by Wilbur Smith
Nicholas read the date at the top of one page.
2nd of February 1902.
A In camp on the Abbay river.
11 day following the spoor of two large bull ele Phants- Unable to come
up with the . Heat ve, intense- MY Men Played out Abandoned the chase
small antelope grazing on the river-bank which I and returned to camp.
On the return march lied a brought down with one shot from the little
Rigby "and- On close examination it proved to be a member of the genus
Madoqa. However, it was of a species that I had never seen before,
larger than the common dik-dik and Possessing a striped body. I believe
that this specimen may be new to science.
He looked up from the diary. "Old great-grandpa Jonathan has given us
the perfect excuse for going down into the Abbay gorge." He closed the
book, and went on, "As you pointed out, to cater for our own expedition
would require months of planning and organization, not to mention the
expense. It would mean having to obtain approval and permission from the
Ethiopian government. In Africa that can take months, if not Years."
"I don't imagine that the Ethiopian government would be too cooperative
if they suspected our real intentions," she agreed.
"On the other hand, there are a number of legitimate hunting safari
companies operating throughout the country. They have all the necessary
permits, governmental contacts, vehicles, camping equipment and logistic
back, up necessary to travel and stay in even the remotest areas.
The authorities are quite accustomed to foreign hunters arriving and
leaving with these companies, whereas a couple of ferengi nosing around
on their own would have the local military and everybody else down on
them like a herd of angry buffalo., ( So we are going to travel as a
pair of dik-dik hunters?"
"I have already made the booking with a safari operator in Addis Ababa,
the capital. MY Plan is to look upon the whole of our project in three
distinct and separate stages.
The first stage will be this reconnaissance. If we find the lead we are
hoping for, then we will go back again with our own men and equipment.
That will be stage two. Stage three, of course, will be getting the
booty out of Ethiopia, and that I assure you from past experience will
not be the easiest part of the operation."
"How will you do that-' she began, but he held up his hands.
"Don't ask, because at this stage I don't have even the vaguest idea how
we will do it. One stage at a time."
"When do we leave?"
"Before I tell you when, let me ask you one more question. Your
interpretation of the Taita riddle - did you explain that in the notes
that were stolen from you at the oasis?"
"Yes, everything was either in those notes or on the microfilm. I am
sorry."
So the uglies will have it all neatly laid out for them, just the way
you laid it out for me."
"I am afraid they will, yes."
"Then to reply to your question as to when, the answer is tout de suite,
and the tooter the sweeter! We must get into the Abbay gorge before the
competition beats us to it.
They have had your conclusions and suppositions for almost a month. For
all we know they are on their way already!
"When?" she repeated eagerly.
"I have booked two seats on the British Airways flight to Nairobi this
Saturday - that is, in two days' time. We will connect there with an Air
Kenya flight to Addis that will get us in on Monday at around midday. We
will drive down to London this evening and stay over at my digs there.
Are your yellow fever and hepatitis shots up to date?"
"Yes, but I have no equipment and hardly any clothing with me., I left
Cairo in rather a hurry."
We will. see to that in London. Trouble with Ethiopia is it's cold
enough to emasculate a brass monkey in the highlands, and like a sauna
bath down in the gorge."
He crossed to the board and began to check off the items on his list.
"We will both start malarial prophylactics immediately. We are going
into an area of chloroquineresistant . falciparum mosquitoes, so I will
put you on Mefloquine "He worked swiftly through the list.
"Of course all your travel documents are in order, or you wouldn't be
here. We will both need visas for Ethiopia, but I have a contact who can
arrange that in twenty-four hours."
As soon as he completed the list he sent her up to her room to pack the
few personal items she had brought with her from Cairo.
By the time they were ready to leave Quenton Hall it was dark outside,
but still he stopped for an hour at the York Minster Hospital to allow
her to say goodbye to her mother. He waited in the Red Lion pub across
the road, and he smelt of Theakston's Old Peculier when she climbed back
into the Range Rover beside him. It was a Pleasant, yeasty aroma, and
she felt so much at ease in his company that she lay back in the seat
and fell asleep.
His London house was in Knightsbridge, but despite the fashionable
address it was much less grand than Quenton Hall, and she felt IF more
at home there, even if it was only for two days.
During that time she saw little of Nicholas, for he was busy with all
the last-minute arrangements, which included a number of visits to
government offices in Whitehall. He returned with wads of letters -of
introduction to high officials and British Embassies and High
Commissions throughout East Africa.
"Ask any Englishman," she smiled to herself "There is no such thing as
upper-class privilege any longer, nor is there an old-boy network that
runs the country."
While he was away, she went off with the shopping list he had given her.
Even walking the streets of the safest Capital city in the world she
found herself looking back over her shoulder, and ducking in and out of
ladies' rooms and tube stations to make certain that she was not being
followed.
"You are acting like a terrified child without its daddy," she scolded
herself.
However, she felt a quite disproportionate sense of relief each evening
when she heard his key in the street door of the empty house where she
waited, and she had to control herself so as not to rush down the stairs
to welcome him.
On Saturday morning, when a taxi cab deposited them at the departures
level of Heathrow MNIJ Terminal Four, Nicholas surveyed their combined
luggage with approval. She had only a single soft canvas bag, no larger
than his, and her sling bag over her shoulder. His hunting rifle was
cased in travel-worn leather, with his initials embossed on the lid. A
hundred rounds of ammunition was packed in a separate brass'bound
magazine and he carried a leather briefcase that looked like a Victorian
antique.
"Travelling light is one of the great virtues. Lord save us from women
with mountains of luggage,5 he told her, refusing the services of a
porter and throwing it all on to a trolley, which he pushed himself.
She had to step out to keep up with him as he strode through the crowded
departures hall.
Miraculously the throng opened before him. He tilted
the brim of his panama hat over one eye and grinned at the girl at the
check'in counter, so that she came over all girlish and flustered.
It was the same once they were aboard the aircraft.
The two stewardesses giggled at everything he said, plied him with
champagne and fussed over him outrageously, to the obvious irritation of
the other passengers, including Royan herself. But she ignored him and
them and settled back to enjoy the unaccustomed luxury of the reclining
first-class seat and her own miniature video screen. She tried to
concentrate on the screen images of Richard Gere, but found her
attention wandering to other images of wild canyons and ancient stelae.
Only when Nicholas nudged her did she look around at him a little
haughtily. He had set up a tiny travelling chessboard on the arm of the
seat between them, and now he lifted an eyebrow at her and inclined his
head in invitation.
When they landed at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Kenya they were still
locked in combat. They were level at two games each, but she was a
bishop and two pawns up in the final deciding game. She felt quite
pleased with herself.
At the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi he had booked a pair of garden
bungalows, one for each of them. Within ten minutes of her flopping down
on the bed, he called her from next door on the house phone.
"We are going to dinner with the British High Commissioner tonight. He
is an old chum. Dress informal. Can you be ready at eight?"
One did not have to rough it too onerously when travelling around the
world in this man's company, she thought.
It was a relatively short haul from Nairobi up to Addis Ababa, and the
landscape below them unfolded in fascinating sequences that kept her
glued to the cabin window of the Air Kenya flight. The hoary summit of
Mount Kenya was for once free of cloud, and the snow-clad double peaks
glistened in the high sunlight.
The bleak brown deserts of the Northern Frontier District were relieved
only by the green hills that surrounded the oasis of Marsabit and, far
out on the port side, the dashing waters of Lake Turkana, formerly Lake
Rudolf.
The desert finally gave way to the highlands of the great central
plateau of the ancient land of Ethiopia.
"In Africa only the Egyptians go back further than this civilization,'
Nicholas remarked as they watched it together. "They were a cultured
race when we peoples of northern climes were still dressing in untanned
skins and living in caves. They were Christians when Europeans were
still pagans, worshipping the old gods, Pan and Diana."
"They were a civilized people when Taita passed this way nearly four
thousand years ago," she agreed. "In his Scrolls he writes of them as
almost his cultural equals which was rare for him. He disparaged all the
other nations of the old world as his inferiors in every way."
From the air Addis was like so many other African cities, a mixture of
the old and the new, of traditional and exotic architectural styles,
thatched roofs alongside galvanized iron and baked tiles. The rounded
walls of the old tukuls built with mud and wattle contrasted with the
rectangular shapes and geometrical planes of the brick built
multi-storeyed buildings, the blocks of flats and the villas of the
affluent, the government buildings and the grandiose, flag-bedecked
headquarters of the Organization of African Unity.
The distinguishing features of the surrounding countryside were the
plantations of tall eucalyptus trees, the ubiquitous blue gums that
provided firewood. It was the only fuel available to so many in this
poor and war-torn land, which over the centuries had been ravaged by
marauding armies and, more recently, by alien political doctrines.
After Nairobi the high-altitude air was cool and sweet when Royan and
Nicholas left the aircraft and walked across the tarmac to the terminal
building. As they entered, before they had even approached the row of
waiting immigration officers someone called his name.
"Sir Nicholas!" They both turned to the tall young woman who glided
towards them with all the grace of a features lit by a welcoming dancer,
her dark and delicate smile. She wore full'length tradition al skirts
which enhanced her movements.
"Welcome to my country of Ethiopia. I am Woizero Tessay." She looked at
Royan with interest, "And you must be Woizero Royan." She held out her
hand to her and liked each other Nicholas saw that the two women
immediately.
I will see to the "If you will let me have your passports. There is a
formalities while you relax in the VIP lounge.
from your British Embassy waiting there to greet you, man Sir Nicholas.
I don't know how he knew that you were arriving."
the VIP lounge.
There was only one person waiting i He was dressed in a well-cut
tropical suit and wore the orange, yellow and blue diagonally striped
old Sandhurst tie. He stood up and came to greet Nicholas immediately,
Nor, ? it's good to see you again Must be all
"Nicky, how are yo of twelve years, isn't it?"
"Hello, Geoffrey. I had no idea they had stuck you out here."
"Military attache. His Excellency sent me down to meet you as soon as he
heard that you and I had been at Sandhurst together." Geoffrey looked at
Royan with marked interest, and with a resigned air Nicholas introduced
them.
"Geoffrey Tennant. Be careful of him. Biggest ram I safe within half a
mile of north of the equator. No girl him."
"I say,. steady on,, Geoffrey protested, looking pleased with the
reference that Nicholas had given him. "Please don't believe a word the
man says, Dr Al Simma. Notorious prevaricator."
Geoffrey drew Nicholas aside and quickly gave him a r6sum6 of conditions
in the country, particularly in the outlying areas. "HE is a little
worried. He doesn't like the idea of you swarming around out there on
your own. Lots of nasty men down there in the Goiam. I told him that you
knew how to look after yourself.)
In a remarkably short time Woizero Tessay was back.
"I have cleared all your luggage, including the firearm and ammunition.
This is your temporary permit. You must keep it with you at all times
whilst you are in Ethiopia. Here are your passports - the visas are
stamped and in order. Our flight to Lake Tana leaves in an hour, so we
have plenty of time to check in."
"Any time you need a job, come and see me,'Nicholas commended her
efficiency.
Geoffrey Tennant walked with them as far as the departures gate, where
he shook hands, "Anything I can do, it goes without saying. "Serve to
Lead", Nicky."
"'Serve to lead"T Royan asked, as they walked out to the waiting
aircraft.
"Sandhurst's motto the explained.
"How nice, Nicky, she murmered.
"I have always considered Nicholas to be more dignified and
appropriate he said.
"Yes, but Nicky is so sweet."
the high, thin air the Twin Otter aircraft that
took them on the last,
northern, leg pitched and yawed in the updraughts; from the mountains
below.
Although they were at fifteen thousand feet above sea level, the ground
was close enough for them to make out the, villages and the sparse areas
of cultivation around them. Subjected for so many centuries to primitive
agricultural methods and to the uncontrolled grazing of domestic herds,
the land had a thin, impoverished look, and the bones of rock showed
through the thin red fleshing of earth.
Abruptly ahead of them the plateau over which they were flying was rent
through by a monstrous chasm. It was as though the earth had received a
mighty sword-stroke that struck through to her very bowels.
"The Abbay river!" Tessay leaned forward in her seat to tap Royan's
shoulder.
The rim of the gorge was Clear-cut, and then the slope dropped away at
an angle of over thirty degrees. The bare plains of the plateau gave way
immediately to the heavily forested walls of the gorge. They could make
out the candelabra shapes of giant euphorbia rising above the dense
jungle. In places the walls had collapsed in scree slopes of loose rock,
and in others they were up-thrust into bluffs and needles that erosion
had sculpted with a monstrous artistry into the figures of towering
humanoids and other fantastic creatures of stone.
Down and down it plunged, and they winged out over the void until they
could look directly down, a mile and more, on to the glittering snake of
the river in the depths.
The funnel shape of the upper walls formed a secondary rim as they
reached the sheer cliffs of the sub-gorge five hundred feet above the
Nile water. Deep down there between its terrible cliffs the river gouged
dark pools and long slithering runs through the red sandstone. In places
the gorge was forty miles across, in others it narrowed to under ten,
but through all its length the grandeur and the desolation were infinite
and eternal. Man had made no impression upon it.
"You will soon be down there," Tessay told them in a voice so awed that
it was almost a whisper, and they were both silent. Words seemed
superfluous in the face of such raw and savage nature.
.. Almost with relief they watched the northern wall rise to meet them,
and the high mountains of the Choke range stood up against the tall blue
African sky, higher than their fragile little craft was flying.