Pedru watched as the hyenas stripped the waterbuck’s body and cracked its bones for the marrow. There was hardly anything left for the horde of hopping, squabbling vultures. The two lions skulked off and lay in the shade of an acacia a few hundred yards away, just visible through the heat haze with binoculars. The day was still, with no breeze to carry the scent of humans and make the lions wary. With all hope of recovering their kill gone, and no hunting to be done until nightfall, the lions slept. Pedru climbed down from the roof of the Land Rover to join Issa and the researchers, who were quietly planning their attack.

Beth had plugged her camera into Renaldo’s laptop so they could look at her photos of the two young lions and compare them with the ID pictures. Even though the shots were taken from so far away, everyone agreed that the young lions were Puna’s two male cubs, Samir and Anjani.

“So all we need to do now,” said John, “is get close enough to get a tranquilizer dart into Anjani, and his brother too, if we can.”

“How close must you be?” Issa asked John.

“You are speaking to the lion-darting champion of all of Africa here,” John said with a mock swagger, “but all the same, I need to be quite close to be sure of a good shot. Twenty-five, maybe thirty yards?”

“Good — not as close as I thought,” said Issa. “They are very hungry, these lions. We can get them close if we have bait to tempt them.”

“How about this?” Renaldo grinned, holding up a small, dead goat. “I got him out of the freezer just before we left our compound. He’s thawed out now.”

“Mmmm, and getting smelly, too!” said Beth. “Perfect. Where should we put him, Issa?”

Before Issa could answer, Pedru spoke up. He pointed to a short line of trees, beyond the acacia where the two lions slept.

“Those waterberry trees,” Pedru said. “There will be water there, and the lions will be thirsty.”

Issa nodded and smiled. “That is thinking like a hunter, Pedru. Very good.”

The plan was that Issa and John would wait in the trees by the goat, each with a tranquilizer gun. Although Issa didn’t own a gun, he had used one many times and was a crack shot. With two guns, their chances of getting a dart into Anjani, or even darting both lions, were much greater.

“We’ll use this, too,” John said, pulling a small plastic recording device from the back of the Land Rover. “It’ll play the sound of a bush pig squealing. The lions won’t be able to resist.”

When the lions were tranquilized, John would call Beth and Renaldo to bring the collars from the Land Rover.

“You will wait with them. It’s too dangerous for you to come with us,” Issa told Pedru. “I don’t trust these dart things,” he added in a whisper.

Pedru had no intention of being left out of the hunt, even if it meant disobeying Issa, so he didn’t bother to argue. About an hour before dusk, as John and Issa were about to make their way to the waterberry grove with the dead goat, Pedru slipped his hand into John’s pack, took out the recorder, and hid it in his tent. He said good-bye to Issa and John and wished them luck. Then he waited.

The sun sank and touched the horizon. By now John and Issa would be at the grove — too far away to come back to fetch the recorder.

“They’ve left the recorder behind!” Pedru told Beth and Renaldo. “I’ll take it to them. Don’t worry. I’ll take my spear, too.”

He was gone before they could say a word.

The goat was already strung up on a branch, and John and Issa were about to climb to their positions when Pedru arrived at the waterberry trees.

“Thanks a million, Pedru,” said John, looking very pleased. He set the little plastic speaker at the bottom of the goat tree. “Don’t know how I left it behind.”

“I think I know,” said Issa quietly, giving Pedru a hard look. They both knew it was too late now for Pedru to return to the camp alone.

“Can you get up into that tree?” Issa asked.

Pedru nodded. The tree had several trunks growing close together, so by bracing his feet on one and his back on another, he could work his way upward, holding his spear in his one good hand. Pedru was glad there was no time for more questions.

John turned on the playback device, and the sound of squealing bush pig filled the space under the trees and echoed out into the falling darkness.