He hadn’t realised how fast his heart could beat until the episode with the lions, and now, finding himself in the proximity of something else, made it all come back once more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
On Konner’s arrival at Lechwe Lodge, Bram parked the Land Rover near to what looked like the main building and said, ‘We’re here! Come on into the lodge where we’ll sort you out with a drink.’
Jowidah got out and quickly came around to meet Konner, as he was getting out, too, and said, ‘Follow me, sir. What can I get you after such a long journey?’
‘Give me cold beer if you have one, Jowidah.’
‘Yes, we do, we have Castle Beer, which is brewed in South Africa. There’s also Mosi beer, which is brewed in Zambia, and a beer called Dr. Livingstone's Lager, or you can have a Budweiser.’
‘What’s the Dr. Livingstone's Lager like, as that sounds interesting?’
‘That’s brewed in Lusaka with fruit from the baobab tree. It’s good; I recommend you try it, and they’ve been kept nice and cold.’
‘OK, give me one of those.’
‘Dinner will be served at 6 p.m., sir, so would you like a small snack with your beer?’
‘Yes, I’m really hungry. I don’t get on well with airplane food.’
‘Coming up, sir.’
Jowidah disappeared into the building and left Konner standing by the Land Rover, as Bram attended to the luggage. ‘I’ll take these to your room, if you would like to follow me,’ Bram said.
Konner followed the largely built man as he picked up his luggage like they were toy bags and walked up the two steps onto the veranda and through the open front door. The floors were all made of wood and had been varnished in a dark, redwood colour, and the walls were painted white with numerous paintings dotted about which looked like local scenes.
About halfway down the entrance hall was the skin of a zebra splayed out, which still had its tail attached to it, and on the way to his bedroom, Konner glanced into what looked like the lounge, where he could see on the wall the head of a huge, maned lion.
‘Wow, that’s amazing. I’m hoping to get one of those on my stay,’ Konner commented to Bram.
‘We should be able to, sir; it just depends on where the male lions are when we go out tomorrow,’ Bram replied. ‘We may have to drive quite far, though, and it’s an early start.’
‘That’s OK with me. I just want to get a trophy.’
‘What shooting have you done to date?’ Bram asked.
‘I’ve done plenty of bear shooting and shot many deer so far, but this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.’
‘What type of bears can you shoot in the US?’
‘In Alaska, with the right permit, you can still shoot grizzly bears, which is what I’ve done. I got one that was nearly 1,500 pounds.’ Konner paused for effect. ‘He was one hell of a bear.’
‘Yes, that’s one large animal. You know, male lions are only between 400 to 500 pounds, so nothing on that scale, so I hope you’re not going to be disappointed.’
‘I want to get the biggest I can, though. Is that possible? I know they can grow to around 550 pounds.’
‘Well, on our territory there are none that big, which is where we can shoot uninhibited. There’s a pride of lions with two males. These are probably only around 400 pounds each, maybe a little bit more.’
‘For me, I always like to get the biggest, and when I booked and spoke with Dravin he thought it would be possible,’ Konner fished.
‘Well, I know we’ve seen a group of male lions roaming the plains over on our neighbouring territory. They sometimes stray onto our land. Animals don’t recognise our man-imposed borders, and wander where they like,’ Bram said. ‘They are all pretty large males, and one of them could well be around 500 pounds.’
‘Great! Then that’s where we should go.’
‘I’ll need to check with Dravin, as we’re not supposed to shoot on that land, and it’s owned by an English guy. It may be that he’s spoken to him.’
‘Isn’t it so vast out here that they’ll not know what we are doing?’ Konner probed.
‘Yes, it is, but we have to be careful or we’ll end up getting shot ourselves for poaching.’
‘That wouldn’t happen, would it?’ Konner said with concern in his voice.
‘Yes, it could. Certain landowners, and in particular the ones that get regular tourists looking to go on safari, don’t like hunters. But the English guy, whose name is Druker, isn’t set up for tourists, so I don’t really know his views,’ Bram said.
‘However, I do know that a couple of the guys that work for him are not in favour of animal shooting, as we came up against them before when we were just on their borders shooting elephant.’
‘But shooting a fellow human — surely that wouldn’t happen?’
‘You’re in Africa now, sir. We are out in the middle of nowhere, and it’d be pretty easy to shoot someone and no one would be any the wiser. Feed the carcase to the vultures and there’d be no evidence,’ Bram said as they arrived at Konner’s room.
‘Here we are. You have an en-suite bathroom and your towels are on your bed; breakfast will be eaten on our way tomorrow, as we’ll be leaving at 5 a.m.,’ Bram said, placing Konner's bags on the floor next to the bed.
The room was bright and airy, with a large window open to the air, and as Konner looked around he could hear the chatter of some birds in a tree just outside.
‘I’ll leave you to it, and I’m sure by now that Jowidah has managed to rustle up a beer and a small snack for you.’
‘I’ll follow you back right now.’
‘I’m not going back that way right now, sir; you’ll have to find your own way for now,’ Bram said abruptly, which shocked Konner, who was not expecting a reaction like that.
‘But I’ll make that call to Dravin for you, to see if we can go looking for those three large male lions tomorrow, whether they are on our territory or not.’ Then he disappeared down the hallway.
Konner made his way along the corridor away from his room and back to where he’d come from. On the way he couldn’t resist going into the lounge to take a closer look at the lion’s head. As he walked into the room, the enormous head stared at him with feelingless, amber eyes. The mane was dark in colour. It looked like a very mature male, from his understanding of what male lions looked like.
‘Sir, your beer,’ Jowidah announced, which made Konner jump, as he was completely engrossed in his examination of the creature. ‘Beautiful head, isn’t it.’
‘Err, yes, it is,’ Konner said, as he was a bit shocked at being found snooping around the house.
‘That was shot by Dravin about three years ago. He was a magnificent creature and I think around 540 pounds.’
‘I’m looking forward to tomorrow and shooting my first lion,’ Konner replied, as he took a swig of the Dr. Livingstone Lager. ‘That tastes good, and it’s cold, too. Nothing worse than a warm beer.’
‘Would you like a pretzel snack, sir?’ Jowidah offered, as he held the bowl up to Konner.
‘Yes, thank you. And call me Konner.’
‘Dinner is in about 45 minutes, and it will be held outside on the veranda,’ Jowidah said. ‘You’ll be dining on your own, as you are our only guest this week, and Dravin is away on business.’
With this Jowidah left the lounge and Konner was alone once more. He decided to walk back to the front of the building and out onto the veranda. He looked around the small holding and took in the warmth, as it had been cold when he left New York. He was careful to keep out of the sun, as he had sensitive skin, and although he had put on some sun cream, he preferred to keep out of the glare as much as possible.
There were some chairs to the left of the front door, set facing out into the open area in front of the lodge. So he decided sit in one of these to drink his beer and eat the pretzels.
As he surveyed the area around the building, he saw that the ground was hard and dry
. It looked like it hadn’t rained in a while, although he’d been told it was the beginning of the rainy season.
As he sat there, he thought about the next morning. He could hardly wait for his adventure to begin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
There was something moving amongst the greenery in the rocky area above the cave. David squinted, trying to see what it was before deciding on whether or not to retreat to the protection of the cave.
‘How big is this animal? Is it dangerous?’ he thought.
And then he saw what had made the noise: It was a large baboon moving around in the small trees above the cave. In fact, as he looked closer, there were a few baboons in the branches looking down at him from the safety of the trees.
Not sure whether these creatures were dangerous or not, he backed away slowly, eyeing the cave entrance. Then he shrugged and decided his only option was to go looking for help.
As far as he saw it, the only place that help might exist was somewhere other than here, so he needed to make it across the plain, which stretched out behind him. He turned around again slowly, not wanting to alert the baboons any more than he had to, and looked out over the foreign landscape that seemed to go on for ever into the distance.
He began to work his way down the slightly rocky slope towards the flat land where the grass grew and where the wildebeest had been grazing before. However, as he walked, he was looking around and still on high alert, as it was only a short while ago that he had watched a pride of lions in action.
His heart was in his mouth as he edged his way down very slowly. The dry ground, which had loose gravel over the surface, made him slip and slide, as he gingerly descended. The gravel he found hard on his bare feet.
As he progressed slowly step by step, David kept treading on sharp stones, which made him recoil with pain. He found that even the tiniest of stones bore into the undersides of his feet and hurt.
Above him something caught his eye, which made him freeze to the spot, worried about whether or not it represented another form of danger. He quickly realised, though, that it was a large, eagle-like bird circling in the sky high above the tree tops.
The bird floated effortlessly on the ascending thermals that were generated by the heat rising from the sun-baked land below. The bird’s enormous wing span was spread out and he could see the individual feathers at the wing extremities fanned out like huge hands. The wings were perfectly designed to catch every wave of thermal heat, allowing the creature to waste no energy as it glided above the savannah searching for its next meal.
As he observed this soaring creature, he decided that it didn’t present any danger to him.
He soon began making his way across the open plain, feeling absolutely defenceless. For the first time in his life he was truly alone, and although he had lived on his own for quite some time now, this was different; it wasn’t just loneliness, it was complete isolation. He was also feeling totally exposed, not only because he was naked, but also because he knew there were dangerous animals around.
He knew that predators could recognise vulnerability, and that they were always ready to take advantage of any opportunity that presented itself. He knew there were no rules in the wild; it was a place where only the strong survive.
By now he was walking a bit faster, even though his feet were hurting from the stones, and soon he had reached the trees. However, instead of feeling better for having done so, he felt just as insecure and vulnerable, as the trees could be hiding his next animal nightmare.
As he moved between the trees he found that the grass got thinner, but also there were more broken branches and yet more stones that made it harder on his feet. As he moved even further into the cover of the trees, he saw something move in amongst them. What he’d seen was grey in colour and appeared to be huge. His heart was already pounding, and it felt like it was about to jump out of his chest. He tried to swallow, but his parched mouth was now so dry, it was almost impossible to do so.
Keen to keep distance between himself and whatever this creature was, he trod carefully around a tree. But then he stepped on a twig, which made his presence known.
In response to hearing the sound of the breaking twig, the creature moved and turned to face David. As it moved out from its cover, David stood frozen, not wanting to move a muscle in the face of this new threat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Whilst Scott had been at the gym that morning, Druker had come to find him, as he suspected he would. He’d managed just half an hour of training before the interruption, but had to stop as soon as his boss arrived, as he knew that today was very important to him.
Scott was well aware of his own anger issues, which were something he had grown up with. This meant that he was always wary of it kicking in with any new boss. He had ended up in arguments before with previous bosses; this was why his last job had come to an end, when he had got into a fight and was sacked as a result.
He had spent a few years in the UK at a boarding school from the age of eleven, which is where he’d acquired the English part of his accent. But because he'd spent the beginning of his life in South Africa, his accent was tinted with a South African twang.
At school he was always getting into fights, and, because he was always bigger than most, he usually won. As a result of him mostly winning, the teachers would come down harder on him, since his assailants would usually end up extremely bloody and there would not normally be a mark on him.
His anger issues followed him into his later life. He would find that in bars, especially if he’d had a drink or two, he would end up in fights on a regular basis. He would make sure that he could handle himself and would go to the gym religiously to work out, but he also attended boxing classes.
He had a boxing bag in Druker’s gym, so he would keep up his boxing as far as he could. This was good for him to let out any steam and to help him keep his anger issues in check.
He had returned home last night with his boss in his jet, with their first two marks. Druker explained to Scott that the individuals they captured in England were to be referred to as marks. He insisted on this because he didn’t want them to be seen as people. Druker would explain that when anyone referred to other animals on a game reserve, they were referred to as a collective, like lions or elephants, and not by individual names. Druker was adamant that these captives were not people anymore, but merely animals back in the wild, and they were there to see how long they could survive. He allowed only brief references to their names in order to identify the individual mark they were referring to.
His boss had decided to get two people on this last trip to the UK, which was to begin the project, and Scott was there to help with their capture. Before the trip, they had been briefed by the vet, who had given them all the necessary medication, anaesthetics, and syringes for the capture to go smoothly.
During the capture, Druker had explained that it was vital that they inject the people as soon as possible. This ensured they were neither able raise an alarm nor put up any serious resistance, but Druker was also keen that the person had little chance to think about what was going on.
Once they had sedated there first captive, who in this case was a man called Lane, they got him to their car. They then had to get the next person and sedate him, too. Their next plan was to get the pair of them to Cambridge Airport as soon as possible, and, as they were flying in a private jet and because the airport was very small, there were not the usual customs and immigration procedures to follow. This made things very easy for them to get their captives to the aircraft without much fuss. They’d both been very nervous, though, as they approached the airport, as this was the very first time they were taking two people out of the UK in this way.
In order to get Lane and Smith from the car to the aeroplane, they put both men into wheel chairs and thus were able to wheel them to the plane. It didn’t matter that they were sedated, as there weren’t the usual checks that happened on scheduled airlines. However, as they we
re approaching the plane, one of the refuelling men commented on the two sleeping men in wheel chairs. Druker simply passed them off with a quick comment about it being a long day.
Once they were on board, their two captives were placed into separate boxes that Druker had someone make especially for this purpose. The inside of the boxes were retrofitted like coffins, as they were lined with a similar material and were of similar size and shape in order to accommodate a person.
The vet had explained the dosage they needed to give to their captives and the intervals over which they should be injected. This was in order to keep them sedated throughout the flight and hopefully up to the point they were deposited in the wild. This way the captives would not remember anything about their journey. It was Druker’s idea to completely confuse his captives, so when they awoke for the first time in the wild, they’d be completely lost and wonder what had happened.
Scott was tasked with this job, to keep an eye on the intervals and to administer the injections, but between each injection, he would put the lid back on the boxes, which were locked down so that the captives could not be disturbed during the flight. Each box had its own supply of air, which was fed directly through the aeroplane’s air-conditioning system, so that each captive was able to breathe.
The vet was going to be meeting them when they arrived back to base, in order to put a tracker unit into each of them and to check over the ‘patients.’
As they had finally landed at just past 5:30 in the evening, it was already going dark. As they taxied to a stop, they could see the vet’s plane already sitting on the side of the runway.
They had been met that evening by Joshua in one of the Land Rovers. Accompanied by the vet, he came roaring up and stopped in a cloud of dust right next to the plane.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Nothing Left But Fear Page 8