African Pursuit

by David Alric

  ‘Any luck, you two?’ called Clare, as she emptied out another box onto the floor.

  ‘Nope,’ said Lucy.

  ‘I think,’ said Clive, ‘that he wouldn’t leave it anywhere. He probably carries it with him at all times.’

  ‘You must be right,’ said Lucy. ‘Let’s go and get it.’

  ‘What, now?’ said Clive.

  ‘When else do you suggest,’ said Lucy with a grin. ‘Are you going to try and fix an appointment with him?’ Clive had to laugh.

  ‘You’re right’ he said. ‘No time like the present!’

  ‘Carpe diem!’ added Clare.

  They jumped to the ground and the snakes renewed their guard over the truck. The men still stood transfixed in a tight group. They gazed in stupefaction as the trio walked past snakes and leopards with equal impunity.

  ‘You can sit down if you like,’ said Lucy, as Clive lifted down a box of bottled water from the truck. The men sat down obediently and opened some bottles of water. ‘There you are. Good boys!’ she turned to Clare and Clive and gave an impish grin. ‘I should be running a primary school.’ The thugs glowered at her. If looks could kill she would have been vaporized on the spot. ‘We’ll be back soon,’ she announced gaily. ‘Oh, and the leopards will kill anyone who tries to leave.’

  19

  The Demise of a Dastardly Duo

  Clive, Clare and Lucy left the men under the watchful eyes of the leopards and started off down the cliffside. Meanwhile, across the gorge Sid, who had turned to put some rock samples in a basket, glanced across to check that the men had restarted their work after coffee. He did a classic doubletake at the sight of the three climbing down to the camp. He grabbed the professor and pointed.

  ‘What the hell’s going on?’ His speech was muffled by the swelling of his mouth and jaw. Deep, red, angry gashes were gouged out of his upper cheeks and nose. The professor looked over, his face flushing with anger.

  ‘Those… bloody… kids! Whatever I do they come and mess with me. I’ll kill everyone of them today, so help me!’ He drew his automatic and ran with Sid towards the river as the youngsters started to jump from boulder to boulder across the stream towards them.

  ‘Isn’t it about time you pulled your next rabbit out of the hat?’ Clive said to Lucy between jumps. ‘They’re getting very near and I think the prof ’s holding a gun – looks as if Clare was right. And Sid could have a knife or something.’

  ‘All under control,’ replied Lucy calmly, and even as she spoke a massive crocodile lunged out of the river on to the far bank and waddled at a surprising speed towards the oncoming pair, jaws agape.

  ‘My God, look out!’ shouted Sid who was leading the way. He turned round hurriedly, bumping into the professor as he did so, then started scrambling back up the hill. The professor paused and emptied his gun at the great reptile, to no apparent effect. He swore, then threw the useless weapon at the animal before turning and racing up the hill after Sid. They reached the top of the cliff and started running along the ridge at the top, away from the swamp and towards the jungle. The rock python was lazing in the afternoon sun when it heard Lucy’s call. It had not eaten for several months and was just thinking about beginning to move and start looking for its next meal. It would need something large – a pig or a gazelle for it was a giant of its kind, over eight metres long and as thick as Lucy’s waist in girth around its widest point.

  At the sound of the Promised One it raised its head three feet off the ground and looked for her. Instead it saw two men hurrying towards it. Sid didn’t see it until he was only a few feet away and stopped short with a gasp. He turned and ran back towards the escarpment overlooking the swamp. The professor was nowhere to be seen, though Sid felt as though he had brushed past something as he ran. As he reached the edge of the precipice he glanced back over his shoulder. The python was slithering towards him and now it was completely uncurled he was for the first time aware of its enormous size. With his lifelong phobia of snakes this reptile was a creature out of Sid’s worst nightmares, immeasurably bigger than anything he had ever seen, its beautiful tan and black markings glistening in the sun as it sped towards him, its tongue flickering out of its blunt, diamond-shaped head. At Lucy’s instruction the snake suddenly stopped.

  ‘Don’t move, either of you,’ she called up, ‘and you’ll be quite safe. The snake and the crocodile will do as I say, and if you give yourselves up you’ll both have a fair trial.’

  Sid looked down the sheer cliff face. He was damned if some slip of a girl was going to trap him. The greenish-brown surface of the swamp was a hundred feet below. It was only a very short distance for him to swim back to the base of the cliff and he was sure he could beat the crocodile back over the river boulders to the safety of the camp on the other side. He saw the surface of the swamp ripple slightly as some fish or reptile moved in its murky depths. The sight reassured him: if the surface could ripple it was probably a soft landing. He took a deep breath and leapt out into the void. Clive, Clare and Lucy looked on in horror. As if in slow motion, Sid dropped towards the swamp and as he fell an extraordinary sight met their eyes. A giant head on a long neck emerged from the depths and its great jaws gaped. It rose to meet its prey and twenty feet from the surface Sid was caught as neatly as a fish thrown to a sea lion. Even as the serpentine neck disappeared beneath the surface a sickening crunch was clearly audible to the shocked onlookers. After a stunned silence Clive was the first to recall the professor.

  ‘Hang on – where’s the prof?’ he shouted. The others looked in vain and then the truth dawned on Clare.

  ‘He’s put the robe on,’ she shouted. ‘Everyone keep their guard. Stay together.’

  ‘Professor,’ Lucy called. ‘The snake will know where you are. Take off the robe, then come down and you’ll be safe.’

  On several previous occasions in his life the professor had underestimated the power of animals to detect his invisible form and this was to prove his last. He started to edge his way past the python and towards the youngsters. Lucy saw the snake stiffen.

  ‘Don’t move!’ she screamed. But the professor ignored her. Unlike the mamba he had previously encountered, this species of snake did have thermal detectors to catch prey in the dark and it knew precisely where Luke was. Despite Lucy’s request for the snake to remain still, the professor’s sudden movement triggered an unstoppable reflex in the reptile and it struck with lightning speed. The trio watched in horrified fascination as the snake spiralled its great coils around its victim. The professor was still invisible, so the snake looked for a moment as if it were creating a vertical corkscrew shape with nothing inside it. Then it started to squeeze, its primitive instincts continuing to make it deaf to Lucy’s entreaties.

  Then the shocked onlookers then witnessed a quite extraordinary sight. The professor’s head suddenly appeared above the coils of the snake, then his whole body as he managed to clamber out of the robe and leave it in the ever-tightening grip of the reptile. He started running along the ridge towards the rainforest and was soon lost to sight. Lucy called to the python and as they walked up it slithered away in disappointment, back to its sunny rocks. Clive bent down and felt about on the ground. It was an eerie feeling suddenly making contact with the invisible robe. He felt all over it and located an energy pack with a button. He pressed the button and they all watched in wonderment as the robe de-energized and gradually became visible.

  ‘What about his head?’ said Clare holding up the robe as it she were in a dress shop.

  ‘Good thinking!’ said Clive, and he felt about again until he located a soft helmet with its own tiny energizing unit. ‘Well,’ he said gathering the robe and helmet up to carry them back. ‘This is what we came to find and which has cost so many lives and had so many hopes depending on it. I feel as if I’m carrying the Holy Grail. I’m tempted to burn it on the spot but I think we’d better get it back to Lucinda. It’s probably her original prototype.’

  ‘We should def
initely keep it,’ said Clare. ‘And you never know, it could just come in useful before we’re done!’

  ‘What about the professor?’ asked Clive.

  ‘He can’t get far without transport or weapons,’ said Lucy. ‘We’ll keep an eye on him through the animals and round him up when we’ve decided what to do with him.’ When they had crossed the gorge and returned to the lorry the men were still sitting huddled together in a group, the leopards prowling back and forth around them.

  ‘What are we going to do with them?’ said Clive.

  ‘That depends,’ said Clare. She asked Lucy which one was Fred and then turned to the assembled thugs.

  ‘The professor and Sid won’t be coming back – ever,’ – she stated. She didn’t elaborate, and the villains looked at her with new respect. Here was a woman to be reckoned with. She sensed their attitude and had no doubt they would tell her the truth. ‘How long will the supplies in the truck last?’ she asked Fred who had turned pale under his tan, wondering what had happened to Sid.

  ‘Dunno, three weeks – four, mebbe,’ he replied hoarsely. Seeing his face she felt a pang of sympathy for him.

  ‘I’m sorry about your brother. We never intended that he should be harmed. We wanted to bring him to justice for kidnapping the children. We tried to stop him but he leapt off the cliff into the swamp.’ Fred nodded in silence. He knew that what she had told him must be true.

  Clare turned to Lucy and Clive. While clambering back up the cliff she had she had been making plans, but now suddenly remembered that she hadn’t discussed her thoughts with the others.

  ‘OK if I carry on?’ They both nodded. They were still stunned by the suddenness of the gruesome and tragic events they had just witnessed, but Clare seemed to have recovered her composure and her wits and they both had complete trust in her judgement. She turned back to the men.

  ‘All right, you lot, here’s the plan. I don’t know what other crimes you’ve committed, but as far as kidnapping the children is concerned I think that the professor and Sid were mostly to blame. The children, one of whom happens to be my little sister, said that the rest of you didn’t bother them and that you,’ she pointed to Fred, ‘were especially kind to them and tried to protect them. So we’re going to let you all go.’ The leopards will go away shortly after we leave. One of them will follow us to protect us, so don’t try and find us. We’ll chuck most of your guns into the swamp but we’ll leave you one to defend yourselves. The snakes will move out of the truck tomorrow when we’ll be miles away and you’ll then have access to food, and ammunition for the remaining gun.’ She paused and spoke to Clive. ‘I presume they can’t ever use this truck again.’

  ‘No,’ he said, but I’ll make sure anyway.’ He opened the bonnet and smashed the carburettor with a rock. He then climbed into the back of the truck and lifted out a case of beer. ‘I’ll borrow this, boys, if that’s OK. I’ve run out and you’ve got plenty left by the look of it. Oh, and I’m taking your spare fuel – I don’t think you’ll be needing it!’ Clare turned back to the men.

  ‘‘We’re now going to Kinshasa,’ she continued. ‘We’ll tell the authorities that you’re stranded and where you are, and they’ll come out to look for you. If you feel happy to face the DRC police then you can wait in safety here till they pick you up. If any of you have got a guilty conscience about something you’ve done previously and don’t want to see the cops, you can make your own way through the rainforest and organize your own salvation. You’ve got several days to decide and your fate’s in your own hands. Any questions?’ There were none. Clare looked enquiringly at Clive and Lucy. ‘OK with all that?’ she asked. They both nodded.

  ‘I’ll just say one thing,’ said Fred. ‘You’re a fair bird with lots of guts.’

  ‘I second that,’ Clive whispered to Lucy, ‘what an amazing sister you’ve got!’ She smiled and nodded. They collected up the guns, allowing Fred to select the one they should leave and Clive threw the others into the swamp. Lucy acquired a river hog to help them transport the spare fuel cans and the beer, and after she had spoken to the leopards, the three of them left to walk back to the Land Rover.

  ‘You didn’t speak to the snakes,’ said Clare as they made their way along the cliff top.

  ‘No, they aren’t great intellects,’ said Lucy, ‘and I thought it best not to get too complicated with my instructions. They can stop the men getting at the ammo’ tonight and I’ll just send them a simple message tomorrow telling them to leave!’ Clare glanced at Clive and they both grinned. As far as animals were concerned, Lucy had it all worked out, as usual.

  When they got back they cooked a barbeque, opened a few cans of the villains’ beer and, inevitably, discussed the day’s events. As they chatted one of the leopards appeared silently from the bush and stood guard.

  ‘I’m dying to talk about that Loch Ness monster that ate Sid,’ said Clive ‘but I suppose that first we ought to sort out our plan of action for the professor.’ They all agreed and, thought for a few moments.

  ‘He’s so evil and dangerous,’ said Clare eventually, ‘that we’ve got to make sure he’s brought to justice and locked up safe and sound for a very long time.’ The others agreed that he would have to be caught and delivered to the authorities and they were just working out the best way of achieving this when the problem was resolved. A kingfisher flew up from the gorge and alighted in the nearby trees. A few seconds later it flew back to the river and the colobus monkey emerged. It loped up to them and spoke to Lucy who soon turned to the others.

  ‘It looks as if the matter’s been taken out of our hands. After we’d gone the professor returned and tried to cross back over the river. He slipped and the crocs got him. The monkey says that from what the kingfisher told him there can be no question that he’s dead.’

  There was a brief silence as they digested the news.

  ‘Well I for one am not going to lose any sleep over him,’ said Clive bluntly. ‘He was a thief and a murderer and a kidnapper, and if he did go to jail he would be forever plotting and planning to escape and make another invisibility robe. The world is definitely better off without him – and so are we. It would have been a hell of a performance trying to get him captured by the police and convicted without telling anyone about Lucy’s power or the invisibility robe. I’m sorry, but I’m relieved at what’s happened.’

  ‘I know all you say is true,’ said Lucy, ‘but I can’t help feeling that, directly or indirectly, I’m responsible for both those men’s deaths today.’

  ‘Look,’ said Clare,‘Those men kidnapped Sarah and Ben and had every intention of killing them – we have overwhelming evidence to that effect. Ben actually heard them plotting to kill them; the professor tried to entice them into the bushes and was only stopped by the snakes. They left the children, as they thought, to the mercy of the snakes and they then returned to incinerate them, live or dead. I rest my case your honour.’

  ‘Hear, hear,’ said Clive ‘and remember, Lucy, that you did your utmost to bring them to justice. You warned them several times and they ignored you – despite their experiences in the Amazon. You couldn’t have done anything more.’

  ‘But if we hadn’t gone this afternoon,’ said Lucy, ‘none of this would have happened.’

  ‘True, but how could we have left that evil man to do untold harm throughout the world with his invisibility robe and the power to make new ones? And, as we said the other day, who else could have stopped him? Sometimes in life you have to make difficult choices. This was one we had to make, and I think we made the right one. I’ll believe that until the day I die!’

  Lucy was reassured by his logic and they eventually retired, safe under the watchful eyes of their big cat.

  The next day they rose early. Now that they could call upon assistance from the junglekin, they were no longer dependent on the animals they had brought with them. The bees in the box had decided that they liked the flora near the river and the swamp and elected to stay in that s
pot; Lucy thanked them and the swarm disappeared to find a hollow tree to colonize. The snakes said that they too liked the forest and slithered out of their makeshift accommodation into the nearby bush. Lucy then sent a bird to call off the snakes guarding the villains’ ammunition and thanked the leopard who had guarded them overnight. They refuelled the Land Rover using one of the drums Clive had taken from the villains and then set off on the long, dusty, and bumpy road to Kinshasa, where they planned to meet up with the rest of the family before flying back to London.

  20

  Diplomatic Duplicity

  Richard and Joanna stood near Neema’s observation hide as they had done every day and looked out at the ever-changing scene before them as animals darted to and fro; monkeys swung through the trees; insects, reptiles and other small creatures went about their business on the forest floor; and birds and butterflies winged their way across the glade. They were astonished when a bonobo suddenly emerged from the trees and made its way shyly towards them. Hardly daring to breathe for fear of frightening it they stood stock still as it came right up to them, deposited something at Richard’s feet and scampered away.

  ‘What on earth…,’ Richard exclaimed in surprise as he bent down and picked up the husk with its embedded note.

  ‘It’s a letter!’

  ‘From Lucy? Up to her old tricks again?’ asked Joanna with a smile.

  ‘No – o,’ said Richard, his expression changing as he read. ‘It’s not from… Lucy.’ He handed her the note, his eyes moist. Joanna read it and then turned and hugged him tight.

  ‘I just can’t believe it’s all come good,’ she whispered eventually, ‘after all these years.’

  They made their way happily back to their boat and returned to the villa they had been allocated near the park headquarters. They opened a bottle of champagne, toasted their new-found daughter in her absence and passed the evening discussing the various possible ways in which the children might have all managed to find each other and join up. The next day they returned to the hide and waited eagerly for the party to arrive. In the afternoon, just as they were about to leave, there was a shout and Sarah and Ben rushed through the clearing. Even as they hugged and kissed the youngsters Joanna saw another form move silently into view. She looked up.