Prey

branch of the federal government.

The entity would be called the International Commission for Environmental Restoration. The suitably vague name, strung of popular D.C. buzz words, had been concocted by Lisa Abercombie herself, who particularly liked the resulting acronym.

ICER.

Suddenly aware that she could lose it all, right now, here on this platform, Lisa Abercombie's eyes flashed with rage as she swung her head around and glared at Wolfe.

'Reston, this is insane!' she hissed. 'I want you to stop this before someone gets killed.'

Her words were insistent, but Wolfe could sense the underlying excitement that had already drawn her attention back to the distant mango tree and the Bengal.

This is what you asked for, boss lady, he told himself, forgetting his own fear for a moment. You wanted to see what it means to be a real, honest-to-God risk-taker, someone who really puts it all on the line. And now you know.

He wanted to tell her that, but he didn't dare, because Lisa Abercombie might fire him on the spot. He wasn't willing to risk that much. Not when all the power and influence he had ever dreamed of were within reach.

'There's nothing we can do,' he said instead.

'You can go down and kill that damn thing before it finds Maas,' she retorted, her hands trembling as she stared through her binoculars at the huge feline head. 'We can't afford to lose him. Not now. Take Tom's rifle and-'

'No dice. The rifle stays up here with me,' Tom Frank interrupted. 'That was the agreement. As long as that cat's on the ground, this rifle stays where it is.'

'I know what we agreed to, but the circumstances have changed,' Abercombie tried to argue, unable to turn her eyes away from the huge cat. 'That creature is going to come up here after us. Look at him. You can see it in his eyes.'

'They tell me he can't climb very well,' Frank argued in a voice that lacked conviction.

'Who told you they can't climb very well?' Lisa Abercombie demanded. 'You bought this thing from a traveling circus one week ago. What the hell do you know about Bengal tigers?'

'If he tries to get up in this tree, I'll drop him,' Tom Frank said in what he hoped was a calm and reassuring voice. He was thinking about the fifteen thousand dollars he had been guaranteed to set up this bizarre confrontation. Fifteen thousand would get him out of trouble with the IRS this year. But he knew he'd never see a cent of it if he failed to live up to his end of the contract.

Tom Frank had been running his Texas hunting ranch for almost eleven years now, and he figured that at one time or another, he had faced down just about every kind of dangerous animal there was. Or at least that was what he told anyone willing to listen to one of his whiskey-enhanced stories.

But Tom Frank had to silently admit that he had never before released a creature like this on his ranch. And despite his genuine expertise with the high-powered. 416 Weatherby Magnum, he wasn't at all sure that he'd be able to stop the huge male Bengal with the one shot he'd be lucky to get off. Part of the deal that he and Gerd Maas had agreed to was that he would keep his bolt-action rifle unloaded during the entire event. The only rounds he would be allowed for the Weatherby would be three copper-tipped cartridges in elastic loops over the right breast pocket of his shirt.

Before they had climbed the ladder, Maas had actually checked the magazine of the rifle to make sure it was empty, and had patted him down for extra rounds, 'just to be sure that all is clearly understood,' the tall, white- bearded Maas had whispered in his guttural German accent, winking cheerfully as he did so.

Three goddamned rounds, Frank swore silently. As if the amount of ammunition he carried really mattered. He knew full well that if the Bengal decided to charge the platform, it wouldn't matter whether he had three rounds or a hundred and three.

There wouldn't be any chance for a brain shot. He'd have to go for the neck to paralyze, or for the shoulder for a breakdown shot. And in either case, the cat would be climbing fast, so the best he'd be able to do would be to point-shoot and pray.

One shot to put it down. And if he missed, the cat would be on them. Unless he broke his contract and fed all three of the Magnum rounds into the Weatherby's magazine and chamber right now.

The trouble was, Tom Frank was far more afraid of Gerd Maas than he was of the Bengal.

'Doctor Asai,' Lisa Abercombie pleaded, but Dr. Morito Asai just grunted, focusing his binoculars on the Bengal's fearsome eyes.

Asai was the only one on the platform who would willingly allow himself to be drawn into the depths of the Bengal's scornful hatred. He was the product of sixteen generations of Japanese samurai. He alone truly understood the forces that drove Gerd Maas to seek out and confront death in such a terrifying manner.

Then the cat began to move. It was crouched down and approaching them slowly. Tom Frank was already reaching up toward his shirt pocket when the yellow eyes suddenly turned away.

'Oh, my God!' Lisa Abercombie breathed, feeling the icy chill travel up her spine as she watched Gerd Maas step out of the woods less than fifty yards from the Bengal.

Tom Frank blinked in disbelief.

'Where the hell's his rifle?' Frank whispered as Maas took two more steps to clear the last of the overhanging branches.

'No gun,' Dr. Morito Asai said softly, smiling in anticipation as he held his binoculars tight against his high cheekbones. 'His reputation is well earned. He has just bow, knife, one arrow.'

'One arrow?' Frank sputtered in disbelief as he, Wolfe, and Lisa Abercombie fumbled for their binoculars. 'Christ Almighty, that bastard's trying to commit suicide!' He started to reach for the Weatherby, but found Dr. Asai standing in his way.

'No gun.' Asai shook his head firmly. 'No gun, or we no pay. Very important.'

'Screw your money and screw your suicidal contract,' Frank snarled. He began to go around the slender Oriental but staggered backward as Dr. Asai stopped him with a casual wrist block. Then, in a motion too quick to follow, Asai quick-handed the Weatherby up and over the platform's wooden ledge, letting it drop twenty-two feet to the ground.

The Bengal reacted instantly to the sound, shifting to face the platform, tense and alert. Its yellow eyes took in the swirl of dust surrounding the fallen weapon, then shifted upward to the four pale faces high in the tree. Growling low in its throat, the huge cat took three smooth, gliding steps toward the tree, then blinked and snarled as though it suddenly understood that there was no immediate threat from that direction. The threat was on the ground.

The Bengal slowly swung its massive head to face the single creature standing alone and upright in the clearing. It opened its fearsomely toothed jaws in a loud, menacing roar that promised a quick and horrible death as soon as the upright creature turned to run.

Instead, Gerd Maas simply smiled.

Enraged by the fearlessness that the cat's primitive brain correctly interpreted as threatening, the Bengal launched itself into a full, snarling charge, teeth bared and claws fully extended.

Gerd Maas stepped forward into the charge, extending his bow and drawing back against its eighty-pound pull with his right hand to bring the shaft of the arrow tight against his cheek. He was still smiling. He waited with inhuman control until the charging cat was less than twenty feet away and coming down on its front paws to prepare for the last fully extended leap that would put it onto its prey.

Then, as the Bengal brought its rear legs under its body and lunged upward, its snarling jaws open in a feral rage, Gerd Maas let out a pent-up scream and released the broadhead arrow, sending the blurry shaft right into the huge cat's open mouth. The tiger's momentum was not broken. Maas used the bow in his left hand to deflect the Bengal's slashing right forepaw. He clenched his sheath knife in his right hand, and with its sharp, scalloped edge, cut across the tendons of the cat's extended paw.

Then, still reacting to his carefully honed survival instincts, Gerd Maas completed his roll to his left and crouched down, the bloodied knife extended and ready.

The Bengal lay sprawled chest-down, its massive head turned to the side, its eyes still glaring their hatred. Its fearsome paws were thrust forward, twitching in the blood-splattered dirt.

The razor-sharp edges of the wide broadhead had severed the cat's spine just below the base of the skull.