The Elephant's Tale (20 page)

Outside, the morning air was bracingly cold and the wooden walkways were slippery with dew. Martine rubbed her arms to try to generate some warmth as they crept through the still, quiet forest. She’d never realized that a world without birdsong could be so spooky or lonely or empty. She didn’t blame the local people for not wanting to come here.

The sky was mauve above the black ring of volcanic rock as they neared the main gate. The guards were still there, but at 5:15 on the dot they disappeared into their guardhouse for tea, as Joseph had promised.

“This seems too easy. I keep expecting something to go wrong,” Martine whispered as Ben typed the code into the keypad next to the gate.

“It should be easy,” he said. “We’re not supposed to be prisoners, remember.”

But the words were barely out of his mouth when Reuben James came running up. He was out of breath and unshaven and his clothes were disheveled, as if he’d been roused from sleep and dressed in a hurry.

The gate clicked open. Standing on the other side, poised to ring the bell, were Lurk and Callum.

Lurk’s eyes bulged. He lifted a finger and pointed. “Maxine!”

As Callum stepped through the gate, the security men emerged from the guardhouse with crumbs on their faces, stammering excuses.

“What are you up to now, Reuben?” Callum said. “Thought you’d give the local schoolkids a guided tour at the crack of dawn, did you?”

His black eyes flickered over Martine like a lizard’s tongue. Up close, his chilly smile, blue-black crow’s feather hair, and thick black brows gave him the appearance of a movie hit man. Martine had never met anyone she could truly have described as evil before, but this man fit the bill.

“Martine and Ben, meet my business partner, Callum,” said Reuben James, rattled but doing his best not to show it. “Lurk you already know. Callum, you’re earlier than expected, but it’s not a problem. I’ll wake the chef and organize you some breakfast.”

Martine noticed that he didn’t answer Callum’s question. Callum must have noticed it too, because his gaze slid over to Martine, then Ben, and then back to Martine again.

He said silkily, “Have we met before?”

“I tole you she was not Anna,” Lurk said, glaring at Martine over Callum’s shoulder. “I tole you she was the one who made the elephant to chase me.”

Reuben James said, “Shut up, Lurk. Of course you haven’t met her, Callum. She and her friend are not from Namibia. Don’t worry, they’re just leaving.”

Callum continued to scrutinize Martine. “You’re the girl from the game reserve in South Africa, aren’t you? I’ve seen a newspaper photo of you and your white giraffe. For some reason, that rings alarm bells for me. I’m wondering what you might be doing at Moon Valley, which is a top secret project. Could someone enlighten me?”

“I was showing them around the hotel and they know not to tell anyone about it,” said Reuben James. “They’re good kids and they’ve done nothing wrong, Callum. Come on, Martine and Ben, I’ll take you home.”

Callum smiled his evil smile. “What’s the hurry, Reuben? Surely Martine and Ben would like some breakfast too. Maybe they’d also like to know what you have planned for their game reserve in South Africa?”

Reuben James froze. “What are you playing at, Callum?”

Callum put an arm around the other man’s shoulders. “I’m wondering the same thing about you, my friend. Why don’t we take a little walk to the pod and see what’s going on there? Oh, and Reuben, I wouldn’t bother trying to persuade the guards to have me removed from Moon Valley. Like Lurk, they’re all in my pay, and, as the old saying goes, the piper calls the tune.”

A hush came over the dome when the door crashed open. The pod workers, who were stuffing elephant toys into boxes and dismantling laboratory equipment, halted where they were like freeze-framed figures in a film. Anything moveable had been cleared away, including the elephants, who were assembled in their shackles on the far side of the dome. Joseph was struggling to get them in order. As soon as he had them quieted, he stopped what he was doing and turned around.

“Is it spring-cleaning day or are you and your workers going somewhere, Reuben?” asked Callum. He nodded to the men in white coats. “Gentlemen, would you leave us.” They scuttled out without a word.

It was cold in the dome but Martine noticed diamonds of sweat had broken out on Reuben James’s forehead. He cleared his throat. “Callum, I told you that we were preparing to move the elephants to Sawubona today.”

“You don’t have the right to do that,” cried Martine. “It’s
our
game reserve and my grandmother is in England right now making sure that you never get your hands on it.”

Callum raised his eyebrows.
“Your
game reserve. Not for much longer, I’m afraid. You know the old Bible story about the Great Flood and Noah saving the animals by taking them two by two onto his ark. Well, Reuben plans to breed global-warming-resistant animals on
our
game reserve using the genes of species like the desert elephants and Oryx, who can live on a fraction of the food and water of ordinary wildlife. Hence the name: the
Ark
Project.”

“Nothing wrong with preparing animals for the future,” Reuben James said defensively. “I’m doing my best to learn how to save them. It’s conservation.”

Martine felt a chill go through her. “That depends on how you go about it.”

Callum laughed. “Isn’t it obvious? You conduct experiments with the most unique and rare animals, animals with special powers, animals such as the white giraffe.”

“No!” cried Martine.

“It won’t be like that, Callum,” Reuben James said furiously.

“It will when I take over Sawubona. Or maybe I’ll just auction the animals off to the highest bidder. The white giraffe alone should fetch a cool million. You haven’t forgotten, have you, Reuben, how much you are in my debt. If you don’t start remembering who’s boss around here, there’ll come a day when everything you own will be mine.”

Reuben James curled his lip. “I’m finished with this, Callum. I want nothing more to do with you and your spy.” He glared pointedly at Lurk. “I convinced myself that by diverting the stream, we’d be doing more good for the people and animals of Damaraland than bad. Now I realize that you poison everything you touch. That you care nothing for anyone but yourself. I’ll have my lawyer contact yours to draw up some repayment plan with the money. Come, Martine and Ben, let’s go. I’m sorry you had to see this.”

Startled at this turn of events, Martine and Ben moved to follow him, but Lurk and Nipper barred their way.

“I don’t think so,” said Callum.

Reuben James gave a harsh laugh. “How are you planning to stop us? Are you going to kill us?”

On the other side of the dome, Martine saw Joseph go rigid. She tried to catch his eye, but he turned away and began fussing over Ruby.

Callum flashed his business partner a smile. “You’ve been reading too much fiction, my friend. Of course I’m not going to kill you. Not only would that would be bad for my reputation as a businessman, it’s messy and unnecessary. I mean, we have a whole desert on our doorstep. Terrible things, deserts. Even the most experienced men could run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere on the very day that they’ve forgotten their water bottles. They could easily perish from heatstroke. It could be years before their bones are found. Elephant whisperers and small children can run into the same sort of trouble. It’s a shame, but these things happen.

“Oh, and don’t worry about the elephants. They’re very valuable dead or alive. I’ll take very good care of them.”

“You monster,” said Reuben James in a barely audible voice. Lurk and the two guards closed in on him.

“Right, Nipper,” Callum said, “time to get on with the business of the day. Are you ready with the dynamite?”

Nipper saluted.

“In some ways it’s a relief that you’ll be out of the picture, Reuben,” Callum said. “It means a bigger piece of the pie for me. In a few minutes’ time, we’re going to blast the final wall that holds back the spring and then we will control all the water in Damaraland. Next I’ll move on to a project in the red dunes of Sossusvlei and do the same there, and pretty soon I’ll own all the water in Namibia. I’ll be able to charge what I like for it.”

A shrill whistle cut short his speech. Everyone turned to look at Joseph in surprise. His right arm was raised. He dropped it and the elephants cast off their shackles and charged, many of them trumpeting along the way. It was like some centuries-old army tearing into battle, blowing their bugles.

Martine grabbed hold of Ben, convinced they were about to be trampled to death, but the first elephant to reach them was Ruby. She encircled them both with her trunk and stood over them protectively.

Elsewhere in the dome it was pure chaos. There were swinging tusks and yelling men everywhere. Lurk was tossed about like an elephant’s football, and Callum Murphy, Reuben James, and the guards disappeared inside an elephant scrum.

Joseph hurried over to Martine. “Go now,” he said. “Nobody will stop you.”

“Come with us,” pleaded Ben.

Joseph smiled. “I’ll be right behind you. First, I must take care of my elephants. For twelve long months, they have taken care of me.”

They tore through the door and down the hill to the main gate. Ben typed in the code. “Forty-eight hours,” he said to Martine. “We have forty-eight hours to save Sawubona.”

The gate clicked open and they stepped dazed into the morning. Ringed around the construction site were a dozen police cars, some with rifles trained out of the windows. Before they could react, the rifles lowered. The door of one of the cars opened and out jumped their friend. He was positively beaming.

Ben grinned. “We’re in luck. Gift’s brought the cavalry.”

“About time too,” said Martine. “Hey, Ben, look.”

A line of elephants was streaming down the hill with Joseph at its head, but something even more incredible had caught Martine’s attention. A lilac-breasted roller bird had settled on the roof of the guardhouse and it was trilling its heart out.

T
hey flew back to South Africa first class next morning, courtesy of the Namibian government, who had agreed to “turn a blind eye” to their lack of passports.

“It’s the least we could do,” a government official told Ben and Martine as a delegation bearing treats such as Black Forest gateaux and Nara melons saw them off at the airport in Windhoek. “If these men had been allowed to carry out their fiendish plan, our most precious resource might have been destroyed, bringing ruin and devastation to vast areas of our country.”

The environment minister had been so overjoyed that twenty rare desert elephants, thought to be dead, had been saved that he’d offered Martine and Ben a free holiday in Namibia with their families as a thank you. They’d asked if they could have Ruby instead. He was bewildered by their request until Joseph explained that Ruby was related to their own desert elephant, Angel, at which point he agreed at once. Unlike Martine and Ben, Ruby was going to be traveling to Sawubona by road, and would be reunited with her twin on Christmas Day.

For Martine and Ben, landing amid the crowds and buzz of Cape Town airport was a shock to the system after the space and silence of the desert. The first thing they saw was a newsstand. Gift’s striking photographs of Reuben James in handcuffs and Callum and Lurk being lifted into an ambulance on stretchers were prominently displayed on several front pages. The
Cape Times
also carried his picture of his father, Joseph, leading the elephants to safety.

Martine bought a couple of papers with her remaining change and tucked them into her bag to read later. She smiled at the thought that Gift was already well on his way to achieving his dream of becoming a news photographer—an achievement made all the more special because he could now share it with his dad. There hadn’t been many dry eyes after their reunion. They’d promised to visit Martine and Ben at Sawubona in the new year. Martine hadn’t been able to find the words to tell them that she and Ben might not be on the game reserve by then. Following Reuben James’s arrest, the future of Sawubona was more uncertain than ever.