An Empty Coast

by Tony Park

  Alex cleared his throat. ‘With respect, these men, if they are here, have lain undisturbed for decades. A day or two more, after which they can be properly exhumed, will not harm them, or you.’

  Sutton looked to Horsman. ‘He’s right, you know. We should tell the authorities. I should tell the national parks people because I’m the senior archaeologist here. I have a good relationship with the Namibian government. I’ve conducted digs all over the country. It may take us some time, but I’m sure we can come back here with full approval. I’ll travel with Alex personally.’

  Andre put his hands on his head, grasping at his scalp in instant and obvious anger. ‘No! No one is leaving this site.’

  ‘I am going, and there is nothing you can do to stop me,’ Alex said. ‘Professor Sutton, if you wish to accompany me I think that would be appropriate. Better still, we should all go and report to the park authorities before there are any repercussions. If we are found here without authorisation the rangers might call in the army, or arrest us as trespassers or suspected poachers. I’m sure none of us wants to be charged.’

  ‘No!’ Andre yelled. ‘I’m in charge of this mission and no one’s going anywhere without my say-so.’

  ‘Andre, please –’ Sutton began.

  ‘No,’ Horsman interrupted the professor. ‘We start digging, now.’

  Natangwe, who had been quiet up until now, stepped into the cluster of men. ‘Alex is right. He and I have not always agreed on things, but in this he is correct. This land belongs to the people of Namibia, not you.’

  Emma looked around and saw that Sebastian had moved to the double cab Hilux bakkie that Sutton and Horsman had been driving.

  ‘Natangwe, are you coming with me?’ Alex turned and walked to the Land Cruiser.

  Emma could see that the keys were still in the ignition. She had been blinded by the excitement of searching for, then finding, the Dakota. She hadn’t thought through the legal ramifications of what they were about to do. She knew she might never come across a find such as this again for the rest of her life, but she didn’t want to see Alex and Natangwe leave.

  ‘Stop,’ Horsman said, not yelling now.

  Perhaps it was the change of tone that made Alex, and then Emma, turn to look at him. He had produced a black semi-automatic pistol from somewhere and was pointing it at Alex.

  ‘Are you mad?’ Alex asked, his hand on the open door of the Cruiser.

  ‘If you get in that vehicle I’m going to shoot you.’

  Emma couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She had begun to wonder about Horsman’s motives – if he was simply interested in retrieving his missing men, or whether he was motivated by something more – and now it was horribly clear it was the latter. This was crazy, though, she told herself.

  Emma had been around guns before. ‘Andre, please put the gun down.’ Horsman looked to her and the pistol followed his eye line. Emma shivered and put up her hands. ‘Let’s talk about this, OK?’

  ‘I knew you were a criminal,’ Alex said. ‘Did you steal my satellite phone as well, to stop me from letting my people know where we all were?’

  Emma looked to Andre and saw the smug smile play across his thin lips. ‘There’s a shovel in the back of the Cruiser. Get it out, Alex, and start fucking digging.’

  Alex glared at him, but moved slowly to the rear of the vehicle and opened the double doors.

  ‘Please, we don’t have to carry on like this,’ Emma said, beseeching Andre. ‘The gun’s scaring us. I know this is important to you, but please don’t harm us.’

  Horsman shifted his eyes to her. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, Emma, as long as you and Alex and Natangwe do as I tell you to. We’re going to uncover the Dakota, retrieve what’s on board and then you’ll all be free to go.’

  Emma swallowed; somehow she doubted that. Alex was shifting bags in the back of the truck to get to a shovel and Sebastian was out of sight. She sensed something was brewing. She needed to keep Andre’s focus on her for now. Emma moved her hands to her eyes and started to shrug her shoulders up and down, as if she was beginning to sob. ‘Please . . . please don’t hurt me.’

  ‘Shut up, stop that,’ Horsman said.

  Through lidded eyes she could see he was still mostly watching her, the pistol pointed at her head, but he was glancing around as well. Emma needed to put more into her act. She dropped to her knees and started shuffling towards him. ‘Please, I don’t want to die, Andre. I’ll do anything you want.’

  Behind her Emma heard a yell and felt a whoosh of displaced air rush past her left shoulder. She looked up to see Andre fending off the shovel that Alex had hefted at him like a spear. Alex barrelled past her, brushing so close that he knocked her over, perhaps deliberately, and she toppled to the sand. As she rolled she saw Alex slam into the older man and punch him in the face with one hand. With his other, Alex held Andre’s gun hand pinned to the ground.

  Emma expected Sebastian to reappear at any second. She dragged herself to her feet and started to move towards Alex and Andre. She heard a cry and a thud and looked towards the vehicles to see Natangwe falling to the ground. Professor Sutton was watching on, open-mouthed. Sebastian strode past him and Emma towards the melee and Emma saw that he had a military-style rifle – she thought it might be an AK-47 – grasped in his hands.

  Sebastian pointed the barrel of the rifle in the air and fired a three-round burst. Emma shrieked at the noise.

  ‘Get off him, Alex, now, or I’ll put a bullet through the back of your thick head.’

  Alex looked over his shoulder to see Sebastian aiming at him down the barrel of the AK. ‘You bastard.’

  ‘Off him, now,’ Sebastian repeated. ‘You’ve got until I count to three, and if you’re not off by then I’ll shoot Emma, then Natangwe, then Sutton, then you.’

  Emma couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She checked the others and saw that Natangwe was sprawled face first on the sand and Sutton was on his knees, his hands clasped together on the top of his head in a position of submission. Coward, she thought. Sebastian had obviously clubbed Natangwe from behind with the rifle; perhaps Natangwe had been trying to help Alex. ‘My God, Sebastian, why?’

  Sebastian glanced at her and shrugged. ‘Money, of course. What else is there in this screwed-up world?’

  Alex rolled off Andre and glared up at Sebastian. Andre got up and pointed his pistol at Alex, silently daring him to try something again. When Alex didn’t move Andre delivered a swift kick to the younger man’s ribs. Alex convulsed but didn’t cry out. Andre joined Sebastian at his side.

  Sutton was still kneeling, just outside the circle.

  ‘It must be worth a good deal, whatever it is inside that Dakota, for you to kidnap us all and then murder us once we’ve finished digging it up,’ Emma said.

  Sebastian laughed. ‘We’re not going to kill you, Emma. That’s the last thing I’d want to do.’

  ‘You were quite happy to a moment ago,’ Alex said, sitting up in the sand.

  Sebastian swung the barrel of his AK-47 back to Alex. ‘You push me and you’ll regret it. Yes, Andre and I need you all to excavate the cargo on the aircraft, but when you’re done we’ll leave you here, with some water. You’ll be found eventually, or you’ll try and walk out – either way you’ll have a sporting chance. By the time you do get to safety Andre and I will be long gone from this bloody continent, somewhere we can’t be extradited from.’

  Emma said nothing, but she didn’t believe Sebastian. ‘Is that the only reason you brought us here, on your search, to dig up the aircraft?’

  Sebastian sighed. ‘No. If your friend Natangwe over there hadn’t been stupid enough to tell the media about the body you found then we would have pulled strings with the mining company and the government and called off the dig. The company would have alerted Andre as soon as Sutton reported finding the dead guy. We would hav
e called in the cops to take care of the body and, in the meantime, we would have carried out the search by ourselves. With outsiders interested, I’m afraid we needed to take you three out of the limelight for a while as well and, as you just pointed out, you’ve saved me some digging.’

  Natangwe had been knocked out by the blow to his head, but he was on his hands and knees now, shaking his head groggily as he came to.

  ‘You were lucky that the mobile phone signal was so bad when we were at Ondangwa and in the air,’ Emma said. ‘If other people had found out where we were going someone would already be searching for us.’

  Sebastian shook his head. ‘You know what Andre’s day job is? Importing electrical gadgets from Asia.’

  Horsman walked to the Land Cruiser and reached under the driver’s seat. After a bit of fiddling he removed a black metal box. ‘A simple jammer, usually used by people in secure offices who don’t want their staff talking on their cell phones. No one knows you’re here, Emma, so you’d better do as we say.’

  Emma regarded Sutton. The old professor was still on his knees with his hands on his head. He looked dejectedly down at the ground.

  ‘Get over there, join the others,’ Sebastian said to Natangwe, motioning with his assault rifle.

  ‘What’s in the Dakota?’ Emma asked, looking from Andre to Sebastian.

  ‘What do you think?’ Andre replied.

  Sutton looked up at them, then across to Emma and back to Andre. ‘Something bulky and valuable, physically useless, but prized more than diamonds, gold or drugs in southeast Asia today.’

  ‘You’re getting warmer,’ Sebastian said.

  ‘Rhino horn?’ Emma asked.

  Sutton nodded to her. ‘A stockpile from Angola, probably hoarded by the Portuguese government in the old days, if I’m not mistaken, and smuggled out in the dying days of the border war in some illicit deal.’

  ‘Very good, professor,’ Andre said. He looked to all of them. ‘Look, people, we’re not going to kill anyone or hurt anyone any more than has been done already, as long as you all stay calm and help Sebastian and me get what we came for. If you want to help us carry the stuff out, then perhaps we can negotiate a deal, a small fee for services rendered and a promise not to go to the police. We can all do well out of this discovery, though Emma, you won’t be able to hit the lecture circuit to tell the next generation of archaeologists about your big find, unfortunately. What do we say, people?’

  Alex coughed. ‘We say, go fuck yourselves.’

  Sebastian spun, raised the AK-47 to his shoulder and pulled the trigger. A bullet punched through the door of the bakkie and Alex reeled away in shock. ‘Get your shovel and start digging.’

  We’re finished, Emma thought.

  Chapter 26

  The drive across the Palmwag Conservancy took them through breathtaking countryside.

  The landscape changed from the flat-topped mountains and plains covered in red rocks interspersed with single stems of dry yellow grass to vast, flat open expanses of desert. Despite the inhospitable nature of the terrain life still managed to manifest itself; they saw mountain zebra, stocky animals with pendulous dewlaps under their necks; small bands of gemsbok, or oryx; the occasional lone springbok and even a trio of giraffe when they paused in a dry riverbed for coffee and tea from Thermos flasks.

  Though she took it in, Sonja had too much else on her mind to appreciate the stark beauty around her. Each passing hour fuelled ever more gruesome scenarios about what might have happened to Emma, and Stirling’s attempts at small talk had become annoying.

  He was beside her, in the passenger seat of his own vehicle, dozing, thankfully. Sonja had ridden with Brand and Allchurch for the first half of the long journey – it had taken them most of the day, driving as fast as the rough roads would allow, to cross most of the conservancy – but after their brief lunch stop Brand had pulled her aside.

  ‘Stirling’s beat,’ Brand had said. ‘He’s been out in the field for days with his men, and you heard how they were tracking rhino at night. He nearly went off the road half an hour ago; he needs someone to take over at the wheel for a while.’

  ‘You do it,’ Sonja had said back to him.

  Brand had lowered his voice. ‘Matthew’s my client. People have been trying to kill us, Sonja. If they spring another ambush somewhere I need to be next to him.’

  She looked at Stirling now, head back, a silvery thread of drool running from the corner of his mouth, out for the count. She couldn’t help it, she smiled. He looked so innocent, because he was. Stirling didn’t break laws, didn’t kill people, and loved nothing more than spending time in the wild with animals.

  The fact was, though, that the country of her birth was peaceful, stable, and safe, a haven for people as well as animals. Sonja was smart enough to know that part of the prickliness she felt towards Stirling was based on jealousy; she resented the fact that he was happy here, in this beautiful country where she could never legally return.

  ‘Maybe you and Emma could come and stay at our camp for a while, once we find her,’ Stirling had said, his last attempt at conversation before he had nodded off, defeated by his own tiredness and her abruptness.

  She took her eyes off the road briefly. He was still so handsome, suntanned from his time in the desert and lean from the frugal, healthy life he lived. He was too good for her, always had been, she mused. Yet Sam had been like that as well.

  Sonja saw brake lights ahead. Brand was slowing for something. They were in a dry riverbed, steep rocky walls rising on either side of them. Instinctively she scanned the ridgelines on both sides. This was what the military called a chokepoint, somewhere an enemy could rain fire down on them while they had to slow down to negotiate a natural obstacle. Sonja laid her right hand on the nine-millimetre Glock nestled between her thighs, and willed her heartbeat to slow to its normal rate.

  She exhaled, however, when she saw Brand start to move again, one brown arm pointing out his window and off to the right. Sonja looked in that direction and saw, lounging under a tree, the massive pale grey dusty bulk of a desert elephant. Leaner than their comparatively better fed cousins in other parts of Africa, the desert elephants had adapted to their harsh environment. This one raised his trunk to sniff their scent, and flapped his massive ears to create a breeze over the web of veins that circulated his blood through his twin natural air conditioners. Sonja kept pace with Brand, driving slowly past the elephant. They were in a rush, but even she could not begrudge them the chance to take in this magnificent sight.

  ‘Stirling, wake up.’

  He didn’t respond, so she reached over and pinched his arm.

  ‘Ow! What was that?’ He blinked and rubbed his eyes, then furtively wiped away the saliva from his mouth. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Sonja stopped the truck and pointed out the window. ‘See for yourself.’

  ‘Hey, a desert elephant!’

  ‘You should be a wildlife researcher.’

  ‘Ha, ha,’ he replied dryly. Stirling sat there in silence, just staring at the old bull, a smile playing across his face. ‘Tell me you’re not moved by that.’

  Sonja sighed. She needed to stay focused on the mission, not on elephants and not on Stirling Smith. ‘I’m moved by the need to find my daughter.’

  ‘Sure,’ he agreed. ‘I see elephants quite often in the course of my work, once or twice a week, but I still never really get over the excitement of seeing one, or the magic of it. Sorry.’

  She bit her lip. ‘You don’t need to apologise, Stirling. It’s who you are, it’s why you’re so . . . so . . .’ She wished she hadn’t spoken.

  ‘So what? So soft? That’s what you think of me, isn’t it, Sonja?’

  Curse him, she thought. ‘No, Stirling, so nice is what I was going to say. It’s not an insult.’

  ‘Nor a compliment.’


  ‘Stop fishing for one,’ she said. ‘No, it’s not a compliment, but not an insult either, it’s just who you are.’ She left the engine running but opened her door. The elephant shook his massive head and blew a stream of dusty air out of his trunk, but she ignored him and walked around to Stirling’s side. ‘Get out.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Your turn to drive. I’m going to sleep.’

  *

  This is not archaeology, Emma thought as she hefted another shovel load of sand, this is grave robbing.

  The skin on her hands was already raw where blisters had formed and broken, and when she paused to brush her hair from her face, as briefly as she could before Sebastian barked at her to get back to work, the salt from her perspiration stung the open sores. Her back ached and her shoulders and arms were bright red from the sun.

  Sebastian stood on a rise above them, the butt of the AK-47 resting on his thigh, like some road gang prison officer. She couldn’t believe she had been stupid enough to almost fall for him.

  ‘Shame it didn’t work out between us,’ he had whispered to her as he’d frisked her, and then Natangwe and Alex, before ordering them to pick up shovels and get to work.

  ‘Bastard,’ she had hissed at him, and he had laughed.

  ‘Emma, can you help me, please,’ Professor Sutton croaked, bringing her back to the present. He had uncovered a sheet of riveted aluminium, part of the fuselage that had apparently peeled off when the Dakota had crashed. ‘I need to shift this.’

  She trudged through the sand to him. The aircraft was emerging, slowly, like an intact fossilised dinosaur. Andre had directed them all to concentrate on the port side, the left, along the rear third of the fuselage. This, Sutton had told Emma and Natangwe, was where the cargo door would be. It seemed Andre had dropped all pretence of caring about the fate of the pilots who, if they had been killed on impact, would be entombed up front in the cockpit.

  ‘Professor,’ Emma lowered her voice even more, ‘we need to escape or overpower Sebastian and Andre. You know they’re going to kill us, don’t you?’