by Chris Ryan
Hex put the mobile to his ear. 'Hi, Joe. Bad news. The elephant stepped on a mine.' There was a pause, then Hex said, 'It's the leg. Totally smashed.' Another pause. 'Yes, we have. Yes, we'll do that.' He rang off. When he next spoke his voice was hoarse. 'He says to give it a tranquillizer dart and he'll be here as quickly as he can.'
The elephant lay on his side. His eye was still open and he was breathing very fast. His trunk twitched and flailed, his breath rasping shallowly.
They worked in silence: Alex still had the gun; Li prepared the dart and handed it to him; Amber stood by with the antidote. Alex fired at point-blank range into the elephant's hide.
The eyelid drooped, then closed. The desperate panting subsided, the sides stopped heaving and the trunk stopped jerking.
Joe was there within ten minutes, riding a quad bike. Strapped to the back of the seat was a rifle. He only had to glance at the fallen elephant to size up the situation.
'He's not going to make it. That wound will be infected inside half a day, even if he could walk.' He unstrapped the rifle and took two bullets from his breast pocket. 'You may prefer not to see this; in any case you must stand well behind me. The bullets can ricochet inside the elephant's skull and come out anywhere.'
The five stood behind Joe. 'Will it be quick?' Li asked.
Joe nodded. He squinted into the sun and his eyes screwed up against the glare. 'Half a second. And you've made him comfortable with the tranquillizer so he's not suffering.'
Hex, Li, Amber, Alex and Paulo watched in silence. Joe walked up until he was less than a metre away from the elephant. The elephant was aware that he was there: his trunk pulsed slightly. Joe put the rifle to his shoulder, aimed and squeezed the trigger. Two shots went cleanly into the elephant's head, three inches behind the eye.
The trunk stopped questing immediately. It was a very quick death: two small red holes in the skull. They had all seen much worse during the actual injury.
Joe broke the breech of the rifle and walked back to them. 'We need to deactivate the tag.'
Hex already had the tag detector in his hands. 'Joe, we had an idea while you were on your way. What if we changed the frequency so that the poachers come and find him? We could wait here with a camcorder and catch them on camera. Then you'd have your evidence.'
Joe nodded vigorously. 'Excellent idea. Let's nail them.'
Alex looked at the surroundings. 'Why don't you guys take the Jeep – you can get the camcorder and grab us some lunch and I'll make a laying-up point in that clump of trees.'
'I'll make the hide,' said Paulo. 'I want to stay with him for a while.'
Li put her hand on his shoulder. 'Don't blame yourself, Paulo – you got him out. It was just bad luck that he spooked and went back in again.'
'Wait, wait, wait.' Joe put his hands up. 'I got over-excited. I can't leave you alone here if poachers are about. What if they find you?'
'They won't,' said Paulo. 'We can melt into the bush so no-one will see us.'
'No, come on, guys,' said Joe. 'This is one hell of a nasty bunch of people we're talking about here. You saw what they were like yesterday.'
Alex replied for all of them. 'I remember it only too well – and all the other people we've dealt with over the years who are exactly like that.'
Amber added, 'We're very experienced at this sort of thing, Joe, believe me.'
'Look, Joe,' said Alex, 'why don't we try something? Hex hasn't changed the tag, so the poachers aren't coming yet. You guys could go back in the Jeep and get the camcorder while Paulo and I stay here and build a hide. If when you get back here you can see us, it's off. Is that fair?'
Joe's expression was unreadable. After a moment he said, 'This is my battle. I can't let you take these risks. You're no older than Tessa.'
Alex recognized the stubbornness in the man's face. He'd seen it on his father's face many a time and once or twice on John Middleton's. 'It's not risky if it's planned properly, and anyway, it's not just your battle. These animals are not just your animals, they're everyone's. We all want them saved, and we all want this park to be a safer place. This elephant's death has given us a way to do that. We simply can't waste it.'
Joe glared at him for a moment, then a smile played across his features. 'You must be the most stubborn bunch of guests I've ever had. What equipment do you want us to leave?'
22
THE TEST
Alex and Paulo watched the Jeep recede into the distance.
Joe had left them a spade and they started digging by the bush Alex had identified as a promising hide. Ten metres away lay the fallen elephant. Vultures were already settling on him.
Paulo stopped digging and listened. Just as he thought: there was a sound of cracking twigs and the rumble of elephants approaching.
A large shape passed the hide, then another, and another.
'They're back,' whispered Alex.
Thunderbird, Brains and Penelope walked up to their fallen friend. They stood around him and stroked him with their trunks, smelling his body.
Paulo and Alex stopped working and watched. Paulo had heard that elephants held wakes but neither he nor Alex had ever seen anything like it. Thunderbird put her tusks under the dead elephant's head and tried to lift him. Brains nudged him, as though trying to rouse him from sleep. Penelope found the ruined leg and ran her trunk all around it, never touching the blood. They made no sound; normally the elephants rumbled and snorted to one another as they went about their business, but now they were silent.
Thunderbird's exploring trunk found the bullet holes. She pulled away and stood at a distance. Brains and Penelope retreated too. It was as if they had realized something: he would never get up. Thunderbird led them away from the carcass.
Joe headed directly across country until he hit a road, then he followed it down through some woods.
The trees widened out. Li found herself looking at them. At first she had thought they were simply further apart, but she saw they had been cut down on either side of the road. Why would somebody do that? 'Joe,' she said, 'did you cut these trees?'
'No,' said Joe. 'I've never noticed this before.'
'I think we'd better have a look,' said Li. 'Joe, can you go really slowly?'
Joe braked and crawled along.
'The trees have definitely been cut down all along this stretch of road,' said Hex. 'What are you thinking, Li?'
'I'm wondering why someone would do that, particularly as it wasn't someone at the lodge.'
They travelled a little further and the trees closed in again. 'They're normal again now,' said Amber.
'I wonder . . .' mused Li. 'How much room you need to land a light plane?'
Joe braked in surprise. He looked back along the road. Then he reversed, fast. The engine whined.
'Look at the road, everyone,' said Li. 'If a plane's landed there will be marks.'
'Here they are,' called Hex.
Joe braked. Hex vaulted out and dropped to his haunches on the metalled road. There was a skid mark from a tyre, about thirty centimetres long. 'Just move back a bit more,' he said. Joe let the Jeep roll backwards. Another skid mark was revealed.
'My God,' said Amber. 'We've found the airstrip.'
Hex whipped out his palmtop. His fingers flew over the keys.
'What are you doing?' said Li.
'Just programming these co-ordinates into the global positioning system so we can find it again.'
'Right, Joe,' said Amber with satisfaction, 'where are Paulo and Alex?'
They were back with the camcorder. Joe looked around. There was the dead elephant, there was the minefield and the bush where Alex and Paulo said they would hide. But he couldn't see the boys at all. Even his quad bike was gone.
'I give up,' he said.
A thick bush trembled. Loose earth spilled out around the roots. Paulo and Alex stood up. They had dug a hole under it and buried themselves. Their faces were smeared with mud and Paulo had transformed his dark curls into a solid
mass of mud and twigs.
'You can have the spade back,' said Alex and held it out.
Joe put his hands up. 'It's a fair cop. I didn't see you at all.'
'We've found the airstrip,' said Li. 'I think we should watch that too.'
Alex's face lit up. 'Fantastic.'
'Here's the camcorder,' said Hex. He held it out and then saw the dust and grime on Paulo's hands. 'Er – what's that?' Immediately he had visions of sand and grit and goodness knows what else getting into the sensitive electronics.
'You don't want to know,' said Alex.
'We brought something to eat and a few clothes,' said Joe, reaching into the Jeep. He distributed sandwiches and then handed over two camouflage jackets. 'They might be more comfortable than all that elephant dung.'
'Urgh – gross,' said Amber. 'Is that what it is?'
'It's dense, sticky and full of natural textures,' said Alex. 'What more could you want?'
'Alex,' said Paulo, 'you go. I can handle this on my own, and you might need to watch that airstrip. They'll probably come later, when it's dark, but we don't want to miss them.'
Alex nodded. 'You're right.' He looked down at his plastered arms and legs. 'Now I'll have to get all this off.'
Hex had reluctantly handed the camcorder to Paulo but his eyes were still fixed on it. 'I'm really worried about you handling that with all that crap on your hands.'
'It's not going to get inside, the camcorder is waterproof,' said Paulo.
'OK,' said Joe, 'we leave you here – you've got the quad bike . . .' His voice tailed off. 'Where did you bury the quad bike?'
'We couldn't bury that,' said Alex, wiping off his 'camouflage' on his T-shirt, 'so we put it all the way over there in those trees and stuck camouflage to it.'
'Good job,' said Amber. 'I can't see it at all.'
Hex clicked a button on the detector. 'OK, the tag's changed. The clock is ticking. Let's get out of here. Good luck, Paulo.'
Paulo had been waiting for no more than thirty minutes when he heard a vehicle pull up. He edged the camcorder back into position and began filming.
Two figures got out: one had black skin, the other was white. Ammunition belts glinted on their chests; AK-47 assault rifles were slung over their shoulders. They approached the fallen elephant, rifles ready, but one of them pointed out the bullet holes. They spoke one of the African languages, so Paulo couldn't make out any words, but he saw their surprise. The other pointed out the wounded leg and laughed.
They went to their vehicle and brought back machetes. The sun glinted off the blades. Paulo swallowed: he didn't want to see what happened next, but he had to keep filming. He moved slightly and rested his hands on a mound of earth to steady them.
The white man raised his machete and brought it down hard on the elephant's face, just beside the tusk. The sharp weapon went through the thick hide like a knife through butter. He cut deeper into the hole he had made and worked the blade down alongside the tusk. The other man grasped the tusk and started hacking on the other side.
Paulo felt sick. He kept the camera focused but tried to look at the faces of the men. The dark one had a distinctive scar on his cheek, as though a bullet had grazed his face at some time. The other wore a chain around his neck with a hyena tooth set in silver. Another scavenger, thought Paulo. How appropriate.
The tusk was soon out. The man with the hyena tooth yanked it hard and the man with the scar cut the roots. They dragged it free and dumped it on the ground. Time to start on the other one. Hyena-tooth went round to the other side of the elephant and chopped into the trunk. Three blows and it came away. Paulo wasn't sure how much more he could watch. Scarface threw the trunk to one side. It lay curled in the dirt. Paulo stared at it – that miraculous organ that was arm and hand, trumpet, periscope of smell, cudgel and shower head.
The second tusk came out more easily. The men dragged it and the other tusk to their dusty Land Rover and exchanged some words.
They looked at Paulo's hide, still talking, then walked purposefully towards it. Their machetes glinted in the sunlight, smeared with the elephant's blood.
Paulo's blood pressure hit the roof. They must have heard or seen him. How? He was well dug in and he had been completely still and quiet. His instinct was to run but he knew he couldn't. They would get him in no time; it would ruin the mission. He kept filming. He had to stay cool, believe he could remain invisible until he was actually rooted out.
The poachers were so close Paulo could smell their body odour, and the unmistakable tang of blood. He shut his eyes. In a moment a hand would grab his hair, or the first decisive blow of the machete would fall.
The poachers stopped just in front of him. Paulo opened his eyes. They were using their machetes to dig a hole in the ground. They went down about thirty centimetres, then Hyena-tooth reached down and pulled out a piece of tusk. Sand clung to it and a rag of flesh was still attached to one end. Scarface drew out another piece. It must be their secret cache. What a stroke of luck that he and Alex hadn't found and disturbed it. Paulo carried on filming.
The two poachers went on pulling pieces of tusk out of the ground until they had a big pile. When they'd removed all of them, they carried them over to their Land Rover. Then they got in and drove away.
Paulo got to his feet, easing the stiffness out of his limbs. He snapped the camcorder shut and headed for the quad bike. He had to return to the lodge with the camcorder, which was needed for the next stage.
Before he set off, he phoned Hex on the mobile. 'I'm on my way back. Get someone out to the landing strip now to keep watch. And start getting the balloon ready: I've just seen them unearth a cache of ivory and they must be about to make a sale. We can get evidence on the buyer too.'
23
UNDER COVER
Hex and Alex were ready as soon as they got Paulo's message. They bundled onto a quad bike. Alex was behind with Hex's palmtop. Locating the airstrip again was as simple as pressing a button. Alex was also properly prepared: he had put on camouflage face paint and disruption pattern clothing.
Hex headed across country at high speed. He skirted the tall grass so he wouldn't leave a trail that could be seen from the air, which might warn the poachers that someone had been near the landing strip. The fat tyres of the quad bike coped with the rough ground easily. Everything got out of their way: a herd of springboks at a water hole and a cluster of jackals feeding on a carcass.
Finally they burst through a clearing onto the road. Hex wheeled the bike around in a circle and halted. They were just at the start of the runway, where the lopped trees began.
'This is it.' Alex got off and Hex handed him a rucksack. 'Equipment check – have you got binoculars, mobile phone, energy bars, water?'
Alex checked the rucksack contents as Hex reeled them off, then nodded. He looked at the trees. Long grey pods hung from the branches, as though someone had decorated the tree for Christmas with grey frankfurters.
'I hope those aren't poisonous,' commented Alex.
'Li said they're sausage trees,' said Hex.
'Don't be daft.'
'She said they're not edible, so if you get peckish don't take a bite out of one of them.'
'They'll be good cover though,' said Alex. 'You know, it's a pity we haven't got a second camcorder. I could tape the whole lot myself.'
'No you couldn't,' said Hex firmly. 'You don't know which end of the airstrip they're going to land on. It's at least eight hundred metres long. You might be hiding here and they might do the handover all the way down at the other end. It would be a bit obvious if you came sprinting out of the bushes to film them. We can get a better view from the balloon.' He put his hand out. 'Oh, by the way, aren't you forgetting something?'
'Oops, sorry.' Alex handed Hex back the palmtop.
Hex climbed back on the quad bike and fired up the engine. 'Now get lost.'
Alex hefted his rucksack onto one shoulder. 'I'll call in every thirty minutes.'
Hex opened
the throttle and the bike roared away.
Alex had to choose his laying-up point. There were plenty of places to choose from. He didn't need to have a perfect view of the runway, he just needed to spot a plane coming in and alert the others. That meant he could go quite deep into the wood, where he was sure to be concealed.
He walked thirty paces in and stopped at the foot of a tree. It looked sturdy enough. Alex jumped up, grabbed a branch that stood just above head height and swung himself up to a sitting position. He inched along until he could grasp another branch, and swung himself up onto that. Then he settled. They'd agreed that if he was there for more than three hours, Hex would come and take over. After another three, it would be Paulo's turn. But he really had no idea how long he'd have to wait. It would be dark soon too.
He could no longer hear the whine of Hex's quad bike. Now there was only the sound of the animals. With luck, the next thing he would hear would be the plane landing.
Hex took the same route back, sticking to the bare ground. He travelled in a halo of dust kicked up by the fat tyres. The river glittered in the corner of his eye.
His mind was full of the next things he would have to do. He had recharged batteries ready for the camcorder and a night-vision adapter to fit to it.
A small trench crossed his path – probably a game trail. Hex stood on the footrests, ready to jump it. On the way there he had gunned the throttle and the bike had taken it with ease.
But this time the ground in front of it crumbled.
The front wheels crashed into the trench, leaving the back wheels spinning in thin air and throwing Hex hard onto the handlebars. Only the fact that he had been braced for a small bump saved him from going over them altogether. He collected his thoughts and revved the engine, but the front wheels spun and couldn't get a grip.
Hex turned the engine off. He'd have to turn the heavy bike so that all the wheels were in contact with the ground. Hopefully he'd only have to move it a little. Who would have thought a trench that was less than a metre deep would cause so much trouble?
