useful in identifying the raiders, but I’m afraid I still can’t take you. I can’t jeopardise a mission.” Tom turned on his heels and strode off.

The guy called Bill smirked, but Simon came over and put a hand on Toby’s shoulder.

“Sorry, Toby, it isn’t your age. We never take untrained civilians, ok?”

Toby shook his head, and then felt a red-hot surge of anger.

How dare these men treat me like a baby? After all the scary things I’ve had to do. Who rescued Jamie and his mum, and who got me and Tash this far?

He took a deep breath; falling out with Simon wasn’t going to help his cause. He’d have to be more cunning than that. “So are you going to go in all guns blasting then?” he asked, trying to sound innocent.

“Absolutely not,” replied Simon, stooping to hide the map from Toby’s curious eyes. “It’ll be a stealth operation: quick in and out.”

“How are you going to rescue all the people that fast?”

“We’re not. We’re only going to bring out the General and his henchmen – just the ringleaders. It’ll be easier now you’ve told us about the tattoos – we’ll be able to identify them quicker.”

Toby felt the anger rear its ugly head again and this time he couldn’t help blurting out, “But what about my dad and Sylvie? You’re going to leave them there? You can’t do that. They’re prisoners. You need to rescue them! That’s what you do, isn’t it? Rescue people? You rescued me so why can’t you rescue them?” Toby’s voice was getting louder and louder and a few people in the canteen were starting to stare. Simon took him by his arm and led him out into the corridor.

“I’m really sorry about your family, Toby,” he said, “but they’ll be safer this way. We haven’t got the firepower or the trained men to take on the General in a full-scale attack. You heard what Tom said: the General’s been careful to protect his territory. It would be a suicide mission. Lots of innocent people could get injured and you don’t want that, do you?”

Toby shook his head.

“This way,” continued Simon, “we take out the worst of the raiders and the place will soon fall apart. From our observations, we know that most of the men are not hardened criminals. Most of them just seem to have fallen in with bad company to survive. We remove the bad company and hopefully the others will behave in a civilised way again and let the innocent people live freely.”

“Hopefully?” exclaimed Toby. “What do you mean hopefully? And what if they don’t?”

“Then we’ll have to think again, won’t we? Toby, we can’t rescue everybody anyway. This place won’t support any more people. We’re at full capacity
as it is now and all those here came by invitation because they have some special knowledge.”

“What?” cried Toby. He saw in his face that Simon hadn’t meant to tell him that. Simon shrugged and walked away, muttering something about it being a hard world and there were things that just had to be done.

They don’t want to rescue Dad and Sylvie. They’ve known for ages that the General has been kidnapping people and torturing them. Tom doesn’t want anyone else here. How can he leave the prisoners at the mercy of those men? Even if the bad guys aren’t there, who knows what will happen? I’m going to have to rescue them myself.

Toby raced back to his room in the medical bay. His clothes had been washed and dried and were now in a locker beside the bed. He pulled them on quickly, then, throwing his rucksack over his shoulder, he slipped out into the corridor.

They are not going without me! I’m going to Stirling and they can’t stop me.

He realised that they could, and they would if they caught him trying to go with them.

They must be leaving soon – they were all kitted up. Maybe if I find out which vehicle they are going in, I could stow away in it?

This didn’t sound like a very good plan; the chances of being able to hide from professional soldiers seemed slim.

Haven’t had a chance to say goodbye to Tash. I hope she’s not going to be too mad I’m going without her, but I’ve got to do this.