'There's a flight in three hours, back to Cape Town. I want to get Matthew on it,' he said.

'Of course,' Sonja said. 'And you?'

'If there's room. Not sure if there's much reason for me to stay in Namibia.'

Sonja closed her eyes. She was so d.a.m.ned tired. It felt like she hadn't slept in a week, not since she and Brand had been together in Namutoni. She remembered the feel of him, his big arms around her, and how well she'd slept afterwards. She said nothing for a minute, then, remembering her conversation with Emma, imagined how Matthew would be feeling. 'It's terrible Matthew couldn't find his son.'

'He's coming back,' Brand said, 'when things die down here. He wants to bring his wife and they're going to hold a small service, on the Skeleton Coast, where we turned off the road to look for the Dakota. That's probably the closest place to where Gareth died.'

'That's something, I suppose.' So much death, Sonja thought, so much grief.

Brand put his hat on. He came to the bed, pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. 'OK then, adios, that's my cell phone number if you need me.'

Sonja felt torn. 'Do you have to go?'

'Do I?'

'Bye.' Her reflex to push away was too strong.

Brand turned and walked out of the room into the corridor. Sonja looked into Stirling's face and thought about what they had shared, what they might have shared if she had never left Africa, how her life would have been. She wished that she'd had it in her to be content to stay in the bush, to marry Stirling. Her life would have been so easy.

Sonja sat for a while longer, watching Stirling. The harsh Namibian sun stabbed its way through the c.h.i.n.ked armour of the venetian blinds and cast prison bars on the white hospital bed linen.

She took out her phone and the piece of paper Brand had given her. Sonja entered his number and tapped out a message on her keypad. Here's my number, if you need it. I meant what I said. I like you. Her thumb hovered over the send key for a few seconds as she debated deleting or changing the message.

In the end she pressed send. Sonja looked at Stirling again. He was so handsome, so good, so pure. Brand was like her, f.u.c.ked up, broken, a borderline alcoholic, rough around the edges.

Her phone beeped and she checked the screen.

Me too.

Epilogue.

Once her three cubs were walking nicely and could see they were blind for the first week of their lives the desert lioness led them out of the cool of the cave and onto the baking red stony plains.

She needed food to keep her milk flowing and the little ones were always hungry. They travelled in the cool of night and laid up in what little shade they could find during the day. Twice she had tried to catch a springbok, but hunting was difficult for a single mother being tailed by three noisy offspring.

When the rocks gave way to gra.s.slands she came to a fence and wriggled under the lowest strand, using a ditch excavated by a warthog. The scent of the animal was fresh. She was wary, eyes and ears searching for signs of humans.

In time she came to a building. She lay down in the scant cover of a tree and watched and waited until nightfall. All was quiet. She had spied a pair of warthogs tending to the watered lawn in front of the farmhouse and noted where the portly pigs retreated to for the night, a burrow in a nearby anthill. She motioned to her cubs to stay put and crept closer to the warthogs' den.

Her plan would be to either dig the warthogs out or to wait until dawn when they emerged, still half asleep, of their own accord. But a noise stopped her.

She raised her ears. It was a tiny squeaking cry and it stirred her. She was confused. Her own cubs should have been far behind her, at the tree. She veered off and came to another fence, then paced around the small enclosure.

Three little faces appeared through the gloom, calling to her. She regarded them through the flimsy barrier. Had she been a male she would have killed another lion's cubs on sight. She sniffed at the babies, who were the same size as her own. They came to her and tried to nuzzle her through the fence.

She looked towards the anthill where the warthogs would still be sleeping. She had until dawn. She started to claw the earth and when the sc.r.a.pe was deep enough, first one then the other two cubs crawled through to her. They saw her as an aunt, perhaps, but certainly not a predator.

The lioness opened her mouth and closed her fangs around the first cub, gently picking it up and carrying it safely back to the tree, where she deposited it with the rest of her brood. She returned for the second and then, finally, the third which had been trotting along behind her on its tiny legs, and took it to the others, carrying it just as tenderly.

When she was sure her cubs were safe, the lioness returned to the hunt.

Historical Note and Acknowledgements.

This is, of course, a work of fiction, but some events in the story are true, or based on fact.

There was a battle at Fort Namutoni in January 1904 between the German Schutztruppe and the Ndonga people. While an invasion of the north of Namibia after the battle was considered, it never happened as the Germans were preoccupied fighting the Herero and the Nama in the south of the country. However, I have altered history a little to work this into the story and set my fict.i.tious archaeological dig in the vicinity of the fort and Etosha National Park.

The town of Wilfriedstein and its Schloss Hhner bed and breakfast are fict.i.tious, but other towns and locations in the book are real.

I found the following books very useful in researching the history of Namibia and other issues covered in this novel: A History of Namibia by Marion Wallace; Killing for Profit Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade by Julian Rademeyer; The SADF in the Border War 1966-1989 by Leopold Scholtz; and The Kaiser's Holocaust Germany's Forgotten Genocide by David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen.

Items in the news media in Africa are often a source of inspiration for events in my books. A number of rhino horns, origin unknown, were seized at Windhoek's Hosea Kutako International Airport when I was setting out to write this story and that provided the germ of the idea for the book.

I have long wanted to set a novel mostly in Namibia, a country I love visiting, but I couldn't have done so without the help of many people who generously gave their time to help me with my research, and to check the ma.n.u.script for this book.

Desiewaar Natangwe Heita, Deputy Editor of the New Era Newspaper, and Wilfried Hhner, Chief Executive Officer of Hitradio Namibia both answered many questions I had about Namibia's politics, culture and history, and read through a draft of the book. I am indebted to both, almost as much as I am impressed by their love for their beautiful country and optimism for its future.

Thanks also go to Matthew Kelly, Senior Archaeologist at Archaeological and Heritage Management Systems (AHMS) in Sydney, who gave me a basic grounding in his field and provided input into the story, and to Charlotte Stapf, a Sydney-based psychotherapist, who gave me an insight into my characters' minds and corrected my German language references.

I'd also like to thank Svetlana Aksenova, from Moree Community Library who helped me with Russian names and language, and, once again, my friend Annelien Oberholzer who continues to correct my Afrikaans and find holes in my ma.n.u.scripts.

Dr Andrew Barrett, who at the time of writing was working in Afghanistan, gave me extensive advice on treating gunshot wounds in the field (including the nifty idea of using teabags in an emergency) and advised me not to have Sonja organise a direct transfusion between Alex and Natangwe in my story. I'm grateful for Andrew's a.s.sistance, however, I invoked literary licence to have this risky procedure take place whatever you do, don't try this at home!

Thanks to Wayne Hamilton from Swagman Tours Australia, who helps me with accommodation and new experiences in Africa, and to two excellent guides on my last trip to Namibia, Jimmy Limbo and Festus Mbinga of Wilderness Safaris, for sharing their knowledge with me. I'm also in the debt of Aggie Aikanga from Wilderness Safaris who helped my wife and me when our Land Rover's steering box decided to give out near Etosha National Park.

As with many of my earlier novels, I have handed over the task of thinking up character names to a number of worthy charities. The following people paid good money to various deserving causes to have their names a.s.signed to characters in this story: Alex Bahler, Matthew Allchurch and Dorset Sutton all contributed to Worldshare to further its support of the Heal Africa Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Sueanne Gregg contributed to Leukaemia research at a fundraiser in her home town of Taroom and chose for inclusion in this book the name of her late father, Ross c.o.o.nan; and Ann-Maree Grant chose to use her husband Sebastian Lord's name after contributing to the Australian-based African wildlife charity Painted Dog Conservation Inc.

On the home front my ever-willing and tireless team of unpaid editors and proofreaders have once again helped turn this story from rough first draft to a finished work. Thanks to my wife, Nicola; mum, Kathy; and mother-in-law, Sheila.

I am and always will be grateful to my friends at Pan Macmillan Australia for publishing me, and special thanks go to Publishing Director Cate Paterson, Editorial Manager Emma Rafferty and copy editor Brianne Collins.

Lastly, if you've made it this far, thank you. You're the one who counts most.

www.tonypark.net.

About Tony Park.

Tony Park was born in 1964 and grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. He has worked as a reporter, a press secretary, a PR consultant and a freelance writer. He is also a major in the Australian Army Reserve and served as a public affairs officer in Afghanistan in 2002. He and his wife, Nicola, divide their time between Australia and southern Africa. He is the author of eleven other novels.

Also by Tony Park.

The Hunter.

The Prey.

Dark Heart.

African Dawn.

The Delta Ivory.

Silent Predator.

Safari African Sky Zambezi.

Far Horizon Walking Wounded, with Brian Freeman.

The Lost Battlefield of Kokoda, with Brian Freeman The Grey Man, with John Curtis.

War Dogs, with Shane Bryant Part of the Pride, with Kevin Richardson.

MORE BESTSELLING FICTION FROM TONY PARK.

The Hunter.

Safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand hunts people, not animals. He's on the trail of Linley Brown who's been named as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy.

Linley's friend, Kate, supposedly died in a fiery car accident in Zimbabwe, but Kate's sister wants to believe it is an elaborate fraud.

South African detective Sannie van Rensburg is also looking for Linley, as well as a serial killer who has been murdering prost.i.tutes on Sannie's watch. Top of her list of suspects is Hudson Brand.

Sannie and Hudson cross paths and swords as they track the elusive Linley from South Africa and Zimbabwe to the wilds of Kenya's Masai Mara game reserve.

Tony Park's trademark storytelling prowess turns this hunt into a thrilling and deadly escapade through some of the most dangerous, yet beautiful, places on earth.

The Prey.

Deep underground in the Eureka mine, South Africa's zama zamas illegally hunt for gold. King of this brutal underworld is Wellington Shumba a man who rules his pirate miners through fear of torture and death.

Running Eureka's legitimate operation is former recce commando Cameron McMurtrie. When one of his engineers is taken hostage, Cameron does not hesitate to mastermind a dramatic rescue and finish it off with a manhunt for Wellington. That is until corporate interference from the mine's Australia head office, in the shape of ambitious high-flyer Kylie Hamilton, gets in his way.

Doctor Hamilton is visiting South Africa supposedly to finalise a new mine on the border of the famed Kruger National Park, but instead she and Cameron are forced into a partnership to fend off an environmental war above ground, and a deadly battle with a ruthless killer below.

Cameron and Kylie have become Wellington's prey.

They must unite their lives depend on it.

Dark Heart.

Atrocities from the past rise to the surface in this thrilling race to the death across Southern Africa.

Lawyer Mike Ioannou is dead after a hit and run in Thailand. A home invasion threatens the life of medico Richard Dunlop. In Johannesburg, a car jacker nearly kills photo journalist Liesl Nel.

Australian war crimes prosecutor Carmel Shang realises that all three victims are linked by a photograph that was clutched in the hand of a dying man in Rwanda nearly twenty years ago . . .

African Dawn.

Three families share a history as complex and b.l.o.o.d.y as Zimbabwe itself.

Dedicated conservationists Paul and Philippa Bryant clash with the corrupt government minister, Emmerson Ngwenya. Twin brothers, ex-soldier Braedan and environmentalist Tate join the fight.

But when the brothers fall in love with the same woman, Natalie Bryant, their rivalry threatens to put the lives of all involved at risk.

The Delta.

After a failed a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on the president of Zimbabwe, ex-soldier turned mercenary Sonja Kurtz is on the run and heads for her only place of refuge, the Okavango Delta in the heart of Botswana. She's looking to rekindle a romance with her childhood sweetheart, safari camp manager Stirling Smith, and desperately wants a fresh start and to leave her perilous warrior lifestyle behind.

But Sonja discovers her beloved Delta is on the brink of destruction. She is recruited as an 'eco-commando' in a bid to halt a project that will destroy forever the Delta's fragile network of swamps and waterways.

Soon Sonja finds herself caught in a deadly web of intrigue involving Stirling, the handsome Martin Steele her mercenary commander and TV heart-throb and wildlife doc.u.mentary presenter 'Coyote' Sam Chapman who blunders out of the bush in a reality show gone wrong.

Instead of escaping her violent past, Sonja is now surrounded by men who are relying on her killer instincts to save the day. Where she came to find peace, she finds war . . . and it is not just the survival of the Delta that is at stake.

Ivory.

Alex Tremain is a pirate in trouble.

The two women in his life one of them his financial adviser, the other his diesel mechanic have left him. He's facing a mounting tide of debts and his crew of modern-day buccaneers, a multi-national band of ex-military cut-throats, is getting restless.

They don't all share his dream of going legit, but what Alex really wants is to re-open the five-star resort hotel which once belonged to his Portuguese mother and English father on the Island of Dreams, off the coast of Mozambique.

A chance raid on a wildlife smuggling ship sets the Chinese triads after him and, to add to his woes, corporate lawyer Jane Humphries lands, literally, in his lap. Another woman is the last thing Captain Tremain needs right now especially one whose lover is a ruthless shipping magnate backed up by a deadly bunch of contract killers.

Meanwhile Jane finds herself torn between the crooked but charming pirate and her coolly calculating millionaire boss, George Penfold. Both are pa.s.sionate, and both are dangerous.

What Alex really needs is one last big heist something valuable enough to fulfil his dreams and set him and his men up for life.

Silent Predator.

In a luxury safari lodge in Kruger National Park, Detective Sergeant Tom Furey has just woken to a protection officer's worst nightmare. The government minister in his charge has been abducted.