“Over eight hundred kilometres to the southern border gate and the camp we’re going to is a bit further north than that. I’ve heard the park can be crowded at this time of the year, so as a special treat I’ve found a small place well away from the usual touristy spots.”
A bolt of alarm shot through Amie. How isolated would this place be? Why was he so keen to get away from the crowds? The idea that Kruger Park was overcrowded was just ridiculous.
Small talk was limited on the journey due to the noise of the Land Rover, and Amie wondered if she should utter the usual comments about the African villages, make a fuss about small children walking alongside the main roads by themselves, shriek with delight at the odd few buck and monkeys they saw, or the women carrying huge buckets of water on their heads. A few years ago, she would be exclaiming about every new sight, but she wasn’t in the mood. If Simon sensed her lack of enthusiasm, he ignored it.
They entered the park in the mid-afternoon, and pressed on northwards. After a couple of hours on the dirt roads Amie was keen to see exactly where they were, but Simon had the satnav turned away from her and she could only guess from the position of the sun if they were still heading north, or north east.
The shrill note of Simon’s cell phone interrupted her thoughts and he hurriedly answered it. Amie couldn’t hear what the caller said, but whatever it was, Simon was not pleased.
“But why ...?” he asked. “That’s a hell of a lot further. Wait.” He slowed the vehicle and pulled over to the side of the road. “Give me those coordinates again.” He held the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he grabbed the satnav and re-programmed it. “According to this, it means an extra three hours driving, at least.”
There was a pause as he listened to the person at the other end. “OK, OK. I can manage that, but you could have told me earlier. It’s just as well I brought extra fuel.” He muttered under his breath, then throwing the cell phone on the centre console he accelerated onto the road again.
It was beginning to get dark now and Amie wondered where they were going to stay the night. “Are we stopping soon?”
“Yes, we’ll stop at the Mug and Bean in Letaba for a rest break.”
“They have a Mug and Bean in Kruger?” Amie was surprised. “That’s amazing. It’s my favourite coffee shop. I never expected that.”
“Time brings changes everywhere,” Simon replied as he turned in through the gates to the camp.
“Are we not staying here, then?”
“No, our camp is much further north, so we’ll only stop for a short break.”
“What’s the name of it, the camp?”
For a second Simon appeared to be caught off guard. “Bavenga. It’s tented, so I hope you don’t mind the odd creepy crawly. Slight change of plan,” he apologised.
Amie grinned nervously. “No more than most girls, I guess.” From all her research she’d not seen one camp named Bavenga, and she wished there was some way of communicating with Maddy. Even if she’d brought her iPad with her it was unlikely there would be any reception this far out and carting along a copy of War and Peace wasn’t really an option for a romantic birthday weekend in the bush. The clever spy masters hadn’t thought of that now, had they?
The stop at the Mug and Bean served to refresh them with caffeine, salad rolls and a toilet break, and Simon’s mood improved a little after the pit stop, even though he didn’t seem inclined to share the reasons for the change in plan.
Once they’d left the coffee shop the ongoing drive through the bush seemed interminable. In the dark, it was impossible to see the clouds of dust they kicked up behind them as the dirt roads got narrower and narrower. Amie could see several pairs of eyes reflected in the Land Rover’s headlights, and she pretended to be more nervous than she actually was.
“Are we safe? What if something attacks us, Simon?”
“We’re perfectly safe as long as we stay in the car,” he replied, and Amie wondered just how familiar he was with driving in rural Africa in the dark. Had he done this before? How much of what he said could she believe? She sighed, sat back and closed her eyes. It was better than staring out into the night wincing every time they hit a pothole in the road or starting every time eyes glared at them in the darkness.
She must have dozed off for when she woke up the car was stationary and she was alone. She sat up and examined her surroundings. As far as she could see they were still on a dirt road, rather wider than the one before, and on the other side of the bushes she thought she saw a low-level building.
The only light she could see was from the satnav. She leaned over to take a look. The large-scale map told her nothing, so she tapped the screen to shrink it down. If she read it right, they were no longer in South Africa but in Mozambique. At some point in the night they must have crossed over the border. Strange, she still had her passport in her bag, didn’t she? She reached down and felt in a side pocket, breathing a sigh of relief when her fingers found it.
She looked back at the navigator on the windscreen, was that dotted line the border? It wasn’t marked as such. As her fingers passed over the steering column, she realised the keys were no longer in the ignition. Had Simon abandoned her here?
She checked the satnav again, mentally noting down the coordinates and turning it back to face the driver’s seat. Footsteps were approaching the car from behind and she only just had time to tap the brightly lit screen to enlarge it again before Simon unlocked the door and got back in the 4WD. His face looked drawn in the dim light. “Bathroom break, all that caffeine and potholes bouncing us up and down. We’re almost there now, Felicity. Did you have a good snooze?”
“Yes, thank you,” Amie yawned to illustrate her still dozy state.
“Few more miles up this road and a couple of turn offs and we’ll be there.”
Travelling those last few miles took ages in Amie’s mind. She was puzzled about why they would have crossed a border, and if so, had they entered Mozambique illegally?
Her senses were on high alert and she didn’t think it was her imagination that Simon’s tone was a little less friendly. It was as if he’d switched off his charm and she didn’t feel quite as comfortable with him as she had before. The words came out right, but the tone of his voice was less easy going. She could sense that he was tense, uneasy. Maybe it was something to do with the phone call? She guessed he wasn’t too pleased at what he’d heard.
At last, Simon swung the vehicle off the road, and a few hundred metres further on swung to the left and then took a right fork a couple of miles after that. Through the bushes Amie could make out the shape of tents set among the sparse scrub, possibly three or four of them. No lights showed, but as the Land Rover’s headlights lit up the area, a couple of people carrying hurricane lamps scrambled out to greet them.
This was no ordinary bush camp, not even for tourists who wanted to get off the beaten track. Amie could see this was something temporary which could be removed in a couple of hours leaving little trace it had ever been there. She frowned; for now, she had no choice but to play along and see what happened.
The man who welcomed them was tall and broad, even in the dark he loomed large. He shook Simon’s hand and led them to one of the tents.
“Hi, I’m Felicity,” Amie stuck out her hand, but he only nodded before pulling back the tent flap and indicating Amie should go inside. He handed her one of the lamps. There was only just enough space to stand upright in the middle, but she was relieved to see there was a built-in ground sheet and the only other occupant was a small gecko that darted for cover under one of the camp beds. That’s interesting, Amie thought as she peered at the two narrow cots on their metal frames, hardly the accommodation for a romantic birthday weekend. If they should even try to get up close and personal on one of those, they’d end up on the ground, or at the very least bruised and battered long before morning. She didn’t know if she was relieved or disappointed.
Simon entered a moment later carrying the cases, m
uttering goodnight to their host before zipping up the tent flap.
“I need to use the bathroom,” Amie whispered. “Any idea where it might be?”
“I did tell you we were going really rural, right? So, pick a tree, any tree. Here take the torch.” His tone of voice had lost its usual charm. She raised her eyebrows – had she done something wrong?
Amie hesitated for a moment but her call of nature would not go away so she had no option but to go and look for a suitable bush. She made a wide sweep with the torch, but couldn’t see any eyes reflecting back at her. She moved as quickly as she could, relieved herself and then made her way back to the tent. For a brief moment she thought she’d gone back to the wrong one as Simon wasn’t there. Perhaps he’d needed to commune with nature as well.
She took off her top layer of clothing and wriggled into one of the sleeping bags after spraying herself liberally with anti-mosquito spray. It was hardly an alluring scent but there were no nets for the camp cots and she knew Mozambique was a bad area for malaria, including a new strain that attacked the brain and had a high mortality rate.
She thought she would fall asleep immediately but her body refused to cooperate. Several minutes went by and still Simon hadn’t come back. She could hear muted voices from one of the other tents but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. She lay back and closed her eyes. Today had been a big disappointment. She was dismayed that the charming, winsome boyfriend she’d known in Durban had changed into a surly, abrupt stranger after that phone call. She wondered why. Perhaps she would find out the next day.
She was about to drift off when she became aware that the voices were getting louder. She caught a mention of her own name, and an argument developing, one man was shouting. She wriggled out of her sleeping bag and crept outside. The voices were coming from the tent furthest away. She tiptoed furtively towards the commotion.
The only voice she recognized belonged to Simon. She had no idea about the other two, but guessed there were at least three men in there with him. It was impossible to count the shadows as they moved backwards and forwards in the lamp light.
She couldn’t catch every word but it sounded as if the others were furious with Simon for bringing her with him. She heard phrases like: “Don’t need a woman hanging about … what if she finds … too bloody dangerous ...” Was this what Maddy wanted her to report back on? As yet Amie had no idea what she was likely to see or learn. She doubted she would discover any more about their dealings tonight and was about to creep back to her own tent when one of the shadows stood up, opened the flap and filled the doorway.
Amie froze.
Simon looked back over his shoulder addressing the men behind him. “It’s too late now. The damage is done, but it won’t make any difference. No one is going to talk.”
Amie picked up a large stone and flung it as far as she could to the opposite side of the clearing.
Simon stiffened and peered into the darkness waving the torch from side to side to see what caused the noise. He walked away across the open space giving Amie just enough time to slip back into their tent. She was wriggling into her sleeping bag when he pushed his way in through the flaps. She sat up and smiled a welcome, as if nothing was amiss.
“Go to sleep, Felicity. I’ll see you in the morning. I’m dead beat.” He collapsed on the cot without undressing and within a few minutes he was snoring.
Amie lay there in the darkness trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Why had she been invited along on this trip? Was it to give Simon better cover if people saw them as tourists? Couples always looked less conspicuous. But it was obvious she wasn’t wanted here, her presence was awkward, a hindrance even. What were they plotting? And could she find out what it was?
She made one decision before going to sleep, she wasn’t going to try all that hard to investigate what was going on. She’d been backed into a corner, forced into this line of work, and she had no intention of putting herself in danger. If they wanted answers then they could send a proper spy to find out, or at the very least someone who wanted to be a spy. Within minutes Amie too, was asleep.
She was the last to wake the following morning. When Simon introduced her to the other four men at the camp, none of them were particularly friendly, giving her a brief nod or a toss of the head. They didn’t even tell her their names. They were a rough looking bunch, wearing tatty safari clothing which had seen better days. Two of them had beards and long hair, while the others had unshaven, brown weather-beaten faces. None of them would have been out of place in some lowdown drinking hovel on the wrong side of town.
Amie pretended not to notice but smiled brightly and chattered on about this being her first ever safari and how she couldn’t wait to see all the big five animals, would they be close by? She knew she sounded like a typical blonde Barbie doll, but she was playing a part and her instinct told her that the less of a threat she posed the safer she would be. Right now, all she wanted to do was get out of there in one piece, and safely back to Durban.
“Yer, won’t be seeing no big animals with us unless yer wanna hunt ‘em,” one of the men leered at her.
“Hunt! You mean kill them?” Amie was appalled.
“Course, kill ‘em. That’s what them animals are for innit?” The man cackled.
Amie turned to Simon. “You said nothing about a hunting party.”
“I did tell you we were going to push the boat out this weekend,” he snapped but Amie detected some embarrassment.
“Come on, time to move.” The man who seemed to be in charge stood up and picked up his rifle.
Amie wondered if she had the courage to speak and then blurted out before she could stop herself, “I’m not going to kill anything.”
The big man sneered and turned to Simon. “Told you,” he nodded in satisfaction. “Then we’ll have to leave the little lady here at camp. She can’t stay on her own. Kirk, you wait here and take care of her.” The tone of his voice confirmed that Amie was a problem, and had upset their plans.
Kirk glared at him and groaned. “Didn’t come all this way to babysit no woman,” he grumbled.
“Tough, that’s what yer gonna do.” The big man walked off.
To Amie’s amazement, Simon strode over to the back of the Land Rover, took out a rifle and a handgun, and without even a wave goodbye, followed the others as they traipsed off into the bushes and disappeared out of sight. Amie stared after him, her heart in her mouth.
Charming! She thought, helping herself to a tin mug and pouring some coffee from the brew on the small open fire.
She nodded at babysitter Kirk, and grabbed some cold sausage from a plastic container, parking herself as far away from him as she could; she didn’t like the way he was leering at her.
He said nothing for a while, just looked her up and down as if she was on offer in a local brothel. “Your boyfriend, then?” he said suddenly crooking his thumb in the direction of the departed party.
“Ah, yes, yes!”
“You two cosy, then?”
Amie thought quickly. If she could persuade him that she was already taken then maybe he wouldn’t dare make a move on her. Just the thought of it was making her skin crawl. “Yes, yes we are, very cosy.”
“Mmmm. Guess he wouldn’t mind sharing a bit though?”
“I wouldn’t cross him if I were you. He can be very unpredictable – dangerous even.”
For a while nothing more was said. Amie noted that only an hour had passed since the men had left. It felt more like a week.
Suddenly, a large helicopter appeared out of nowhere. Amie could see no markings on it, but from her training she recognized it as a Mil Mi-26, one of the largest helicopters ever built by the Russians. It skimmed just above the trees and was close enough for her to see the pilot and several other people inside. It veered off sharply to the left in the same direction the men had gone on foot.
A few minutes later the silence was broken again by a second chopper which Amie id
entified as an unmarked Kazan Mi-171A2; passengers twenty-four, range 864 nautical miles, she remembered from pouring over the pictures back at the Residence.
The ensuing quiet only lasted a few seconds before one by one the birds began to chirp again and the rustling in the undergrowth recommenced. Then, an almighty explosion sent the birds squawking into the air. Amie leapt to her feet. A pall of smoke was coming from the same direction the helicopters had taken.
“It must have crashed!” she cried.
“Nah,” Kirk sat unfazed, chewing on a stick.
“How do you know? We should go and help them.” Amie wasn’t prepared to sit still while people might be injured. She ran into her tent and brought out a couple of blankets, then was nearly blown off her feet by another explosion.
“That answer yer question?” Kirk smiled in a most unpleasant way.
“We should still go and do something, they could be lying there injured,” Amie insisted.
Kirk got to his feet and began to wander round the camp with no intention of going to help anyone. Amie tensed every time he came near her, he reminded her of a prowling hyena. She was tempted to get in the Land Rover and just drive off to see if she could help, but she’d no idea where Simon had put the keys. If she went to search for them in the tent, Kirk might follow her and she might not be able to fight him off. She wasn’t at all sure how good the self-defence moves Karen had taught her would work in a confined space. If she ever got out of this alive, she might just suggest that they add it to the syllabus.
A movement in one of the trees on the periphery of the camp caught Amie’s eye. It was only slight but enough for her to see it was a brown snake slithering along a branch. Kirk was chewing on his stick peering at her out of the corner of his eye, and for the second time in a matter of hours, Amie bent to pick up a large stone. As Kirk wandered under the branch Amie hurled the stone up into the tree. It hit the branch and the snake dropped onto Kirk’s head and shoulders.
“Look out!” Amie cried, but it was too late. He swiped at it with his hands but it opened its black mouth, flared its neck flap and bit him hard on the cheek. Not content with one bite it struck him again and again, until it dropped to the ground and slithered into the bush, holding its coffin shaped head several feet off the ground.
Amie in Africa Box Set 1 Page 84
