As they reached the deep ditch that marked the northern boundary of the reserve they could make out where the poachers had driven parallel for almost a mile before they came to a spot where the ditch walls had collapsed, making it passable for a determined driver.
“I suppose Jim could get some guys to fix that,” commented Ana, “but the border goes on for miles and there would soon be a new crossing point. Tough isn’t it. You have no fence so as to allow the animals to be able to roam freely but that makes protecting them all the harder.”
“I know,” sighed Ollie, “but Jim would never be able to afford one anyway. It’s the same in so many reserves, big hearts but limited resources.”
“There’s no way of following the tracks once they are on public roads. I think I will just turn the plane and head back. The only thing further up this road of any note is the Prosperity Dam project.”
“And you know what Ollie, somewhere in there lies the answer to all this. I feel it in my bones but unfortunately we have no proof, as yet anyway.”
“I share your frustration Harry but for now we will just retrace out steps. With luck perhaps we’ll be able to pick out a couple of the smaller elephant herds and at least check that they are OK.”
They flew back, in relative silence, the engine humming contentedly as they gained altitude.
“Down there,” shouted Ana, “to the side of that small clearing there was something glinting I’m sure of it.”
Even as she spoke Ollie banked the plane sharply. “It won’t take a minute to go back over it, I’ll drop down a little.” As they crossed the clearing all three of them were aware of something reflecting unnaturally in the sunlight.
“I know exactly what that is,” exclaimed Harry excitedly. “It’s a windscreen. There is a vehicle down there, right below us.”
“We are too directly above it to see properly so I’ll take us out a little again and then back as we now know where it is,” said Ollie.
As they flew back towards the clearing they were all aware of what they were looking for and as is so often the case, the vehicle, although well camouflaged seemed quite obvious. It was a green Land Rover with a variety of coloured paint splodges to help it blend in.
“That has to be what the poachers are using. There is no way a random vehicle is simply going to be sitting under the trees in this part of the reserve. The question is; where are the poachers, down there too or coming back later?”
The question was barely out of Harry’s lips when they all became aware of movement on the other side of the clearing. “Ana try to get the camp on the radio and let them know what’s going on. This is not an easy place to reach in a hurry but perhaps they can get a KWS response team up here quickly. I’ll see whether I can fly a little closer so we can form an accurate picture of how many men are down there.”
“Uwingoni Camp can you hear me? This is Ana, come in please. We have just spotted some poachers and their vehicle. This is urgent.” They were answered only by the static on the radio. “Surely we are in radio range Ollie. This doesn’t make sense, the radio there is always manned.”
“Give it another go and I’ll… Oh my God they’re shooting at us!”
The unmistakable flash of gunfire from the shadows by the Land Rover galvanised Ollie into evasive action. Almost simultaneously there was the sound of bullets peppering the side of the fuselage and a loud scream. Immediately the plane lurched to one side and started to lose height.
“Quickly Ana, Ollie’s been hit, pull the control stick towards you, not too strongly and turn it to the right.” Harry’s voice was surprisingly calm and as Ana followed the instructions they started to rise. To her left, slumped back in the seat, one side of his face already covered in blood, Ollie seemed lifeless.
“Now gently push the black throttle control in. That’s the one to the side of the only red knob on the instrument panel.” They were instantly aware of the increase in engine revs. There was the sound of further bullets striking but it seemed as though it must be at the rear as nothing further entered the cockpit. “That’s brilliant, just get us away from the poachers and the escarpment and we might be fine.”
Ana was only too conscious of how hard she was gripping the control stick and she tried to breathe as calmly as she could.
“Look Ana I’m obviously not a pilot but I have flown with Ollie on a couple of occasions and he has allowed me to take the controls and explained the basics. For the moment we are safe from the poachers, if you can just try to keep us at this sort of height and speed I will see what has happened to him. That’s our immediate priority. We aren’t about to fall out of the sky.”
“I’ll try; what more can I say.”
The cabin was small and cramped but Harry was able to extract the first aid box from under his seat.
Working from behind someone is far from easy but there was no way in a plane this size that he could even begin to clamber into the front and there was absolutely no space there anyway.
He had done some basic first aid training when he had worked as a lifeguard in a local swimming pool as a holiday job but that hardly equipped him to deal with someone who had been shot.
He placed his fingers on the side of Ollie’s neck and was instantly relieved as he felt a strong pulse. He gently moved Ollie’s head so that he could get a better idea of just where he had been hit. The blood was only on the left-hand side which was hardly surprising as that was where the bullet had come from. In fact as he checked round the cockpit he could see two bullet holes, one right at the back of the door that had passed behind Ollie’s seat and, Harry realised with a sharp intake of breath, must have missed him in the second row by a frightening small margin; he could actually see the exit hole on the far side. The second hole was higher up in the toughened plastic of the widow.
He gently looked for the wound, following the course of the blood. There appeared to be nothing obvious on his neck or right cheek and then as his gaze moved to his forehead he could see where the bullet had struck. Just on the corner of Ollie’s temple, pretty much on his hairline was a wound no more than a few centimetres long, still weeping a surprising amount of blood. Even as a complete amateur he realised that the bullet had only grazed Ollie’s head, there was no bullet hole.
“Oh Ana, I think he is going to be alright, it only looks as though the bullet has clipped his forehead. I say only, but it is still a bullet; he must have lost consciousness with the shock of the impact.”
As though on cue a groan came from the blood splattered lips and Ollie slumped forward leaning his body against the controls. Ana frantically pulled back on the stick as they started to lose height. “Grab him back towards you Harry quickly; I haven’t got the strength to fight against his upper body weight.”
Gently but firmly Harry pulled him towards the back of his seat; and the little plane positively leapt up with Ollie’s weight suddenly gone. Ana tried to correct their flight and keep them on a level course.
“Ollie, can you hear me? Ollie, it’s Harry; you have taken a bit of a knock but you are going to be OK.”
Suddenly Ollie’s eyes opened, not slowly but wide and staring in an instant. His lips parted but he didn’t utter a sound.
Harry gripped both his shoulders, part reassurance but crucially to keep him away from the joystick. “We were fired at by the poachers; you’ve been unconscious for a few minutes. Just stay still for a moment and try to readjust. You’re safe and that is what’s important.”
Ollie’s breathing began to steady and his gaze to focus, ahead and then to the cabin of the plane. He looked across to Ana, “Oh I didn’t know you could fly, what a piece of luck.”
“I can’t,” she replied as lightly as she could and despite the situation they all smiled.
“Well you seem to be doing a pretty good job.”
“I don’t know where we are heading and until a moment ago I didn’t know how we were ever going to be standing safely on mother earth again!”
“
That’s fine,” said Ollie. “I can take control again now.” As he reached forward he let out a groan, raising his left hand to the stickiness on his temple.
“Just take a few minutes to readjust. I can keep us up here happily for a while. You are going to have the mother of all headaches, but nothing compared to what would have come your way if I had tried to land the plane!” she grinned, trying to make light of the situation.
Harry reached forward for the radio, “Hello Uwingoni camp, can you hear me?”
Mike’s voice came back, clear and precise, “Uwingoni here. What can we do for you Harry?”
“Oh, Mike thank goodness. I tried you a few minutes ago but there was nobody there.”
“Well I have been manning the radio for a couple of hours as we are a bit stretched for manpower at the moment but I’m afraid I haven’t heard anything from you. Perhaps you were in a dead area without reception.”
“That’s strange, but never mind now. Dead area is almost exactly what it was. We have just been shot at and Ollie has been hurt. There are poachers in a vehicle at the back of the escarpment. Please tell Jim straight away and see whether the police or KWS can do anything. I expect they will be long gone by the time anyone gets there but you never know.”
Mike’s voice sounded shaky, “Poachers you say, are you sure? Well yes, I suppose nobody else would shoot at you. I’ll try to get hold of Jim.”
“Mike this is urgent and so is a plane to get Ollie back to Nairobi for a medical check-up.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Leave it to me.”
“Roger Mike.” Harry put the radio down. “He didn’t sound very with it and I really can’t understand how he didn’t pick up our first transmission. Anyway let’s hope there is some action now.”
Ollie was still looking groggy. “Let’s gain some height Ana and get comfortably above the hills and then we can get our bearings. Are you happy to stay at the controls, just for the moment?”
“Now I know I’ve got a first class instructor, no offence Harry, that’s no problem. In fact believe it or not I am quite enjoying being your pilot.”
Despite its own wounds, the little plane responded comfortably.
“Right now, keep a close eye on the altimeter in front of you. Another five hundred feet and we should have a safe distance between us and the ground.”
Ana watched the large hand turn slowly on the clock like altimeter. When it reached the five directly at the bottom of the dial she gently pushed the controls forward to level off.
“Excellent, you’re a natural. Now I can see where we are. So turn the controls gently to your left. Watch the compass and try to go through sixty degrees. Perfect, now stay on this course, keep at the same height for the moment and in about ten minutes you will be able to make out the camp and the strip.”
The land marks below them became more and more recognisable and the rough cut strip was soon visible, like a clean scar running through the scrub and bush.
“That’s great I think I am up to the landing now although in different circumstances I would almost feel confident enough to talk you through it. However, my worry is that there is some damage to the plane that we won’t be aware of until the moment the wheels touch the ground.”
Ana felt a mixture of regret and relief as she took her hands off the controls and for the first time since she had been in a light aircraft she watched meticulously as Ollie prepared to land. He took the little plane away from the landing area to start with then turned and lined it up. After adjusting the fuel mixture he eased back on the throttle and spun a little wheel to his right explaining that this helped the plane to lose height at exactly the correct rate.
“We want to land on the first quarter of the strip. I am putting down the flaps and you will feel the drag immediately. I’m going to come in at close to fifty knots. Then as soon as we’re lined up and close, power off, pull back gently, glide in and the two large wheels will touch the ground and then the front will follow.”
It was a textbook landing and as the plane trundled back to the parking area they could see a Land Cruiser already waiting.
Chapter Twelve
Sergeant Odika and Inspector Mwitu were sitting next to each other, talking earnestly and jotting assorted points down in small notebooks. There were quite a number of Uwingoni staff round the table too.
Everyone looked up as Jim came into the mess tent. “Sorry I’m a little late; I’ve just been in contact with Nairobi Hospital. I know you will all be relieved to hear that our young pilot Ollie is going to be fine.” The news brought instant smiles to the meeting. “The bullet actually left a crease mark on the front of his skull but after another day’s observation they should discharge him. A lucky, young man, if his head had been turned a few centimetres the other way, he wouldn’t be with us now.”
He sat down on a spare chair next to Kilifi. “You all know the Inspector and Sergeant and I would like to thank them for coming so quickly and hand over to them to brief us.”
Inspector Mwitu got to his feet and the tent fell silent. “As you know I have been here with some of my men since early yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately there is no sign of the vehicle. It was probably out of the Reserve before we even knew you had a problem. We obviously have an alert out for a green Land Rover. The camouflage patches make it somewhat unusual but at the moment there has been no sighting; it’s obviously holed up somewhere but we will keep searching.”
He looked across the table at Harry’s raised hand. “What about the Prosperity Dam area? There are plenty of places to hide a vehicle in there and it’s pretty much on a direct route using the back road out of the Reserve.”
“It is a large area, you are quite right but even as the police we cannot just march in. We would have to have some concrete proof or evidence of wrongdoing. They have very powerful friends and if anyone there is involved we have to tread carefully. That may not be the answer you want but we have to deal with the reality of the situation.”
Everyone round the table understood the Inspector’s position. Corruption dug its ugly claws into even the smallest corner of the country.
“What we do have on our side though is the possible involvement of Al-Shabaab. It was extremely embarrassing for the Kenyan Police that the Somali poacher you captured here was freed after an ambush while he was being transferred to Nairobi. If we prove a definite link between poached ivory here generating funds for a terrorist organisation in Somalia then that makes our position much stronger. Those who fired on the plane tried to clear up all trace of having been there but they were in a hurry to get out and we found two AK-47 bullet casings that had gone unnoticed under some leaves. We are still going through the Cessna to see if we can find anything else that our forensic department might be able to match up with previous crimes.”
“Thank you, Inspector. You have been very open with us and we appreciate that. Can I ask Sergeant Odika to update us from the KWS side?”
The ranger stood up, an imposing figure in his neatly pressed uniform, his expression determined as always. “As you all know we lost another elephant, a young bull, but although the poaching team involved the Somali, as the Inspector mentioned, there are worrying differences between this and most other kills. We have no doubt that he was shot by a professional marksman. This makes it a very different sort of operation. I was talking to Ana before this meeting because I know, as a journalist, she has done some research on this. Large international crime gangs are now involving themselves throughout the world in all manner of poaching as there is so much money to be made. Sometimes that links up with terrorist organisations as they then supply them with the weapons they need, but for us the tragic consequences are the same. Our wildlife is being decimated. We have to stop this particular network as they will only get bolder and bolder. He looked round the table and nobody could possible doubt the purpose in his expression. “Yes Jim, you have a question?”
“There are no professional hunters in Kenya any more so I was wonder
ing whether you had any leads on where this individual might have come from.”
“It’s too early to tell in this particular case but this is not an isolated incident. Generally professional hunters come from South Africa and Namibia so we are working with colleagues from those two countries, but that is all I can tell you on that front at the moment.”
“Thank you for that Sergeant Odika. I am sure you will all be pleased to know that KWS have kindly agreed to let us have a small number of their rangers, for this week anyway, but of course like everyone their resources are very stretched too. If you have any ideas or further thoughts I think it is better you just find me during the day. We still have a camp to run and visitors to look after.”
Chairs scraped back from the table and there was a quiet, sombre mood as everyone filed out.
Harry fell in step beside Ana as they headed back to their tents. “That was interesting but I still feel we need to be more modern and proactive in our fight. I am going to ask Jim whether he would let me spend a few days up in the escarpment area with the drone. I really don’t think it is something we have used to good effect since we got it. If he agrees I was wondering whether you would be happy to come with me?”
“Would that mean taking supplies with us and camping out?”
“I hadn’t thought about that too much but that would make sense. We might have more chance of seeing something late afternoon or early morning. Unless we have an incident like the plane spot, they just seem to melt away during the day.”
Ana was silent for a while, mulling over the idea. “OK, I’ll come if Jim agrees, but for three days max.”
“I’ll see him before lunch if I can. I suspect he is still talking to Mwitu and Odika. There will certainly be things he won’t want to discuss with everyone.”
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