章 2: Chapter2
#Chapter2
The Congo, a country with a bloody history, a country of magnificent beauty, and a people filled with superstition and a fear of the unknown. It is a fusion of grassland, inland highlands and equatorial rainforest which accounts for its fascinating selection of wild animals and colorful birdlife.
These thoughts fill Piet’s mind as he sits in the co pilot’s seat of the Cessna 172 he had charted at Kisangani Airport, as the light aircraft makes its way over the Congo rainforest on its way to its destination. Kiri Airport which will put him about 43 km away from his ultimate destination, Loango and his quest to help rid the region of the killer leopard.
He looks down below and the enormity of what lies ahead hits home, it’s going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack as the Congo rainforest is the world’s second largest rainforest, behind the Amazon. Covering a vast area across Central Africa and somewhere down there a killer is at work.
The pilot joins the circuit above Kiri Airport and transmits his intention to land. The light aircraft lines up on runway 17 and crosses the threshold. The wheels of the plane meeting the tarmac of the runway, the landing is smooth and the plane taxies towards a row of hangers where Piet can see a police Land Rover waiting to collect him.
The first thing that strikes Piet is that the humidity has not improved since his last visit to the Congo, and he estimates the temperature to be around 27 Degrees, the second is the grim face of Roger McCollins as he strides forward to greet Piet, hand outstretched.
/"Piet, I’m really glad you could make the time to come out here to help out, I tell you it’s great to see you again, just sorry it's under these circumstances. We had another killing last night./"
Piet grips Roger’s hand, the handshake is firm, but he can see the other man is worried and is unable to conceal it.
/"Moenie worrie nie my vriend, let’s get my gear into that Land Rover of yours and hit the road. We have a hunt to organize, I don’t think to catch this bastard is going to be easy, as we have a lot of ground to cover./"
/"I hate to agree with you Piet, this cat has been moving around and there’s no pattern to the kills, other than this is a big animal, judging from the size of the wounds, as well as the spoor found at the killing sites. There are a couple of things that really bother me about this whole story, In some instances it doesn’t appear to be a man eater, as none of the victims have been fed on, but the bodies have been badly mutilated and this is putting the fear of God into the local population, it's as if this bloody thing is killing for pleasure. In other instances, it would appear as if it’s feeding on the bodies. It just doesn’t make any bloody sense./"
The two men, climb into the Land Rover and set off on the 43 km trip on dirt roads to keep their appointment with a killer that hunts in the darkness of the African night.
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