Shoot the Bastards
Page 34
“But you will make something happen, right?”
He laughed. “Are they all like you in Minnesota?”
Again, she waited.
“All right. Yes, he’ll get a reward.”
Crys was sure he had no idea how much money was involved, but that was fine. If the reward was five percent, twenty-five thousand dollars would set up Bongani very well indeed.
“I’ll include the reward in my story then.”
He laughed again. “You still don’t trust me!”
She took out her cell phone and found her fake phone numbers, which were actually the latitude and longitude of where the money was buried, and then shared them with his phone. “I just forwarded Bongani’s information.”
He glanced at his phone and nodded. “You know I could charge you with lying to the police, withholding evidence, assaulting a police officer, leaving the country without permission, and a lot more if I thought about it.”
She smiled. “I suppose you could.”
Crys saw Søren walking up from his chalet, and he joined them a few moments later.
“You two look pleased with yourselves,” he said.
Neither of them commented. This was between the two of them.
* * *
With all the adrenalin drained from her system, Crys felt a void inside. Apathy had replaced energy; melancholy had pushed aside optimism.
The short flight cut over the expanse of the southern African bushveld. Crys saw little of it, her mind turned inward. She felt a pang of loss as she realized this would probably be her last look at wild Africa for a long time. But deep down, she knew she’d come back one day. She’d caught the Africa disease.
National Geographic had sent her to Africa to write about the plight of the rhinos. She arrived with a clear vision of what should be done—stop poaching and ban the trade in rhino horns. And of course she’d had her personal goal too. The thought was like a stab in her heart.
She turned her mind to how Mabula had smashed the ring of poachers and smugglers. He was pleased about it—and had a right to be—but he knew another gang would take over, another smuggling route would be opened. Rhino horn was just worth too much money. And in the short term, the price of horn would probably go up because of the temporary shortage.
Stopping poaching was like digging a hole in a swamp. No matter how hard you bailed, you just couldn’t stop the water seeping back and filling the hole again. It was depressing to realize that rhinos still died, despite all the efforts of the anti-poaching teams, the conservationists, the police, and dedicated organizations like CITES.
Would people eventually become discouraged and give up, leaving rhinos completely vulnerable?
As Crys watched a herd of elephants moving away from the noise of the chopper, everything cried out that there must be a way—a way to leave the rhinos in peace, undisturbed, completely wild. But nothing she’d discovered in South Africa, or in Geneva, or in Vietnam over the last month suggested that was possible. As long as the rhinos had their horns, they’d be killed for them. So, the horns had to be removed. Should you then sell them to produce an industry to support people like Bongani’s cousin? Or should you destroy every scrap of horn until you’d starved the horrible trade to death?
To that, she didn’t have an answer.
And of course, there was Michael, the real reason for her trip.
She was overcome with sadness, not of the loss of what was, but of the loss of what could have been.
Her eyes stung with unshed tears. She’d had such high hopes for a future together, of shared passions, shared laughter.
And shared values.
Then he’d made a deal with the devil—a contract signed in money instead of blood. He’d insisted that he was only trying to trace the smuggling route to help stop it, but in her heart she knew that wasn’t true. Even if he was going to use the money for a good reason, the deal was purely selfish, and others had been hurt. Certainly, he’d ended up paying a high price, but his soul had been exposed. And she didn’t like what she saw.
For a few minutes she let herself wallow in regret, in the pain of what they could have had together.
Then she shook herself and sat up in her seat.
It was time to move on.
Below her the area’s wildlife preserves spread out with their endless rolling plains of acacia trees, thorn bushes, and scrub, where the world’s greatest animal kingdom thrived.
There were stories to be told.
Attack On Kruger
Crystal Nguyen, South Africa
Late Sunday night, gangs armed with assault rifles and stun grenades attacked three separate sites in South Africa’s iconic Kruger National Park. Their target: Kruger’s store of rhino horn.
“We were ready for them,” Deputy Minister Tolo told this reporter. “We’d been tracking their plans for months. I personally coordinated the resources of the anti-poaching teams, the police, and the South African Defense Force to produce a trap that totally crushed these gangsters.” When I asked him how they had discovered the timing of the attack so accurately, he said that his “sources in Ho Chi Minh City had helped them close the noose.”
Rumors that the attack was carried out by Islamic terrorists were “absolute nonsense,” he added. “They were nothing more than desperate, heavily armed poachers. Our guests in Kruger were never in the slightest danger. We would have evacuated the park had there been any possibility of that.”
Colonel Mabula of the Giyani police near Kruger has been focusing on the rhino-poaching syndicates for several years. He was the overall coordinator of the operation. In an exclusive interview, he told me, “We did have some casualties. On the other hand, not a single attacker escaped. Five were killed and the rest are in custody facing a variety of charges including murder. Our operation was one hundred percent successful.” When I asked about the long-term impact, he said: “This gang has been totally destroyed. We arrested its senior members, and the Mozambique government has promised to cooperate in closing the smuggling route through their country for good. This could turn the tide for the rhinos.”
In a related development, the South African government is fighting an extradition request from Vietnam for Dinh Van Duong who has been charged with the murder of Mr. Anton Malan during an attack on the Tshukudu Game Reserve for its stock of rhino horn. Dinh is also alleged to be behind the poaching gang which held well-known New York Times environmental reporter Michael Davidson for nearly two months. Davidson, who was injured in the attack, has been released from hospital and will be returning home later this week.
The rhino-conservation world has expressed shock at Dinh’s involvement in the illegal trade. He is an official of the Vietnamese government, representing the country at meetings of CITES and has close links with rhino-conservation NGOs. The director of Rhino International, Mr. Nigel Wood, today announced his resignation over the scandal. In a statement, he said he would use his private means to work pro bono for the conservation of endangered species.
Acknowledgments
We have many people to thank for their help and encouragement with this book.
We thank our agent, Jacques de Spoelberch of J de S Associates for his continued support.
We are delighted to be published by Sourcebooks through its imprint Poisoned Pen Press, and thank Barbara Peters and her team for their input and enthusiasm for our stories. We’d also like to thank Karen Sullivan and West Camel of Orenda Books, which published this novel as Dead of Night in the UK, for all their input and suggestions.
We benefited greatly from the valuable input of Steve Alessi and Steve Robinson, as well as the Minneapolis writing group—Gary Bush, Barbara Deese, and Heidi Skarie. Linda Bowles and Caro Ramsey read the completed novel and gave us important feedback that we used for this edition of the book. With all their comments, it’s hard to believe that the b
ook still has mistakes, but it probably does, and we take responsibility for any that remain.
Many people have generously given us their time to make this book as authentic as possible and to help us understand the complicated issues around rhino management, trade in horn, and poaching prevention. Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes, an international expert on trade of protected species, explained the mechanics of a possible legal trade in rhino horn, and how that might affect the balance between supply and increased demand. Mario Cesare, who manages the Olifants River Game Reserve and is heavily involved with rhino protection in the region, not only gave us his perspective “from the front,” but also the benefit of his broad knowledge on the subject.
Finally, we thank everyone working to preserve the rhino from extinction for their tireless efforts. Without them, the species will inevitably disappear.
About the Authors
Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Both were born in South Africa and have worked in academia and business. Stanley was an educational psychologist, specializing in the application of computers to teaching and learning, and is a pilot. Michael specializes in image processing and remote sensing and teaches at the University of the Witwatersrand.
On a flying trip to Botswana, they watched a pack of hyenas hunt, kill, and devour a wildebeest, eating both flesh and bones. That gave them the premise for their first mystery, A Carrion Death, which introduced Detective “Kubu” Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. It was a finalist for five awards, including the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger. The series has been critically acclaimed, and their third book, Death of the Mantis, won the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original mystery and was a finalist for an Edgar award. Deadly Harvest was a finalist for an International Thriller Writers” award.
Visit Michael and Stanley’s website, michaelstanleybooks.com and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.