Walls of green rose on either side of the river, and trees overhung their way, blocking out the morning sun—as though twilight, with indigo shadows, was descending. Then as the river grew wider, sunlight again beat down on them from a clear, brilliant sky.
As the morning wore on, Sable sat tensely, close to where Kash stood at the wheel, and squinted her eyes to look ahead, anxious to see her father waiting at a boat landing.
“Why is the meeting with my father a secret?”
“I’ll let Skyler explain,” he said easily. “It will be best coming from him.”
Her nerves were now taut with expectancy. “Does it have to do with the elephants?”
“Yes.”
Sable fanned herself as a hush fell over the river. The heavy, languorous midday brought drowsiness and detachment from reality. Her senses were drugged by the enormous silence, broken now and then by the screech of a monkey running through the treetops or of birds calling harshly. She stood and walked to the warped edge of the deck and held to the rail, its paint chipped and peeling. Kash gestured ahead. “Almost there. Skyler’s waiting.”
Sable shaded her eyes and looked ahead toward the small boat landing. The trees ended abruptly in a clearing, where some low sambalike buildings had been built, and she saw the familiar penned animals kept and cared for by the dozen or so Africans who worked with her father.
Skyler Dunsmoor stepped from the trees, and Sable smiled warmly and waved as he called to her.
Her father hadn’t changed much in two years. He looked like a giant, rough and big-shouldered, with a thatch of silver-gray hair and a beard he hadn’t bothered to trim recently. Like Kash, he wore a sleeveless safari vest over canvas jeans and boots. A rifle was on his shoulder and a pistol stuffed into his wide leather belt.
His face was hard and browned by the sun, and his eyes had an ice-blue cast that looked like reflecting snow from Mount Kenya.
As Kash docked the boat to its mooring, Skyler came down the small wooden ramp to meet her, sweeping her into his robust arms with a hug that lifted her off her feet.
“There she is! As beautiful as ever! No wonder you’ve got two men fighting over you.”
“Father, please—” she said, embarrassed, but nothing appeared to embarrass Skyler.
“Kash is worth ten of Vince,” he said.
“Only ten?” she asked, arching her brows.
He grinned. “Welcome home, Sable! Sorry I wasn’t able to meet you at Kenyatta. I suppose your grandmother is upset with me.”
“She’s wondering why you haven’t been home all these months, yes. She told me to bring you back. She needs you.”
He sobered. “So do the elephants. Did Kash tell you?”
“About the poaching? Yes, but—”
“Not just a few poachers,” he interrupted. “That’s bad enough. But there are hunters in the area; they’ve crossed over from Somalia. And they’re to join Browning and his goons to take Ahmed and the entire herd.”
“Can they be stopped?” she cried.
“That’s what we plan to do,” he said gravely. “But they’re on to us. They’ve been alerted and intend to strike before we’re ready. They’ve already attacked and killed some twenty elephants.”
“What about the elephants here? You mentioned Ahmed.”
“We’ll discuss everything at camp,” he said. “We’ve friends waiting there.”
The friends were Kenya Rifles, soldiers stationed at the northern frontier outpost near Samburu and farther north into Marsabit. They carried weapons and had a number of military vehicles and trucks at their disposal. A half dozen tents were scattered around a clearing, and smoke drifted up from an open fire. Sable noticed that the trunks of the trees had polished bases where the elephants had rubbed themselves. Some canvas chairs were grouped around a table under the fly net beside a tent.
Kash told her they intended to catch Browning and his crew, along with the hunting cartel in Marsabit. He and Skyler had been working closely on this for months, along with the Kenyan government, to crack the cartel serving Far Eastern interests with ivory and rhino horn. The game warden in the south near Amboseli was also involved and had been cooperating with Smith and Browning in Tanga.
“Do you expect to go to Marsabit now? Is that why we came?”
“The plans were made with Browning a month ago,” said Kash. “I needed more time to prove Adler was also involved. Your father’s been our eyes and ears here with the great herd. He’s been tracking them for weeks now. They’re moving up into Marsabit Mountain region where they think they’re safe from the hunters.”
“Unfortunately, the cartel has been tracking them, too,” said Skyler. “They haven’t waited for Browning and his crew. The herd is decimated and trying to reach the main herd in the north. They’ve a hunter working for them now out of Uganda.”
“Macklin?” asked Kash coldly. “They plan to come in by way of Somalia?”
Skyler nodded.
“I was afraid that might happen.”
“They’re paying him plenty, too. Macklin knows he’s up against you and the Kenya Rifles.”
“Where are they now?” asked Sable nervously. “What if they find the elephants and kill them before you can stop them?”
“That’s what’s troubling,” said Skyler. “Ahmed has moved up into Marsabit and so have the others. They need time to recoup after what they’ve been through with the hunters. They need rest, food, and to mate again. Their condition is desperate,” her father was saying to Kash in a quiet but steady voice. “They’re exhausted, but they keep going, as though they know they must escape. Cows and bulls are traveling together, something rare. The old have been lost, and the young. There’s a few left. I think they’re trying to meet up with the bigger herd north of us. That’s what we’ve got to do, Kash—see they join the entire herd of big-tuskers headed up to the safety of Mount Marsabit. To do that, the cartel has got to be stopped—here, this week. If we don’t succeed, it’s all over.”
“We have an advantage,” said Kash quietly. “You know this country, they don’t—not as well, anyway. And I’ve already made up my mind.”
There was something in his level voice that made Sable turn and look at him. His face was determined.
“The hunters will be stopped, even if they become the hunted.” He tapped his fingers. “I have the law of Nairobi to back me up this time. And the world’s conservationists would cheer. Once the elephants are gone, it’s forever.”
Sable tensed. “But if the hunters are already in the area killing …” Her voice fell off.
Skyler looked over at Kash. “By now Browning knows you’ve left with Sable. He’ll move out with Vince to join up with Macklin.”
Sable’s hands clenched as she looked from one to the other. Kash looked at her. “Your father knows more about elephants than any man in East Africa. That’s why Vince thought you’d lead them to him. Skyler knows something about this herd even Macklin doesn’t know. The elephants are smart—just how smart, researchers don’t know yet, but Skyler thinks they know when they’re faced with extinction. Ahmed is leading the herd to an area Macklin hasn’t learned about yet. We plan to make sure the old bull gets through with the others.”
“But the smaller herd,” she argued, “the one trying to reach Ahmed—you said Macklin’s crew has already spotted them.”
Her father’s face was dark. “He has. And there’s a matriarch leading the family. They have a lot of young calves with the herd.”
“That means they’ll need to move slowly,” said Kash thoughtfully. “That gives the advantage to the poachers.”
“They’re not far from here heading north,” said Skyler. “So are Macklin’s poachers—and Browning, is my guess.”
“What are we waiting for?” whispered Sable anxiously. “Can’t we confront Macklin now?”
Kash looked at Skyler, and the two exchanged glances that told her it might already be too late to stop the slaughter of the small herd try
ing to reach Ahmed.
Kash stood. “We’ll do our best.”
Ahmed, she knew, was the big bull that was recently shown on television. Hunters had boasted they were out to get him and would this time, irrespective of the poaching laws.
“There are others with big tusks with the old bull,” said Skyler. “I counted over fifty. Their tusks will bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in the black market.”
Sable stood, unable to control her emotions. “I’m going with you, Father.”
Skyler looked at Kash, who shook his head, but Sable came between them, facing Kash. “Do you think I could stand it just staying here and pacing? If you don’t let me go—I’ll follow on my own.”
As her eyes pleaded with his he frowned, but his expression softened. “All right, but you may see a slaughter you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
“I’ve seen it before,” she whispered, “with Moffet. And that’s the reason I must be there now. I must be involved. And if they all die—my heart will die with them. There’s got to be someone there feeling the tragedy with them. Someone who realizes the preciousness of the Lord’s creation.”
Kash squeezed her arms, and as if unaware that her father watched, he drew her head against his chest and ran his fingers through her hair. “We’ll stop them if we can.”
“And we’ve some good men on our side, too,” said Skyler.
Sable looked up at Kash. “You never would admit it, but is that why Mateo was with the others in Browning’s crew? You planted them?”
“They’ll turn on him and the crew, if it comes to that. We’re still outnumbered,” he told Skyler. “Macklin will have a crack crew with him. He won’t take chances.”
“Yes, I know. And that’s what worries me. I know these elephants, Kash. They’ve been hunted to near extinction, and they’re nervous and angry. They know, you see. They know what’s happening to them. They don’t want to charge, but they will if cornered—especially one of them. She’s very brave and would die for the remaining herd. But you know what? She was once as gentle as Moffet. Can you blame them for turning on us when we seek their extinction?”
Sable looked off in the distance thoughtfully. The sun looked like an orange in a taffy-colored sky and seemed to melt the mountains on the horizon. A loneliness pierced her soul.
Her father and five of the Kenya Rifles drove in the lead, heading south to meet up with the smaller herd heading to Mount Marsabit. Sable rode with Kash and the other five African soldiers. The track zigzagged between gray-green thickets of wild olive and giant euphorbia, acacia, and some leathery-leaved evergreens that were embroidered with a parasitic growth of rope-thick lianas. The air was still and heavy with aromatic scents. Like winged splashes of color from a rainbow, sunbirds flicked in and out of the trees.
A cloud of insects that Sable hoped was not mosquitoes hung over a muddy stream as Kash drove the Land Rover up the slope. A half mile later he turned off into a row of giant yellow-barked acacia.
This was the area her father expected the smaller female herd to seek on their way north. Kash sent out several Africans to see if they could locate evidence of Macklin’s poachers. An hour later they spotted tire tracks—but it was Mateo, not Macklin. Mateo had turned back to warn them that Browning and his crew, along with Vince and Mckibber, had left Samburu Lodge soon after she and Kash had flown with Dean to Lake Rudolf. And they were now on the trail of the elephant herd.
“The elephants are caught between Browning, who is coming from the south, and Macklin’s crew north of here.”
Sable heard the disturbing sound the same moment her father and Kash did. Kash said something to Skyler, then turned toward her. “Wait here.” He ran ahead, climbing the hill topped by the darkly silhouetted thorn tree. But Sable, her emotions boiling, followed and reached the tree as Kash was already sliding and running down the slope with his rifle. He darted behind a thicket, then crawled military style toward the arid plain beyond where a Land Rover was churning a cloud of brown dust and a small herd of elephants was trapped for the kill, bunched together in frightened confusion.
Sable lifted her field glasses to focus on the driver. She stared, one hand clenched in a fist at her side as she recognized Vince! At first she could hardly believe her eyes. The second man in the passenger seat wore goggles and carried a large hunting rifle. There was no doubt what Vince was doing with the Land Rover. As he circled and turned, then circled again, he was trying to redirect the lead matriarch into the line of fire. Sable’s frustration rose to an emotional fury. “Stop!” she cried helplessly into the air. “Stop, Vince, stop! What are you doing?”
Her father was huffing as he came up beside her with his gun, shaking his head in disbelief. “Too late,” he groaned. “The herd might have made it to safety if—”
Sable’s fingers tightened on his arm. “Look, Father! It’s Kash—oh no! He mustn’t—”
Kash and Mateo had emerged from the thicket and, holding dead bramble bush in front of them for cover, were crawling closer toward the Land Rover.
Sable gripped her field glasses with trembling fingers. “If the elephants get wind of their approach, they’ll stampede them.” Her heart lifted in prayer to God.
Her glasses lowered, and her eyes swerved to her father. The muscles in his jaw flexed as he held his field glasses steady.
Vince turned the Land Rover again, the sound of the engine dimmed by the elephants’ squeals and trumpeting. Then there was only the sound of the engine as the hunted animals clustered together facing death.
An elephant herd most always traveled together as a family unit, with the older matriarch, grown daughters, and aunts leading female calves and young males. They had been created with a deep instinct for loyalty and affection for their offspring. Sable watched the lead matriarch use her trunk to draw her young calf behind her, trying to protect it. Sable gritted her anxiety. The calves were hidden now within the packed mass of gray backs and widely spread ears as the family unit faced the Land Rover and the two hunters within.
Behind them, Kash and Mateo were approaching when a shot was fired from the Land Rover, cracking the air. In the brief moment of silence that followed, the frightened herd stood like majestic sculptured figures in gray marble, motionless. Then an elephant went down on its knees, its ears folding back, its noble head beginning to droop.
Another shot cracked, this one coming from the direction of Kash and Mateo, as the Land Rover swerved out of control.
The elephants swung around, trunks weaving. There was no trumpeting now, and the Land Rover had slowed. Sable turned her field glasses on Kash, who was lying in the dust, the rifle out in front of him. He had blown out the left front tire. Sable heard her father’s intake of breath. The Land Rover’s engine revved up again, and the matriarch was distracted from Kash and Mateo lying close by. She was making her move, surging out ahead of the family unit, trumpeting her anger. Sable’s breath stopped. The next moment the desert dust was rising from beneath the elephant’s charge. Her head was lifted, her trunk curled in below the great tusks. The Land Rover began to clumsily seek escape, its blown wheel flapping and catching in ruts, yanking the steering to the left as Vince fought to regain control. The elephant was gaining, closing in on the object of torment. She came fast and powerful, lowering her head and ramming her tusks into the rear of the vehicle. The elephant shoved it forward, and the poacher was turning in his seat with the rifle lifted. The matriarch tore her tusks free, then rammed the vehicle from the side while lifting and overturning it, trumpeting in a fury of rage.
Through the dust Sable could see the rest of the herd and hear their roars, like a panicking crowd. Then the matriarch swung round and made for the herd. The others trumpeted, flapping their ears as though applauding, and then began running across the dusty plain toward the shelter of distant doum palms.
Sable anxiously watched the plundered Land Rover, but though on its side, Vince and the hunter crawled out safely, half hidden in the cloud of dust.
>
“They’re alive,” said her father, no emotion in his voice.
Sable sank to the ground, head lowered as she sought to steady her emotions. Her father’s hand reached her shoulder and squeezed it.
****
When Kash returned with Mateo later that night, Mckibber had regrouped with them according to plan. Kash was grave as he spoke to her father alone, giving him the news that Mckib had brought.
“Both crews are already north of us. Ahmed has been spotted. We must stop Macklin at the river, or we won’t stop them at all. I’ve got the Kenya Rifles heading there now, but we’re outnumbered. Macklin must have thirty men, and Browning has ten. Those loyal to us will turn on them, but it’s going to be messy.”
Kash walked up to Sable, taking hold of her forearms, and his eyes searched hers. “I want you to stay here at camp. I don’t want you to see this.”
She shook her head, her face damp with sweat and dust and tears. “No, where you and Father make the last stand—that’s where I’ll be, too. And if they all die—” Her voice cracked.
He held her tightly, soothing her with his hands, then kissed her softly. “Then you’d better ride with your father.” He sighed. “Sable, don’t let him do anything unwise when we get there.”
She swallowed, trying to read through his impenetrable gaze. “What do you mean?” she whispered. “Do you expect him to?”
“I don’t know. He loves those animals. We all do, but his attachment goes deeper. He feels as if he is personally responsible to save them from extinction.”
Any words she could have spoken were lodged in her throat, and she closed her eyes. Kash gave her a final embrace, then left her there by Skyler’s Land Rover. She looked over at her father. He was looking off toward the plain where two elephants shot earlier lay still in the dust beneath the stars.
Her father joined her a few minutes later, his eyes empty. “You’re coming with me, daughter? Then let’s go.”
They packed up at once and drove out across the narrow track, lurching and bumping along as they tried to avoid rocks and holes.
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