Stephen Leather - The Double Tap

He’d suggested that they watch the sunset with a few drinks, but it seemed that the more the minister drank, the more objectionable he became, warning Taylor that he had friends in high places and that if a lion wasn’t forthcoming then Taylor’s job was on the line. Taylor doubted whether he’d get the sack just because lions were scarce, but a large part of a ranger’s job was public relations, and he didn’t want the boss to think that he wasn’t up to it. Over his headset he could hear another ranger talking about a large male king cheetah that was walking up to the Marthly waterhole, but its belly was swollen and it clearly wouldn’t be hunting for a couple of days. A king cheetah was an unusual sighting, but Taylor knew that the minister wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than a lion.

Taylor unclipped the microphone from the dashboard and pressed it against his lips. ‘Rob here, any sign of a lion?’

‘Negative,’ replied a voice. It was Karl, a recently-recruited ranger who was driving a group of Japanese tourists to see the leopard.

‘Nothing here,’ said Rassi, a former armoured personnel carrier driver who was clearly taking delight in Taylor’s discomfort. Taylor could tell that Rassi would have liked to have said more, but it was an open channel monitored back at camp, and fooling around on the job wasn’t tolerated by the boss.

‘Well?’ boomed the minister, leaning forward to massage his mistress’s neck. There was something predatory about the gesture, and Taylor could picture the man breaking her pretty little neck with one squeeze and then feeding on her soft parts. He shuddered involuntarily.

‘They’ve found tracks,’ he lied, knowing that the minister wouldn’t have been able to hear what had come over the headset. ‘Shouldn’t be long now.’

‘Good,’ said the minister, nodding like an elephant preparing to charge. ‘About time.’

He sat back in his seat and the Landrover’s suspension squeaked as if in pain.

‘See anything, John?’ Taylor asked his tracker in Zulu. He’d carefully tested to see if the minister understood Zulu but had drawn a blank, so he’d carried on using the tracker’s native language when speaking with him, just in case there was bad news.

‘Nothing,’ John replied. He shrugged to show that he sympathised with the ranger. ‘Maybe we could try Mamba Waterhole?’

‘Yeah, we’ll give it a go.’ Taylor rubbed his chin and sniffed. He felt as if he was coming down with a cold. That was all he needed. The minister was telling his mistress about the time Margaret Thatcher visited MalaMala with F. W. de Klerk when he was President of South Africa. The South African President hadn’t seen the Big Five, but Thatcher had claimed to have had a glimpse of a leopard and so managed to get one up on him. The minister thought that was hilarious and he threw back his head and laughed, his gold front tooth glinting in the dying light of the sun. The girl smiled across at Taylor as if soliciting his sympathy.

‘So, I too am going to beat de Klerk,’ boomed the minister. ‘Isn’t that right? Tonight we’ll see a lion, and a kill, huh?’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Taylor. He looked back at John. ‘Put the searchlight on,’ he told the tracker, ‘let’s drive around and see if we can’t get lucky.’ He collected the minister’s empty glass, stashed it away in the coolbox at the rear of the Landrover, and climbed back into his driving seat. The sun dipped below the horizon and stars twinkled overhead. Over his headset Taylor heard Rassi calling in a herd of impala. The deer were as common as rabbits at that time of the year, and Taylor knew that Rassi was only doing it to annoy him.

The minister pounded the back of Taylor’s seat impatiently. Taylor reached for the ignition key, but before he could start the engine he heard the roar of an approaching Landrover. Taylor frowned. Rassi had given his position as more than twenty kilometres away at Buffalo Bush Dam and Karl was still sitting next to the leopard. As far as he knew there was only one other ranger out and he was parked next to the Marthly waterhole.

A Landrover came crashing through the undergrowth to Taylor’s left. Its halogen searchlight cut through the night, blinding Taylor so that he had to shield his eyes with one hand. He picked up the microphone with the other and pressed the transmit button. ‘Hey, careful with the light,’ he said.

There was silence in his headset as the approaching Landarover revved its engine and ran over a clump of elephant grass.

‘Who are you talking to, Rob?’ asked Rassi’s voice.

The Landrover stopped less than fifty feet away from Taylor’s vehicle, but the searchlight still blinded him so he couldn’t see the driver. ‘John, can you see who it is?’ Taylor asked in Zulu.

‘No, but it’s one of our Landrovers,’ said the tracker.

‘What the hell’s going on?’ asked the minister. ‘Get him to turn that light off.’

Taylor felt a soft hand stroke his knee and his leg jerked involuntarily. The girl was insistent, and she slowly walked her fingers up his thigh. Taylor was too busy concentrating on the Landrover to even think about what the girl was doing. He heard a thud as the driver jumped down onto the sand. Taylor began to get a bad feeling about the situation. He put his right hand on the Sako.375 Magnum rifle that was strapped across the bonnet. It was already loaded.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked the minister, slapping the back of Taylor’s seat.

Taylor squinted into the bright white light. Suddenly a black silhouette stepped into the beam and walked slowly towards Taylor’s Landrover. ‘Who is it?’ called Taylor. When the figure didn’t reply, the ranger yanked the rifle out of its mount. Before he could shoulder the weapon he felt a sudden blow to his chest. He looked down and was surprised to see a red stain spreading across the khaki material. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears as he began to fight for breath and the rifle fell from his nerveless fingers. The last thing he saw was the black silhouette take another step towards the Landrover, then Taylor slumped forward, his forehead smacking into the steering wheel. The girl began to scream hysterically and the minister cursed as he struggled to stand up. Before Taylor died he heard two more shots, but he didn’t see the two bullets strike the minister, one in the head, one in the heart.

Dermott Lynch put a pound coin in the slot and dialled Thomas McCormack’s number. He didn’t identify himself when McCormack answered but McCormack recognised his voice immediately. ‘Where are you?’ McCormack asked.

‘London,’ replied Lynch.

‘Where exactly? I’ll need an address.’

‘Is this line safe?’

‘For God’s sake, Dermott, my phones are swept every day. You’re going to need cash and I have to know where to send it.’

‘I’m staying with Eamonn Foley.’

‘In Maida Vale?’

‘Yeah. What’s happening there? Has the Quinn boy turned up yet?’

‘No news. But they don’t seem to be looking for you. No one’s been to your house and O’Riordan seems to be in the clear, too.’

‘Maybe Quinn’s tougher than we thought.’

‘Yeah, maybe, but you’re better off out of it, Dermott. Stay where you are and keep your head down. We’ll get this sorted out.’

Pat O’Riordan drove the tractor into the barn and killed the engine. It continued to run for a few seconds and he made a mental note to check the timing when he had the chance. He climbed down and arched his back. He’d been sitting on the machine for the best part of four hours and he was suffering. The farm was a bit larger than his own holding in Ballymena but the owner, Seamus Tierney, had given over two of his fields to mobile homes and caravans, a cash crop that pulled in several thousand pounds a month during the summer. Tierney was renovating several of the mobile homes and so O’Riordan had volunteered to do some work about the place. It was the least he could do, considering Tierney and his wife were giving him free room and board.