As he piled on some larger logs, Connor could hear the two of them whispering, their voices echoing off the rock wall.
‘Ow! The ground’s all stony.’
Amber swept away the debris with her hand. ‘You can rest your head on these leaves,’ she said, gathering up some green branches.
Henri lay down. ‘No animals will get us, will they?’
Amber shook her head. ‘The fire will scare them off. Now go to sleep.’
She appeared to hesitate, then leant forward and kissed him on the forehead. Henri stared up at her, evidently surprised by her unexpected tenderness. Then he said, ‘Mama and Papa are dead, aren’t they?’ His tone was matter-of-fact and all the more heart-rending for it.
Amber stroked his tousles of red hair gently from his face. ‘They might have escaped, like us.’
‘But how could they? They don’t have a bodyguard like Connor to protect them.’
Amber glanced over her shoulder at Connor. Their eyes met and he tried to offer her a reassuring smile. She turned back to her brother. ‘I’m sure they’ll be waiting at the lodge for us,’ she said. ‘Now close your eyes and get some rest. We’ve a long day ahead.’
Connor could tell from the tremor in her voice that Amber was just barely holding it together, trying not to show weakness in front of her brother. Connor admired her for that. Prodding a stick into the fire, he watched the sparks spiral up into the night. He too needed to appear strong for their benefit, but he felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders and a knot of deep anxiety gripping his stomach at the fear of failure. If it hadn’t been for Amber’s brave actions, Henri would be dead or dying by now, poisoned by the black mamba. And it would have been his fault. Even now the very thought of that snake sent a shiver down his spine. His phobia had rendered him powerless to protect either of them. He’d not been much of a bodyguard. More a liability. What if he froze again and failed to react? Maybe not against a snake, but a lion or a leopard or some other deadly animal. The incident had sown the seeds of doubt and he seriously questioned if he was up to the task ahead.
Amber appeared quietly at his side, her eyes glistening with tears.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked.
She nodded and pulled her knees into her chest. They lapsed into silence, listening to the snap and crackle of the fire while staring into the flames.
After a while, she asked, ‘Do you honestly think anyone else escaped?’
Connor thought back to the chaos of the ambush. ‘Gunner and Buju, perhaps. Also, I’m certain Minister Feruzi and Minister Rawasa and the others in their vehicle did. They’re probably raising the alarm as we speak, bringing in reinforcements. With any luck, Buju will be following our tracks and we’ll be picked up by a government patrol tomorrow.’
Amber rested her head on his shoulder; whether through tiredness or for comfort he couldn’t tell. ‘Thank you, Connor,’ she said.
‘For what?’
‘For saving our lives.’
Connor went back to prodding the fire. ‘I’m the one who should be thanking you. I was useless against that snake.’
‘Snake combat isn’t part of bodyguard training then?’
‘No, of course not,’ he replied, before realizing she was teasing him.
‘Don’t beat yourself up about it. We all have our fears to face. And you’ve eaten yours!’ she said with an impish grin.
Connor laughed. ‘I suppose that’s what you call true revenge.’
Amber sat up. ‘Can I ask you a question?’
Connor nodded. ‘Sure.’
‘How did the gunmen know where to ambush us?’
Connor turned to face her. ‘That’s something that’s been bothering me too,’ he admitted. ‘The attack had to be carefully planned; they’d even dug a trench. So they must have known the route in advance.’
Amber’s eyes widened in comprehension. ‘You mean someone told them. But who?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine. One of the soldiers? Perhaps a park ranger?’
‘Or even one of the ministers,’ suggested Amber darkly.
No Mercy had seen the white boy look straight at him just before the general gave the command to open fire. That second or so of advance warning had undoubtedly saved the boy from a bullet to the head. And, despite the number of rounds he’d drilled into the Land Rover, the boy’s lightning-fast reactions had also saved the other two passengers from being killed. Much as he hated to, No Mercy had to admire the boy’s warrior spirit.
The fact that there’d been three white kids travelling with the president’s convoy in the first place had surprised No Mercy. But their unexpected presence ultimately made no difference to ANL’s mission objective: to ambush and kill the president and all his entourage. It was just irritating that the kids had got away.
But they wouldn’t be free for much longer.
‘Which way did they go?’ Blaze demanded of the tracker.
Buju studied the ground surrounding the crashed Land Rover. His eyes read the confusion of footprints in the dirt, identifying three different sets before his attention was caught by a line of broken fern stems. He pointed west.
‘Then let’s go,’ said Blaze impatiently. ‘They’ve got a night’s head start on us.’
With Buju and Blaze leading the way, No Mercy followed with Dredd and two other soldiers from the jeep. The jungle was barely awake, dawn filtering through the canopy in shafts of spectral light, and birds only just beginning to sing their morning chorus. As the unit of ANL soldiers trekked through the undergrowth, the tracker paused every so often to look for another sign – a footprint, a damaged piece of vegetation, an unusual displacement of soil, a few strands of red hair caught on a vine. The going was slow but steady, despite Blaze’s urgings to move faster.
Occasionally Buju would have to cast ahead, sending the soldiers in two different directions until they found the next clue. Then they would pick up the trail again and move forwards, closing in on their prey with every step. But at times the trail disappeared and Buju would be forced to make an educated guess, assessing the terrain and vegetation for the most likely direction of travel.
‘Are you sure we’re going the right way?’ said Blaze as Buju stopped beside a fallen tree.
In answer to his question, the tracker picked up a bloodsoaked wipe from the ground.
‘One of them’s injured!’ exclaimed Dredd with glee.
No Mercy smiled to himself. Perhaps he had shot the boy after all.
‘That’ll slow them down,’ smirked Blaze.
Buju knelt and examined a print in the earth. ‘Leopard. Big one. Passed this way an hour ago.’
The soldiers exchanged uneasy looks at the thought of a man-eater in their vicinity.
‘We’re not hunting leopard,’ Blaze snapped. ‘Just tell me where they headed next.’
Buju scanned the undergrowth and noted a sharp change in direction. He pointed south.
The trail zigzagged through the jungle until the soldiers hit an animal track. Here, even No Mercy could spot the sign – a clear print of a boy’s trainer heading upslope. Sensing they were drawing close to their quarry, the soldiers chambered their assault rifles. Unless the kids had walked through the night, they couldn’t have made much more progress.
Cresting a small ridge, they stopped again. Buju studied the ground and surveyed the landscape.
‘The trail’s gone cold,’ he announced.
‘What do you mean gone cold?’ snarled Blaze. ‘You claim to be the best tracker in Burundi. Find them!’
‘It’s harder to track someone on rocky terrain,’ Buju replied evenly.
Even through his mirrored sunglasses, Blaze’s glare was searing. His right hand began to twitch and No Mercy took a cautious step back, recognizing the telltale signs of the man’s legendary short fuse. Unless the tracker produced the goods very soon, there was little doubt that he’d be introduced to Blaze’s machete and meet a gruesome end.
Further down the h
illside a wisp of smoke drifted above the canopy, catching one of the soldier’s eyes.
‘Look! There! A fire!’
Connor yawned, stretched and rubbed his eyes. After a night lying on the hard rock floor of the cave, his body felt stiff and sore. Amber was curled next to him, still asleep, her expression so peaceful that Connor had no desire to wake her, not with the sort of day that was ahead of them. He scratched his chest and sat up. Dawn had broken, the warming rays of the sun fingering their way into the cave. Birds warbled in the nearby treetops and Connor heard the distinctive whooping of hyenas and the gruff roars of lions rising up from the savannah below.
Africa was coming to life.
The fire had burnt out overnight, its ashes smouldering and leaving a smoky haze at the cave entrance. Connor gave himself another good scratch. His skin was feeling itchy, not surprising given the layers of grime, sweat and insect repellent. Then a painful nip on his leg caused him to wince. Glancing down, he discovered a massive ant with hooked jaws biting into his skin. He knocked it off with the back of his hand, but instantly it was replaced by three more equally monstrous ants. Then another six. As Connor went to dislodge these, he was met by a terrifying sight – a seething column of black driver ants swarming across the floor and crawling over him.
Connor jumped to his feet and brushed them away in a frenzy. But he was fighting a losing battle as the teeming mass surged into the cave and up his body.
Amber woke with a start. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked as he slapped himself repeatedly.
‘Ants!’ cried Connor.
Seeing him prance around the cave like a mad hatter, Amber began to giggle.
‘It’s not funny!’ he said, ripping off his top to get at the ones now crawling under his shirt.
But Amber couldn’t help herself. After all the horrors of the previous day, her laughter was a much-needed release and she giggled uncontrollably – until she too saw the floor alive and rippling with the army of black ants.
‘They’re all over me!’ she yelped, leaping up and shaking her arms and legs.
Connor had no idea if the ants were poisonous or not, but their bites hurt like crazy, leaving nasty red puncture wounds. Overrun by the horde, he realized they had to act fast.
‘The pool!’ he cried as she too pulled off her T-shirt.
Running out of the cave, they both jumped into the water.
The coolness was an immediate relief and the ants were soon washed off, floating away like leaves with the current. Connor helped Amber remove the stubborn ones trapped in her long hair.
‘All gone,’ he said, flicking the last into the water.
Amber turned back to him. As she did so, their arms became entwined and they ended up in an unexpected embrace. For a full second they simply stared at one another. Then she kissed him on the lips.
It was an impassioned, almost desperate kiss. And Connor abandoned himself to it, forgetting their situation, ignoring the danger they were in and simply relishing the moment of sweet delirium.
But his head quickly overruled his heart. He knew it was wrong, even as he continued to kiss her. Amber was vulnerable. Heartbroken from the split with her boyfriend. Distraught at her parents’ unknown fate. He guessed she was seeking comfort and security, confusing it with intimacy. And he couldn’t blame her – the kiss was an escape for him too. But he knew from past experience that life-or-death situations intensified feelings, leading to developments that might not have occurred under ordinary circumstances. He reminded himself that he was her bodyguard. And, as such, he couldn’t cross that line into a personal relationship. Connor had made that mistake before, Charley having burst in on him and the US president’s daughter at just such a moment. A second violation of the strict ‘no involvement with clients’ rule would undoubtedly lead to his dismissal from Buddyguard.
Connor gently pulled away.
Amber looked up at him, confusion in her eyes.
‘I shouldn’t … I can’t as your bodyguard.’ He glanced towards the cave, hoping that Henri hadn’t witnessed their brief kiss. Then he was struck by the horrific realization that he was still in there with the ants. ‘Henri?’ he called.
Amber spun round, their intimacy forgotten in an instant. ‘Henri!’ she shouted, Connor having got no reply.
They scrambled out of the pool, both picturing Henri covered head to foot, the ants swarming into his nose and mouth, suffocating him. Reaching the cave entrance, they found the ferocious ants still on their relentless march across the cave floor but no Henri.
‘He can’t have gone far,’ said Connor, guessing her brother had also fled the tidal wave of insects. His eyes scanned the undergrowth, looking for any indication which direction he might have run.
‘What if he’s got lost? Or he’s been taken by a wild animal?’ Amber said in a frantic panic.
‘Then we’ll find him,’ Connor replied, grabbing his Go-bag before it also fell prey to the ants.
‘What have you two been up to?’
Startled, Connor and Amber spun to see Henri step from behind a bush. He stared at them, dripping wet and shirtless, with a knowing smirk on his lips.
Amber’s face flushed red and she snatched up her T-shirt. Then, hiding her embarrassment behind anger, she demanded, ‘Where have you been? You worried the hell out of me!’
Henri held up his hands, filled with fresh berries. ‘Breakfast,’ he said.
Relieved just to see the boy safe, Connor said, ‘Next time don’t wander off on your own.’
‘Sorry – but I thought you’d be hungry,’ he replied, offering Connor a handful.
Shaking out the last of the ants from his shirt, Connor inspected the berries. ‘These could be poisonous.’
‘Don’t worry, I saw a bunch of monkeys eating them,’ Henri explained, confidently popping one into his mouth.
Connor slipped on his shirt and, overruling his caution, ate his share of the berries. Then he spread out the remains of the fire with his foot. As he covered it with earth to ensure it was completely out, a final waft of smoke rose into the air.
‘Fresh,’ said Buju, examining the remains of the berries drying on the rock. ‘But it could just be monkeys.’
Blaze’s stony expression suggested he wasn’t convinced. He nodded a silent order to the others to check the cave and its surroundings. They quickly fanned out, their eyes to the ground.
No Mercy spotted a patch of displaced earth. He kicked away the dirt to reveal the ashes of a recent fire.
‘It must be them,’ he called to Blaze.
One of the soldiers then found the charred skin of a snake. He held it up for the others to see.
‘They killed and ate a black mamba!’ he exclaimed with more than a little admiration.
Dredd wandered into the cave. His bare feet crunched on the ground. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness before he spied the pile of leaves near the back wall.
‘They slept in here,’ he informed Blaze.
Feeling a crawling sensation, he looked down to see a black mass swarming up his legs. His eyes widening in horror, Dredd bolted out of the cave.
‘Siafu! Siafu!’ he screamed, stamping his feet manically to dislodge the vicious driver ants as No Mercy and the other soldiers laughed.
‘Dance, Dredd, dance!’ taunted one of the men.
‘Silence!’ barked Blaze, indifferent to the boy’s suffering. Turning his back on Dredd, he demanded of the tracker: ‘How long since the kids were here?’
Buju found a half-eaten berry, its skin dried out but its flesh still moist. ‘Ten minutes, maybe less.’
‘And which way did they go?’
The tracker’s eyes surveyed the undergrowth. No stems were broken or leaves bruised. No foliage flattened. No footprints in the earth. That left only one obvious route.
‘They’re following the stream,’ he said.
Blaze unsheathed his machete, a grin on his lips. ‘Now the hunt really begins.’
; At first ankle-deep, the water was soon at knee-height and on occasions Connor, Amber and Henri found themselves wading up to their waists. The rocky bed made walking difficult and, as they followed the stream downhill, the current strengthened, threatening to sweep them away. However, without any clear paths through the dense undergrowth, Connor had determined that the stream was the quickest and most direct route out of the jungle.
The three of them trekked in silence, Connor taking the lead, Henri behind and Amber at the rear. She hadn’t brought up the subject of their kiss and neither had he, but whenever he glanced back to check on them she’d hold his gaze a moment before resolutely looking away. Connor couldn’t tell whether this was through shyness, flirting or regret on her part. But there were far greater things to worry about than the consequences of a kiss.
Once they had navigated the stream down to the edge of the jungle, they’d have to cross the open savannah, avoiding elephants, buffalos and lions, while trying not to be spotted by rebel militia. To make matters worse, Connor had no map and only a vague idea of where the lodge was located. If by some miracle they did manage to reach it safely, they still had to hope the facility was in government hands and that the comms were functional.
The sheer scale of the task ahead seemed impossible. But a phrase he’d once read in a book came to mind: Don’t try to eat an elephant for lunch. The bizarre saying had confused him at first. Then his gran had explained that it meant any task the size of an elephant should be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks. That way it wasn’t such a daunting prospect. Applying the same principle to their current situation, Connor needed to focus on leading them safely through the jungle. That would be his first goal. Anything after that could wait.
The stream widened and Henri came up by his side.
‘I never thought a safari would be like this,’ he said, attempting a smile that only revealed how scared he really was.
‘Nor did I,’ admitted Connor. ‘But you’ll have some story to tell your friends back home.’
Bodyguard: Ambush (Book 3) Page 14