A Road Through Mali-Kuli
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
CHAPTER 29
1
Finding herself reading the same paragraph of her novel for the fifth time, Carol snapped it shut with a sigh. The night seemed eerily quiet. Even the chorus of crickets and frogs seemed to be taking an intermission. She glanced at her watch again. Almost ten o'clock. Ten minutes since she had last checked, and almost three hours since darkness had fallen and Maleke was supposed to return.
She had packed quickly as soon as he'd left, meanwhile rehearsing her speech to Thor about not feeling up to dinner and wanting to turn in early. As it turned out, she didn't get a chance to use it. Thor had stopped by at about seven thirty and immediately launched into the same speech himself, almost word for word, smiling ruefully as he complained of a griping stomach. She had pretended to be sympathetic, hiding the hurt and anger of knowing that he was really on his way to meet Singh.
Carol slouched down in the armchair, propped her feet up on the bed and stared restlessly at the flaking paint on the wall across the room. She had never noticed how many cracks there were, and how much they looked like rivers on a map. As she traced them upward, her eye caught on a small, shiny spot about a foot below the ceiling.
She was standing up to take a closer look, when the silence was suddenly shattered by a sharp, staccato rapping on the patio door behind the closed curtains.
"It's about time," she exclaimed, as she hastily unbolted the door and swung it open. "Where have you been?"
Instead of Maleke, she found herself looking into the protruding eyes of the small, dark man from the garden of the Intercontinental, the one she now knew was called Juma. He was holding one side of a large, battered cardboard box. On the other side was a tall, thin young African, who seemed vaguely familiar. Before she could react and slam the door shut they had carried the reeking box inside.
"What do you think you're doing?" demanded Carol. "Get out of my room."
"You told them both to go away, yes," Juma observed with satisfaction, glancing around the room.
"What are you talking about? Told who to go away? No, don't bother, I don't want to hear it. Just get out, right now."
"We have your merchandise here, Mrs. Simon. You only pay us and we go. Five thousand U.S. dollars."
A sense of unreality swept over Carol, as if she were in a dream, or watching a scene unfolding on a movie screen. Her voice sounded strange and detached. "I don't believe this," she shouted. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm not--"
"It's all right, Carol, I will take over now." Jasper walked briskly in from the adjoining room, shutting the connecting door firmly behind him. He was cool and self-assured, completely in command. Carol sat slowly down on the bed, her initial astonishment turning to cold anger as she began to understand what Jasper had done.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The Mali-Kuli Forest Reserve in central Africa is home to an ancient volcano, rare Pygmy Chimpanzees, and a tangle of plots and intrigues as impenetrable as the jungle itself. On a business trip to Africa, Carol Simmons finds she is
Hoping to shake off her pursuers, Carol travels to the Mali-Kuli forest, where researchers are fighting to protect the endangered Chimpanzees from poachers and corrupt officials. But who are the protectors and who are the poachers?
Carol cuts off her budding romance with Thor, a Norwegian journalist, when she discovers that he lied about his past and why he came to Africa. Meanwhile Jasper, a disagreeable young Dutch sociologist, keeps turning up wherever she goes. The pieces start to fall in place when Jasper finally reveals his true identity and what happened to the real "Mrs. Simon" . . .
About the Author
Agi Kiss was born in Budapest in 1956, and has degrees in Biology and Ecology from Cornell University and the University of Michigan. Since joining the World Bank in 1985, she has worked on projects to protect the environment and preserve wildlife, mainly in Africa. She lived in Kenya for five years, much of which she spent visiting national parks across East Africa. Some of these became models for the fictional Mali-Kuli Forest Reserve. She has published and contributed to several technical books on wildlife conservation and other environmental topics, and an environmental children’s book. A Road Through Mali-Kuli is her first novel.