Christine lay on the ground sobbing into Casper’s coat. Felix nudged her with his big head, trying to rouse her from her grief, but she could barely speak.
She heard barking and looked up. Sean was heading back to the enclosure, with Benny beside him, the dog’s tongue lolling. They both looked hot and tired. Christine blinked away tears. She felt physically weak, drained of the strength she knew she needed, but seemed incapable of mustering.
Sean rested the butt of his rifle on the ground, holding the tip of the barrel by his side. ‘No sign of the shooter. Benny couldn’t pick him up.’
‘Casper hasn’t . . .’ Christine sniffed, ‘hasn’t been dead long, maybe only a few hours.’
‘You didn’t hear anything?’
She shook her head. ‘Not a thing.’
‘Could have used a silencer,’ Sean said.
Christine ruffled Felix’s mane. ‘Where’s Tumi?’
‘She’s working the western perimeter fence,’ Sean said, ‘though that’s a long way from here. I just called the police, to see if they could send some people, but there’s been some sort of explosion on the road between here and the Kruger Park. The available guys from Hazyview are on the scene and the anti-poaching people from the park can’t get through, even if they wanted to come help us.’
Christine looked up. ‘Explosion?’
Sean nodded. ‘All they could tell me was that it was a vehicle, not if it was an IED or something deliberate, or an accident.’
‘Oliver’s here,’ Christine said. ‘He arrived while you were out scouting with the dogs. I sent him back to the farmhouse.’
Sean reached into his pocket and pulled out the bullet casing he had found earlier. ‘Did Oliver bring a rifle with him from the reserve?’
Christine nodded. ‘The R1.’
Sean held up the spent cartridge. ‘7.62-millimetre.’
‘The same as from Oliver’s rifle?’
‘Same type, yes,’ Sean said. ‘It’s a heavier calibre than the LM5s Tumi and I use. Oliver packs a bigger rifle in case the team runs into trouble with buffalo or elephant. Did you see him drive up?’
Christine stood, pushed Felix aside and brushed herself down. The lion sniffed his brother, still confused by his lack of response. ‘No, he just appeared. He told me he got a lift from the Sabi Sand with one of the other security guys who dropped him at the main road.’
Sean rubbed his chin.
‘You think Oliver shot Casper?’ Christine asked.
‘I’ve got no reason to think that, but Craig’s worried about him and wants him to take a polygraph. In fairness, we should all take the test.’
‘I agree,’ Christine said. ‘I don’t want to start accusing people on hunches, but Oliver has always been a difficult customer.’
Sean nodded. ‘And he’s been anti-Tumi since she started. However, you said you didn’t hear a shot.’
Christine shrugged and wiped her eyes. ‘There are plenty of bangs and barking around this place so I guess it’s possible I missed a shot. Sean, I –’
She felt so desolate, and she could see that he was worried about her, but after they had made love she had begun to worry about Craig and the fallout that was inevitable after what had happened. Sean came to her and put his arms around her. Christine wanted to melt into him, the way she once had when she was feeling down, when she’d believed she could count on him to look after her and be strong for both of them. That, her logical self reminded her as he held her tight, had been an illusion. Had he really changed? Was she crazy for even contemplating giving Sean another chance? Making love to him again had felt so natural, and so wonderful, but was she really ready to let him back into her life fulltime? His addiction had almost ruined her financially and probably would have if Craig hadn’t helped her pick up the pieces of her life. As hard as she had tried to understand Sean’s underlying problems he had wounded her terribly, and that hurt reminded her of a cut she’d suffered to her hand as a teenager – it was scarred over now, but some of the nerves had been damaged, and she’d lost some of the feeling there forever. Right now, however, her sadness over Casper dwarfed everything.
‘They killed my lion, Sean,’ she sniffed into his shirt. He stroked her hair. Christine pushed him away, firmly but not unkindly. ‘You’ve got work to do. I don’t want to lose any more people or any more animals.’
He sighed, then nodded in resignation. ‘This place is too big, Chris, and there aren’t enough of us to protect you. I tried telling the cops that we’re expecting an attack here, but they said if the only casualty so far is a lion that they’ll get someone out to investigate once they deal with this vehicle business on the road.’
‘What do you suggest?’
‘You need to protect the lions, as well as yourself,’ Sean said.
‘Yes.’
‘We can’t move the lions out of their enclosure and into the house, so I think we all need to relocate to here.’
‘In with the lions?’ Christine asked.
‘As close as we can get to them, yes.’
She looked at him. ‘You really think Li and his people are going to come for us?’
Sean shrugged. ‘Killing Casper could be Li’s warning shot, literally. We’ve got evidence that he was going to pay someone to take you out. That means he was making plans. Now that he knows that we’re on to him, he’ll either try and pretend like it was never going to happen and not proceed with the hit, or he’ll do it sooner rather than later. I’m worried that this exploding vehicle the police are dealing with might have been some kind of deliberate diversion to keep the cops occupied. What do you think?’
She thought about it. ‘I think Li’s greedy and he knows what he wants. I think he’ll want to get rid of you guys now as well as me.’
Sean nodded slowly. ‘I’m afraid I agree. I’ll take Benny for another sweep of the fence line.’
Was she doing the right thing, she wondered, putting Sean, Tumi and even Oliver’s lives at risk to protect her farm and her animals?
‘You’re doing the right thing, Chris,’ Sean said.
It was like that when they were married. It was as if he could read her mind sometimes. She wondered if he was also trying to reassure her that reconnecting with him was the ‘right thing’.
‘Am I? I’m not sure, Sean.’
‘It’s not just your livelihood, it’s the proper thing to do. I wasn’t sure what Craig and I were fighting for in Afghanistan. The government there was corrupt, the Americans and their allies had no real strategy, and most of the people there would have been happy to see us go. But this is different. We’re fighting for the right thing here, Chris.’
‘I hope so.’ She looked into his green eyes and felt the lump rise in her throat again.
He came to her and put his arms around her.
She fought it, arms stiffly by her sides for as long as she could bear it. All of three seconds. Then she collapsed into him, sobbing, and let him take her weight. He held her and rocked her as her body shook against his.
When she had calmed she moved a hand up and wiped her eyes. ‘What . . . what am I going to do with Casper?’
He mulled it over for a short time. ‘Casper was known and loved by people all over the world. You have to tell his story.’
‘What? Put a picture of his body on social media? Sean, I don’t know if I can.’
He gripped her by the arms. ‘It’s hard, but you have to. You have to tell the world about the threat to lions and the trade in their bones. Casper won’t have died in vain if you can help mobilise people to fight this war.’
Christine sniffed. ‘Yes. You’re right. Sean . . .’
‘Yes?’
‘About what happened before. I need time to think about things.’
‘Was it just a moment of weakness?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know.’
He held her gaze for a few moments then looked down. He turned away and called Benny.
*
Knowing that Oliver was back and on the property somewhere, Sean called him on his mobile phone.
‘Oliver, please can you come to the lion enclosure, but see Christine first and ask for some nyama for Felix. And bring the spare keys to the enclosures.’
‘Yes, boss.’ Oliver’s sarcasm was clear.
‘Just do as I ask, please, Oliver.’ He didn’t think he needed to add ‘because Craig’s not here and I’m now in charge’. ‘And ask Christine for a couple of twenty-litre jerry cans of water – I know she keeps some at the farmhouse in case the borehole pump breaks – and a couple of patrol tents.’
The fact that he was in command worried him. He didn’t know if he was ready to lead the remaining members of the team. Sean had picked up enough knowledge about military tactics during his tours of Afghanistan to prepare a reasonable defence of the farm, but he did not know if he would be able to hold the others together if things got rougher than they already were. Oliver was insubordinate, Tumi was still raw, and he was so concerned for Christine’s safety that he wished that she, not Zali, was about to fly to the United States. Li had been set to brief a hit man to kill Christine and now Sean and the other two were in the firing line.
While he waited for Oliver he walked Benny around the far side of Casper and Felix’s enclosure, over to where the lionesses were kept. Benny was, as usual, curious about the mix of scents, but picked up nothing suspicious.
Sean saw Tumi coming over the rise of a grassy hill, Shikar by her side. He waved to her to come over.
By the time Tumi reached him, Oliver arrived in a farm bakkie. They all greeted one another, Oliver as cool to Tumi as usual.
‘Shikar and I couldn’t pick up anything on the other side of the fence,’ Tumi said.
‘Same on this side.’
‘Are we here to feed lions,’ Oliver asked, ‘or to protect this place?’
‘Could be one and the same thing,’ Sean replied. ‘Do you have the keys?’
Oliver took the keys to the enclosures from his pocket and handed them over. Sean had seen Christine and her staff go through the routine countless times, but it still took him some time to find the right keys for the multitude of locks. He opened a vacant area and had Oliver drive through the gate. The pair of them then dragged the leg of a dead horse from the back of the bakkie and let it fall with a thud into the grass. Local farmers donated livestock and other animals that had passed away to Christine’s lion refuge.
Sean had Oliver move the vehicle back out, and then he unlocked a gate between the empty enclosure and the space where Felix was now pacing along the fence. Sean left, locked the exterior gate, and used a remote control on the key chain to open the battery-powered sliding gate between the two areas. Sean had been in with Christine when she interacted with Felix and Casper, but he was wary of doing so by himself. He was doubly cautious today as Felix seemed confused by the loss of his brother. Felix was roaring impatiently as he waited for the gate to roll open far enough for him to squeeze through.
Felix trotted into the vacant lot and began devouring the section of horse. Sean used the remote to shut the gate behind the lion. If Felix was worried about being locked in, or still concerned about the death of his brother, he wasn’t showing it now as he chomped down on flesh and cartilage.
‘What do we do now?’ Oliver said. Tumi was with them again.
‘We set up camp in the enclosure where Felix and Casper were. I want a camouflaged OP here, on that small koppie.’ Sean pointed to a small rise studded with granite rocks. He knew the lions liked to sit and snooze up there as it gave them a good vantage point over the whole farm, and he wanted the spot for the same reason. ‘Oliver?’
‘Yes?’
‘Take the water jerries and the patrol tents up to the rise, please.’
Oliver gestured to Tumi with a flick of his head. ‘What about her?’
‘She’s going back on patrol.’
Oliver grunted and went to the bakkie, where he began unloading the water containers.
‘You can leave your rifle in the vehicle,’ Sean said.
‘What do we do with the dead lion?’ Tumi asked. ‘It’s spooky.’
‘He won’t hurt you. We’ll leave him there for now and we’ll burn him tomorrow, give him a Viking send-off. I don’t want the bastards who are after us to get hold of his bones.’
‘You make it sound like we won’t get out of this alive,’ Tumi said quietly.
Sean had no reply to that. ‘You can leave if you want, Tumi. You didn’t sign up for this.’
She glared at him. ‘It’s bad enough that Oliver treats me like a second-class citizen – now you’re acting like I’m some sort of precious little flower that’s going to bend in the wind.’
‘Sorry,’ he said. He walked to the bakkie and looked towards the rise. Oliver was plodding, slower than necessary, up the hill with the water cans. Sean leaned into the back of the truck and picked up Oliver’s 7.62-millimetre R1 rifle.
‘What are you doing?’ Tumi asked.
He said nothing as he checked the safety catch, removed the magazine and set it down. He pulled back the cocking handle and a round was ejected from the breech.
Tumi bent and picked up the fallen round from the grass. ‘He’s been walking around with his rifle cocked, with a bullet in the chamber, like he’s ready for action.’
‘Yes,’ Sean said. He locked the working parts of the rifle back by depressing a plunger under the weapon, then poked his little finger into the breech and barrel. When he pulled it back out, his finger was dark grey with cordite residue. ‘This has been fired since it was last cleaned.’
‘Maybe he doesn’t clean his rifle that often,’ Tumi said.
‘Maybe, but it’s unlikely. Oliver was in the army, and whatever we think of him I never heard anyone say he was anything other than professional when it came to his soldiering.’ Sean laid the unloaded rifle down in the rear tray of the bakkie then took up the magazine. Deftly he unloaded the bullets from it. When they were laid out in the vehicle he counted them, twice. ‘Nineteen.’
‘The magazine holds twenty rounds, right?’ Tumi said.
‘Right.’