Elephant Song - Smith Wilbur - Страница 62

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There were very seldom news reports or photographs of Harrison's visits to the African continent, but his Gulfstream executive jet was often parked discreetly at the furthest end of the airport tarmac in Lusaka or Kinshasa or Nairobi.

Rumour placed him as an honoured guest and confidant in Mobutu's marble palaces or at Kenneth Kaunda's presidential residence in Lusaka.

They said that he was one of the very few who had access to the shadowy Renamo guerrillas in Mozambique as well as to the guerrilla bush camps of Savimbi in Angola.  He was also welcomed by the legitimate regimes that they opposed.  They said that he could pick up the telephone at any hour of the day or night and within minutes be speaking to de Klerk or Mugabe or Daniel Arap Moi.

He was the broker, the courier, the adviser, the banker, the go-between, and the negotiator for the continent.

Daniel was looking forward to meeting him.  He had tried many times before, without success.  Now as an invited guest he stood outside the imposing front door and felt a little tickle of nerves.  That premonition had served him well in the African bush; it had warned him so often of dangerous beasts and even more dangerous men.

A black servant in flowing white kanza and red fez opened the front door.

When Daniel spoke to him in fluent Swahili, the wooden mask of his face cracked into a huge white smile.

He led Daniel up the wide marble staircase.  There were fresh flowers in the niches of the landings, and Daniel recognised some of the paintings from Harrison's fabled art collection gracing the walls, Sisley, Duly and Matisse.

Before the tall double doors of red Rhodesian teak, the servant stood aside and bowed.  Daniel strode into the room and paused in the centre of the silk Quin carpet.

Tug Harrison rose from behind his desk.  It was at once obvious how he had earned his nickname.  He was big-boned but compact, although the exquisitely tailored pin-stripe suit smoothed the raw powerful angles of his frame and the heavy jut of his belly.

He was bald, except for a fringe of silver hair like that of a tonsured monk.  His pate was pale and smooth while the skin of his face was thickened and creased and tanned where it had been unprotected by a hat from the tropical sun.  His jaw was determined and his eyes were sharp and piercing, giving warning of the ruthless intelligence behind them.

Armstrong, he said.  Good of you to come.  His voice was warm as molasses, too soft for the rest of him.  He held out his hand across the desk, forcing Daniel to come to him, a subtle little dominance ploy. Good of you to ask me, Harrison.  Daniel took his cue and eschewed the use of his title, setting equal terms.  The older man's eyes crinkled in acknowledgement.

They shook hands, examining each other, feeling the physical power of each other's grip without letting it develop into a boyish contest of strength.  Harrison waved him to the buttoned leather chair beneath the Gauguin and spoke to the servant.  Letta chai, Selibi.  You will take tea, won't you, Armstrong?  While the servant poured the tea, Daniel glanced at the rhino horns on the entrance wall.  You don't see trophies like that often, he said, and Harrison left his desk and crossed to the doorway.

He stroked one of the horns, caressing it as though it were the limb of a beautiful and beloved woman.  No, you don't, he agreed.  I was a boy when I shot them.  Followed the old bull for fifteen days.  It was November and the temperature at midday was 120 degrees in the shade.

Fifteen days, two hundred miles through the desert.  He shook his head.

The crazy things we do when we are young.  The crazy things we do when we are older, Daniel said, and Harrison chuckled.  You are right. Life is no fun unless you are at least a touch crazy.  He took the cup that the servant offered him.  Thank you, Selibi.  Close the doors when you leave.

The servant drew the double doors closed and Harrison went back to his desk.  I watched your production on Channel 4 the other night, he said, and Daniel inclined his head and waited.

Harrison sipped his tea.  The delicate porcelain cup looked fragile in his hands.  They were battler's hands, scarred and ravaged by tropical sun and hard physical labour and ancient conflicts.  The knuckles were enlarged but the nails were carefully manicured.

Harrison put the cup and saucer down on the desk in front of him and looked up at Daniel again.  You got it right, he said.  You got it exactly right.  Daniel made no comment.  He sensed that any modest or deprecating comment would only irritate this man.  You got your facts straight, and you drew the right conclusions.  It was a refreshing change after all the sentimental and ill-informed crap that we hear every day.

You put your finger on the roots of Africa's problems, tribalism and overpopulation and ignorance and corruption.  The solutions you suggested made sense.  Harrison nodded.  Yes, you got it right.  He stared at Daniel thoughtfully.  Harrison's faded blue eyes gave him a strangely enigmatic expression, like a blind man.

Don't relax, Daniel warned himself.  Not for a moment.

Don't let the flattery soften you up.  This is what it's all about.

He's stalking you like an old lion.  Someone in your position is able to influence public opinion as others are never able to do, Harrison murmured.  You have a reputation, an international audience.  People trust your vision.

They base their view on what you tell them.  That's good.  He nodded even more emphatically.  That's very good.  I would like to help and encourage you.  Thank you.  Daniel let a small ironical smile lift one side of his mouth.  One thing he was certain of: Tug Harrison did nothing without good reason.  He made no free gifts of his help and encouragement.  What do they call you, your friends?  Daniel, Dan, Danny?

Danny.  My friends call me Tug.  now, Daniel said.  Our thinking is so much in accord.  We share the same commitment to Africa.  I think we should be friends, Danny.  All right, Tug.  Harrison smiled.  You have every reason to be suspicious I understand.  I have a certain reputation.

One should not always judge a man on his reputation, however.  That is true.  Daniel smiled back at him.  Now tell me what you want from me. Damn it!  Harrison chuckled.  I like you.  I think we understand each other.  We both believe that man has a right to exist upon this planet, and that, as the dominant animal species, he has the right to exploit the earth for his own benefit, just as long as he does so on a basis of sustained and renewable yield.  Yes, Daniel agreed.  I believe that.  It is the balanced, pragmatic view.  I would expect no less of a man of your intelligence.  In Europe man has been farming the earth, felling the forests and killing the animals for centuries, and yet the earth is more fertile, the forests denser, the animals more numerous than they were a thousand years ago.  Except downwind of Chernobyl, or where the acid rain falls, Daniel pointed out.  But Yes, I agree; Europe isn't in bad shape.  Africa is another story.  Harrison cut in, You and I love Africa.  I feel that it is our duty to combat its evils.

I can do something to alleviate the grinding poverty in some parts of the continent, and by investment and guidance offer some of the African people a better way of life.  You, with your special gifts, are in a position to counter much of the ignorance that exists about Africa.

You can clear the woolly-headed confusion of the armchair-conservationists and urban animal rights fanatics, those who are so cut off from the earth and the forests and the animals that they are actually menacing the elements of nature which they believe they are protecting.  Daniel nodded thoughtfully and noncommittally.

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