Burning Angels

The lead bull veered off course, bringing two others with him. As the main body of the herd surged onwards through the lake, the three bulls tore through the water towards the rock shelf — the source of the hyena howls.

Jaeger didn’t underestimate the danger. The elephants were facing down a pack of hyenas, and he and Narov were sandwiched in the middle. Every second was vital. There was no time to search for an alternative route around the hyenas, and no time to waver, much as he might baulk at what they were about to do.

Jaeger reached behind and whipped out his P228, then glanced at Narov. She already had her weapon in hand.

‘Head shots!’ he hissed, as they started to sprint forward. ‘Head shots. A wounded hyena is a killer…’

The light of their head torches bounced and spun as they ran, casting weird, ghostly shadows across the walls. From behind them the bull elephants trumpeted again and surged ever closer.

Jaeger was the first to catch sight of their adversaries. A massive spotted hyena wheeled towards the sound of their footfalls and the glare of the torches, its eyes glowing evilly. It had the typical squat hindquarters, massive shoulders, short neck and bullet-shaped head, plus the distinctive shaggy mane running down its backbone. The beast’s jaws were open in a snarl, showing off short, thick canines and rows of huge, bone-crushing premolars.

It was like a wolf on steroids.

The female of the spotted hyena was larger than the male and she dominated the pack. She swung her head low, and to either side of her Jaeger could see other sets of glowing eyes. He counted seven animals in all, as behind him the enraged bull elephants tore through the last of the lake water.

Jaeger’s pace didn’t falter. Two-handed, and aiming on the run, he pulled the trigger.

Pzzzt! Pzzzt! Pzzzt!

Three 9mm rounds tore into the queen hyena’s skull. She fell hard, her torso slamming into the rock shelf — dead before she even came to rest. Her cohorts snarled and sprang to attack.

Jaeger sensed Narov on his shoulder, firing as she ran.

The distance between them and the rabid pack had closed to a matter of yards.

38

Even as Jaeger vaulted into the air to avoid the bloodied corpses, his P228 spat rounds.

His boots slammed down on the far side and he sprinted onwards, as behind him the bull elephants closed in — the water boiling under their massive feet; their eyes blazing, ears flapping, trunks sensing the threat.

As far as the bulls were concerned, there was blood and death and combat on the path before them, on the very route their little ones needed to take. For elephants, the strongest urge was seemingly to protect their own. The entire one-hundred-strong herd was one big, extended family, and right now the bulls’ offspring were in mortal danger.

Jaeger could understand the animals’ desperation and rage, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be anywhere around when it was unleashed upon the enemy.

As he instinctively checked over his shoulder, searching for Narov, he realised with a shock that she wasn’t there any more. He came to a juddering halt. He spun around, spotting her bent over the form of a hyena, trying to drag it off the path.

‘GET MOVING!’ Jaeger screamed. ‘MOVE IT! NOW!’

Narov’s only response was to redouble her efforts with the dead weight of the corpse. Jaeger hesitated for just an instant, and then he was back beside her, hands gripping the animal’s once-powerful shoulders as together they heaved it into the crevasse at the side of the path.

Barely had they done so when the lead elephant was upon them. Jaeger was hit with a wall of sound that seemed to turn his innards to jelly as the elephant trumpeted its earth-shattering rage. Seconds later, tusks stabbed inwards, trapping the pair of them on the narrowest part of the rock shelf.

Jaeger dragged Narov back into the crook, where the cave roof met the inner edge of the shelf. Jammed against the thick webs and the needle-sharp crystals, they shaded their torches with their hands, lying motionless in the dirt.

Any movement would attract the bull elephant’s wrath. But if they stayed still and silent in the darkness, they might just survive the carnage that was being unleashed.

The massive bull speared the first of the hyenas, lifting it up on its tusks and flinging it bodily into the waters of the lake.

The power of the animal was simply fearsome.

One by one the hyena bodies were picked up and hurled into the lake. When the shelf was clear of corpses, the lead elephant seemed to calm a little. Jaeger watched, both fascinated and fearful, as the massive animal used the soft, flat end of its trunk to check what had happened.

He could see the huge nostrils dilating as they sucked in the scent. Every smell would tell a story. Hyena blood. To the elephant, that was good. But it was also intermingled with a scent that would be alien to the animal: cordite fumes. A smog of smoke from the pistol fire hung thick in the cool air of the cave.