THE IVORY WAR a BRAND NEW gripping, action-packed thriller by PAUL BENNETT

Author:PAUL BENNETT [BENNETT, PAUL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller and suspense
Published: 2024-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The guests assembled for the dawn drive. I imagined that the bus was a disappointment to some: to the rest, it was part of the simplicity of the adventure, the lure of the wild. I was carrying the Uzi, the dart gun and the sniper rifle with my trusted Browning Hi-Power in the holster. Pieter — with an assault rifle — and I supervised the boarding, and Ranu — dart gun — was joining the party, too. Smarfy was driving, and he would have a rifle on the front passenger seat of the bus. Plenty of guns if the action got tricky. Our final passenger was Ibo, to widen his experience. Bull and Stan were going on a reconnaissance trip to scope out the house of the opposition, and Red was on duty to safeguard the camp. All bases covered.

The plan was to cover the east side of the reserve today and part of the northern section tomorrow, when staying at the first camp. We would be running down to the sea, which would be a spectacular backdrop to the open plains of the reserve.

The first animals we came across were a herd of kudu with their spiral horns, which were so razor sharp that most predators avoided them. They were grazing on the lush grass of the savannah, where there was a good view all around of any approaching danger from predators. The guests snapped away on their phones and on digital cameras with a multitude of lenses and filters, equipment that seemed so plentiful we should have had a trailer to carry it all. They were never going to forget the trip, hopefully for the right reasons.

Along from the kudus were impala and springbok. They were agitated, feeding only in little bursts as they constantly looked around. It was almost like they could sense danger. Then we saw it.

A leopard crouched low and motionless, staring. It was eyeing the animals, looking for the easiest prey, the young or the lame. Suddenly, it charged into the impalas and chased a straggler. The impala was going to be too slow, and the only question was how long it would take before it was caught.

We were all spellbound by the chase. The leopard was strong, the impala swift, but not swift enough. The leopard brought it down and went for its neck, ripping into its flesh and squeezing the lifeblood from the beautiful impala. Yet the leopard was beautiful, too. A powerful killing machine. This was the game of life and death played out before us.

‘I got it!’ said Joni. ‘The whole damn thing! I got it! A video of it all. Boy, I can dine out on this for the next year.’

‘Good for you, Joni,’ said Jesse. ‘We can relive this moment for the rest of our lives.’

‘Shame,’ someone said. ‘I was rooting for the impala.’

‘The leopard’s got to eat, too,’ said Pieter. ‘All part of the rich tapestry of life. If the leopard didn’t kill the impala, the numbers would get out of control, and then there wouldn’t be enough grass to feed them.

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