Stalking Ivory (27 page)

J
ADE PAUSED BEHIND A TREE
and took stock of her remaining ammunition. Six arrows left, hardly enough to launch a full-scale assault if Smythe’s men returned. Just how many soldiers did he have in his little army, not counting the Abyssinians themselves? She’d never seen him with more than two or three soldiers. Maybe the real troops were kept at a distance, patrolling other parts of the northern frontier under a junior officer.

For a moment, she remembered the executed man she’d found among the dead elephants. At least one man had remained loyal to king and country. Was he a new recruit sent to join Smythe’s ranks? Had he stumbled on only the Abyssinian poachers or had he caught Smythe in the act? Whatever he’d discovered, Jade admired him. There was a man who refused to relinquish his honor even in the face of death. She fingered an arrow before nocking it.
This next one’s for you.

Before she’d sequestered herself behind this tree, Boguli had motioned for her to stay put, pushing his outstretched palm down. The old man himself had wandered off into the forest, presumably to scout. Jade didn’t mind. Waiting gave her time to recoup her dwindling strength. It also gave her time to think, and her thoughts kept returning to the dead soldier, hunched on the ground with a gaping hole in place of his face. From there, memories of the slaughtered elephant calf crept in along with the cow that had been left to bleed to death. Finally her thoughts rested on Chiumbo and young Jelani, and once again, Jade lingered there and felt the rage well up within her like a geyser about to blow. She welcomed it. The anger gave her strength and determination. Somewhere in the recesses of her brain she heard Beverly remind her not to get awarded the “order of the wooden cross,” a term used in the ambulance corps to represent a deceased driver’s grave marker. No, getting killed wouldn’t bring this man to justice, she decided, and tempered her anger with a dose of caution.

Finally, when her patience had worn itself to nothing, she spied Boguli, a dusty gray shadow thirty feet away. He beckoned for her to follow. With a quick look around for danger, Jade sprinted through the trees towards him. She didn’t know where he planned to lead her, but she followed willingly, trusting him.

Boguli took her on a winding path off trail, a route on which she never lacked for a sheltering tree trunk to guard her. It had been over a quarter of an hour since she’d last heard Smythe, and she wondered if he was on her trail or she was on his. The answer came quickly enough when Boguli crouched behind a tree and motioned for Jade to do the same behind a rocky outcrop. Then he pointed to her left. When she peered over the boulder, Jade spotted Smythe standing not fifty feet away, facing down a slight incline.

Jade recognized the spot. It was one they’d passed just before she’d rested awhile. Boguli had once again doubled back. Silently, Jade took her bow, aiming for Smythe’s back, but just as she released the string, Smythe squatted to examine a partial boot print. Her arrow flew high this time, and tore under his hat brim and through the cartilage of his right ear.

That’s for the soldier you murdered! The next one’s for Chiumbo.

Smythe shrieked in pain as the arrow sliced through his right ear’s cartilage. Blood splattered his shirt and the surrounding leaves as he spun and fired. The bullet struck the edge of Jade’s sheltering boulder and ricocheted off.

She hunkered down into a low crouch and scuttled away crablike as she strove to keep the rocky outcrop between her and the next shot. Smythe fired again, the bullet passing just overhead and into the trees beyond as Jade darted around first one tree, then another. Behind her, the tree bark shattered and pelted her back.

No need for silence now, just speed. With Smythe stuck below the rock outcrop, he had no choice but to backtrack and find a path up to her. Jade planned on being well out of sight by that time, and back in the role of predator instead of prey. Unfortunately, it gave him ample time to reload, and she also lost sight of Boguli as she dodged Smythe’s repeated fire. Without him to guide her, she took the only path she recognized, one that, she hoped, led past the only remaining camera blind and a potential hiding place. With any luck, she could use it as a hunter’s blind.

Her lungs burned and her leg muscles started to cramp when she finally stopped and collapsed, panting, behind the big mahogany tree where she’d first watched the old bull elephant dust-bathe. Since the day that the bull fell, the herd of cows had left the area, shunning it as though it were haunted. Nothing larger than small animals had prowled the trail. Consequently, her trip wire, upraised a foot so only an elephant or another large mammal could trip it, remained untouched. Jade jumped over it and surveyed the blind up in the trees.

For a moment, she considered hiding up there. If Smythe came by, she could shoot down on him. She changed the “if” to “when.” After all, in her mad dash through the forest, she’d surely left a trail that an experienced tracker such as Smythe could follow. Jade pulled another arrow from her quiver and inspected it. Like the others, it had been pulled from the carcass of the dead bull elephant. Consequently, either the shafts or the fletchings bore some damage and might not shoot true to aim. Unless she killed Smythe in one shot, she’d be a sitting duck up in the tree.

Her lips twitched as an idea came to her. She still might be able to make use of the blind as a decoy. Her makeshift rope ladder rested atop a lower branch, its end dangling just within reach where she’d left it. She stretched up, grabbed it, and gave it a tug. The rope with its knotted loops for hand-and footholds fell easily from its perch. She climbed up the first two loops and scuffed the tree trunk with her right bootheel as though she’d hurriedly climbed the ladder, using the trunk for a brace. Then she dropped back to the ground and scuffed the leaf litter before she slipped off to the other side of the trail to wait.

If her plan worked, Smythe would be along shortly, studying the ground for her tracks. He’d see the scuff marks and conclude that she’d only recently climbed up into the blind. While he stood below looking for her and taking his aim, she’d risk another shot at him.

Jade examined her remaining arrows and chose one of the better ones, but when she nocked it, her hands shook as exhaustion caught up with her. Even her thigh muscles trembled. The pain in her left knee made her wince as she attempted to settle into a solid stance, and when she flexed her leg to ease the strain, her calf muscles charley horsed. Jade clenched her teeth as she massaged out the cramp.

A soft crunch arrested her attention, and she froze.
Smythe!
He padded closer with cautious steps, stopping periodically to examine the ground. When he turned his profile to her to inspect the tree, Jade saw he’d tied up his ripped ear with a pocket handkerchief. Blood seeped through it and hung in a congealed stalactite near his lobe. Flies buzzed his head and shirt, drawn by the scent of blood. Other, larger beasts would be attracted by that scent before long.
Let them come!

Smythe stepped backward into the brush and squatted down while he considered the tree blind.
Blast!
Jade knew the man had to be clever to keep his superiors in the dark about his operation, but she’d hoped he’d step closer to the tree to at least inspect the scuff marks. Yet when she thought about it, she knew she would have suspected a trap, too. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see him well enough to risk releasing the arrow. She’d have to circle around behind him.

Escape routes and risks formed and re-formed in Jade’s mind when she spied Boguli slip across the trail several yards past Smythe. Since her ally might have an idea himself, she decided to wait a few more moments in her hiding place before risking a move. She peered past Smythe and into the trees beyond, hoping for a glance of the old African and a clue to his plan, but he certainly knew how to avoid being seen or heard when he wanted.

A trumpeting blast ripped through the dead silence and nearly toppled Jade in surprise. The elephant that announced its anger at the intruders must have been sleeping only a few dozen feet behind Smythe. Jade could only assume Boguli had found the behemoth and startled it.

The plan worked. Smythe burst out of the trees, a look of terror on his face, and wheeled suddenly to spot the beast. He fired twice into the forest in seemingly random shots as though he hoped to startle the unseen animal into running the other way. All this did was arouse the massive elephant into greater anger as another piercingly shrill scream rent the air.

Smythe backed away and tumbled straight onto the calf-high camera trip wire. He stumbled and fell as the flash powder blazed in a blinding white glare from up in the blind. Jade shut her eyes just in time and, when she opened them, spotted Boguli in the trees just behind Smythe. She took advantage of the latter’s exposed position and blinded disorientation, aimed, drew back the powerful bowstring, and fired. This time the arrow flew true and struck Smythe in the back just below the right shoulder blade. His revolver flew from his hands and clattered several feet away.

That’s for Chiumbo!

Once again, Jade beat a hasty retreat before Smythe could retrieve his weapon and fire. The man roared in pain, but he managed to find his revolver and shoot twice into the trees where she’d been. By now, his rage dominated all common sense, and Jade knew he’d kill her the first chance he had. After all, there was no more reason to keep her alive and every reason to finish her off before she could reveal his secret.

Her only hope now seemed to lie in beating him to the original cache, where she could hide behind the rocks and take one more shot.

H
ER LUNGS BURNED
as Jade pushed herself to her maximum and sprinted through the forest towards the sheltering rocks of the poachers’ cache. She had only four arrows left. If she encountered any of the poachers on the way, she was doomed. Consequently she stayed off the trail, keeping trees between her and any gunfire. Then she remembered the one soldier left behind to guard Claudia von Gretchmar. Suddenly the futility of her plan smacked her full in the face.

Blast! I’ll have to save at least one arrow for him.
Unless she took down Smythe first and got his revolver. Then she’d have a fighting chance. Suddenly, silence and secrecy became as important as speed, and Jade felt a great longing for her stolen Winchester.

Just when the knot in her right calf nearly became unbearable, she spied the rock outcrop that sheltered the poachers and there, in front of it, stood two guards, the man left at the cache and the one who’d been sent to Harry’s camp. For a moment, Jade thought all was lost, but then she noticed that the men in all their arrogant assurance were busy chewing on handfuls of dates. As one calmly spit out a pit and popped another date into his mouth, Jade looked for his rifle and saw it was slung across his back. The other man’s rifle lay across one of the crates. Claudia sat huddled in the recesses against the cave wall, casting fearful glances back and forth between her armed guard and her dead husband. Mercedes cowered nearby in Liesel’s protective embrace.

Jade kept to the trees as long as she could and waited until one guard stuffed more food in his mouth, and the second sat down as though to nap. Then she erupted from the trees, screaming like a banshee from hell, and raced straight at the startled soldiers.

The standing man spun around and choked on the mouthful of fruit while he struggled to slide his rifle from his back. His hands, still full of sticky dates, couldn’t grip the weapon quickly enough to aim and fire, something Jade had counted on when she launched her assault. She kicked up with her right foot. Her boot caught the rifle stock and sent it flying out of his hands. Then she swung a hard right at the man’s jaw.

Both whole and broken dates spewed out of his mouth and at least one chunk flew to the back of his throat. He doubled over and coughed, giving Jade the opportunity to send him reeling backward with a left uppercut. He landed with a thud against the second guard, who’d just managed to retrieve his rifle. Both toppled a few inches from Liesel. Jade dived for the first soldier’s fallen rifle just as Liesel pushed Mercedes aside and shoved a heavy crate over onto both men.

Two down, one to go!
Unfortunately, just as Jade reached the rifle, Smythe staggered into the clearing.

The man’s fury and pain were written in blood across his face and shirt and underscored in the deep lines around his eyes and tightly set mouth. In the brief instant that Jade had before he could aim and fire, she read something else in his eyes, a growing stupor from the residual drugs on the arrows, a stupor enhanced by exhaustion. Since she had shot spent arrows pulled from the carcasses of the slain elephants, none of them had enough of the poison to either kill him or render him completely immobile, but their combined effect told on him. It also saved her life.

Smythe raised his revolver in his shaky hands, squinted down the barrel, and fired. What should have taken him a few seconds took him nearly ten, one second more than she needed. Jade snatched up the rifle and rolled just as the bullet zinged past her and struck the rock. Fragments of volcanic stone flew up from the ground and pelted her legs, and her bow’s hard wood dug into her back. She settled into a kneeling stance.

As Jade snugged the rifle butt into her shoulder, she prayed the blasted thing was loaded. Without bothering to rise, she worked the bolt action once and fired. The bullet struck Smythe’s wrist and blasted the revolver out of it.

He screamed and grabbed his shattered hand. Jade scrambled to her feet, chambered another round, and stepped forward, her rifle aimed squarely at Smythe’s chest. In every aspect of his condition, she read the parallel of her innocent friends. She saw Chiumbo’s wounds, Jelani’s pain and blood, and her and Sam’s own brush with death. All that was lacking was the young African soldier’s death. Jade intended to complete the parallel. She rested her cheek against the rifle butt and took aim.

Smythe’s face paled and he shook his head no, pleading silently for his life. At the same time, he tried to edge away from her, sidling closer to the cache. “You can’t do this,” he croaked. “I have information you want, about my partner.” Bloody spit drooled from his mouth as he babbled and pleaded. “You’re a woman—you haven’t got it in you.”

“How much you wanna bet, Smythe? Willing to bet your life?” She started to smile, but it turned into a snarl. “Shall I do as Lady Macbeth did? What was it she said? ‘Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.’ That would solve it, wouldn’t it?”

Jade exhaled in preparation for firing. Her finger hesitated for a few seconds on the trigger when two male voices shouted in unison from behind her.

“Stop!”

Jade released the trigger without losing her aim or turning around.

“Nice of you to join us, Sam, Harry. This man is a murderer, a traitor to his country, a smuggler, a poacher, and a slave trader. You’re just in time to witness his execution.”

“Don’t do it, Jade,” Harry ordered.

“As if you wouldn’t?” she asked, her cheek still resting on the rifle butt.

Smythe’s eyes jerked back and forth between Jade and the two men, beseeching them to help him. “She’s berserk,” he said, his voice cracking.

“Jade, listen to me,” said Sam. His voice was firm, yet soothing. “You’re not a killer. You drove an ambulance, remember? You
saved
lives. You don’t take them.”

“He hurt Jelani!” Her voice broke, and a tear cascaded down her cheek.

“And you saved him,” Sam added, his voice closer as he edged his way to her side. “If you kill this man, scum though he may be, you’ll become like him. Don’t do it, Jade. Leave him to the law. I heard him say he has information. We need to get it from him.”

Jade groaned, took a deep breath, and exhaled in a shuddering sigh of resignation as she slowly lowered the rifle. Sam and Harry both rushed to her side, their concern for her overwhelming any thoughts of Smythe. After all, the man was unarmed and clearly in no condition to escape. As if to prove their assumptions correct, Smythe sagged and stumbled to the rocky wall by the cache’s entrance.

Harry took the rifle from Jade’s hands just as Smythe pulled a knife from his boot.

“Look out!” yelled Sam.

“You can’t escape, Smythe,” said Harry. “Give it up, man.”

“I may not escape, but if I’m going down, I’m taking that bitch with me.”

He raised his hand to hurl the knife as Sam grabbed Jade to pull her behind him, but there was no need to use his own body as a shield. Just as Smythe’s hand reached the apex, Claudia von Gretchmar struggled to her feet, a large chunk of volcanic rock in her hand. She brought it down with a hollow thud on Smythe’s head and knocked him out cold.

“Schweinehund!”
she shouted, and spit on his prostrate body. “That is for betraying
meine
daughter and me.”