Mission Survival 8 Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Character Profiles

  Map

  Prologue: Part I

  Prologue: Part II

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Bear’s Survival Tips

  About the Author

  Also by Bear Grylls

  Copyright

  About the Book

  Mission: Survival

  Location: Nepalese Himalayas

  Dangers: Rock falls; black bears; flash floods

  When teen adventurer Beck Granger is stranded on a Himalayan mountainside, he has to draw on all his strength and skill to survive.

  As well as climbing and sheltering in some of the hardest terrain on earth, Beck also has to brave bear attacks and flash floods. But the biggest challenge of all is still ahead . . . Can Beck finally learn the truth about his parents’ deaths and bring their killers to justice?

  To my special nieces and nephews: Mungo, Bevan, Tallulah, Benjie, Hamish and Saskia.

  Adventurous, kind and fun.

  CHARACTER PROFILES

  Beck Granger

  At just fourteen years old, Beck Granger knows more about the art of survival than most military experts learn in a lifetime. When he was young he travelled with his parents to some of the most remote places in the world, from Antarctica to the African Bush, and he picked up many vital survival skills from the remote tribes he met along the way.

  Uncle Al

  Professor Sir Alan Granger is one of the world’s most respected anthropologists. His stint as a judge on a reality television show made him a household name, but to Beck he will always be plain old Uncle Al – more comfortable in his lab with a microscope than hob-nobbing with the rich and famous. He believes that patience is a virtue and has a ‘never-say-die’ attitude to life. For the past few years he has been acting as guardian to Beck, who has come to think of him as a second father.

  David & Melanie Granger

  Beck’s mum and dad were Special Operations Directors for the environmental direct action group, Green Force. Together with Beck, they spent time with remote tribes in some of the world’s most extreme places. Several years ago their light plane mysteriously crashed in the jungle. Their bodies were never found and the cause of the accident remains unexplained . . .

  James Blake

  James is tall and broad-shouldered, and a year older than Beck. His mother, Abby Blake, wanted him to go into the family business but James decided, after much soul searching, that it wasn’t right for him. Now he’s one of the only allies Beck Granger has in the world . . .

  Prologue

  PART I

  ‘It’s like I always say,’ said Melanie Granger. The gentle roar of the jet’s engines filled the small cabin. It was a compact executive business jet and she and her husband David were the only two passengers. ‘We move like the leopard, silently stalking its prey, and they won’t even know we’re about to take them down until it’s too late.’

  David had closed his eyes the moment he slumped down in his seat. He opened them again and glanced at his wife.

  ‘Leopards.’ He managed a small, brave smile. He never liked to let her see when he was worried, or afraid, or uncertain. Or, in this particular case, all three. ‘Of course.’

  That was how they had met. They had come together on a conservation course when they were both junior members of Green Force, the environmental action group. Leopards had been Melanie’s special project.

  They had joined Green Force because they wanted to save the world. Neither of them could have known it would come to this: racing through the skies with evidence that could bring down the Earth’s deadliest enemy.

  In Melanie’s pocket was a hard drive. On that hard drive was every single fact and dirty little truth they could find about a particular company – documents, videos, sound files, spreadsheets. Once that hard drive was with the authorities, the company would be blown wide open and the world would be a better place.

  David had been the one to fly them this far. Now he had finally been persuaded to hand over to the co-pilot and get some rest. He didn’t want to use the autopilot – autopilots can be reprogrammed. The people they were up against could certainly have managed a little thing like that. They could have taken the plane over and crashed it into the sea. So David had flown them from Australia to Singapore to refuel, and then onwards for the final leg of the journey to Bangkok.

  The co-pilot had finally insisted that he take a break, and so he had come back to join his wife in the cabin. The co-pilot was a woman provided by the company they had hired the plane from. David hadn’t wanted a co-pilot for the same reason he didn’t want to use an autopilot – you don’t know you can trust them – but international airline regulations insisted that the plane had two pilots.

  Melanie’s hand found his and gave it a squeeze. ‘We’ve got everything.’ She patted her pocket. ‘Everything. This will take Lumos down for good.’ She paused. ‘Al’s expecting us?’

  ‘Spoke to him on the radio thirty minutes ago. He’ll be there.’

  Alan Granger, David’s brother, was waiting in Bangkok to receive the evidence they had collected. He didn’t yet know what this was all about but he was in for one heck of a surprise. David and Melanie would then return to Australia and pick up their boy, Beck, from the capable hands they had left him in. They would have been gone less than twelve hours. No one would have even missed them.

  ‘I wonder if we should have told Beck,’ Melanie murmured.

  David shook his head. ‘Couldn’t risk this getting out. You know what we’re up against, Mel. These people will stop at nothing to keep this evidence from going public. And I mean, nothing. Absolutely—’

  ‘Nothing,’ said a woman’s voice, over the click of a gun.

  Melanie hadn’t seen the co-pilot come out of the cockpit. She was a slender woman with short blonde hair. She could have been beautiful, with a face that smiled at you from advertisements. But the eyes were dark and cold, and showed no mercy.

  ‘You’ve got so many things wrong, Mr Granger,’ she said. ‘But you got that right, at least. How sad you didn’t take the hint. You could have stayed at home and minded your own business, and then none of us would have to be here now.’

  ‘Who the heck are you?’ David asked.

  ‘Just call me A
bby.’

  Abby, Melanie thought at once. Short for Abigail. And then her blood ran cold as she worked it out. ‘Abigail Blake.’

  The gun swung towards her and the other woman smiled. ‘Very good, Mrs Granger.’

  David had gone pale. ‘Blake,’ he said, ‘as in . . .’

  ‘As in Edwin Blake, my father, the head of Lumos. The man you are trying to destroy. He can’t allow that to happen, Mr Granger. And neither can I. He badly wants to see you two, so that is where we’re going.’

  Melanie’s thoughts spun furiously as she stared at the gun. She was under no illusions about trying to outrun a bullet. It didn’t work. Abby could have shot them both before they even spotted her.

  However, Melanie could not help noticing that she hadn’t done it yet. What did this woman intend?

  ‘So, what happens now?’ she asked. She took great care to keep her voice unthreatening, though her mouth was dry.

  Abby’s smile tightened. ‘First, you give me the item in your pocket.’

  Melanie and David exchanged wide-eyed glances. All their hard work – pulling the evidence together in the first place, hiding it, making their plans – and this woman knew about it anyway!

  Melanie reached into her coat and slowly drew out a compact portable hard drive.

  ‘Throw it onto that seat, there.’

  Abby used the gun to point across the cabin. Melanie chucked it gently over so that it landed on the cushion. It was a safe distance away now. Abby could pick it up and slide it into her own pocket without any danger of them jumping her.

  ‘It’s backed up, you know,’ David said.

  Abby laughed merrily. ‘Of course it is. On a second hard drive, which is in a bank vault in Sydney. Which has just been destroyed in what the authorities will say is a gas explosion.’

  Melanie stared at the square lump in Abby’s coat pocket and felt sick at heart. That was all their evidence! Years of preparation! That little hard drive was the most precious thing— No, she corrected herself, the second most precious thing to her in the whole world.

  ‘And now what?’ she asked.

  ‘We sit and wait.’

  ‘They’re expecting us in Bangkok,’ David pointed out. ‘There’ll be an alert if we don’t turn up.’

  ‘I’ve already filed an alternative flight plan. Bangkok is no longer expecting us. You were very wise not to let your brother in on this, Mr Granger. Otherwise I would have had to go after him too.’

  ‘Alternative flight plan?’ David asked. ‘Where to?’

  Melanie glanced out of the window. The sun had shifted round. The change in course had been so gradual that they hadn’t noticed it. ‘We’re heading north-west,’ she said. What lay in that direction? Names of countries ran through her head. Burma. Bangladesh. India. Nepal. China . . . After that, the plane would surely run out of fuel. So, which was it?

  Abby sat down in one of the rear-facing seats. The muzzle of the gun didn’t waver.

  ‘You’ll find out,’ she said, with a smile that froze the air.

  Prologue

  PART II

  After that, there was nothing to do but sit and look at the gun. The autopilot did its job and flew them towards their unknown destination. Melanie marvelled at Abby’s self-control. She almost didn’t seem human. She didn’t grow tired. Her arm apparently never ached with holding a heavy weapon. She kept it pointed at them and that was all there was to it.

  Once or twice David tried to talk to her. Melanie recognized what he was doing. They had both had hostage training. Field workers for Green Force might expect to be held captive in the course of their work. They were trained to form a bond with their captors. If their captors saw them as fellow humans, then they might be treated better.

  It might have worked with someone else, but it had no effect on Abby Blake. Perhaps she had had the same training. Or maybe she just didn’t regard other humans as important. Eventually David gave up.

  It had grown dark outside the windows when a beeping sound interrupted Melanie’s thoughts. Abby seemed to come back to life. She glanced at the autopilot screen in the cockpit.

  ‘Five minutes,’ she said. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stood. ‘Excellent. Dead on time. So to speak. Soon be there.’

  David frowned and glanced out of the window. ‘If we land in five minutes, we should have started our descent by now.’

  ‘Who said anything about landing? This is where I’m getting off.’ Abby headed towards the end of the cabin.

  ‘But . . .’ Melanie blurted. ‘You said your father wanted to see us!’

  ‘True, I did, yes. I should have said, he wants to see you die. By now he’ll have us visual. In a few moments’ time he’ll have the pleasure of watching this plane explode in a cloud of flame. There’s a bomb on board – and don’t bother trying to find it: you won’t. And now—’

  David’s foot lashed out and kicked her gun hand. The crack of the shot made Melanie’s ears ring. By the time they had cleared, David had leaped out of his seat and was grappling with Abby. Melanie didn’t pause to think. She released her belt and leaped up to help her husband.

  Abby was a trained fighter but the two of them outweighed her. The three fell in a tight human knot. Both Melanie and David were trying to evade Abby’s jabbing hands and elbows; David was clinging onto her gun hand. Melanie felt the lump of the hard drive through Abby’s coat. Her fingers scrabbled for it and closed over the plastic casing.

  ‘Got it!’ David shouted. He sprang back clutching the gun. Melanie leaped away from Abby with the hard drive in her hand.

  Abby lay on the floor of the cabin and glared at them. Then, abruptly, she laughed and jumped to her feet in one movement. ‘Oh my. The big man has the gun. Better use it, then, hadn’t you?’

  She sauntered over to the locker at the end of the cabin and pulled out a parachute.

  ‘Stop!’ David ordered. He held the gun in both hands and aimed it at her.

  Abby began to whistle a little tune as she shrugged the parachute harness over her shoulders.

  David tightened his grip. Melanie couldn’t help but notice that the aim wavered slightly. ‘I said, stop!’

  ‘Oh, did you? I didn’t hear. Sorry.’

  Abby fastened the buckles and moved swiftly to the door. ‘You know,’ she remarked over her shoulder, ‘you could shoot at any time.’ Then she turned to face them, holding her arms out. ‘Here I am. You couldn’t miss. Not that it would do you any good, because the bomb goes off with or without me. But you could get your revenge . . . Take me down with you . . .’ A pause. ‘But of course, you won’t, because you’re David Granger and you’re one of the nice guys. And that, my friend, is why we will win and you will lose.’

  She turned to the door and pulled on the fastening lever with both hands. The door swung into the cabin and let in a howling blast of freezing air. Abby shouted something over the noise: it might have been ‘So long.’ And then she was gone.

  David staggered over against the gale and pushed the door shut. ‘I couldn’t do it,’ he muttered. ‘I won’t bring myself down to her level. No, love, stay there.’ Melanie had been about to come and help him. ‘Sit down and buckle up. We might be landing very hard, very quickly.’

  He made his way quickly to the cockpit and dropped into the pilot’s seat, his hands already moving over the controls.

  Melanie fastened her seatbelt. ‘We should find that bomb!’ she called to him.

  ‘She said we wouldn’t,’ he answered without looking round. ‘It’ll be in the fuselage or the avionics bay – somewhere you can’t get at from inside. Our only hope is to override the autopilot and bring the plane down before it goes off. Think happy thoughts, sweetheart.’

  And then there was nothing to do but watch him press buttons and flick switches, trying to regain control of the plane.

  Melanie sat back and closed her eyes, breathing slowly to calm her racing heart. Happy thoughts? OK. That was easy.

  Beck.

&nb
sp; Their son. She pictured him as she had last seen him, face reluctantly upturned for a goodbye kiss. Her face, and David’s dark hair.

  Be brave, darling, she thought. Be brave, be str—

  Chapter 1

  The sun was rising over the Himalayas. Red light touched the very tops of the peaks and slowly flooded down mighty walls of snow and rock. It tumbled into the valleys and brought the world out of the dark.

  Without the mountains in the way, it would have appeared much earlier. The small group – two boys and a man – had started walking an hour earlier when the world had been grey and shapeless. Now the sun had finally caught up with itself.

  It was an awesome sight and Beck Granger took a moment to stand and watch.

  ‘C’mon, Blondie.’ James gave him a nudge as he walked by. The lanky teenager was a couple of years older than Beck, but even with his long legs he usually trailed behind by a good ten metres. James’s lungs laboured in the thin air. He wasn’t as fit as either Beck or Ian, and they were all carrying fully laden bergens – military-grade backpacks that were tough and waterproof and could hold almost anything.

  ‘Keep moving, Beck,’ Ian called from the front, sounding irritable. He was a stocky, powerful man with grizzled grey hair. The first time Beck had seen him, back in South Africa, he had thought of a silverback gorilla. He walked along as if the world had done something that really annoyed him, and he was taking it out on the ground. ‘We can’t delay.’

  Beck hid his own irritation. At fourteen, he was the youngest of the three. Despite this, he was still the one who knew the most about surviving in the wild. But Ian, the adult who knew where they were going, couldn’t get out of the habit of giving orders.

  So Beck tore his gaze away to follow after their leader. ‘So, this place we’re going,’ he called. ‘We’re on a schedule?’

  Well, it was worth a try. Ian was being very tight-lipped about their destination. All Beck knew was that they were somewhere in the Nepalese Himalayas. Even Ian couldn’t really disguise that fact. The big hills were the giveaway. But where in the Himalayas? And what were they going to do when they got there?