his companions.
They walked toward Wynne. Her gaze shifted between their eyes and their guns.
“Ivory is prized,” the leader said. “One hundred fifty pounds, or no deal.”
“We agreed on seventy,” Wynne said. “That’s all I’ve got on me.”
“You can pay us the rest tomorrow.”
“What about the meat? Is it for sale?”
“No meat.” The leader shook his head emphatically. “All bought.”
Wynne had a horrible suspicion brewing in her. She hedged, then said, “Where shall I meet you?” How many other poachers were in the area and involved in this ring? She looked forward to interrogating them.
“Here.”
“No, not here. I passed rangers on the road about twenty miles north. What about your camp?”
A moment of indecision, then he said, “We’ll meet you at this location.”
“Very well, but I may not be able to come up with all the money right away.”
The leader eyed her up and down. “You’re not a bad-looking woman, you can think of something.”
Wynne gave him her most winning smile, while she visualized what she’d like to do to him later. It involved the mamba and a knife.
The leader nodded at the tusks. “Get them.”
“Wait! They’re mine!” Wynne stepped between the tusks and the two men. She held up her hands and tried to look as if she were at their mercy.
Aja stepped next to her and crossed his arms. “They are the woman’s.”
The men glanced at them: a woman and an old man. They found it amusing as they aimed their cannons at Wynne and Aja. The leader’s teeth glistened in a Cheshire grin. “I keep the tusks until full payment.”
“I don’t think so.” Wynne looked at Aja. “Do you?”
Aja nodded. “No, I do not think so.”
Snow chose that moment to step out of the woods and pad toward them.
The leader saw Snow. Fear registered in his expression. He whipped his gun around to shoot….
Wynne already had the sack in her hands. She tore it open and hurled the snake at the leader. It landed on his head.
“Get it off! Get it off!” He screamed, dropped his gun, and flung the mamba into the forest.
It was the diversion Wynne needed. She kicked him, then knocked him down on the ground in a tantui move, a martial arts form of kickboxing. In seconds she’d wrestled his hands behind his back and cuffed him.
Abruptly the other two men groaned and grabbed their stomachs. They staggered several feet and dropped their weapons.
Wynne was on them in a flash, throwing them to the ground, cuffing them, while Aja grabbed their rifles.
“It took a long time,” Aja said. “Did you use enough lobelia on the money?”
Lobelia—a tobacco derivative—contained poisonous caustic latex, more potent than digitalis. It was one of the tricks Aja had taught her. “I did, but I didn’t want to kill them. Next time, I’ll make the powder more potent. But I did bring the mamba as a diversion.”
“Huh, a mamba.” Aja shook his head, then the wrinkles stretched around his eyes in disapproval. “I would have found a cobra.”
Wynne was used to Aja’s criticisms. He was the master in the African bush; she was only his student. She knew how fortunate she had been to have his friendship and tutelage, and she always showed him the deference he deserved, though it never stopped her from hoping to hear him compliment her one day.
Her gaze shifted to the three downed men as Snow sniffed them. The thought of losing five elephants to these creeps ate at her. However, it gave her pleasure to watch them trembling not only from sickness but from having a full-grown leopard breathing down their necks. An idea came to her.
One hand signal from her and Snow paused, bent down and sniffed the leader’s neck.
He stiffened, his body trembling all over.
“You probably don’t know this, but albino leopards stay hungry all the time. Has something to do with their genetic anomaly.” Not true, but sounded good. “And Snow here hasn’t made a kill in days.”
“P-please…” His voice was a raspy whisper.
“I know you were trying to make a little extra cash with this deal. Was it your idea, or your boss’s?”
“Ours alone.”
“Whose?” Wynne motioned to Snow and the big cat plopped one paw on his back.
“Mine.” He struggled not to move.
“Where is the meat?”
“Packaged for b-bush meat….”
Wynne grimaced. Bush meat. The most devastating kind of poaching. It was the illegal use of wildlife for meat and had caused the near-extinction of animals in Africa. Also it exposed consumers to diseases such as Ebola, and twenty-six kinds of SIV—Simian immunodeficiency virus—two of which had been identified as the origin of AIDS. Bush meat poaching meant a highly organized, commercial illegal operation. They could wipe out the park’s wildlife in a few weeks.
“How are you transporting the meat?”
“Supposed to drop it at a contact point.”
“When?”
“Tonight…midnight.” His eyes squeezed shut as Snow sniffed his ear, and his trembling turned to full-blown shudders.
“Where?”
“Near Sausage Tree Camp….”
“How is it moved?”
“Z-Zambezi River.”
“Through Zimbabwe?”
“Yes.”
“Where does it go from there?”
“I don’t know. I-I swear.”
“Who is behind this ring?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay.” Wynne shrugged. “Snow, it’s poacher dinner for you, girl.” She signaled the leopard with one finger.
Snow let out a roar that Wynne felt deep in her chest and she was certain rocked the poacher’s eardrum a little. Then the big cat flopped down across his back.
“Haah!
