You can see for yourselves. We’re not going far as matters stand.
But you can fix it? Julian persisted.
With the truck, the problem is to get some leverage on the wheel arch. The jack keeps slipping off and we can’t get to the underneath properly for all the bloody sand. We might need to dig out and put something solid underneath. With the trailer, the metal’s snapped. I’m kicking myself. We carry a spare but I used it last month. There might be another back at my compound, but it’s not much use to us there.
And what if you can’t fix it?
Then we’re fucked aren’t we? Kriegman gave Julian an unpleasant smile and walked back to the Cruiser. He aimed a futile kick at the offending bent wing before lowering himself slowly and painfully to the ground to inspect the damage done by the tree one more time.
Julian turned to Andrew Parker, their alternative source of wilderness knowledge.
If he can’t make it work, then I suppose we radio for help, he suggested.
That two-way they have in the cab is probably not much good for that, unless there happens to be someone already close to us, Andrew told him. Mostly, the tour guides use the walkies to talk between themselves when they’re in the game parks.
This was interesting news for Julian, who seemed to be fascinated by the details of their situation, despite being the one least concerned about their plight.
Aren’t you worried at all, Jonathan? Emma asked him.
Oh, I’m sure it will be alright in the end, Julian replied. It’s just a bit of a bore having to stand around like this.
Sometime later, Kriegman and Michael managed to get the right wheel arch of the Cruiser free of the wheel and into an approximation of its previous shape. There hadn’t been any damage to the sub-frame as far as they could see. Neither man gave any outward show of urgency. This was a country where time moved differently and it was more important that things should be done right first time than that they should be done as quickly as possible.
Next, they turned their attention to the trailer. After some discussion, Michael walked back to the Cruiser and returned with a length of rope. The two men got the heavy jack set against the trailer, but there was no way to brace it between the wheel and the frame. Michael produced a smaller jack and managed to get that one wedged. Once they’d levered the wheel into a position that looked close to how it should be, Michael took the length of rope and crawled under the trailer so that he could lie on his back and see the damage.
My god, he’s going to try to hold it together with the rope, Andrew Parker told them.
They watched Michael looping the rope around something and then tugging hard to bring one metal part in close contact with another. He repeated the action several times, lashing the snapped parts of the joint together as tightly as he could.
When he crawled out from under the trailer, the two men carefully released the pressure of the jack and moved it aside. The wheel settled a little into place. It looked fine, at least for now.
Will that really hold? Julian asked Kriegman.
We’ll see, was all the reply he got.
I think it will be useable, Michael told him. You have to be careful that the rope is not rubbing on any sharp surface that can wear it away; but maybe now it will last for a while.
And so finally, they were ready to move on again. Everyone climbed back into the vehicle and for the next few miles they were all waiting to hear the snap that would come before the trailer with all their supplies lurched over and toppled into the dust: but it never happened; and before too long everyone stopped worrying about it. Only Julian kept turning over the incidents of the day in his mind and something about what he was thinking kept a thin smile on his face for quite a while.
Chapter Nine - Day Eight
After these difficulties, the tour made steady progress along the nameless tracks, interrupted by frequent stops to view and photograph the animals. But by now Julian was bored with the sight of all these grass eaters. The cold ferocity in the eyes of the motionless crocodiles that they’d watched at Chobe had fascinated him, but now the river was far behind them. If he had to spend time looking at nature, it was teeth and claws he wanted to see.
The next morning he saw something that stirred him, when they came across a pack of wild dogs that had made a recent kill and were tearing into the flesh of the still warm animal. Michael told them that the dogs were the most successful hunters on the continent because they could keep a good pace for many kilometers. Once they had separated a target from its herd they would easily wear down prey that had an initial burst of speed much faster than them, simply by refusing to allow it to rest.
The dogs were efficient killers, but without finesse. Julian preferred the cats. He hadn´t realized they would be able to get so close to the lions, dozing under the acacias. Even a leopard that had finished gorging itself and was butchering a kill in readiness to store the remains up in the trees seemed prepared to ignore their presence. These were ambush predators which didn´t expend energy unduly; unlike the dogs running yapping after their prey, they would wait and plan and only make their spring when they were ready. There was elegance about that way of killing which Julian could identify with.
Emma was now flirting with him more or less openly, although it seemed that Jill was not minded to compete with her for his attention, which was a pity. Julian mentally adjusted the odds that Jill was more interested in other girls than boys. In any case, now he had his own prey in clear sight.
The thing with Emma wouldn’t mean anything to him of course, but she provided a distraction. These days would be too boring otherwise. All his life, Julian had been more frightened of tedium than of anything else. He would have been bored to real tears now if there had been nothing more interesting to do than listen to Andrew Parker’s droning voice asking their guide questions that were only intended to show how much Parker already knew about the Dark Continent. And when anyone else managed to get a question in and Michael had patiently responded, Parker invariably felt obliged to supply an additional comment from his stock of African wisdom. Julian longed for Michael or Kriegman to tell Parker to shut up. A row between them in the confined space of the Cruiser would liven things up a bit.
Still, Parker could be useful when Julian wanted to steer the conversation a certain way. You only had to show some mild interest in a subject and he would tell you more than you wanted to know about it. Julian got him talking again about the two way radio in the cab. It would be useful in an emergency, he supposed.
Not really, Parker informed him. They are very limited in range; only good for line of sight really. The guides cooperate using them. If one of them spots an interesting group of animals they can let the others know where they are.
Is that right, Michael? Julian asked. He didn´t entirely trust any response Parker gave him.
Yes, the range is limited normally, although some days you find you have a signal from miles away. You can never tell with radio. Very unpredictable
Julian had to follow this up.
But that means if we don’t have cover on the mobiles, then we don´t have any contact with anyone. What happens if we break down?
This is Africa, Kriegman told him. If we break down we put it right ourselves. That’s why we carry spares and just about anything else we might need.
My GPS will work anywhere though, Parker added.
But we don’t have everything we could need really, Julian persisted. I mean, for example, there could be wild animals; we don´t have a gun between us do we?
It´s not legal to bring a gun here, Andrew Parker said.
The animals stay away from our fire and we don´t bother them, said Michael.
I´m a South African, said Kriegman. I don´t travel without a gun.
He patted the glove compartment of the Land Cruiser.
That´s interesting, Julian replied. I don´t know anything about weapons but I wouldn´t think that a pistol would be much good
against animals
Kriegman twisted in his seat so that he was facing directly back at Julian.
A Glock is good against the most dangerous animal in Africa, other than the mosquito.
Ah, you mean people.
In and around Jo´burg there are places where people will tell you that you can´t go. But that´s my country, you know. No one can say to me that it has any place that I should be frightened of. Do you understand me?
Julian nodded. Kriegman turned back to face the track. He regretted having spoken like that to a client. There was no need for it, but he´d wanted to shut Bloom up. Something about the man was getting under his skin; no point denying it. Julian was quiet for a while afterwards, but he was smiling again under his dusty bandana.
***
Changes in the landscape they passed through were sudden. It seemed like weeks since they‘d seen a blacktop road. All the time the land was getting drier, although everywhere there were signs that some of the tracks would be underwater if the rainy season ever arrived. They started to come across small dry pans where the water had evaporated and the elephants had moved on leaving only droppings and the trunks of a few dead trees that had been pulled out of the ground and had their roots chewed away. What seemed to be footpaths that crisscrossed the sand roads were only the bulldozed tracks of wandering elephants. There were no people out here, or so it seemed.
In the delta, the land had been coloured a deep rich green wherever water flowed; contrasted with the parched brown dirt that took over every slight elevation; but now that country was far behind and everything around them was dry and yellow as far as the eye could see.
There was no live grass to speak of; just a few green stalks that nestled deep in a floss of golden straw. The trees were not so large or numerous: here and there a fat giant boabob; or an umbrella thorn seen in the distance, with slender boughs rising up from a low thick trunk to that certain height where the tree decided to spread a flat green canopy across a broad sweep of sky. Lacking the deep roots of these giants, everything smaller was just scrub, poking out of the earth and clinging on to life until the day when water should arrive. They passed through natural orchards of dark bush, dense almost vertical boughs that twisted around each other spreading a carpet of copper leaves over the ground. Then for a while it would be thinner, silver-barked bushes with light golden leaves that would be all they saw. Nothing grew much more than a metre high and you could sense everything that lived pushing down towards the water which was somewhere beneath the dirt that was more sand than soil.
Even the bushes thinned out as they came to the lands where only the deepest roots could reach water. There were no big animals to be seen anymore, just birds and the occasional mongoose: maybe a few wild pigs sleeping under the shade of a solitary thorn bush. Even the termite mounds became more widely spaced and not so high. But heat and dust were with them always.
You´ve seen the wetlands and the woodlands and the rest, Kriegman told them. Where we are heading now is the place where savannah meets the desert.
***
The night sky was a canopy of profound darkness, so black that all of the countless stars which filled the space above their heads shone with a steady radiance: each one a tiny point of clear, precise light. The moon was razor thin, like a carved brilliant sliver of luminescence.
If you want to see stars properly, you have to come to the empty places, Michael told Julian.
They had just finished cleaning up after a meal that everyone had helped prepare. The night air was chill. For the first time everyone was glad to put on the warm jacket that their tour guide had insisted was an essential item.
When we reach the real desert tomorrow, you will see the night sky as it should be, perhaps for the first time in your life.
Julian couldn´t remember the driver having spoken to him up to now except when it had been needed to give necessary information or answer a direct question. Obviously Michael felt more relaxed now they had finally reached territory that could be called empty.
And it was true that the stars were amazing, so many and so bright; all the unfamiliar constellations of the southern hemisphere presented to their view. Michael showed him how to find Alpha Centurii and from that the Southern Cross which he could use for navigation.
So now, in darkness, you will always be able to find the due south.
Julian could see the gleaming white of his smile even with their head torches extinguished.
On nights like this, I sleep in the open, Michael told him, on top of the jeep.
It sounds like that would be cold.
Michael shrugged. They finished stacking the dishes. Julian wished the driver a pleasant night´s stargazing and made his way back to his tent.
Some hours later, when he thought that Simon must be asleep, he looked at his watch inside the sleeping bag. Close to one o´clock; just as he´d planned. His sense of timing was always reliable. The tent flap being unzipped made a noise that seemed loud in the night, but no one was listening for it and if they heard anything they only would think it was someone needing to use the latrine that had been dug some distance away from the tents.
He moved quietly. Emma was already waiting for him by the tree that he´d pointed out to her earlier. Julian switched off his head torch and put it in his pocket, then he reached forward to click off the girl´s light.
It´s scary out here, she whispered. And cold.
It felt like she was shivering a little as she pulled him towards her and kissed his mouth.
It is cold, he said.
But we can get warm, she whispered, holding him tighter.
Mm, yes, he replied. We can do that.
***
Julian had already known that Michael sometimes slept on the canopy of the Land Cruiser before the driver told him about it. He´d watched all of them closely enough to know their habits. He´d also noticed that Michael had some kind of condition that meant he needed to go to the toilet often. When he got up in the night and had to go out into the bush you could usually see where he was from the lighted tip of whatever weed he was smoking out there. He didn´t hurry back. Julian reckoned that from Michael leaving the truck it would be unattended for at least ten minutes before he was likely to return.
It was turning out to be a busy night for Julian. After he finished with Emma and sent her back to her tent he waited and watched for a long time until finally he heard the springs of the Land Cruiser creaking as someone climbed down from it and then a head torch was lit and a silhouetted figure set off into the scrub. Julian kept his own torch switched off. There was just enough moonlight to make his way to the truck.
As he expected, Michael or Kriegman had kept the ignition keys with them, but there was a spare set behind the driver´s sun visor: an obvious place. Security against human intruders was not a priority out here. Julian held the keys in his hand and felt an urge to just start the engine and drive away, leaving them all behind. He could picture the looks on their silly faces as they realized they´d been marooned. But that wasn´t really the best idea, he knew. He should stick to the plan. Anyway he had no illusions about being able to make his way to any roads worthy of the name without Michael´s driving skills.
The glove compartment was locked but the ignition key opened it. Sure enough there was a little zipped up leather bag inside; and in that he found a loaded pistol and a spare clip. He examined the weapon for a moment working out as best he could in the darkness where the safety catch was and what he would need to do to fire it. The gun was tiny compared to what he had expected. It would hardly have fit in Kriegman´s fat fist. Finally satisfied, he replaced the pistol in the bag and the bag in the glove box, which he clicked shut very carefully and softly.
When he returned to their camp, he took a minute to ensure that Simon was still asleep before feeling around for the sharp kitchen knife he´d slipped into his jacket pocket whilst helping with the washing up. He examined it inside the sleeping bag. It was pe
rfect. People in this country know how to keep a good edge on a blade, he thought, approvingly.
Chapter Ten - Day Nine
It wasn’t long after Julian returned to his tent before the first hint of dawn started to appear in the sky and Kriegman made his usual circuit of the tents to rouse them, Julian was still fully alert. He had not slept all night, but strangely he felt no trace of fatigue. In fact he felt rested and ready for anything.
The day began with some confusion. When they had packed up and were ready to start, Andrew Walker discovered that he had lost his GPS device. Kriegman eventually lost patience and told him that he’d most likely left it in the side pocket of one of the tents that were now packed up and stowed away on top of the trailer. There was no time to look for it now. They had a long day ahead of them with many kilometres to cover and they needed to set off right away. Parker was in a grumbling mood for the rest of the morning, but he didn´t get as much sympathy from the others as he felt he deserved. Jonathan Bloom just smiled and told him he was sure it would turn up sooner or later.
***
Julian´s plan was deliberately simple. Jonathan Bloom must go to Africa and there he must meet with an accident which would convince everyone that he was certainly dead even though no body would ever be found. The wild animals would dispose of evidence, including Bloom´s travelling companions; and he would be presumed lost with them. No one would spend too long searching the bush for a complete set of bones of all the victims.
In the worst case scenario, it might be discovered that the tragic fate of Bloom´s safari had not come about accidentally, but even if that was discovered and even if blame somehow attached to Bloom, it wouldn´t matter to Julian. Everyone would know that Bloom was just a shady character with criminal associations who´d gone off the rails, run away with gang money that didn´t belong to him, and then went crazy enough to kill some tourists before the lions finished him off.
He´d thought at first that it would be enough to leave the party stranded in the bush and let nature do its work; but once they set out it became clear to him that he would have to deal with the guide and his driver first. He could leave the rest of them to their fate knowing that in two days they´d be dead meat, with every hyena for miles around squabbling over their remains. Having seen Michael going about his work, Julian was sure that their driver would find a way to walk out of the bush, maybe bringing the rest of them with him. And Julian didn´t intend to make the mistake of underestimating Kriegman either.