Chapter 77

Kenneth is wading through the water towards the three smaller crocodiles. His musical, gentle Scots accent has been replaced with a guttural city growl. ‘Right, come oan, ye hockit wee jobbies. Ah’ll gie ye whit fer! Leave me pal alone!’

Behind me, Cuthbert has entered the water with a splash and is gliding quickly towards us. I turn to Mola, who is out of the deepest part now, and nearing the other side. I push through the waist-deep water, my feet slipping on the rocks on the bottom.

‘Mola! Help! Kenneth!’ I cry – pointlessly. There is nothing anyone can do. I look upstream to where Kenneth entered with the crocs.

Nothing.

Kenneth has gone. Cuthbert has gone too. I swivel round in terror, alone in the middle of the river.

‘Kenneth!’ I shout. ‘Kenneth!’ A scrap of blue-green tartan floats past me on the fast-moving water.

Mola shouts back. ‘Forget him, Malky. He was dead already.’

That’s when I see it: the huge creamy-white belly of Cuthbert just below the surface of the water, barrelling towards me as he turns and grabs my leg in his jaws, pulling me under the surface as I suck in a mouthful of river.

This can’t be happening! Wake up! Wake up!

I can’t shout because I’m underwater, but, if my thoughts could yell, they’d be deafening. I have forgotten Seb, I have forgotten everything in my desperate bid to fight off this beast that is churning up the water and twisting my leg, as if trying to wrench it off.

Around me I can see the water turning a misty red from my blood, and at some point I struggle to the surface, taking a gurgling, desperate breath as my head breaks free of the water. Cuthbert has let go and I manage to half swim, half stagger a couple more strides to the far bank, where I can see Mola screaming, ‘Malky! Malky! Behind you!’

I turn to see Cuthbert less than a metre away, swivelling once more to expose his belly as he opens his jaws for a final attack, the attack that will surely finish the fight. My right hand is still gripping Kenneth’s dirk and in a last, desperate effort I add my left hand to steady the blade and plunge it downwards – carelessly, furiously, knowing it is my only chance.