"That doesn"t mean I"m going to sleep with you, Sebastian." He had some hide, a.s.suming she would just lie back and open her legs for him. The problem was, however, that she was attracted to him.
"I know. How about we just hang out?"
s.h.i.t, she thought. He was a smooth worker. She would like to kiss him, but she didn"t trust him, or herself for that matter, to keep it at that. She had no protection, in any case. "You don"t hang out in a tent." The moment of silence between them was interrupted by the noise of another zip nearby opening.
"It"s Sutton," Sebastian hissed. "He must be getting up to take a p.i.s.s or something. My tent"s past his. He"ll see me here."
"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l." Emma got to her knees and quickly undid her zip all the way. Sebastian stumbled in, half tripping over the sill of canvas. He landed next to her and started to giggle. Emma clamped a hand over his mouth. "Shut it!"
She peeked outside and saw Professor Sutton stumbling out of his tent, dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts, his flabby white tummy hanging over his waistband. It wasn"t a pretty sight. Emma took her hand off Sebastian"s mouth, and zipped up again, as quietly as she could.
"That was close," he whispered. "Fun."
It was not funny nearly being caught by the professor. She hardly imagined an old fogey like Sutton would have approved of her becoming involved with Sebastian. However, she couldn"t deny that it was exciting. "You can"t stay, Sebastian."
He sat up and placed his hand behind her head, wrapping his fingers in her hair. She wanted to tell him to stop, but her throat seemed constricted, as if she"d lost the power of speech. He kissed her and she felt her body melt into his.
Emma broke from him, and took a breath. "I"m not easy, Sebastian."
"I know that." He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers, then drew her to him again and lay back, pulling her down on top of him on the sleeping bag.
She had the power to roll off him, to end it now, but she didn"t want to. She felt his hands on her, running down her back, tracing the curves of her body. She felt his biceps, and ran her fingers through his hair.
Sebastian lifted his head and kissed her again. His lips were soft, but he moved his hands behind her head and on her back like he was claiming her. She wanted to resist, but at the same time she craved the release of giving in to him, and the heat building inside her body. She met his tongue with hers. He grabbed her bottom and squeezed and Emma moaned.
She shifted, straddling him and sitting across his groin, feeling his erection pressing against the thin barrier of her pants. As he ma.s.saged one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s she reached down, grabbed each of his lapels and ripped them apart. A couple of b.u.t.tons popped off and one hit her in the belly.
"Wild thing," Sebastian said, taking each of her nipples between fingers and thumb.
"I"ve always wanted to do that."
"I hope you can sew b.u.t.tons back on," he said.
Emma knocked his hands from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and punched him in the chest. "s.e.xist pig."
He laughed and in one quick movement rolled her over so that he was on top of her, pinning her wrists. Emma struggled a little. This was turning her on. "Kiss me."
"Ask nicely," he replied.
She poked her tongue out at him and he relented. As he kissed her, deeply, his hand moved to her pants. She gasped when he touched her; it was like an electric shock the first time, but she forced herself to relax and he found the right spot.
Emma closed her eyes. She wanted Sebastian, now, but it was Alex"s face she saw above her. She hated herself for feeling guilty, and wanted to be able to just give in to her desire. She had resisted Sebastian"s advances up until now. Sebastian was full of himself, for sure, but his a.s.sertiveness and self-a.s.surance were appealing, in a primitive, alpha male kind of way. And he was good with his hands.
As if sensing she was having second thoughts Sebastian tried a different tack. He took his mouth from hers, kissing her chin, lightly, then made his way down her neck, between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, leaving a trail of kisses all the way down. Emma moved her fingers to Sebastian"s head and grabbed a handful of curls. She moaned again.
Sebastian didn"t go straight to her, but kissed the inside of her thighs first instead. She found herself getting even more turned on as he began tracing the outline of her through the sheer cotton of her pants. She felt herself getting wetter and was sure he could tell. He drew the fabric up between her lips and started kissing then sucking them. It was driving her wild. Emma grasped his hair and tried to draw him to her c.l.i.toris, but he held off.
He hooked his fingers in the elastic waistband and she lifted her hips, eagerly, as he pulled the flimsy garment down her legs. She opened herself to him and felt incredibly exposed as he moved his mouth back to her. This time he delved into her with the tip of his tongue and she tried but failed to stifle a moan.
She looked down at him and caught his eye in the pale moonlight. He smiled at her. "You"re beautiful," he whispered, then returned his attention to her, licking the length of her until he came to her c.l.i.toris.
Emma felt her breath start to quicken as he formed an "o" around her most sensitive spot and drew her into his mouth, sucking on her. At the same time he began touching her. She wanted to cry out, to urge him on, but he needed no direction and she didn"t dare make a sound. My, he"s good. All thoughts of anyone else had left her mind. She was totally focused on Sebastian and what he was doing to her.
Emma pushed back onto him, hungry for his touch, for more of him. She wrapped her legs around Sebastian, giving herself over to the waves welling up inside her. "Yes," she hissed. She raised a hand to her mouth and bit down on it, but couldn"t stop a high-pitched cry from escaping as her body surrendered to his touch.
"Emma? Are you all right?" Alex called softly from outside her tent.
Chapter 25.
Emma had awoken in the chilly pre-dawn hour, alone in her tent. She had been angry with herself for letting Sebastian in, and angry with Alex for interrupting them.
She had told Alex, through the tent canvas, that she was fine, and when he had moved off she had given Sebastian his marching orders. The moment had pa.s.sed and she"d felt terribly guilty, mortified at what she would have said to Alex if he had caught her and Sebastian having s.e.x.
Now, as their four-wheel drives churned up and over one sand dune after another, she felt hot and bothered. Sebastian was in front and Alex was on one side of her, Natangwe on the other. None of them was much in the mood for talking.
"I think we should call this search off for the time being," Alex said, breaking the silence. "We should go to the police in the nearest town, or to the ranger"s post in the Skeleton Coast Park, and report what we"ve found."
"Yes, we should," Sebastian agreed, "but we"ve got no phone contact and the nearest police are hundreds of kilometres away. We"ve come this far, we"d be crazy not to push on until we find the aircraft."
"You are not taking this seriously, Sebastian," Alex protested.
Emma was annoyed at both of them. Sebastian was being his usual flippant, disrespectful self and Alex was finding excuses not to do anything. "You"re both right and you"re both wrong, but we may as well keep on going," she said.
They were all hot, tired and sleep deprived after the cold night in the desert. She wanted this trip to be over, but she still wanted to discover the missing aircraft. Emma found, too, that for the first time in a very long time she was missing her mother. She and Sonja had never had a good relationship when she was younger but now, knowing that they should have already been together, she felt an almost physical pain, a kind of longing inside her for her mother.
"It"s all academic anyway," Sebastian interjected. "Sutton and Horsman are two men on a mission. They"re not going to do anything until we find that aircraft, or run so low on fuel that we have to turn back to the farm for resupplies. I don"t think there"s anything we can do that would convince those two old farts to stop the search."
Emma gave a little laugh. Sebastian did have a way of lifting the mood. Alex was checking his GPS and seemed to be cross-referencing it with a map spread across his knees.
"Where are we?" she asked.
He checked the device and the map again and placed his finger on an empty patch of Namibia. "As far as I can tell we just crossed into the Skeleton Coast National Park. We are breaking the law."
"Fun, isn"t it," Sebastian said from the driver"s seat.
"We"re not likely to b.u.mp into anyone," Natangwe said. "Maybe a few Himba."
"The professor must know what he"s doing," Emma said, feeling less than sure of herself as she uttered the words.
"The professor should know that there is no way he can start digging around in a national park. I"ve had enough of this," Alex said. "Sebastian, catch up to them. I"m going to talk to Sutton. This is not correct."
"Stop being so b.l.o.o.d.y German," Sebastian said.
"Sebastian, that"s out of line," Emma countered. Things were getting hot inside the vehicle.
They crested a dune and Sebastian slowed. Sutton and Horsman had stopped a little way down the opposing slope and were out of their vehicle.
"Wow," Natangwe said.
Emma drew a breath and opened the door of the Land Cruiser. The hot air hit her like a shock wave, but she paid no attention to the heat. Below them, in a valley between two dunes, was the tail of an aircraft.
"The Dakota," Sebastian said. "Woo-hoo!"
Emma held a hand to her eyes to cut out the sun"s glare and scrutinised the valley. She made out pieces of wreckage, mostly covered with sand, that had created little mounds in the otherwise uniform undulations of the desert. She made out a wing tip, the blade of a propeller, some distance behind the tailplane. It appeared the left wing, or part of it, had come off in the crash.
Shifting her eyes back to the left she made out a ridge that marked the line of the fuselage; just the top edge of the main body of the aircraft was visible, the bare metal glinting where decades of sand and wind had blasted away whatever paint had been applied to the Dakota.
Sutton and Horsman were back in their vehicle, driving slowly down to the wreck. "Come on, let"s go," Sebastian said, climbing back into the Cruiser.
Emma opened her door, but paused when she saw Alex just standing there, away from the vehicle, making no move to get back inside. "Are you going to walk?"
He said nothing, so she moved around the car to him.
"You two can walk down the hill if you want," Sebastian said. He started the engine and leaned into the back to close Emma"s door.
Emma was excited to find the aircraft, but she was concerned about Alex. "What is it?"
Alex stood there, looking down into the valley. "I have a very bad feeling about this, Emma. There is more wrong with this than Sutton and Horsman entering a national park without authorisation. The haste with which this whole operation was organised, the secrecy, it"s just not right. You must feel it as well."
She did, but this was not the time to abandon ship. They had beaten what were apparently miraculous odds and found an aircraft that was nearly completely buried in the desert. It was an amazing discovery.
"Too much does not add up," Alex continued, fuelling her doubts.
She started to walk down the hill. "You"re overreacting."
"Am I?" he asked.
She stopped and looked over her shoulder. He was standing there, still, at the brow of the dune. Below them the two vehicles were approaching the wreckage, stopping a respectful distance away from the first piece of visible wreckage. Emma could see the others getting out, and Sutton"s impatient red face looking up at them.
"We"re not getting the full story here, Emma."
She was torn. "So what do you want to do, Alex? We"re stuck out here."
"I"m going to take one of the vehicles, as Sutton said I could, now. Come with me, Emma."
He was overreacting, she told herself again. There was something not quite right, dishonest even, about Horsman, but Sutton, for all his bombast and chauvinism, was a respected academic, not a thief. If there was some sort of treasure on board the Dakota then Horsman might want to take the lion"s share. She wondered who the rightful owners of the cargo would be, so long after the war. In any case, there were too many of them, all witnesses, for Horsman to get away with a major crime.
"Come on, Alex." Emma started to walk and looked back up the slope at him. He stood for a moment, hands on hips, seeming to deliberate whether or not to follow her down to the crash site. She was getting impatient now and felt that Alex was being silly. He couldn"t just run away. Emma stopped again. Reluctantly, Alex began to trudge after her.
Sutton and Horsman had stopped just short of the ridge of bare metal that marked the spine of the aircraft. Emma could see now the sharp bend in the middle which hadn"t been visible from the top of the dune. The fuselage had buckled on impact. She realised, with a mild sense of dread that mixed with the adrenaline coursing through her, that they might find more dead bodies on board.
"We should remember," Professor Sutton said, glancing around to make sure they were all in earshot, and reading her mind, "that there will most likely be dead men on board this aircraft. As excited as we all are, I think it appropriate we take a minute"s silence before we begin."
"Quite right," Andre said.
They bowed their heads. Emma looked at Alex out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was not taking part. He was looking back at the two parked four-by-fours.
"Show some respect," Sebastian hissed under his breath.
Alex just glared at him.
"Right," Sutton said, looking up and at all of them. "Let us begin. For the students, I need hardly remind you that "
"I"m going to take one of the vehicles," Alex said, interrupting him.
Dorset looked like Alex had just insulted his mother. "Excuse me?"
"You said, Professor, that I could take a vehicle to go check on the carca.s.s of the desert lion. I am taking you up on that offer now."
Andre stepped between them. "Guys, please. Alex, how about if you just help us for the rest of today, and then maybe head off and check on the lion tomorrow? Would that be OK?"
Alex glared at Horsman. "No, sir, it would not be OK. I am a conservationist, a scientist," he shot a glance at Dorset as if to challenge his ethics and credentials, "and I object to the way you have illegally entered one of my country"s national parks. You have found your aircraft and now I think the most appropriate thing is for you to report its location to the Namibian national parks authorities. This is what I am also proposing to do when I leave here."
Horsman raised his hands in a placatory gesture. "Alex, calm down, please. Can"t you understand that there are probably deceased airmen under that sand over there? I have been searching for them for half my life. I can"t rest until I know they"ve been found and given Christian burials."
Alex cleared his throat. "With respect, these men, if they are here, have lain undisturbed for decades. A day or two more, after which they can be properly exhumed, will not harm them, or you."
Sutton looked to Horsman. "He"s right, you know. We should tell the authorities. I should tell the national parks people because I"m the senior archaeologist here. I have a good relationship with the Namibian government. I"ve conducted digs all over the country. It may take us some time, but I"m sure we can come back here with full approval. I"ll travel with Alex personally."
Andre put his hands on his head, grasping at his scalp in instant and obvious anger. "No! No one is leaving this site."
"I am going, and there is nothing you can do to stop me," Alex said. "Professor Sutton, if you wish to accompany me I think that would be appropriate. Better still, we should all go and report to the park authorities before there are any repercussions. If we are found here without authorisation the rangers might call in the army, or arrest us as trespa.s.sers or suspected poachers. I"m sure none of us wants to be charged."
"No!" Andre yelled. "I"m in charge of this mission and no one"s going anywhere without my say-so."
"Andre, please " Sutton began.
"No," Horsman interrupted the professor. "We start digging, now."
Natangwe, who had been quiet up until now, stepped into the cl.u.s.ter of men. "Alex is right. He and I have not always agreed on things, but in this he is correct. This land belongs to the people of Namibia, not you."
Emma looked around and saw that Sebastian had moved to the double cab Hilux bakkie that Sutton and Horsman had been driving.
"Natangwe, are you coming with me?" Alex turned and walked to the Land Cruiser.
Emma could see that the keys were still in the ignition. She had been blinded by the excitement of searching for, then finding, the Dakota. She hadn"t thought through the legal ramifications of what they were about to do. She knew she might never come across a find such as this again for the rest of her life, but she didn"t want to see Alex and Natangwe leave.
"Stop," Horsman said, not yelling now.
Perhaps it was the change of tone that made Alex, and then Emma, turn to look at him. He had produced a black semi-automatic pistol from somewhere and was pointing it at Alex.