But once he opened the cages nothing went as planned. La Bûche tried to haul himself on top of the bars and push the lions out so that they would go to the house, but they did not move. The lions and tigers, astonished by their sudden freedom to choose wherever they wanted to go, did nothing. At first they just stayed where they were, not bothering to sniff the house or the road. They growled a bit, pretending to bite each other, opening their mouths wide and cuffing each other, either playfully or because they were arguing about what to do. La Bûche hoped that the noise would bring out the German and Joséphine, but neither appeared; it was as if they weren’t there. Then, without La Bûche understanding what was happening, he saw the wild cats raise their heads and sniff the air. They had picked up the slight wind which had just got up in the east, and the next minute they slipped out of the cages as if they had been summoned, heading due east towards the meadows where the ewes were.

August 2017

August 2017

Deer have rapid heartbeats, which means they can run off and escape in just a few leaps, but they get worn out if they have to run for a long time. Just as lions weighing two hundred and fifty kilos can run at over eighty kilometres an hour, yet only for short distances. There is great variation among human beings: some people can run for miles, while others are exhausted after the slightest exertion. None of them have any chance of catching up with a dog, because dogs never stop running.

The Rhodesian ridgeback and the Hanover hound were racing ahead of the Land Rover, and you could see the sheen of their coats through the dirty windscreen. They were leading the way, relentlessly following the trail. And yet twenty minutes later they still hadn’t found Liem and Travis, nor had they managed to trace Alpha.

‘They must have walked fast, your two. It’s hard in this rain, but they’ve managed it …’

Franck said nothing. The three of them were squashed into the front seats. A vague sense of guilt came over him. Now that he was involved in a manhunt, he was taking stock of what he had done and the situation he had put himself in, especially as the strangers driving him were now witnesses, and perhaps even accomplices, in what amounted to false imprisonment.