All four wheels spun, gripped and the next instant the quad bike shot away…
Dillon had warned Tatiana of the perils of riding pillion on the quad, how she should watch his every move, and not to throw herself around on the machine. “We’ll be travelling over some extreme terrain, and it’ll get rough at times, but all you’ve got to do is hang onto me with everything you’ve got.”
Now, as the quad bike surged forward, Tatiana’s heart was in her mouth; the rain had returned and was now beating down, mud and water sprayed up under the splashguards on both sides, and they left Vince behind as they powered on up through the first valley. A torquefilled engine throbbing beneath them like an athlete’s heart beating at full rate. The quad sailed over the waterlogged ground, cutting out any need for tracks or roads, and as they crested a ridge, Dillon still piling on the power, the quad’s front wheels lifted from the ground in a shower of debris and water spray.
Another world opened up, a world of rolling heather, a great mauve carpet caressed by the wind, stretching off to the horizon. Nothing else moved, nothing stirred in this bleak harsh environment: no trees, no inhabitants — just the occasional covey of grouse taking flight. Two words sprang into Tatiana’s mind to describe this place.
Total isolation.
They powered forward, down the lower slopes of the mountain, and even though it was still raining and the wind bitterly cold, sweat was trickling down the riders’ backs. Dillon wrestled with the huge quad bike, he could feel the ground soften under the knobbly offroad tyres, trying to pull the powerful machine one way and then the other; he fought back, increasing the power, building the speed, rising from the seat a little to stand on the pegs with Tatiana clinging on tightly behind as they crested another rise and sailed down the next slope. Dillon kept the power on and the speed kept creeping up; past 50 m.p.h., the low carpet of heather sped by in a blur all around the charging quad bike. Occasionally they hit a buried rock, the bike’s suspension dipping, absorbing, but Dillon kept true to the line they were taking, kept the quad racing over the open wilderness of the Scottish Highlands.
They charged along under dark clouds and heavy rain.
Dillon wiped the moisture from his face with the back of his gloved hand, wincing as the rough material ran over his wind-burnt lips. The rain beat down, making him blink behind the goggles as he read the GPS coordinates, his face feeling as if it had been whipped with stinging nettles.
They rode on, merging with the landscape around them; valleys blending with mountainous slopes, an undulating landscape that they navigated with great effort. The quad bike carried them forward, until finally the mountains became bigger and their way seemingly became barred.
They arrived at a vast loch, the expanse of water appeared to go on forever, sandy beaches and huge rocky outcroppings of stone rearing up out of the water in the distance. Sheer cliffs rose up to meet the dark brooding sky on both sides, and Dillon powered down the quad as they descended from the foothills towards the water’s edge.
Dillon picked his way around the shoreline heading towards the far end of the loch.
They rode on, the quad’s powerful motor running silent.
“Thank God for that!” Tatiana spoke over the sound of the wind and rain. She was clinging on tightly and Dillon, who had sat down in the saddle once more, could feel her hands around his waist gripping on for dear life.
“Mental ride, eh?”
“Oh it’s mental, alright,” Tatiana agreed.
They picked their way around the edge of the loch, thick cloud overhead and the rain still beating down, Dillon’s eyes focused on the Sat-Nav. He swung the quad left, then unleashed the powerful machine up the slope towards a pocket of ancient Caledonian pine trees, slowed as he looked for a cutting through to the other side. He glanced to his right and found what he was looking for, a man made cutting big enough to allow them access and passage all the way to the other side of the forest. Accelerating, Dillon gritted his teeth and negotiated the ruts and rotting debris, all four wheels spun as they shot into the darkness of the forest’s interior. With a wail from Tatiana, they powered forward, lights blazing, shadows dancing on either side as they sped on. As they shot out of the forest, the quad slewed to the left. Dillon had to brake hard and the powerful machine slowed as an old ravine loomed — Dillon circled in a wide arc, blipped the throttle and then opened up the power, the quad powered up quickly and they leaped from the lower slopes of the huge mountain, dropping a good ten feet to land on the other side. Suspension dipped, Tatiana’s shriek was cut short with a grunt, and the quad sped on as if nothing more than feather had interrupted its trajectory.
Dillon brought the quad to a halt, looking over his shoulder at the leap they’d just made. “You okay, back there, Tats?”
“You could have warned me!”
“No time, luv. Just had to go for it.”
“No time, you rotten son of a bitch!”
“That’s the fun of quad biking,” shouted Dillon. “Everything happens in the blink of an eye.”
They cruised on over the carpet of heather that covered the terrain, picking their way between rocks and fallen debris. To their left stood a mammoth of a cliff, and as they wound their way further north, Dillon realised that it would have to be negotiated to reach the next stage of their journey.
For the next half an hour they followed the shoreline of the loch. Then, slowing his speed, Dillon dropped a few gears. Finding a narrow track that led up an insanely steep slope of rock, he slowed to a halt for a moment, his eyes focused intently.
Tatiana was exhausted and extremely tetchy, “This is fucking awful, Dillon. I’m being bounced around all over the place back here.”
“You do not have to steer this beast. Why do you think that the guys that usually ride these things are such physically fit sons of bitches?”
“Why have we stopped here?”
Dillon lifted his goggles for a moment, rubbed at his eyes, and then wiped the rain from the goggles’ surface with the cloth he pulled from his jacket pocket. “If we carry on following the shoreline of the loch, we’ll simply swing around and be heading in the wrong direction — we need to follow this track, we need to climb up and out.”
“Climb up and out? We’ll never be able to…”
Tatiana had spotted the narrow track leading up the mountain slope until it reached the sheer cliff face, and then apparently disappear into the rock.
“Wait a minute.”
Dillon’s goggles were already back in place, he twisted the throttle; the quad bike lurched forward, needing little encouragement
— they hammered up the slope, tyres chewing up the ground beneath them as they accelerated towards the rock face. Dillon twisted the throttle, getting every last ounce of power from the machine, the engine roared and could be heard even through its stealth shielding… The quad bike covered the ground quickly, the gap between the rock only becoming apparent as they were almost on it. They shot through the gap, sheer rock rising up as far as the eye could see, both riders clenching their teeth and all four tyres biting into the lichen covered rock… The pass had widened and Dillon had increased their speed, until he saw what he had been looking for — the other end.
They came out of the pass into another valley, Dillon bringing the quad to an abrupt halt, so that he could scan the area before moving on.
“You really are a crazy bastard, Dillon,” Tatiana shouted at the back of Dillon’s head.
“I try my best,” Dillon said with a broad smile. “But if you think that was bad…”
He turned and pointed to the other end of the valley, and the mountain range waiting, quietly waiting for them.