by Tony Park
He clenched his fists in futile rage. Who did she think she was? He knew his mine and he knew his record, and Chris’s, on safety. He looked at Chris and the other man just shrugged. ‘Maybe they mixed up the samples.’
‘Musa asked Johan if that was possible,’ Kylie said. ‘He said that Eureka’s samples were the only ones they were working on this past week. He personally did a second and third analysis of the samples to make sure the findings were correct. He said he only found out yesterday. He was just about to put in his report when the leak happened.’
Cameron sat down again, defeated. Kylie’s phone rang and she jabbed the answer button.
‘Kylie Hamilton.’ She listened. ‘Shit, Musa, this is going from bad to worse. OK, call me after you’ve watched it.’ She hung up. ‘Fuck.’
‘What is it?’ Cameron asked.
‘The union’s just declined our invitation to take part in the review and they’re saying that they’re calling for an indefinite strike at the mine, pending the outcome of the review. On top of that, the Mail and Guardian is worried other media outlets will jump on the story so they’re going proactive with it and offering a preview of the article to SABC 1. It’s going to be on television tonight – claims that we’re exposing workers to “lethal” levels of contaminants.’
‘Is Musa going to go on TV?’ Chris asked.
Kylie shook her head. ‘No. The timing of all this couldn’t be worse. We’re stuck out here in the bloody bush, Musa is in Botswana visiting a diamond mine and Jan’s in Sydney. And now we’ve got to go and face that witch, Tertia Venter.’
Cameron held his tongue. He simply couldn’t believe he wasn’t being allowed to manage what was going on in the mine – his mine. But Kylie was right. Their meeting with Tertia was in minutes, yet they hadn’t had any free time to discuss their strategy, or Chris’s bold offer on behalf of Global Resources – the purpose of their visit to Lion Plains. They would have to wing it.
Cameron’s phone rang and he looked at the screen. It was Jessica. For a moment he considered not answering it. Kylie looked at him. Screw her, he thought. ‘Hello my girl.’
‘Dad, when are you coming home?’
‘I told you, Jess, tomorrow, remember?’ She had never minded him going away before, not even since Tania had left home. He wondered if she was still angry at him over what had happened down the mine. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I suppose so. The alarm went off before.’
‘What?’ He felt his heart rate increase.
‘Petty’s here. We checked. She said she thought it was maybe a genet tripping the beam again, like last time.’
Kylie tapped her watch, so he could see. It was time for their meeting with Tertia. ‘OK. Look, call me if it goes off again. I have to go now, my girl. Tell Petty, too, that I said to call me, all right?’
‘Yes, Dad.’
‘Love you.’
‘Ja, me too.’ She hung up.
Cameron stood up. ‘Okay, let’s do this.’
Chris, who was the only one who had visited Lion Plains before, led the way across the grass through the darkness to the main lodge. There was one other party staying, a group of noisy Americans who were in the lounge area drinking. Chris led them down the corridor and knocked on a door.
‘Good, come in,’ Tertia said, ushering them inside and hurrying back to her desk. ‘You’re just in time. Have a look at this.’
Tertia swung a computer monitor around so they could all see it. The SABC 1 news in English had just started.
Cameron recognised file footage of the outside of Eureka, including the Global Resources sign, and the pictures then switched to men drilling underground as the reporter continued her monologue.
‘The mine workers’ union today called for strikes at all Global Resources mines, saying it was intolerable that management and their paid consultants were dealing in so-called “confidential reports” about dangerous pollutants while workers were being put at risk. A spokesman for Global Resources said the company was waiting on delivery of the APMS report, but that a review of ventilation systems and an intensive program of air quality testing would commence tomorrow. A spokesman denied the company had been forced to act by the Mail and Guardian’s story. Global Resources is currently awaiting approval for a controversial project to mine coal in the Greater Kruger National Park.’
Cameron saw that Kylie was quietly seething at the inaccuracies in the story. Tertia, on the other hand, couldn’t hold back her smile. She placed her hands palm-down on her desk, which Cameron noticed that, unlike his, was spotlessly clean with everything laid out in a precise order.
‘Now, what can I do for you, other than hand over my life’s work for you to bulldoze?’
Kylie’s jaw was clenched. Cameron studied her face, but she was inscrutable. He suddenly understood why she had cut him out of the review process at the mine. She was setting him up as a scapegoat.
He’d been a fool to think she might actually be a decent person. She was an attractive woman, even more so out of her mine overalls or corporate armour. The soft lighting of the suite caught a pale highlight in her auburn hair, reminding him of a vein of free gold that was occasionally visible in a piece of ore, but those emerald eyes that he’d thought so nice when he first saw her, drilled back at him now. His mind flashed back to the moment when he’d found her underground, the rifle held in shaking hands and how his heart had almost turned molten when he saw her lip trembling. It had felt good to hold her, if only for a second. But he had let the fact that she was a woman cloud his judgement. She had looked relaxed and happy in her shorts and T-shirt and sandals on the open vehicle and her face had reflected the innocent wonder of someone encountering the true beauty of Africa for the first time. But at the end of the day she was a single-minded businesswoman, ambitious and unafraid to hang people out to dry to attain her goals – GR’s goals. And that included him. He felt deeply embarrassed now that he had put his hand on her arm as he pointed the animals out to her. She must think him an idiot. And then she had turned on him. His wife had left him, his daughter no longer trusted him, and his boss had just put him into occupational limbo.
Chris cleared his throat. Although he was the most junior of the three, it seemed to Cameron he was the only one not knocked over by the events of this afternoon, even though air quality monitoring and assurance was his responsibility. ‘Tertia, thanks very much for agreeing to meet us this evening.’
‘I appreciate you’re all busy,’ Tertia continued, nodding at the screen, which had now changed to a story about political corruption, ‘and about to get busier. Did you enjoy your game drive, Kylie?’
The question seemed to stop Kylie in her tracks. ‘Well, yes, I did, actually. We saw a lioness with the tiniest cubs.’
‘Such a shame your mine will destroy her home.’
‘Tertia, please,’ Chris said.
‘Sorry, I can’t help speaking the truth.’
Chris looked at Kylie.
‘Go on, Chris. Credit where credit’s due, this was your idea,’ Kylie said.
He nodded, then drew a breath. After a pause he said, ‘Tertia we, that is, Global Resources, want you to stay on here, after the mine is open.’
She pushed back her chair and crossed her legs. ‘And why would I want to do that?’
‘The mine, as you know, is not going to consume the whole of Lion Plains. There’s going to be a buffer zone all around it so that it doesn’t impact on the neighbouring reserves.’
‘Hah! I’ve seen your thin green line on the maps. It’s nothing but a PR stunt. All that talk about game corridors is rubbish. You’ll force wildlife from tens of kilometres around the mine to move out of the Sabi Sand back to the Kruger Park. The elephants will add to the problem of overpopulation and the wild dogs that usually roam through here will be cleaned up by the park’s lions.’
‘Please, hear me out, Tertia.’
She folded her arms tightly across her chest. ‘Go on then.’
‘I know all this.’
‘I know you do. So what Global Resources wants to do is fund a base camp for researchers in the reserve; a place where they can come together, stay, and compile their data. It’d be a commercial operation as well, with a limited number of tourists paying to work as volunteer assistants to the various researchers.’
‘What’s it got to do with me?’ Tertia asked.
Crunch time, Cameron thought.
‘We’d like you to run the camp and to oversee the volunteer program. I’ve already sounded out the local community and they’re supportive of the idea, in principle. You’d get to stay in the reserve, Tertia.’
‘As a paid employee of Global Resources?’
Kylie stepped in. ‘The research camp would be set up as a separate trust, overseen by a board with representatives from the local community, peak wildlife bodies and the company. But, yes, the majority of the funding will come from Global Resources, supplemented by whatever income you generate from hosting the paying volunteers.’
‘Yes, then I’d be a paid employee of Global Resources.’
Kylie shrugged.
‘You think this is about money for me, or that I just want to protect my home in the bush?’
Cameron could see the seething hatred in Tertia’s eyes. She was about to erupt.
‘No, not at all. We know you care about the environment,’ he said.
‘No! You think I’m some spoiled white woman who thinks she has a God-given right to live here, and that I don’t really care about the bush or the wildlife or the local people and their traditional claim on the land.’
‘Absolutely not, but –’ Kylie tried.
‘Well, you’re wrong. What this is about is mining in a protected area, in a wildlife paradise. You cannot develop a mine in the greater Kruger Park, no matter what any bloody government or any bloody traditional owner says. You cannot have a mine belching noise and light pollution and dust and machinery exhaust fumes within view of a national park. It’s an abomination.’
Kylie balled her hands into fists and took a breath. ‘There are precedents.’
‘Pah!’
Cameron wondered why they were here, why Chris had bothered coming up with the compromise, and why Kylie would want to put herself within reach of Tertia. The government had given the land to the local people and they wanted a mine, simple as that. The problem with his Australian superiors, and he now lumped Jan into that category, was that they cared more about perceptions than realities, more about public image than real people. They could have been rid of the zama zamas by now if he had been given free rein to do his job and, whatever Cameron’s and Chris’s personal views about mining in a wildlife area, they should just get on with this job instead of trying to pacify a woman who would hate them until the day they died. Perhaps hard-as-nails Kylie had met her match with this female wildcat.
‘Tertia, please,’ Chris said. ‘We’re only trying to help you. Can’t you maybe think about this for a while, maybe meet us halfway somehow?’
Tertia uncrossed her legs, pushed back her chair on its castors and stood. She glared down at Chris and then at Cameron, pointedly ignoring Kylie. ‘I’m not going to be your trained monkey who tells the world how much Global Resources cares for the environment. I’m not going to be silenced by the offer of thirteen pieces of silver. I’d rather die than see your filthy mine ravage this paradise.’
Cameron looked at Chris and saw he was crestfallen. The boy had told him he was sure she would go for it, that he had built up a rapport with her over the months and could get her on board.
Tertia finally turned her glare on Kylie. ‘You may have convinced yourself that what you are doing here is somehow justified, or beneficial for the local community, but you’ve been out in the bush now. You’ve seen what this place is like. I can’t believe you can still be so cold-hearted, so intent on destroying all of this, in the name of your corporate greed. This is not just a question of what can or can’t be seen or heard from within a nature reserve, this is about saying enough is enough, we will not squander our natural heritage. Global Resources is wrong, the local community is wrong, and our greedy corrupt government is wrong. I will stop this mine and I will not take your blood money.’
Kylie looked up at her and seemed, to Cameron, to be lost for words.
Tertia brushed a strand of red hair from her face and composed herself. ‘You’re welcome to stay to dinner – in fact you must, as you’re not permitted to drive through the reserve now that it’s dark. But you’ll forgive me if I don’t join you.’
16
A small herd of six elephants, visible in the light of the near-full moon, emerged from the pool in the mostly dry river. The lead one, which Kylie guessed was the matriarch, raised her trunk into the air and sniffed, checking the way was clear. She knew where she was going, and how to protect those who depended on her.
In contrast, Kylie felt helpless.
She sat on the timber verandah of her suite and wondered what she should do next. She had just finished a Skype call to Jan. Lion Plains had a strong wireless signal and she had been able to use the webcam. She wondered if his ruddy complexion was due to his morning workout or his anger. A bit of both, she suspected. She checked the notes she had made on her laptop, as the elephants sloshed through the puddles, and played back the conversation in her mind.
‘Chris was sure Tertia would go for the research camp proposal, and so was I,’ Kylie had said to him.
Jan had shaken his head. ‘It was doomed from the start, Kylie. I should never have allowed you to go to Lion Plains.’
She had bridled. It hadn’t been a matter of Jan ‘allowing’ her to go to Lion Plains. She had made the call herself. She wanted to get Tertia out of the media spotlight, if not completely onside, and she and Chris had made the fundamental error of thinking that Tertia was motivated by greed and self-interest. It appeared she really did care more about the animals and the land at Lion Plains than herself. Kylie found herself grudgingly respecting the formidable redhead.
‘I want you and Musa to get on top of the local media tomorrow, your time,’ Jan had said to her. She had been about to suggest the same thing, that they go proactive with the press, inviting them to Eureka to explain how they were going to conduct their full review. Jan was second-guessing her every decision and treating her like an idiot. She had felt chastised and angry at the end of the call.
Kylie had walked out onto the verandah to get some air and try to wind down. It was only ten o’clock and she had held off having wine with dinner as she knew she would be talking to the boss.
Her eyes were drawn back to the giants gliding silently along the sandy riverbed. The elephants were black on their lower parts, where they’d been in the water, while their backs shone grey in the light of the moon. Owls called to each other from nearby trees.
She had been in the African bush less than a day but she was already starting to understand Tertia’s love for this place. It was heartbreakingly beautiful here.
Kylie got up, poured herself a glass of wine from her suite’s fridge, kicked off her shoes and returned to the swinging chair on her verandah. As she sipped, her anger mellowed into moroseness. It all felt so hard, and she felt completely alone. She had left Chris and Cameron at the dinner table to make her call and she wondered if they were still in the dining room, or the bar. She had to have a clear head for the next day, but she was too
wired to sleep just yet.
She downed the wine, went back into her suite and called reception. ‘Are Mr McMurtrie and Mr Loubser still in the restaurant?’
‘I’ll check for you now,’ the woman said. A few moments later she returned to the phone. ‘They are in the bar, madam.’
That clinched it. Kylie asked the receptionist to send a security guard to fetch her and the man knocked on her door five minutes later. He led her back to the main building, shining a high-powered torch ahead as they walked.
An eerie woo-oop noise called from up the river. ‘What was that?’
‘Hyena, madam. Close-close,’ the guard said, grinning.
Kylie closed the gap between her and the man. There were no fences around the camp. It was a little scary, but exciting at the same time, just like her close encounters with the lions and elephants on the game-viewing drive.
When they got to the lodge she thanked the security guard and walked into the lounge. Cameron was alone, sitting on a lounge chair, a tumbler of Scotch and ice on the coffee table in front of him.
‘Are you the last man sitting?’ she asked.
‘Chris is in the bathroom.’
‘Mind if I join you?’
‘It’s a free country, more or less.’
She took the chair opposite him and the barman came over to take her order. ‘Gin and tonic, please.’
‘Double or single, madam?’
‘Double.’
‘Same again,’ Cameron said to the barman and raised his glass. ‘One of those nights?’
‘I’ll drink to that,’ she said.
‘How was your call to Jan?’
She shrugged. ‘How do you think? He’s justifiably pissed off.’
‘Well, there’s nothing you could have done to change the news.’
‘Or you.’
