The Lethal Target(41)

He pulled the torch from his pocket and shone it on the steps, and hurried down, following the beam as it twisted and turned, stumbling in his urgency to get away. Behind him he could hear shouts in Russian, orders being given, and then heavy footsteps on rock.

Jake pushed himself to go faster, and as he did so he felt something grab him by the jacket and drag him to one side.

‘Turn off the torch!’ rasped a voice in his ear. Robbie.

Jake switched it off, and felt himself being dragged further into what seemed to be some kind of dead-end niche off the steeply stepped tunnel.

Lights blazed as the beams of torches lit up the tunnel, casting flickering shadows at the edge of their hiding place. Then the sound of boots crashing on the stone steps raced past them, heading down. As the lights disappeared, Jake found himself standing in pitch-blackness.

Robbie waited for a few minutes, then he whispered, ‘Give me your torch.’

Jake handed him the torch, and Robbie switched it on and shone it into the narrow niche where they were standing. Jake saw Lauren further along, and — beyond her — a very, very narrow crevice. Robbie shone his torch into this crevice, and Jake realised it was a tunnel, even narrower than the tunnel he’d gone through to get to the cupboard.

‘We go this way,’ whispered Robbie. ‘Stay close behind me, and watch your footing. It’s a bit narrow in places, but we should all make it through.’

Jake and Lauren followed Robbie, staying close to him as instructed, as they squeezed and pushed their way between slimy wet rock faces.

‘This comes out on the other side of the headland,’ said Robbie. ‘Rona and I used to play in it when we were small.’

‘Didn’t your parents ever get worried about you, doing this?’ asked Lauren. ‘You could have got lost or trapped.’

‘We never told them,’ said Robbie.

They moved on, down, down, down, the rocks slippery underfoot. At times the passage became so narrow that Jake was worried he wouldn’t be able to make it through the small openings.

‘How much longer?’ he whispered.

‘Nearly there,’ replied Robbie.

Suddenly Jake became aware that the gaps seemed to be widening.

‘I’m going to turn off the torch,’ whispered Robbie. ‘We’re coming to the point where the cave goes out to the shore. That light will give us away.’

He switched the torch off, and they were plunged into blackness.

‘I can’t see,’ complained Jake.

‘Give it a minute or two to allow your eyes to adjust,’ said Robbie.

The three of them stood there, in the darkness, and slowly Jake saw what Robbie meant: a trickle of very faint light was coming along the tunnel.

‘OK,’ said Robbie. ‘Move slowly. Watch where you walk. And keep quiet.’

Robbie led the way, Lauren and Jake following, as they crept slowly along the last few metres of narrow rock tunnel. Now the ambient light of night from outside guided them as they saw the opening of the cave, and the sea ahead of them.

They reached the edge of the cave and stood, listening. Above them on the cliff top they could hear shouting, and they saw the night sky being lit up.

‘They’re using torches,’ whispered Robbie.

Even as he spoke, a beam of light from a powerful torch above them hit the shingle beach right in front of the cave opening. It lingered there, then moved on.

‘We can’t get back to the house this way,’ whispered Robbie. ‘They’ll spot us for sure.’

‘What about the other cave?’ asked Jake. ‘The one they thought they were following us down?’

‘That comes out on the other side of the headland,’ said Robbie.

‘So they’ll come round the headland and come to this cave?’ asked Lauren.

Robbie nodded.

‘They could also come back through that tunnel and find the way we came, down that side-tunnel,’ murmured Jake.

‘Whatever they do, if we stay here, they’ll find us,’ said Robbie.

‘And if we try to make it along the shore, their torches will pick us out,’ said Jake.

‘We’re trapped,’ whispered Lauren.

‘You forget, this is the twenty-first century,’ said Jake. ‘Mobile phones.’

‘They took mine off me,’ said Lauren.

‘And mine,’ said Robbie.

‘But they didn’t take mine,’ said Jake.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone, and then his face fell. The bullet that had hit his jacket had smashed his phone beyond repair.

Outside, they could hear more urgent shouting in Russian.

‘OK,’ admitted Jake unhappily. ‘We’re trapped.’

‘Maybe there’s a chance,’ murmured Robbie.