Lake Manyara Ranger Station
Wednesday, 29th May, 10.30 a.m.

They pulled up to the Ranger station. Jim parked the car right in front of the station. Upon entering the building, they found two tall men sitting at a table, playing cards.

They looked up at the three men entering and introduced themselves. "Good morning. My name is Bruce Dunlop and this is Ranger Bobby Minscot. What can I do for you?"

"I'm Jim Ellison, this is my boss, Simon Banks, and my partner Blair Sandburg. We're police officers from the United States and we're looking for Simon's son Daryl, who disappeared around here."

"Ah, yes. I heard about that. Have you found out anything yet?"

"Well, we found the guide that disappeared along with Daryl. He was killed by a blow-dart with Acocanthera. We heard that poachers like to use that stuff. Do you know about any poaching activity around here?"

"Nope. Haven't seen a sign of poachers for about six months now," Minscot hastily answered.

"Actually," Dunlop said, "there have been spottings of dead animals with their tails and horns cut off, but nothing big." Dunlop's reply received a dark glare from Minscot. Jim noticed that Minscot's heartbeat had risen a notch and seemed to be nervous about something. He made a mental note to see what this guy was up to.

"Where did you find the carcasses?"

"Scattered all over the jungle and I heard from other rangers that they spotted a few on their plains too."

"If you find any other traces of poachers, could you let us know? We're staying near the hotel, so you can reach us there."

"Sure thing. I hope you find the kid."

"Thanks for your time."

They got back in the car and drove off. When they were out of sight and out of hearing, Jim stopped the car.

"What are you doing?" Blair asked.

"I don't trust that Minscot guy. He tried to convince us there were no traces of poachers and glared at his partner when he told us that they had found some dead animals. I think he's up to something."

"I know what you mean. Even I could see that the guy answered that question too quickly and that it was a lie," said Simon. "So what are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna double back and see if he tries something. If he has something to do with those poachers, there's no doubt he'll want to cover it up as soon as possible. You two wait here."

He got out of the car and walked back to the station, with his hearing dialed up.

"What was that all about, Bobby? You know about the carcasses we found. How come you told them that we didn't?"

"I forgot. Completely slipped my mind okay?" The voice lowered to a whisper Dunlop couldn't have heard. "And I'll make it slip your mind too."

Jim started running towards the building, but he was too late. He heard a gunshot and saw Minscot running out the back door. Jim ran inside and found Dunlop lying there with a bullet hole in the back of his head. As a routine, Jim felt for a pulse, but he'd already failed to hear a heartbeat or the sound of breathing. The guy was dead.

He ran out the back door, following Minscot. After a couple of minutes, he spotted him walking a little way off. Suddenly felt the earth give way below him and he fell.

As he lay on his back, still stunned from the fall, he could hear voices somewhere.

"You look like you just ran a marathon. What's going on?" He heard a deep voice and felt a shudder going through him.

"Those American cops showed up and asked questions about poachers. I tried to cover it up, but Dunlop told them we found a couple of stripped animal carcasses. After the cops went away, Dunlop questioned me about telling them we hadn't found anything. He suspected I had something to do with all this, so I killed him."

"That doesn't matter. Just take care of those cops too. I don't need anyone else snooping around here, just when we're planning to cash in big."

After his mind cleared a little, Jim thought: 'anyone else'? So Masemi did find out about them, and probably Daryl did, too. What did they do to him? I'll worry about that later, now I need to get out of here and alert Simon.

He looked up and saw that he was in a pit about 15 feet in diameter. Around him, he saw large stakes pointing upwards. Geez, I'm glad I didn't fall on one of those.

He tried to stand up, but he immediately sat back down, grabbing his right ankle. The ankle was probably sprained a bit when he landed on it. He inspected the walls of his prison. There was no way he could climb out of here, even if he hadn't hurt his ankle. He was stuck in there, probably until the poachers checked out their traps and found him in there.

He extended his hearing, to see if there was anyone or anything around. He heard a couple of vervet monkeys chattering in a tree nearby, the flapping of great wings as he saw a stork fly over the hole, a large crocodile grunting in his sleep on the bank of a little river, a voice, a lion roaring loudly, content and with a full stomach... a voice? Blair. And Simon too.

"I saw him go in this direction, but then I lost him. Maybe we should split up and search."

"I think we should stick together, Sandburg. There's no telling what we'll run into here."

"Right. Let's head this way."

Jim was just about to shout out loud, but realized his friends were too far away to hear him. He thought about firing his gun, but that would bring the poachers on him in the blink of an eye. He'd just have to wait. They were going in the right direction, so it would just be a matter of time before they reached the trap.

Right when Jim thought his friends were coming within earshot, they turned away.

"I don't think he's here, Sandburg. There's just open plains here. We should've been able to see him if he were here. Let's double back to the clearing and head in another direction."

"Hmm, okay, I guess you're right. Let's go."

Jim suddenly grew desperate and shouted at the top of his lungs, but they couldn't hear him. Looking around, he found nothing with which he could get them to turn back again. Then he heard the chattering again. The monkeys. They had become silent when Jim shouted, but now they picked up where they had left off. Maybe he could make them give some kind of alarm. He stood up, picked up a small rock and threw it towards the monkeys, careful not to hit any of them.

The vervet monkeys did exactly what Jim expected. They shrieked in alarm and in an instant, the air was full of monkey shouts.

Blair and Simon had just turned back, when they heard shrieking and excited chattering. They turned around and saw a bunch of monkeys heading their way, jumping from tree to tree above their heads.

They glanced at each other and without a word, they ran in the direction the monkeys had just come from. When they once again reached the spot they had been before, they could still see nothing. They looked around, nothing. Up the trees, nothing. They walked a bit further, until they were almost out of the forest.

"I'm over here! Blair, Simon!" They heard someone shouting.

"Where?" Blair said at a normal level, not wasting his breath and knowing Jim could hear him anyway.

"In a big hole ahead of you!"

They ran up a slight slope and then they saw the hole.

"You fell into an elephant trap? Oh my God, Jim! Are you hurt? You're not on one of those stakes, are you?"

"No, Chief, I didn't get shish kebabed. I sprained my ankle a bit, but nothing to worry about. Just get me out of here!"

"With what?"

"Try and find some vines strong enough to hold me, or fetch a rope from the Land Rover!"

Blair and Simon looked around, but couldn't find any vines strong enough to hold Jim. Blair started running of towards the Land Rover, but Jim called him back.

"Blair, wait! Simon, you go with him. He might be attacked by a stalking predator."

"But..."

"Chief, I'll be fine here. No lion or leopard is stupid enough to jump in here." Jim interrupted Blair. He smiled at the reply he knew he was going to receive.

"Yeah, only a Sentinel with his heightened senses on full alert could possibly be stupid enough to fall in a trap that's right in front of him," Blair shouted as he started off again, Simon close behind.

As he listened to his two friends run off, Jim checked his surroundings again, even though he knew he hadn't missed anything. Suddenly he started to feel a bit dizzy. What the heck? He managed to sit down again just as a wave of nausea hit him. His prison started spinning. He clenched his eyes shut and fought to keep his sandwiches in his stomach.

He felt a rope drop nearby. "Jim, can you climb up?" He heard Blair's voice though the buzzing in his ears.

"Just a sec," he managed to utter weakly.

"Jim? What's up? Are you okay, man?"

Jim looked up and saw Blair's head spinning along with the rest of the world. Lowering his head in his hands, he replied: "Don't feel so good."

Simon joined Blair at the edge of the hole. "I'm going down and see if I can help him climb up. See if you can tie the rope around a tree somewhere."

"Right. Hang on Jim, Simon's coming down to get you."

As Simon reached the bottom of the pit, he found Jim totally out of the world. He reached out to touch his shoulder, when Jim's hand pushed his away. Jim looked up at him and Simon was completely taken aback by what he saw. The blue eyes that were normally full of confidence were now filled with fear.

"Jim, it's me, Simon. You fell into a hole and we need to get you out of here. Let me support you and I'll help you climb up."

Blair anxiously looked down on the two. "Simon? What's happening to him? Is he alright?"

"I don't know. He seems confused and afraid. We need to get him out of this place and find out what's wrong with him." He grabbed Jim's arm and put his own arm across his waist. "Hang on to me, buddy. I'm gonna need both hands, so you'll have to hold on, okay?"

"Hm-mm."

Simon felt Jim's arms hold on to him tighter as he started to climb up. Occasionally Jim's grip loosened and Simon kept him from falling by circling his long legs around Jim's waist and encourage him to hold him tighter.

Blair released the breath he was holding when he saw Simon scramble out of the hole, pulling Jim with him.

"Let's get him in the truck and back to the hotel."

They lifted the nearly limp body and carried him towards the truck. Placing him between the two of them, Simon drove off. In the meantime, Blair tried to reach Jim.

"Jim, can you hear me? How do you feel?" He put his hand on Jim's forehead. "Man, I think he's got a pretty high fever. Jim, please. I need to know what happened, so I can help you."

Blair heard soft mumbling, but couldn't figure out the words. "What's that? I didn't hear that."

"Mmm... headache... sick..."

Blair thought for a while and said: "Could it be an allergic reaction or something? The anti-malaria pills! I read there were a lot of side effects, and knowing Jim, he's probably having a huge reaction to them. Damn, this means he'll have to quit taking them, and run the risk of getting malaria. But he'd stay sick for a week or so."

"I don't like the sound of that, Sandburg. We can't lose Ellison now. Isn't there anything else we can do?"

"I'm afraid not, it'll have to find it's way out of his system, but that takes a long time with these kind of medicines."

The rest of the journey was in silence, except for a few grunts and moans from the sick man in the middle.

As they reached the hotel, Blair and Simon jumped out of the truck and carefully pulled Ellison out. They half dragged, half carried the limp body to the entrance, where the hotel owner met them.

"Do you have a spare room where we can put him? And is there a doctor anywhere near?"

"Follow me. What happened to him? Is he alright?"

"Allergic reaction to the malaria meds."

Right then, a sturdy looking man appeared. "My name is Christopher Bennett. I'm a doctor. Please tell me exactly what happened," said the man with a British accent.

As they dragged the half-conscious Jim into a room the owner opened for them, Simon relayed what had happened at the elephant pit.

"Alright," the doctor said when Simon finished. "Let's check him out. Lisa? Could you get my bag, please?" A young girl ran up the stairs. Bennett took Jim's wrist and checked his pulse. "Hmm, a bit irregular, but still strong. He seems to have a fever too."

The teenage girl soon returned with the doctor's bag in her hand.

"Thank you, dear. Now let's see." He checked Jim's eyes. "His eyes don't seem to focus right. What's his name?"

"Jim Ellison," Blair quickly replied.

"Mr. Ellison. Look at me please. Try to focus your eyes on me." No result.

Suddenly Jim turned on his side and started retching. Bennett had anticipated and quickly moved a bag underneath the sick man's mouth.

"What malaria medication is he using?"

"Lariam, same as we. But with some medicines he gets a really hefty allergic reaction."

"Yes, I believe that's what's happening to your friend right now too. Unfortunately, mefloquine, that's Lariam, takes a while to get out of your system. He will recover, but it will take a while."

Jim appeared to become a little more alert. He looked up at the man hovering above him, wondering for a while if he was the one responsible for the pain he felt all over. But when he saw Blair and Simon, he knew the man had to be a doctor or something.

"Welcome back, Mr. Ellison. I am Christopher Bennett. You seem to be having quite a violent reaction to the Lariam pills you've been taking. How do you feel?"

"Headache, stomachache, nauseated. Tired, world's spinning. An' body hurts, headache."

"Jim, you already mentioned that," Simon pointed out.

"Twice as bad as the rest," Jim retorted, with a weak grin.

"At least you still managed to keep your sense of humor in that head of yours."

"Well, Mr. Ellison. You're lucky, as you seem to be experiencing mostly the relatively harmless side effects of mefloquine. You'll have to quit taking those. I also suggest you take some Tylenol to lower the fever and help you get rid of you head- and stomachache. And last but not least: rest. You won't be getting out of bed, even if the hotel owner wants to kick you out. The more you rest now, the faster the drug will leave your body. I'll be checking up on you every evening, alright?"

"Doctor's orders, right?"

"Right. I'll be seeing you tonight." With that, Bennett stood up and motioned for the others to follow him out of the room.

Not knowing that Jim could easily hear what he was saying, the doctor said to Simon and Blair: "Make sure he takes his Tylenol, and if he gets disoriënted and confused or gets one of those fear episodes again, give him some Valium to calm him down. I'm in room 112, so if anything changes, you can reach me there, unless I'm touring with my daughter. I'll be back around 7 p.m. tonight to check your friend out."

"Thanks for everything, doc. We'll make sure he takes his meds," Simon assured the doctor.

After that, they returned to Jim, who seemed a bit more coherent than before. With a bewildered look he said: "What happened at that hole? What kind of episodes did I have?"

Simon looked at Blair, not knowing how to answer that particular question. Both men knew that Jim hated being out of control, so neither was keen on telling the sick man that he hadn't been in control for a while. Blair answered: "You kind of weren't yourself. When Simon reached you at the bottom, you were confused and had a look of fear on your face. But you shouldn't worry too much about that, it's one of the side effects of the drug. Go to sleep and work on getting that stuff out of your system."

Blair had hardly said those words, when Jim slipped into the dreamworld, exhausted by the day's activities.

TO BE CONTINUED…