An Empty Coast - Part 16
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Part 16

'They've burned something down there, an animal of some kind,' Natangwe said, relying on his bare eyes. 'I can see the skeleton. It's big, but not as big as a cow.'

'No,' Emma said, and put a hand to her mouth.

'It's the male lion,' Alex said, 'I'm sure of it.'

Emma caught his eyes and saw the inestimable sadness and frustration inside him. Alex took a hand-held GPS from his daypack. 'Can you please just circle a couple more times while I record this location, Andre?'

'Roger, just a couple more, then we need to get back on track. Fuel is getting low.'

'Danke schn, I very much appreciate it,' Alex said. He checked the lat.i.tude and longitude on his GPS and took out a notebook. 'The coordinates here are exactly the same as the last recorded location of the lion. There is no doubt that what we saw down there was its body, burned to cover the evidence of the crime.'

'Everyone, I'm climbing,' Andre said into the intercom. 'There are vultures up ahead and if we hit one of them we're in big trouble.'

Alex peered out the window on his side and Emma leaned over him. Below them, as their aircraft increased its alt.i.tude, they could see a cl.u.s.ter of vultures on the ground. Several more of the giant birds had taken flight at the noise of the Beechcraft's approach, but they were now settling into a circuit pattern, and, one by one, as if they were being guided by some natural air traffic controller, they were coming in to land again.

'There are cattle down there,' Natangwe said.

'I see them,' Alex replied. 'The vultures seem to be feeding on the carca.s.s of a cow.'

'Probably killed by that lion,' Natangwe said. 'That's a big part of some herdsman's income gone for good.'

Alex shot him an angry glance. 'Natangwe, you don't understand what the project I'm working on is all about. We want to empower the herdsmen and show them they can make money from tourists coming to see the desert lions. We're showing them new and different ways to keep their cattle safe.'

'Doesn't seem to be working.'

Emma was worried the tension between them might spill over mid-air, which would not be good for anyone. 'Guys, we can talk about this on the ground. How about we concentrate on trying to spot the missing aeroplane and, while we're at it, shouldn't we be looking for the lionesses and cubs?'

The faceoff between the two younger men was put on hold as each, sullenly, looked back out his respective window.

They flew on over the rocky red expanse. It was like another planet down there, Emma thought. Alex's airsickness seemed to have abated and she went to the rear of the aircraft and opened up a cooler box. She handed out bottles of water and c.o.kes, and apples and pears to the five men.

'Andre,' she said as she handed him a bottle of water, 'can we use our phones on this flight, or is it like a commercial flight where they're banned?'

He nodded his thanks to her. 'Sure, you can use your phone up here, but I don't think you'll get much signal.'

'Thanks.'

Emma went back to the cooler box and took a juice and an orange for herself, and peeled the fruit while staring at the endless landscape below. She took her phone out and turned it on, but as Andre predicted there was no signal. She would check it again when they returned to Ondangwa to refuel, and send her mother a message from there.

Chapter 17.

It was nearly dusk when Andre Horsman landed the Beechcraft on a game farm near Otjondeka. Andre had suggested this instead of heading all the way back to Ondangwa.

Emma, like the others, had agreed. Although they had found no trace of the missing aircraft, it had been an eventful day. Andre had said that they could refuel at the farm, owned by an old air force friend of his.

'I still need to get back to Ondangwa Airport and my vehicle soon,' Alex told Emma as they drove in the back of an open Land Rover game viewer through the gathering darkness to the farmer's house. 'I have to drive to where the male lion was killed and talk to those herdsmen.'

'Will they be in trouble?' Emma asked.

Alex shrugged. 'It's up to the Namibian police and the courts.'

Natangwe looked back at them from the row of seats in front. 'Nothing should happen to them. Man and lions have existed here for thousands of years.'

'Yes,' said Alex, 'and man very nearly succeeded in wiping them off the face of the earth.'

The farmer's name was Benjie van der Westhuizen. As well as sheep there was also game on his farm, and he pointed out springbok and mountain zebras as they drove to the house. 'I have some small guest chalets for hunters and tourists who come sometimes to the farm, you will be very comfortable in there,' Benjie told them.

'Do you have wi-fi or phone signal here?' Emma asked him.

'No phone signal. We normally have satellite internet, but regrettably it has not been working these last two days. I am waiting for a technician to come out and fix it, but we are a long way from anywhere.'

Emma felt frustrated by the lack of communication in Namibia. They hadn't picked up a signal anywhere. Her mother was due any time at the dig site and Emma now wished she had left a message somewhere for her, though she couldn't be sure that if she left a note at Namutoni, the nearest national park camp to the dig, her mother would even get it.

'I for one am enjoying being out of contact from the rest of the world for a while,' Professor Sutton said.

'I have my satellite phone,' Alex said, lowering his voice so that only Emma could hear. 'You can use that to send an SMS if you like, but not for calls unless it's a real emergency. I don't want everyone knowing as they'll all want to use it after a day or two and I will be in trouble from the donors.'

Emma patted his arm. 'Our little secret.' To Andre, in a louder voice, she said, 'How long do you expect we'll keep searching?'

He swivelled in his seat. 'Personally, I'll keep searching until I find that aircraft, but Benjie only has enough fuel spare for one more day's flying, and to top us up tomorrow night to get us back to Ondangwa.'

'So we'll be back at Ondangwa day after tomorrow?' she asked.

'Yes. From there I'll refuel and if we're still searching I'll have to relocate to somewhere further west, near the Atlantic coast, maybe at Purros; there's an airstrip there.'

'OK, cool,' Emma said. 'Professor, I'm just worried about my mother. I'm meant to be meeting up with her soon.'

Lights and a flickering fire beckoned them ahead and Benjie stopped the game viewer at a semicircle of six rondavels, round huts set around the blazing fire and a braai area. A bigger building, presumably Benjie's farmhouse, was a further hundred metres away. 'So this is where you will be staying. I hope it will be comfortable.'

'I'm sure it will be fine,' Sutton said.

They offloaded their bags and Emma, Natangwe, Alex and Sebastian took a room each, as did the two older men. Emma opened the door of her rondavel. It smelled a little musty, and vaguely gamey, which she thought might have something to do with the old zebra skin on the floor, but otherwise it was clean and tidy. She pulled the light switch and saw a double bed and a doorway that led to a toilet and shower. Emma opened her bag, took out her hairbrush and went into the en suite to straighten herself out a little. A few minutes later there was a soft knock on her door.

'Alex,' she said as she opened the door.

He put a finger to his lips. 'Not so loud.' He reached under his shirt and pulled the satellite phone, in its pouch, from the waistband of his shorts. 'Just an SMS, OK?'

She smiled. 'Yes, OK.'

'But you must take it outside somewhere, to get a satellite signal. It won't work indoors.'

'I was just about to go out to the fire.' She poked her head around the door and saw that none of the others had emerged from their rooms yet. 'All quiet. I'm ready, why don't we go somewhere out the back of the rondavels and try and get a signal.'

He nodded. 'OK.'

The darkness of the African night soon engulfed them as they moved away from the fire and the dull glow of the solar-powered lights in the rondavels. Alex turned on the phone, which resembled a clunky, old-fashioned mobile, and unfolded a similarly retro aerial and pointed it towards the sky.

Instinctively, Emma looked up. 'Wow.' She had thought she was getting used to the spectacular night skies in Namibia, but every time she gazed up at the stars from somewhere remote, like this, the sheer number of stars and the volume of light took her breath away again.

'I never get used to this sight,' Alex said.

'You just read my mind.' His face was bathed in the light of the phone's screen and she thought he looked unearthly, like a handsome ghost or a traveller from another galaxy. He was cute, and there was an innocence about him. Emma smiled as she remembered that he was worried he would be rapped over the knuckles for using a company phone for private purposes. Emma was no criminal, but she had partied pretty hard in Glasgow and been part of a few late-night pranks around town. 'Do you ever cut loose?'

He looked up from the phone's screen. 'What does this mean, cut loose?'

She almost laughed at his formal p.r.o.nunciation. 'Have fun, go crazy, freak out.'

He pursed his lips and she wondered if she had offended him. 'I enjoy my work, my research.'

'That's not what I meant. Have you ever, like, got really wasted and done something ridiculous that you later regretted, but at the time you couldn't stop laughing about?'

Alex's face creased in thought. 'No, I do not think so.'

Emma exhaled then Alex started to laugh.

'OK, you got me. So, spill. What did you do?'

'I should not say. Besides, we have a satellite signal now. You may send your message to your mother.'

Emma shook her head. 'No, tell me, what happened?'

Alex suppressed a little smile, then folded down the phone's antenna. 'Very well, if you do not want to send your SMS . . .'

She grabbed his hand with hers, stopping him from shutting down the phone, wrapping her fingers around his. 'Tell me,' she said, not letting go. It was very dark, but Emma thought he may have been blushing. 'Now.'

He sighed. 'It was when I was at university, on a year's exchange, in Munich. I drink only beer here in Namibia, and even then not to excess. However, all the students in my cla.s.s were drinking schnapps, and shooters. I became very drunk.'

She didn't want to let go of his hand, and he didn't try to move her away. 'And . . .'

'And we were playing a drinking game I forget now the rules and I lost. I had to run through the campus, in the snow, naked.'

Emma had to move her hand now, to cover her mouth. 'Oh my G.o.d, that's priceless. I would have died of the cold.'

He raised his eyebrows. 'Not of embarra.s.sment?'

'No, just the cold,' she laughed.

'Anyway, it would have been fine,' he continued, 'except I was caught, by one of our professors.'

'Oh, no. Was he hard on you?'

'She.'

Emma laughed out loud, then remembered they were trying to be discreet, and covered her mouth again. She still t.i.ttered when she tried to speak again. 'Was she hard on you?'

Alex coughed.

'What? What happened?'

He looked around, as if there were spies in the darkness. 'She was, how would you say in English? The opposite. She was quite soft on me.'

'No way! She liked you?'

'You could say that.'

'What did she do?'

'Emma, please, I don't want to go into details. It's not gentlemanly.'

She knew she should drop it, she could tell he was definitely as red as a beetroot now, but she wanted him to open up, and, besides, she was curious about how his story ended. 'Did your friends show up to rescue you?'

He scoffed. 'Hardly. They ran off, with my clothes.'

Emma smothered another laugh. Poor guy. 'So you were left there, naked, with one of your professors, in the snow.'

'She ordered me inside the nearest building. She was angry with me, but told me I would die of exposure if I stayed outside.'

'Well, that was decent of her. What happened next?'

Alex turned away. 'You should send your message, Emma, the others will be looking for us soon. Benjie will be starting the braai.'

He was right, she knew, but she was enjoying this. It wasn't his discomfort that amused her, but the story was weirder and more exciting in a strange way than any of the antics she'd got up to at Glasgow University. 'Was she attractive?'

He swallowed. 'Please, Emma . . .'

'She was, wasn't she? Did you fancy her?'

He looked away again, towards the fire, then back into her eyes. 'She was beautiful. Many of the male students talked about her, fantasised about her.'

Emma felt a stab of jealousy but, perversely, she still wanted to hear the rest of the story. 'What did she do, what did you do, Alex?'

He held her gaze. 'She said she wanted to warm me up, and I agreed that would be the sensible course of action.'

Emma had stopped laughing. She didn't want to think of sweet, innocent Alex, the man devoted to his research and his lions, involved in hot, furious, illicit s.e.x with an older woman, or anyone at least anyone other than her. To her own personal immediate embarra.s.sment, which she hoped didn't show, she felt herself becoming aroused. Emma had flirted with Alex, keeping her hand on his when he was threatening to turn off the phone, teasing out his story, but now she didn't know what to do or say. She felt as though the physical gap between them, just a few centimetres, was like a force field.

Emma moistened her lips with her tongue. 'What did she do, get you a coat, wrap you in a blanket?'

He swallowed and she watched his Adam's apple bob, wanted to touch it. 'No.'

'How old was she?'