More gunfire spat from the wall as they ran. ‘Back into the trees!’ Eddie yelled.
‘That’s where the tiger is,’ Nina protested.
‘Tigers don’t have guns!’ He vaulted a fallen log back into the shadows, Nina just behind. The firing stopped. Eddie slowed, getting his bearings - and hunting for any nearby movement. The immediate area seemed tiger-free. ‘Okay, so the wall’s out - we need to get to another one of those bunkers. Next one was, er . . . this way.’
He pointed in what seemed to Nina to be a completely random direction. ‘You sure?’
‘Sure-ish.’ He set off. Nina looked round nervously in case anything striped and clawed was watching from the bushes, then scurried after him.
‘What do we do when we get to the bunker?’ she asked in a near-whisper. ‘We can’t lower the elevator from outside.’
‘If we nobble that drone and get my gun back, I can shoot out a window. There was a phone in that first bunker - if the others’re the same, we can call Mac or Kit. We just have to steer clear of Hobbes and his mates.’
A faint whine caught Nina’s attention. She looked up into the trees, but saw nothing. It had to be close, though; Khoil had boasted that the drone’s rotors were inaudible past six metres. ‘I can hear the plane.’
Eddie stopped. ‘Where?’
‘Up there somewhere.’ She pointed.
‘I can’t hear it.’ He stared intently into the foliage, seeing nothing.
The noise grew louder. ‘It’s definitely there,’ Nina hissed. ‘There, there!’
‘Wait, I hear it—’ Eddie began, only to stop as the drone dropped down through a gap in the branches and hovered ten feet away. It turned slightly, pointing the gun at him . . .
But it didn’t fire.
‘What’s it waiting for?’ he wondered out loud.
Nina tugged frantically at his arm. He turned his head - and saw a bush, no more than fifteen feet away, lazily lean over with a faint crackle of bending branches as something pressed against it.
Something large.
‘Uh . . . tiger,’ Nina whispered. ‘There’s a goddamn tiger behind that bush!’
Eddie was already looking elsewhere. ‘That tree,’ he said, nudging her. Off to one side was a broad saman tree, its thick trunk forking a few feet above the ground, providing a step. ‘Move towards it, slowly.’
He put himself between Nina and the predator, then they sidled towards the tree. The bush became still. ‘I can see it,’ Nina whispered, voice tremulous. A shape had taken on form amongst the slashes of sunlight and shadow, crouching low behind the bent branches. Black lines over white and orange converged around a pair of intense yellow eyes, watching them unblinkingly. She remembered that tigers were lone hunters, silent stalkers that observed their prey carefully before springing into a sudden, deadly strike . . . as this one was doing. Fear squeezed at her chest. ‘Oh, shit, Eddie, I can see it.’
‘Me too.’ Only more five feet to the tree - but the tiger could cover the gap in a single leap. It slowly raised its head, then lowered it almost down to the ground. Judging the distance.
Preparing its attack.
‘Go behind the tree so it can’t get straight to you,’ he told her. ‘Then start climbing.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ll be up there like a fucking rocket, don’t you worry!’ They reached the saman. Nina ducked below a branch and circled it. ‘Okay, get ready . . .’
The tiger slowly drew back on its powerful legs, ready to leap. It clearly knew that its prey had seen it . . . and was utterly unconcerned, thinking they posed no threat - and had no chance of escape.
‘Climb!’ Eddie hissed.
Nina pulled herself up, kicking off the forked trunk as she scrambled higher. Eyes fixed on the tiger, Eddie grabbed the overhanging branch and started to climb.
The animal drew back its lips to reveal a pair of three-inch-long fangs. It pounced—
And skidded to a stop, its head snapping round. The drone had moved closer for a better view - and the tiger heard the whine of its engines. A sound associated with pain, capture. It reared back and roared. The drone hurriedly retreated, but by then Eddie and Nina were both over ten feet up the tree and desperately climbing higher.
Eddie saw the tiger glare at them. ‘Can tigers climb trees?’
The answer came a moment later as it jumped on to the fork and scrabbled after Nina, claws ripping into the bark.
‘Fuck off, Tigger!’ Eddie yelled, kicking at it. He hurriedly pulled back his leg as the tiger swatted at him, slashing a chunk from his boot’s sole. It growled and clambered across to the other side of the fork after him.
The bough Nina was climbing shook as the animal jumped off it. A smaller branch she was using as a handhold snapped; she swung, clutching at the broken stub with a stifled shriek. Half hanging off the swaying limb as it bent under her weight, she saw the branch of another tree not far away. She moved further along the bough, reaching out. ‘Eddie! Over here! The tiger’ll be too heavy to get across!’
‘So will I!’ Eddie shouted back. He weighed almost seventy pounds more than her, and if the tiger followed him the branch would break under the combined strain.
‘You’ve got to, it’s gonna catch you!’ She edged closer to the new branch. The drone moved in like an eager voyeur.
Eddie looked down. Nina was right - the tiger was making frighteningly fast progress, claws ripping into the trunk just behind him. He clamped both hands round a branch above and pulled himself up as the tiger swiped again, barely missing his feet. Dangling, he swung along the bough like a monkey - then let go.
Nina got a firm hold on the other tree and hauled herself across just as the branch she had left thrashed violently, Eddie landing on it in an explosion of loose leaves. The drone was caught in the swirling cloud of green and brown, its soft whine abruptly becoming a harsh buzz as leaves were sucked into its rotors and hacked to shreds. The aircraft lurched, briefly losing lift before recovering.
The sight gave Nina an idea, but she was in no position to act upon it. Instead she kept moving along her branch. Behind her, Eddie clung sloth-like to the other branch’s underside.
The tiger shifted position, preparing to jump at him.
‘Come on!’ Nina shouted as she reached the trunk. Eddie pulled himself along, stripping more leaves where his thighs were wrapped round the branch.
The tiger leapt—
Eddie opened his legs, swung down - and used the momentum to throw himself at the other tree, grabbing Nina’s branch with one hand.
The tiger landed on the spot where he had been, the bough thrashing again - this time with a sharp crack of wood as it partially split away from the trunk. Suddenly fearful, the animal gripped the branch tightly as it tipped downwards, ending up swaying almost fifteen feet above the ground.
Eddie dropped to a lower fork as Nina descended. The tiger was trying to crawl backwards along the branch, afraid of the fall, but its sheer size restricted its movements. ‘It’s stuck!’ he cried, jumping down to the ground. ‘Leg it!’
Nina landed beside him - and pulled him behind the tree as the drone fired a second shot. It was thrown backwards by the recoil, but this time Khoil was prepared, and recovered more quickly.
By then, Nina and Eddie were running again. The ground became wet, their feet kicking up splashes as they skirted a marshy area near the central lake. ‘That way to the bunker,’ said Eddie, pointing.
Nina looked back. The tiger was not pursuing them, either still stuck in the tree or frightened away by the gunshot - but the drone was swooping after them like a tiny jet fighter. ‘How many shots in your gun?’