by Tony Park
She looked down at the tunnel floor and blindly thrust the blade of the shovel into the earth above her. At any moment, she thought, she could be buried, but she needed to get out of here. Mia had no idea if this was going to work, or how long it would take her to break free to the surface if it did. Something told her, though, that there was no point going back.
At least, she thought as the dirt cascaded through her hair and down the back of her shirt, she would have the upper hand on the poachers once she was above ground again, on her own turf. She was confident that wherever she emerged she would be able to find her way to the nearest road, and from there, back to her Land Rover.
Now that she’d found out their secret, these bastards would not get the better of her again.
She thought about Jeff for a moment, then forced him from her mind. Someone would pay for all this bloodshed and the rhinos that had been killed on her watch.
Mia thought of all the times, recently, when the poachers had eluded them, either by making their tracks disappear, or hiding themselves from the long-range eyes of the Vulture system. She visualised all the spots where they had lost the trail of intruders.
Before she could continue her analysis, an avalanche of soil and rock knocked her to the floor of the tunnel and half buried her. She wriggled backwards, shaking the spoil from her back and her hair. When she was able to stand she moved cautiously forward. When she looked up, to her great relief she saw blue sky.
Her next challenge was to get out. The opening, she calculated, was about two metres above her. She picked up the shovel, also nearly buried, and started digging foot holes in one side of the new shaft she had created.
Mia reached up with the tool and cautiously widened the hole she had made. When it was just big enough for her to wiggle through, she put a foot in one of the holes and boosted herself up. Using the shovel for support, she slid her back upward along the bare earthen wall. Mia gritted her teeth against the abrading pain and managed to get her foot into the next hole she had dug. By bracing herself there, she was able to dig her next foothold and repeat the process.
As she neared the top she reached up and laid the shovel across the entrance, then grabbed the stout wooden handle and used it to help lift herself the rest of the way. By the time she had her head and shoulders out she was sweating and gasping for breath from the effort of the short but painful climb. With a hand either side of her she managed to boost herself up and out. The boring hours in the Kaya Nghala gym had, at least, paid off.
Mia took a moment to catch her breath, then brushed herself down and took a look around her. She had made a mental note to go back down into the tunnel and try to exhume her rifle once she escaped, but now she was in the fresh air she thought her best course of action would be to get moving and find help; she could always go back for the weapon. There were no obvious landmarks in sight, so she looked for the sun and headed east, sure she would soon hit the border road between Lion Plains and Leopard Springs.
Out of habit she checked the ground ahead of her for tracks. For now, she was more worried about whatever two-legged predator had blown the opening to the tunnel and killed Jeff.
He had come into her life so swiftly, and made such an impact in a short time that she could not fully process her feelings for him. Right now, though, her first priority was to get to safety and alert the police and other authorities to what was happening underground. Given the number of explosions that had happened, it was quite possible the police captain was still trapped underground – if she wasn’t dead already.
Branches whipped at her arms and face as she jogged, certain she must hit the road at any minute. Once she got there she would turn right, retracing the path she had taken down the hand-dug side tunnel, and that would bring her back to the big termite mound, the exit Jeff had been heading for.
Mia heard an engine and stopped and listened.
‘Hey! Hey!’ She ran through the bush, as fast as she could. She had to catch that vehicle.
Mia burst out onto the road and saw a Land Rover – her vehicle – coming towards her. She waved her hands in the air and the driver looked left and right, then broke into a grin she could see from a hundred metres.
It was Jeff.
He stopped the car and jumped down and they ran, crashing into each other’s arms, and hugged. Jeff kissed her and through her tears she felt it the most natural thing in the world.
Mia held him at arm’s length. He was filthy, his bare torso covered in dirt.
‘Oh Mia. I’m so sorry. Someone set off some kind of booby trap. I got buried in dirt at the entrance; it caved in, but I managed to somehow get my hand out and that gave me some air. I tried digging down for you, but there was too much damn concrete, and . . .’
‘I know,’ she said, wiping her eyes, ‘I tried the same thing. I found a side tunnel, which I think was heading for the surface, and I was able to break through.’
‘Really? Is that what you were trying to tell me –’
‘When you called out to me, yes. What were you trying to tell me?’
‘I saw a guy, the poacher, I guess, as I got under the entrance. I think he must have had a remote or something to blow it up.’
‘We’ve got to let everyone know; we have to find Captain van Rensburg. There were two explosions, Jeff. I’m worried about her.’ They got into the Land Rover and Jeff got behind the wheel. Mia was too relieved and exhausted to argue about who was going to drive.
‘It’s OK, I’ve radioed it in, to Kaya Nghala. I found the security channel as well on the radio. I’ve told them everything, about the tunnel, the explosion, the captain. Help’s on its way, Mia, but I just heard some gunfire.’
Mia thought about where everybody was. Sean Bourke and the other police detective, de Beer, were in Killarney, and Captain van Rensburg was possibly trapped underground.
‘I’ll try to raise Graham and Oscar, they should be on standby or on patrol.’ Mia took the radio from the dashboard. ‘Graham, Graham, this is Mia, over.’
She waited, but there was no reply, so she tried again, only to be met by more silence.
‘I’m worried, Jeff.’
‘The gunfire was over there,’ he pointed to their left front, ‘so I was heading that way.’
Mia opened the passenger door, got out and climbed up onto Bongani’s tracker seat on the front left fender. ‘Let’s go.’
As Jeff drove, Mia thought about where Bongani had fallen ill, and remembered the direction of the poacher’s tracks. If there was, in fact, another main tunnel, then the one she had found could have been an unfinished linkage route, heading towards it. She cast her mind over other spots where poachers had supposedly disappeared and realised they were heading for one of them, not far from another dry stream bed.
Mia was about to tell Jeff to turn left, into the bush, so she could navigate by dead reckoning towards the spot on the spruit where she thought the poacher might have been heading, when she saw tracks on the road. ‘Stop!’
Jeff put on the brakes and Mia jumped down and checked the dirt road. She looked back at Jeff. ‘There’s a man carrying a heavy load, staggering, and someone’s bleeding. They’re heading towards Leopard Springs.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s the closest lodge, the nearest place where someone would find help, or phone signal. Kaya Nghala’s a lot further by foot from here. Let’s go.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Mia got back on the tracker seat as Jeff turned right, leaving the road and crossing into the Leopard Springs property. Now was not the time to be worried about border protocols and traversing rights.
Jeff drove slowly, allowing Mia to follow the man’s tracks through the grass. The blood was fresh and, alarmingly, there was plenty of it.
Peering ahead, looking through the bush, not at it, as she always told her guests to do, Mia saw movement.
&n
bsp; ‘Hurry, Jeff!’
Chapter 29
Sannie looked back at Virtuous, who, like Samantha, had a gun to her captive’s head.
‘What do you want?’ Samantha called down the tunnel to Virtuous. ‘Are you here to save the day?’
Virtuous gave a little laugh. ‘No, I’m here to join you. Your tunnels have been very good for my business. Every would-be poacher and criminal in the lowveld has been hearing about the disappearing poachers of Lion Plains and they all think I’m the one supplying this super-strong muthi that truly does make people disappear. You thought you could lead the police to me, to cover up your little underground operation, did you?’
Samantha shrugged.
‘We can work together, you and I, but from what I just heard, in the dark, you want our police lady friend in on this as well.’
‘You seem to know it all,’ Samantha said.
‘I do, now, and I know this woman.’ Virtuous pointed at Sannie, who glared at her. ‘I have spoken to her and looked into her soul. Whatever she has told you, she will not agree to work with you. She is too honest, this one.’
‘So what do I do with her?’ Samantha asked.
‘Kill her.’
Baie dankie, Sannie thought to herself.
‘She’s my friend,’ Samantha said.
‘Yes.’ Virtuous nodded. ‘I gathered that from what I heard earlier. And because she is your friend you should know that what I am telling you is the truth. As soon as she gets the chance she will betray you and these tunnels, and she will prevail. I’ll make it easier for you. I will kill her for you.’
‘No!’ Lilly screamed and broke from the sangoma’s grip. She ran to Sannie and threw her arms around her. ‘She saved my life!’
Sannie rolled on top of Lilly, smothering her with her body, expecting to feel someone’s bullet – either from the sangoma or Samantha – at any second.
Lilly was fumbling under Sannie. ‘Be still, girl,’ Sannie said.
Samantha dragged Laura a few steps closer to Sannie and Lilly, maintaining her stand-off with Virtuous. ‘Quiet, everyone!’
‘Please, Captain, take this,’ Lilly whispered into her ear, ‘it’s from the sangoma.’
Sannie felt the girl press something angular towards her, made of steel warmed from concealment. It was another pistol, small, perhaps a .32 calibre. Big enough.
The sangoma drew a deep breath, closed her eyes and took a step towards Samantha before opening them again.
‘Stay where you are.’ Samantha looked rattled. ‘I’ll shoot you.’
‘You need me,’ Virtuous said.
‘Throw down your gun.’
‘I want the girls,’ Virtuous said.
‘What?’
The sangoma’s mouth curled into a grin. ‘Do you have any idea how much they are worth in my business? Dead or alive?’
‘Seriously?’ Samantha said. ‘You’re sick.’
‘Really? What were you going to do with them?’
‘Ransom them.’
‘Lilly’s grandmother has no money. I brought her to you as an offering just now, but I will gladly take her and get out of your life. Your secret will be safe with me, as long as you keep mine. I will pay you for the other one.’
Laura whined. ‘I want my mother. I’ll say whatever you want.’
Virtuous shifted her aim, slightly, to Laura, mocking her fear.
Sannie could see that all of Samantha’s attention was on the sangoma, who she clearly thought was even crazier than she. Sannie slowly, centimetre by centimetre, moved her hand. Using her thumb, she could feel that the hammer was back, meaning the pistol was already cocked and loaded.
Samantha instinctively moved Laura to one side, half turning her body to shield the child from Virtuous. Virtuous and Lilly had cleverly engineered the moment for Sannie, but Laura was still too close to Samantha for her to risk taking a shot.
A growl emanated from the Killarney end of the tunnel and a black bundle of fur raced into the middle of the stand-off and started barking at Virtuous.
‘What the hell . . .’ Samantha said.
‘Benny,’ Sannie called.
The dog looked to her.
‘Rim hom!’
It was the word of command that Sean used to make his dogs attack. Benny seemed to pick up that Sannie was looking at Samantha, though he hesitated.
Samantha, seeing the dog take a step towards her, fired her pistol, but missed the dog. Laura cowered at the noise and managed to duck out of Samantha’s grasp.
Sannie rolled, raised both hands, left wrapped around right, took aim and fired.
The bullet hit Samantha and she spun side-on, but pulled the trigger again on her own pistol, sending another bullet ricocheting off the curved tunnel wall. Virtuous and Benny charged forward, and Laura grabbed Samantha’s free arm and bit it, hard.
Samantha screamed and fell in a heap as Sannie launched herself onto the other woman, grabbing her gun hand and slamming it against the concrete. The girls joined her and they disarmed and held Samantha as Sannie took out her handcuffs and put them on her one-time friend.
‘Auf, Benny,’ Sannie called, telling the dog to back down from the melee.
‘Girls, girls, forgive me,’ Virtuous said, opening her arms wide. First Lilly, then Laura came to her, and lost themselves in her embrace, their tears soaking into her ample bosom and sundress. ‘I would never hurt you, or any child.’
‘Sheesh, you shot me,’ Samantha said to Sannie.
‘Shut up. Samantha Karandis, I’m arresting you on suspicion of kidnapping and rhino poaching. You have the right to remain silent and the right to legal representation. Anything you say can be used against you.’
‘I’m bleeding!’
Sannie had hit Samantha in the right upper arm – Samantha had been lucky as Sannie, by virtue of her training, had been aiming for the centre mass of her body. Although the shot was at close range, the relatively puny bullet had lodged in the flesh of Samantha’s muscle. Sannie picked up the other woman’s discarded ski mask, stretched it until it ripped, then tied it tightly around the wound.
‘I’m feeling faint,’ Samantha said. She rested her back against the tunnel wall and then slid down until she was sitting.
Sannie saw that Samantha’s face was pale. She was probably suffering shock, but would not die from the wound. Sannie let her rest for a moment, but kept her eyes and gun on her as she went over to Virtuous.
Virtuous let the girls go and they, too, sat down, talking quietly to each other, sharing their experiences.
‘Where did you get those guns?’ Sannie asked the sangoma.
‘I’m very sorry, Captain. I have to confess that I injured one of your colleagues.’
‘Tell me what happened, quickly,’ Sannie said.
Virtuous nodded. ‘When I left Nomvula’s house I walked back to my home, but I saw police there, and the anti-poaching man with the dog. I went around the back, through the bush and from their conversation I could hear that they had found something terrible in my freezer.’ Putting a hand to the side of her face, so that Laura and Lilly could not see or hear what she was saying, she mouthed the words: ‘Body parts.’
‘Go on,’ Sannie said.
‘Well, you know how we izangoma are often accused of trading in such things – I would never – I panicked. I thought the police would arrest me, so I tried to pinpoint where the body parts could’ve come from. There is a shipping container near the new hotel, by the pool, and it hums, like from an engine, and I had wondered for some time whether the workers there had a cold room, like a big refrigerator. I thought to myself, perhaps there are dead bodies in there? Then I wondered if the girls might . . .’
Sannie nodded.
‘So I went to investigate and found that the container door was locked, but there was a nearby e
ntrance to a concrete building that was unlocked. Inside I found the shaft leading down to this concrete tunnel. I climbed down, and found a place where someone had been living. I picked up a frying pan, the closest thing I could find to a weapon, for my protection. I walked a little way along the tunnel then found another tunnel to the right, this one dug in the earth, with wooden boards on the walls and roof. It led to another tunnel, which was blocked at the Killarney end . . .’
‘Where you found Lilly?’
‘Yes,’ Virtuous said. ‘I waited with her and she told me that you had found her and not long left her. We planned on staying put, but then the lights went out and I heard other men moving about, talking, but too far away to understand what they were saying. I thought these people were bad men, so I snuck back along the offshoot tunnel, into this one, crept up behind the one man, and hit him over the head with the frying pan. I’m afraid it was a detective, named de Beer. The poor man is unconscious.’
‘I’m sure Henk – Detective de Beer – will forgive you, if you haven’t given him brain damage. Two pistols?’
‘He was carrying one and had the small one, which I gave to Lilly to give to you, in a holster strapped to his ankle, like in the TV crime shows.’
Sannie nodded. Typical Henk to be carrying a backup weapon. ‘You did well.’ Sannie looked to Lilly. ‘Both of you. You were very brave.’
‘Where do we go now, Captain?’ Virtuous asked.
It was a good question. Sean could be coming their way now; hopefully with a conscious Henk. Her main priority, however, was to get out of this network of tunnels. Now that it was quiet, Sannie could hear a deep, rumbling, grinding noise somewhere in the distance. With a sinking heart, she realised it must be the boring machine churning on somewhere down the pipeway under Lion Plains. Someone, Sannie reasoned, must have turned it on somewhere. That felt ominous.
‘Who else is underground?’ Sannie said to Samantha.
‘No one right now, but as you said, I have the right to remain silent.’
Sannie went to Samantha, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet. She leaned in closer so that their faces were just centimetres apart. Samantha flinched. ‘If I were you, Samantha, I would start cooperating if you want to minimise your prison time. What’s the quickest way out of here?’
