Hunted Read online

  Table of Contents

  Meet the team

  By the Same Author

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  ALPHA FORCE

  PROLOGUE THE DEAL

  Chapter 1 TEAM ALPHA FORCE

  Chapter 2 KILLERS

  Chapter 3 RESCUE

  Chapter 4 TO THE BITTER END

  Chapter 5 BIG GAME

  Chapter 6 TEAK LODGE

  Chapter 7 LIONS

  Chapter 8 INTRUDERS

  Chapter 9 FEAR

  Chapter 10 MOYA

  Chapter 11 RANGERS

  Chapter 12 AMBUSH

  Chapter 13 TROPHY HUNTERS

  Chapter 14 LAW OF THE JUNGLE

  Chapter 15 THUNDERBIRD

  Chapter 16 TRAGEDY

  Chapter 17 A RICH STRANGER

  Chapter 18 SENGA

  Chapter 19 RECONNAISSANCE

  Chapter 20 BORROWED TIME

  Chapter 21 TRUST

  Chapter 22 THE TEST

  Chapter 23 UNDER COVER

  Chapter 24 SILENT SPIES

  Chapter 25 OUT OF CONTROL

  Chapter 26 A GOOD NIGHT

  Chapter 27 A NEW BEGINNING

  Epilogue

  CHRIS RYAN'S TOP SAS TIPS ON DEALING WITH WILD ANIMALS

  About the Author

  Alpha Force adventuresSURVIVAL

  DESERT PURSUIT

  HOSTAGE

  RED CENTRE

  Meet the team:

  Alex – A quiet lad from Northumbria, Alex leads the team in survival skills. His dad is in the SAS and Alex is determined to follow in his footsteps, whatever it takes. He who dares . . .

  Li – Expert in martial arts and free-climbing, Li can get to grips with most situations ...

  Paulo – The laid-back Argentinian is a mechanical genius, and with his medical skills he can patch up injuries as well as motors . . .

  Hex – An ace hacker, Hex is first rate it code breaking and can bypass most security systems . . .

  Amber – Her top navigational skills mean the team are rarely lost. Rarely lost for words either, rich-girl Amber can show some serious attitude . . .

  With plenty of hard work and training, together they are Alpha Force – an elite squad of young people dedicated to combating injustice throughout the world.

  In Hunted Alpha Force go head to head with a ruthless gang of ivory poachers in Zambia.

  www.kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk/alphaforce

  Also available in the Alpha Force series:

  SURVIVAL

  RAT-CATCHER

  DESERT PURSUIT

  HOSTAGE

  RED CENTRE

  BLOOD MONEY

  Coming soon:

  BLACK GOLD

  FAULT LINE

  UNTOUCHABLE

  ALPHA FORCE

  HUNTED

  Chris

  Ryan

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  ISBN 9781407049854

  Version 1.0

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  ALPHA FORCE: HUNTED

  A RED FOX BOOK

  ISBN: 9781407049854

  Version 1.0

  First published in Great Britain by Red Fox,

  an imprint of Random House Children's Books

  This edition published 2004

  5 7 9 10 8 6

  Copyright © Chris Ryan, 2004

  The right of Chris Ryan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This electronic book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  Red Fox Books are published by Random House Children's Books,

  61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA,

  a division of The Random House Group Ltd

  Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited

  can be found at:

  www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm

  THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009

  www.kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  PROLOGUE

  THE DEAL

  Families of elephants lifted their trunks, sniffing the air. In a rush of wind and thunder, the white belly of the plane roared overhead. The craft was flying at low altitude, looking for the landing strip. It sent buffalo pouring into the river. Herds of antelope, zebra and springbok scattered, startled, across the plains.

  The plane skimmed the tops of the trees, beginning its final descent. The moment the wheels grazed the ground, the pilot stamped on the brakes. Dust rose up in hot ochre clouds.

  The plane slowed to a halt just short of where the poachers waited with their battered Land Rover. There were three of them in combat fatigues, ammunition belts crossed over their shoulders. One had a scar in the brown skin of his cheek. The other two were white – one wore a hyena tooth set in silver on a chain around his neck; the other had a dirty yellow bandanna tied around his forehead.

  They heard a noise among the trees and automatically levelled their weapons. A brown hyena trotted out of the bush, long fur topped by a tawny mane on its powerful shoulders. Its jaws were clamped around the bloody, torn-off leg of a wildebeest. The poachers lowered their weapons. They didn't expect any trouble in this remote part of the Zambian bush, but they weren't taking any chances. And you never knew – something might appear that was worth shooting.

  The plane door opened. A slight figure got out and walked towards them. He had delicate oriental features; wisps of grey punctuated the jet-black hair. His lightweight, sand-coloured suit showed little creasing, despite the heat and the long journey he had made.

  The poacher with the yellow bandanna reached behind into the Land Rover and pulled out a dusty sack. It was heavy. He needed both hands to lift it.

  The oriental man put a hand out towards the sack. The diamonds on his Gucci watch glinted in the setting sun. He touched the bulging underside of the sack, feeling the shape of the contents. It wouldn't be the first time a poacher had tried to give him a live snake to take home instead of the goods he had paid for. His eyes betrayed no emotion.

  'Show me,' he said.

  The poacher kneeled down and tipped out the contents of the sack. Chunks of ivory tumbled onto the golden earth – giant hollow tusks sawn into pieces. Some of them were wide like sections of drainpipe, some were small like napkin rings. Many of the bigger pieces had bloody flesh clinging to them where they had been hacked out of the faces of elephants.

  The buyer nodded and smiled. His face creased around his eyes like old tissue paper. While the poacher with the bandanna scooped up the ivory pieces and put them back in the sack, the other two fetched more from the jeep.

  The buyer walked the short distance to the plane and came back with an envelope. He held it out. The poacher with the scar took it and counted it. Two thousand American dollars. He nodded to his companions.

  The oriental man picked up the three sacks of ivory. Although they were heavy he carried them easily and loaded them into his plane. Then he turned to the poachers and said, 'I want
more.'

  'We're working on it,' replied the man with the scar, speaking in pidgin French as the buyer had. 'We'll be in contact.'

  The oriental man nodded. He climbed into the passenger seat and buckled himself in. He leaned out to pull the door closed and had an afterthought. 'I'll pay you three thousand US dollars if you bring me a lionskin.'

  1

  TEAM ALPHA FORCE

  Amber Middleton was out of the action and hating it. An ankle sprain suffered while training had put her on crutches, but much worse, it had forced her to pull out of the adventure race through Luangwa National Park, Zambia. She could have been spending three days running, mountain biking, abseiling and horse riding, pushing herself to the limits of endurance with her team-mates Alex, Li, Paulo and Hex. Just the first part alone was like a marathon – a fifty-kilometre run over savannah and into a river gorge. After that there would be more races, just as gruelling.

  Gruelling, but fun. Right now, Amber wasn't having much fun. She was sitting in a striped deckchair beside the red Land Rover, wondering whether the neon-yellow bandage on her ankle was really the best colour to offset her ebony skin or whether she should have chosen the Day-Glo green option. Amber was having an easy time while her team-mates battled through a tough course. As well as physical exhaustion they also had to cope with sleep deprivation: the race was non-stop, twenty-four hours a day.

  Amber didn't want to be sitting with her feet up, she wanted to be out on the course with her friends.

  She was still involved in the race, but it was behind the scenes as the back-up crew with her uncle, John Middleton. They had to follow with vital equipment such as cycle helmets, climbing boots, running shoes, dry socks, medical supplies and food and drink. They dispensed these at transition points – large tents marking where one section of the race ended and another began. The transition point where Amber and John Middleton were waiting now marked the end of the cycling and the start of the hiking and abseiling.

  A cluster of competitors appeared out of the dusty landscape. Amber looked up hopefully but it wasn't her team. Although everyone had set off on mountain bikes, this team were now on foot, pushing the bikes, two of the members leaning over the saddles, exhausted. They had slept for only a couple of hours during the thirty-six since the race began; the orange dust that covered them was like a fake suntan. 'Had to walk,' called one of the more awake ones cheerily. 'When I sat in the saddle I kept falling asleep.'

  The teams and their back-up crews all wore name patches sewn onto their rucksacks and waterproofs. Amber had TEAM ALPHA FORCE proudly displayed on the front pocket of her shorts. She noticed a spot of mud on it and scratched it off with her fingernail. Never before had the name Alpha Force been seen in public; the five friends had used it only in the presence of a select few such as John Middleton.

  Many of the teams in the race had formed just for the event and would disband afterwards, but Alpha Force were more enduring. They trusted one another, quite literally, with their lives. It had started when they were thrown together on a deserted island and had to escape a band of ruthless pirates. At the time, spoilt, beautiful Amber had been mourning her parents' death and hated the whole world. But then she discovered that her folks had had a secret life fighting human rights abuses. What she, Hex, Li, Alex and Paulo went through on the island was like a rebirth, and the five friends had vowed to carry on the Middletons' work. Alpha Force was born, and John Middleton became their anchor man, supplying them with finance and equipment.

  The adventure race was an ideal training challenge for Alpha Force, a chance to pit their skills against the best endurance athletes in their age group. It also tested the bonds of a team to the limit. Each team had to finish together, so each member had to keep the others going when all they wanted to do was give up and sleep. Alpha Force were well prepared. As a matter of routine they trained together during every school break, so they functioned as a close-knit unit. When they scattered again to their various schools across the globe, they worked on their fitness and refined their individual skills. Alex lived in the north of England; Amber in Boston, Massachusetts; Paulo in Argentina; Hex in London; and Anglo-Chinese Li lived wherever her zoologist parents were posted.

  In training for this event, Paulo had had them all to stay at his parents' ranch, where he had taught them how to handle their mounts both in the saddle and on the ground. Amber, already a keen horsewoman, had howled with laughter at Hex's first efforts. The London boy was a whiz with computers and one of cyberspace's foremost hackers, but was baffled by an animal that completely ignored instructions to stop, go and turn.

  Li, an expert in martial arts and free-climbing, had tutored them in abseiling skills during the same trip. Paulo took them to a canyon, and they had watched in awe as Li danced lightly down rock faces that seemed to go on for ever, oblivious to the dizzying drop. Then she had climbed up again, light and sure-footed as a spider on a wall.

  Running and cycling they all did every day to maintain basic fitness, but the star in that department was Alex. Long-limbed and tall, he was built for endurance. Survival was in his blood: his father was a soldier in the SAS and Alex had inherited his relish for challenges in the roughest conditions.

  Water sports were Amber's forte, and her privileged upbringing had enabled her to windsurf, water-ski and sail from an early age. Her navigation skills were second to none and would have been of great value in the race as the teams had to find their way from checkpoint to checkpoint through unknown canyons, across savannahs and rivers.

  For the last few days of their stay in Argentina, Alpha Force had trained at night, mountain biking up the steep trails that overlooked the plains of Paulo's ranch, climbing, navigating through the endless open spaces, snatching sleep when they could. Then it was back to school for a few weeks, although they kept in e-mail contact to discuss their progress and general strategy for the event. Together Alpha Force were ready for anything the environment could throw at them.

  But after all that preparation, Amber had tripped in a pothole while running and sprained her ankle. She had taken plenty of spills in her time and emerged with no more than bruises. This time, however, she had not even been able to get up. She had ripped several ligaments, and healing would take time. She couldn't believe her bad luck.

  Amber watched as the other team were given coffee and equipment for the next part of the race. She went back to her book, a text on the languages of Africa. If she couldn't get in on the action, she would at least put the time to good use. Languages were another of her specialities, and she spent long hours studying them in her college library. At least she wasn't missing a real mission, she thought. The race wasn't work, it was play. It wasn't as if it would make a big difference to anyone's life at the end of the day. At least by resting now, she'd be fit and raring to go when a real mission came along.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the competitors sit down and immediately fall asleep, like a robot whose batteries had run out. Even though she could see fatigue was overwhelming him, she felt a pang of envy.

  The main objects of Amber's envy – Hex, Paulo, Alex and Li – were also battling fatigue. Seasoned adventure racers had a name for it: fighting the sleep monster.

  They were cycling along a dirt track through a wooded area. Every puddle was covered with a swarm of colourful butterflies. Vines curled up the heavy trees, and pads like water lilies sat high in the branches. All four team members wore insect repellent, but mosquitoes and flies still swarmed around their faces.

  Alex, setting the pace, kept it steady. They all knew that inexperienced adventure racers made the mistake of going too fast and burning out long before the end. So Alex set a rhythm which the whole team could maintain easily and which would help them cover the distance in good time. Not only did they have to complete the course, they had to spot checkpoints along the way. If they missed one or went the wrong way, many hours would be added to their final score. It was another reason to stay alert and carefu
l.

  Hex's job was to remind everyone to eat and drink regularly. He set his watch alarm to bleep every fifteen minutes, and in the meantime looked out for checkpoints and navigated.

  Li was in charge of monitoring everyone's physical condition. 'How's everybody feeling?' she called. 'Alex?' They had to give a score out of five.

  Li would have said that blond, long-limbed Alex was looking the strongest of them all right now. He pedalled energetically and his face looked animated. 'Four,' he said. But there had been a point an hour before, up a long steep hill, when he had replied, 'Two.' Then Paulo, who had been on five, had taken his pack for a while to give him a chance to recover.

  'Hex?' said Li.

  Hex looked like he still had energy reserves. His legs pumped the pedals in a sure rhythm and he looked reasonably alert. With a gleam in his green eyes he answered, 'E.'

  'What?' said Li, pedalling alongside him.

  Hex grinned at her. 'E. The exponential constant.'

  'Pardon me, Einstein, but what exactly—?'

  'Two point seven one eight two eight. That's about how I'm feeling.'

  Alex interjected, 'If he's capable of mathematical jokes, I think he must be at least a pi—'

  'Mmm, pie,' said Hex. 'Better than all those fruit bars and biltong we've been eating.' The team carried energy-giving snacks that they could eat on the go, but all of them were now craving a proper meal.

  Li turned her attention to the last member of the group. 'Paulo?'

  Paulo was behind so Li slowed until she was alongside him. His legs were working on the bike but he was unusually quiet. His brown wavy hair was sticking in sweaty curls to his face and forehead, making him look like a Hispanic cherub, but his eyelids drooped. He didn't answer her.

  Li was about to repeat the question when the track took a downward turn. Paulo veered off into the forest.

  'Uh-oh, Paulo's asleep,' called Alex.

  'Paulo!' yelled Li.

  Paulo's bike bounced over the rough ground. His superb sense of balance kept him on board, his legs continuing to travel around in time with the pedals even while asleep so that he looked as though he fully intended the detour.