by T. M. Clark
She could feel the heat from his arm under her hand, and the thick hair tickled her fingers as she explored the contours of his muscles. She’d been so busy watching over her father, making sure she did well in varsity, that she hadn’t given herself permission to even get close to a man.
Nick had smashed through every barrier she’d ever erected to keep men out when he had helped save her from the river. They now shared something special. She knew she wanted to explore the friendship further. But she had to be careful; she could destroy their friendship if it went wrong, and she couldn’t hurt Enoch in finding out if it was worth exploring.
‘Are you and Enoch friends again?’ she asked.
‘I’d like to think so. I hope he considers me a friend, especially after all that we’ve been through on this journey home. Men don’t talk about all of this stuff, we just drink a beer together and put the past away. When something is over and done, it’s not worth speaking about. Men would rather talk cricket and who’s ball tampering or not.’
She laughed then, and he hugged her closer. Just holding her.
She felt deep inside that just for that moment, there was no fear out in the dark, there was no room in her heart for anything except the feeling that Nick was the most precious person in her world.
* * *
They had planned to heed Julio’s warning and spend the next day near the river, taking the chance to do washing and give the horses a rest. But just as dawn broke they heard a single shot in the distance.
Everyone was up and discussing what calibre it was. They eventually settled on it probably being a .404 hollow point, but from an older hunting rifle. Obviously, the weapon of the Caçador Escuro, and not an AK-47—as would be expected if it was RENAMO out hunting for rations for their men.
Nick threw another log on the fire. ‘I can’t sit here and do nothing. We need a plan to go after this Caçador Escuro. He just murdered another person.’
‘If we move any closer to his camp we could get taken out too. My understanding was that he sits on his small rise over there and picks them off. The truly cowardly predator with a high-powered hunting rifle, probably complete with telescopic sights, preying on the unsuspecting migrants,’ Khululani said and spat into the sand.
‘We can go around, sneak up behind him. Catch him,’ Filipe said.
‘We don’t know if he checks all around. We don’t even know what hill he’s camped on. He’s too far to see in the binoculars. Even with our skills, we’d be walking into a trap,’ Nick warned.
‘I hardly got any sleep thinking about him all night, lurking out there,’ Enoch admitted.
Chloe said, ‘He scares me. How do we hunt someone who has all the advantage in his environment, and is totally in his element?’
‘You don’t. You hide, and you stay here,’ Nick said. ‘We’d all be better out there hunting him if we know that you are here looking after yourself, Mike and Ethel, and your horses.’
‘Sexist much,’ Chloe said and moved from sitting next to him to sit next to Xo instead.
Xo and Enoch laughed aloud.
‘Oh, Nick, you really don’t know the adult Chloe well enough yet,’ Enoch said. ‘You just flapped a challenge in her face, and she doesn’t back down from a challenge. You thought that honey badger was bad …’
‘Not quite, but I’m not being left behind,’ Chloe said, ‘not just because I’m a woman. That’s not a good enough excuse. I have just as much skill as you guys.’
‘No one is deciding who does what yet,’ Enoch said. ‘Because we still do not know what IT is going to be.’
Nick nodded. ‘This guy’s killing near Kruger, too. The men who work at the Phalaborwa Gate no longer commute if they’re not in a big group. He picks them off regularly if they’re alone, even if they’re in pairs. There have been others killed outside of the park perimeter, too, mostly near Phalaborwa township.’
‘Really? And here I thought the park was a safe place, and it was just the animals we had to worry about,’ Enoch said.
Nick shook his head. ‘Not inside the park that we know of. Not yet. But we’re all on edge about who he is and where he could be. When the teams go out into the bush, we all wonder if that will be the day that our number’s up.’
Enoch frowned. ‘What about the SAP, they have not found him yet?’
‘No,’ Nick said. ‘He doesn’t seem to hunt white people or it would be in the paper, so maybe his killings are not a high priority. His name here supports this—the Dark Hunter.’
‘If we have a chance to catch him, to stop him killing anyone else, should we not be doing something? Taking a chance and getting to him while he thinks he is safe?’ Khululani asked.
‘I am all for getting him,’ Enoch said, ‘but my priority is getting Mike, Chloe, Xo, Ethel, and those horses home to Delaware. Taking a side hunting trip was not part of the plan. We already spent precious time on their flatdog problem.’
‘I too thought that at first,’ Nick said. ‘But how can we carry on, knowing that he’s out there? Here, in Mozambique. We could accidentally pass through another one of his hunting spots and all be dead before we realise what’s happening. I foolishly thought he was only operating on the South African side of the park, that we didn’t have anything to worry about in this area. I was wrong.’ Nick pointed in the direction of the fire they could see smoking in the lightening sky.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ Xo asked. ‘Six of us, and I’m sure if we told the villagers we were going after him, they too would join in. Bet they have an arsenal of arms; they have to have one. They are residing in the middle of nowhere in a war zone. Julio seemed quite disappointed when we told him we wouldn’t be hunting their hunter and helping them solve another of their problems.’
‘He has a height advantage. We can’t get close enough to study him without having him take a pot shot at us,’ Nick said.
‘We have to speak with Julio again,’ Xo said. ‘See if he has any pattern to his behaviour. Anything the hunter does when he’s here that Julio hasn’t already told us about.’
‘We also need to find out how far around we need to go to get behind him, like Filipe said earlier,’ Chloe said. ‘You said that Julio mentioned that they tracked him before, which means they know where he parks his bakkie. He has the advantage up there, so we don’t go after him on his kopje, we move around behind and ambush him when he returns after his hunting trip. When he thinks he’s home free.’
‘I wonder if Julio has any idea of the range of the hunter’s gun?’ Nick said.
‘Perhaps I should go fetch him and any of the men from the village that want to join us?’ Filipe said.
‘Just Julio. In case there is someone in the village that is in his pocket and can warn him,’ Enoch said.
Filipe nodded. ‘Good thing that the crocodile is gone now from the river, because if I fall off those pontoon cables into the water, at least he can’t eat me.’
Only Khululani laughed half-heartedly at Filipe’s departing back.
But before Filipe could even begin his river antics, they saw the chief, Julio and the tinyanga, Cassamo, crossing the river on their pontoon with their ox-cart and four oxen. Standing together on the bank, the group watched the progress across the water, until finally the pontoon bumped onto the sandy area on their side.
‘The Caçador Escuro has left the area. There are vultures circling near where the fire was; he’s killed someone and will have gone away again,’ Julio said.
‘That is sad news,’ Enoch said as he cast his eyes downwards briefly in a sign of respect to those passed on. ‘But are you sure that he is gone?’
‘He never stays once he has killed his prey. He takes his bullets and he leaves. Look,’ Julio said, pointing, ‘his fire is no longer smoking. He’s getting ready to break up his camp.’
‘This means we need to move fast. Julio, can you ride a horse?’ Enoch asked.
‘No, but I have ridden a donkey.’
‘He can ride behind
me,’ Xo said. ‘Sirocco can carry two; it’s not that far.’
‘What are you thinking?’ Nick asked.
‘We can move faster as a mounted unit. We want to hit him at his bakkie. Chloe is right, that might be the only place we will have a chance to get him. Julio, can you show us exactly where it is?’ Enoch said.
‘Yes,’ Julio said, ‘safe past the landmines, too. The way is marked.’
‘If we ride hard, hopefully we can make it to his bakkie before he drives away, and we can capture him. If not, we can at least give chase and try to see a numberplate. It is worth a try,’ Enoch said.
‘Saddle up,’ Chloe said, turning to get the horses ready.
‘We will continue as we always do,’ Curandeiros Cassamo said. ‘We will take our ox-cart and bury the body today. No one deserves to have their spirit stuck between the worlds and not pass over to the other side because they did not have a proper burial and were eaten by scavengers. Perhaps if he sees the ox-cart, he will not see the ibhiza-idlozis as they ride towards him and capture him.’
Nick nodded.
‘You keep heading in that direction,’ Enoch said. ‘We will come back and find you once we have taken care of the Caçador Escuro, and we can help you bury the dead.’
Filipe shook his head. ‘It is a bad idea to run towards evil with a rough plan. But even if there is a war, the cold murder of civilians should never be allowed to happen. I will ride with you.’
‘No, Filipe, as much as I want you with us, I need you to watch over my dad and Ethel while we are gone,’ Chloe said.
‘We will stay here and watch the quiet ibhiza-idlozi, make sure no harm comes to him and his nurse,’ the chief said. ‘It is the least we can do while you help my people with my son. Go. Capture the Caçador Escuro. Or kill him. Either way, I will be happier if he is not around my people. When you return, then we can take the oxen and truck and bury the dead. Hopefully, there will be no more spirits to free today than who he has killed already.’
Chloe went to the chief and took both his hands in hers. ‘Siyabonga kakulu!’ She bobbed in a quick bow to him, showing him the respect and gratitude of a younger person to an elder in the same tribe.
They quickly saddled the horses and took their weapons, and soon they were cantering through the bush.
They wound their way along the game trails at a healthy pace, the horses loving the freedom of running after being trapped in the trailer for so many days with only brief interludes of walking. Ducking for a branch of a Mopani tree as they went past, Chloe could feel Pampero stretch beneath her and she patted her neck. ‘That’s it, girl, find your stride. We might be at this for a while. We’ll get this bastard.’
Pampero’s skin shuddered in response under Chloe’s hand.
* * *
They rounded the kopje and Chloe could see Julio pointing to a piece of bush in front. Xo took a sharp left, almost unseating Julio. Enoch did the same turn, and Diablo and Pampero followed in Kimberlite’s footsteps. Chloe could see why: a tree was downed and lying across the trail, but there was also a warthog burrow right in the path. That required evasive action to avoid breaking a horse’s leg in the hole.
They carried on for a while, and then she saw the white of the bakkie as it travelled along the bush road. It wasn’t going at speed, just cruising along, as if the hunters knew that they were safe. Confident that once again they had got away from their hunting grounds with a souvenir dug from a person’s head, and there was nothing that anyone could do about it.
Julio jumped off Sirocco, running next to him then rolling in the sand, leaving Xo alone. Xo increased Sirocco’s speed as he took his hunting weapon from his holster, placed the barrel between Sirocco’s ears, and stretched out over his horse’s neck. Behind him, Enoch had his rifle out, almost at his shoulder. Chloe was not far behind, hers already between Pampero’s ears, and as she heard the shot from Xo, she was already pressing Pampero faster, pulling to the right to ensure that she didn’t shoot either Xo or Enoch in front of her when she noticed the bakkie speed up.
Enoch’s shot was next and she saw the back windscreen of the bakkie shatter with his bullet. The bakkie fishtailed but continued on the road.
Heart pounding, she took careful aim and squeezed the trigger of her .303. Pampero kept running, trained for just such a move. The bakkie swerved; she saw the man hold his shoulder and she knew that she’d hit him in his upper left arm.
The fourth shot from behind her was a surprise. Nick passed her on Marin, and Khululani was no longer riding double. Nick had his weapon on his shoulder, much like Enoch, and he took a shot, not at the driver, but at the vehicle’s back wheel. The bakkie seemed to lift slightly as the tyre was blown, and then the driver got it under control again. He increased his speed, a dangerous move on gravel with one wheel shot out. Slower but still able to flee.
The four of them were close to each other now, thundering down the road. Xo shot again, and she saw the front windscreen spider. The driver was punching a hole in the glass with his right hand.
The passenger put the barrel of a rifle out the back and let off a shot. Chloe saw the barrel and was already veering off, out of the direct line of fire, as were the others.
Pampero was tiring. Though disappointed, Chloe pulled up and let the men go. There was no use losing her foal just to keep up with them. They were fine without her. She could be close behind, out of reach of the shotgun being used, but close enough that if she was needed, she could catch up.
Diablo thundered past her. Filipe had his AK-47 out and was still bouncing, but had somehow managed to sit straight enough in the saddle and hold his weapon on his shoulder. A good thing too, as shooting from the hip would hit the horse’s head and ears. But he was still behind the others, so he couldn’t shoot yet. Diablo had automatically taken his place in the battle line-up.
Chloe heard a double shot from both Enoch and the deeper sound of Nick’s weapon as they discharged into the bakkie. Xo on Sirocco broke off the gallop and slowed, as did Kimberlite. For a split second it seemed that Nick was the only one close to the bakkie, when the driver turned around and looked directly at him.
A second discharge came from the shotgun, and Nick pulled off to the left. The driver pressed the bakkie for still more speed, and his V6 engine gave it to him, increasing the distance between the horses and the vehicle.
There was no way for Nick to catch up at this speed. He pulled back after one last shot at the back of the car, and Chloe heard the tin sound of a hard nose going through metal. He dropped behind Filipe, and there was a round of AK-47 going off. She didn’t know if any of the bullets being sprayed got the bakkie, but when the magazine was finished Filipe instructed Diablo to turn around and slow down.
Filipe was whooping like a hyena, having lost his hat somewhere along the route, and pure glee showed on his face as he trotted towards them. His gun was bouncing around as much as he was, and it was pointed directly at them.
‘I think I have a new favourite hobby!’ he shouted.
Chloe shook her head as she slowed Pampero, who had been gently cantering before coming to a complete stop. She had the butt of her .303 on her thigh and it pointed skywards.
‘Raise your weapon so it won’t accidentally shoot any of us, Filipe,’ she said, and he looked at the rifle as if he’d forgotten that he had it attached to his arm and followed her example, putting the butt on his thigh.
Nick galloped to her side, and Marin stopped almost right next to her, as if he was a quarter horse, not an endurance stallion. His nose flared. Nick’s gun was at the same angle as hers, safe from shooting anyone in their small group of riders.
‘You okay, Chloe?’ he asked as Marin brushed against Pampero with a small jolt.
‘I’m good,’ she said. ‘And I’m sure that Pampero is fine. She enjoyed that run, but I think she’ll do good to walk back to camp. She gave everything she could without taking anything from her foal.’ She couldn’t help smiling; she knew it was the adrenal
ine, but it felt so good.
He reached over for her and gave her a quick, unexpected hug. Holding her close, then letting her go.
‘Seriously, I’m good,’ she said again, reassuring him, her smile fading, her body on fire where it had touched his. She wanted to reach over and bring him back and press herself to him again to savour the feeling.
‘Yes, but I needed to make sure for myself. That’s the first time I have ridden into battle against a woman—that I know of. I thought she got you the first time she fired. I’m so glad that she missed.’
‘She?’
‘The passenger was a woman,’ Nick said.
‘You sure she didn’t shoot you?’ Chloe asked. Despite seeing that there was no blood, she still felt a need to check him.
‘Not me.’ He ran his hand over his own chest, then lay forward in his saddle and ran his hand quickly over the horse’s chest. ‘Marin seems fine, too.’
‘You both okay?’ Xo asked as he rode up to join them.
‘Fine,’ they said together.
Chloe asked, ‘You?’
‘Sirocco and I are both good. Dad?’ Xo asked as Enoch rode up alongside them.
‘You all okay? No one hurt?’ Enoch said.
‘Man, Chloe, that was some shot. You definitely got him in the shoulder. I think you got him too, Xo. You guys did so well,’ Enoch said.
‘He’ll need medical treatment, but he still got away,’ Xo said.
‘Anyone get the numberplate?’ Enoch asked.
‘It’s 443 409 H,’ Chloe said, having committed it to memory before she started shooting.