Danger Woman (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-eight

Danger Woman had managed to leave her lair and return on two occasions without incident. No other hyenas intent on removing her from her position as pack dominant had made an attempt to displace her. No lions with murderous intentions of their own had laid in wait for her. Nothing. She had eaten and fed her pups. They were thriving. In another day or two she would let them out into the fresh air. Hunting had been easy. Today, she'd managed to drag back a significant portion of the haunch from a small gazelle that a leopard had brought down, but had dropped from the tree that served as her lurk. Before the leopard followed her kill to the ground to retrieve it, Kotsi Mosadi
had been able to dash in and snatch the haunch
.
The leopard chased her for a few meters and then doubled back, lest some other scavenger take the remainder of the gazelle or attack her cubs. Now, Kotsi Mosadi
lolled at the entrance of her dugout and sampled the air for danger. She sensed none. For Danger Woman life was good.

She acknowledged the presence of Ole Andersen's Land Rover only to the extent that she had become accustomed to it. It had never required her or her pack to vary their routine. At first they were wary of the great thing but after a while it held no more fear for them than a tree or an elephant. In the bush, nothing could be counted on as an absolute.

***

Ole Andersen noted the hyena's purloined meal. “Kleptoparasitism,” he muttered and thought of his sponsors enjoying a leisurely luncheon back at their lodge. The things one had to do to keep a career alive. He turned his attention back to his obsession, Danger Woman. Ole had been happy to discover that the late night horn blowing he'd been forced to do when he'd spotted the human skull had not permanently altered his favored position with Danger Woman and her pack. So, as Danger Woman fed her cubs and then took the air, his camera kept on capturing the life cycle of one of the world's least loved animals. Occasionally he stooped to look through its eyepiece to check on the focus and field.

He wondered if by intruding on the life of this animal, he might somehow be altering her behavior in a significant way. It would be a difference he could not measure. Did Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle apply to wildlife chroniclers? It was a thought, probably not a complete one, and it did violence to Heisenberg's intent if Ole understood anything about quantum mechanics, which he admitted he did not. Still, he felt it must have some merit. Surely, a great, noisy Land Rover parked in the pathway of a hunting pack must somehow influence their behavior one way or the other. What if it inhibited shyer species from approaching? Wouldn't that alter what was hunted or the competition? A leopard, for example, in the absence of humankind in the form of an SUV, might compete with the hyena and the consequences of the hunt might be changed significantly. Not for the killed animal, of course. Ole would think about to what extent his constant presence changed the way this pack behaved over and against what it might have done had he and his Land Rover not been around. Perhaps he would write a paper about it. A science academy would be interested in the topic, surely.

A light breeze rustled the bush. Not much of a breeze, just enough to stir the smaller leaves on trees and brush. It came from the north this afternoon. Because of that, neither he nor Danger Woman were aware that the lions had returned and had both of them in sight. The lions held a different view of Ole's truck than Danger Woman. For the lions, it represented an opportunity, the possibility of a quick kill. If the contents of the thing were to step from it or even make themselves vulnerable, they would pounce. To be dragged from a vehicle is not as rare an occurrence in this part of the world as some might be led to believe. Ole knew that. He also thought he had made the proper adjustments to his vehicle. The doors closed tightly and locked. The steel mesh on the windows he tested once a week to be sure it would withstand any attempt by a quarter-ton lion might make to tear them away. And he kept a close watch of his immediate surroundings. At least most of the time he did. Today his attention stayed focused on the burrow and Danger Woman's possible exit.

It almost cost him his life. Between his focus on Danger Woman and his daydreaming about Heisenberg, he did not hear the lioness pad up to the rear of his vehicle and had he not turned his head marginally he would not have caught sight of her readying to leap onto the truck. As it happened, he did, and managed to drop down into the truck along with the camera and slam the roof hatch shut before the lion completed the maneuver. She relaxed from her crouch and attacked the side of the truck with her paws. Ole started the motor and backed away. He knew that if the lion managed to attract the attention of other members of the pride and between them they were to get the right purchase on the side of the truck, it might flip it on its side. At that point Ole would have been trapped like a caged animal. The irony would not be lost on him. Further he would have to hope help would arrive before the lions figured how to break into the cab.

Some years ago he had lost a colleague who went to Australia to study sharks and had been in a shark cage that could withstand the efforts of a single great white, but not a half dozen. Ole shifted gears and drove from the area as quickly as the road allowed. The lioness trotted after him for twenty meters or so and then wheeled around and turned back. He wondered if she really thought he could be taken or if she had merely wanted to establish her territory.

Ole mopped his brow and thanked his lucky stars. If he hadn't glanced over his shoulder when he did, things could have gotten messy.

Danger Woman had disappeared.

***

Cszepanski thought he saw the writing on the wall. This operation teetered on the brink. To restore it meant all-out war on Greshenko's gang. He wondered if Lenka would be up for that. He had had it easy in St. Petersburg, if the rumors were true. Would he have the stones to face off with the real thing? Also troubling him was the presence of the soldiers, the BDF. They presented a different set of problems. Did anyone really want to go to war with the local army? How did they fit in with this business? He'd never had to confront an army.

Actually, that wasn't completely true. The only other time he'd been involved in an attempt to control a portion of another country had been in Bosnia a very long time ago. He'd been very young, trailing along at the heels of a man he thought invincible. The military had inserted itself into that operation. It had not been pretty. He was alive today only because they thought it not worth the trouble to chase after a ten-year-old when he bolted out the door. Everyone else had been bagged and shot. He never forgot what happened that day. Remembering it made him wonder about what hornet's nest Lenka had kicked over. He started to map out his exit strategy just in case he needed one, and he thought he did.

Lenka and the Davidova arrived. By the look of them, they had had words on the way to the warehouse. Lenka ordered the men to wait outside while the three of them talked. Cszepanski flipped the safety off on his Beretta. Irena removed her compact and laid down a line of coke which she inhaled. Her eyes brightened. A bad sign, Cszepanski thought. There will be fireworks before this day is over. He hoped the woman had enough control to wait until Lenka had shot his wad before she started yapping. He knew she was the brains in the organization. He also knew that Lenka didn't admit to that and if she pushed him too hard, too soon, things could get messy for her and for everyone else.

He would stay quiet and see how this played out.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Irena spoke first. “So, Oleg, what happens now? We are no closer to having Greshenko than we were a week ago.”

“What happens now is for you to shut up and stay that way. Cszepanski, how many men do we have available to go over there and finish this?”

“Here? Do you want to know many we have, or how many can we count on if there is shooting?”

“What? We have people who will not fight?”

“Chief, we have men and women placed in the hotels. They are spies, I guess you could call them. They are not guns. They are hired help, not for the trenches. The men we have who were signed to provide guns are fewer, nine in all. That includes the two Boers. I have my doubts about them. So, the safe bet is seven.”

“I thought I told you to bring everyone up here.”

“Chief, I made the call. Then I got to thinking about it. That is exactly what they want—to have us all in one place so they can take us all out at the same time. I told them to wait, but, in terms of guns, if they came, it would only add two. The others are technical. They are the last people we want here. If it comes to a face off, we have what we need. I don't know what Greshenko has exactly, but our man inside says there are only seven, counting Greshenko.”

“But I told you I wanted them here.” Lenka's face had become beet red.

“Listen to him, Oleg,” Irena said. She handed him a glass of vodka with a few ice chips in it.

“And I told you to shut up. You said seven. How is that possible? How can he mount such a thing with seven?”

“Hear me out, Boss. First, I am not sure it is Greshenko who is after us. It seems like it and then, I don't know, things don't make sense. Like, this afternoon, before you called, but after you left the hotel, I drove by to see for myself who was at the entrance.”

“And you saw Greshenko's men.”

Cszepanski shook his head and lit one of his Turkish cigarettes. “No, I didn't see anyone. So, I go in and talk to the manager and I ask him, just as a matter of curiosity, see? Why you are asking Mr. Lenka to leave. I told him I was a business associate of yours and planned a conference at a hotel and his was my first choice. But, I said, if Mr. Lenka could not stay in his hotel, I doubted I would book it.”

“And?”

“And he shrugged and claimed he didn't know what I was talking about. He said he had no record of a request having been made to have you removed.”

“What? The slimy little… He stood there and told me to my face that I had to leave. He knows who I am and what I can do and he tells me this anyway.”

“What did this manager who spoke to you look like?”

“Look like? Little pipsqueak of a man. Stupid little moustache and a lisp.”

“That's it. He isn't little. He is a big black man. He could have been an American footballer.”

“No, that's wrong. The manager is a short brown man with a moustache and very black hair. He sounded like those people from India or Pakistan, like that.”

“Tall, big, bald, and dark. He showed me his ID. He was the manager, alright. Chief, we're being played. It looks like Greshenko is trying to set us up. And then, there is the army.”

“What about the army? They are after poachers. They think Greshenko is hiring them.”

“See, that is the second thing that doesn't work. Why would he be poaching? That is the single most dangerous thing someone in his position could possibly do. Here is my problem with the soldiers. It is from a personal experience, okay? Okay. In the past I have seen that when they are in the area, in the action, so to speak, it means one of two things, they are involved or they are being used. I think Greshenko faked that poaching story to draw them in and to scare us off. If not, then I think we need to leave because if the army is in his pocket, we are cooked.”

“That can't be. This country is nearly incorruptible that way. The President is a general, for God's sake.”

“He was a general. Not anymore,” Irena murmured.

“I told you to shut up. I'm saying this has to be something else. I think all we need to do is wait until they clear out and then go over to that casino and shoot every one of them.”

Irena threw up her hands and shouted at Lenka. “And we will be in jail by breakfast. First we need to figure out what the game is here. Who is doing this to us?”

“I said for you…It is Greshenko. That's it. Does anyone not hear that? So, one at a time as before. Pick them off, take them to the river or the bush and feed the animals. It is what got us this far. We stay on the plan.” Lenka sat down heavily at the desk and began to open and close its drawers. “Where is that nine millimeter that was in here?”

Cszepanski shrugged. “I think one of the Boers took it. They sell them to the locals. I'll talk to them tomorrow.”

“Do that. What are we hearing from the cloned phone?”

“That's another thing that is screwy. We are hearing too much.”

“What do you mean ‘too much'? How can too much be a bad thing?”

“They are talking all the time. Who does that? Worse, what they are babbling about doesn't match with what we know from our sources on the ground.”

“Like what?”

“They talk about the progress of operations with crazy names. They say smuggling is being done. We have had nothing coming in or out for days and as far as I know, no one else has either. Why are they saying this? In my experience, Boss, police don't talk so much on the phone. They say things like, we have to be here or we have to be there. There is a situation, call for backup, that sort of thing or words that are coded and then the details they give at meetings, you know? I expect to hear a brief word or a request. Not what these people go on about. Also, why are they talking so much in the open? If I were mounting a drive against you, I sure as hell would be using an encrypted phone.”

“So, they are not so smart as us and is a new country. They are like children learning to run a country like children playing house. They don't know, Cszepanski, how civilization works. That is something we will teach them.”

“Maybe, but I don't think so. It is a big mistake to underestimate them. You take that Modise guy, he is no dummy.”

Irena risked being snapped at again and broke in. “He has a girlfriend, yes? The game ranger is the one. If Modise is a problem, we take her out of play and if he has any regard for her he will back down. That is Bratva way.”

Lenka started to say something and then thought better of it.

“It is a possibility. She should be easy enough to pick up.” Cszepanski said.

Irena sensing Lenka had calmed sufficiently, said, “In St. Petersburg, we had canals and ice, here it is river and park. Not so different. Think about it, Oleg, not such a big deal. Okay, now we should go to hotel, take shower, and sleep. Tomorrow we plan how, and when, and who goes first for a swim with the crocodiles, okay?”

“Okay. Tomorrow we will start removing those men from the area. When there is only Greshenko…he is mine.”