Even though he knew these were to be the last few seconds of his life, Graham seemed to be thinking extremely clearly and braced himself for the inevitable.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Druker was sipping his usual red wine when he began to watch the tracker screen a bit more intently. It appeared from the tracking dot that Lane was moving faster than he had been previously.
‘He’s running. I wonder what from?’ Druker thought, taking another slurp.
He got up and began to pace around the room impatiently, as he saw the dot representing Lane had now suddenly come to a stop. Druker was wishing that he had cameras mounted out in the field so he could witness what was happening. He had considered investing in cameras before he began his project, but this would have been impractical, what with the size of area he owned and needed to cover.
He was staring at the screen, almost willing the dot to move, which would indicate that it wasn’t all over. Although in reality he didn’t care too much if his marks died, he wanted them to last a while too, so that he could enjoy his little experiment with people he considered to be lowlife types.
‘It was a good job I have booked my next trip to the UK, as I have a feeling it might already be all over for one of my first marks,’ he thought.
He continued to pace around his office, not quite knowing what to do next, which was unusual for him, as he’d always been sure of himself and nothing ever really flustered him. This clearly did.
‘Perhaps I’ll go and get Scott again and then get him and Joshua to go out and take a look,’ he thought.
‘No, I must be patient. This is the first one, and I don’t want to mess it up by going out there too soon. He could well be having a rest.’
As he looked at the screen, the dot representing Lane was still stationary, but the one representing Smith was still moving slowly in the same direction as before. Despite the excitement of what was happening, he put his glass down and left his office to go to the kitchen, as he was beginning to feel hungry.
He had a lady that did all his cooking for him, as he never really enjoyed cooking himself. He’d had a late breakfast this morning and had told Mulubwa he would have his lunch a bit later than usual, but now he was already feeling hungry, so he went to find her, to see if she could get the meal done sooner.
‘Perhaps it was all the excitement,’ he thought as he walked towards the kitchen.
‘Mulubwa,’ he called, as he entered the room.
‘Yes, dear, what can I do for you?’ she replied in her usual calm and polite manner.
Mulubwa was a large lady and had spent most of her life in Kakumbi. She had been the cook for the previous owners, and when he took the place over, he was keen to keep her on. She lived on site in one of the small houses, so really it was a good life for her, as she got paid for her work and had no accommodation costs. Thomas, her husband, lived on site, too, working as the gardener, but he also doubled up as a handyman, so any small jobs that needed attending to he did.
He was also keen for them to keep quiet about what was going on, as they were sure to find out, so he upped their salaries, which they were more than happy with. Neither of them asked any questions and he said nothing to them, but they soon understood why their wages had more than doubled when their new boss took over, once the marks arrived. However, he explained to the men in charge of the experiment they must keep things away from Mulubwa and her husband as much as possible so they didn’t really get to know what was going on.
Mulubwa always dressed in very bright-coloured clothes and today was no exception. The dress she was wearing was predominantly a very lively yellow, with black streaks running across the width of it. She would also always wear a Kente style hat, which again had brilliant colours, which usually matched her dresses.
Druker loved her cooking, and especially liked it when she made authentic African-style dishes.
Mulubwa smiled at him as he came into the kitchen, and stopped what she was doing.
‘I’m feeling a bit hungry, despite my late breakfast, so any chance of getting my lunch sometime soon, please?’ he asked.
‘Of course, my dear, I’ve done all the prep work anyway, so how does 20 minutes sound to you?’ she replied.
‘Perfect. I’ll eat it on the veranda, please.’
‘No problem. I will have the table set for you in a short while, dear.’
With that answer he left the kitchen and went back to his office, whilst he waited for her to finish his lunch for him.
He immediately went to the tracking screen to see if Lane had moved, but it appeared he hadn’t changed position at all; the dot seemed to be in the same place. He went to his computer to check when the last movement was and confirmed Lane hadn’t moved now for about half-an-hour. However, it did show that he had moved a couple of metres prior to his current stationary location.
‘Perhaps he is crawling along the ground injured,’ he thought, trying to explain the small progress his computer was showing.
CHAPTER THIRTY
David was still curled up for what was just a few seconds when the rhino struck again. It was using its elongated horn to toss him up into the air.
With each blow, his body was being mangled more and more. The massive impacts were crushing his internal organs, which bore little protection from his skin and his small layer of sagging muscle.
As the rhinoceros proceeded to gore at him, his screams got louder and louder. He was being pushed around like a toy, as the animal snorted and grunted and the ground around him erupted into a huge cloud of dust.
Then the rhinoceros suddenly stopped its punishing onslaught and retreated from the scene with its head held high, letting out a few last grunts as it departed. David lay motionless. He was in shock and almost unconscious at this point. He was aware the animal wasn’t there now, but he hadn’t seen it disappear into the trees to find its calf.
As he came around, he realised that he must have passed out or had been knocked out from the beating he’d taken from the protective mother. He was unable to move, although he slowly opened his eyes. The adrenalin in his blood was now at much reduced levels, which meant that he could feel intense pain all over his body. But as his senses started to awaken again, he began to smell blood and quickly realised that the blood had to be his own.
He tried to move and un-curl his shattered body, and as he did he looked down and realised that he’d got a huge gash across his stomach. The slash was deep and went right through to his abdominal cavity, and as he tried to sit up he could see that his intestines showed through the rip.
It was now that he realised the seriousness of his situation and that if he were to survive he would need help very soon. As David sat there and watched blood ooze from his near mortal injury, he began to feel sick, but he also struggled to keep his eyes open. He was now going in and out of consciousness, and when he was awake, images of his family were all he could think about — his parents that he’d not seen for quite some time were at the forefront of his mind.
‘They will never know what happened to me,’ he thought, as tears rolled down his face.
He then began to wonder what he had done to deserve this and whether his behaviour at home was connected in some way. Lying there in the dust feeling sorry for himself, he began to reflect on his life. He knew now that it had been completely wasted. Realising that it was too late to do anything about it, tears flowed more freely from his already blood-shot eyes. Muttering to himself, he found himself asking for someone to come and help him, but he knew that this was never likely to happen.
As David lay there, he could feel the sun beating down on his exposed body and that his mouth had become parched even more. He began to resign himself to the idea of dying and never seeing his family or England ever again, but then he was suddenly aware of the sound of laughter, or what sounded like laughter, nearby. It was a sound that was familiar to him, but he was not quite sure why.
‘Maybe someone has come to help — but why w
ould they be laughing at me?’ he thought. ‘Perhaps they are laughing at my nakedness.’
Only he couldn’t really care about that right now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Scott was having a break for a while and sat out in the sun on a small, wooden chair that was positioned just outside his room. He idly watched a pair of Vervet Monkeys that were playing in the trees next to the main house. These monkeys seemed to be resident to the area, as they would often be in this tree. On many occasions, Mulubwa would bring food out for them, which of course encouraged them to stay around.
He was reflecting on his job, which had only been explained to him after he’d accepted the role. He knew full well that each of Druker’s employees would have been told the same thing as he was.
Once he’d begun his new role, his boss explained to him that he was keen to look after the marks on their way out to Africa, as he wanted to make sure they were fit enough for the ordeal they were about to embark upon. After that, they were to be treated like animals.
Druker had also explained on a few occasions that if during their work they came across poachers, that they would not be tolerated and were to be shot on sight. Scott wasn’t quite sure whether Druker was only concerned about poachers killing animals because of them playing a key part in his experiment, or whether he did in fact care about these creatures, like he did.
Each of them carried a small hand gun on their person at all times, together with keeping rifles in their Land Rovers, just in case they came across any poachers. Poachers were always heavily armed and were usually after rhinos or elephants for their horns and tusks, to export them to China.
He also began to reflect on how much he was being paid for his role. He recalled his interview and his second meeting with Druker, which was held in the office in his home, only at that time the room didn’t have quite the number of computers and monitors as it did now.
The job that he had originally applied for, or what he thought he was applying for when he met Druker in the bar, was the job of an animal tracker. However, now that he had the job, this initial description wasn't too far from the truth — only the animals he was tracking were a bit different from what he'd expected.
Druker had asked Scott a number of questions, some that were relevant to the job he was looking to fill, and some that were quite strange questions at the time. These questions did seem odd back then, but now they made complete sense. Druker was testing people to see whether they would mind working on his weird project. Druker was also, and more importantly, trying to find out whether he could trust anyone he hired, as he was obviously concerned that they might turn him in to the authorities.
He recalled thinking, despite the fact that Druker had a more than generous stomach and was clearly not in very good physical shape, he was obviously not a man to be trifled with. There was something about his body language that he instantly knew there’s no messing with this guy.
What he was surprised at was how he managed to select the right men; it was as though he had a sixth sense about the way they would react to his experiment. Either that, or all men in this part of Africa were so desperate for money they simply didn't care about what work they did.
Scott reflected for a moment more on what he was doing here and how he felt, knowing that he was responsible for putting people in direct danger. He also considered how he’d feel when one of the marks was killed out in the bush - the result of all this thinking was one, clear thought: ‘Fuck it! Let it happen!’
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The laughing sound that David could hear was more of a cackle, and he realised instantly that it wasn’t human at all; there wasn’t anyone laughing at him.
It was a menacing sound, not a pleasant one. It sent his fear to primeval levels, as he sensed the company around him was a hostile one, a presence that told him he was being stalked.
Eyes closed, he was slumped in the dirt, not moving and barely conscious, when yet more pain hit him. He felt something grab at his leg and a new intense pain seared through his body. The adrenalin that was already flowing through his veins from the rhino attack had long since subsided to a level that didn’t anaesthetise this new pain. And then something grabbed at his stomach and he could feel his intestine being drawn out, at which point he opened his eyes to come face to face with his worst nightmare.
He realised that he was being eaten alive. He was staring into the eyes of a wild animal, with a menacing snarl and large, yellow teeth coated in saliva, which was almost dripping from the tips of its teeth. The laughing made sense now, as he recalled from his trip to Colchester Zoo where they had laughing hyenas.
He then felt and heard the crunch of his leg bone being crushed in the huge, powerful mouth of another hyena. He screamed in vain for help and tried to lash out at his aggressors with his now very weak arms, but it was futile; his fate had been sealed after the rhino attack. The hyenas had been drawn to the smell of his blood and were never animals to pass up an easy meal.
The last thought that went through David’s mind, as the scavengers gorged themselves on his bloodied flesh, was, ‘How did I end up in this place?’
He saw the picture of Africa in the office of a tanned man with blue eyes…then he drifted away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Druker was still staring at the tracking screen and the stationary dot that represented Lane, which had not now moved for over an hour. He got up to fill his mug with more coffee, as he’d finished his wine, and when he returned to the screen again, he realised that there was something different — the spot marking Lane on the map had completely disappeared, which left the one dot representing Smith.
Not quite realising what this meant and thinking there must be a problem with the system, he went to his computer to check the settings and to refresh the page, but this simply confirmed that Lane’s tracking spot was gone.
‘Looks like he’s been got,’ Druker thought to himself. ‘Unless the device has got a fault or run out of power.’
He then grabbed his radio, instead of going out to get Scott to call him in, and within a few seconds Scott was back in his office staring at the same screen, which lacked the dot representing Lane.
‘What does that mean, Druk?’ Scott asked.
‘Well, it could mean the tracker unit has failed or that the battery has run out.’
‘Is that possible?’
‘I guess it is, but these units cost a lot each, so it’s unlikely. But to make sure, will you and Joshua or Ken go and take a look right away?’
Before Scott left his office, Druker was able to go into the system and give him details of the location at which the unit had stopped transmitting. Druker gave him the hand-held tracking device to take with them, just in case Lane’s tracker appeared whilst they were out looking for him.
He left Druker’s office right away to find one of his colleagues. Joshua was still manning the radios, listening in for local tour guides, whilst Ken was standing out in the yard cleaning his guns. Scott shouted to Ken to join him, and started to explain to him what had happened as they walked to the nearest Land Rover.
‘We need to go over to Area Two and see what has happened to one of the marks. Get in with me and let’s get going,’ Scott said, as he jumped into the driver’s seat of the Land Rover.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
As they set off in the direction of Area Two and the cave where Lane had been left earlier that day, Scott told Ken about what had happened in Druker’s office.
He explained to Ken that they had an idea of where the mark was and the possibility that the tracking unit had failed, but said he was sure that something more sinister had happened to the guy.
‘I suggest we go to the base of the cave where we dropped him off this morning and then track his movements from there,’ Scott said.
‘So, what do you think has happened to him then, Scott?’ Ken asked.
‘Well, my guess is that he’s been attacked by the lion pride which is in that
area.’
‘What a way to go — although it would probably be quick, I guess,’ Ken replied.
The journey to the area they had designated as Area Two would take them around 40 minutes to drive. The beginning of the drive was on tracks leading out from the homestead, but then these soon disappeared into rough bush, at which point they would have to go off-track and work their way across country, which is where the Land Rover came into its own.
Scott was still getting to know the area, whereas Ken had been there a bit longer and guided him when he was not sure of the way to go. Just as the track disappeared, they came face to face with a pair of giraffes, which were startled by the vehicle’s speed, and they began to run.
Not wishing to scare these animals, Scott slowed the Land Rover down, and veered away from where they were heading and watched as the pair slowed to a walk. When Scott had got away from the giraffes, he changed his direction and sped up again, as he was aiming to get to where Lane was and back to base again before night set in.
The two men didn’t speak much on the way there, as Ken wasn’t one for conversation, and the drive was very noisy anyway, due to the rough ground they were traversing.
When they eventually arrived at the area near the cave, Scott said, ‘Is it worth taking a quick look in there?’
‘Not if that tracking device was working up to the point it disappeared. He’s not likely to be here,’ Ken replied.
Scott thought about it for a second.
‘Yes, I think you’re right, and we haven’t got time to waste. But it might help to go up to the entrance to pick up his tracks,’ Scott said.
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