by Chris Ryan
Paulo offered Thunderbird the bottle with the teat. Thunderbird looked unsure. Then the smell of the milk reached her nostril. She reached for the bottle with her trunk in a gesture that clearly said, Gimme.
Paulo couldn't just let her have the bottle; he had to keep hold of it. He had to move in close. Would this fully grown, wild elephant let him, or would she feel threatened? She might easily be wary, particularly after what Li had just done. But Patrick had said that Thunderbird had been bottle fed. With luck, the smell of the milk would touch some memory and make her feel secure.
The tension in Thunderbird's posture seemed to melt away. Paulo held the bottle towards her mouth. She grabbed the teat in her lips and began to suck. Paulo said, 'Good girl,' and withdrew it. Thunderbird took a step towards him, looking for the delicious taste of childhood. Paulo held it just out of reach, and when she had taken another step away from the pool, allowed her some more. She slurped it greedily, just as Moya had.
He managed to get the elephant to turn round, and rewarded her again. She followed him down the slope towards the yard. After a moment, Brains and Penelope turned and followed too.
Li heaved herself out of the pool and looked around. The fences were flattened, the lawn was rutted with heavy footprints, one or two paving slabs in the terrace were cracked. There was going to be some explaining to do. But now that Thunderbird thought there was a trunk-pulling monster in the pool, at least they might not need the fences any more.
The balloon gained height rapidly, soaring over the plains. Amber, Alex and Hex leaned out of the basket, amazed at the panorama. Families of elephants lifted their trunks, sniffing the air as the balloon passed overhead. Buffalo poured from the woodlands into the shallow tributaries of the Luangwa. Herds of hippo stood in the water like shiny, overpadded horses, blowing plumes of spray out of their nostrils. Their jaws gaped at the balloon. A crocodile slithered off a sandbank into the water.
Amber had the radio detector. 'Hey, we're close to one of the tagged ellies,' she said. 'Quite a strong signal.'
Gaston kept a hand on the regulator while he scanned the ground. He glanced at the reading on the machine. 'Yes, that's a couple of ours.'
'That one's trying to push over an entire tree,' exclaimed Hex. 'Look.'
They looked down to see an elephant backing deliberately into an acacia. Two calves watched as the beast put all its weight on the tree. There was a groaning and splintering of wood and the tree crashed to the ground.
'They're destructive, aren't they?' said Alex.
'They do that when they can't reach the branches they want,' said Gaston.
'There is a certain mechanical advantage to weighing nearly five tonnes,' said Hex.
Gaston adjusted the regulator and they gained more height. As the burner roared, a herd of antelope scattered below. 'We've tagged about fifty elephants so far; today we want to see as many as possible to check they're all alive and well. This is the best way to see them as we can cover far more ground than in the Jeep. The detector counts the number that it's seen; we'd never manage it all by eye alone, it's too confusing. It will tell us when we've seen them all.'
'Hey, another bleep,' said Amber.
They peered over the side. They were over a water hole. Clearly it had once been much bigger; now it was a muddy indentation with a small patch of brown water in the middle. Four elephants glistening with wet mud raised their periscopes to the passing balloon. One of them ran up the slope, its saggy skin wobbling like an ill-fitting jogging suit. At the top it sat on its backside, stretched out its forelegs and slid down into the muddy pool.
'They look as though they're enjoying life,' said Amber.
'Li and Paulo would have loved this,' said Alex.
The balloon headed over a dry patch of savannah. Below, almost invisible in the golden grass, a pride of lions lay snoozing, a jumble of paws, heads, bodies and tails.
'Ellie ahoy,' said Amber, looking at the detector. 'I wonder what this one will be getting up to?'
Alex, peering out, saw it first. 'It's down here,' he said. The tone of his voice was grim.
Gaston immediately leaned over to have a look. He swore.
There was a mass of brown bodies tearing at a large heap of flesh: a clan of brown hyenas. The passengers in the balloon caught a glimpse of vivid red gashes in grey leathery skin. The prey was an elephant.
Amber felt sickened. 'I didn't think hyenas hunted elephants.'
'They don't,' said Gaston. His voice was grim. 'Something else brought it down; the hyenas are just scavengers. We need to get a closer look.' He pulled on a lever to open some flaps in the top of the balloon and let some gas out. The balloon sank. Then he took a flare pistol out of a crate in the bottom of the basket and loaded it.
'Cover your ears,' he said. 'This will be loud.' He pulled the trigger and there was a deafening bang. The hyenas scattered and stood at a distance, eyeing the shadow of the balloon as it slipped across the ground.
Alex, Amber and Hex looked at the elephant's corpse. At first they couldn't make sense of it. There were ragged holes all over the body where the hyenas had torn into the flesh. But there were also bigger wounds.
'Look at the head,' said Alex quietly. 'The hyenas can't have done that.' The head was a big mass of hacked meat, brutally disfigured. Bullet holes formed a small scatter pattern between the eye and the ear. Just below was a big, bloody hole where a tusk had been ripped out. There were large brutal slashes in the face on the other side too. The trunk had been hacked off and discarded. It lay next to the body like the carcass of a strange monster.
'Boudicca,' said Gaston softly to himself.
'We met her on the way in,' murmured Hex quietly.
'She'd been here for forty years,' said Amber.
'That's what the poachers do,' said Gaston. 'I'm sorry you had to see this.'
He closed the flaps but the balloon continued to descend. The hyenas slunk back and continued their meal. The air was filled with the sounds of their savage feeding – growling, grinding, whooping and cackling. Gaston opened the regulator and the roar of the burner drowned out all other noise.
17
A RICH STRANGER
Patrick staggered through the door, supporting a man oh his shoulder.
Li, coming down the stairs after taking a shower, saw their silhouette. She sprinted towards them. 'Patrick, can I help?'
'Take his legs,' said Patrick, getting both his arms under the man's shoulders. 'We'll take him to the staff room.' Walking backwards, Patrick manoeuvred the man behind the reception desk and into the room beyond. 'We'll put him on the table,' he said, 'on a count of three. One . . . two . . . three . . .' Together he and Li lifted the man onto the table in the middle of the room.
'What happened?' said Li.
The man was wearing a green shirt and dirty grey trousers. He shook his head from side to side, as though he was having a bad dream. One arm was hugely swollen; the whole of the forearm was bright red with purple blotches. Some of the skin was erupting in blisters. With his uninjured arm he clutched a dirty khaki bag.
Paulo rushed into the room. 'What's going on?'
Patrick explained. 'I was out on patrol. I found him on the edge of the road about a kilometre away. He was crawling along. I thought he was drunk, but he's been bitten by a snake.' He headed for the door. 'I'll phone the paramedics.'
Li leaned over the man. A sharp smell hit her as the man groaned and muttered to himself. 'I think he's probably drunk too,' she said. She tried to lift the man's bag but he grabbed it back. 'It's OK,' she said to him, 'we're just trying to find out who you are. Help is on its way.' The man gave a shout and clutched the bag even more tightly.
Li straightened up. 'Well, at least he's still breathing.'
'He's tried to put a tourniquet on,' said Paulo. 'Look.' He moved the bag aside to show Li. Just above the man's elbow was a dirty yellow bandanna. Paulo loosened it but left it around the man's arm. 'The course I went on said you shouldn't put a
tourniquet on a snake bite,' he commented.
Patrick came back in. 'The paramedics are on their way.'
The man started to gasp. His face was clammy and pouring with sweat.
'He's having trouble breathing,' said Li.
'They said if this happened to give him an injection of adrenaline. We've got some in the emergency kit.' Patrick opened a drawer marked with a green cross and grabbed an object that looked like a pen. It was a syringe, pre-filled with adrenaline for emergencies such as snake bites or allergic reactions. Ripping the wrapper off, he looked at it nervously and prepared to plunge it into the man's shoulder.
'No!' cried Li. 'It's got to be subcutaneous for a snake bite. Here, let me.' Patrick looked only too pleased to hand the pen to her. She pinched up a fold of skin on the man's arm, above the tourniquet, positioned the needle at right angles to his arm and fired. 'If you do it into the muscle you might cause him more problems.' She passed the spent needle to Patrick.
The man suddenly went still, like a statue, his mouth open in a soundless O.
Li felt for a pulse on the man's neck. 'His heart's still beating.'
Without a moment's hesitation, Paulo peered into the open mouth. 'No obstructions,' he said. 'I'm going to have to give him the kiss of life.' He tilted the man's head back, held the nose and blew into the mouth. He gave three breaths, slowly, then tilted his head to look at the man's chest. 'He's still not breathing,' he said. He took a breath, leaned over the man and exhaled slowly into his mouth.
There was a commotion of people arriving in the lobby. Gaston came through, with Amber, Hex and Alex close behind.
Amber recognized the yellow bandanna instantly. 'My God!' she cried. 'He's one of the poachers.'
Paulo took another breath and blew into the man's mouth again. But his eyes looked confused.
'He's dying,' said Li.
'Serves him right,' said Gaston. 'They've just killed another elephant.'
'He's breathing now anyway,' said Li.
They hadn't noticed the other person who had arrived. Joe Chandler was watching from the doorway.
Silence settled on the room like a blanket. All eyes were on Joe. He must have heard everything. For a moment he did nothing—merely looked at the group around the poacher. Then he walked up to the table and pulled at the khaki bag the man was holding. The man tried to resist. Joe pulled it hard. 'Give it to me,' he said in a growl, and the man finally let go of the bag.
'Excuse me,' said Paulo quietly. 'I need to wash my mouth out.' He hurried from the room.
Joe unbuckled the bag – a design of diamond shapes showed through the accumulated dirt on the back. He tipped out the contents, threw the bag away and looked at the slim wad of notes that had landed on the man's chest. The poacher raised his eyes to him, wanting to take his money but not daring to move while Joe's steely gaze was on him.
Joe picked up the wad of notes and held it out between thumb and forefinger. 'Somebody else count this. It smells of blood.'
Alex took it numbly. The notes were crisp, still in the wrapper from the bank. He flipped through them. 'They're unused American hundred-dollar bills.'
Amber was watching him. 'There must be about a thousand bucks here.'
Li nodded. 'He didn't get currency like that from round here. Somebody must be financing the poachers from the outside.'
Joe leaned over the poacher. 'Where did you get this, scumbag?'
The poacher looked back at him with frightened eyes, but didn't say anything.
'Talk to me, dammit,' insisted Joe. He reached for the man's collar.
Patrick pulled Joe away. 'There's no way he'll talk to you, Chief. Probably doesn't even understand what you're saying.'
'We don't need him to talk,' said Hex. All eyes turned to him. 'The numbers on the notes are consecutive. That means they're traceable. I'll get onto John Middleton with the serial numbers and see what he can find out.'
Paulo had a bottle of Listerine, which he swigged at regularly and swallowed. He kept remembering what it was like being lip to lip with the poacher. The Listerine seared his mouth and throat, but it was better than that memory. He could still taste the cheap whisky and the smell of cigarettes on the man's breath.
The paramedics had taken the poacher away. Joe had called the police and told them which hospital he was going to. Now Paulo joined the rest of Alpha Force, along with Patrick, Gaston and Joe, in the lounge, to discuss what to do next.
'The poaching is out of control,' said Joe. 'As fast as we can tag the elephants, they're being killed.'
'Do you think it's all the same group of poachers?' said Alex.
'Were the elephants all killed the same way?' asked Hex.
Gaston shrugged. 'The way they were killed isn't significant. Yes, they were shot and hacked about in the same way, but it's just the best way to get tusks off a dead elephant. It doesn't mean it's the same bunch.'
'One lot set a trap – the one Tessa fell into,' said Amber. 'What about that?'
'Yes, that doesn't make sense,' said Joe. 'You don't catch elephants in a pit. The bastards must be after big cats as well. Still, at least we haven't found any more pits, so they must be concentrating on our elephants.'
Li was shaking her head. 'I thought this kind of thing died out years ago. Is there really still a big demand for ivory?'
'Of course there is,' said Patrick. 'And for animal skins. It pays better than farming.'
'Patrick, this isn't small-time poaching to feed a family,' said Joe emphatically. 'That scumbag had a thousand dollars. His family could eat for years and years on that. A thousand dollars is about twenty tusks. That's large-scale poaching – there's something big going on.'
'So,' said Alex, 'there must be a mastermind behind all this, paying the poachers. If we want to stop it, we have to find out who that is.'
Hex had his palmtop beside him. It gave a low vibrating noise. He'd got mail. He pressed a key to access his inbox.
'Is that my uncle?' said Amber, trying to read the screen over his shoulder.
'Looks like it,' said Hex. He scanned the e-mail. 'Ah, this is interesting. Those notes were printed four months ago and shipped to a bank in Hong Kong.'
'Hong Kong?' said Patrick.
'That figures,' said Joe. 'Most of the ivory ends up in the Far East.'
'This sounds like a very organized operation,' said Paulo. 'The question is, how did the money get here?'
'That poacher had been drinking, right?' said Amber. 'He'd been out celebrating. He must have been rather conspicuous flashing all that cash around. Perhaps someone saw him.'
Li picked up on her train of thought. 'We know which road he was found on, right? Are there any settlements near there?'
'Not within the park, obviously,' said Joe. 'But I can show you a few nearby.'
'He came from Senga,' said Patrick. 'The design on his bag is something I've seen there. There's a woman who makes them.'
'We can't go asking questions around there,' said Gaston. 'I shot a poacher from Senga and they know me. They know Patrick and Joe too.'
'We could turn it over to the police,' said Alex.
'The police won't even bother to go there,' said Joe. 'No-one will tell them anything.'
'They don't know us,' said Amber. 'We can go.'
18
SENGA
Joe braked. 'If you get out here, Senga's about half an hour's walk. I can't take you any closer as the Teak Lodge Range Rover will he recognized.'
'Brilliant, Joe, thanks,' laid Alex. All five members of Alpha Force climbed out of the Range Rover into the bright morning sunshine. Joe was on his way to town to visit Tessa and then give evidence to the police about the wounded poacher.
Alex handed lightweight rucksacks to everyone: he had packed food and drink for them all. Joe's eyes narrowed. Li realized he recognized them as standard kit from the adventure race. Tessa had had one too. 'Sorry,' she said. 'Bit tactless of us to dress like this.'
Joe looked at their wa
lking boots and sun visors. 'No, it's good cover,' he said. 'The locals won't think there's anything odd about you – Tessa used to train around there all the time.' He put the Range Rover into gear. 'Look after yourselves, and I'll see you in a couple of hours.'
He pulled out onto the highway and disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Alex checked his compass against the map. 'Senga is this way.'
They started to trek through the tall grass. Soon they were surrounded by clouds of butterflies, sucking sweat off their faces, fanning them cool with blue and yellow wings. Amber felt her spirits lift. Her ankle was now more or less OK to walk on and she had missed these moments so much: just her and her four special friends in the wilds together. It was like winding back time to when they were training for the adventure race.
'How's your leg, Amber?' said Hex. He looked at her carefully, watching how she moved.
'A tiny twinge now and again,' she said. She was lying, a little; her ankle was stiff and sore, but it was something she could live with. 'I'm being careful, don't you worry.'
They walked up a wide track with trees on either side to the crest of a hill. On the other side, where the ground sloped away, was the village, a small cluster of round wooden buildings with thatched roofs.
'I think we should split up here,' said Alex.
'Good idea,' said Amber.
'I think we two should stick together,' said Li to Amber, 'and one of you guys come too. Then we won't look too intimidating a group.'
'I'll come,' said Hex.
'OK, Paulo,' said Alex. 'That leaves you and me.' He addressed all of them. 'We'll look around, see what we can find, and meet back here in an hour, right?'
The others nodded.
'You go first,' said Amber. 'We'll give you a head start and then follow.'
Alex and Paulo set off at a jog down the track.
'Bet they've been dying to do that for ages,' said Amber.
'You weren't holding us up,' Hex said.
'Come on,' said Li. 'I reckon we should head for one of those huts there.'
Paulo and Alex followed the track. 'Where do you reckon they keep their drinking dens?' said Paulo.