Poacher

by Leon Mare

  By this time Joao was fairly convinced that this could be a trap. The presence of those two men lounging around just didn't feel right. Pity he had missed Jenkins with the rocket that night. If there was anything wrong, this man was sure to be the fly in the ointment.

  Joao was lying flat on his stomach, resting on both elbows, keeping his hands cupped around the lenses of the binoculars. He was very careful not to let any sunlight reflect off the lenses. What he failed to notice, however, was that his long sleeves were creeping up his wrists with all the shifting about on his elbows, exposing the glass of his new Seiko watch to the direct rays of the Lowveld sun.

  Sam was listening to Botha, the quiet agent, telling a story about a fishing trip to the Okavango, when it caught his eye. For just a fraction of a second the sun glanced off Joao’s watch, straight at Sam. He immediately looked away, and got up. He sat down on his haunches and busied himself with the fire, his back to the ridge.' Shut up. Everybody shut up and listen to me. I am busy telling you a long story, and you are listening intently.' While he was talking, he returned to his chair and sat down again. Everybody was puzzled by his behaviour, and one of the agents made as if to interrupt him. The raw edge to his voice stopped the man's words in his throat.' I said to shut the hell up and listen. For God’s sake please keep on acting natural, and don't start peeking about, but we are being watched with binoculars. We don't know how strong the binoculars are, so even facial expression is important. Stay cool and don't succumb to an urge to look around. In a moment, I am going to look at my watch, and get up. I am then going to kiss Estelle goodbye, give you guys a casual wave, and leave on the motorcycle. The tourist road to Lower Sabi passes close to where our friend is, so I should be able to get fairly close without him being aware that he has been spotted. In the meantime you carry on talking and doing your thing. Has everybody got it?'

  Estelle was as white as a sheet.' Sam, don't go alone, please!'

  'Please keep your cool, my love. I am pretty sure it can only be Joao, so I have no choice. We have underestimated the man, and by now he must be very edgy, with our two friends here. I would have liked to hug you properly, but that would look suspicious. ‘Well,' he said, looking at his watch pointedly,' this is it at last.'

  'The transmitter,' Strydom said, as Sam kissed Estelle lightly.

  'Bugger the transmitter, there is no time.' Sam waved at the men and entered the house.

  When he went out the back door a few moments later, he had his Ruger on his hip, and the .300 on his back. He had taken out the two birdshot bullets, which were his insurance against snakes, and substituted them for solids in the .44 Magnum. He started the bike and rode off at a sedate pace, hoping that Joao did not pay too much attention to the fact that he was taking a rifle with him on his motorcycle. The road passed within 200 yards of the ridge, and when he was at the closest point, he opened the throttle and tore through the bush, straight at the ridge. He had expected Joao to start shooting, but nothing happened. He jumped off the bike behind a boulder, and scanned the ridge. Nothing moved. He had the disadvantage of not knowing where Joao was, while Joao knew exactly where he was. The only way to equal the odds was to draw fire. He started to climb the ridge, carefully flitting from cover to cover. The tension and exertion was making him sweat profusely. Still no shots. This made him slow down even more. Joao was not going to give away his position without being certain of a hit. He had been well trained, of that Sam was more certain than ever. His slow progress eventually took him right to the top, where a water bottle and binoculars were lying abandoned. Sam was getting worried. It was unlike Joao to give up the advantage of the high ground without firing a shot, unless there was a greater advantage to be gained.

  'Oh God, no,' he moaned as he jumped up and ran for the binoculars. He was just in time to see Joao running through the gate that he had left open on his departure. He threw the binoculars away, and jerked the rifle to his shoulder, the powerful telescope pulling the running figure close. He did well by missing the running Joao by a mere 2 feet at the distance of a thousand yards. Joao disappeared around the corner of the house as the fast bullet tore a chunk out of the wall.

  Joao had known the moment he had spotted that rifle on Sam's back.

  For the very first time in his life, Sam threw his rifle down and ran. As he picked up the bike, he heard the distant popping of an automatic rifle. He was near catatonic as he ripped through the bush towards the house.

  As he skidded around the corner of the house, the first thing that registered in his mind was that Estelle was alive. Joao was standing behind her, one arm around her throat, the other hand pressing the Tokarev pistol to her head. He was actually grinning at Sam.

  Sam didn't bother to stop the bike, he just abandoned it.

  'Stop!' Joao shouted, pressing the pistol hard against Estelle’s head.

  Their eyes locked over a distance of four yards, and their hate filled the air like the stink of ozone. Estelle’s eyes were wide, and she was shocked completely speechless. Sam took the scene in at a glance. The bodies of the two agents were riddled, and Botha hadn't even made it out of his chair. Job was lying at the front door, still moving feebly.' You utter bastard!'

  'So, we meet again, like I promised. I have been waiting for you to arrive for the final scene. This time, I want to see your eyes when I kill your woman.' He grinned.

  'Some man you are, you lousy shit. You are making a name for yourself as an expert at killing defenseless women.'

  Over Joao’s shoulder Sam could see Aaron and four more rangers stalking the fence, their R1 assault rifles at the ready. In gloating over his moment of victory, Joao had completely disregarded or forgotten about the compound. Either that, or he did not consider the other rangers a factor while he was holding Estelle hostage. Shooting Joao while he was holding Estelle was out of the question, and Sam sincerely hoped that Aaron wasn't going to try it.

  'You are weak, hiding behind women, you bloody coward,' Sam tried to keep his attention. Aaron was using his head. They were about twenty five yards away, and Sam saw all four pointing their rifles skywards after Aaron had whispered to them briefly. Aaron held his fist up in the air, and shot his fingers out one by one, counting to three. As the four rifle shots rang out, Sam was already in motion. Joao looked over his shoulder involuntarily for a split second. Sam's hand swept up from below, hitting Joao’s elbow with such force that the pistol went flying. Joao recovered miraculously fast, and as Sam was reaching out for the collapsing Estelle, Joao hit him behind the ear with all his might. Both Sam and Estelle went down, and Joao realised that he was now an open target to the four men on the other side of the fence. He ran for the corner of the house, scooping up his pistol on the way. His AK47 was lying where he had left it when he grabbed Estelle, and trying to get it would be suicide, as two of the rangers were blazing away as fast as they could pull the triggers, while the others were running for the gate. Joao ran to the Nissan, but there was no key. The truck had a key in the ignition. Selecting the wrong gear in his haste, the truck jumped forward into the wall with a crash that rattled his teeth. He found reverse, and the tyres screamed on the cement driveway as he made a violent U-turn, side swiping the Nissan in the process. As he cleared the gate, bullets were thumping into the bodywork, and one shattered both the windscreen and the window on the passenger side. He knew that if he took the tourist road north for some distance, he would get to a firebreak that would take him to the Mozambique border.

  Sam was kicking the Yamaha to life when Aaron came running up. 'Radio, emergency code One. We want the chopper. Look after the missy!' Sam shouted. The bike covered the first twenty yards on its rear wheel, engine screaming. As he broadsided into the tourist road, he barely missed a dark panel van travelling in the opposite direction. He opened the throttle all the way, and the wind was blowing tears from the corners of his eyes as he steadily gained on the cloud of dust way ahead of him. He shuddered at the thought of game crossing the road in front of him,
but pushed the thought from his mind immediately.

  Joao’s foot was pressing the accelerator to the floor when he flashed past the firebreak. He stood on the brake, the truck slewing sideways on the gravel road. With a grinding of gears and spinning wheels, he backed up and was onto the firebreak and picking up speed once again. He had caught a glimpse of the motorcycle in the distance, trailing a plume of dust. He pressed the truck as fast as it could go, becoming airborne every so often. He was careening around a blind curve, the tail end of the truck drifting sideways, when the elephant loomed in front of him. He braked hard, and lost control completely. Both the elephant and the truck crashed into the bush, the Toyota flipping into the air and rolling twice.

  The dust was still swirling in the quiet air when Sam roared up to the scene. When he had slowed down sufficiently, he once again abandoned the bike and dove for cover, jerking the .44 Magnum from its holster. A deathly silence descended, as if even the birds and insects were waiting for something to happen.

  Nothing stirred, and after a while Sam carefully approached wrecked truck from the blind side. The cabin was empty but there were fresh blood smears all over the interior. As he turned around in a crouch, two pistol shots rang out in rapid succession. The first punched a hole through his left shoulder, and the second hit the door next to his head. He was off balance and slightly dazed when Joao sprang up from behind a bush, and started running. Sam lifted the Magnum and aimed through a haze of pain. The gigantic slug hit Joao in the left wrist, nearly tearing his hand completely off and throwing him to the ground violently. He screamed, but was up and running again in an instant, cradling his shattered arm. He had thrown his pistol away, and his only thought was of trying to put some distance between himself and the apparently invincible man behind him. Two more shots passed close to his head and broke some branches in the thicket ahead of him. He was heading for the dense bush, when all hell broke loose, and the whole thicket seemed to erupt into violent movement, accompanied by a loud trumpeting scream.

  Had the old elephant cow not been driven to the point of insanity by the pain radiating from her festering trunk, she would have fled when she was first surprised by the oncoming truck. All things being equal, the shooting and screaming would have intimidated her instead of driving her into a rage. When the man came running straight at her, she trumpeted her rage and charged, her ears laid flat and her trunk tucked between her front legs. The moment Sam saw her, he knew this was big trouble. This was no mock charge - only death was going to stop this elephant. He started retreating slowly while her attention was focused on Joao, who was running back towards Sam. She caught Joao in the first ten yards, and her ruined trunk shot out to grab him around the middle. She lifted him above her head and slammed him into the ground, killing him instantly. She kneeled on him, mashing him to a pulp, while skewering what remained with her tusks. Sam was nearly thirty yards away by now, still retreating carefully, when the cow got up and spun around, Joao’s remains dangling from one curved tusk. This she dislodged with a violent shake of her head, causing the body to sail through the air for ten feet before plopping into the dust.

  The elephant remembered the second man, but was unsure of where he was. She tested the air with her injured trunk, but her sense of smell had been ruined by the wire embedded in her flesh. She stared around her myopically, spreading her ears to catch the faintest sound. Sam took his eyes off the elephant and the ground for a second, and looked at his aching shoulder, to assess the rate at which he was losing blood, and stepped on a twig. The moment the twig snapped, he knew he was done for. With a sideways shot at point-blank range, the Magnum had enough power to penetrate to the elephant's brain, but he knew that he didn't have a hope in hell of stopping a charging elephant with a handgun. There were no trees in the vicinity that could withstand an elephant, so he ran for the wrecked truck. As he dodged behind the truck, the cow pushed both her tusks clean through the body of the Toyota and lifted it partially from the ground, pushing it along. Sam knew this could only end one way - he was merely postponing the inevitable by trying to keep the wreck between himself and the elephant. He had three bullets left, and tried for the brain twice, only enraging the elephant more. He considered using the last bullet on himself but decided against dying like a coward. He aimed carefully and placed his last bullet at an angle between the ear in the eye. He might just as well have used a pellet gun, for all the effect it had. She merely trumpeted and came at him again as he dodged around what was left of the Toyota. The vehicle had been reduced to such an extent, that it was not much of an obstacle any more. A cloud of dust was hanging over the battleground, and both Sam and elephant were bleeding profusely now. Apart from the bullets in her head, the cow had cut herself several times on the sharp metal of the truck. She was by now completely insane, fourteen thousand pounds of a raging fury, focused entirely on the small, elusive man in front of her.

  As the elephant stumbled over the flattened Toyota, Linda’s prophetic words about dying flashed through his mind once more. He accepted his death, and stood waiting for the elephant, refusing the indignity of trying to run.

  The report of the .458 Magnum behind him felt like two giant hands slapping him on both ears simultaneously. A cloud of dust erupted from high on the elephant's forehead, and every muscle in her body immediately ceased functioning. As she ploughed into the ground, Sam was still too stunned to dodge quickly enough, and the outflung trunk caught him a tremendous blow in the chest, sending him sprawling.

  The next moment Louis was bending over him, examining his shoulder.' Beginning to make a habit of getting shot, aren’t you?' Two more men came walking from the direction of the dark panel van parked on the firebreak, and another car was just stopping behind the van in a cloud of dust.

  'Thanks, pal, I owe you one.' Suddenly the pain in Sam's shoulder closed on him like a vise, and he groaned.' What the hell are these civilians doing on my firebreak?' More people were getting out of the second car. Estelle broke away from the group and ran to him, shouting his name. She fell to her knees next to him, and cradled his head in her lap.' Are you all right? Does it hurt badly? I was so scared that you were going to die.'

  'Can't get much closer to the real thing,' he said and passed out.

  As the helicopter lifted with the unconscious Sam ten minutes later, the wash of the rotors stirred the bloody rags of clothing partially covering what remained of Joao, tiny dust devils dancing a macabre death dance around the pitiful remains under the blazing Lowveld sun.

  Chapter 15

  When Sam opened his eyes, he thought he was having a nightmare. Tobacco-pouch was next to his bed, a large, evil-looking syringe in hand.' Oh no, not again,' he tried to move away, but the pain stopped him.

  All his protests were to no avail, and she once again ended up sticking a needle into his backside. He wasn't sure, but there may have been a glint of satisfaction in her eye.

  'Welcome back with us, Mr. Jenkins.'

  'Where is everybody?'

  Her mouth contracts firmly. 'No visitors till morning. The wound wasn't that serious, but you have lost a near fatal amount of blood .You need the rest. The injection will make you sleep till tomorrow.'

  'So why didn't you just give me a sleeping pill then?'

  Her pouted lips flattened as far as they could go, nearly resembling a smile, and she merely shrugged. The nasty glint was definitely there. Sam's voice was beginning to slur.' You know, sister, you've got a mean streak in you. I swear you’ve rushed in here on your off duty night, just to stick that needle into me'.

  Now she was really smiling. Or it could have been a nightmare.' Soon as I heard, Mr. Jenkins, soon as I heard.'

  When he woke up, the sun was streaming into the white room, casting a narrow band of brilliant white across the foot of his bed. Estelle was holding his hand, and Louis was sitting quietly on the other side of the bed, reading the morning papers.

  She kissed him on the lips.' Hello, darling, how are you feeling?’
>
  ‘A bit stiff, but otherwise fine, thanks. And thanks again, Louis, that was a very close one.'

  'One of the easiest elephants I have ever shot in my life. You are on the front pages again. Listen to this; “… he single-handedly disrupted one of the most important smuggling routes of not only ivory and rhino horn, but also…”’

  ' Cut the crap,' Sam interrupted him.' I don't suppose you just happened to be on the scene?'

  ‘No, we’ve been onto you all along.’

  ‘We?’

  ‘State security contacted Dr Fisher when you left on Sunday. They knew all about your plans, and had been tailing you for quite some time. Once you were back in the Park, we couldn't keep a direct eye on you without alerting either you or your quarry, so we made it a team effort. We planted the two guys at your house, both wearing radio transmitters. Then we cruised along the tourist roads in the vicinity with the van, equipped with powerful receivers, as well as a backup car. You nearly collided with us during your wild pursuit, and we followed immediately, sending the other car to the house to assess the damage there. You and the elephant and were so intent on each other, that I merely ran up to you openly, and shot it. And that was it. Glad you got the bastard after all. It was him, wasn't it? I couldn't recognise what was left'.

  'It was him, all right. Finally’. He looked at Estelle.' At last Nwanetzi will be back to normal again. Safe enough to raise kids. Will you marry me Saturday?'

  She laughed.' I told you, it's not proper. And you will still be in hospital, anyway.'

  'No chance. I'm discharging myself before Tobacco-pouch comes on duty again tonight. And you will marry me on Saturday, even if I have to drag you to the magistrates office'.