by Ron McGee
“What I wouldn’t give for a toothbrush and a hot shower right now,” Danny whispered.
Before Ryan could reply, the cargo door opened. Sunlight flooded in, bright and painful after the hours of darkness. Ryan and Danny closed their eyes and stayed as still as statues while the luggage was removed. The man hoisting the bags came so close they could hear the curses he mumbled under his breath.
Finally, Ryan heard him leave the cargo hold. He risked peeking out. Through the open hatch, he saw a line of white SUVs. Laughlin and his men were loading up. There was no sign of Lawrence and Nadia, but Ryan assumed they were already in one of the vehicles.
When the cars drove away, Ryan pried himself from their hiding place and crept to the opening. The landing strip was in an isolated area, a huge open field with a forest beyond. Jagged mountains rose in the distance. Ryan could only see two buildings: a small control shack outfitted with antennas and a huge hangar for the plane itself.
Only three people were visible. The pilot and copilot walked toward the hangar with another man—probably the guy who unloaded the bags. Ryan didn’t see the flight attendant anywhere. She might still be cleaning up the plane.
“Holy crap.” Danny was right behind him. His eyes were wide, and he looked pale. “We’re in Africa.”
“You okay? You’re not freaking out, are you?”
“Won’t lie. Kinda freaking out. All of a sudden, it got real.”
“We’ll be fine.” Ryan saw the three men disappear into the hangar. “Let’s go.”
They were taking a chance, but Ryan thought they might not get a better opportunity. He dropped to the ground. Crouching, he scanned the area but didn’t see anybody else. Danny landed beside him.
“There!” Ryan pointed to the control shack. He darted across the open field, Danny right on his heels. With every step, he expected to hear someone shout after them. But they made it without being spotted, ducking behind the back of the building. Danny powered up his phone as Ryan peered inside a window.
The shack was empty. But against the wall, Ryan spotted a desk with an older computer and several monitors that looked like radar screens. The walls were filled with maps and charts.
“No cell signal,” Danny said.
“There’s a computer inside.”
Danny looked up at the roof. A satellite dish with the Sekhmet Technologies lion’s head logo pointed toward the sky. “They’ve got internet access, but it’s password-protected. I can probably break the encryption, but it’ll take time.”
“We don’t have time.” Ryan glanced over and saw the copilot step out of the hangar and head back toward the plane. He pointed across an expanse toward the wooded area. “Run to those trees. Keep quiet, but move fast.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Get a message home. Let them know where we are.”
Danny seemed uncertain but did as Ryan asked. Once he made it to the trees, he turned back and gave Ryan a thumbs-up. Ryan confirmed the copilot hadn’t seen him, then snuck around to the other side of the shack.
He slipped into the control room. Staying in a crouch so his head wouldn’t be seen through the windows, Ryan hurried to the computer. An email program was open, but everything was written in Swahili. Fortunately, Ryan had lived in Africa twice in his life and recognized enough of it to navigate the page.
He composed a brief email for his parents, but addressed it to Kasey as he had the text. Ryan had been a loner most of his life. He’d learned to be self-sufficient, never needing to depend on other people. But he was starting to understand that the ERC’s operations weren’t possible without people working together. He had to trust that Kasey would get the message to his parents safely. Ryan hit send.
“Hoja ya ndege!” Ryan popped his head up and saw the landing-strip worker exit the hangar, shouting at the copilot. He was heading right for the control shack!
Ryan could possibly knock this guy out. Dad had been training him in Krav Maga, a fighting system developed by the Israeli army, since he was ten years old. But as soon as the unconscious man was discovered, everyone would know he and Danny were here. They had a better chance of helping Lawrence and Nadia if they kept a low profile. He needed a way out.
The back window was big enough to fit through. As Ryan crossed to it, he noticed the maps on the wall again. They detailed this whole area with several spots circled in red marker.
“Nakuja, nakuja!” The worker was almost to the door.
Ryan snapped photos of the maps, not even bothering to frame the shots. He opened the window and leaped through, landing with a thud on his back. Ryan heard the door open inside the control room.
A moment of silence, then footsteps crossed toward the window. Ryan scrambled around the side of the building. He ducked out of sight a split second before the worker arrived. After a moment, the man closed the window.
Across the open stretch, Ryan and Danny shared a look—that was close.
Ryan ran for the shelter of the trees.
CHAPTER
18
FARAJI PROVINCE,
LOVANDA, AFRICA
Can we stop for a second?”
They’d been moving at a fast pace through the forest for almost twenty minutes. Ryan saw that Danny was sweating and breathing heavily.
“Sure. I think we’re far enough away.” Ryan pulled out his phone as Danny sat on a rock. He zoomed in on one of the maps he’d photographed. It showed a satellite image of the whole area. “There’s only one road leading away from that airstrip. It goes all the way to a lake. Looks like this is Madame Buku’s compound on the shore.”
Danny looked at the road anxiously. “How far is it?”
“Over ten miles. But that’s the long way around. You have to take that road if you’re driving. Since we’re on foot, we can cut through this area here.” Ryan traced a path with his finger. It was almost a straight line from the airfield to the compound. “It’s less than half the distance.”
On the satellite image, the forest area they were in showed up as dark green. It was only a small strip on the map, which meant they would be out in the open soon.
“You’re sure that’s where they took Lawrence and Nadia?” Danny asked.
“Laughlin—that guy with the scar—that’s what he said on the phone. They’re keeping them at the compound until the execution on Monday.”
“Do you really think we can save them?” Danny asked uneasily.
“Not alone.” After seeing Laughlin’s men, trained mercenaries outfitted with dangerous weapons, Ryan knew he and Danny were out of their league. “We’ll get as close as we can. Figure out exactly where they’re holding them. Then, we have to find some way to get in touch with my parents and get help.”
“Can the ERC deal with something like this? Those dudes look like stone-cold killers.”
The truth was, Ryan wasn’t sure. There was still so much he didn’t know about the ERC and how it worked. But Lawrence said Ryan’s grandfather and his associates helped break them out of jail once. Maybe they could do it again.
“We’ll find out.” Ryan looked off through the trees. “According to the map, there’s a small river up ahead. Once we cross that, it’s pretty wide-open.”
“You know, I always wanted to visit Africa.” Danny got to his feet. “Though I was thinking more the luxury hotel and guided safari expedition, not the goons-shooting-at-you-with-semiautomatic-rifles package.”
Ryan stood. “This trip’s a lot cheaper.”
After another ten minutes of walking, the trees thinned out. The sound of running water got louder as forest gave way to scrub and rocks. When they finally emerged from the trees, they were at the top of a small hill. Danny stopped in his tracks.
“Whoa.”
The grasslands stretched into the distance for miles in every direction. Clusters of trees dotted the landscape, and a river snaked along the plain. The sun was high overhead, bathing everything in golden light.
“It’s like
a National Geographic documentary—only real.” Danny’s voice suddenly shot up an octave. “Oh my god, giraffes!”
Ryan followed Danny’s gaze. Across the river, two giraffes lazily ate from a tree. Movement to Ryan’s left drew his attention.
“Over there—zebras.” Ryan pointed across the plain. A small herd of black-and-white-striped steeds grazed together.
Only now did Ryan notice that a fence blocked the bottom of the small hill where they stood. It stretched out in both directions as far as he could see. “I think it’s some kind of game reserve.”
Danny’s eyes lit up. “Madame Buku owns a game reserve! I read about it online. She rescues exotic animals from all over the world.”
“Guess she’s not all bad.”
“I’m not so sure. There are rumors that she invites important people to her private reserve for exotic hunting parties. Some people even say she feeds the animals to her pet lions.”
The fence was well built, but it wasn’t very high. It was designed to keep the animals in, not to keep people out. They could easily climb it.
“The compound is straight across the reserve,” Ryan said. “If we turn back, we have to go all the way around.”
“That’ll take hours.” Danny regarded the wide-open savanna teeming with wildlife. “Guess I’m gonna get my safari after all.”
CHAPTER
19
KALHIRI PARK,
LOVANDA, AFRICA
Both times Ryan’s family lived in Africa, they had been in large cities. The most recent visit had been a year ago when his dad organized a United Nations outreach program in Cameroon. For a few months, they lived in Douala, a bustling, chaotic industrial hub.
Ryan had been surprised and impressed. It wasn’t the Africa shown in movies and TV shows. There weren’t warlords with AK-47s or tribal elders with exotic piercings and tattoos. The city was full of people of all types. Kids going to school and to the mall, parents working office jobs, old men gathering in the park telling stories from their youth.
Africa was ancient, but it was embracing the modern age. There were plenty of places with serious problems, but even more that were growing and prospering. It seemed like the rest of the world didn’t care much about that side of Africa, though. Only the strange, mysterious, and dangerous aspects of the vast continent got attention.
Making his way across the unspoiled wilderness of the reserve, Ryan recognized that this was the Africa outsiders fantasized about: extraordinary animals, stunning scenery, and not a car or building in sight.
“It’s like the world’s most awesome zoo, but with no cages,” Danny said. “And no bathrooms. Which I could really use right now.”
“There’re plenty of bushes.” Ryan gestured to the clumps of trees along the river. “And leaves.”
“Ew. I’ll hold it.”
“There’s no one around for miles.”
“Your family may be the survive-in-the-wilderness, the-world-is-my-bathroom type. But I grew up in Manhattan. We prefer a locked door and two-ply tissue.”
“Maybe the elephants have some toilet paper you can borrow?”
Ryan gestured toward a rise where two elephants were just coming up from the river below. They were small, probably pygmy elephants, with huge ears and gorgeous tusks. And they weren’t afraid at all. In fact, they marched right toward Ryan and Danny.
“Stay still,” Ryan said. “They’re just curious.”
Danny’s expression wavered between astonishment and terror as one of the elephants stopped in front of him. It lifted its trunk and began exploring Danny’s face. The trunk touched his ear, then slid along his chin, leaving a trail of wet, sticky goo.
“So disgusting,” Danny whispered as Ryan laughed.
The trunk traced circles around Danny’s nose, the elephant seemingly fascinated by this strange and very small appendage. The second elephant made a sudden noise like a trumpet blast, then they both ran off as quickly as they’d come.
“Guess they didn’t like the taste of you.”
Danny grinned as he turned, wiping the gross mess from his face. But he abruptly froze, staring over Ryan’s shoulder.
“It wasn’t me they didn’t like.”
Ryan spun around. Less than thirty feet away, a powerhouse of muscle and armored skin stared at him with beady, black eyes. The rhino snorted angrily, its lethal horns lowered and pointed directly at Ryan. The ears on top of its head pivoted forward, and the beast stomped one giant leg against the ground.
Danny gulped. “Run!”
CHAPTER
20
KALHIRI PARK,
LOVANDA, AFRICA
The rhino charged, moving faster than Ryan imagined possible for such a gigantic creature. The spiked horn on its massive head was aimed right at Ryan’s gut.
“Get behind the trees!” he yelled to Danny.
The rhino covered the distance quickly. Ryan had to time this perfectly. When the armor-plated beast was ten feet away, Ryan dropped his shoulder and dived to the right. He rolled across the ground twice to make sure he was out of the way as the rhino thundered past.
Leaping to his feet, Ryan was surprised to see a second rhino emerge from the river. A baby. The giant rhino was simply protecting its young. Unfortunately, knowing that wouldn’t keep Ryan from getting killed.
The papa rhino turned around and got Ryan in his sights again. Ryan sprinted away as the pounding of the rhino’s hooves came closer by the moment.
“Aaaaaggghhhh!!!” Emerging from behind a tree, Danny screamed, waving his arms frantically to distract the beast. The rhino stopped, facing Danny.
As Ryan darted past, Danny threw a rock. It bounced off the tough skin harmlessly. The rhino grunted angrily, and Danny hurried to join Ryan behind the trees.
But the trees lining the banks of the river were too thin and sparse to stop a charging rhino. It snorted and moved closer, tracking the boys with dark eyes.
“Maybe it’ll just go away,” Danny whispered.
“Maybe.” But Ryan wasn’t hopeful, watching the baby lumber up behind the bigger rhino.
For a couple of tense minutes, the rhino remained fixated on the cluster of trees where they hid. Abruptly, it turned away, ears pivoting. Another sound could barely be detected now. Engines, getting closer.
Two all-terrain vehicles suddenly surged over the small slope that rose up from the river, each ridden by a man in fatigues and a black helmet. They revved the four-wheeled dirt bikes, spinning to a stop on opposite sides of the rhino. They had rifles strapped to their backs, which they pulled into position.
Crack-crack! Ryan instinctively grabbed Danny, yanking him to the ground as the two shots rang out. The rhino staggered, bullets piercing its hide, as the ATVs raced off once more.
Danny couldn’t believe it. “They’re trying to kill it.”
“Poachers.” Ryan’s tone was grim. Poachers were scum, preying on some of the most endangered animals in the world. These guys would kill the rhinos, then cut off their horns to sell on the black market. “They’ll shoot the baby, too.”
The rhino turned toward one of the four-wheelers as two more shots rang out. It bellowed, hit once more in the shoulder, then charged again. The ATVs were old and beat-up, but the rhino was still no match for their speed. The men slid the rifles onto their backs and zoomed away, getting into position for another round of shots.
The baby wandered in a daze, circling in confusion. When Ryan saw one of the poachers closing in on it, he stood. Desperate to help, he examined the tree. He spotted a long, sturdy branch that could work for what he had in mind and broke it off.
“What are you doing?”
“Probably something stupid,” Ryan admitted. With swift movements, he snapped the smaller sticks from the main branch. When he’d visited Tahiti one summer, Ryan became friends with a kid who worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The boy’s summer job was showing tourists the traditional sport of spear throwing. He and Ryan had hung out for a cou
ple of weeks, and Ryan had thrown tons of javelins before his family left.
Danny eyed the spear dubiously. “I hope you’re not gonna joust with him.”
As the poacher zeroed in on the rhino baby, Ryan emerged from the safety of the trees. He didn’t take time to think. He just let his body do the work, remembering what throwing all those spears felt like. At the moment the ATV came closest to him, he let the spear fly.
The branch wobbled terribly as it sailed through the air. The throw was low and a moment too late. Ryan had aimed for the rider’s body, but missed!
Startled by the flying object, the poacher turned to see where it had come from. Ryan was now completely exposed. But the momentary distraction accomplished what Ryan’s spear throwing hadn’t.
The man wasn’t watching where he was going as one of his front tires hit a large rock. The ATV went up on two wheels, then completely flipped onto its side. The shocked rider was flung from the bike. He crashed to the ground with a thud.
As the poacher groggily tried to get up and unstrap his rifle, Ryan ran toward him. With one swift motion, he picked up his improvised spear and swung it, whacking the man against the side of his helmet. The poacher collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Ryan looked up at the baby rhino. “Go! Shoo!”
“Ryan, look out!” Danny yelled from behind.
The second poacher had seen what happened and was now gunning for Ryan. He braked to a skidding stop and pulled his rifle from his back. He snapped the bolt, chambering a round. Raised the weapon and aimed at Ryan when—
BAM! The daddy rhino plowed into the ATV. The man, the gun, and the machine all went flying. The poacher landed so hard his helmet was knocked off. The rhino lowered its head and charged the battered ATV once more, spearing it and ripping the four-wheeler apart.
Ryan didn’t waste any time. He pulled the helmet off the guy at his feet and put it on. Grunting with effort, he wrestled the ATV back upright, then threw a leg over the seat.