The Delta (66 page)

‘It's OK, Mum.' Emma laid her head down on the pillow next to Sonja's and kissed her on the cheek. ‘I'm sorry for being such a bitch to you lately, and for letting that man get to me. I feel like a fool. One thing's for sure, though, I'm never touching a gun again as long as I live.'

Sonja tugged on Sam's hand so that he could be closer to her and Emma. ‘Neither am I.'

Emma got up off the bed. ‘I was just going to get a drink when
you woke up. Would you like something from the shop? How about you, Sam?'

‘I'm good,' said Sam.

‘Same here,' Sonja said. ‘Thanks for asking, love.'

Emma backed towards the door of the room. She blew a kiss and Sonja smiled back at her daughter as she pushed open the door with her bum and went out into the corridor.

Sonja kissed Sam on the lips, then said: ‘We won't be safe until we're on a plane out of here. There are too many loose ends.'

‘I think we're going to be OK,' Sam said, sitting on the bed beside her. ‘Chipchase called the hospital and I spoke to him while you were out of it. Somehow he knew you were here. He says his people here in Mombasa have taken care of the body of the guy you killed in the dinghy, and the security guards you roughed up in Steele's house have been paid off. The guy with the bullet in his leg is in a private clinic working out how to spend his new-found fortune.'

Sonja frowned. ‘I should have killed the pair of them. I still won't feel safe until we're out of Kenya. I don't suppose you kept a gun?'

Sam looked up at the ceiling, not saying anything about the promise Sonja had just made to her daughter. ‘I'll be glad to get back to the normality of television.' He walked over to a wooden closet in the corner of the room, opened it and dragged out Martin Steele's green army dive bag. He hefted it up on the bed and unzipped it. Inside was the AK-47, two spare magazines of ammunition and a pair of hand grenades.

‘Good,' Sonja said. ‘I feel better already.'

Sam sighed. ‘You're going to love America.'

Emma paused in the corridor, reached behind her and pulled down the T-shirt, just in case her pistol was showing.

This book is a work of fiction, but some of the issues in it are based on fact.

There
was
a proposal, several years ago, developed by the Namibian and Angolan governments to dam the Okavango River at the same place where my fictional structure is located. The dam was meant to supply hydro-electric power to local communities. The project faced intense opposition from environmental groups and the Botswana government and was subsequently shelved.

There
is
a United Democratic Party, which supports greater autonomy for the Caprivi region. There
was
(and for all I know still is) a Caprivi Liberation Army whose armed members attacked the police station at Katima Mulilo in 1999. The brief but armed insurrection was put down by Namibian security forces and a number of people were arrested. The region has been at peace since.

There
are
several thousand Lozi people living in Botswana in self-imposed exile. A conversation with a Lozi man outside the Spar supermarket in Maun (where my fictional Sonja meets the equally fictional Gideon Sitali) provided a good deal of inspiration for the part of my story involving the CLA.

All this aside, it was never my intention to promote or further the cause of those people of the Caprivi region who wish to create an autonomous homeland. Namibia is a stunning country and one of the safest and friendliest African nations I have ever visited. I certainly hope that war never returns to this place.

There
is
a Xakanaxa Camp, and it was my very great pleasure to stay there while researching this book, courtesy of Wayne Hamilton from the Africa Safari Co in Sydney, and Steve Ellis, of Personal Africa in South Africa. Several other locations in
The Delta
are real, including Drotsky's and Ngepi camps on the Okavango River in Botswana and Namibia respectively. Thanks also to Mack Air for flying Nicola and me into and out of the Moremi Game Reserve. There are so many beautiful locations in this part of Africa that it's impossible for me to cram them all into one book, but I hope I've done the real places I've mentioned justice.

Several generous people paid good money to worthy causes to have their names (or the names of their friends and relatives) used as characters in this book. I'd like to publicly express my thanks to everyone who bid for names at fundraising auctions in support of Painted Dog Conservation Inc, an Australian-based charity which supports research and conservation of the endangered African Painted Dog; The SAVE Foundation (NSW), which is involved in relocation of black rhino from South Africa to the Okavango Delta and other rhino conservation projects; and The Grey Man, an Australian organisation which rescues child prostitutes from a life of hell in south-east Asian countries. I hope Sydney Chipchase, Stirling Smith, Cheryl-Ann Smith (nee Daffen), John Lemon and John Little all enjoy their fictional alter egos.

Thanks, too, to the following friends who helped me with my research: former army engineer John Roberts, for his advice on constructing and blowing things up; Neil Johns for his tips on riding and caring for horses in the African bush; and Are Berentsen, of Fort Collins, Colorado, who studied coyotes in the wild for real. For factual information on the Okavango Delta I referred on a number of occasions to an excellent book:
Okavango: Jewel of the Kalahari
(Struik, 2003), by Karen Ross.

Several people read the manuscript of the
The Delta
and provided invaluable feedback. Namibian journalist Desiewaar N Heita checked my references to his country's political, cultural and environmental situation, and South African ‘Lion Whisperer' and film maker Kevin Richardson, whose biography
Part of the Pride
I co-wrote, vetted my scenes involving the filming of wildlife documentaries. As always, my wife, Nicola, mum, Kathy, and mother-in-law, Sheila, did a fantastic job as my unpaid editors.

Seven books on and I'm more grateful than ever to my friends at Pan Macmillan Australia for continuing to let me live the life I've always dreamed of. Thank you, Publishing Director Cate Paterson (first, as always), Publisher James Fraser (not least of all for showing me around Mombasa), Senior Editor Emma Rafferty, Copy Editor Julia Stiles, and my Publicist, Louise Cornegé. I love you all.

Thanks, too, to my new agent, Isobel Dixon, of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency in London, for taking me on and promoting me outside of Australia.

And last, but most definitely not least, thank you.