Stalking Ivory (17 page)

She kept their pace easy, so that Sam could keep up. Finally, she recognized the tortuously twisted trunks of a stand of African olive trees and knew that the cache was close by. She held up her hand to call a halt. Both of them listened intently for any sounds of human activity before venturing forward and risking discovery. They heard none. Once again, it seemed the cache had been left unguarded, which meant the Abyssinians had yet to discover the theft of their weapons. It reaffirmed Jade’s belief that those rifles had a purpose other than for poaching. Otherwise, someone would have broken open the boxes by now and discovered their loss.

“Wait here,” she mouthed, and pointed to the ground for emphasis.

Sam shouldered his rifle. “Got your back, Jade,” he whispered. “Make it fast, though.”

She nodded and, after another quick survey of the area, darted out of cover and into the shelter of the cache. She turned on her light and began a thorough sweep of the ground, one section at a time, looking for anything dropped or set aside that might give her another clue to the poachers’ ultimate plans. It was on the fourth pass that she discovered the nest of blankets tucked behind a stack of ivory.

As she panned across the blankets, her light reflected off a small white disk. Jade picked it up.
A button.
A four-holed mother-of-pearl button with delicate filigree edging such as one might see on a woman’s blouse. Jade clutched the button in her fist. The hard part was going to be sneaking back into Harry’s camp to match it.

S
AM STOOD
on the wooden planks that they’d hauled back from another blind, and inspected his newly hung hammock. “That looks mighty comfortable,” he said. “It’s yours if you want it, Jade. I can sleep on the planks or…” He let the rest of his thought dangle. He wanted to say that they could share it, but didn’t dare. One didn’t suggest something like that to a lady. Well, at least he didn’t.

“Sleeping in the truck sounds more uncomfortable than on a plank,” said Jade. “I’ll be fine. Wouldn’t think of stealing your hammock, but thanks for the offer.”

Sam frowned. Had she purposely misunderstood him? Probably not. Jade was too plainspoken to play at deception. He watched her spread one of the blankets against the trunk as a nest and felt his breath catch in his throat.
My stars, she’s beautiful!
And brave, and intelligent, and everything else he ever thought he’d want in a woman. He’d longed for a life of adventure, and now found that desire all wrapped up in Jade’s neat, tidy form. He just had to convince her that he was the man for her, a challenge that seemed more impossible with every passing day. What had he been thinking? That he could saunter into camp and rely on his friendship with Avery to recommend himself to her?
She loves airplanes and respects pilots,
Beverly had said in their letter.
She’s an American. You’re perfect for each other.
Sam sighed again. Someone forgot to tell Jade—that was all. Well, here they were alone and he’d never get a better opportunity for wooing.

Jade rolled up a second blanket and tossed it over to him. “You’d better wrap yourself in this, Sam. The nights here get pretty cold, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

“Thanks.” He plopped the blanket on his hammock and took a seat next to her on the plank. Jade opened up her pack and divided out a ration of dried fruits and jerky for an evening supper. He popped a date in his mouth, swallowed, and searched for something to say that didn’t sound too corny. “Beautiful evening,” he said finally. “The night sky here reminds me of the sky back home, where the stars are so thick you can scoop them up with a spoon.”

Jade nodded. “Guess that’s what the Big Dipper is for, right?” She cleared her throat. “You know, Sam, I think I owe you an apology, for snapping at you over Madeline’s manuscript. I should be mad at Beverly for sending it, but not angry at you.”

Sam wasn’t sure that helped his situation much, but he held his tongue and let her finish.

“Anyway, I thought about that Pancho Villa story and I came up with a piss-sonnet, if you’d like to hear it.”

She glanced at him sheepishly under half-lowered eyelids, and Sam felt his innards turn to mush. He nodded.

“Okay,” she said, “here goes. Old Pancho was running amok, when Pershing came driving his truck. He shot Pancho’s hat, and Pancho said that…he needed to Dodge more than duck.”

Sam laughed. “That’s wonderful!”
So far, so good.

Jade drew up her knees, wrapped her arms around her legs, and rested her chin on her knees. Her emerald eyes peered into the forest, but seemed to look beyond it.

“Thinking of home?” he asked, hoping for a tender moment.

She shook her head, her black hair shimmering in the final rays of the evening sun. “Nope. Thinking about that button we found.” She turned towards him. “We need to get into Harry’s camp and match it to someone’s clothes.”

Sam’s jaw hung open, flabbergasted. This was hardly the direction he’d planned for the conversation to take and for a moment he was as stupefied as a bullfrog at night that woke to find a bright light in his eyes and a gigging stick in his hide. “We need to
what
?” he said after an awkward silence. “Are you crazy?”

Jade refolded her arms in a defensive attitude across her chest. “You heard me. We need to match that button. My money’s on Liesel. She strikes me as the sort who’d do anything for money.”

“May I remind you, Jade, that we’re officially gone from the mountain? How are you going to explain our continued presence here when you walk up to the Germans and start examining their clothing?”

She scowled for an instant, then shook her head again. “But I’m not going to walk up to them. I can slip into their camp when they’re gone.”

“They’re never all gone,” he said, exasperation in his voice. “And even if they were, there are always some of their porters around. It’s not going to work.”

“Fine,” she snapped. “And just what do you think we should do, then?”

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering. How could anyone so clever be so dang-blasted bullheaded? “We came back here to spy on the poachers and get more information. Fine. I say we continue to do that. Let’s find a place off their trail where we can hide in a tree and watch them. We don’t need to do any more than that. If one of Harry’s group came there before, chances are, he or she will come back again.”

“Hmmph!” was Jade’s only reply. She shoved a handful of dates in her mouth as though saying all conversation was off for the evening. “I’m going to sleep,” she mumbled between mouthfuls. “You can take first watch. Wake me halfway through the night.” With that, she stretched out on her board, effectively booting Sam out of the way, and curled up in her blanket.

Sam wrapped his own blanket around his shoulders and sat at the edge of the board, his rifle resting across his lap. It was going to be a long night.

J
ELANI WOKE
in the black of night, instantly alert. Something was out there.
No,
he corrected himself,
some
one. He lay still on his blanket between the cars, sorting out the night sounds and listening for the one that had woken him. He heard Bwana Avery’s slight snore, and the deep, regular breaths of Memsabu Beverly, Chiumbo, and another man, Abasi, the one who should have been on watch. Closer to him, Biscuit panted rhythmically.

Jelani listened again. Out beyond the scuttling lizards and the shy bark of a bushbuck coming to drink over at the spring drifted the soft sound of a shod foot scratching against rock.

Chirp.
The birdlike call came from beyond the spring in the rocks. Jelani recognized it as someone’s imitation of a cheetah. So did Biscuit. The big cat raised his head and pivoted his ears forward.
Chirp.
Biscuit started to rise, but Jelani clutched the cheetah’s collar and held fast.

So,
he thought,
someone is trying to call Simba Jike’s cheetah. Why might that be?
Whenever Biscuit went looking for Simba Jike, he went after Biscuit. Someone else, an enemy, knew this. With his free hand he felt for his knife. The bone shaft felt cool and familiar in his grasp as he clenched the hilt.

His passage into manhood lay before him. He would let Biscuit follow this sound and he would tail Biscuit. But he would follow as a hunter, not as the hunted. When dawn broke and Bwana Avery called for them to drive on, Jelani the warrior would climb into the car instead of Jelani the boy.

“W
E ALREADY DISCUSSED
this last evening. You cannot sneak into Harry’s camp.” Sam sat perched on the hood of the Dodge, a handful of dates in his right hand, his left hand pointing at Jade as he argued his point. “The camp is never empty. You’ll be spotted.”

“We could create some diversion to frighten everyone out of camp for a moment,” Jade suggested.

“Are you listening to yourself?” he argued. “A diversion? Do you think you can get a herd of elephants to stampede through there at your command?”

She shook her head. “That wouldn’t be practical anyway. They’d trample any evidence. No, I need something more subtle. If we could snare a leopard, we could turn it loose inside their compound.”

“And they’d all run up and shoot it.” Sam slid off the hood, landing on his good leg. He took three steps towards Jade and grabbed her shoulders. “Look at me, Jade. We’re supposed to be off the mountain and on our way to Nairobi. If someone in that camp is involved in the poaching, then they cannot know we’re on to them. It would be too dangerous.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but Sam simply spoke with more force. “You
cannot
go into that camp!” He caught the questioning look in her eye, and added, “And neither can I.”

“You could tell them you decided to stay and finish your motion picture. You’ve already filmed them once.”

Sam released his hold on her. “No,” he said softly. “Somehow I think they might be a little bit suspicious when I waltz in there without my camera. Remember? We sent it back with the Dunburys.” He turned back to the car. “Now, I suggest we pull out of here and take what evidence you have to the people in charge. Let them deal with this.”

“You never saw that dead soldier, shot in the back of the head like an execution. And they hurt Chiumbo.”

“Which,” he said in a gentle voice as he faced her again, “is why you need to get out of here. These people are unscrupulous. They are not afraid to kill and they will hurt you, too, if you leave them no other choice.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Are you perhaps worried about what they might do to you?”

Sam shook his head and grinned. “I’m more worried about what Avery and Beverly would do to me if I let anything happen to their Jade.” He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the Dodge. “I’m not leaving your side, Jade, and I’m not letting you sneak into Hascombe’s camp. So unless you have another idea, we either sit here or we leave.”

Jade studied the set of his jaw and the self-assured way in which he returned her gaze. The resolution on his face said he meant business. This was one man she couldn’t seem to buffalo.
Blast!
Her own lips tightened as she mentally ran through her options. “Fine,” she said after a few moments of deliberation. “We’ll leave tomorrow. But first I’m going to clean out the rest of those rifles in that cache. If these people get away, it’s going to be without their weapons.”

Sam rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin. “Hmmm. You already took away half a dozen rifles last evening. I’m surprised you didn’t tinker with the rest so they’d blow up when they’re fired.”

“Interesting idea, but rigging them all would take too long,” she replied. Sam rolled his eyes. “There’s no more room in that hollow tree,” she added. “We’ll have to leave today’s take up in this tree instead.”

Sam peered up into the tree. Jade expected he was buying time to think rather than studying the logistics of hoisting rifles. She allowed him his moment, partly because she recognized she was running on emotion and pride rather than common sense, though she’d be danged if she ever admitted as much to him. She’d never backed down from anything in her life, and she surely wasn’t about to back down from stopping whoever had hurt Chiumbo and killed that African soldier. But she also couldn’t run headlong into trouble, and she found she actually valued Sam’s cooler reasoning. She needed a working plan, and if he had one, she’d go along with it.

“Well, are you going to tell me what you’re thinking?” she asked.

He tipped his head, his dark brown eyes boring into hers from under his hat brim. “You do
not
want to know what I’m thinking, missy. But,” he added as he raised his head, “since you’re dead set on doing something, I will give you my advice on this harebrained scheme of yours.” He made a fist with his right hand and raised the index finger. “One, you’ve been lucky so far that they haven’t set a guard during the day, but they may be wise to you by now and be waiting. It’s riskier every time you try to sneak in there.” He raised a second finger. “Two, I have no intention of carrying any rifles except for my own. Someone’s got to act as guard, and since you don’t intend to, that leaves me. That means it will take you twice as long to clean them out.” A third finger popped up.

“Three,” said Jade before he could continue, “you’re not up for that many trips with your game leg.” She pointed to her left knee. “But if I can tough it out today, so can you.”

Sam lowered his hand and folded his arms across his chest. “Your knee hurts?”

“I spent the night crammed into the crotch of a tree. Yes, my knee hurts.” Jade muttered something under her breath about obstinate Hoosiers and men in general. “I’ll just have to take what I can, then.” She pulled the makeshift rope ladder down from their tree refuge, wound it up, and slung it over her head and one arm. “I should be able to tie up a bundle and carry it on my back like cordwood,” she announced as she started up the trail. “Just make sure you have my back.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They hadn’t gone fifty feet from the car when Sam grabbed Jade’s arm and pulled her off the trail and into cover. He put a finger to his lips to indicate silence, but she didn’t need his warning. She heard the noise, too. A man, heavily winded, by the sound of his labored breathing, was racing towards them from below. As the runner neared, Sam shouldered his rifle and prepared to fire if necessary. Jade grabbed his wrist and shook her head. Then she stepped out of the brush in front of the man.

“Abasi, what are you doing here? Did Bwana Dunbury find Captain Smythe?”

The runner, one of the Wakamba porters, grabbed his knees and leaned over, panting. “Sam,” said Jade. “Help me get Abasi to the truck. He needs to sit and drink something.”