The Devil's Vengeance (Harry Bauer Book 17) by Blake Banner

Author:Blake Banner [Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Right House
Published: 2023-07-16T23:00:00+00:00

Twelve

The sunrise was a riot of fire and blood on the eastern horizon. We were in a field of dry grass and low, twisted trees. There were four Land Rovers, a Range Rover and one open, seven-ton military truck carrying just about everything you might need to keep a dangerously psychotic megalomaniac happy, including an entire armory of guns and rifles, enough ammunition for a small war and an entire kitchen complete with propane canisters the size of ICBMs.

And there were people. The four Land Rovers had brought fifteen soldiers from the president’s personal guard. They were to form a cordon around us and make sure nobody got close enough to the president to kill him, which I thought was kind of ironic. Apparently this job was all about irony.

As well as the soldiers there were six cooks, two gunsmiths, a driver and a driver’s assistant. They were all now busily setting up camp, which involved erecting a large tent and a marquee. The kitchen and dining room were to be in the marquee, and the tent was so that the president could sit down in the shade when he wanted to.

The Presidential Guard would also act as beaters. Because about a hundred yards from where all this activity was taking place there was a dark, dense wall of trees, which towered some fifteen to twenty feet into the air, and inside there were the animals we had come here to kill.

The Range Rover had come for me unexpectedly at six in the morning. Fortunately I had been up and showered and was dressing. When I had got down to the waiting Range Rover I had found the president waiting for me. My, “Good morning,” had received a large smile and, “What about Kuku?”

“She is snuggled up in bed,” I’d told him. “I didn’t think hunts and women mixed.”

“Quite right, and what about your incompetent assistant. Shall we hunt him today?”

“There is nothing I would like better, but he has been summonsed back to the head office.”

“Maybe some other time then.”

We had both laughed savagely and taken off through the pre-dawn twilight toward the president’s private hunting park.

Now we stood drinking coffee and watching the African red seep across the horizon, while in among the darkness of the trees hysterical birds raised hell. I stood beside His Magnificence, President Napoleon Baba Serviteur d’Allah, the Shining Light of Africa and Most Mighty Herald of the Dawn. He showed me his big grin from behind his huge glasses.

“You like Kuku, eh?”

“She’s fabulous.”

“You want her?”

I laughed. “You mean to keep?”

“Sure. You can have her. I used to like her but I am done with her now.”

I thought of various things to say, including inquiring about her family and parents, but settled on, “Your generosity is overwhelming. I’ve never been given a person before.”

“I have,” he said, pointing toward the tree line. “Happens all the time. So, we have sent in the beaters. They will start scaring the animals, shouting and whacking with sticks, walking back toward us.

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