up with my boot up your backside.’
James wasn’t comfortable with the way Kazakov picked on Kevin and leapt to his defence. ‘Jo’s his training partner,’ James explained. ‘Their briefings are in two languages and he can’t do the mission alone because he can’t understand Jo’s instructions.’
Kazakov was inexperienced and looked confused, but Mr Pike quickly interrupted. ‘Are you up for a jungle hike, James?’
No cherub in history had ever wanted to do a jungle hike, but the course had been designed for ten-to twelve-year-olds with heavy packs. James was fifteen and it would be well within his capabilities.
‘I guess,’ he said. ‘But I’m not arsing around with some stupid briefing written in gobbledegook. I’m gonna fetch my GPS receiver off the boat and I want the coordinates.’
Mr Kazakov bristled. ‘Kevin needs a challenge; it’s not fair on the other trainees.’
James pointed at Jo. ‘Since when was basic training ever fair? Or I tell you what, Kazakov, I’ll stay here and pack up the parachute equipment and you can do the twenty-kilometre hike your way.’
The newly appointed instructor didn’t like that suggestion one bit.
‘Not keen?’ James carped.
While James and Kazakov postured, Kevin stripped out his former training partner’s pack. As well as grabbing all of Jo’s rations, he took out some essential shared equipment and replaced his spork.
He eyed Jo guiltily as he worked. ‘I feel like a vulture picking over your bones.’
Despite her pain, Jo managed an encouraging smile. ‘You’ve got to carry on, Kev. I really hope you last out. You deserve your grey shirt.’
Kevin tried not to cry as he grabbed Jo’s filthy hand and squeezed it tight. ‘You don’t deserve this; you’ve helped me out a million times. I wouldn’t be here if—’
Mr Kazakov gave Kevin a shove in the back. ‘Get a move on,’ he growled. ‘I want that jump suit before you cry all over it.’
‘You’d better get ready, Kev,’ Jo said. ‘You’ll be all right with James on the hike.’
James gave Kevin a sympathetic look. ‘I’ve got to fill my canteen and put some equipment together for the hike,’ he said. ‘Finish saying your goodbyes and I’ll meet you over by that sand dune in five minutes.’
As James turned away, he saw that the other three pairs of trainees were putting on sunscreen and stripping unnecessary weight from their packs in preparation for a four-hour hike in blistering heat.
His mind wandered as he jogged towards a wooden cargo boat. It had been moored at high tide and was now marooned, several hundred metres from the sea.
James hated school work and had agreed to help out the training department instead of doing extra GCSEs. The arrangement suited him, even if it didn’t always make him fabulously popular with the youngsters he had to train. But he’d been working with the instructors for four months now and he’d slowly come to realise that he didn’t have the ruthless streak that all good instructors needed.
As James stepped into the hull of the small motor launch and tried to find his day pack amidst cartons of equipment and tins of food, his eyes welled up as he pictured Jo and Kevin with their hands locked together and tears streaking down their cheeks.
4. PARK
Owen Campbell-Moore was a dreadlocked Jamaican who worked as a groundsman at the playing fields a couple of kilometres from the Zoo. Gabrielle and Michael found him on a deckchair inside his lock-up, with his socked feet resting on a ride-on mower. There was damp in the air, mixed up with the smell of cut grass and fumes from a Calor gas heater.
‘How are me young lovers today?’ Owen asked cheerfully, as he touched fists with Michael. When he stood up, his giant woolly hat brushed the corrugated roof.
‘We’re good,’ Michael nodded, as Gabrielle smiled in agreement.
‘And life in the Zoo?’ Owen asked. He’d lived there himself a dozen years earlier and always made a point to ask.
‘In-bloody-sane, as always,’ Gabrielle smirked. ‘Girl cut herself in the bathroom two nights ago and they still haven’t cleaned up.’
Owen shook his head and sucked air between his teeth. ‘My old home, I miss it so,’ he said, before bursting into laughter. ‘So you here for a K bag? You know, I almost fell on me arse when Major Dee called up so early.’
‘Same here,’ Michael nodded, as Owen guided his socks into a pair of muddy workman’s boots and stood up without bothering to tie the laces.
He put on a pair of gardening gloves before grabbing keys from