Read Online Untouchable by Chris Ryan - Free Book Online

the vet say there was a drugs black market? Maybe that suspicious guy got the ketamine a bit cheap for general use around the animals and was trying to hide the fact.’ She glanced at Paulo. ‘What do you think, Enrique?’
    Amber began chuckling again, then Paulo. That started Hex and Alex and before they knew it they were all helpless again.
    Amber wiped a tear from her eye. ‘Alex, just get this out of your system. Why don’t you go and look at the bothy again now? There are enough of us here to sort out the kayaking gear for tomorrow. Go and do what you need to do.’
    Li felt mean for being irritated with him earlier. ‘I’ll come with you,’ she said. ‘Kayaking’s not my thing. I feel like another walk.’
    Li and Alex climbed into the hills just as the sun was setting. The clouds had turned to purple and crimson; the mountains stood out black against a golden halo, as though there was a glowing fire just behind them. The two friends carried torches but preferred to keep them switched off, soaking up the silence, the vast purpling sky, the fresh cooling air. An owl rose out of the trees, its wings a wide silhouette, silent as a glider.
    ‘This is so lovely,’ said Li. ‘What a pity people come here to kill things. That lodge rears pheasants and grouse for people to kill. And that pop star, or whoever she was, was out shooting deer today – who’d want to shoot a deer?’
    ‘I suppose people pay a lot of money to hunt,’ said Alex.
    ‘They do in that place,’ said Li. ‘You know what annoys me, it’s not necessary. It’s not like some of the parts of the world we’ve been to, where you have to be self-sufficient. If we were in the middle of the jungle and we had to kill something to get a meal, I’ve no problem with that. But a bunch of rich Hooray Henrys – they can’t eat a whole deer and they probably wouldn’t want to.’
    They started to climb more steeply, pulling themselves up on rocks that jutted out of the wiry grass. ‘Have you seen Glaickvullin village?’ said Alex.
    ‘No.’
    ‘I saw it last week when I took Amber down to get more insulin.’ Amber was a diabetic and had to take regular medication, but she didn’t let it cramp her style.
    ‘And?’ said Li.
    ‘Well, you know Tongue?’
    ‘Yes.’ Tongue was a tiny village; they went there to get petrol and diesel for the vehicles. Aside from the petrol station it had a hotel, a bank, a farm and some cottages. That was all.
    ‘Glaickvullin’s like a different planet,’ said Alex.
    ‘How?’
    They reached the top of the hill. Below, the white walls of the hostel reflected the sunset glow.
    ‘It’s got a posh country clothing shop and a gift shop selling lots of things marked WITH LOVE FROM SCOTLAND . There are a lot of local people making a living out of the people who come here to shoot. And then there are the gamekeepers – it’s a traditional job. They have to look after the environment, farming the heather, making sure the animals on the estate are healthy . . .’
    Li paused, hands on hips. ‘But they shoot so many birds they have to keep rearing more of them or they’d die out.’
    ‘Many more of them are released than are shot. A lot of them go and live in the wild.’
    They marched on again. ‘That doesn’t make sense, Alex. If there are a lot of them in the wild, why do the keepers have to breed them?’
    ‘Too many natural predators. And the weather’s so cold up here that partridge and pheasant don’t breed. The point is, it’s a natural resource, like oil. The gamekeepers make sure it’s managed in a responsible, sustainable way.’
    ‘You sound like you’ve been finding out a lot about this.’
    ‘My mum has. She doesn’t want me to have a job where I might get shot at, like my dad. My careers officer told her about gamekeeping and she thought it would be perfect – the outdoors, and a few guns, but—’
    ‘But nice and safe. Birds and deer can’t shoot back.’
    ‘Precisely,’ said