“You’re a wonder,” he exclaimed as she hopped back in. “There aren’t many men who would have known what to do, let alone women!”
Ana raised one eyebrow. “There is almost nothing women can’t do when they put their minds to it. If you meet the right women in life Harry, you will soon find that out!”
“All I meant…” he cut himself short. “Let’s get out of this stream first.” Slowly he headed for the far bank and drove until they found a fairly level area away from the stream. He kept the engine running and put the hand break on. He already knew that worked on a different system.
He got on his back and pushed himself under Bluebird checking round each of the wheels in turn. When he reached the back on the passenger side it became instantly obvious what had caused the brake failure. One of the small metal pipes that carried the fluid to the brakes to make them work was completely shattered.
“I’ve got lots to learn about engines,” he shouted up, “but I understand enough about brakes to know this is nothing we can fix out here. One of those large rocks must have been flung up onto the pipe and just completely snapped it. As I was pressing the brakes near the end I was simply squirting all the brake fluid out of the system. In a funny way we were lucky the stream was there to stop us without any damage. It could have been much, much worse.”
“Well then chauffer, as most of our journey will now be uphill, let’s see whether you can get us back to camp in one piece without brakes.”
The return journey was just as slow as you would expect. Harry drove with real respect for his surroundings. It was dark by the time they arrived on the main track and he used the gears to slow them down where needed.
Suddenly the radio crackled back into life, they must be in range again. “Bluebird report your position please.” They both sensed a hint of concern in Jim’s voice.
Ana picked up the radio. “We have had some trouble with Bluebird but are up and running and making our way back to camp. I must tell you that we are sure we heard gunfire earlier but radio contact has been useless.”
“Glad you are safe. That’s what’s important. There has been an incident in the reserve but of course you have been out of touch for over an hour.”
“We should be back fairly soon I think.” She looked across to Harry for confirmation and he raised the fingers of his left hand three times. “About fifteen minutes providing there are no more mishaps.”
“OK,” came Jim’s reply. “Just come straight to the main dining area. There are a few of us there and I will give you the latest about what’s been going on.”
Harry resisted the urge to drive faster and it wasn’t long before they saw the distant glow of lights from the camp.
He didn’t even bother to take Bluebird to the mechanics workshop; they wouldn’t be working this late anyway.
Seated round the main table were, Jim, Mike, Bethwell, Kilifi and a grim-faced man he had never seen before.
“Sit down and I will tell you as much as I can. This by the way is Sergeant Odika from KWS.” Odika nodded briefly in their direction, strongly built and with a slight air of menace about him, Harry thought he was not a man he would care to cross.
“He and a small crack group of rangers have been following some suspected poachers for several days now. Just before dusk this evening they found three of them on our eastern border. In a brief exchange of gunfire all three were shot and killed. That’s the good news.”
Jim paused, “Sadly they were carrying a pair of tusks still wet with blood.” He put up his hand to silence Harry. “At this stage we don’t know any more than you. They looked as though they came from a youngish elephant but we will have to wait until first light before we can piece everything together.
Harry could feel the fury rising up inside him. Which elephant was it? He didn’t know them all yet. Was it from the small herd they had hoped to see at the waterhole that evening? Only dawn would give them some answers.
Chapter Six
Harry supposed he must have slept on and off but it hadn’t come easily, his mind had been racing with endless images of elephants being shot. As the poachers advanced towards the dying creatures he found himself awake again, almost as though he couldn’t allow his dreams to let him see what happened next.
He was up and ready to go way before sunrise and as he made his way up to the main camp he passed Ana’s tent. He almost missed her sitting unmoving in the darkness of the veranda.
She greeted him with a “Good morning,” and he tried to smile in return but it was obvious the prospect of what lay ahead dwelt heavily in both their minds.
She fell in beside him as they made their way towards the kitchen for an early cup of strong coffee to sustain them for the next few hours. The thought of anything to eat was very unappealing.
Harry had both his hands round the welcome warmth of the mug and he asked the question that had been jiggling round his mind since the previous evening.
“Ana are you sure you want to come this morning? I have only witnessed what we are about to see once and to say it was one of the grimmest sights of my life would be an understatement. I know you will have seen the most dreadful things as a reporter but in many ways you are here to try and forget what you can of that.”
Ana was silent, the steam coming off her coffee in the pre-dawn chill, as she seemed lost in her own thoughts.
“I don’t think I can ever forget the horrors of war and perhaps it would almost be an insult to those who suffered so much for me to allow myself to do that. I know you only mean well and you are right in some ways. I certainly have to learn how to manage those dreadful memories but cutting myself off from reality isn’t the way to do that. I know I’ll hate what I see but controlling the anger and channelling it in a positive way is a crucial part of what makes me the person I am.”
Harry stood awkwardly by the embers of the previous night’s campfire, their dull warmth failing to raise his spirits.
She moved across and squeezed his shoulder gently, “But thank you anyway.”
Five minutes later and they were in the back of Jim’s Land Cruiser heading off pretty much due east, still searching for the first rays of the sun on the horizon.
Odika sat in the front seat and his men were in the other vehicle with Mike and Kilifi. Nobody really talked and somehow the silence was comforting.
There was little evidence of game on the way and the only sound they were really conscious of was the rattling of the vehicles on the rough track.
The plan was simple and obvious, to head to where the KWS rangers had first come across the poachers the previous evening and to use Kilifi’s wonderful skills to track their movements back until they found the dead elephant.
The miles ticked by. Harry was glad of his fleece as the heater did little to throw any warmth onto the rear seats.
Odika sat passively, the cold steel of his gun resting gently in his palm as though it was always meant to be there. Harry had learnt through brief snippets of conversation before he went to bed that he was very highly thought of. He was one of a relatively small group of rangers who had been selected to train with instructors from the British army special forces, arguably the toughest soldiers in the world. Various Western governments were helping where they could to provide support to a number of African countries whose wildlife was threatened. It was a small step but anything helped.
Jim bought the Land Cruiser to a halt in a clearing just to the side of the track. The headlights picked out several inquisitive pairs of eyes in the thick scrub in front of them. As he flicked them off Harry was aware of a very early light beginning to give their surroundings a faint touch of colour.
Jim had timed the journey just right, there would be enough for Kilifi to pick out the tracks and other tell-tale signs that would point the way.
“This is where we nailed those vermin last night,” said Odika, his voice devoid of any feeling. There seemed little sign of where the poachers met their end but as Kilifi examined the
ground to the right-hand side even Harry was able to pick out the darker areas where their blood still stained the dirt.
“This should be easy going to start with,” he explained as the others gathered round. “The ground here is fairly soft so if you look you can see three distinct sets of footprints. They weren’t walking abreast so it makes it a little trickier. Although the soles of their shoes do make slightly different patterns the easiest sign to follow is the depth the prints go into the sand.”
The others peered down at the surface waiting for further explanation. “You see,” he continued, “on this set the right-side foot makes a deeper indent than the left and the one next door is the complete opposite.”
Now that he had pointed it out it seemed obvious even to Ana and Harry who had no experience.
“My guess,” said Kilifi is that the first set belong to the poacher who was carrying the elephant tusk on his right shoulder so the extra weight causes his right foot to sink in that much deeper. The other is the exact opposite so I imagine he was left-handed. The third set is quite well balanced so that man isn’t weighed down by anything much. Our experience shows us that poachers tend to travel light apart from their weapons so this would make complete sense.”
“OK,” said Odika, “let’s follow Kilifi and see where they lead back to. But keep on the alert, the bush is a dangerous place as you know. We have assumed there are no other poachers in the area but wherever there are elephants you can never be too sure.”
As Odika took the lead behind Kilifi, Harry noted that he clicked the safety switch on his weapon to off. He suddenly felt very inexperienced and vulnerable.
The bush was thick and the shade above did its best to keep out the brightness of the early morning light. There were occasional noises deeper in, the snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves but Kilifi paid them no attention. A life time in these sorts of surroundings enabled him to tell where true danger lay.
The tracks were surprisingly easy to follow at first but then the terrain became much rockier and to Harry’s eye the prints seemed to disappear completely but Kilifi hardly broke his stride. Occasionally he would pause, looking for signs that only he could see and then the little group were off again. Two of Odika’s men brought up the rear with Mike, displaying the same easy, alert confidence as their leader.
They reached a small stream and miraculously the same prints appeared again in the soft, wet earth of the bank. Kilifi asked everybody to stay where they were as he waded through the water to the other side. He examined the ground to left and right and then summoned the others across.
“There are no signs of them here so my guess is that they walked through the water for a while, perhaps trying to throw people off their scent. I suggest we split up with some of us going upstream and the others downstream. Their prints on the bank should be easy to spot and radio coverage is traditionally quite good in this area.”
Harry and Ana stayed with Odika and Jim and headed upstream. The others made their way in the opposite direction, trying their best to avoid the thick vegetation that came almost down to the water’s edge.
“The stream isn’t deep,” said Jim, “so I suggest it would be much easier if we wade through it. We’ll get a far better view of the bank and will only get our feet wet.”
“Good thinking,” replied Odika as his large military boots splashed in.
It turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. They had to watch where they were going as the bottom proved rather uneven and rocky and yet at the same time four pairs of eyes were scanning the bank for signs of the poachers. After fifteen minutes and several radio conversations with the other group, who were using the same tactics, frustration was beginning to set in. There was a feeling that they must have missed something camouflaged by the boulders and fallen tree trunks by the water’s edge.
They splashed on for a little longer and Jim was just about to suggest they retraced their steps when Ana shouted an alert and moved towards the bank. It was less steep here and there were signs where various animals had used this trail to take them to the water more easily.
“Look at this,” she shouted with excitement. “Not right by the water, there are too many animal tracks there but up near the top of the bank.”
As the others followed where she was pointing they too could see the distinct mark of human prints. They all climbed out, careful not to disturb her find. As they looked down with the advantage of being above the tracks, rather than in the stream, it was instantly obvious that these belonged to the same three individuals. The deeper right and left prints of those carrying the tusks really stood out.
“You have done well,” said Odika with a new respect in his voice. “Let’s call the other group up here straight away.”
“Well done,” smiled Jim. “I don’t know how you spotted them in amongst all the animal tracks. You must have amazing vision.”
“Oh, just a bit of luck,” shrugged Ana.
It took about twenty minutes for the other group to reach them, enough time to wring out their socks as the increasing heat of the morning sun began to dry off everything else.
As they moved along the bank their surroundings seemed surprisingly quiet. Harry wasn’t even aware of the brief flashes of smaller animals that they so often glanced when they were walking through thick vegetation like this.
Suddenly Kilifi put his hand up and everyone stopped, staying as motionless as they could.
“I know the kill was only yesterday,” he said, “but I can actually sense death in the air. Take care.”
They moved on, more cautiously now, the rangers with fingers on their trigger guards. The bush was thinning out and they knew that up ahead would be a clearing.
Stopping once more, Odika signalled to the other members of his squad to come forward.
“Kilifi is right,” he said. “The killing ground must be just up ahead. You are to remain here while my men and I check it out. You never know what or who might be lurking in the shadows.”
The three of them moved silently ahead and were almost instantly hidden from view. Harry looked at the others in the small group and could sense each person’s tension. It wasn’t so much for their own safety but rather what they might find up ahead. The hands of his watch seemed stationary and he tried to resist checking how long they had been away. It seemed ages but in reality was probably no more than five minutes.
Suddenly there was a movement behind a tree to their right and one of the rangers materialised, his camouflage uniform hiding him amazingly effectively until the last few seconds.
“The sergeant asks for you to come forward. The clearing appears to be safe.”
There was no mention of the elephant and nobody asked. The small group made its way into the opening with a sense of dread.
There almost in the centre was the elephant. It appeared to be kneeling on the ground, its back legs tucked under its body, its head facing away from them. A strange, unpleasant smell clung to their nostrils.
“Be prepared,” warned Odika, who stood by the side of the body, “this is especially unpleasant.”
As Harry moved round to the front of the victim he could instantly feel the sickness rising in his throat. On the only other occasion he had witnessed a poached elephant it had been unbelievably upsetting and they had seen immediately where axes had been used to chop out the tusks, but this was something on a totally different scale.
The whole of the front of the elephant’s head was missing. There was simply a gaping pink mass of flesh where it had been. Already innumerable flies buzzed and danced over the flesh. Some twenty yards in front of the body was the trunk lying alone in the dust, twisted and distorted, in a large sticky pool where it had been hacked off and discarded like so much rubbish.
Harry was unable to control himself; he took several paces towards the trees but started retching violently before he got there. As the residue dribbled down his chin Ana moved towards him calmly putting some tissues in his hand.
/> “I’m sorry this is so embarrassing,” he muttered.
“Don’t be silly. You are surrounded by people hardened by such sights and I bet even some of them felt their stomachs churn, mine certainly did. What sort of mentality sinks to such depths? It is only when you see the aftermath of the crime and that is exactly what it is, vile, repulsive and literally sickening, that you realise the evil we are up against.”
“The poachers who carried this out were totally ruthless,” said Odika. “They see elephants as nothing more than the bearers of ivory and the fact that they left behind such a horrible scene would hardly have crossed their minds. We had been tracking them for a while and feared they had made a kill when we heard the shots. It is not unknown for some poachers to empty half a magazine of an AK-47 into an elephant. In all honesty we were somewhat lucky to ambush them so soon after the kill. Their ruthlessness showed then too. Although we had the element of surprise, there was no way they were going to surrender to us. They went down fighting and we were lucky to escape without a scratch.”
“We cannot thank you enough,” said Jim. “A group like this operating in Uwingoni would have been very tough for us to deal with. Of course the missing part of the equation is where they were taking the tusks to.”
“Well,” replied Odika, “KWS and a special police unit are working closely together at the moment and the finger points to the Chinese who are building the dam up here but of course trying to prove it will be really tough. It’s no secret that they will have corrupt officials in their pocket and although we have men keeping an eye on the dam project there are a lot of lorries coming and going all the time and we would have to be really sure before we stopped and searched one. There is too much at stake to get this wrong.”
“Look at these,” interrupted Kilifi. “I’ve just been having a good skirt round the body and over by the trunk this is what I found.”
Tusker Page 7
