Free Untouchable by Chris Ryan Page A

bobbing up and down on the same wave as Paulo. It looked like an earless Labrador.
    ‘Look,’ called Amber. ‘Quick!’
    A plume of water rose from the choppy surface, showering them in fine mist. The water slid away to reveal a giant curved tail. It waved gracefully in the air, a massive, black, barnacle-encrusted tower, the height of a small building. It slid back into the water with a splash, leaving a small swirling current. A humpback whale.
    Tiff’s kayak was thrown against Alex’s. He looked at her quickly and mouthed, OK? She nodded.
    Li, Hex and Amber looked around for Paulo. He was still in the water – had he been dragged down when the whale submerged? But no, there he was, hanging onto his kayak. He heaved himself up with his arms and folded his long legs back into the vessel. He pulled up the plastic skirt that kept the water out around his waist, and the seal spooked and scooted away.
    Amber saw out of the corner of her eye a network of white bubbles on the surface, like a lace doily. It was the whale’s blowhole. She glanced at Hex. ‘Get outta here!’ she yelled. The two friends paddled like mad in different directions. Moments later the whale exploded onto the surface, drenching them.
    Hex stopped paddling and looked back. From the side the whale’s mouth was like two giant mussel shells, its dark glossy back like a small submarine as it arced through the water. Beyond, Amber bobbed on the water like a doll in a shoe. The whale slipped into the water again.
    The kayakers watched the water, enchanted, poised to flee if the whale came up again. But the water remained still. The whale had gone.
    Ahead was a small island, a rocky hump about ten kilometres long. It stuck out of the water like a tooth. Birds wheeled in the air above it and tiny figures moved on the rocky outcrops, as though the surfaces were covered in ants. Amber, as lead scout, pointed her oar towards it. That was where they were going.
    Back in formation, they paddled closer. Bird lime streaked the cliffs like white paint, making the cracked grey rock underneath look forbidding. The island was covered in seals. A family of them humped awkwardly down a rocky incline into the water. They looked like people trying to crawl in sleeping bags, thought Amber. The moment they hit the water they transformed into torpedoes, their streamlined bodies looping up and down through the waves, their skin glistening like shiny rubber.
    The kayaks picked up speed. The current was getting stronger as the sea became shallower, but Amber had expected this. An experienced sailor, she had planned the route so that a novice like Tiff could cope. She checked her wrist-mounted compass and led the group to the left, around the end of the island. Gannets soared off the cliffs above them.
    Tiff shrieked. She pointed with her oar and Alex’s head snapped round, looking for the danger. A small dorsal fin was slicing through the surface near Alex’s boat.
    ‘Shark!’ she shouted, although most of the sound was lost in the cries of sea birds.
    It wasn’t a shark. Alex tried not to smile. He let go of one oar and mimed a dolphin swimming.
    Tiff mouthed something at him in reply. He didn’t bother to lip-read.
    A dark hole appeared in the white-streaked rock. Amber adjusted her course so that they were heading straight for it. A cave. They paddled closer to the rocks. Little eddies of foam splashed up against them. Then they slipped inside the dark hole and the sound changed.
    The roaring wind and the calling birds were muffled. Instead they could hear the soft splash of their paddles, the water lapping against the rock walls.
    ‘Ah, peace and quiet,’ sighed Amber. It was the first time they’d been able to talk.
    ‘Where do we have lunch?’ said Paulo. His curly hair was plastered to his head after his dunking.
    At the end of the cave was a small sandy beach and a cluster of rocks. The group climbed out of their kayaks into the water and secured them