Now the clock was ticking. Just sixty seconds before Sizwe and the others were released into the thicket after them, armed with much more than an armful of machetes.
Ben, Jeff and Tuesday went ploughing into the dense vegetation. The gra.s.s was eye-high to an elephant in places, making it hard to see beyond a few yards in any direction. Ben spotted the bag and s.n.a.t.c.hed it up, drew out one of the three machetes inside for himself and tossed one each to Jeff and Tuesday.
Fifty seconds.
"This is f.u.c.ked," Jeff said.
"That"s one way of putting it," Ben replied.
"He"s insane. He"s got every intention of killing us all anyway, no matter what, sooner or later. You know that, don"t you? This is all just a f.u.c.king game to him. Like a blood sport."
"I know," Ben said.
"He"s lost his mind. He"s completely off his rocker."
"I know that too."
"What are we going to do, mate?"
Ben looked at his friend. They"d been through a lot together. Faced all kinds of dangers, all kinds of death, and they"d come through it. But he"d never seen such an expression of doubt and worry and fear in Jeff"s face before.
"Whatever works," he replied. "That"s all we can do."
Forty seconds.
Tuesday was scanning the bushes, eyes darting in all directions. "I hate to put a downer on this happy moment, guys, but did someone say something about a man-eating lion on the loose in here?"
"Least of our worries, under the circ.u.mstances," Ben said. "A rogue male isn"t like a normal lion. He doesn"t have his pack to hunt with any longer, and he won"t go after herds. He"s become a solitary predator who goes for solitary prey. One-on-one kills, easy meat. He sees a crowd of us, he"ll leave us alone. As long as we stay together, we should be okay."
"That"s so rea.s.suring," Tuesday said with a shudder.
"Enjoy it. In about half a minute, we really will have something to worry about."
"How do you want to handle this?" Jeff asked.
"You heard the man," Ben said. "Six sets of tags and a head in a bag. That"s what he asked for, and I aim to deliver it."
"It"s not right. They"re just trying to protect their families."
"So am I," Ben said.
The seconds pounded by. Tuesday wiped sweat from his eyes. Jeff moistened his lips with his tongue. Ben stood completely immobile, listening, watching, merging with the stillness of their surroundings. He felt his heart slow. Forty-five beats a minute. Forty. He held the handle of the machete loosely in his right fist and thought about the six men who were being sent to kill them. He thought about the soldiers fanning out to encircle the thicket, surrounding them with watchful eyes and sharp ears and fingers on triggers. He thought about heads in bags, and wondered whose it would be.
Ben bent down and picked up a stone that was lying at his feet. He clenched it in his left hand.
"They"ll be on us any moment," Tuesday whispered.
"They"re already here," Ben replied.
Chapter 55.
They came stalking through the thicket with a soft footfall that would have been perceptible only to the senses of the keenest predator. Or the keenest prey. These were men who had grown up in the wilds, most likely never seen a city or walked on a pavement or ridden on a train. They belonged to this place, and they could move through it without sound or trace.
Many years ago, Ben had been taught how to hunt such men. He"d spent many more years honing the skills his teachers had conferred on him. In his mind"s eye, the screen of thorn bushes and tall yellowed gra.s.ses and gnarled trees and branches that made visibility impossible didn"t exist. He could sense the approaching men as clearly as if he were in an empty, featureless desert landscape observing the enemy through high-powered binoculars from two miles away. He could smell them, reach out and touch their fear and desperation.
"Get down," he whispered. He dropped into a press-up position, knuckles and toes in the dirt, legs out straight behind him, his chest pressed deep into the long gra.s.s, neck craned upward in the direction of the incoming enemy. Jeff and Tuesday did the same, both instantly disappearing from sight in the gra.s.s to his left.
A second and a half later, a ragged volley of gunshots rang out. Half a dozen nine-millimetre pistols all blazing away at once, four or five sharp reports from each of them in rapid succession, pumping fire into the bushes as fast as their shooters could squeeze the triggers. The swarm of bullets burned a scything sweep through the thicket that was chest-high to a man standing, clipping leaves from twigs and chopping stalks of gra.s.s, singing off tree trunks iron-hardened by heat and sun. Sizwe and his friends were firing blind into the thicket in the hope of hitting something or flushing out their opponents.
Tactically, it was the behaviour of frightened, inexperienced men. The Africans were afraid. But they were even more afraid of what would happen to their women and children if they failed.
The gunfire fell silent. Ben sensed the Africans spreading out. They would be listening hard for signs that one of their bullets had found its mark. A cry of pain, the crackle of twigs as a man fell dead or rolled in agony on the ground. The more they spread out, the less they would chance another blind volley, for fear of hitting one of their own group.
Ben waited, perfectly still. To his left, unseen in the gra.s.s, he could feel the presence of Jeff Dekker and Tuesday Fletcher doing the same. He gripped the handle of his machete a little more tightly. It was a crude affair of probable Far Eastern manufacture, two roughly shaped slabs of cheap wood riveted together either side of the untempered tang of the blade. The blade was thick and heavy to compensate for the weakness of the steel. An unsophisticated instrument. More axe than sword, its single sharpened edge fashioned by some underpaid Chinese factory worker with an angle-grinder and its back edge a spine of rusty metal an eighth of an inch wide. Ben rotated the handle between his fingers and went on waiting.
He did not have to wait long for what he antic.i.p.ated would happen next.
The Africans were growing more nervous by the second. Nervous of the hungry big cat they fully expected to come charging at them out of the thicket at any moment with the taste of human blood still slathered on its lips. Even more nervous of the unseen, unheard enemy that had shown no response to their opening gambit.
And Ben knew very well from long experience that nervous men unaccustomed to being in life and death situations often found it hard to remain still in a moment of serious do-or-die crisis, with legs like jelly and pounding hearts flushing adrenalin through their bodies and every muscle taut and twitching with fight-or-flight reflex. The mad itch to go bolting and yelling either towards or away from anything that moved was virtually irrepressible. That was how Ben knew that the flitting shape of a man he"d just glimpsed stalking through the thicket, no more than a ripple in the long gra.s.s ten yards dead ahead of where he lay crouched and ready, was about to break cover at the first sign of movement.
Ben pressed his left knee to the ground so that he could take some weight off his left hand. The hand clutching the stone. In a quick, small flick of the wrist he tossed the stone a few feet to his right, where it fluttered the bushes.
And got exactly the response he expected.
The African who came bursting out of the cover of the long gra.s.s was Uwase, Sizwe"s brother. With a wild roar of pent-up fear and aggression and a crackle of undergrowth he came bounding and leaping with his pistol thrust out in front of him in both fists, blasting a salvo of shots at the spot where the stone had landed. His rushing, panic-stricken charge took him within three feet of where Ben lay hidden.
All Ben had to do was sweep his feet out from under him with the thick blunt edge of the machete, and let the African"s momentum do the rest.
The blade caught Uwase"s ankle just below the shin, in the crook of his ankle. It wasn"t a hard enough blow to break bones, but Ben delivered it with more than enough force to send him sprawling on his face with a yell of pain and surprise. Uwase didn"t have time to react before Ben was on him, pinning him hard in the gra.s.s, an elbow in his face to stun him and the sharp edge of the machete against his throat.
All too fast for Sizwe to even aim his pistol as he burst out of the bushes in pursuit of his brother.
Ben said, "Stop." And Sizwe stopped.
"Drop the gun," Ben said. And Sizwe dropped the gun.
"Call the others, so I can see them," Ben said. But Sizwe didn"t have to. Gasimba, Mugabo, Ntwali and Rusanganwa all stepped out, pistols hesitantly half-raised as they looked to Sizwe for guidance.
"Tell them to drop their guns too," Ben said. Sizwe gestured to his friends. The pistols fell into the dirt with dull thumps.
To Ben"s left, Jeff and Tuesday were back on their feet, tense and silent. Uwase struggled and tried to throw Ben off him, but Ben had him tight. The crude blade hard against his throat. Ground to an edge by some Chinaman in a factory thousands of miles away. Not shaving sharp, by any means. But plenty sharp enough. That much had already been demonstrated too many times that day.
"Do not hurt my brother," Sizwe said. There was no pleading in his voice, only stoic pride.
"Kill or be killed," Ben said. "No mercy, no quarter. That"s what Khosa said. But it doesn"t have to be like that, Sizwe."
"You and me fight!" Sizwe roared.
"Like champions," Ben said. "Single combat. May the best man win. Is that your idea?"
"This is the only way."
Ben stood up, hauling Uwase up with him. He shoved Uwase away, scooped up Uwase"s fallen pistol and tossed it to Jeff. Jeff transferred his machete from right hand to left and aimed the pistol in a swinging back-and-forth arc, covering all six men with a look on his face that said, "Don"t make me."
"You want to fight me?" Ben said to Sizwe. "Then you"ll need a weapon. Take mine. I don"t want it." He flipped the machete, caught it by the tip of the blade and threw it. It twirled through the air with a hiss and speared point-first into a tree trunk four inches from Sizwe"s left ear and stuck there, juddering.
Those four inches had been a deliberate aim-off, and Sizwe knew it very well. "You could have killed me," he said slowly.
"Nearest I"m going to get," Ben replied. "Now it"s your turn. Give it your best shot."
"Don"t be f.u.c.king stupid, Ben," Jeff said from behind the gun.
"Stay out of it," Ben said. "I owe him that much."
Sizwe looked at Ben, then looked at the machete buried in the trunk. He hesitated. Then grasped the handle and twisted and wrenched the blade free. He took a step towards Ben with the machete raised.
"I"ll shoot him," Jeff said.
"You"ll do no such thing," Ben warned him.
Sizwe came on another step, then another. His face was contorted with confused rage. Ben didn"t move.
Sizwe faltered. The blade sank as if it had suddenly become much too heavy for him to hold. He let it droop weakly to his side and then slip from his fingers and clang dully to the ground as he stood there, chest heaving, not from physical effort but from the emotional turmoil that was tearing him apart inside. "I cannot kill a man who does not fight back," he said, looking at Ben with the crazed, bloodshot eyes of a torture victim.
"Then don"t do it," Ben said. "There has to be a better way than for innocent men to gut each other."
Uwase said, "What way is there for us? We cannot all win this fight."
"Better that than we all lose," Ben said. "You trust Khosa to keep his side of the deal?"
Sizwe shook his head, mournfully. "No. Everyone has heard of this man. There are many stories of the things he does. He will never stop until there is no more blood to spill."
"Unless we can make him stop," Ben said. "n.o.body else has to die. Only those who deserve it. If we work together, we can beat him."
"What are you thinking, mate?" Jeff asked, lowering the pistol.
"I"m keen to hear it myself," Tuesday said.
Rusanganwa said, "Why should we trust you? You said we would make a deal. Now many are dead."
Ben felt the knife go deep with those words. "We won"t get a second chance at this. We do it once, and we do it right."
Sizwe said, "Tell us your plan."
Chapter 56.
Captain Terminator was becoming agitated. After the initial burst of gunfire that rocked the thicket had quickly dwindled into silence with nothing since, his expectations of a good, b.l.o.o.d.y human c.o.c.kfight had shrivelled up into disappointment, boredom, and now into restless indecision as he paced up and down beyond the thicket"s edge, trying to peer here and there through the impenetrable screen of leaves and thorns. He was wondering whether he should venture in there himself to make sure everything was okay, or whether it would be better to skirt around the edge of the thicket to find the others, for strength in numbers, in which case they"d be leaving most of the thicket"s perimeter unguarded and an easy escape route for the prisoners, which could be a mistake; or again whether he should run back to his general and fetch more men.
The latter idea wouldn"t be a wise decision either. He had already been informed of the consequences of failure to perform his allotted task. While by contrast, courage and leadership initiative would surely be rewarded.
So on balance, Captain Terminator felt that his best option was to venture in there alone, like the brave warrior he indisputably was, see for himself what was what and kick the necessary a.s.s to get it all sorted out. The General would be proud of him; might even offer him a cigar. What a feather in his cap that would be, to stand shoulder to shoulder with his commander and light up a Havana in front of all his jealous comrades! Better still, the General might let him have first cut at that squirming little c.o.c.kroach of a kid, later, when they finished the job they"d started.
With a smile at the promise of these future rewards, Captain Terminator racked the bolt of his AK, drew his machete and went striding into the crackling undergrowth, hacking and chopping his way through.
He was twenty yards into the thicket when a soft rustle among the bushes up ahead froze him mid-step and turned his blood suddenly cold.
The lion. He"d forgotten all about the d.a.m.n lion. It was in there. Stalking him. Getting ready to charge him. He could almost feel its hungry eyes on him, measuring him up from head to toe.
He levelled his rifle and swallowed hard. Backed away a step, then another, then turned in panic and started rushing and crashing back the way he"d come.
But he hadn"t taken three steps before a force as solid and hard as a brick wall hit him with a savage violence that exploded like white lightning inside his head and slammed him to the ground, driving the air from his lungs. He tried to scream, convinced as he was that the lion"s teeth were about to close in on him and rip his throat out.
But it wasn"t the lion. The lion would have been better.
Ben stood over the nose picker and kicked him once more in the left temple, not hard enough to kill him, just enough to render him all the way unconscious.
"So much for Captain Percolator," Jeff said with a fierce grin. "Not so c.o.c.ky now, are we?"
"What are we going to do with the b.a.s.t.a.r.d?" Tuesday asked, gathering around the p.r.o.ne soldier with the six Africans and looking down.
"Sizwe, please give me your earring," Ben said, holding out his hand for it. Sizwe hesitated, then unhooked the ornamental pendant from his left earlobe and pa.s.sed it over without question. Ben took it from him and laid it out flat on his palm to examine. The business end of the earring was an S-shaped wire fishhook with a blunt point, much like any of the earrings Ben had had cause to see up close in his time, during those few periods in his life when he"d been sufficiently domesticated to cohabit with someone more inclined to wear the things than he was.
An equally quick examination of the left earlobe of the unconscious nose picker, a.k.a. Captain Terminator, unsurprisingly revealed no kind of pre-pierced hole through which to insert the wire hook. But Ben was good with that. Crouching in the dirt beside the p.r.o.ne body, Ben stretched the guy"s earlobe as far as it would go, like a f.l.a.n.g.e of dark rubber, and stabbed the hook through the flesh. There was a little blood, but that wouldn"t be a problem, under the circ.u.mstances.
Jeff was staring at him. "Ben, what the f.u.c.k?"
It was a detail of the plan that had only just come to Ben. He was making it up as he went along. "Trust me," he said.
"Okay, then what next?"
"The Hi-Power," Ben said, and held out his hand.