Free Fault Line by Chris Ryan Page A

or rocks.’
    ‘I don’t suppose a blob of PE is going to fix that,’ said Amber.
    Alex stood up, staring at the mess in disbelief. ‘I must have miscalculated the weight of the tree.’ He ran his hand roughly through his blond hair.
    ‘Or got the detonators the wrong way round,’ said Li.
    Alex cursed himself. How could he have made a mistake like that? He’d done all the others correctly.
    ‘Where are our bergens?’ said Amber.
    Paulo swore. ‘And the chainsaws?’ He scrambled to his feet.
    Hex’s voice came out as a strangled scream. ‘The night vision goggles!’ He rushed forward after Paulo, lashing out with his arms at the branches in his way. Behind him, the others followed, cursing.
    Hex’s bergen was nestling between two heavy branches, unscathed. One of the chainsaws was next to it, along with the fuel cans and an orange chain-mail suit.
    Alex found his bergen. The main trunk had missed it by centimetres. Paulo was dragging his away from the tree, pulling at it angrily as the straps snagged on branches. Alex didn’t often see the laid-back Argentinian looking so annoyed. But if Paulo’s bergen was OK that meant they’d still got the medical kit. Maybe everything would be unharmed. Thank goodness they were all unhurt. Alex yanked his bergen out, taking it back to where they’d left the stretcher – their new ‘camp’. How had he made that mistake? Maybe he should have added P for plenty.
    Behind him he heard Amber saying, ‘Oh lovely. That’s just swell.’
    Alex reached the stretcher and looked back. Amber was surveying her bergen, her hands on her hips. She glared at Alex. ‘It’s squashed.’
    ‘So’s mine,’ said Li. ‘Flat as a pancake.’
    ‘One of the chainsaws is under there too,’ said Amber. She gave a tight smile. ‘But that doesn’t matter because the other chain-mail suit is there as well.’
    Hex propped his bergen up next to the stretcher. He saw the robber looking at it rapaciously and realized he knew it had the mask in it. ‘Oh no you don’t,’ said Hex, and moved it well out of his reach. Then he had a vision of the priceless mask with a big dent in it. Just to be sure, he checked. It was fine: it was well protected.
    ‘So, Alex,’ said Li, ‘what happens now?’
    Alex winced. He took a breath as though he was about to say something, and winced again.
    Amber, staring at him from the wreckage of the tree, spotted his hesitation. ‘Spit it out, Alex. What else could possibly have gone wrong?’
    ‘We’ll have to spend the night here. The heli won’t stop if it can’t land and it certainly won’t come after dark.’
    ‘But it’s not going to be dark for another three hours,’ said Amber. She could feel her wait-a-while scratches flaring up again in protest. And the bite wasn’t feeling too good either.
    ‘It’s going to take a lot longer than that,’ said Paulo. ‘On the ranch we couldn’t shift a tree like this in three hours.’
    Alex tried to make himself think positively. ‘We’ve got enough rations to go round for tonight and I’m sure we can double up on hammocks. Or you can have mine.’
    ‘Lovely,’ said Li frostily. ‘Who are you going to share with?’
    ‘I’ll sleep on the ground,’ said Alex.
    Paulo began to feel sorry for him. He looked more and more miserable by the minute. ‘Don’t be silly. You can’t sleep on the ground in the jungle. Something will eat you.’ He heard Amber mutter something but thought he’d better ignore it.
    ‘All my dry kit’s in that bergen,’ said Li.
    ‘Mine too,’ said Amber.
    ‘You can have my dry kit,’ said Paulo. ‘I don’t mind.’
    ‘Yeah, you can have mine too,’ said Alex. He patted his waistband absent-mindedly. It was second nature to check he still had his knife.
    It wasn’t there.
    He looked at the hulk of fallen tree. Was his knife under there?
    Li watched him as he crashed through the branches, panic written all over his face. ‘Alex?’ she called. ‘Here it