Page 96 of Eco-Activist's Mountain Men
"Well, will the camera work after dark?"
"Oh, I see," he says, now getting where I am coming from. "Yeah, they're equipped with infrared. They just automatically switch over when it gets dark, just like home security camerasdo. Then in the morning, they switch back again. Some of the best wildlife photography gets captured at night, when the animals are out hunting and grazing."
"Good. So, we're safe twenty-four by seven?"
"I guess, so long as we keep watching the screen, of course."
In the end, we all stick around in the kitchen, with none of us having anything much better to do, and all of us feeling the need to be around the others. The afternoon winds slowly onwards. My eyes grow tired watching the laptop screen. I see a few birds, and at one stage, a fox trots smartly past one of the camera positions. Otherwise, the images are monotonously dull and unchanging.
The James brothers prepare a macaroni cheese for us all for our dinner, and in fact, it's not too bad—quite tasty in fact, if I'm honest. We keep an eye on Eric's laptop over dinner, but nothing happens. Honestly, I'm not expecting to see Tim Collier show up until tomorrow sometime, but even I realize that forewarned is forearmed, and it's better to be safe than sorry. Especially when it comes to armed madmen out in the forest.
"Of course," says Toby conversationally over dinner. "There's absolutely nothing stopping the guy from ignoring the tracks and just walking up to get to us through the forest."
We all stop eating and stare at him. He looks around at us, then shrugs and helps himself to another spoonful of the macaroni as if he'd not said anything important. "Well… you did say he was special forces. Just saying, is all."
I can see from the look on Jack and Luke's faces that Toby's right. An ex-special forces-trained soldier isn't going toannounce himself with a calling card and just walk up the track. We all look at each other glumly.
"So was all that effort with the cameras a waste of time?" I ask.
Jack takes a moment to reflect. "No…" he remarks, eventually. "We just don't know what he's thinking. If he even comes at all, I'd say it's fifty/fifty as to whether he tries to come undetected, or whether he'll simply come straight up one of the tracks."
"But that means we'll still have to monitor Eric's laptop."
"Yes."
"But we won't know for sure if he's here."
Jack looks annoyed at this, but he concedes the point. "That's about the long and the short of it, yes. Luke's right. He might not come up one of the tracks; he might simply head through the forest. That's what I'd do, if I wanted to come here to… murder someone." He tails off, looking down at his food, not really wanting to say that last part, perhaps to spare my feelings in case it disturbs me. It does, but I try not to show it.
After dinner is over, I make a suggestion that's been on my mind throughout the meal, though I'm still not quite sure exactly how best to express what I'm feeling.
"Look, guys," I start. They turn to listen, and I flush a little, finding it awkward to choose my words to express what I really mean without sounding either melodramatic or just plain stupid. "I don't want to turn this into a crisis, or anything, but right now I need to feel loved. Perhaps we all feel the same. I'm suggesting that tonight we all stick together."
"Oo. a love-in!" Toby grins. "I'm in!"
"Yeah, I guess that kindaiswhat I mean." I smile. "If I'm going to die tomorrow— I know, I know." I hold out a hand to forestall all the inevitable protests. "It's unlikely to happen, sure,I get it. ButifI do die tomorrow, I'd like to die smiling, with a memory of tonight on my mind. How about it, fellas?"
"Yeah, why not?" says Jack. "One consideration, though. We've already planned for Luke to push his bed next to yours, but there won't be room in any of these small bedrooms for more than two beds, and two beds won't be enough for the five of us."
"How about the briefing room?" suggests Luke.
"The briefing room?" I ask. "What the hell's that?"
"Nothing special," Jack explains. "Just a room, really. It's way bigger than any of the bedrooms, and it doesn't have any larger a radiator than the bedrooms have, so it gets chilly in there outside of the summer months, which is why it doesn't get used much. When there are more of us working here, like mid-season June and July, for example, we sometimes go in there if there are too many to fit comfortably around the kitchen table, and we need to decide what to do next as a group, or to hand down instructions from Pat, or do some team training… stuff like that."
"We could all drag our mattresses in and make an Uber-Bed," suggested Eric.
"Great idea. Let's do it."
"Okay, shall we go look at the room?"
"Go on, guys," says Luke. "Take Luna to see the room. I've seen it before. I don't mind staying to watch the cameras."
The remainder of us file out of the kitchen and down the hallway a couple of doors before heading into a room I'd never been in before. Just as promised, it's large and airy, with plenty of space for all our mattresses, so long as we stack up the chairs that are currently scattered around the place.
We get to it, and within thirty minutes or so, we have the chairs stacked in one corner and our mattresses neatly laid out one next to the other in a row.
"Perfect for roly-polies," I say, and try it out, laughing as I execute what I modestly consider to be a perfect forward roll and standing exit at the end. As a young girl, I'd been mad about gymnastics. Until I'd discovered horses and mountain climbing.
