Hunted (16 page)

Penelope and Brains, the mother and son, were using the tap, hosing water into their mouths. Thunderbird was looking straight at Li and Paulo. She shook her head, her ears flapping gently like the leaves of an enormous tropical plant, the sun punching through the two bullet holes. There was a hint of challenge in the elephant's eyes. She picked up a twig, curled her trunk around it and flipped it over to Li.

'She wants to play,' said Paulo, incredulous.

Li's eyes gleamed. 'All right, let's play.' She picked up the twig and tossed it back. The elephant picked it up and threw it again, her tail kinked out to one side.

Li exclaimed in delight. This wild animal was actually playing catch with her.

Then she was hit by two trunkfuls of water.

She shrieked and shook her head, her long black plait slapping from side to side like a wet paintbrush. 'Of all the sneaky things!' she spluttered. 'Thunderbird was distracting me so the others could ambush me!'

Paulo leaned on the fence and laughed.

At the tap, Penelope was refilling Brains's trunk.

Li picked up a bucket and vaulted over Moya's fence. It was more than a metre high but she managed it without a moment's thought. 'Right, this means war.'

She ran to Moya's trough, dipped the bucket in and chucked the contents at Penelope. The elephant shook her head and turned the tap off. Brains withdrew his trunk and levelled it at Paulo like the barrel of a gun and loosed the full load at him and Moya.

Moya reeled backwards, then decided she liked it. She closed her eyes and shook her head as the water streamed over her.

Paulo wiped his eyes. 'It's like a power shower. I hope they don't do that when they've got colds.'

'At least it's got all that milk off you,' said Li. She let Brains have another bucketful and looked for Thunderbird. But Thunderbird wasn't where she expected.

The elephant had moved away from the others, her ambushing role fulfilled, and was looking for other mischief. She had a definite purpose to her stride as she headed towards a double-thickness fence.

'Where's Thunderbird going?' said Li. 'What's over there?'

'Dios!'
said Paulo. 'They've noticed the swimming pool.'

Li dropped the bucket and vaulted out of Moya's pen. 'Oh my God,' she said. 'The chemicals!'

16
TRAGEDY

There was a crash. Thunderbird stepped on the first fence and reduced it to matchwood. She bulldozed through the second without a pause.

Paulo dropped the milk bottle and gave chase.

Thunderbird walked up the grassy bank. Li ran after her. She was amazed at how long the animal's stride was. She looked like she was going for a gentle amble, but she really covered the ground quickly.

Li hurdled over the remains of the fence; then she had an idea. She stopped and picked up a piece of splintered wood from one of the destroyed fences and threw it at Thunderbird. Maybe she would stop for a rematch of their game.

The elephant didn't take any notice. She had spied a large body of water and was heading for that.

Paulo caught up with Li. 'She's determined,' panted Li. 'Do you think she'll come to any harm?'

'She can probably get in but she won't be able to get out. And I don't think the cleaning chemicals will do her any good if she drinks them. She might panic if she gets any in her eyes, particularly if she finds she can't get out.'

Ahead, Thunderbird towered above them, a black silhouette like the mouth of a huge tunnel. Her ears wafted serenely backwards and forwards, the bullet holes leaving an afterburn of bizarre streaks on their retinas.

'Anything you know about elephants would be really useful right now,' said Li.

'I know some jokes,' said Paulo. 'Uh-oh, here come the others.'

Brains and Penelope were making for the hole in the fence with a springy, eager stride.

'We can't block it off, they'll just knock it down,' said Paulo.

'Now all we need is for Moya to break out too.'

'Moya!' said Paulo. 'That's it! I'll be right back. See if you can stop Thunderbird before she goes for a swim.'

'Brilliant,' said Li as Paulo hared away to the yard. 'How exactly?'

She turned round. Thunderbird was on the pool terrace. She stood on a sun lounger and the metal buckled like wire. Brains and Penelope trotted up the slope, wanting only to join Thunderbird.

Li raced to the edge of the pool. Thunderbird was about two metres from the edge. She stopped, the end of her trunk pinching together as she analysed a smell. Was she getting an astringent waft of chlorinated water? Surely it must smell highly unnatural. But she didn't seem put off; she merely carried on sniffing. Li picked up a sun visor that had been left on one of the poolside chairs and threw it at Thunderbird, trying to distract her. The visor skittered round Thunderbird's feet. The elephant looked down and curled her trunk at it, still sniffing, but then went back to probing the water in front of her.

Brains appeared behind her. For a moment Li thought he was about to put his shoulder to Thunderbird's rump and pitch her into the water. But he didn't. Interesting, thought Li. So he and Penelope won't take the initiative - they follow Thunderbird. Typical of herd animals. The other two might not be a problem if they could get Thunderbird back.

Paulo came hurtling out of the poolside doors. He'd gone through the lobby so as not to run up behind the elephants and startle them. In his hands were two of Moya's bottles of milk. One was fitted with a teat.

Thunderbird put her trunk in the pool and splashed it around.

'Quick, Paulo,' cried Li. 'She's going to get in.'

Li knew she had to stop the elephant stepping forwards any further. She had an idea, but it was risky. It might encourage Thunderbird instead of putting her off. Or, even worse, it might provoke her to attack.

Li dived in and swam under the water like a torpedo, surfacing by Thunderbird's probing trunk. She had kept her eyes closed but the water ran down off her forehead and stung. She grasped the end of Thunderbird's trunk and pulled very, very hard.

Thunderbird careered backwards immediately, trumpeting and sending up a spray of water. She yanked Li out of the water. Li, amazed, let go and narrowly missed being gored by a tusk. As she fell back down she hoped she was over water. She hit the surface of the pool with a loud splash, and swam away in case the elephant decided to pursue her. When she got to the other end of the pool she turned and stood in the shallows. The elephant snorted, her ears flapped angrily. Brains and Penelope stood behind her, watching uncertainly.

Paulo offered Thunderbird the bottle with the teat. Thunderbird looked unsure. Then the smell of the milk reached her nostril. She reached for the bottle with her trunk in a gesture that clearly said,
Gimme.

Paulo couldn't just let her have the bottle; he had to keep hold of it. He had to move in close. Would this fully grown, wild elephant let him, or would she feel threatened? She might easily be wary, particularly after what Li had just done. But Patrick had said that Thunderbird had been bottle fed. With luck, the smell of the milk would touch some memory and make her feel secure.

The tension in Thunderbird's posture seemed to melt away. Paulo held the bottle towards her mouth. She grabbed the teat in her lips and began to suck. Paulo said, 'Good girl,' and withdrew it. Thunderbird took a step towards him, looking for the delicious taste of childhood. Paulo held it just out of reach, and when she had taken another step away from the pool, allowed her some more. She slurped it greedily, just as Moya had.

He managed to get the elephant to turn round, and rewarded her again. She followed him down the slope towards the yard. After a moment, Brains and Penelope turned and followed too.

Li heaved herself out of the pool and looked around. The fences were flattened, the lawn was rutted with heavy footprints, one or two paving slabs in the terrace were cracked. There was going to be some explaining to do. But now that Thunderbird thought there was a trunk-pulling monster in the pool, at least they might not need the fences any more.

The balloon gained height rapidly, soaring over the plains. Amber, Alex and Hex leaned out of the basket, amazed at the panorama. Families of elephants lifted their trunks, sniffing the air as the balloon passed overhead. Buffalo poured from the woodlands into the shallow tributaries of the Luangwa. Herds of hippo stood in the water like shiny, overpadded horses, blowing plumes of spray out of their nostrils. Their jaws gaped at the balloon. A crocodile slithered off a sandbank into the water.

Amber had the radio detector. 'Hey, we're close to one of the tagged ellies,' she said. 'Quite a strong signal.'

Gaston kept a hand on the regulator while he scanned the ground. He glanced at the reading on the machine. 'Yes, that's a couple of ours.'

'That one's trying to push over an entire tree,' exclaimed Hex. 'Look.'

They looked down to see an elephant backing deliberately into an acacia. Two calves watched as the beast put all its weight on the tree. There was a groaning and splintering of wood and the tree crashed to the ground.

'They're destructive, aren't they?' said Alex.

'They do that when they can't reach the branches they want,' said Gaston.

'There is a certain mechanical advantage to weighing nearly five tonnes,' said Hex.

Gaston adjusted the regulator and they gained more height. As the burner roared, a herd of antelope scattered below. 'We've tagged about fifty elephants so far; today we want to see as many as possible to check they're all alive and well. This is the best way to see them as we can cover far more ground than in the Jeep. The detector counts the number that it's seen; we'd never manage it all by eye alone, it's too confusing. It will tell us when we've seen them all.'

'Hey, another bleep,' said Amber.

They peered over the side. They were over a water hole. Clearly it had once been much bigger; now it was a muddy indentation with a small patch of brown water in the middle. Four elephants glistening with wet mud raised their periscopes to the passing balloon. One of them ran up the slope, its saggy skin wobbling like an ill-fitting jogging suit. At the top it sat on its backside, stretched out its forelegs and slid down into the muddy pool.

'They look as though they're enjoying life,' said Amber.

'Li and Paulo would have loved this,' said Alex.

The balloon headed over a dry patch of savannah. Below, almost invisible in the golden grass, a pride of lions lay snoozing, a jumble of paws, heads, bodies and tails.

'Ellie ahoy,' said Amber, looking at the detector. 'I wonder what this one will be getting up to?'

Alex, peering out, saw it first. 'It's down here,' he said. The tone of his voice was grim.

Gaston immediately leaned over to have a look. He swore.

There was a mass of brown bodies tearing at a large heap of flesh: a clan of brown hyenas. The passengers in the balloon caught a glimpse of vivid red gashes in grey leathery skin. The prey was an elephant.

Amber felt sickened. 'I didn't think hyenas hunted elephants.'

'They don't,' said Gaston. His voice was grim. 'Something else brought it down; the hyenas are just scavengers. We need to get a closer look.' He pulled on a lever to open some flaps in the top of the balloon and let some gas out. The balloon sank. Then he took a flare pistol out of a crate in the bottom of the basket and loaded it.

'Cover your ears,' he said. 'This will be loud.' He pulled the trigger and there was a deafening bang. The hyenas scattered and stood at a distance, eyeing the shadow of the balloon as it slipped across the ground.

Alex, Amber and Hex looked at the elephant's corpse. At first they couldn't make sense of it. There were ragged holes all over the body where the hyenas had torn into the flesh. But there were also bigger wounds.