Poacher (19 page)

The fact that it had to be done did not make
it any easier, and knowing that you are destroying something with
an intelligence high enough to have a near-human compassion for
their families, always placed the rangers under considerable
stress. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to kill something
you love.

He waited for a few minutes after the last
elephant had crossed, to allow for stragglers, and drove past
slowly. It had taken Linda a considerable amount of begging before
he had agreed to take her along on Friday’s culling. They were
using Satara as base, and she would meet him there sometime before
lunch.

His thoughts reverted to Estelle and remained
with her on his drive to Nwanetzi.

Joao was sweating and swearing, humping the
heavy ordnance through the hot, arid bush. He was cursing Courie
for sitting in an air-conditioned office, planning excursions like
these without really knowing how heavy a five-kilogram landmine
becomes after you have carried it for eight kilometres through the
bush. And then you still have to be prepared for the odd animal
that wanted to recycle your remains. Next time he would make sure
that a venue closer to the wire was chosen.

And choosing a spot on the far side of a
tourist road had been a dumb move. Their first attempt at crossing
the road had nearly ended in disaster. Crossing the road itself was
no mean feat, but getting to it, and getting to cover on the other
side, before being spotted by an enthusiastic tourist, was
something else. After a couple of attempts, they had abandoned the
idea of crossing opposite the Sweni firebreak, and backtracked to
an overgrown spruit higher up. Here they had crouched in the tall
reeds, and dashed across in a quiet moment. The two heavy crates
they were carrying had made this quite a hair-raising experience.
Getting to the big tree eventually, they dumped the stuff in the
undergrowth, and sat down for a smoke.

The roar of powerful engines made them dive
deeper into the shrubs. The procession of two Toyota trucks, a
large truck with a crane, a gigantic twenty-ton truck with a
trailer and two massive four-wheel drive Ford County tractors,
passed within ten yards of them. Half a minute later this
procession was followed by two more trucks with large elephant
cages on the back. Joao recognised these as the ground crew of the
culling team. ‘Shit,’ he said to his companions, ‘we must be very
careful. Whenever that team is driving around, there is a
helicopter in the vicinity. Take care that you’re not caught in the
open. They are looking for either buffalo or elephant, and I mean
they are really searching. If they spot us we are dead meat. So try
and stay in the thick stuff. Let us get back to the border, we’ll
come back in on Friday morning early. Courie can take his own
chances collecting this stuff.’

Courie, in fact, encountered no difficulties.
He was back in his office just after lunch on Thursday, having
delivered the arms to an elderly widow, living on a smallholding
just outside town. It would be collected in the early hours of the
morning, and transported to Soweto, where it would be added to one
of the many arms caches distributed throughout the township. The
limpet mines especially were in great demand. Setting them in soft
civilian targets, like railway stations and chain stores, was
something even a child could do, and you were always well away from
the scene when things started happening. There was enough in this
consignment to fill quite a few newspapers, and he had not only
recovered the cost of this whole operation, but shown a small
profit to boot. He felt elated. Things were running smoothly, and
by tomorrow evening the press should be having a field day if all
went well with Joao. He suppressed the urge to phone some of his
leftist friends in the press to alert them and, instead, picked up
his intercom. ‘Linda, you haven’t forgotten tomorrow morning’s
meeting?’ he inquired.

She was baffled by the sudden importance he
attached to this particular meeting. Green Valley Estates had been
his client for years, and suddenly their re-zoning of large tracts
of land as industrial sites, was something he wanted her to handle.
Granted, it was more in her field than his, but she failed to see
the necessity for endless board meetings with the principals. ‘No,
Duncan, I haven’t forgotten, but it is essential that I get away
early tomorrow. So cut the crap and make it short and sweet.’

‘Sure thing, honey, short and sweet it will
be. You will be on your way by 10.30 at the latest. Last thing I
would want to do is spoil your weekend,’ he said and put the phone
down. Pity, he thought, such a beautiful and intelligent young
thing going to waste. Ah, well, all sorts of sacrifices had to be
made. If Mammon wanted a sacrificial lamb, he would oblige.

There was a slight frown on Linda’s forehead
as she replaced the receiver. She didn’t trust this sudden pretence
that their confrontation of the other night hadn’t changed
anything. Since that night she had been digging and snooping,
coming up with bits and pieces of information here and there, but
nothing close to incriminating evidence. Yet. And to add to her
unease, there was the nagging suspicion that she wasn’t the only
one digging . . .

Joao and his three companions crossed the
border just before first light, weighed down with the food, water
and enough explosives to start a private war, which was what they
intended doing. The man who had joined them the previous evening
had already returned with the truck to Maputo, after having assured
them that he would meet them again neat Komatipoort later the same
evening. He had also given them a set of two-way radios, which was
going to simplify things considerably.

Joao was in a buoyant mood. Today he would
start inflicting some measure of pain on his hated enemy. He was
well aware of the fact that the culling team only started operating
at one in the afternoon, so he didn’t expend a lot of unnecessary
energy following circuitous routes that enabled them to stick to
dense cover.

Elephant and buffalo were always culled
during the afternoon, because of the high day temperatures in the
Lowveld. By dusk the animals were always gutted and loaded, ready
for the long journey to the abattoir in Skukuza. The carcasses were
transported and processed during the cooler hours of the night, and
by sunrise the abattoir was sparkling clean and silent once more.
Only the intestines, which were removed on the spot, were not used.
Even buffalo horns and hooves were ground to a pulp together with
bones, and sold to pet-food manufacturers. The money earned in this
way was once more ploughed back into the Park, so the culled
animals did make quite a contribution towards the survival of the
species, which is, after all, the single most important aspect of
life itself.

Joao did not care about any of this as he
carefully selected a spot to leave their ordnance. He chose a long
straight stretch of road, with some dense bush bordering it on one
side. After each had taken a long drink from his canteen, they
stashed their stuff and Joao looked at his watch. Just before
eight. Good, that gave them more than enough time to walk to the
lookout point, which was no more than six or seven kilometres away.
Having crept far enough away from the road, they got up and headed
due south, keeping their eyes and ears open for any sign of human
presence.

Approaching the lookout point, they started
stalking the parking area. There were seven cars, including the BMW
and a minibus, and not a soul in sight. Apparently everyone was at
the moment enjoying the view from the far side of the rocky hill.
‘Man, this is running too smoothly to be true,’ Joao said, getting
up and walking to the car.

‘Lazarus,’ Joao said, opening the rear door,
‘you had better drive from the start, so you can get the feel of
the car.’

As he bent down to get in, a voice directly
behind him startled him into bumping his head on the door frame
painfully. He whirled around and looking into the grinning black
face through the open window of the minibus. Noticing the look on
Joao’s face and interpreting it correctly, the black man
immediately wiped the grin off his face. ‘I was just keeping an eye
on the car for you guys. What with the keys being in the ignition
and all, it would ruin things if someone else took a liking to it,
wouldn’t it?’

Without a word Joao got in and closed the
door.

‘Whatever you guys are up to, stick it to
them good.’

‘Shut up, stupid! You want to broadcast this
all over the place? Get us away from this stooge, Lazarus.’

The BMW made a smooth U-turn and they were on
to the tourist road. The collection of their equipment also went
without the slightest hitch, and once they were on the Satara road,
everything stashed safely in the trunk, Joao let out a single
whoop. ‘Man, this is going to be the easiest operation ever. Are we
going to catch them with their pants down!’

‘Shit,’ Lazarus said.

‘What did you say?’

‘I said shit. There is a Parks Board truck
gaining on us fast.’

‘Oh shit,’ Joao agreed and grabbed the dark
glasses lying on the console between the front seats. ‘Don’t speed
up, and don’t anyone look around. Pretend to be searching for game.
Lazarus, watch him in your mirror, and tell me the moment he pulls
out to overtake.’ He slipped the glassed on and took a handkerchief
out of his pocket and kept it in his hand. During the next thirty
seconds the tension became unbearable.

‘It can only be Jenkins. If he tries to stop
you or does anything funny, brake hard and let him overshoot, then
get the hell back to the border. If we can just get an initial
start, he won’t get close to us in that truck. Just sit tight and
don’t do anything before I tell you. He will definitely have a gun,
and if . . .’

‘Here he comes,’ Lazarus said in a tight
voice.

Joao dived into the handkerchief in a
sneezing fit, holding it open so that the whole lower half of his
face was covered. Even behind the dark glasses he kept his eyes
averted until the cab of the truck was past him. He lifted his eyes
and caught a fleeting glimpse of Sam, the blood running cold in his
veins.

Sam glanced at the occupants of the BMW
disinterestedly as he passed them. Rich bastard, the thought, I
wonder what he does for a living.

The Toyota slowly pulled away, and everybody
sighed with relief.

‘It was him, the bastard! For killing my
brother, I will one day have his heart in my hand. I will tear it
out of his living body and choke him with it.’ The raw hate in
Joao’s voice sent a shiver through his companions. ‘Most probably
on his way to Satara to stock up with goodies for the weekend. Not
that he is going to have much of an appetite this weekend,’ Joao
laughed harshly. ‘I hope he’s on his way back by the time his piece
of crumpet arrives in Satara.’

Joao was just starting to get edgy about the
ideal spot for the ambush, when he found it about six kilometres
outside Satara. He made Lazarus stop and reverse, and scrutinised
the collection of gigantic boulders strewn through the veld.

‘Perfect, and it’s close enough to Satara to
be in radio contact.’ A car was approaching from the opposite
direction, and Lazarus drove on slowly till the road was clear
again, and turned around. When he was directly opposite a big
boulder lying right next to the road, he braked once again, and
checked his mirror. ‘Clear,’ he said, and Joao and the other two
jumped out. One of them grabbed the radios from the trunk, put the
strap of one around Joao’s neck and headed for the passenger side
with the other. ‘Remember to stick the aerial out the window when
reception becomes bad,’ Joao reminded him.

His other companion had helped him with the
launcher, two rockets and his water bottle. Once he had everything
in his arms, he started running towards the boulder. ‘Don’t miss!’
his companions shouted in unison, getting into the car and turning
it around again, pointing the nose of the big BMW in the direction
of Satara. They established radio contact immediately, and
reception remained clear till they were well past Satara on their
way to Orpen.

Joao sat behind his boulder, sweating in the
hot sun. There was no chance of him being spotted by a passing
tourist unless he stuck his head around the boulder, which he had
no intention of doing. His friends would give him ample warning
when the target approached. The BMW will be right behind the
Porsche when they got opposite the ambush, and the idea was to blow
it into oblivion, get into the BMW, and that was going to be
that.

Chapter Ten

Vick Steyn, the pilot, was sitting on the
step in front of the restaurant having a Coke with some of the
ground crew when Sam arrived. ‘Yes, yes, Kosie,’ he greeted Sam in
his typical jovial manner. Vick had never used a drop of alcohol in
his life, but he always managed to sound slightly inebriated.
‘Which way we headed today?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine. I think we
should start at the long northern end of the territory and search
southwards along the border. I have noticed a hell a lot of broken
trees in that area lately.’

The chief of the ground crew got up and
stretched. ‘Well, in that case we will get going in the meantime.
We’ll wait at the Shikellengane turn-off.’

Vick was grinning and looking around,
searching. ‘So, where is the little lawyer? You did say she was
coming along today, I think.’

Sam glanced at his watch. ‘She should be
along any moment now, I told her we have to leave at one
sharp.’

‘Can’t wait. From what I’ve heard she is a
stunner. Would also be nice to have someone intelligent in the
copper to talk to for a change. Well, I had better go and check the
bird while we are waiting. See you there.’