The Shudder Lingers Page 10

  Slade then took over, “Elon, we would like to start by showing you a short video that we have put together. Bursting with pride, Lucy again showed the video, which showed beautiful images of rhinos in the wild, images of barbaric-looking poachers, drones swooping over the bushveld and finally screens of data tracking and geo-spatial maps. It ended with a short clip of a baby rhino being born and a question, “How can you end this?”

  Elon clapped his hands, “I absolutely love it.”

  Slade then took over to provide a short overview of the project approach, “We have managed to do some quick research on the anti-poaching operations in the Kruger Park. They have already started to actively engage the use of drones and have a wide-area-surveillance system, which has dramatically shifted the anti-poaching efforts from a physical reactive basis to a technology-based proactive basis. We will do some hypothesis work on how we can support, leveraging our existing drone solutions and applications. Then we propose actually visiting the Kruger Park, to get first-hand experience with the game rangers and see how our project can complement or enhance their existing efforts.” One of the junior team members gave a brief summary of how they would analyse the data and Gavin concluded with how they could enhance the visualisation of data to support the anti-poaching units, by making the data easy to understand.

  Elon was silent for a moment as he observed all those present in the room, before turning to Stacey, “I am hugely impressed. Clearly I chose the right team.”

  She replied, “Thank you for your trust in us. Let’s go to my office, where we can conclude the commercial agreement.”

  As he got up to follow Stacey, he turned to the team, “Good luck with the project.” Once inside Stacey’s office, Elon added, “We have done our own homework on WKJD, and are aware of some of the shady deals allegedly carried on by previous management. I trust that it is all in the past. We will not be involved in anything illegal.”

  Conscious of the warning she replied, “I believe that we are fully aligned. I will also not tolerate anything illegal.”

  Elon nodded and then reviewed the brief proposal and contract that had been drawn up. He initialled each page and signed the final page of the contract. Stacey also duly signed the contract and presented him with a copy. He looked her in the eye, “The contract is a necessity, but the real commitment I need is from you to my family.”

  She felt the weight of his words, “I understand Elon. I hope we do not just meet but exceed your expectations.” They shook hands again, before Elon walked himself out.

  Stacey was left staring at the signed contract, and thought, I am feeling the pressure already. She headed back to the project office to share the news of the signed contract with the team. They were jubilant, and she paused to soak in some of the buoyant sentiment, aware that none of the pressure she felt was evident on any of their faces.

  Heading back to her office, she was met in the corridor by Cheung, who asked, “Stacey, do you have a moment please?” He guided her into his office and sat behind his desk. Her thoughts immediately went to the several adversarial interactions that she had encountered with his father, Wang, in the same office. Cheung had been talking, but she had missed it all.

  She said, “Apologies Cheung, my mind was elsewhere. Please repeat what you just said.”

  Seemingly agitated he said, “I would like to be involved in the rhino project. I have never been to a major game reserve and would love to see the big five animals in the wild. In particular, it has always been a childhood dream of mine to see rhinos.”

  Stacey sensed a lack of authenticity in his words but was unsure of what made her feel that way. She replied, “I’ll let you know. I’ll chat to the project team and see how we can involve you.”

  Almost pleading, he responded, “I’ll do anything to be involved.” She noticed a small twitch in his face, but his face showed no real other emotion. Without responding, she got up and left the room.

  Thoughts of Cheung soon faded, as she sat at her desk, gloating over the signed contract. She was in a good space as she reflected on the business, which was stabilizing, it had a good project pipeline and the smuggling had seemingly been dealt a death blow.

  The silence was broken when Gavin walked in, “I just wanted to thank you for giving me a chance on this project Stacey. I really appreciate it. I won’t let you down.”

  She smiled at him, “It is a pleasure Gavin. We haven’t had much of an opportunity to connect of late. How are you doing?”

  His eyes showed signs of tears, which he attempted to wipe away, “Ok I guess. To be honest though, I miss my dad. I suppose in some way, my doing the rhino project, will clear some of his name. I wish I could unwind some of what he did.” He sighed deeply and walked out.

  Stacey was intrigued by his comment, but in many ways the rhino project could be a defining point for WKJD, and a new path forward. With newfound energy, she tackled some of the admin issues that needed to be dealt with. Her mind drifted to Cheung expressing interest in the rhino project. Certainly, something I need to be alert to, she thought.

  She shut down her computer, and happily headed home. She was met at the elevator by Jackie, who rode the elevator down with her in silence. As they parted in the direction of their cars, Stacey said, “Good night Jackie. Enjoy the evening.” All she got was a scowl, and with that Jackie walked off, which left Stacey staring after her in surprise.

  After about ten paces, Jackie turned back and called after her, “By the way, I am in love with Slade. He might not know it yet, but I will win him over.” With that she let out an eerie chuckle and walked backwards, her eyes boring intensely into Stacey’s eyes.

  Instantly Stacey felt a shudder running down her back as she stared at Jackie. She was tempted to charge after her, and slap her, but thankfully her feet remained pinned to the ground, as she felt a numbness in her legs. Reaching to a nearby pillar for support, she grasped that she had never felt such intense jealousy and was surprised by her emotional reaction. She found herself saying aloud, “Never Jackie, Slade is mine. I will fight to keep him.” Jackie drove past slowly, her lips were moving, but with the closed windows, it was not audible to Stacey. She tottered on jelly-like legs to her car, and sat down in the driver’s seat, where she sat in silence for a long time, just staring at the concrete wall in front of her car.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Sleep had evaded Stacey all night, and she woke up with a splitting headache. She was staring at the ceiling, rubbing her temple, when Slade walked in with a cup of steaming coffee. He placed the coffee on the bedside table, and sat in a chair across from the bed, “Morning Stacey. Do you want to talk about what happened last night?”

  Her mind was racing, pondering what she might have done. She recalled arriving home, ignoring Slade, and heading straight to bed. She pushed herself upright and held the cup of coffee with both hands. She studied Slade over the cup, and said sheepishly, “I’m sorry Slade. I just had a bad ending to the day.”

  She offered no further explanation, which left him shrugging his shoulders, “I don’t get it. We sign the most awesome contract yesterday, and you call it a bad day.”

  Realising that she had not explained anything, she summoned up some courage, “I apologise Slade. I have not been fair to you.”

  He was quick to jump in, “You can say that again!”

  Irritated with the snappy response, she slowly finished her coffee. With no further explanation forthcoming, he was ready to leave the room. She said, “Wait. Let me explain. When I left the office yesterday, I had a run-in with Jackie. She claimed that she was in love with you, and that she would fight to get you. I admit that it left me feeling totally jealous.”

  Slade walked over and sat down on the bed next to her. He took her hands, and gazed intently at her, “Well, I’m only interested in you, and that means she is not going to win me over.” She pulled him closer and held his face in her hands. He moved closer and kissed her passionately. She curled up next to h
is body and held on tightly. After an eternity, she jumped up, “My word. We are late for work.”

  Having become accustomed to Stacey being in the office early, Emily half frowned when she entered, casually glancing at her watch. Stacey ignored the little jibe, “Please be a dear, and grab me a cappuccino.” Emily nodded, and scuttled off in the direction of the coffee station. She sat behind her desk and started wading through her emails. She sensed the need to go into the secondary server that was previously used for the smuggling. Having not been in there for a while, she was curious to see if there was any recent activity. Nothing untoward popped up. She then did a search on Jackie’s name. Nothing immediate came up, other than one recent email. She opened it and saw that it was an email from Jackie to Daniella, sent the evening before. Her jaw dropped as she read the email aloud, “Certainly rattled her cage tonight. You were right, Slade is her weakness.” She hurriedly exited the email as Emily entered with a cappuccino, nodding her appreciation. Her mind was spinning, trying to digest this new information. What are they plotting now? she wondered. Driving in to work, she had considered the audacity of how Jackie had confronted her, but now she could see it was clearly part of some orchestrated plot against her. She went back to the email and took a photo of it.

  She needed some time to think, and she needed fresh air. It had been a while since she had ambled through Cape Town’s city streets during normal working hours. Walking slowly, she stared at the multitude of faces passing her. Everyone seemed to be in an intense race to get somewhere, and she reflected on how hectic her life had been over the last couple of years. She stared at Table Mountain in the distance and at the few sparse clouds overhead. She whispered to herself, “Am I on solid ground or am I lost in the clouds?” She slowly looked around at the strangers close to her, almost expecting one of them to respond and explain it all. Staring again at the mountain, she said a silent prayer of protection; she needed solid ground. As she headed back to her office, it dawned on her, that with her breaking up the smuggling ring, she must have directly impacted Daniella. Jackie had been an accomplice, and she was being used to inflict some revenge on herself. Breathing deeply, she whispered confidently, “I guess evil never wins in the long run. I just have to be one step ahead all the time.”

  On her return, she headed to the project office, where the rhino project team was deeply engaged in a loud debate, led by Slade who was taking them through a solution framework, which had been drawn on the glass wall. She saw Jackie, sitting in the far corner, texting on her phone. She felt a boldness intensifying from within, and slowly walked across to Jackie, trying her best not to draw any attention to herself. She sat in the empty chair next to Jackie, and without looking at her, whispered, “Next time you pull a little stunt like you did last night, I will fire you on the spot. Be warned, if you try anything with Slade, I’m coming after you.” She heard the breathing rise rapidly, and then looked her in the eyes, “I mean it.” Jackie stared back, her face reflecting a mix of fear and defiance. Stacey got up and walked out.

  Gloating internally, she headed back to her office. Emily gave a disapproving look, “You are thirty minutes late for your meeting.”

  She went in and started her meeting, but she was not focused. Several meetings followed, and each seemed to drag longer than the previous one. It was late afternoon when the procession of client and internal meetings wrapped up. As she was preparing to wind up for the day, her mobile phone rang. Glancing at the screen, she cheerily answered, “Hi Kate. So good to hear from you. I hope you have fully recovered after the shooting incident. How are you feeling?”

  Kate was crying, “Terrible Stacey, I’m terrible.”

  Anticipating the worst, she braced herself, “What happened?”

  Kate sniffled and blew her nose, before replying, “I received a death threat phone call today. They said that unless you don’t stop interfering, I will die.”

  Stacey felt her legs give way, and she sunk back into her chair. Unconvincingly she stammered, “Kate, that makes no sense. Who was it?”

  “I don’t know, the sound was muffled, but it sounded like a woman. I’m scared Stacey.”

  Stacey fumbled for a response, then said, “It must just be a mistake. I will contact Gerald Visser and have him look into it. If he finds anything out, I will let you know.”

  Timidly she replied, OK, thanks.”

  Stacey replied, “Let’s get together this weekend. I will call you; we can go have a meal.”

  Before leaving the office she called Gerald and briefed him on the death threat that had followed only hours after she had challenged Jackie. After listening intently, he stated, “Based on what you have told me, it seems evident that Daniella is up to something, and she is using Jackie to do her dirty work. I guess that Daniella is losing a lot of money as a consequence of the smuggling activities having been curtailed. She has plenty of motive to want to hurt you. What I can’t understand is, why bring Kate into this?”

  She replied, “I don’t know Gerald, but please let me know how we can protect Kate. She is innocent, and I don’t want any harm to come to her.”

  “Sure” he replied, “I’ll have some of my undercover guys keep a look out for her.”

  Arriving home, a strong pleasing aroma floated to her nose. Slade waved her in and pointed to the dining room table, “Dinner for two. Some good Shiraz and my special lamb shanks.” He poured them each a glass of red wine, and they silently toasted. The great food and glass of red wine soon allowed her to mellow and enjoy Slade’s company.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The following few days were jam packed as the team working on the rhino project was planning for the upcoming trip to the Kruger National Park. The team had done extensive analysis and research and had developed two hypotheses of how they could assist with rhino poaching. The upcoming trip included Slade, Gavin, three of the project team and Cheung, despite Stacey’s reluctance to have him on the trip.

  They set off on an early-morning flight to Mpumalanga and arrived on a stiflingly warm day just outside of the Kruger National Park, often just referred to as ‘Kruger’. They had hired two off-road vehicles, and everyone hastily packed their luggage into the trunk, the excitement building in anticipation of their trip. Other than Stacey, none of them had ever been to the Kruger Park.

  Once inside Kruger, Stacey wound her window down, allowing herself to be mesmerised by the bushveld sights, sounds and smells, reflecting how the Kruger somehow gets into your veins, becoming a part of your soul. It had been several years since her last visit to the great wildlife sanctuary, and she immediately heard familiar bird calls, the buzzing sound of the cicada beetle and the distant call of an elephant trumpeting. She took a deep breath, wanting to inhale as much of the smells as possible, from fresh dung on the road to the pleasant smell of the trees. Each sighting was special, whether a small lizard tearing across the hot tar to the peaceful sight of the tall giraffe.

  She felt at peace and turned to Slade, who was staring intently at her, and smiled broadly, “I hope your love for this place rubs off. I can see that you are in near heaven here.” She smiled, and simply nodded, her gaze soon drawn back to the bush.

  It was a long drive to Satara, which would be there base camp for a few days. The drive delivered several good sightings of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, black-backed jackal and several antelope species. Stacey found herself giving running commentary on the animals, birds and habitat. Cheung was genuinely intrigued and took literally hundreds of photos on the drive. It was late afternoon by the time they arrived at camp. They checked in and enquired after Jambret Ndlovu, the ranger who was to be their host for the next few days. Jambret soon appeared, and Stacey was surprised by his appearance, having expected someone younger. The ranger was probably in his late sixties, grey headed, wiry in frame, but he carried a smile as broad as the African skies. His voice was strong and his handshake firm. He quickly moved around and greeted the whole project team. When he
met Cheung, he paused to hold his gaze momentarily longer than for the rest, and Stacey saw a flicker of intensity in the old man’s eyes.

  Jambret beckoned a junior ranger, “Please help our guests across to their bungalows and make sure they are comfortable. He turned to Stacey, “I look forward to us engaging over the next few days, but tonight, I have arranged a small bush braai, so that we can get to know each other.

  She smiled, “Sounds perfect.”

  After a refreshing shower, they were escorted to a remote corner of the camp, where they found Jambret smiling broadly. He ushered them into an open-air boma, which was located right next to the game fence. Stacey took in the boma setting, allowing a flood of images and happy memories of her childhood in Kruger to fill her mind and warm her soul. Her father loved the bushveld, and they spent many a weekend camping in the Kruger Park, sitting around log fires, and listening to the sounds of the bush. She took a seat in a large camp chair near the fire staring into the glowing embers and then gazed upwards at the star-filled sky above them. She felt like she was in heaven.

  Slade walked over and offered her a gin and tonic, “I am told the quinine in the tonic keeps the mosquitos away.” Stacey accepted the drink and smiled at him. He continued, “I have certainly seen a different side to you today. You clearly have a deep love for the bushveld. It is passionately written over all your face and sings in your voice when you talk about it.”

  She smiled and blew him a kiss, “I can’t argue with that.”

  Jambret had moved up and respectfully stood a few metres away, “Listen. The sound of a lion roaring, probably about one kilometre away. They kept quiet and moments later the unmistakable sound of the king of the bush boomed into the night skies. They all sat in silence, listening to the roaring, sipping their drinks and staring intently at the captivating sight of flames leaping out of the slow-burning lead wood.