Bodyguard: Ambush (Book 3) (37 page)

After taking two more of the soldiers down,
Zuzu had run out of arrows and could only urge them on from the bushes. Then she started
to shout and point manically upstream. Hearing an ominous rumble, Connor turned to see a
wall of brown foaming water thundering down the riverbed. The makeshift dam had burst
and a flash flood was sweeping through the valley.

‘Go! Go!’ Connor screamed at
Amber.

They tried to increase their pace, but the
ground sucked at their feet, seemingly intent on holding them in the path of the
oncoming flood. Confronted by such a terrifying force of nature, their pursuers gave up
the chase and turned back.

Flinging themselves forward, Connor and
Amber reached the opposite bank and desperately clawed their way up. But the slick mud
made the slope treacherous and they slipped back down. The flood was almost on top of
them when Zuzu raced over and pulled Amber to safety.
Connor felt the ground washed from under his feet. Then his
legs were whipped away. Zuzu and Amber grabbed for his outstretched arms. The bushgirl
missed, but Amber managed to clasp his trailing hand. She dug her heels into the mud as
the current threatened to drag Connor away and her back in.

‘
Stay with me!
’ Amber
cried as she felt his fingers slipping from her grasp.

Connor strained with all his might to hold
on, but the flood seemed determined to claim him. Zuzu now wrapped her arms round
Amber’s waist in a frantic tug-of-war for Connor’s life. With a final
desperate pull, they hauled him clear from the torrent of debris, water and rock
hurtling past.

‘Thanks,’ Connor gasped as the
two girls helped him to his feet. ‘That was rather
too
close for
comfort!’

On the other side of the churning river,
Blaze was also dragging himself out, plunging his machete deep into the mud as an
anchor. But the other soldiers weren’t so fortunate and were borne away,
screaming, on the tide of foaming water.

Zuzu tugged on Connor’s elbow, urging
him and Amber to leave, but Connor was rooted to the spot.

‘Let’s go!’ implored
Amber, then she saw the pale, wide-eyed expression on his face. ‘What’s the
matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘
I have
,’ he said, his
reply barely more than a whisper.

Through the haze of falling rain, Connor saw
an
ashen-faced man with eyes of death and a
stillness that was perturbing amid the chaos and destruction of the battle and the
flood. A deep shudder ran through Connor at the ghostly vision. He’d met this man
once before – upon a burning tanker off the coast of Somalia. He’d been presumed
dead, no trace of him having ever been found. Now that very same man stood on the
opposite bank, staring directly at Connor.

The man raised his semi-automatic pistol and
took careful aim. Connor instinctively ducked. A bullet shot past his ear. There was a
scream of pain. Connor spun, expecting to see Amber or Zuzu lying dead in the mud. But
it was a rebel soldier who’d been killed.

Not waiting for the ghost from his past to
take another shot, Connor fled with the two girls into the jungle.

Connor ripped aside the clump of foliage but
found nothing. It was the wrong tree. He went from one trunk to the other, searching for
the hollow he’d hidden Henri in. But the jungle had looked completely different
during the night and he was now totally disorientated. ‘I’m certain
it’s around here somewhere,’ he assured Amber.

The sound of gunfire was drawing ever
closer. Zuzu pleaded with them to keep moving.

Torn between locating her brother and taking
Zuzu’s advice, Amber questioned, ‘Will he still even be there? You told him
to leave at first light.’

‘I know,’ Connor replied, their
search becoming more and more desperate. ‘But we
have
to check in case he
hasn’t.’

‘Maybe the army has found him,’
said Amber hopefully.

A hand grenade detonated close by and they
all dropped to the ground, burning leaves and scorched earth raining down on them.

‘You go with Zuzu,’ Connor
ordered Amber, their ears ringing from the blast. ‘I’ll find your
brother.’

Amber shook her
head. ‘No, we stick together.’

‘You don’t have a choice,’
said Connor, dragging her to her feet. ‘I’m not risking you getting caught
again. Now go with Zu–’

‘
Connor! Amber!
’ a
voice hissed.

They both spun round. Further up the slope,
a pair of scared eyes peeked out from behind a thick layer of leaves and branches.
Connor had concealed the hollow’s entrance far better than he’d ever
imagined.

‘Henri!’ Amber cried, scrambling
up the slope and pulling away the branches. Henri crawled out and Amber embraced him so
hard Connor thought she’d never let go.

‘Sorry, Connor,’ Henri mumbled,
his face pressed against his sister’s chest. ‘I was too scared to leave with
all the fighting.’

Connor smiled kindly. ‘It’s a
good thing you didn’t, otherwise –’

‘
Allons-y!
’ called
Zuzu, frantically beckoning them to follow her.

‘But the lodge is that way,’
Connor argued, pointing upslope.

Zuzu vehemently shook her head and rattled
off some French at him.

‘When two elephants fight, it’s
the grass that gets trampled,’ Amber interpreted, finally relinquishing her grip
on her brother. ‘She says it’s safer to go the long way round. Avoid the
fighting.’

As another grenade exploded off to their
left, Connor didn’t need any further convincing. They dashed along an
animal trail, following the course of the
river. With every step they took further down the valley, the sounds of battle gradually
receded and the rain began to ease. Zuzu slowed their pace a little, allowing Henri to
grab a couple of puffs from his inhaler. By the time they reached the drop-off at the
end of the valley, the storm had passed and dawn’s light had broken through the
clouds in golden rays.

They stopped at the edge of the waterfall,
its glistening curtain cascading some forty metres down to a large plunge pool below.
From their viewpoint looking out across the park, Connor was once again astounded at the
majestic beauty of Africa. The rolling savannah, fresh with rain, appeared to be reborn.
The trees and bushland had taken on a lusher shade of green and seemingly blossomed
overnight. Birds sang a mellifluous chorus as they fluttered and swooped in the
crystal-clear air. On the plain, herds of zebra, antelope and wildebeest grazed in
countless numbers, braying and snorting, while a parade of mighty elephants strode
towards the Ruvubu River, grown pregnant with floodwaters and now sparkling like a
jewelled ribbon in the early morning light.

The storm had brought more than rain – it
had brought life.

Amber peered over the lip of the waterfall,
then glanced at Connor. ‘No jumping this time,’ she said, the corner of her
lips turning up into a teasing smile. ‘We climb down.’

‘Fine by me,’ he replied.

Being careful on the slippery rock, Amber
picked the easiest route down the face, following a natural fault line.
It was slow going, but the handholds were positive and
plentiful and they all reached the bottom safely. From the plunge pool, Zuzu guided them
along the line of the tributary river through the trees towards the plain. Connor took
up the rear, ensuring they weren’t being followed. No one talked, all of them
shattered and shell-shocked from their harrowing night and fraught escape.

Up ahead, Zuzu came to a sudden halt. Amber
asked in a whisper what was wrong. Zuzu put a finger to her lips and unsheathed her
knife.

The birds had stopped singing in their part
of the jungle.

Connor sensed the danger too. He felt eyes
upon them. Watchful and waiting. Drawing his father’s knife, he scanned the thick
undergrowth but saw nothing. Zuzu was as still as a startled deer, using all her senses
to pinpoint the threat. Amber held her brother close, fearful of what new peril they
faced.

A whisper of movement in the bush caused
them to turn. From behind a tree emerged the Wolf.

The hunter had his bolt-action rifle
shouldered and aimed at them.

‘Are you lost, children?’ he
said quietly. ‘You’re a long way from the lodge and heading in the wrong
direction.’

Connor felt deeply uneasy at the
hunter’s tone. He gripped his knife tighter, sensing he might have need of it.
‘No, we have a guide, thank you,’ he replied.

‘That I see.’ The Wolf glanced
at Zuzu, then his pale eyes flicked to Amber and Henri. ‘I thought you said your
brother was dead.’

‘We rescued him,’ replied Amber
curtly.

‘Ah! Like I rescued you,’ said
the Wolf, a pencil-thin
smile on his lips.
‘And how did you repay me?’ His expression hardened, the smile vanishing.
‘By sticking your nose into my business and injuring one of my men.’

He swung the barrel of his rifle, aiming at
Amber.

‘You do realize there’s a
full-on battle raging up in that valley?’ said Connor, hoping to divert his
attention away from her.

The Wolf nodded. ‘Your concern for my
well-being is touching,’ he replied in a sarcastic tone. ‘But I have little
problem avoiding the government troops and Abel is smuggling the ivory out as we speak.
You need to be more concerned about
your
future.’

The Wolf kept his weapon trained on
Amber.

‘What are you going to do then? Shoot
us all?’ she challenged, her patience wearing thin.

A snarl of a grin spread across the
Wolf’s bearded face. ‘When a hunter has his prey in his sights,
there’s only
one
thing to do.’

He curled his finger round the trigger.
‘Which of you wants to join my collection first?’

Connor instinctively stepped in front of
Amber, shielding her with his body.

‘Ahh! We have a volunteer,’ said
the Wolf, closing one eye and lining up his sights.

Connor judged the distance too great for him
to tackle the hunter before the gun went off. But he thought he might be able to
distract or even injure the man, by throwing his father’s knife.

As he went to sling
the blade, a dark shadow dropped silently from the bough above them.

The leopard landed full on the shoulders of
the Wolf, knocking him to the ground. The rifle went off, tearing a hole in a nearby
tree trunk. But the ambushing leopard wasn’t frightened off by the blast. Instead
the creature gave a ferocious growl and sank its fangs into the hunter’s neck. The
Wolf let out a strangled scream. He tried to fight off the beast, but the animal was too
powerful for him.

As the leopard slowly suffocated the hunter,
its green eyes glared at Connor and the others, daring them to approach. Connor, knife
in hand, was tempted to attack it but the leopard, pinning its victim beneath its razor
claws, hissed a warning at his first tentative step. Then the animal bit down hard again
and the Wolf fell still. As Connor cautiously backed away, the leopard dragged the limp,
lifeless body of the hunter up into the tree.