Elephant Song - Smith Wilbur - Страница 72

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On the dais Sir Peter rose unhurriedly to his feet and resumed his place at the microphone.  Ladies and gentlemen, the floor show was unscheduled, I assure you.  On behalf of BOSS and my board, I sincerely apologize for this outburst.  If it served any useful purpose at all, it was as a graphic illustration of the difficulties we face when we try to improvE the lot of our fellow men.  Those who had been distracted gathered themselves and turned to listen to his rich dark seductive tones.  After the shrill denunciations and accusations, it was a soothing balm.

Doctor Kelly Kinnear is notorious for her intemperate views.

She has declared a one-woman war on the government of President Taffari of Ubomo.  She has, in fact, made as much of a nuisance of herself in that country as she did here tonight.

You have seen her in action, ladies and gentlemen, so you will not be particularly surprised to hear that she was deported from Ubomo, and formally declared an undesirable.  The vendetta that she is waging is personal and spiteful.  She sees herself as an injured party, and she is taking her revenge.

He paused again, and shook his head.  However, we must not make the mistake of believing that what we have witnessed tonight was the isolated act of some poor misguided soul.  Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, in this crazy new world of ours we are surrounded by the loonies of the left.  This lady, who has just left us.  They laughed uncertainly, beginning to recover from the effects of Kelly Kinnear's attempt at persuasion, this lady is one of those who prefers that tens of thousands of her fellow human beings suffer starvation and misery, rather than that a single tree be cut down, rather than that a single plough should run a furrow, rather than that a single animal should die. He paused and scowled at them sternly, exerting the full force of his personality, reasserting his control that for a minute had been shaken by the small determined woman with the loud-hailer.  This is nonsense. Man has as much right to life as any other species on this planet. However, BOSS recognizes its responsibility to the environment.  We are a green company committed to the wellbeing of all creatures on this earth, men and animals and plants.  Last year we spent over a hundred thousand pounds on environmental studies prior to proceeding with some of our enterprises.  One hundred thousand pounds, ladies and gentlemen, is a great deal of money.  He paused for the applause from his audience.

Daniel noted that he was careful not to compare this great deal of money to BOSS's taxable profits for the same period, profits of almost one billion pounds.

As the applause died away he continued.  We spent that money, not to impress anybody, not as some grand public relations gesture, but in a genuine and sincere attempt to do the right thing by all the world.  We know in our hearts that what we are doing is right and proper.  So do you, who are the most important members of BOSS, the shareholders.  Our conscience is clear, ladies and gentlemen!  We can go forward with confidence and enthusiasm to keep our company what it has always been, one of the great forces for good in an otherwise sad and naughty world.

The meeting overran its usual duration by almost twenty minutes, a great deal of extra time being devoted to a standing ovation for the chairman's impromptu speech.

For once the traditional vote of thanks was passed not by a show of hands, but by thunderous acclaim.  Tug hammers loony Greens was the headline in the tabloid press the following morning and the general consensus in the media was that it had been not so much a confrontation, as a massacre of the innocents.

There was no direct flight from Heathrow to Kahali in Ubomo.

Although the airport had been renamed the Ephrem Taffari airport, and twenty-five million dollars had been loaned by the World Bank to extend the main runway to accommodate intercontinental jet aircraft and to refurbish the airport buildings, there had been a series of delays in the construction work due to the fact that much of the original loan capital seemed to have evaporated.  Rumour in the streets of Kahali suggested that the missing funds had found a happy home in a numbered Swiss bank account.  Another twenty-five million was needed to complete the project and the World Bank was demanding unreasonable assurances and guarantees before supplying it.  In the meantime travellers were forced to travel to Ubomo via Nairobi.

Daniel and Bonny took the British Airways flight to Nairobi, and Daniel paid almost five hundred pounds in excess baggage charges for Bonny's video equipment.  In Nairobi they were obliged to overnight at the Norfolk Hotel before they could catch the scheduled flight to Kahali on Air Ubomc; which operated between the two capitals.

With a day to spare, Danny asked Bonny to shoot some background and filler footage.  What he really wanted was the opportunity to watch her in action and to get used to working with her in the field.  This was to be a dress rehearsal.  He hired a combi with a cut-out roof and a Kikuyu driver.  They drove out to the Nairobi National Park on the outskirts of the city.

The Park was another of Africa's surprises.  Within a few miles of the Lord Delamere bar in the Norfolk Hotel, it was possible to witness wild lions making their kills.  The boundary of the Park ran hard up against the Jorno Kenyatta Airport an the grazing herds of antelope did not even raise their Heads as the great jet aircraft on final approach howled only a few hundred feet above them.

Daniel had filmed in the Park many times over the past few years.

The Park warden was an old friend.  They greeted each other in Swahili and shook hands with the double grip, palm then thumb, of brothers.

The warden delegated one of his senior rangers to escort and guide them, and gave Daniel carte blanche to go anywhere, even to disregard one of the strictest Park rules and leave the vehicle to film on foot.

The ranger led them to a stand of flat-topped acacia forest beside the river where a huge bull rhino was in ponderous courtship with a female in full oestrus.  So absorbed were these antediluvian monsters with each other that Daniel and Bonny were able to leave the combi and creep up close.

Without making it obvious, Daniel was watching Bonny narrowly.  The Sony video camera was a top-of-the-range model, sleek in design but heavy even for a man to carry.  Daniel wanted to see How she handled it, and he made no offer to assist her.  With a sharp warning in Swahili, he prevented the black ranger when be made an attempt to do so.

He had come to know Bonny's body in the most intimate way over the past weeks.  He knew that there was no fat on her and that her limbs were clad in sleek hard muscle.  She was in the prime physical condition of a trained athlete.  In their playful wrestling contests he had been forced to extend his full strength to subdue her and get her to the bed when she challenged him outrageously to do so.  She enjoyed her lovemaking with plenty of rough and tumble.

Still, he was surprised at the ease with which she lifted the camera and her lightness and agility on her feet even in the heat of the acacia forest and over the broken ground.  The earth was studded with the spoor of rhino and buffalo that had been deeply trodden into the wet clay of the rainy season and was now baked hard as terracotta.  It could turn an unwary ankle and the wait-a-bit thorns were viciously hooked to catch in flesh or cloth.  Bonny avoided these snares with ease.

The bull rhino was displaying aggressively for the benefit of the female who had wandered into his territory and who he was now holding captive to his lust.  Every time she at-tempted to reach the boundary of his territory he headed her off, snorting and blowing-like a steam engine, raising gales of dust from under his high stamping feet.

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