The Greystoke Legacy (13 page)

She inspected her wounded leg with a growing sense of revulsion as she realized that what she had assumed were bead-like stitches were in fact ants' heads! She fought the temptation to brush them off her leg, for no matter how disgusting, they bound the wound tightly together.

“Where did you learn to do all this?”

“My family know what good to eat.” He pointed to Tana, now sitting in the doorway paying them no attention. “And D'Arnot know everything else.”

Jane knew she was in no state to go anywhere, so she decided to get some answers from Tarzan. “Did D'Arnot find you here?”

“Tarzan save him from Sabor.”

Jane sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. She stood up. Already her head felt clearer after consuming the concoction Tarzan had given her.

“Sabor? What is that?”

Tarzan treated her to an odd look, the kind of look Jane would give if she had to explain something very complex to an idiot.

“Sabor do this.” He tapped her leg.

“Oh, a lion? OK. You saved him from a li— Sabor. And brought him here?”

“Tarzan heal D'Arnot. D'Arnot stay, teach Tarzan to speak. Teach the way of your world.”

“You've never been outside the jungle?”

“D'Arnot want to take Tarzan to place called city, to meet other people.” A look of sadness crossed his face.

“Have you never seen people before? Before D'Arnot, before me?”

Tarzan snarled. “Yes! People come to Tarzan's land. Kill it. Burn it. They evil people! Tarzan kill them!”

The aggression in his voice startled Jane as she once again ran through a gamut of feelings from sympathy to fear. She sat on a seat, the metal frame creaking under her weight. She looked Tarzan in the eye and remembered something her mother had once told her—never show fear to a dog because that's when it will bite. Jane had no desire for Tarzan to bite her.

“Killing them is . . . that's evil too.” Tarzan clearly didn't understand. She looked around for inspiration, something that would help her explain the basic principles of good versus evil . . . then she saw something familiar cast aside on the floor. Several large pen-shaped fuel injectors—exactly like the ones ripped from the camp's bulldozer! She held them aloft as evidence.

“These are from our camp! You did this?” Tarzan shrugged, a smile playing on his lips, which widened the more irate Jane became. “You sabotaged us! Why would you do such a thing? Wait . . .” A worse thought occurred to her. “Tell me you didn't . . . you started the fire too, didn't you? The night I got lost and ended up here—you did that, didn't you?”

“Tarzan hate fire!”

“So it wasn't you?”

Tarzan smiled proudly. Lying wasn't a skill he needed. “It was . . . accident.”

“AAARGH!” Jane threw the fuel injectors at Tarzan.

“You put me through this! You! How could you make my life more miserable?” Tears rolled down her cheeks. Tarzan curiously reached out to touch them but Jane batted his hand aside. “Don't touch me! Why did you do that? We didn't do you any harm!”

“People at camps kill Tarzan's land. They are evil.”

It was a softly spoken statement and it derailed Jane's tantrum. For a moment, nothing but the birdsong outside and a few gentle grunts could be heard.

“We're not evil. We're just trying to make a living.” Jane sat down on another seat, overwhelmed by the need to defend her father. “My mother ran away. Left my dad . . . and me. Took everything we had. Then Dad found out she owed a lot of money. We lost the house. And still my mom . . . didn't care.” Jane stared at the floor, remembering how betrayed she'd felt. At the time she hadn't even considered her father must have felt the same. She'd never considered that at all, until now. Now she couldn't tell him.

“He had to quit his job. No matter what he made, it was never enough. And my mom owed money to a lot of bad people. Loan sharks. We couldn't pay them back so they set my dad up and he lost his medical license and was accused of things that ruined his reputation. We had to leave, hide. Then Archie hit on this stupid idea. It was illegal . . . but it wasn't in our country, right? I mean it's not like we're breaking any
real
laws. And the trees grow back. No harm done. We make enough money to start a better life someplace else. Start again.”

She looked at Tarzan, expecting to see sympathy on his face, the same as Robbie had expressed when she'd bled her heart to him. Instead, Tarzan was angry.

“No harm?” His fists clenched. “No trees, no food. No shelter. No home. Animals killed because of evil people. Men with guns kill, not for food, for laughter. For nothing! They kill animal, they kill other men. They all bad!”

“You can't judge
us
like that! And we didn't kill anybody! You're getting us confused with those soldiers. The rebels are the ones killing people, not us!”

“Men all the same!” snapped Tarzan. The veins on his neck bulged as he contained his rage. “Tarzan fair. Send warnings for you to go.”

“You moved the tree we cut down, didn't you?”

“Tarzan and Tantor take tree, hope people go. They do not.”

Jane filed away the name Tantor for a later date. Right now she had to teach Tarzan the difference between right and wrong before he attempted to kill anybody. If he hadn't already. That thought was chilling.

“Not everybody is evil. We cut down the trees because . . . because we have to.” She knew it was a really weak excuse, after all she had been shouting at her father for saying exactly the same thing. “You didn't kill that gorilla, Terkoz. Why?”

“Terkoz not evil. He not try kill Tarzan. He fight to be king. Not to kill for no reason.”

Jane didn't have a response to that. In a twisted way it made sense.

“So now you're king?”

“Tarzan king of jungle,” he said with a sense of pride.

Jane smiled. That must have been something D'Arnot had told him.

“So you're king of all the animals?”

“Yes.”

She couldn't help but laugh. He must be delusional. “OK. If that's what you think . . . good. And you can speak to them too, I bet.”

“Yes.”

At the sound of her laughter Tarzan's anger disappeared, his mood as changeable as ever. Then, without a further word, he walked out.

Jane didn't know what to do. A normal argument over life and death shouldn't have ended so suddenly and without resolution. She followed him.

Tarzan sat cross-legged on the wing of the plane that extended over the cliff. He was gazing at the sun as it touched the mountain ridge. Jane preferred terra firma and sat on the roots of a huge tree and watched brightly colored birds flitting around her and the great apes slowly climbing back up the trail to settle for another night.

She had to make Tarzan understand they were not evil people and didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of his wrath. She decided the only way she could explain her point of view was by getting to know more about the strange young man.

R
obbie was lost in his own world as the search party retraced their steps back to Karibu Mji. Bypassing the hippos and fording the river beneath the setting sun provided a terrifying challenge that ultimately passed without trouble.

As night crept in, Mister David created torches for everyone, lit with the trusty waterproof lighter he kept in a pocket. With the flaming torches they were able to follow Robbie's trail back to Karibu Mji. Muscles hurt and complaints were voiced as Mister David relentlessly drove them forward, only occasionally stopping for a few minutes' rest. Listening nervously to every sound around them as they walked, they were braced for an imminent attack from wild animals or, worse, the rebels. The weapons they had taken from Bapoto's men did little to reassure them.

Robbie had tried to raise the issue of who Jane's abductors could be now Tafari had been ruled out. But Mister David whispered his theories of evil forest spirits who came to abduct or kill local villagers and the conversation died. Nobody wanted to think about spirits in the depths of night, especially not Robbie, who was continually plagued by spirits of his past.

He had wanted nothing more than to climb from his impoverished home life and to build something better for him and his sister. He had tried to attend lessons in school, but his love for engines and machinery drew him toward garages. It was there he learned his skills until his Saturday job bled into the school week and it became an unofficial job. It was the only place he'd ever received praise. His Chinese manager encouraged him to expand his skills by working on every new vehicle that entered the shop, from the lowliest car to the most complex truck.

He and Sophie had whispered about what they would do when he'd saved enough to move out of home. It was a dream that helped them cope with their stepfather's violence. Robbie had thrown every spare second he had into the job in order to save more money, even sleeping in the garage whenever he could. But that meant spending less time watching over Sophie.

And that had been a terrible mistake.

If only he had paid more attention. If only he had acted quicker.

It was months later that Clark had taught him not to labor over past mistakes but to learn from them and move on. But Clark wasn't aware of the full picture . . .

Robbie tried to ignore his thoughts and looked at the faces of the exhausted men around him. Anil was missing. The image of his brutally murdered body struck a chord with Robbie.

Sophie's dead.

Robbie spent several nights curled under trees in Central Park. When the cold started to bite he found back alleys warmed by ventilation grids over the subway below. Stealing food from shops had been easy enough, and he had been able to lose himself in the streets when he had been caught.

However, as each day passed he felt the net closing in on him. Police cars would appear with greater frequency. That could only mean they were looking for him.

They knew what he had done.

He left New York, crossing the river to New Jersey. From there he watched the colossal container ships heading out to unknown exotic locations. This was his chance to escape.

For several nights he hid amongst the industrial containers at Port Jersey. Then he saw his chance and stowed away aboard a freighter. Robbie had no idea where he was heading and in his grief-stricken rage he didn't care.

He sloshed through a puddle, bringing him sharply back to the present. The wet hems of his jeans rubbed uncomfortably against his skin. He lowered his flashlight so he could roll them up. As he revealed his shin he saw it was covered in leeches, swelling as he watched them suck his blood.

This was going to be a long night.

•••

A cacophony of angry rapid coughs woke Jane from a deep slumber. She was instantly alert. Any signs of her dizziness had vanished thanks to the herbal remedies Tarzan had forced down her. She crossed to the opening of the plane and peered into the darkness.

The gorillas were agitated. Kerchak galloped across the plateau beating his chest and shaking the branches of every tree he passed. The blackbacks barked at some unknown danger and tore clumps of earth from the ground in a threatening display of power. In the trees, monkeys added to the furor.

Tarzan suddenly appeared from the darkness behind Jane. He looked tense, peering into the jungle for any signs of movement.

“What's happening?” whispered Jane.

“
Manu
see enemy.” He pointed toward the monkeys, and Jane filed away Tarzan's word for them.

The clamor intensified and Tarzan crept toward the aircraft's tail, crouching under its tail stabilizers. Jane followed close behind him.

There was a sudden burst of activity and with a terrifying roar, something leapt out of the trees, knocking Kerchak backward. In the light of the full moon Jane saw a lioness rake her claws across the silverback. She recognized the big cat immediately from the tear in its ear—it was the creature Tarzan fought when he first saved her. It must be Sabor!

The lioness landed in the throng of apes and roared again. Females clutched their young and ran for cover as two blackbacks charged Sabor. One was met with a slash from Sabor's talons that tore into his arm.

Jane was astonished that Sabor had tracked her up the mountain. She knew from Esmée that lions seldom entered the jungle this high up, favoring the lowland forest and grassy plains. However, intensive farming was shrinking their preferred hunting ground and forcing them to hunt wider. She saw Tana and Karnath running away from the fight and was glad the vulnerable younger gorillas had been shepherded to safety.

But she soon realized that that was Sabor's plan. The wily cat was not alone.

Two more lionesses sprang from their cover across the plateau to the exact spot where Sabor had driven the female gorillas.

Jane watched in shock as a lioness clamped her slavering jaws around Tana's arm. With a shriek, Tana dropped Karnath and fought the feline. Karnath was batted aside by a huge paw as the other big cats circled their injured prey, tails pointed, ready for the kill.

“NO!”

Jane's voice echoed across the plateau. Tarzan had already vaulted the tail wing to pursue Sabor, but altered course when he heard Jane's warning. He sprinted across the clearing to help Tana, and Jane realized that he was about to fight the lionesses with his bare hands.

One cat bit hard into Tana's leg, pinning her down. The ape swung blindly about, clobbering the other cat and dazing it. The lioness with her teeth in the gorilla suddenly felt her back legs yanked way, as Tarzan gripped the underside of her belly with one muscular arm and punched her in the throat with the other. The lioness immediately released Tana, finding she suddenly had to fight for her own life.

The lioness Tana had sent flying recovered and pounced at Tarzan, wicked claws glinting in the moonlight—but she didn't make it. Kerchak slammed into the cat and both were sent flying into the side of the aircraft.