The mood in Anga ya Amani seemed apathetic and lethargic. Jericho was still tired from the long day before and the longer night that had followed. Catherine was near exhausted and Thomas realised that she probably hadn’t slept at all. Mason and Kelly were quiet and skittish after their ordeal and were keeping their distance. Thomas lay slumped on the rattan sofa on the tent’s porch and watched the staff come and go, moving around with a sullenness that belied their weariness. He knew how they felt. Beat but not yet beaten, and dreading what might come next. As he watched Jelani walk up the trail from the other end of camp, ashen faced and wide eyed, he realised that there was more bad news to come.
The news about the death of Tiffany Lee Amberson, a Texan cheerleader and something of a hunting celebrity, had come in over the radio and was quickly growing as a news story. Kanu Sultan had been swift to issue a statement declaring the incident as nature’s revulsion of Western feminism. Jelani showed Thomas and Jericho the short video statement on Catherine’s Toughbook laptop. As Kanu Sultan grinned and described Tiffany as a whore that had been paraded gregariously as an affront to Muslim beliefs, he added her death was deserved and inevitable. Such callous ignorance would not be tolerated, not even by the critters of the bush he had declared. Thomas noticed Jericho’s rigid stance as he clenched his fist tightly, shaking with rage.
“I’ve had enough of this asshole. Let’s just kill the fucker. And Kruger while we’re about it,” Jericho spat.
“It’s certainly tempting. You don’t happen to have either of their addresses, do you?” Thomas shrugged.
“Everyone needs to calm down. Picking a fight with a local war lord and his pet poacher are not part of the plan,” Catherine interjected. “You know he’s talking nonsense, don’t buy into his propaganda. This girl was killed by the man-eaters, and those we can hunt down.”
“Fine,” growled Jericho. “But if I happen to find him crossing my path through my rifle sights, I’ll be doing the world a favour, make no mistake.”
The Irishman turned and stomped off towards the kitchen. Rhodes took a few steps in the same direction, but suddenly stopped as the sound of smashing glass reached their ears. The big fawn coloured mastiff looked at Catherine forlornly and only hesitated for a second before padding over and lying down at her feet beneath the porch table. Catherine reached underneath and scratched behind his ears comfortingly. Jelani drifted off too, back towards the staff camp. Catherine stood up with a sigh and reached down to rub Rhodes’s head.
“You watch this one and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere,” she told the big dog.
Rhodes whined as she moved around the table and went down the steps. She crossed the short pathway that led to the kitchen tent and entered it. One of the orderlies was clearing up the smashed, empty whiskey bottle Jericho had left in his wake. Catherine helped pick up the last few pieces and mouthed a silent thank-you to the man, who nodded his understanding.
Catherine smiled as Mansa appeared, bowing politely in her direction.
“Hi Mansa, I was wondering if Kelly has had anything to eat today?” Catherine asked.
“Alas, I fear not,” Mansa sighed. “I have not seen her.”
“Can I steal a few things and take them to her?”
“We can do better than that. Let’s make her something,” the elderly African beamed in reply. “If you don’t mind me saying so though, I think she needs to sleep and rest rather than eat.”
“What would you maybe suggest then?”
“My hot malted chocolate, with a secret ingredient,” Mansa laughed.
He took some milk and cream from a small refrigerator, powered by the network of generators that kept the camp lit and comfortably catered for. He began to heat the milk gently in a pan and began to prepare the cocoa and malted milk powder in another. He poured the cream into the powder mix, and began to sift it gently over the heat until it had blended into a thick paste. As he reached across the counter to a tin, and took a pinch of dark red chilli powder, he winked at Catherine. Mansa then turned and plucked a bottle of Amarula cream from the shelf. He added a generous glug into the pan containing the makeshift paste before emptying the entire contents into the hot milk. He let it simmer for a moment or two, before taking it off the heat and pouring it into a thick ceramic mug one of the orderlies had brought over as he’d worked.
“Thank you Mansa. If in doubt, go with hot chocolate,” Catherine smiled.
“I’ve never known it not to work yet,” Mansa nodded.
She took the mug from him and left the kitchen, heading towards Kelly’s tent. She hesitated before knocking gently. On the other side, she distinctly heard the noise of someone startled into moving. A few moments later, the curtain behind the glass panelled door was brushed aside. Kelly paused and looked at Catherine with a confused expression. Catherine could see she hadn’t slept. Her unkempt hair fell over her face in tangled strands, and her eyes were red and darting nervously. She opened the door and swung it open.
“Hey Kelly,” Catherine said.
She felt torn and awkward all of a sudden. Up until now she had been somewhat distant with Kelly, perhaps even a little hostile. She was probably the last person she wanted to confide in or was expecting to appear in the guise of a friend.
“We were a bit worried that you hadn’t eaten anything. Mansa has made you this and I wanted to check in on you,” Catherine added.
Kelly nodded meekly, stepping aside so Catherine could enter. As she stepped in, she noticed that Kelly’s tent was a little more femininely decorated than hers and Thomas’s. Instead of a porch and veranda, it had an open lounge with a large wrap around sofa that hugged three sides of a dark mahogany coffee table. The bed, a four poster, was beyond and dressed with white linens. They were strewn aside, crumpled and heaped, flung back in the throes of a restless night. Kelly followed her gaze and gave her a timid, guilty smile of acknowledgment as they sat down on the sofa, across from each other at the junction of a corner. Catherine pushed the cup of hot chocolate over the table towards Kelly, who stared at it for a moment before picking it up with both hands. She raised her feet up off the floor and tucked them onto the sofa, hugging her knees and resting the cup on top of them.
“It’s not an entirely innocent concoction,” Catherine warned, “Mansa thought you might need some encouragement to get some rest.”
“I’m guessing none of us really slept last night,” Kelly murmured. “My brain feels scrambled. What happened keeps running through my head. I was so scared...I just sprinted past Karni like he wasn’t there. I didn’t warn him. I didn’t even look back. It’s my fault.”
“What you’re talking about is called survivor guilt,” Catherine said quietly. “It’s something I’ve been dealing with ever since the attacks in Cannich. My friend Louise died. I didn’t. First, I felt ashamed that I had survived and she hadn’t. Later, I felt I’d failed her and others by not warning them, by not believing Thomas sooner. I felt responsible for their deaths. But it was more than that. Afterwards I felt almost as if I’d been spared by the cat, like I shared something with it. When Fairbanks and I were alone on the mountain, I wanted the cat to come. I wanted it to kill him, and it did. It was as if I willed it to happen.”
“Did you feel guilty about that too?” Kelly asked, startled by Catherine’s frankness.
“If I’m being honest, no. I felt nothing. It’s what haunts me the most. I feel like stone whenever I think about it. Knowing that I have a coldness somewhere inside me that makes me capable of responding like that is something I have a hard time admitting.”
“I’ve filmed in war zones. I’m in dangerous situations all of the time. I’ve always been so flippant about it. I can’t help feeling that played a part in what happened. It was down to me to protect him and I dismissed the danger.”
“I think you need to accept that everyone here knew what they were getting into. We have a good team here. The one thing I’ve learnt from everything I’ve been through is that facing it
alone is the most painful route. What I’ve just told you I’ve never been able to tell Thomas, but I don’t want you to have the same experience. You don’t have to go through it alone.”
Kelly looked at Catherine, still with a sense of fracture and fragility, but now with a glimmer of hope. Tears welled in her eyes and began to stream down her cheeks. She buried her face into her knees and sobbed violently. Catherine put her hand over Kelly’s, waiting it out. After a while, Kelly seemed to stop, only occasionally jolting with a sharp intake of breath as she calmed again. When she did look up, she seemed more at peace than before.
“Have you felt like this all this time?” Kelly asked, seeming dazed and confused as she processed what Catherine had told her.
“Therapy helped,” Catherine shrugged. “Most of the time, I’m okay. When I’m not though, I still go to a pretty dark place. I think Thomas has had a harder time of it than I. At least I know what’s going on. It’s just been that as he’s tried to be protective with self-defence classes and training me to shoot, all it’s done is remind me that I wanted someone to die and that they did. It makes me question what I would do if it happened again. He’s equipped me to do the very thing I couldn’t, but still wanted to happen. That makes me very afraid of what I might be capable of.”
“That’s horrible. Nobody will miss Fairbanks though,” Kelly offered.
“But we’ll miss Karni, and I will always miss Louise. In the here and now though, we need you. You didn’t do this. The lions did, and we’re here to stop them. You have a chance that I didn’t, to do something about it. But maybe for now, drink your cocoa and try to get some rest. We’re all doing the same today.”
“Thank you,” Kelly murmured, sitting up and taking a deep breath.
Catherine got up to leave and reached across to give Kelly a quick hug before turning away.
“Catherine?” Kelly called her back, as she headed towards the door. “There’s one more thing. Mason wants me to go out with him tomorrow to do some more filming. I don’t feel up to it. I know you have an interest in photography. Would you fancy going with him and helping him out? I just don’t think I can face it at the moment.”
“I think I’d actually love to,” Catherine replied. “I look forward to it. Try to get some sleep.”
“That’s a two way street,” Kelly batted back to her. “Catherine...thanks. I really mean it. Thanks for being my friend.”
“Well I wouldn’t go that far,” Catherine said with a mischievous smile as she opened the door. She paused, and smiled kindly at Kelly. “But you’re welcome. Thank you too for listening.”
“Any time,” Kelly nodded.
~
The rest of the day seemed to pass slowly. Jericho kicked about the camp agitated and grumpily until he slumped onto the chair opposite Thomas. Mansa had supplied them with an almost constant stream of cold bottles of lager, and both had found their way to hammocks, where Jericho at least seemed to finally sleep off his discontent. Catherine had re-joined Mansa in the kitchen, putting a request in for a hot, sweet curry she had cravings for. He gladly accommodated and welcomed the help. As the sun began to set, their troubles too seemed to melt away into the shadows. They all came together around the fire at the centre of the kopje, as the rocky outcrop was bathed in magenta and crimson tones and the fiery disc began to slip below the horizon.
Kelly stood next to Mason, who put his arm round her in a fond hug. Catherine was in front of Thomas, and he wrapped his arms round her waist and held her to him. Jelani and Mansa joined them, carrying drinks and serving dishes.
“To Karni,” Mason toasted, as he took a glass from the tray and raised it to the sky.
“To Karni,” they all repeated, doing the same.
They all turned back towards the table and took their seats. The mood was still sullen, but a weight seemed to have been lifted. They had grieved and would still do so, but they were united again in purpose. They all seemed to sense it.
Catherine eagerly helped herself to the fat-jewelled chunks of buffalo meat, lightly coated in a sauce made from tangerines with crushed red and green chillies, as well as garlic, ginger and onion. She ladled heavy spoonfuls of fluffy brown rice onto her plate, flavoured with butter and pepper and burnished with shiny green peas. She ate greedily, as did the others. Food had been ignored for most of the day, but now their appetite had returned. As the flames of the fire grew tall, little ripples of laughter erupted around the table as Mason and Kelly shared stories and memories of Karni’s adventures with them, blunders and all. Jericho boasted of his bar fight with the guide in Usangi, which then reminded him of several others, of which he regaled them further.
Slowly and amicably, as darkness descended, so did quiet. Kelly excused herself, followed by Mason. Jelani and Jericho moved to the chairs by the fire.
“An early night methinks,” Catherine smiled warmly at Thomas.
“Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire,” he laughed. “Night all,” he called, glancing back as he got up.
As he turned back round, movement caught his eye. Suddenly, out of the gloom appeared a thin, lithe figure sprinting towards him. Musa, the village boy was streaking across the kopje, eyes fixed on him. Thomas noticed the hemp sack he was carrying and gripping tightly with one hand. Thomas suddenly tensed and felt something was very wrong. He pushed Catherine behind him as Musa closed in and pinched the corner of the sack with his free hand. Then the dogs appeared.
Rhodes zoned in on Musa, emitting a menacing growl as the big dog flanked the boy. When he showed no signs of stopping, Rhodes broke into a full gallop. Saka slipped in behind, lowering her head and letting out an excited yikker as she joined the chase. Just as Musa seemed to realise his predicament, Rhodes leapt, knocking the boy to the ground. Musa scudded into the ground, landing on his back with a wallop that knocked the breath from his body. Rhodes towered over him, growling savagely, only to spring back several feet with a yelp, before standing his ground again and barking violently.
Thomas took a step back as a fat, squat head emerged from the bag Musa had dropped. The threatening audible hiss that accompanied the rippling, coiling body, left him in no doubt what it was. The puff adder crawled clear of the bag, inflating itself and tensing as it detected Musa’s nearby scrabbling hand. It gave no further warning as it made a lightning strike, sinking its two-inch fangs deep into the boy’s hand. It instantly recoiled, only to strike again as Musa failed to get clear in time. As Thomas dashed round behind, he grabbed Musa beneath his arms to drag him out of the way. Saka trotted in, head bobbing and teeth bared as she closed in on the snake.
The puff adder lived up to its name, enlarging its body and coiling back on itself as it detected the encroaching dog. Its head followed Saka’s every move and mirrored it. At well over two feet long with a thick, stout body, Thomas guessed it was a male by the size. Its sandy coloured scales were decorated with what looked like dark brown and orange chevrons. It struck, finding only empty air where the tip of Saka’s nose had been. Instead, the hunting dog had dashed to the side, uprooting the snake and flipping it onto its back, landing a quick and slashing bite of her own to the puff adder. The snake writhed and coiled as it tried to escape, but each time, Saka expertly cut it off and attacked its exposed tail or back. Slowly but surely, the puff adder began to lose its strength and veracity. Its body was covered in gashes and tears from Saka’s teeth. It lay still, barely hissing as she closed in confidently. She pounced, taking the snake’s head in her jaws and crushing the skull with a series of fast, crunching bites. Satisfied, she dropped the dead puff adder on the floor and trotted over to Catherine, rubbing up against her legs in a cat like manner.
“Jelani, get the antivenin kit would you?” Catherine asked, running over to Musa who was already going into shock.
Jelani nodded his head and dashed off towards the staff camp.
Thomas knelt by the boy and placed his hand on his back, helping him sit up,
“Okay Musa, I’m going to n
eed you to stay calm,” he explained. “The quicker your heart beats, the faster the venom is going to move through your bloodstream, so we’re going to take everything nice and slow. I’m also going to need you to keep your arms below your chest, so the venom has to make its way up hill to get to your heart. Don’t panic, we have antivenin on site and it’ll be here any second.”
Musa nodded slowly, but his eyes were still wide with panic. He was breathing rapidly and as Thomas took his pulse, he could feel it was racing.
“Musa, it’s really important that you calm down. I want you to breathe in for a count of four seconds and then breathe out for the same amount of time. Do it with me, okay?”
Musa met Thomas’s eyes and began to control his breathing, taking air in through his nose and exhaling the same way as Thomas counted out for him. Thomas quickly felt the pulse begin to slow, and he could see the boy was less frantic. Jelani arrived back with a large, white, plastic carry case. Thomas carefully raised Musa’s hand to inspect it. He sighed, already noticing the swollen and discoloured flesh around the fang marks of each bite. The venom was working quickly.
Catherine opened the container and took out a drip bag of 0.9% saline solution. She then glanced over the vials and quickly selected five marked SAVP Polyvalent Snake Antivenin. Taking a sterile syringe and injector from its wrappings, she quickly administered all five vials into the solution.
“Let’s move him,” she said. “Get him into a tent and onto a bed where I can set this up easier.”
Thomas, Jericho and Jelani picked up Musa together and then stared blankly at Catherine.
“My tent’s nearest,” Kelly spoke up. “Put him in there.”
Without hesitating, they shuffled quickly towards its glass doors, Catherine carrying the drip and Kelly picking up the case behind her. She then sprinted ahead to open the door.
“The sofa’s fine, put him down there,” Catherine ordered as they entered.
The Daughters of the Darkness Page 27
