CHAPTER 7
Monday June 23rd, 2014
Otjindawa Nature Reserve, Namibia
Annie finds Auggie leaning against the wall of the center's kitchen, just down from the outside hand-washing sink. He is standing in a pool of morning sun, eyes closed, cane resting loosely against his shoulder. His hands cradle a cup of coffee.
"Didn't take you long to find the caffeine, I see," she says, leaning up against the wall next to him.
"I have my priorities," he tells her, opening his eyes. Then he turns to smile at her. "Actually, Michael took pity on me. I think he's appointed himself coffee-angel this morning."
As if to prove Auggie's point, the dark-haired young man with the easy smile is approaching. "Owen, you still OK? Laura? Coffee for you? I'm pouring."
"Please! You're a lifesaver, Michael!" She sends him a radiant, Laura Pritchard smile.
Michael, baasking under the glow of it, blushes and stammers a little through his "No problem at all. How do you take it?" He gallops off eagerly.
Auggie is chuckling. "Didn't take you long to get him under your spell."
"Some things are just so easy," she replies smugly. "A flutter of the eyelids, a 'special' smile…"
"Wouldn't get far with that kind of thing with me." He's grinning. "I'm a much tougher sell." He winks at her. She digs an elbow into him in return. Then she turns serious.
"Listen," she says quietly to him, "I think I've found Jaco's laptop."
His face changes. He raises his eyebrows at her. "You don't waste time, do you. Miss Walker?" She's surprised him. She feels a swell of satisfaction. "What's the score?"
"Hold on." She puts a warning hand on Auggie's arm. Michael is bearing down on them.
She plays Laura Pritchard for all she's worth. "Oh, Michael, you're an absolute star! Thanks so much!" Coffee is received, more effusive gratitude expressed and Michael departs to offer coffee to the two volunteers monitoring the cheetahs waking in the crates. He takes Auggie's empty mug with him.
Auggie has his hand on her elbow. "Let's go somewhere where he can't find us," he says.
She leads them around to the other side of the kitchen, a little distance away from the clinic. Stopping them under a thorn tree she turns to face him. Breaks contact with him.
"I asked Michael if there was somewhere secure I could keep my camera equipment. Figured if Jaco had a laptop and brought it down to the clinic he might want to store in a safe place…"
"And you hit the jackpot?"
"I think so." She elaborates for him. "There's a locked storeroom at the far end of the clinic where they keep the drugs and the dart gun and things. Michael let me put my stuff there. Didn't have a chance to have a good look around, but there was what looked like a laptop bag, branded with a South African Veterinary Association logo…"
"Nice work." Auggie is looking thoughtful. His forehead is creased in that tell-tale way of his. "What d'you think your chances are of getting a look in that bag?"
"I can figure something out." She is certain of it. She has Michael wrapped around her finger already, after all.
"OK. Great." He sounds distracted. She'd be offended, but she knows him well enough to know that it means he's already planning their next move. "If you find it, I'll need you to have a look at the make for me. If you get a chance to turn it on, boot it up, see if you can figure out what operating system he's running, and maybe antivirus software? That'll be even better. Not crucial, but it'll mean I can tailor something and we can get in faster."
"Spyware?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"OK. I'll see what I can do."
He doesn't respond. She gulps down her coffee and then gives him her arm again. "Come on. Let's go back before Michael sends out a search party for us."
They have barely gotten back around to the other side of the kitchen when Michael finds them. He's a little breathless.
"Listen, Owen. Sorry. Bit of a problem. The guys that went out with the vets this morning are going to take the cheetahs back now, as soon as they're awake. Which means they need me to go out on the second vehicle when Jaco darts these two. To help with the lifting and carrying and things. So I'm going to have to abandon you."
And spend a little more time in the vicinity of Laura Pritchard, thinks Auggie to himself, amused. He is finding Michael's crush on Annie seriously entertaining. And there's no question it could be useful. "No problem. You go on ahead. I'm good to just hang on here till you guys get back."
"You're sure? We won't be more than half an hour or so. We just want to get these next two done before it gets too hot, and it's warming up quite quickly today. Otherwise we would have waited until the guys got back from off-loading Marge and Lisa."
"I'm sure. Really. Go on. Take Laura with you."
If there's anything both spies and blind men know, it's how to wait.
Auggie makes his way to one of the picnic tables set out in the courtyard between the kitchen and the lecture hall, sits down on a bench, folds up his cane, and prepares to enjoy a half hour of winter sun and his own thoughts. Drifting in from behind him come the mingled sounds of voices and equipment being loaded onto vehicles in preparation for the next two cheetahs.
"Owen." Jaco Bouwer's voice, right at his shoulder, startles him. He hadn't heard the man's approach. Hadn't been focusing. "Are you coming?"
Auggie is confused. "I was gonna stick around here, actually. Didn't think there was space for me." Translation: Risk of me making a spectacle of myself out there is pretty high. I'll stay put.
"There is space. If you want to come, please come. I'll make sure you know what's happening and what to do." There is obviously nothing wrong with Jaco's translation skills. Then Jaco ramps up the sales pitch. "I could actually do with another hand when it comes to lifting. Ernst is willing but his wife is worried about his back." That slight smile is in his voice again.
The smile is the thing that clinches it for Auggie. He can feel he's developing a connection with this man. The more he can do that, the easier it will be for them to turn him when the time comes. What's a bit of potential lost face in the bigger picture?
"OK. You win. I'm sold." He gives the vet a smile. Standing, he shakes out his cane and puts out his left hand. "Lead the way."
In the end, Auggie manages to emerge from the entire experience completely unscathed, largely due to Jaco's singular attention to detail and his penchant for information sharing.
By the time they move off he already knows the make of vehicle (Toyota Land Cruiser, single cab, open back), the layout (bench along the length of each side, tailgate – open, bars on sides and back – good handholds), what equipment they have and where (Jaco's darting box, medical kit, plastic tub with various items on the left hand bench near the front; stretcher on the floor between the two benches; bucket with wet towels on the floor next to the stretcher, front left, in case they have a cheetah that overheats; oxygen cylinder next to that; dart gun in its case on right hand bench near the front), and where best to stand (left hand side, back against the cab – that way there is something to hold on to on both sides - roof and side bars).
Jaco is next to him at the front – presumably monitoring the safety of the gun and the oxygen cylinder. The vet stands with his back against the cab as they drive, painstakingly answering all the questions put to him by the others in the group.
They stop near the small management camp where Bart and Homer (Auggie still finds that funny) have been moved in readiness for the morning's procedure. Everyone clambers off the vehicles. Jaco doesn't offer any physical assistance to Auggie, merely informs him that he has a clear path down the left hand side to the tail gate and lets him organize himself. It's good enough. When Auggie hops down he discovers Annie has come across from the other vehicle and is waiting for him.
"Thought you weren't coming," she says.
"So did I." He smiles. "Jaco had other ideas."
She pulls him a little away from the others. "You like him." She says it appraisingly. He can't decide whether or not he's picking up a hint of accusation in her tone too. He lets it ride.
Shrugging non-committally he says, "I'm building up some rapport with him."
She makes no reply.
He asks: "What's happening?"
"He's doing things with drug bottles and syringes and tranquilizer darts. Getting the drugs into the darts, I guess." She pauses. "Now he's getting the gun out of the case."
Jaco's voice cuts across the general chatter. "OK, everyone. I'm going to go up now and dart the two cheetahs. I want only Michael, Paul and Owen with me. If the rest of you can have the vehicles ready to reverse up to the gate so that we can load and go as soon as I radio you that they're down, please? Julie, Sarah and Bianca will show you what to do. The first cheetah to go down will go in with Sarah and Bianca's team. My group, we'll take the second one."
Hell. This is going to be interesting.
Jaco is at his side. "Owen? Are you ready?"
"What exactly are you gonna need me to do?"
"You'll come down with me now. You can wait with Paul and Michael while I dart the cats. Once they're both down I'll bring you with me into the camp. I'm going to need you to carry the cheetah with me to the vehicle – it's about thirty meters, even ground - and help me load him in once we get there."
"OK. Sounds doable." He hopes so, anyway. One problem though. "Is my cane gonna be in the way? Should I leave it here?"
There's a pause. "Yes. Maybe. If you're comfortable with that."
He isn't. But he's not going to admit it.
Annie pipes up. She's obviously been listening to their conversation. "I can take it if you want. I'll put it up on your vehicle - on the bench next to where you were standing."
Better Annie than someone else.
He folds it up. Holds it out. She takes it. Touches him on the arm. "Have fun," she says.
Jaco takes him and the other two men a good distance further up the road and then stops. "If you could wait here," he says, "I'm going to go on ahead. They're less nervous if they see just one person rather than a group. I'll come back for you once the darts are in."
They stand and wait. Auggie feels adrift without his cane. It's amazing how much he's come to rely on it as an anchor. Standing in the middle of open space like this with nothing to ground him is disorienting. He bottles the slight anxiety that wells up.
The loud pop of a gun sounds, and shortly thereafter a second one. Within a minute Jaco is back. "Two clean shoulder shots." He sounds pleased. "We can go and wait at the gate." He offers Auggie a lead.
While they walk Auggie asks him about the gun. "Gas propulsion?" he asks. "Sounded like it. Relatively quiet."
"Yes. C02. This is a Dan-Inject JM Special. The other type of gun I use, Pneu-Dart, uses .22 blanks. It's a lot louder." They've stopped. Auggie assumes they're at the gate. "Here. Would you like to have a look?" Jaco asks.
"Sure."
"OK. Hold out your hands. I'm going to pass it over to you. It's not loaded."
Auggie holds out his hands. The rifle arrives in his hands. He examines it with interest – long, narrow barrel extending all the way from front to back, metal mid-section with sight above and trigger below; hand grip behind the trigger; distinctive oblong metal canister screwed above and in front of the trigger with a dial just behind. "Pressure regulator," Jaco says. "And then behind that is the pressure gauge." Auggie fingers it. "And the pressure chamber is just behind that. Yes, that's it - that long cylinder under the barrel behind the trigger." Right at the back, above the plastic shoulder-stock Auggie finds a protruding lever. "That's where we load the darts," Jaco tells him. "You unscrew that and then push the dart into the barrel. It's very simple."
"What's the range?" Auggie asks. He's missed gun talk.
"Maximum thirty meters. But I try to go for twenty meters or closer. There's more guarantee you'll get the dart in where you want to that way, that you don't have to take a second shot. The darts hurt."
"That's pretty close." Auggie is surprised. "Must be hard to get that right when you're darting in the wild."
"It is. I've had to wait for hours in trees before to get a decent shot."
"It's true," says Michael. "I've seen it." There is general laughter.
The cats are apparently going down. Once Jaco has determined it's safe for them all to go in, he radios the vehicles to come down to the gate.
He comes back to them. "You and Paul take Homer," he tells Michael. "Owen and I will fetch Bart." He touches the back of Auggie's left hand. "Let's go," he says.
They reach the cheetah. Jaco orients him and then instructs him on the carrying. "You just want to scoop both arms under the abdomen and let the hind quarters and tail rest over your arm. I'll be supporting the chest. You ready?"
As ready as I'll ever be. He has squatted down, hands under the cat's abdomen. "Ready."
"On three. One…two…three," and they're up. "Come alongside me," Jaco directs. Auggie does. "Good. Let's go…"
They go.
They arrive at their vehicle just as the other one is driving away. Jaco calls to someone on the back, "Here, take him," and Auggie can feel the cat being pulled forward. "That's it – let's just lay him on his left side like that." Jaco assists him.
"He's in, Owen. I'm just climbing up, now." There's a grunt from the vet and then: "Give me your hand". Auggie reaches up with his left hand. His right hand finds the edge of the tailgate and he gets his foot up onto it. He is hauled up. He makes his way carefully up the left side of the vehicle – feet feeling the way carefully between the cheetah's back and the bottom of the bench, hand on the side rail of the vehicle. One of the volunteers is calling out the cheetah's temperatures. Jaco is already at the front. He bangs on the roof of the cab. "Let's go." he says. The vehicle accelerates.
Auggie arrives to stand next to Jaco. He leans back against the cab. He can feel himself grinning.
"Thank you. Nice work," he is told. A hand claps him on the front of his shoulder. The vet is facing forward this time. Auggie turns around too. The wind blows into his face as they drive.
He doesn't even bother to look for his cane until they reach the clinic.
