The Prey (59 page)

‘Tumi, are you all right?’ he called.

She stood, laughed, and brushed herself down. When she forded the stream back to the other side she was grinning wide. ‘That
gave me a fright. It must have been the female. Musa, you’ll never guess – there were two eggs in the hollow!’

They retraced their steps through the bush, Tumi shining the light ahead of them. ‘Kylie will be so excited. She said she really wanted to see the owls,’ Tumi said.

‘And so did Jess,’ Musa said, pushing a branch out of his way. ‘It’s a shame she had to stay in Barberton, studying with her friends.’

‘She is a clever girl, that one.’

‘You know,’ Musa said, ‘I’m glad the mine never went ahead here. I’m pleased for you, and pleased for the company that Luis has found us a coal field in Mozambique where the local people are happy to have a mine and the income it will bring.’

He looked up at the rising moon and breathed in the rich scents of the bush around him. Musa wondered why Cameron and Kylie hadn’t come with them on the walk but had decided instead to wait with the Land Rover whilst Tumi tried to find the owls and, if she could, follow them back to their nest.

He and Kylie had spent an hour that afternoon working on a draft media release for the Global Resources board about their search for a new CEO. Kylie had been acting in the role since the incident on the Blue Train and Musa had assumed she would end up with the top job on a permanent basis. The Eureka mine was open and back up to full production, and mine security was winkling out the last of the
zama zamas
. Cameron had decided to stay with the company as head of new projects and, as the next big one would be the coalmine, he and Jess would relocate across the border to Mozambique once she finished school. The company’s share price was recovering and all was looking good for a change. Musa had been surprised, then, when Kylie had told him to write that she was not putting her hat in the ring to be considered for the permanent CEO’s position. She would be staying as the head of health, environment, safety and community, across the company, and the board also wanted her to oversee its African operations, particularly during negotiation and development of the new Mozambican coalmine. She had always
struck him as a particularly ambitious and motivated woman, and while it was clear from their short stay at Lion Plains that her love affair with the African bush was continuing, he still couldn’t understand why she would want to spend more time in Africa instead of in the company’s headquarters in Sydney.

They reached the clearing where Tumi had left the Land Rover. Tumi put her hand up and Musa stopped behind her. He hoped Kylie and Cameron hadn’t been eaten.

When he peered around his cousin’s shoulder, however, he saw what the matter was, and a few things fell into place. Cameron McMurtrie and Kylie Hamilton were still in the back seat of the Land Rover where Tumi had left them, and they were kissing.

O
ne of the many things I like about writing novels is that my job gives me a chance to explore – not just new places, but parts of life I would otherwise never have been exposed to.

However, when I started writing a book about mining I soon learned that this was a whole other world with a language of its own. I would never have been able to attempt to negotiate the literal labyrinth of the world of mining without some excellent guides. First and foremost I’d like to thank Casper Strydom, General Manager of Barberton Mines, in the historic gold mining town of Barberton, South Africa. Casper and his equally helpful Chief Geologist, Roelf le Roux, patiently explained the workings of a gold mine and the history of their town, and took me underground for a first hand look at the Fairview Goldmine, including sites where criminal miners had been working. Casper and Roelf read the manuscript for
The Prey
, as did Steve Smith and Scotney Moore, who also work in the mining industry. All provided much appreciated corrections and valuable feedback; needless to say, any technical mistakes that remain are my doing alone. Thanks to you all for your help, time and patience.

Thanks, too, to James Rickards for his insights into the corporate side of the mining world; to Annelien Oberholzer for her patient
and ongoing correction of my Afrikaans; to Wayne Hamilton from swagmantours.com.au for his input into the tourism related scenes; to John Roberts for his in depth knowledge of Mozambique and its history.

Lianne Kelly-Maartens from the Sun International hotel group organised for me to stay at the excellent Royal Livingstone Hotel in Zambia while was researching the book and I thank her and the staff there for a lovely stay.

Hippo Rock Private Nature Reserve and Lion Plains private game lodge mentioned in this book are fictitious, but bear strong similarities to real places. Nicola and I now own a house (as well as our trusty Land Rover) in a place similar to Hippo Rock and were generously hosted by people in several lodges in the Sabi Sand game reserve while researching this book. Thanks to our new neighbours for welcoming us and making us feel at home in Africa.

Deep thanks, too, go to Cameron and Tania McMurtrie, who made a generous donation to the Mother Africa Foundation to ship a container of books from Australia to schools in Zimbabwe. Cameron, I hope you enjoyed being the hero of the story; Tania, sorry!

As always my unpaid and forthright family of editors, wife Nicola, mum Kathy, and mother in law Sheila helped get the book to print and for that, I thank them. Thanks, too, to my agent, Isobel Dixon, and my publisher and editor at Quercus Books, Jane Wood and Katie Gordon. Words can hardly express how lucky I am to be spending half my life in Africa doing what I love most.

And thank you – I couldn’t do it without you.