Two weeks later
Sitting hidden at the edge of a cluster of trees looking out at a field, Ikaros, his three men, and a local guide, who they picked up from a nearby village the second day of the expedition, are observing the slow movements of a herd of elephants that they've been tracking for the past seven days. In order to be discrete, they left their Jeep a few kilometers away, hidden amongst a cluster of trees at the base of a hill — an approach they've repeated several times already.
The Dutch brothers have succumbed to boredom and have been complaining for the past two days more intensely than they had over the first five. They're now suffering from the belief that they could be waiting for weeks or even months before anything significant happens, and, by all indications, they aren't prepared to sit around and watch a 'stupid' herd of elephants walking around eating, shitting and pushing over trees, even though it, does make for some now-more-than-ever rare photo opportunities, which they did take advantage of on the first afternoon; after that, though, their interest fell sharply. Slightly concerned that they may up and leave at a moment's notice, despite Nat's insistence that they won't, Ikaros is quite worried but is more annoyed by them, so much so that he can't stop himself from asking them repeatedly to shut up, taking turns with Nat, whose nerves are perhaps more frayed by their now-evident, long-standing nature. Not wanting to lose them, though, Ikaros does his best to block them out and wait patiently, knowing that it's just a matter of time before this herd of twenty-two — definitely one of the last, if not the last, in the country — is discovered by some locals of one kind or another, as they themselves found it within only six days of searching with their guide, a tall middle-aged man who only speaks rudimentary English, but enough to understand the meaning of 'elephant,' not that it really mattered as a picture scribbled into the dirt would have been unmistakable.
The disturbing thing that Ikaros has kept in mind is that their guide, Motswane, didn't seem to have any concern about whether they were wanting to track the elephants for killing or protection, particularly so considering their near annihilation, yet Ikaros still finds it understandable in the context of the desperate and uncertain conditions the surviving citizens have been experiencing over the past few years, which would take a toll on anyone's values.
Ruminating over these things and picking Nat's and the twin's brains — when they allow him to — about various topical issues regarding southern Africa, the dangerous world of mercenaries, and off-the-grid counter-culture in the twenty-first century, Ikaros becomes more confident that they're better off working for him for as long as they can even though their current operation should be seen as being ultimately futile. Having entered this with a level head, Ikaros is still less concerned with the moral view that it's right to try and do it, regardless of whether it's successful or not; instead, he's more inclined to pay attention to the hope that what they're doing will lead to something else that's bigger and more involving. He is, however, starting to feel disquieted by this reality now that he's been in such close proximity to the herd and has seen them in action.
While eating their breakfast of canned beans and dried fruit, the Dutch brothers comment that they only have three days' worth of rations left and that someone had better go looking for more soon. Ikaros quickly agrees, then interrupts their train of thought while looking through his long-range hunting binoculars that are aimed steadfastly on a small rise near the tree line on the other side of the Savannah, nearly two kilometers away. "Here comes a four-wheel drive!" he declares.
This gets all their attention. They look intently at the spot indicated by Ikaros, who continues, "Make that two four-door Toyota trucks. There's a—"
Nat rips the binoculars off Ikaros and peers through them.
"Nice!" Ikaros stares at him.
"Regime troops. Three men on the back of each. Around ten in all," reports Nat.
"Who else would they be?! Okay, whatever… What do you propose we do? The elephants are closer to us than they are to them."
Nat considers their options for a moment. "Well, we don't want to wait for them to take the first shot."
"Yeah, it's probably better if we didn't," agrees Ikaros.
Nat scans the scene. "Let's get ourselves between them and the elephants, and then …"
"… start a firefight!" finishes one twin eagerly as he locks and loads his new-generation Kalashnikov equipped with a silencer, a long-range sight and titanium hollow points, the Dutch brothers’ bullet of choice.
Not needing to say anything else, Ikaros prepares his own gun, minimally confident with the small amount of training they've given him on a few occasions over the last two weeks.
They all emerge stealthily out of the tree line except Motswane, who sits calmly observing the unfolding events, having guessed what will transpire and ready to run away if the tide turns against his colleagues and employer.
All four men sneak across the grass in an attempt to get as close to the elephants and the Toyotas as possible before being seen. Nat keeps his eyes alternating between the trucks and the elephants trying to hold out until the last possible moment. "Okay, fire at will!" All four position themselves in the adequate cover of grass and start firing silently at the now-slowly approaching vehicles, which unexpectedly receive a volley of bullets, some of which pass through the windows and doors and rip through the bodies of two of the men before the rest even realise what's going on. Nat fires his grenade launcher in between the elephants and the trucks; the explosion immediately scares the elephants and sends them into a stampede away from the vehicles.
Still receiving gunfire from an unknown location, the soldiers on the trays of the trucks start firing frantically towards the tree lines on both sides of the Savannah as the drivers, giving up on the elephant hunt, break off in different directions in an attempt to flee the scene and get more distance between themselves and the source of the attack.
Ikaros and his men continue firing. The Dutch brothers focus on the wheels, puncturing the tyres in rapid succession, causing the drivers to have difficulties controlling the vehicles for twenty meters or so before they are shot in the head and through the chest respectively. The trucks quickly come to a standstill in the thick grass one after another; their engines stall. The remaining men continue to be picked off one by one as they shoot randomly into the distance on one side of the trucks, guessing that the source may well be coming from somewhere within the grass cover between their position and the tree line, which doesn't really provide them with much precision.
Now, with his magazine empty, Ikaros just watches as one twin, crouching just next to him, aims and fires at the sole-remaining soldier — the only one to make it onto the ground alive — who, being in the process of desperately running away, silently and limply collapses forward out of sight into the grass. Ikaros listens to the sound of a flock of birds flying overhead. "Did we get 'em all?" he asks more quietly than necessary.
The twins nod and one replies, "You mean you weren't counting?"
"Ah, no … I wasn't."
Following Nat's lead, they all stand up and move forward to check the dead and the wounded. Once in proximity they split up and approach different vehicles. Ikaros carefully approaches one, unable to see into it clearly because of all the blood splattered over the windscreen; through a wound-down side window, he has no problem quickly confirming that the two occupants are actually dead. He looks away.
One of the Dutch brothers then calls out, "We've got a live one over here!"
Ikaros jogs over to the location to join the others, who are gathered around the now-moaning man who was the last to be shot. Nat turns and waves to Motswane, signalling him to come over.
A few moments later, Motswane arrives and Nat begins to give him instructions. "Ask him where they take the elephants' tusks … you know? The el-e-phants," he repeats patronisingly, pointing in the direction of the long-gone heard.
Motswane doesn't understand anything in Nat's sentence except elephant and stan
ds wondering what he could possibly mean, obviously looking quite puzzled when Ikaros comments, "I don't think he understands."
Angry, Nat slows down and simplifies, "Where … take … tusks?" He uses hand gestures skilfully with each word.
Nervous now and sure that he has to come up with something fast, Motswane considers the two most important questions that he can think of asking the soldier: 1) what do you do with the tusks; and, 2) where do you take them? Realising that they have some overlapping meaning, he promptly decides to start yelling both questions at the man on the ground, who just lies there unresponsively, pretending to be in more pain than he actually is.
Noticing this, one of the Dutch brothers gets impatient and digs his rifle's muzzle into the man's shoulder wound, causing him to scream in agony. "That's more like it!"
Unsure about the effectiveness of their methods, Ikaros looks up and around at the scene, realising that they're exposed and vulnerable if they stay too much longer. "I think I should go get the Jeep. I'll be right back."
Although the others heard him, they don't respond, being too preoccupied with the task at hand, so Ikaros just turns and begins to jog away, aware that the desperate screams of the solider and the yelling of the others are probably carrying far across the Savannah. He increases his pace and keeps it steady.
Fifteen minutes later
Driving the Jeep, Ikaros comes racing through the grass towards the others, pulls up near Nat and leans out the window. "Watcha doing?" he asks, looking at the Dutch brothers and Motswane gathering weapons from the dead.
"Ah, we have to go to a town south of here, about twenty kilometers."
"Oh, right … how did you work that out? Motswane told you this?" asks Ikaros sceptically.
"Well, I've been here for some time, Ikaros. I know 'town,' he pointed south, and then he showed me '20,' you know? It went on like this for a few minutes till I was sure. Is that okay with you?"
Ikaros nods, then looks down at the body of the man they were interrogating. "Is he dead?"
"Yeah, of course," Nat answers dismissively. "I don't know how good the information was that he gave us, but we'll just have to see, okay? He seemed pretty adamant about it, I can tell you," he recalls with an inappropriate chuckle.
"Oh … um, that's good, then."
Nat turns and looks at the others as he gets into the front passenger seat. "Let's go!" he yells out.
The Dutch brothers and Motswane stop their gathering and jog cumbersomely towards the Jeep clasping their cache of weapons; after dropping their loads noisily into the tray, the twins jump on while Motswane gets in the back seat of the cabin after being directed to do so by Nat. Ikaros starts to drive away quickly with Nat and Motswane competing to give him directions. The Dutch brothers make themselves comfortable on the tray and light well-deserved cigarettes as they look back at the scene with a certain quiet satisfaction.
Chapter 11
Driving at dangerously high speeds down a dirt road towards the next town, Ikaros becomes nervous that they're vulnerable to attack if the junta's troops happen to be in the area. "Ah, we've gotta get off this road!" Responding to his own suggestion, he accelerates.
"Just relax!" instructs Nat. "I told you already there aren't any regime troops out here because of the early population purges, and they haven't got the man power. You don't have to worry."
"There's gonna be some soldiers at the ivory compound, though, wouldn't you say?"
"Well, yeah, of course."
"Well, what're we gonna do, then? Just shoot our way in?"
"Don't worry, we're not suicidal … not just yet," he replies with dubious reassurance.
Ikaros just glances at him with a furrowed brow, then refocuses on driving, continuing to swerve from side to side in an attempt to avoid most of the clusters of potholes where he can.
Five minutes later
They turn down a side road and within two hundred meters enter a rather large town, which at its height would have had around two thousand inhabitants — now it's almost deserted. They see an old man on the street who starts walking much faster when seeing them approaching. Before he can get away, though, they roll up next to him. Ikaros and Nat indicate clumsily to Motswane to ask him for directions, but on seeing all the foreigners and thinking the worst, the man starts to run back the other way down the street.
Ikaros shifts gears into reverse and easily catches up with him. The old man tires quickly and comes to a stop, obviously on the verge of giving up completely, anyway. Motswane reassures him before pressuring him for an answer to his question. Realising they're no danger, the old man points eastward with a few short sentences. Watching the interaction closely, Ikaros waits until he guesses that Motswane has thanked him, then turns away and places the Jeep into first gear. Motswane pulls his head back into the truck and tries to translate, "Go, go. I tell left, okay?!"
"Yeah, no worries," replies Ikaros, already racing through the gears and finding Motswane's delivery surprisingly fluent.
Two minutes later
Nat starts yelling through the back window at the Dutch brothers to get ready, then organises his own weapon.
"This, this, this!" says Motswane emphatically followed redundantly by a stream of his own language while pointing vigorously at the left hand turn they're bearing down on.
Ikaros slows abruptly and puts it in third gear, then pulls down on the steering wheel and accelerates around the corner. After rounding a bend a bit further down the road, they all see a large shed in the distance with two four-wheel-drive trucks and several figures out front.
The Dutch brothers lean on top of the roof and take aim with their long-distance sights, identifying several targets hanging around outside the shed; they open fire.
Being only two hundred meters down what is in fact a driveway, Ikaros is able to see some of the men fall to the ground after being hit or diving for cover — the difference being difficult to discern from that distance.
Fire is returned: several bullets pierce through the radiator and one goes straight through near the centre of the windscreen and out the back, just missing everyone. Ikaros glances at the hole with curiosity and relief rather than fear. The first twin continues to fire deliberately while the second one fires their recently appropriated, high-powered RPG, the rocket from which races towards its target and, in a huge explosion typical of these over the last thirty years, bursts through one of the trucks, ripping it to pieces, and throws the neighbouring truck high into the air.
Ikaros slides the Jeep to a stop near the destruction, and everyone alights, firing sporadically into the residual smoke surrounding the scene and at the shed and its entrance just in case a few more cautious soldiers are waiting it out inside. Ikaros grabs his rifle and jumps out of his seat and onto the ground, crouching up against the front wheel before exaggeratedly spraying a full magazine into the target zone just meters away. He begins to replace the magazine and hears Nat's voice above the gunfire. "Cease fire! STOP FIRING!" he orders impatiently, obviously at the Dutch brothers, who are the last to stop. All five men, including Motswane, aim their weapons carefully at the entrance to the shed and wait.
The bloody, strewn bodies of ten men can be seen lying just in front of them. Nat grabs two tear gas canisters from the front seat and throws them through the entrance. They wait patiently for a minute until two young soldiers call out in desperation from within, then come nervously out, palms exposed and more than half expecting to be shot on the spot.
Noticing that they're just boys, the Dutch brothers quickly aim their weapons over their heads and shoot a few rounds through the thin shed wall. The boys, no older than seventeen, freeze immediately, evidently deeply shaken by the surprise attack in what they thought was a safe location, and are now visibly disturbed to be looking at the scene of all their dead comrades before them.
Appreciating this, Nat and the Dutch brothers direct them to sit down by the wall and be quiet, noticeably more restrained with them than all t
he others they've met with so far. Once seated, Motswane tells them not to move and not to worry. Watching intently, Ikaros wonders whether they'll be killed once they've been grilled for information like the last one; he doubts it.
The Dutch brothers roll the large shed doors completely open allowing the tear gas to disperse more quickly. They approach the entrance and see a large pile of tusks that they agree must contain around two hundred pairs — just a sample of recent hunts. They all stand in silence contemplating the scene and the series of events leading up to it. Ikaros looks at the rising sun and the shadows cast by the nearby trees. There won't be too many more piles like this one … not anymore. He directs his gaze to the clear blue sky. "It's gonna be hot again today," he predicts without there being any need to do so.
• • •
The killing of elephants by the junta's forces had severely diminished the number of herds in the country, which earlier in the century had peaked and supported the largest population in the world; the slaughter had consequently brought the elephant to the brink of extinction in the wild. The tusks were transported to a secure location further to the north, which was where they were made into kitsch ivory products and exported covertly yet brazenly around the world and purchased on the black market by consumers who recalcitrantly continued to have no scruples about the industry they were supporting, nor care about the consequences of doing so.
• • •
Ikaros stands by watching on as the others proceed to interrogate the two captured soldiers for a specific tusk-collection date. Being quite sure that it will be soon, due to the already large pile of tusks, they press them for information with more than just a bit of torture. The soldiers, being mere conscripts, are unwilling to hold out on them for long; within ten minutes, they inform the group that a convoy of about six vehicles, two being freight trucks to carry all the tusks, are scheduled to come in twelve days, which thankfully allows a fair bit of time to make adequate preparations.
NEW WORLD TRILOGY (Trilogy Title) Page 9