Fault Line by Chris Ryan

into the tangle of wood. ‘No sign of my stuff, I suppose?’
    ‘I didn’t see it,’ said Hex.
    ‘Rats.’
    ‘I think our lost luggage is staying lost,’ said Li. ‘We’ll have to file a complaint.’ She glugged back her entire water bottle in one go.
    ‘Alex, can’t you just wrap a piece of that plastic explosive around the trunk and give it a good blast?’ Paulo suggested.
    Alex shook his head. ‘It’s not like felling the tree where you can tell which way it’ll go. God knows what would happen.’ He expected another ratty remark in return, but they all looked too tired to muster the energy.
    Hex picked up the chain mail and spread it out on some branches. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had rusted by morning.
    They dug into the three bergens for stoves, rations, hammocks and dry kit, and began to prepare the camp.
    Night in the open came a little later than it came in the tree canopy. Without the covering of leaves they saw the sun set in an orange glow, the shadows of trees all around. Once the sun had gone down, the sky was filled with stars.
    Amber and Li lay head to foot in one of the hammocks. Li wore Paulo’s dry kit and Amber wore Alex’s.
    Li peered out from under the poncho. ‘Hey, look at those stars.’
    Amber, at her feet, looked out the other side. ‘At last. The great outdoors.’ She felt a fierce stabbing pain in her leg. ‘Ow,’ she shrieked. ‘Li, did you bite me?’
    ‘No, I did not bite you,’ retorted Li from the other end of the hammock.
    ‘Is there an insect on me?’
    ‘No,’ said Li. ‘You’ve put on so much repellent and antiseptic you’re asphyxiating me.’
    Paulo checked on the injured man for the last time and climbed into a hammock with Alex, moving so that he was lying head to foot like the girls. ‘Alex, move over, you’re taking up the whole thing.’
    ‘Sorry,’ said Alex. He was shivering in his wet kit. When Paulo got in his body warmth was like a radiator.
    ‘Hex,’ called Paulo, ‘how did you manage to get a hammock to yourself?’
    ‘I’ll swap with you at half time,’ called Hex sleepily. He hoped they wouldn’t bother. ‘Anyway, I’ve got a partner,’ he said. ‘I’ve got the mask.’
    ‘You can swap with me, mask or not,’ growled Li. ‘Amber’s driving me mad with her scratching.’
    But within seconds they were all asleep.

10 M R U NPOPULAR
    The next morning the light woke them, just as the dawn chorus began like a shrill alarm clock. The first thing Alex saw was the big tree. It looked like there were acres of it. And they had ten hours to clear it all before the helicopter came or they’d be stuck there for another night. He tipped out of the hammock, cold to the bone, his clothes still soaking wet. Paulo got up and hobbled like an old crone to check the patient. The robber was still asleep, snoring happily. He seemed to be having the most comfortable time of all of them in his hammock-stretcher.
    Amber took the first shift with the chainsaw. Now they were working on thicker wood she discovered it was a hideous job. If you didn’t keep it cutting straight it would glance off a log and dive into the mud, blunting the blades. Either that or it would land on your chain-mailed leg and gnaw it like a piranha. It spat sawdust and sharp chips of wood the whole time. It vibrated until your eyeballs rattled. Wearing the protective gear was like being swaddled in chains.
    This trip just got better and better. Amber had missed the sun while they were under the tree canopy, but now the heat beat down mercilessly, wringing even more sweat from her pores. The chain-mail clothes were like torture, but at least she was covered. The others were shrivelling before her eyes. They were tanned but it was completely inadequate for this level of sun exposure.
    Alex stopped what he was doing and smeared mud on his face, the back of his neck and his arms. Hex, Paulo and Li followed suit. Without sunscreen, that was the best they could do. But it