induced by promises of payment, liquor and food to help in the white men’s war. They had gone to track and help kill an enemy the Bushmen did not know. They would have understood the story of the map, but they had long since died.
The hunter shook his head. He cut the air with the edge of his hand, showing direction. “Four days from this place. The earth bleeds.”
Max did not understand.
“It is a place where there is water if you dig,”!Koga explained. And he confirmed what he said to his father and the others. So, it was a kind of watering hole or underground water supply, Max reasoned.
“Your father, a good man. He was afraid.”
“Afraid? My dad? I don’t think so.”
“He was a brave man, but he was afraid. When he saw our people.”
So Dad was tracking down men who had killed Bushmen. Was that it? Max asked himself. What had he seen that scared him?
“Was my father on foot? Did he walk?”
“No. A truck, with the other white man.”
“There was someone else with my father?”
“Yes. I do not know him.”
Max knew that whenever his father had worked in southern Africa previously, he had engaged the services of Anton Leopold. That must have been the man with Dad, he realized.
The old man had barely stopped talking and!Koga listened for a long time before translating, speaking as if he were the voice of his father. “Your father had an injured leg. But he was strong. He and the other man, they went away together after he gave me the papers which I brought to my son, who is young and who could make the journey, and who could speak to the whites. He took them to van Reenen. That is all I know. But we were told you would come.”
Max gazed down at the map. The best he could hope for was to determine just where he was and the direction traveled that brought him there. North from Kallie’s place, then pushed eastwards by the gunmen. After that they had moved north-northeast to the cave, and then east again from his dad’s drawings. Given that he and! Koga had not gone in a straight line, the direction seemed clear on the map. Another four days’ walking would take them to where the Bushmen died. There was nothing on the map to indicate where that might be. The Bushmen had their own names for places. So if he continued on this heading, it might eventually lead to his father. Or to further clues.
!Koga’s father reached his hand out to touch Max’s face. Max didn’t flinch. The hunter’s hand caressed his cheek for a moment, and he gazed at him. He whispered something barely audible, but everyone heard and muttered some kind of agreement.
“Is this about the cave?” he asked!Koga, who nodded.
“Look … maybe it’s not as it seems,” Max said tentatively.!Koga did not understand. “I mean,” said Max, “perhaps those drawings were done by someone else. Like … my dad, maybe.”
“Your father?”
“Yeah, like a message.”
“Your father could not have done those things.”
Max looked at the hunter. “I think this has gone far enough,” he said. “My dad did those pictures to try and show me where to go.” His voice was edgy.
None of the Bushmen showed any reaction. Then the hunter took Max’s hand and held it between both of his. He seemed very sad, as if he was saying goodbye. The group turned away, but!Koga had reacted to the gesture from his father and said something that sounded angry. Throughout their whole ordeal so far, Max had never heard!Koga sound so upset. The men stopped, spoke to!Koga, soothing him with their words.
What the hell was going on? Max could only stand and watch their body language and listen to the tone of their voices. Once again!Koga raised his voice, but the old men just shook their heads and, with a final, almost pitying glance towards Max, went back to the others.!Koga stayed, kicking the dust, venting his own frustration. Then he too turned away.
“Hey. Hang on a minute,” Max said.
!Koga turned to face him, and Max saw there were tears in the boy’s eyes. Max went to him.
“!Koga, what’s up? Did I say something to upset everyone? If I did, I’m sorry.”
The boy shook his head.
“What then?”
“It is not for the telling,”!Koga whispered.
Now Max knew he must have made an almighty blunder. “!Koga, you’d better tell me ‘cause I’m going to need help here. I’m going to need your father to take me to this … this ‘place where the earth bleeds.’ ”
!Koga shook his head and turned away.
Max grabbed his arm. “Tell me!” He loosened his grip. The two boys stared at each other for a moment.
“They say it was known you would come,”!Koga said, and then he paused before averting his eyes. “And they said it was known that, when you came to us, then that was the time you would die.”
Max couldn’t quite take that in for a moment.
“I’m going to die? Well … we all have to die. And we’ve been close a few times these last few days…. Oh, come on,!Koga. You can’t always believe in that stuff.”
!Koga interrupted him, touching his arm, gesturing to the encampment. “Here. You will die here.”
Max took in the scene. It was probably the safest place he could be. A domestic gathering of huts, food being cooked, children playing, the sound of laughter. He was amid the gentlest and happiest people he had ever experienced. He was safe here.
“They’re wrong,” Max assured him.
“No. They said you would die here.” There was a different look in!Koga’s eyes. “And that I would kill you.”
11
Kallie van Reenen left the house while everyone else was still sleeping. She felt wretched. The photos of the dead Anton Leopold and the note to Peterson confirmed that Chief Inspector Mike Kapuo, the man she and her father trusted, was connected to those hunting down Max. Not wanting her absence to initiate a search, she left a scribbled message telling Kapuo that she had gone into the city for a few hours and that she would return to his office later that morning. She knew she could not simply disappear, she had to see this through, so she mustn’t arouse his suspicions.
Only Thandi Kapuo was awake when she left, and Kallie convinced her quite easily to let her use the girl’s cell phone to send an urgent text message to Sayid. Fourteen-year-old Thandi was currently grounded by her parents and no one was speaking to anyone, so helping Kallie was one way of getting back at her parents. Kallie felt some sense of relief that she had at least managed to warn Sayid about Peterson and his connections.
By the time she reached the docks, the port was busy. Shipping containers were stacked high, and cranes plucked them one by one and dropped them onto the backs of waiting trucks. Released air brakes hissed like steam engines urgently wanting their power set free. With a shift into gear, the long-haul trucks eased away to take their cargo to its final destination.
Kallie unfolded the photograph she had taken from Kapuo’s file. It was a picture showing the location where Anton Leopold’s body had been found. It took her a couple of hours, but she finally orientated herself and found the place. She looked at the photo again and saw that his body had been moved gently by the tide so that it was caught against a ship. She knew about prevailing winds which could push a plane off-course, and tides did the same thing to anything afloat. The photograph was date- and time-coded. She checked her watch-about an hour and a half
