Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

they left, Juma had them dump the two jackals and the black wolf into the pile of elephant carcasses as a warning to any other poachers from that group. Audry had noticed the mixed once-hyena man also in the heap, his face looking unusually-not human. She was not able to think of much else during the rest of the trip—especially the expression of terror on its face. But it was more terrifying to realize that most of these poachers were not human. Did that mean they were heading toward what the SRA called a ‘black hole’? Because she sincerely doubted that poachers as a group were in fact supernatural beings.

At the compound, Dennis ordered the removal of the lion to the care paddocks, greeting his colleagues in the African Wildlife Foundation. Already about six men came out—each looking like they were prepared to go to war if they had to. They spoke a language Audry did not understand, and the commotion around her made her head swim. Or, and this made more sense to her, perhaps she was still in shock. She did recognize some words. Rimu. Amazimu. Jabari.

Several of the crew there gathered up guns and loaded their trucks. Audry noticed they took one of the remaining poachers (the human ones), dragging him into the facility, while the other remained with Hezzy, not allowed to go anywhere. Darth and Mixie stayed near Audry while Brutus followed Hezzy, growling at the man he was interrogating. Audry watched at a distance, sitting on the step to the small bus with a bottled water in her hands. They had given the water to her the moment they arrived and urged her to take small sips. Apparently they also thought she was freaking out.

“What is Hezzy saying?” Audry finally demanded, pulling Winnie aside. The woman had been busy mostly looking busy. She was fetching things for people, clearly knowing where everything was.

Glancing Audry up and down disdainfully, Winnie said, “He is trying to find out the headquarters of the poachers. They need that man to take us to them.”

“And then what?” Audry could feel her hands shaking, going clammy.

Winnie set her hands onto her hips. “What do you think you came here for? A game? To charm our men?”

Shooting her a dirty look, Audry snapped, “I am not here for your men. I am an animal rescue worker. That’s all I am here for.”

“Then why do you always flirt with Juma and Hezzy?” Winnie demanded.

Audry laughed, holding the water bottle to her forehead to cool herself off. “Me? What? Do you think smiling is flirting?”

Winnie nodded sharply.

Rolling her eyes, Audry huffed. “This so stupid! No. I am not flirting. I smile when I’m happy. You are being paranoid.”

“Paranoid?” Winnie huffed, folding her arms. “I heard Juma proposed to you!”

Moaning, Audry said, “He’s always proposing to me! Did I ever say yes?”

Winnie’s eyes went wide, her mouth dropping open. “You scarlet woman! You are leading him on!”

“Nothing like that!” Audry huffed. “He’s just a friend.”

“Mercy needs to know this about you! Scandalous!” Winnie marched off.

It was so ridiculous. Audry watched her go. It was dismaying, too, as this proved her father right. He used to say that people only heard what they wanted to hear. Winnie did not hear her one bit. She was not listening. For that matter, she had already decided against her. It was so utterly stupid.

After a few more minutes watching people rush about in the yard—Luis packing up the jeep with supplies while the others were making sure their guns were loaded—Audry decided to go into the compound to find a bathroom. She also wanted to talk to Juma about Winnie and Mercy. She knew they were going to be trouble, and she wanted to nip it in the bud before they made it into an all-out drama.

When she went in, she stopped by the lion to see if anything had been done for him. She found him sitting up and alert. He gazed at her with soulful eyes, regarding her carefully.

“You’re safe now,” she murmured.

“There you are!” Akachi strode up. “We are going to head out again. Are you feeling fit to come along? Or do you wish to stay here with the lion?”

Something in her wanted to just stay with the lion. She was not sure she wanted to deal with the poachers herself now. However, the other side of her shouted at her that she was there to help as a marksman. If she could take people out with tranquilizers, then fewer people would get hurt. “I’m coming. Just give me a second to get ready.”

He lowered his gaze so they were eye-level. “You don’t have to. You are not a hunter. You are a healer.”

Yet Audry, shook her head, drawing up her resolve. “I promised.”

Shrugging, Akachi headed out, dropping it.

Audry made a quick trip to the facilities then hurried out to join the group. Winnie was elected to stay at headquarters—to make dinner for when they ‘triumphantly’ returned that night. But Mercy was given a gun and came with them. They took several jeeps this time, no busses.

As they rode toward the town where their captive said the headquarters were located, Sefu whispered to Audry that they had called ahead to a friend who was in the police force. He was to get together some back up. Their biggest concern was actually bribery. It was likely a good portion of the town was bought by a powerful foreign entity—assumed to be Chinese, point of fact. There was an import/export company located there which was involved in the smuggling of these illegal items—called Jieyang Shan, which Luis said was suspicious.

“What does Jieyang Shan mean?” Audry asked, realizing that Luis had studied enough to be semi fluent.

“I’ll ask him.” Sefu then leaned over to Luis who was just a seat ahead, talking with a guy known as James.

Luis looked back, his eyes setting on Audry. “Jieyang Shan means Jieyang Mountain. It is named after a place from the legend of the Monkey King from Journey to the West. Have you heard of it?”

Audry shook her head, though she had heard the story name from her nephew, and it reminded her of something someone recently said, though she could not put her finger on it. “What story is it?”

Nodding, Luis explained, “It is one of China’s great novels. Buddhist. They make movies and TV shows about this long journey of a Buddhist monk who travels across China to India. I’ve seen three versions of the movie. Most of the time there are demons who want to eat the monk, and he has to be protected by three supernatural beings on the path to redemption—the main one is the Monkey King. It is supposed to be allegorical.”

“So…” Dennis murmured. “The people who own the company favor this story?”

“Or it is a real place, and that is where the headquarters in China are,” Luis suggested.

So… it was unavoidable. A Chinese company was causing trouble in Africa, one that had been mentioned before though she did not recall the context. She had a feeling Rick or Selena had said something about a Monkey King, but it had made no sense. Yet she was now in the middle of it.

When they arrived at skirts of the town, their vehicles split off from one another, mostly with the intent triangulate on the place to surround it. Juma and Dennis had agreed that there would be no escaping this raid.

“Just don’t kill anybody,” Audry murmured.

Juma looked to her and sighed. “Ife, if there are amazimu among them, we cannot let them live.”

She closed her eyes.

“But we will let all human beings have a chance,” he said. “It would not surprise me that they were deceived with the flash of gold and dollars.”

“Yuan,” Akachi corrected him.

Juma shot him a look, nodding. “Yes. That.”

Their captive’s directions took them to a warehouse that was supposed to be packaging and shipping things like coffee and other locally grown products. There were trucks outside one end, and a clean business front at the other, but there was a fence around the lot.

“Ok, Jabari,” Juma said. “Is your pistol ready but hidden? This time we need your bright smile to keep them off guard.”

“Off guard?” Audry did not like where this was going. She also did not like the dirty looks Mercy was giving her. Mercy had insisted she ride with them. Darth had been in Audry’s lap the entire time.

Juma patted her on the shoulder. “You can do this. We need a distraction.”

“Distraction,” she murmured to herself. Of course. There would be no living animals she could rescue here. And she would be an uncommon sight in Kenya—as she was not with a tour group. Glancing at the clothes she was wearing, she nodded. She did not quite have the tourist look, but she did not look official ‘anything’ either. She was in her plain clothes. Audry decided to dig out her tazer also, tucking it in her other pocket.

 Akachi climbed out with Audry, both of them walking together. The poacher who had ridden with the group had gone with a different jeep to be taken to the police while everyone else raided the warehouse. Audry noticed one jeep park not far around the corner on one road as they went in closer. Her palms were sweating as they got nearer.

Then Akachi opened the door to the business lobby for Audry. She stepped in.

“Can I help you?” a thin dark man said, rising curiously from behind the front desk. The room was neat, but not in the best order. Audry looked around it, wondering how in the world they kept up such a business front to even be seen plausible. Her grandfather would have ordered them to put it quickly into repair, as a good front was the best way to start business—according to him.

In that thought, she said, “Yes. My name is Audry Bruchenhaus. I am here to represent my grandfather, Gregory Bruchenhaus who runs—”

But the man’s eyes grew wide, gasping on the name ‘Bruchenhaus’ as if she had said something like ‘open sesame’. “My apologies! I had no idea he was sending someone so early!”

Audry noted this in the back of her head as suspicious—not so much for them, as for her grandfather. She was never sure exactly what his businesses did. She just knew that he was stinking rich with several global agreements—one which would secure his fortune for millennia to come. It was best to play along.

“Well,” Audry shrugged. “You could say this is a surprise peek.”

His face color seemed to deepen, as clearly they had expected a visit from someone in her grandfather’s company, yet they were off their guard.

“Can I look around?” Audry asked.

The receptionist gestured to Akachi. “Who is he?”

Audry blinked at him as if the question were ridiculous. “He’s my translator and bodyguard. Do you actually think I’d be wandering around Africa by myself?”

Akachi smiled at her, restraining the urged to chuckle. Instead he stood strong and walked with her toward one of the doors while the man at the front desk quickly rushed in to alert someone inside the building that an important visitor had arrived.

They followed after him.

They entered a hallway first. It was clean, decently lit, and led to various rooms. There were calls in going ahead of them. Audry understood very little of it.

Then out of one room stepped a smartly dressed Asian man—presumably Chinese, considering the company name. He lifted his eyes to her with a grin, but then she could see his expression falter as his eyes tracked to Akachi. She could see the gears in his mind work, including questions. Was she really a Bruchenhaus? She had the coloring of one. And if so, why did she come early? For that matter, why her?

He extended his hand and said, “Hello. I am Wang Ruyi, but you can call me Mr. Wang if you like. I must say, this visit is a surprise.”

Smiling, Audry hoped