Poacher (8 page)

‘Get lost,’ Joao muttered, lowering his eyes.
Maybe the stories about this madman were true. Better to shut up
till they got to civilisation.

Unnoticed, Rui had regained consciousness,
and during this heated exchange had sneaked his pistol into his
hand. He still lay with his eyes closed, fighting the pain that had
threatened to overwhelm him. The talk about the crocodile had
convinced him that they were very close to a very narrow edge. He
prayed that Joao would quit nudging.

‘Let’s see what we have here,’ Sam turned
towards the knapsacks.

Beneath the closed lids, Rui’s eyes rolled
back in their sockets. In the heat of the moment he had forgotten
about the rhino horns.

Joao felt he could actually taste death as a
bitter sensation on the back of his tongue. Let this be the one day
that the madman sticks to the rules, he prayed. If only the other
rangers would come back. With enough witnesses around maybe he
won’t feed us to the crocs.

Sam released the buckles on the first
knapsack and opened it.

As two big rhino horns fell into the dust,
Sam’s jaw dropped and his eyes bulged.

Time stopped.

Far off, near the spruit, a fish eagle let
out a forlorn ‘crouuuu, crouk crouk crouk!’

Dropping the knapsack and grabbing his rifle
in both hands, Sam swung round. ‘I’ll fucking kill you!’ he
screamed.

With a hoarse scream Rui sat up and shot Sam
in the stomach with his pistol.

Sam’s knees buckled but he continued are arc
along which the muzzle of his gun was swinging, past Joao, to Rui.
As Rui’s finger was tightening on the trigger for the second shot,
death leapt from the muzzle of the 300 Winchester Magnum in the
form of a tongue of fire that seemed to momentarily touch him above
the right eye. The front of his skull caved in and exited through
the back, taking away the top half in a pink vapour of living
tissue and bone chips. ‘Nooo!’ Joao screamed, lowering his hands
and storming towards Sam. Louis swung his R1 through a short arc
and connected Joao in the face. Joao went over backwards,
unconscious and with a broken jaw and cheekbone. Sam worked the
bolt of his gun while sagging to his knees and turned towards the
unconscious form of Joao. Louis stepped up to him and took the
rifle from him as he collapsed. ‘Enough, my friend, let’s have a
look at you.’

He laid the semi-conscious Sam on his back
and pulled his shirt from his trousers. A purplish hole to the
right of Sam’s navel was oozing dark blood. There was no exit hole,
so the angle was anybody’s guess. Louis picked up the pistol.
Fortunately it was a .32 calibre. Nevertheless, thinking about his
limited knowledge of human anatomy he knew Sam could very well be
dying. The kidneys, abdominal aorta, spine . . .

The black rangers came stampeding through the
bush.

‘Aaron, tie that piece of shit up as tight as
you can and keep a gun to his head. Don’t move Sam. Get some shade
over him and don’t give him anything to drink. I’ll fetch the truck
and radio for the chopper.

Louis had never run a kilometre in such a
short time.

He was totally out of breath and there was a
sharp pain in his side as he fell into the cab, grabbing the mike
and switching on.

‘362 Louis calling Skukuza. Emergency code
One, Emergency Code One. Come in, Skukuza!’

The Skukuza Commando had a 24-hour radio
watch for emergencies. This was mainly a backup service, as all
rangers always left their radios on.

Louis’s call was picked up throughout the
park, including the head office of Nature Conservation in
Skukuza.

‘We got you, Louis, Skukuza acknowledging.
Stand by. Mr van Reenen is on his way.’

Before Louis could trigger his mike again
John van Reenen was on the air.

The whole park was galvanised. Emergency Code
One meant a life-threatening situation, and this was the first one
in years.

‘John here, Louis. Talk.’

‘We need the chopper and the doc for an
urgent casevac. Sam has been shot in the stomach, .32 calibre, no
exit. Not haemorrhaging badly externally, but I don’t know what’s
going on inside. I cannot determine what’s been hit. We got Joao,
wounded but not serious. His brother is dead. Where the Nwanetzi
firebreak crosses the Shinkekkengan there is a hill to the east. We
will organise smoke. Hurry. Over.’

‘Got it all. We’re on our way. Tell Sam to
hang in there, we’ll have the chopper there shortly. All personnel,
keep this channel open, please.’

Louis started the Toyota and pulled away
without removing the camouflage. In a cloud of dust and flying
branches he bounced onto the fire break and speeded towards the
hill.

He skidded to a stop next to Sam and piled
out of the cab. ‘How is he?’ he asked Aaron who was busy planting
more branches around the already heavily shaded Sam.

‘What’s the matter, pal, I wasn’t shot in the
voice box, you know.’

Louis heaved a sigh of relief and knelt next
to Sam. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Not as bad as I thought it would be. I am
beginning to think that being gut shot is overrated. My leg is
hurting more than my stomach. Must be lodged in the sciatic
nerve.’

‘I think it’s too high for that. At least it
doesn’t look as if the abdominal aorta or one of the big kidney
vessels has been damaged. Looks as if you’ll survive this one, my
mate. John says for you to hang in there, they’ll be here shortly.
Relax a while, I want to get us a signal going.’

He issued instructions for plenty of wood and
leafy branches, and a big fire was built downwind of Sam.

Joao was still out cold, or pretended to be.
Louis checked the knots and told Aaron to have him dragged into the
shade. The way the rangers handled Joao without him complaining
convinced Louis that he was indeed still out cold.

He also had Rui covered with branches, taking
a last look at the awesome havoc created by the Winchester.

He sat down next to Sam again, noticing the
pallor that was slowly spreading from the corners of his mouth.

‘Build us a pipe, Louis,’ Sam extracted his
pipe from his shirt pocket.

‘Lie still, dammit. I’ll do it.’

As they lighted up, the radio in the Toyota
crackled to life: ‘Chopper calling 362, Louis come in.’

Louis jumped into the cab and grabbed the
mike. ‘What the hell is keeping you, Vick, are you taxiing to
Nwanetzi?’

Vick Steyn was one of the nest chopper pilots
in the country, and could earn double his salary anywhere else. He
was, however, also one of the men that wouldn’t swop his job for
anything in the world.

‘Cool it, Kosie,’ (everybody was Kosie to
him, much to the chagrin of many of his friends), ‘we had to get
organised first. Doc asks how the patient is doing.’

‘Still alive and smoking. The external
bleeding has just about stopped. He is losing s bit of colour,
though. Whereabouts are you?’

There was a slight pause. ‘ETA about fifteen
minutes. What’s the area like for landing?’

‘Like a parking lot. No problem.’

‘A team has been dispatched from Satara to
pick up the other two. They should be there in about an hour. You
can start smoking us in.’

He instructed Aaron to start the smoke and
had another look at Sam. He was looking worse.

‘Hey! Jenkins! Can you hear me?’ Joao had
obviously regained consciousness, and was screaming through his
broken teeth with great effort.

‘I hear you, shithouse.’

‘You killed my brother. For that I swear I
will kill you. Are you listening to me? I am going to kill you!
Heal fast and come back, I will be waiting for you. I promise
you.’

‘Fuck off, asshole. I will personally see to
it that you do a lot of waiting in jail for a very long time. When
you get out, come back any time. I will be waiting, too.’

Louis walked over to where Joao was lying in
the shade, intending to shut him up. Aaron, however, beat him to
it. ‘You don’t talk to my boss that way, scum,’ he said swinging is
heavy boot with all his might.

The boot broke what was left of his teeth and
gave him Le Fort II fracture of the upper jaw.

‘Easy, Aaron, you’ll kill the man,’ Louis
admonished.

‘Sorry, nkosi.’ He didn’t sound sorry at all,
but Louis let it pass. He cocked his head to one side, and faintly
he could hear the beat of the rotors. ‘More leaves, quickly,
Aaron.’

The sleek blue and white Bell Jetranger came
streaking straight towards the pall of smoke hanging in the air
like a giant paper dragon. It dropped its tail, losing speed
rapidly, and turned into the wind. Vick put her down amongst the
trees daintily like a butterfly, a short distance away. The rotors
kept spinning, and Dr. Du Toit and John van Reenen came running,
bent over, carrying an emergency kit and stretcher.

Blood pressure, pulse rate, pupils, a
prodding finger here and there and the doc declared Sam fit to
survive, provided they got him to surgery chop-chop. An IV line was
established and the drip started. ‘Let’s go.’

Louis helped to secure the stretcher in the
chopper. He pressed Sam’s shoulder. ‘I’ll just clear things up here
and grab some kit. I’ll let your folks know. See you in
hospital.’

John was getting into the chopper. ‘It’s OK,
Louis, Skukuza has already put the word out. I’ll give them an
update as soon as we are in the air. Travel with the ambulance and
keep an eye on this other one. He’s going to be made an example of.
See you.’

With a clatter of rotors the Jetranger lifted
off, kicking up a storm. It turned, lifted its tail and sped off in
the direction of Nelspruit, nearly two hundred kilometres away.

Chapter Four

Sam came to with someone twisting a big
red-hot gaff in his guts. He opened his eyes groggily to see John
sitting next to his hospital bed.

‘Everything is OK. They got the bullet out
and cleaned things up inside. You’re going to be here for a while,
but you’ll make it.’

‘Jeez, tell them to put the bullet back. It
hurt a hell of a lot less then,’ Sam croaked. He was aching all
over from the Scoline they had used during the anaesthetic, and his
throat was raw from the intubation. He felt miserable.

‘Your folks should be here in a couple of
hours’ time. They said they’d pick up Estelle in Pretoria.’

‘Oh shit,’ Sam groaned, thinking about the
possible complications.

‘You OK?’

‘Yeah, but it hurts.’

‘Hang on, I’ll see if I can get you
something.’

As John left the private ward in search of a
sister, Sam groaned again. In his mind’s eye he could see a big
pile of crap gathering on the horizon like thunder clouds, and
inexorably moving towards a giant fan spinning in the sky. It was
merely a matter of time. He would much rather face a wounded
leopard than the type of trouble that was heading his way.

John returned, accompanied by Dr. du Toit and
a sour-looking sister. Without much ado she proceeded to jab a
syringe into his buttocks. ‘Hey! Take it easy down there!’ He had
this thing about needles, dating back to his childhood. The sister
carried on as if she were injecting the mattress.

‘Bloody old cow,’ he mumbled once she was
safely out of the room.

Dr. du Toit was all smiles and good cheer.
‘Well, we had better be going now. You’ll be alright. There’s a
bright young houseman that said he knows you, and would definitely
be looking after you. A Dr. Smith.’

Sam groaned inwardly once more. One more
ominous cloud joined the rest on the horizon. He had clean
forgotten Smitty.

The medication was starting to take effect
and, as he drifted off to sleep, he could hear the whap-whap of the
rotors pulling the chopper up from the helipad and away into the
night.

Shortly after 9 pm the ambulance pulled in on
the emergency ramp. Louis got out and stretched his cramped
muscles.

While the heavily sedated Joao was being
wheeled in, he approached the orderly at reception, requesting the
use of a telephone. The orderly regarded the man in front of him
suspiciously. What he saw was a dirty, unshaven guy in rumpled
khakis, carrying an R1 rifle. In a holster on his hip was the
biggest revolver the orderly had ever seen, and there was a trail
of dusty boot prints leading up to the counter.

Not man to argue with, the orderly decided.
He pushed the phone towards Louis. ‘There you are, sir.’

‘The number of the cop shop?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘The police, my man. I want to phone the
cops.’

‘Oh, sorry. One moment, please. I’ll get them
on the line for you.’

Louis organised a 24-hour guard for Joao, who
was officially under arrest for murdering a policeman, poaching as
well as attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and a
long list of other offences. Judging by the massive swelling Louis
doubted whether Joao could open his eyes far enough to see light,
never mind escape. Nevertheless, he wanted this man under constant
guard every moment, and he made that very clear to the
constable.

‘Right,’ Louis picked up his kit bag and his
rifle. ‘Sam Jenkins, which room?’

‘Oh, the guy with the bullet wound. Ward
nine, private room B. That’s on the third floor, sir.’ The orderly
decided to leave the explanations about visiting hours etc. to the
ward sister. It was her ward, after all.

As Louis pressed the button for the elevator,
the foyer doors burst open and Estelle came rushing in, followed by
Sam’s parents. She saw Louis and ran to him. Even with her swollen
eyes and tears streaking through what was left of her make-up, her
sheer beauty and her radiating innocence took his breath away. She
stopped a yard from him, both hands clenched in front of her. In
one hand she clutched a tiny, wet hanky. ‘How is he?’