| Chapter Eighteen |
"Nice timing, Miss James.” Wolf quickly and eagerly scooped up the top-secret cub.
Penny looked behind her nervously, not getting out of the jeep. “Thanks, now let’s go. I’m being followed.”
Suddenly Shakaza and Tezaka started to squirm awake. A combination of heightened metabolisms and immune systems
were shaking off the toxins. Shakaza woke up slowly and began to sluggishly fight back. As the humans prepared an
injection of a more powerful drug, Tezaka assessed the situation. The humans were going to take his sister. He could
either stay behind alone, or get himself captured. He walked out to the middle of the clearing, growled his loudest, and
set himself on fire. In addition to his tail tuft, Tezaka’s elbow tufts and mane scruff were also fire zones. Wolf and Penny
both whirled around, eyes wide, and fired. With two darts in him, Zak extinguished his flame and slumped to the ground.
Throughout the night Tezaka regained control over toxin a few times, but voluntarily slipped back under if humans were
still around. He didn’t want to end up like Shakaza, doped out of her mind.
Penny brought the jeep bursting out of the foliage and out onto the plains. Abandoning caution she drove fast, brights
on, zeroed in on their makeshift camp. Wolf had already radioed ahead; everything would be loaded on the Marahuté,
the group’s old C-130, by the time they got there. The safari was deemed a stupendous success and Wolf had promised
bonuses all around if they could be in the air in thirty minutes. According to plan, they would air-drop their more…
sensitive cargo over the awaiting field by noon the next day, land in Morocco with nothing incriminating aboard, and the
boss could collect and examine his menagerie at his leisure.
Wolf’s million dollars was all but a reality now. Fortunately he didn’t seem to need to urge Penny to drive any faster.
“So, Penny, when you say you’re being followed…”
“Well, when I took my hybrid breed, I think they saw me.”
“Who?” No answer for a moment. “It’s mother?”
“She’s probably in the group somewhere.”
“Group?”
“Look behind us, Silas.”
Night had fully come by now so Wolf, from the back of the jeep, pointed the vehicle’s spotlight backward and switched it
on. Well over three dozen eyes reflected the light.
“Whoa! Penny! What the…”
“I don’t know!”
“It’s a whole pride! And those males are huge!” A big granite breed male and an even bigger termite breed male were
flanking the center female that was closest to the jeep. “Penny! Are those cheetahs?”
“Yes! The smaller guys are hyenas. Oh, and don’t forget the eagles!”
Wolf looked up with his light. Sure enough, six or seven African Golden Eagles were trying to get within dive-bomb
distance. “How close to the plane are we?”
“Well, we can make it, but we’re going to be bringing hell with us!”
Wolf hefted his tranq gun. “Did you bring any real weapons?”
“No! But don’t waste our darts. Just use the cricket; it still has some juice in it!”
Wolf put his gun down and rummaged through the cargo in the back of the jeep for the sonic equipment. His two cubs
were finally out cold in a cage, the granite-termite cross lie drugged in another. He found the headphones, put one pair
on, and placed the other pair on Penny while she drove.
Everything instantly became nearly silent. Wolf grinned as he watched the eagles, his thumb on the cricket device’s
activation switch. The eagles would be affected the fastest; their eardrums were more susceptible to these frequencies.
He hit the switch. Bursts of near ultra-sonic sound waves assaulted the unshielded ears of the pursuing animals. Sure
enough, as the cheetahs, hyenas and lions slowed down out of pain, the eagles gave up quickly. Then something caught
Wolf’s eye. The lead eagle, which seemed a little smaller than the rest, didn’t break off pursuit so much as fall from the
sky totally. It somehow landed on the neck of the lead lioness.
For the second time that night, Wolf gawked at what he saw, this time through the scope of his dart gun. He cut off the
cricket and took off his headphones. The lioness, the two males, and two of the eagles remained behind the jeep despite
the sonic disruption. And the golden-winged… thing on the lioness’s neck was reopening its distinctly non-eagle eyes.
Penny looked behind her nervously, not getting out of the jeep. “Thanks, now let’s go. I’m being followed.”
Suddenly Shakaza and Tezaka started to squirm awake. A combination of heightened metabolisms and immune systems
were shaking off the toxins. Shakaza woke up slowly and began to sluggishly fight back. As the humans prepared an
injection of a more powerful drug, Tezaka assessed the situation. The humans were going to take his sister. He could
either stay behind alone, or get himself captured. He walked out to the middle of the clearing, growled his loudest, and
set himself on fire. In addition to his tail tuft, Tezaka’s elbow tufts and mane scruff were also fire zones. Wolf and Penny
both whirled around, eyes wide, and fired. With two darts in him, Zak extinguished his flame and slumped to the ground.
Throughout the night Tezaka regained control over toxin a few times, but voluntarily slipped back under if humans were
still around. He didn’t want to end up like Shakaza, doped out of her mind.
Penny brought the jeep bursting out of the foliage and out onto the plains. Abandoning caution she drove fast, brights
on, zeroed in on their makeshift camp. Wolf had already radioed ahead; everything would be loaded on the Marahuté,
the group’s old C-130, by the time they got there. The safari was deemed a stupendous success and Wolf had promised
bonuses all around if they could be in the air in thirty minutes. According to plan, they would air-drop their more…
sensitive cargo over the awaiting field by noon the next day, land in Morocco with nothing incriminating aboard, and the
boss could collect and examine his menagerie at his leisure.
Wolf’s million dollars was all but a reality now. Fortunately he didn’t seem to need to urge Penny to drive any faster.
“So, Penny, when you say you’re being followed…”
“Well, when I took my hybrid breed, I think they saw me.”
“Who?” No answer for a moment. “It’s mother?”
“She’s probably in the group somewhere.”
“Group?”
“Look behind us, Silas.”
Night had fully come by now so Wolf, from the back of the jeep, pointed the vehicle’s spotlight backward and switched it
on. Well over three dozen eyes reflected the light.
“Whoa! Penny! What the…”
“I don’t know!”
“It’s a whole pride! And those males are huge!” A big granite breed male and an even bigger termite breed male were
flanking the center female that was closest to the jeep. “Penny! Are those cheetahs?”
“Yes! The smaller guys are hyenas. Oh, and don’t forget the eagles!”
Wolf looked up with his light. Sure enough, six or seven African Golden Eagles were trying to get within dive-bomb
distance. “How close to the plane are we?”
“Well, we can make it, but we’re going to be bringing hell with us!”
Wolf hefted his tranq gun. “Did you bring any real weapons?”
“No! But don’t waste our darts. Just use the cricket; it still has some juice in it!”
Wolf put his gun down and rummaged through the cargo in the back of the jeep for the sonic equipment. His two cubs
were finally out cold in a cage, the granite-termite cross lie drugged in another. He found the headphones, put one pair
on, and placed the other pair on Penny while she drove.
Everything instantly became nearly silent. Wolf grinned as he watched the eagles, his thumb on the cricket device’s
activation switch. The eagles would be affected the fastest; their eardrums were more susceptible to these frequencies.
He hit the switch. Bursts of near ultra-sonic sound waves assaulted the unshielded ears of the pursuing animals. Sure
enough, as the cheetahs, hyenas and lions slowed down out of pain, the eagles gave up quickly. Then something caught
Wolf’s eye. The lead eagle, which seemed a little smaller than the rest, didn’t break off pursuit so much as fall from the
sky totally. It somehow landed on the neck of the lead lioness.
For the second time that night, Wolf gawked at what he saw, this time through the scope of his dart gun. He cut off the
cricket and took off his headphones. The lioness, the two males, and two of the eagles remained behind the jeep despite
the sonic disruption. And the golden-winged… thing on the lioness’s neck was reopening its distinctly non-eagle eyes.
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