Rare Breed by Connie Hall

Author:Connie Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2005-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

That night before going back to camp, Wynne and Aja had stopped by most of the nearby villages and spread the word about the bush meat poachers being in the area. She wasn’t sure if any of them would be brave enough to come forward, but she hoped that offering reward money might give them an incentive. She couldn’t bear the thought of coming upon another poaching death camp like she’d found today. And it was one way to fight back against Hellstrom.

Aja had stayed in Chiawa village for the night, where he was good friends with the chief. Now she drove along the road to base camp with only Snow in the Rover. Antelope darted in the headlights and she swerved to avoid them. That’s when she noticed headlights in her rearview mirror. They gleamed like two wolf eyes following her. She couldn’t make out the driver behind the bright headlights. A memory flashed of the plane attack, and she veered right.

The vehicle followed, but didn’t ride her bumper. It kept four car lengths between them.

She reached base camp and skidded to a halt near her hut. The vehicle followed her and pulled up beside her. In seconds she had her slingshot palmed and loaded. She hopped out, whirling it, as MacKay got out of a Land Cruiser.

Wynne frowned and stilled her weapon. She didn’t want another repeat in her hut like last night. He’d made her feel defenseless, and she couldn’t let her guard down around him. Not after today.

MacKay walked toward her and Snow. “How are you, darlin’?”

“Not in the mood.” She strode past him and refastened her slingshot around her waist as he bent to pet Snow.

“Ah, now, that hurts.”

Wynne heard MacKay pause behind her. She expected him to follow her and she turned to see what he was up to. He had his nose up, sniffing the air like an animal scenting a predator.

“You smell that?” he said. “Smells like fire.”

She caught the faint scent of smoke. She tried to peer past the thick cover of trees on the other side of the landing field, but darkness veiled everything.

“Smell’s getting stronger.” MacKay followed her gaze. “Must be a couple of miles away.”

Wynne hurried to the Rover’s cargo hold and fished through a toolbox and grabbed the night-vision binoculars her father had given her as a gift last Christmas. The card had read: “Daddy Santa’s contribution for catching poachers. Get the sombitches.” Needless to say, unlike her mother, her father encouraged her work here in Africa. He had even put contribution boxes in the zoo’s gift shops and sent the donations to the Big Five Habitat, along with his own sizeable checks.

Wynne scrambled up on the Rover’s hood, then hopped on the roof. She scanned the area above the tree tops and spotted the huge plume of smoke billowing skyward. In the binoculars’ green vision field it looked like a dragon opening its wings.

“Can you see it?” MacKay asked.

“In the east. About three kilometers away. My God, it’s near Zambezi village.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.