NEW WORLD TRILOGY (Trilogy Title) (12 page)

Ikaros notices something peculiar, then asks, "Why aren't there any Botswanan forces patrolling the border?  And where're the refugees?"

"Good questions, both of them," replies Nat.  "Firstly, anyone that could have been a refugee in this part of the country is dead already; and, secondly, the Botswanan junta need mercenaries."

"But mercenaries work for both sides, right?"

"Well, yeah, but to put it simply,” inserts one of the Dutch brothers, “most just like the chaos and the excitement of it all, regardless of what side they're on, but the money always helps to make a decision."

"Ah, look, Ikaros," begins Nat, "the junta just doesn't have the resources to deal with the inflow into the country: its military is stretched to the limits, just like everyone else's.  They're not even gambling that most mercenaries will be unprincipled and fight for them if the money is good enough — things have passed that point already.  They still 'advertise' that they pay the most and have the most mercenaries … and the best ones.  Although that used to be the case, it's been changing lately … and they damn-well know it!  Despite all their external funding, the fact is they're running out of money because they're corrupt, inefficient and wasteful, and have no sense for economics, which is no big surprise.  And they haven't been able to pay anywhere near enough to satisfy many of their mercenaries for the past six to eight months … except the ones they can't underpay, nor do without.

"So, more and more are either changing sides and aligning themselves with an emerging warlord, whatever their reputation, or they've already moved on to hot spots elsewhere that are more profitable, which is why we've seen a reduction in the numbers in town lately.  I mean, these are great times to be a mercenary in an increasing number of places around the world: you can simply pick and choose.  Why would you take a pay cut here when you don't have to?!"

"It looked pretty packed from what I saw."

"You should have seen it before.  I'm tellin' you."

"What about you guys, then?" asks Ikaros naïvely.

"This may well be our last job here," replies the driver.

"We're thinking of making our way up north to the Congo or something," adds the other brother.

Ikaros notices that the three evidently have a mutual understanding about the situation here they've developed over time, so he accepts the low-down as having some degree of truth to it; he's also in no position to contradict it despite its being considerably different from what he had thought was going on here.  He suddenly changes his mind about just needing a coffee, opens his bag, pulls out a sandwich, and begins to munch on it while looking out his side window at the sun, which is now rising over some nearby hills — the first African sunrise he's ever seen.  He has some time to reflect on the beauty that can still occasionally be found in such dark and forsaken places.

Chapter 10

Two weeks later

Sitting hidden at the edge of a cluster of trees looking out at a field, Ikaros, his three men, and a local guide, who they picked up from a nearby village the second day of the expedition, are observing the slow movements of a herd of elephants that they've been tracking for the past seven days.  In order to be discrete, they left their Jeep a few kilometers away, hidden amongst a cluster of trees at the base of a hill — an approach they've repeated several times already.

The Dutch brothers have succumbed to boredom and have been complaining for the past two days more intensely than they had over the first five.  They're now suffering from the belief that they could be waiting for weeks or even months before anything significant happens, and, by all indications, they aren't prepared to sit around and watch a 'stupid' herd of elephants walking around eating, shitting and pushing over trees, even though it, does make for some now-more-than-ever rare photo opportunities, which they did take advantage of on the first afternoon; after that, though, their interest fell sharply.  Slightly concerned that they may up and leave at a moment's notice, despite Nat's insistence that they won't, Ikaros is quite worried but is more annoyed by them, so much so that he can't stop himself from asking them repeatedly to shut up, taking turns with Nat, whose nerves are perhaps more frayed by their now-evident, long-standing nature.  Not wanting to lose them, though, Ikaros does his best to block them out and wait patiently, knowing that it's just a matter of time before this herd of twenty-two — definitely one of the last, if not the last, in the country — is discovered by some locals of one kind or another, as they themselves found it within only six days of searching with their guide, a tall middle-aged man who only speaks rudimentary English, but enough to understand the meaning of 'elephant,' not that it really mattered as a picture scribbled into the dirt would have been unmistakable.

The disturbing thing that Ikaros has kept in mind is that their guide, Motswane, didn't seem to have any concern about whether they were wanting to track the elephants for killing or protection, particularly so considering their near annihilation, yet Ikaros still finds it understandable in the context of the desperate and uncertain conditions the surviving citizens have been experiencing over the past few years, which would take a toll on anyone's values.

Ruminating over these things and picking Nat's and the twin's brains — when they allow him to — about various topical issues regarding southern Africa, the dangerous world of mercenaries, and off-the-grid counter-culture in the twenty-first century, Ikaros becomes more confident that they're better off working for him for as long as they can even though their current operation should be seen as being ultimately futile.  Having entered this with a level head, Ikaros is still less concerned with the moral view that it's right to try and do it, regardless of whether it's successful or not; instead, he's more inclined to pay attention to the hope that what they're doing will lead to something else that's bigger and more involving.  He is, however, starting to feel disquieted by this reality now that he's been in such close proximity to the herd and has seen them in action.

While eating their breakfast of canned beans and dried fruit, the Dutch brothers comment that they only have three days' worth of rations left and that someone had better go looking for more soon.  Ikaros quickly agrees, then interrupts their train of thought while looking through his long-range hunting binoculars that are aimed steadfastly on a small rise near the tree line on the other side of the Savannah, nearly two kilometers away.  "Here comes a four-wheel drive!" he declares.

This gets all their attention.  They look intently at the spot indicated by Ikaros, who continues, "Make that two four-door Toyota trucks.  There's a—"

Nat rips the binoculars off Ikaros and peers through them.

"Nice!"  Ikaros stares at him.

"Regime troops.  Three men on the back of each.  Around ten in all," reports Nat.

"Who else would they be?!  Okay, whatever…  What do you propose we do?  The elephants are closer to us than they are to them."

Nat considers their options for a moment.  "Well, we don't want to wait for them to take the first shot."

"Yeah, it's probably better if we didn't," agrees Ikaros.

Nat scans the scene.  "Let's get ourselves between them and the elephants, and then …"

"… start a firefight!" finishes one twin eagerly as he locks and loads his new-generation Kalashnikov equipped with a silencer, a long-range sight and titanium hollow points, the Dutch brothers’ bullet of choice.

Not needing to say anything else, Ikaros prepares his own gun, minimally confident with the small amount of training they've given him on a few occasions over the last two weeks.

They all emerge stealthily out of the tree line except Motswane, who sits calmly observing the unfolding events, having guessed what will transpire and ready to run away if the tide turns against his colleagues and employer.

All four men sneak across the grass in an attempt to get as close to the elephants and the Toyotas as possible before being seen.  Nat keeps his eyes alternating between the trucks and the elephants trying to hold out until the last possible moment.  "Okay, fire at will!"  All four position themselves in the adequate cover of grass and start firing silently at the now-slowly approaching vehicles, which unexpectedly receive a volley of bullets, some of which pass through the windows and doors and rip through the bodies of two of the men before the rest even realise what's going on.  Nat fires his grenade launcher in between the elephants and the trucks; the explosion immediately scares the elephants and sends them into a stampede away from the vehicles.

Still receiving gunfire from an unknown location, the soldiers on the trays of the trucks start firing frantically towards the tree lines on both sides of the Savannah as the drivers, giving up on the elephant hunt, break off in different directions in an attempt to flee the scene and get more distance between themselves and the source of the attack.

Ikaros and his men continue firing.  The Dutch brothers focus on the wheels, puncturing the tyres in rapid succession, causing the drivers to have difficulties controlling the vehicles for twenty meters or so before they are shot in the head and through the chest respectively.  The trucks quickly come to a standstill in the thick grass one after another; their engines stall.  The remaining men continue to be picked off one by one as they shoot randomly into the distance on one side of the trucks, guessing that the source may well be coming from somewhere within the grass cover between their position and the tree line, which doesn't really provide them with much precision.

Now, with his magazine empty, Ikaros just watches as one twin, crouching just next to him, aims and fires at the sole-remaining soldier — the only one to make it onto the ground alive — who, being in the process of desperately running away, silently and limply collapses forward out of sight into the grass.  Ikaros listens to the sound of a flock of birds flying overhead.  "Did we get 'em all?" he asks more quietly than necessary. 

The twins nod and one replies, "You mean you weren't counting?"

"Ah, no … I wasn't."

Following Nat's lead, they all stand up and move forward to check the dead and the wounded.  Once in proximity they split up and approach different vehicles.  Ikaros carefully approaches one, unable to see into it clearly because of all the blood splattered over the windscreen; through a wound-down side window, he has no problem quickly confirming that the two occupants are actually dead.  He looks away.

One of the Dutch brothers then calls out, "We've got a live one over here!"

Ikaros jogs over to the location to join the others, who are gathered around the now-moaning man who was the last to be shot.  Nat turns and waves to Motswane, signalling him to come over.

A few moments later, Motswane arrives and Nat begins to give him instructions.  "Ask him
where
they
take
the elephants'
tusks
… you know?  The
el
-
e
-
phants
," he repeats patronisingly, pointing in the direction of the long-gone heard.

Motswane doesn't understand anything in Nat's sentence except elephant and stands wondering what he could possibly mean, obviously looking quite puzzled when Ikaros comments, "I don't think he understands."

Angry, Nat slows down and simplifies, "Where … take …
tusks
?"  He uses hand gestures skilfully with each word.

Nervous now and sure that he has to come up with something fast, Motswane considers the two most important questions that he can think of asking the soldier: 1) what do you do with the tusks; and, 2) where do you take them?  Realising that they have some overlapping meaning, he promptly decides to start yelling both questions at the man on the ground, who just lies there unresponsively, pretending to be in more pain than he actually is.

Noticing this, one of the Dutch brothers gets impatient and digs his rifle's muzzle into the man's shoulder wound, causing him to scream in agony.  "That's more like it!"

Unsure about the effectiveness of their methods, Ikaros looks up and around at the scene, realising that they're exposed and vulnerable if they stay too much longer.  "I think I should go get the Jeep.  I'll be right back."

Although the others heard him, they don't respond, being too preoccupied with the task at hand, so Ikaros just turns and begins to jog away, aware that the desperate screams of the solider and the yelling of the others are probably carrying far across the Savannah.  He increases his pace and keeps it steady.

Fifteen minutes later

Driving the Jeep, Ikaros comes racing through the grass towards the others, pulls up near Nat and leans out the window.  "Watcha doing?" he asks, looking at the Dutch brothers and Motswane gathering weapons from the dead.

"Ah, we have to go to a town south of here, about twenty kilometers."

"Oh, right … how did you work that out?  Motswane told you this?" asks Ikaros sceptically.

"Well, I've been here for some time, Ikaros.  I know 'town,' he pointed south, and then he showed me '20,' you know?  It went on like this for a few minutes till I was sure.  Is that okay with you?"