by Karen Rispin
The poachers trotted out of sight. Rick twisted toward me. He grabbed both of my shoulders so hard it hurt. "We've got to stop them!" he whispered, giving me a little shake. "I'll tell the helicopter pilot. He talked English to me. You have to find the others and tell them."
For a second I stayed frozen. Rick ran quickly and quietly back into the bush. I whispered, "But the pilot went with the other askaris."
My heart thudded in my ears. I thought it was all up to me now. I ran toward the elephant carcass.
I tore into the clearing where the dead elephant was. Vultures ran clumsily away, lunging into the air. I stopped, looking around. No one was there. The huge heap of the dead elephant blocked my view. I dashed around it. Nothing. Nothing but vultures and flies in the thick, hot sun.
"Isak! Loragoi!" I yelled. Only silence answered.
The poachers couldn't get away! They couldn't! I opened my mouth to call again. The helicopter's big rotor started. I bit my lip, wondering wildly if Rick was trying to fly it.
Suddenly I remembered Loragoi looking at tracks. I looked down. Footprints were clear in the dust around the carcass. The askaris' tracks have to be on top, I told myself. They would come from the helicopter. Chewing my cheek nervously I ran back around the elephant to the path from the helicopter. I found a clear set of tracks on the path and started to follow it. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Even in soft dust the tracks kept getting underneath each other.
I followed the tracks a little way away from the elephant. Then I heard running feet. I dodged toward the nearest thornbush and hid. The bush was too thick, tangled, and spiky to hide under properly. There was no more time. I froze with my back up against thorn tangle and waited. If it was poachers with rifles, I didn't have a hope.
The whole antipoaching patrol swept past running hard. I jumped up, digging thorns into my back. Twisting away from the thorns, I yelled, "Wait! I saw the poachers."
They ignored me and kept running. I looked back the way they'd come. What if more poachers were chasing them?
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Chapter Ten
I ran after the askaris of the antipoaching unit as hard as I could run. Even the smell of the dead elephant didn't slow me down. The helicopter was already taking off when I got there. Most of the askaris were in it.
Isak and some others were climbing into the Land Rover.
"Wait!" I yelled again.
The Land Rover was already starting to roll. I ran toward it and grabbed onto the back. Two askaris reached out to pull me in so I wouldn't fall.
"I saw the poachers," I yelled at Isak.
"The helicopter pilot has said," he said, patting the radio he had slung over his shoulder. "Your brother told him. We are following him."
We all ducked as the Land Rover tore under a low thornbush. Bits of thorn and leaves sprayed over me.
"They are there!" I yelled, pointing in the direction we'd seen the poachers.
"Were they in a vehicle?" another askari asked, yelling over the noise of the Land Rover.
I answered him, clutching at the side to keep my balance. A second later I heard machine guns stuttering. The helicopter was right ahead. I could see men in the door firing at something on the ground. The askari beside me shoved me down flat. My face was right on the gritty floor of the Land Rover. I started to get up, and he shoved me down harder. My head banged the floor.
"Stay there!" he said fiercely.
The Land Rover swerved. I banged into the side. It slowed down and thumped over something. I stuck out my hands and feet to brace myself. A man stepped on me. Then he jumped out the back. I was facing the back of the Land Rover. I looked out. The man didn't land on his feet. He rolled on the ground on purpose until he was behind a bush. The askari's hand shoved me down again.
A second later another man jumped out, then another. I think we made a big circle before the Land Rover jerked to a stop. One man stayed. I lifted myself up. The others were disappearing into the bush at a crouching run. I could hear machine guns firing over the noise of the helicopter. Bullets whanged off the metal of the Land Rover. I pressed my face into the grit on the metal Land Rover floor.
Akakakaka! The askari standing beside the Land Rover opened fire. I curled into a ball and covered my ears. The only thing I could think was, Don't let Rick get killed. Don't let Rick get killed. He doesn't know you yet. Somehow I never even thought that I might get hurt or killed.
For a few minutes the helicopter thundered, hovering right overhead. The grit on the floor hurt my cheek. More rifle fire cracked through the air. After what seemed like ages, I heard the helicopter land. I could hear men's voices talking and yelling.
Even after the noise of fighting stopped, I stayed where I was. Finally I sat up, feeling stiff and shaky. Out the back of the Land Rover I couldn't see anything but thornbushes in the sunshine. As I climbed out, a bottle bird called. It seemed odd that the bird would sound normal. I stood up in the sun on the dusty ground and looked around.
The first thing I saw was Rick going toward the helicopter. He was half carrying an askari. The askari was dragging one leg. I ran toward them. Rick was handing the man up to other people in the helicopter when he saw me.
"Sis! You're here!" he bellowed.
He let go of the man and grabbed me in a bear hug. "I thought you got left back by the dead elephant," he said. "I was worried about you." He looked at me. "You're all right?"
I nodded and laughed, "You, too!"
He let go of me suddenly and said, "When the shooting started I felt sick. I mean, it hit me that I really care about you. I should never have got you into this. It was a stupid thing to do."
I grinned at him and said, "It's OK. Hey, what happened to the poachers?"
"They've got them in the Bell Huey helicopter already," he said. "Two are hurt pretty bad."
"I thought they'd all be dead," I blurted. "There was so much shooting."
"They fired around the poachers a lot to get them to surrender," Rick said. "Some wouldn't quit shooting at us, and they got hurt. They're flying the hurt men out. The pilot said he'd drop you and me off with Dr. Webb on the way. The men with the Land Rover are going to try to track two poachers who got away. Just a sec. I'll be right back."
Rick dodged into the helicopter. The Land Rover pulled up beside me right then. Men started picking up stuff the poachers had dropped and loading it into the Land Rover. There were machine guns and odd bundles.
"Hey, Sis!" Rick called from the helicopter door. "The pilot says you can ride up front."
When we were getting in, I heard one of the hurt poachers groaning. It made me feel scared and sick. Afterwards I figured out that Rick probably got the pilot to let me go up front so I wouldn't notice the wounded poachers so much. I guess it kind of worked. I couldn't hear them moaning with the intercom helmet on, anyway.
The pilot showed me how the complicated joystick thing he called the "collective" worked. The collective made us go up and down. Then there was another stick between his knees called the "cyclic." That made us go forward or sideways. There were rudder pedals on the floor that helped turn. With all the dials and instruments it looked very complicated. I glanced back at the hurt men and shivered.
Loragoi had come with the helicopter. He thought he knew where Dr. Webb was. He stood behind the pilot, looking out the front and giving directions.
"There!" he said, pointing. A few seconds later I saw the elephants, too. Dr. Webb's Range Rover was on the far side. I counted twenty-four elephants before we started coming down.
"Why are we coming down so far away?" I asked.
"We do not wish to frighten the elephants so much," the pilot answered. "Take off the helmet and go back to the door. You must get off quickly."
Dr. Field ran toward us. He was yelling something, but we couldn't hear him. The helicopter made too much noise. As soon as the skids touched the ground Rick and Loragoi jumped down. I followed. My head felt odd. The wind from the rotor was
twisting my hair in all directions. The pilot didn't wait to see what Dr. Field wanted.
Dr. Field stopped running as soon as he realized the helicopter wasn't waiting. We stood and watched it disappear. The noise got farther and farther away.
"What were you running to tell them?" I asked Dr. Field as soon as we could hear to talk.
"The elephant herd is missing one family group," he said. "We tried to talk to you on the radio but couldn't get through. Margaret wanted to use the helicopter to look for them. They might be away from the larger group somewhere." He shook his head and said, "Instead of studying the animals, we have to fight for their existence."
I looked at Rick. Would he say something about how poaching was Christians' fault? He didn't say anything.
"Hey," Dr. Field said. "What were you two doing in the antipoaching helicopter anyway? Didn't Margaret succeed in cutting you out of the action?"
Rick grinned and shrugged.
The Range Rover came over and stopped beside us. "Jambo, Loragoi," Dr. Webb called, climbing out. Then in Swahili she asked Loragoi if he had seen certain elephants. She listed them by name.
Loragoi looked at his feet. He said slowly, "I have not seen Njiru, Norah, or Fupi. Joshua is dead. He is there. They had killed him five or six days ago."
Dr. Webb spun away from us and stood still. I looked at her, wondering if she was crying. Rick and Dr. Field looked confused. Neither of them knew Swahili, so they didn't know what Loragoi had said. No one moved.
She spun back suddenly and said furiously in English, "Those dirty—! He barely had any ivory at all!" She changed into Swahili. "Loragoi, were the tracks of the others near Joshua? Could we follow the elephants from there?"
Loragoi considered, then slowly said, "Perhaps it is too long a time. Maybe it is possible."
A few minutes later we were all in the Range Rover heading back to the dead elephant. Loragoi had climbed in front with Dr. Webb to show the way. Rick, Dr. Field, and I were in the back.
"So how'd you get included in this?" Dr. Field asked. He tipped his head in the direction of Dr. Webb and said with a grin, "She's not easy to thwart."
"Told them we had to give instructions. When the shooting started, it didn't seem like such a good idea after all."
"And?" Dr. Field asked.
Rick started telling about finding the empty camp, then the dead elephant. "Sis, here, was the one who spotted the poachers," he said, then grinned. "The dead elephant proved a bit much for her stomach." His smile faded. "Mine too, almost. But we got the jerks."
"Why do people poach?" I cut in. "I mean, that man that got shot, I felt really sorry for him."
Dr. Field shrugged. "For people like these Somalis, it's a way to make money. They can use the weapons and skills they got in the war there. They see no harm in shooting all the elephants they can."
"Killing for pleasure and profit," Rick said. "The best hunter is a dead hunter as far as I'm concerned."
My heart did a double thud. Uncle Paul Stewart, one of my favorite people, liked hunting.
Dr. Field cut in, "I can't agree with you there. In North America most of the money for conservation comes from hunters. Animal rights activists talk a lot, but hunters are the ones who pay to keep wild land for the animals. Groups like Ducks Unlimited buy and preserve huge tracts of wild land."
"It's self-interest," Rick said, frowning. "They only do it so they've got something to shoot."
"Uncle Paul cares about nature!" I blurted. "I bet he knows more about it than you do!"
Both Rick and Dr. Field laughed. Rick said, "Hey, easy, Sis. I wasn't trying to put down your Uncle Paul."
Dr. Webb must not have been listening. Suddenly she said, "Norah has her first baby with her. Maybe they haven't killed him."
"Maybe the other elephants didn't get shot at all," I said hopefully. Dr. Webb just looked at me out of angry eyes.
Loragoi did find the tracks of the other elephants. He trotted back and forth, staring at tracks none of the rest of us could see at all. Slowly we followed him in the Range Rover. Before we'd gone very far, he stopped and pointed. In the distance I saw the black shapes of vultures circling. Loragoi ran toward the Range Rover. A second later we were going full speed toward the vultures.
All three of the other elephants were there. They were dead. Two were almost together. The third was a couple of hundred yards away. I swallowed convulsively at the smell. "I will not puke! I will not puke!" I whispered to myself.
Loragoi said something rapidly in Swahili. He pointed at the third dead elephant. I looked and saw the top of a baby elephant's back on the far side. Dr. Webb got out and walked slowly toward the baby. She motioned us to stay away. She got quite close and stood watching for a while. When she came back, she flicked the radio on.
"Park headquarters, come in. This is Margaret Webb. Do you read me?" She had to try a couple of times. Finally, through pops and fizzes, we heard an answer.
"We've located an orphaned elephant. Dehydrated. Ask for air transport. Repeat, ask for air transport for orphaned elephant. Will bring in to main strip."
I couldn't hear the answer over the static, but Dr. Webb did. Anyway, she repeated the message again, then signed off.
She twisted in her seat to look at me. "Anika, this is one baby we may be able to help. Or, rather, take to someone who can help."
"Elanor Hales?" Dr. Field asked. He kept looking over at the baby with its dead mother. "Is she the one you're planning to take this baby to?"
"Oh! Uncle Paul told me about her," I cut in. "She's the one that lives in Nairobi Game Park, right? She raises baby elephants and rhinos so they can be wild again."
Dr. Webb nodded her head and said, "First we have to catch the baby. Then—"
"Catch an elephant! What with?" Rick interrupted.
"With our hands—gently!" She said the last word fiercely. "It's only a baby, and it's weak and frightened."
"Right," Rick said. "If I'm going to be an exotic animal vet, there couldn't be a better time to start."
She had us all make a circle around the baby elephant. Slowly, slowly we walked toward it. It stumbled closer to its dead mother. My throat was choked with excitement and fear and feeling sorry for the baby all at once. As we got closer the baby looked bigger to me. He was almost as tall as my waist. He squealed and spun to face us, then, stumbling, he ran right into Loragoi. Loragoi scrambled backwards to keep from falling. He hung onto the baby elephant. All the rest of us ran up to help. The elephant's skin felt rougher than I thought it would.
"Gently, gently," Dr. Webb said. "Easy, easy. There, little fellow…"
After a few seconds of struggling, the baby stood still. I could feel him trembling. Half pushing, half lifting, we walked the baby elephant over to the Range Rover.
"You three hold him," Dr. Webb said to the three men. "Anika, come help me clear out the back of the vehicle." We were getting in when she called back to the men, "Talk to him, stroke him. He's just a frightened infant."
We piled everything into the front until the front seat was just a big heap of junk. Then she opened the back, and we got back out. I wondered how we'd ever get the little elephant into the Range Rover. He looked too big to pick up.
Loragoi motioned to Rick. He and Rick locked arms under the baby's belly and lifted. Everybody else tried to help. I ended up with the baby's back leg kicking my stomach. I hung on grimly with my face against the rough, dirty skin.
I could hear things like, "Ouch!" "OK, OK, easy," "A little bit to the left, no, my left!" I realized the baby was going forward, away from me. He was in! Loragoi and Dr. Field had got in alongside him. Rick and I were outside. Dr. Webb shut the back and looked at us with her hands on her hips. There was no more room inside the Range Rover. I bit my lip. Would she leave us behind?
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Chapter Eleven
"There's no room inside," Dr. Webb said finally. "You'll have to ride on the front of the Range Rover."
"Mind you, hold tight!" she said and slammed her door.
Riding on the front of a Land Rover through the bush was one of my favorite things. Range Rovers were almost as good, only there wasn't as much to hold on to. Rick and I ducked into the middle as we scraped between two thornbushes. Then we were on the road.
I grinned into the wind, shifting to keep my balance on the bumps. A bunch of yellow-necked spur fowl flew up in front of us. We came to some ostriches close to the road. One dodged onto the road. It started to run in front of us. Its black-and-white feathers bobbed in time to its huge strides. Each stride kicked up a puff of dust.
"Africa is the best!" I yelled at Rick over the wind. He grinned and gave me a thumbs-up sign. Then he had to grab to keep his balance.
A few minutes later we stopped beside the air strip. Actually, we weren't right by the strip. Dr. Webb parked under the nearest shade trees. She turned off the engine. Silence poured in around us. I looked back through the windshield. Dr. Webb was talking on the radio. She finished and climbed into the back with the baby elephant. No one got out.
Rick and I stayed sitting on the front of the Range Rover. I could hear grasshoppers clicking as they flew from one clump of grass to another. It was the middle of the afternoon now and really hot. I stretched my neck, trying to see the baby elephant. Between Dr. Webb and Dr. Field all I could see was the top of its head.
"Do you think it will die?" I asked Rick nervously.
He looked at me and shrugged. "I don't know. Wild babies of any kind aren't easy to keep alive. This one is already pretty stressed out. It must have been without food or water since its mother was killed. Don't get your hopes up too much."
Dr. Field climbed out of the Range Rover and came around front. "Margaret figures it's going to be a while until the plane arrives," he said. "Do you want us to call on the radio for someone to come pick you up? Won't your parents be getting worried?"
"Could you leave a message for them that we're here?" I blurted.
