After she’d seen Michael to the helicopter, Crys needed a little time to herself to come to terms with everything that had happened during the night. The adrenaline had faded, but she could still feel the tension gripping her mind and body. Her hand was sore, and her shoulder ached. And worst of all, her head was spinning with Mabula’s revelations. And with the pain of Michael’s betrayal.
But was it really that? He never asked anything of her. She’d taken it upon herself to find him.
Had all this been for nothing?
No, she thought. She’d helped do a lot more than simply save one man.
When she got back to her bungalow, she closed the door and spread some towels on the floor. She twisted into a half lotus and began to chant quietly.
Úm ma ni bát ni hồng. Úm ma ni bát ni hồng. Úm ma ni bát ni hồng. Úm ma ni bát ni hồng.
After a while, her heart slowed. She stayed in that position a little longer, emptying her head of thoughts. Eventually, she was ready to move on. She returned the towels to the bathroom and started to pack. She didn’t have much.
Crys started thinking of the future. Michael, Johannes, and Bongani – none had a smooth road ahead. Michael and Johannes would manage. However, in Bongani’s case, maybe there was no road at all.
‘Crys. Are you there?’ It was Johannes calling from the porch. She was surprised, and went out to see him. He still looked terrible, although he was walking more easily.
‘I thought they were taking you to Giyani,’ she said.
He shook his head. ‘I told them I was okay, and didn’t go,’ he said. ‘I’ve too much to sort out here: paperwork for my father’s death and arrangements for his funeral. He had a lot of friends and business acquaintances. And I’ve got to put the house back together and go through all his papers. He could be quite secretive. So, I wanted to say goodbye before you head off.’
‘You need to see a doctor, Johannes. You may have broken ribs and maybe internal injuries…’
‘Some friends are coming over. One is a doctor. He can drive me to Giyani, if necessary. I don’t want to be stuck there.’
Crys nodded. ‘I understand. Johannes, I’m so sorry about your father. I think he tried to do something very special here and for the right reasons. But sometimes these things go wrong.’
He nodded. ‘I’ve suspected something for a while now. He changed. He became bitter and always worried about money. And we didn’t get on as well as we used to when we started out. It was a shared dream then.’
‘What will you do? Can you save the farm?’
‘I hope so. I can sell that horn on the legal market, but I won’t get much. And raise what I can from selling my father’s businesses. Also, he had a lot of key-man insurance for them. He always used to joke that he was worth more dead than alive. Maybe with all that, I can pay off the debts and keep Tshukudu going for a while. But in the longer term, if we can’t sell horn for a reasonable price, I just don’t know. But I’ll try.’ He paused, and Crys saw a man who was beaten down, but full of pride and determination.
‘How do you feel about your father?’ she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.
‘I’ve always been so proud of him.’ He swallowed a sob. ‘He was very private, very proud, very stubborn. And saving the rhino was the most important thing in the world for him. Had he told me how serious his financial difficulties were…’
He stopped and took a few deep breaths. ‘Maybe he wouldn’t have gone over to the dark side. Maybe we could have found an honourable solution.’
He stood there, looking embarrassed.
‘Anyway, thanks for everything, Crys. I’m sure Dinh wasn’t intending to leave any of us alive. The only reason he did was that you forced him to take us as hostages.’
‘Bongani helped,’ she said. ‘He thought it was your father’s people he allowed in last night. Without him, I couldn’t have done anything.’
Johannes nodded. ‘It was thanks to both of you.’
She stepped forwards and gently wrapped her arms around him. They hung onto each other for a long time, rocking slightly, rubbing each other’s backs. They both needed it.
When they let go, she said, ‘You’re a good man, Johannes. I think you’ll make Tshukudu thrive.’
He nodded, gave a half-smile, turned and left.
She went back into her chalet to finish her packing, her mind whirling.
Then, she spent a few minutes on the internet finding the telephone number of the hospital in Giyani. She phoned and asked about Bongani, saying she was calling for Colonel Mabula. They told her the bullet had been removed, and that he was now in intensive care, but stable.
Crys grabbed her bag and headed for the helicopter. There was one more thing she needed to do before they left.
Crys found Mabula talking to the pilot. He looked cheerful. Things had worked out pretty well from his point of view. She asked to speak to him alone.
‘Colonel, I think you know more about Bongani than you’ve let on.’
He nodded. ‘He’s been tipping off the poachers and doing errands for them. Like picking up Ho that night.’
‘Yes, he admitted that to me. He says he’s tried to stop, but he’s terrified for his family’s safety. He really is between a rock and a hard place.’
Mabula didn’t respond.
‘And he saved everyone here last night,’ she continued. ‘Without him, we’d all be dead.’
‘What are you suggesting?’ he asked.
‘If he came clean and helped you round up the rest of Chu Nhan’s people here, you could forget about what he’s done in the past.’
Mabula nodded. ‘And? There’s more isn’t there?’
‘He can’t live here anymore. He’ll have to move his family away, otherwise they’ll get to him somehow. He’ll need help getting a job somewhere else. And he’ll need money.’
‘I suppose that’s true.’ He wasn’t going to help her get to the point.
‘That money from the plane,’ Crys said. ‘Suppose he had information that would allow you to recover it. Would there be a reward? You suggested that once.’
‘That was just to see if you were dishonest or stupid. You weren’t either.’
This time, she waited.
‘Well, if we recovered that money, I could recommend a reward for him. Maybe five percent. I can’t promise.’
‘But you will make something happen, right?’
He laughed. ‘Are they all like you in Minnesota?’
Again, she waited.
‘All right. Yes, he’ll get a reward.’
Crys was sure he had no idea how much money was involved, but that was fine. If the reward was five percent, twenty-five thousand dollars would set up Bongani very well indeed.
‘I’ll include the reward in my story then.’
He laughed again. ‘You still don’t trust me!’
She took out her cell phone and found her fake phone numbers, which were actually the latitude and longitude of where the money was buried, and then shared them with his phone. ‘I just forwarded Bongani’s information.’
He glanced at his phone and nodded. ‘You know I could charge you with lying to the police, withholding evidence, assaulting a police officer, leaving the country without permission, and a lot more if I thought about it.’
She smiled. ‘I suppose you could.’
Crys saw Søren walking up from his chalet, and he joined them a few moments later.
‘You two look pleased with yourselves,’ he said.
Neither of them commented. This was between the two of them.
With all the adrenaline drained from her system, Crys felt a void inside. Apathy had replaced energy; melancholy had pushed aside optimism.
The short flight cut over the expanse of the southern African bushveld. Crys saw little of it, her mind turned inward. She felt a pang of loss as she realised this would probably be her last look at wild Africa for a long time. But deep down, she knew she’d come back one day. She’d caught the Africa disease.
National Geographic had sent her to Africa to write about the plight of the rhinos. She arrived with a clear vision of what should be done – stop poaching and ban the trade in rhino horns. And of course she’d had her personal goal too. The thought was like a stab in her heart.
She turned her mind to how Mabula had smashed the ring of poachers and smugglers. He was pleased about it – and had a right to be – but he knew another gang would take over, another smuggling route would be opened. Rhino horn was just worth too much money. And in the short term, the price of horn would probably go up because of the temporary shortage.
Stopping poaching was like digging a hole in a swamp. No matter how hard you bailed, you just couldn’t stop the water seeping back and filling the hole again. It was depressing to realise that rhinos still died, despite all the efforts of the anti-poaching teams, the conservationists, the police, and dedicated organizations like CITES.
Would people eventually become discouraged and give up, leaving rhinos completely vulnerable?
As Crys watched a herd of elephants moving away from the noise of the chopper, everything cried out that there must be a way – a way to leave the rhinos in peace, undisturbed, completely wild. But nothing she’d discovered in South Africa, or in Geneva, or in Vietnam over the last month suggested that was possible. As long as the rhinos had their horns, they’d be killed for them. So, the horns had to be removed. Should you then sell them to produce an industry to support people like Bongani’s cousin? Or should you destroy every scrap of horn until you’d starved the horrible trade to death?
To that, she didn’t have an answer.
And of course, there was Michael, the real reason for her trip.
She was overcome with sadness, not of the loss of what was, but of the loss of what could have been.
Her eyes stung with unshed tears. She’d had such high hopes for a future together, of shared passions, shared laughter.
And shared values.
Then he’d made a deal with the devil – a contract signed in money instead of blood. He’d insisted that he was only trying to trace the smuggling route to help stop it, but in her heart she knew that wasn’t true. Even if he was going to use the money for a good reason, the deal was purely selfish, and others had been hurt. Certainly, he’d ended up paying a high price, but his soul had been exposed. And she didn’t like what she saw.
For a few minutes she let herself wallow in regret, in the pain of what they could have had together.
Then she shook herself and sat up in her seat.
It was time to move on.
Below her the area’s wildlife preserves spread out with their endless rolling plains of acacia trees, thorn bushes, and scrub, where the world’s greatest animal kingdom thrived.
There were stories to be told.