Ivory Nation by Andy Maslen (free children's ebooks online txt) 📕

He smacked it down on the table with a sharp rap. Eli was pleased to see that Stella didn’t even blink. Rejecting the proffered chair, she took up a position with her back to the wall where she could keep all four guards in view.

‘Right,’ Stella said. ‘We waited for a convenient time. We came to this shithole of a bar for the second time. And we submitted to a strip-search. Let’s talk ivory, shall we, or were you planning on jerking my chain a second time?’

If her bolshie speech upset the spiffily dressed Botswana, he didn’t show it. He just grinned again.

‘Brave words for a woman who just gave up her gun and is sitting in my boardroom. With my board of directors watching,’ he said. ‘What do you think, Edward?’ he called out over Stella’s right shoulder. ‘Has this nice white lady got bigger balls than you?’

The man he’d addressed got up from the sofa, grabbed his AK and sauntered over to the table. He stopped just inches from Stella, so his groin was at the level of her face.

‘She just pussy like they all, boss,’ he said. ‘She give you disrespect,’ – dizrispec – ‘I teach her some manners.’ He grabbed his crotch for good measure and grinned at the other three men.

His friends cackled with laughter. Eli reckoned the dope had more to do with it than the witticism. She scowled at him, counting the many ways she knew to relieve a man of his genitals.

Without turning her head by a fraction, Stella jabbed her right elbow out hard and fast, straight into the place Eli had been mentally attacking. Eli smirked as the man, so cocksure just a few seconds earlier, doubled over, both hands cupping his insulted scrotum. She shot a warning look at the second sofa-dweller, whose hand was straying towards his AK.

‘Don’t!’ she barked.

His hand stopped in mid-air, but his eyes stayed focused on Joshua. The question was clear to all who could see him. Do I kill them, boss?

Stella was still on the offensive. She leaned across the table and pointed a red fingernail at Joshua’s face.

‘Tell your man to get the fuck out of my face. If he tries anything like that again he’ll be singing soprano in the church choir.’

Joshua raised his eyebrows. He leaned over the side of the table.

‘Edward. Go and sit down. I’ll speak to you later.’ He straightened. ‘My apologies, Joyce. I was only joking with what I said earlier.’

‘Yeah? I’d buy a new joke book, if I were you. Now, for the last time. What can you tell me about ivory?’

‘Well, now. I can tell you a lot of things. I can tell you I have a stockpile worth ten million dollars. I can tell you I am connected to some very rich Chinese gentlemen who love ivory more than gold. I can tell you that I have thirty-seven men under my command who are completely and utterly ruthless. When your resume has “child soldier” on it, you are not scared of a few poorly paid government troops.’

‘Ten million, eh? So you can cut me in on the action, can’t you? For a suitable level of investment.’

He spread his hands.

‘Ah, Joyce. If only it was that simple.’

‘What’s making it complicated? You’re a businessman, aren’t you? I’m a businesswoman. I’ve got cash, you’ve got ivory. What’s the problem?’

‘The problem is my business partners. You think this is like the Wild West out here in deepest, darkest Africa? No law, no honour, just winner takes all and the Devil take the hindmost?’ He shook his head. ‘No. It’s not like that at all. I have contracts. Supply. Wholesaling. Processing. Distribution. Security. Sales and marketing. Exclusive deals.’

‘So you’re running a proper little company. Good for you. I can take two million dollars’ worth right now. I’ve got cash at my hotel or I can even wire it to you.’

‘Do you know what my partners would do to me if I went outside our exclusive agreement, Joyce?’

‘Would they sue you for breach of contract?’

‘Very funny.’ He called out once more. ‘Joyce thinks my partners would take me to court if I double-crossed them, boys.’

The men laughed. A nasty sound. While she’d been watching Stella, the standing pair had picked up their rifles. The men on the sofa, Edward still clutching his balls with one hand, held machetes. Both were glaring at Eli. She mentally named them First and Second Machete.

They’d all stubbed out their joints. And though their eyes were still pink from the effects of the drug, she detected a fixity of purpose in their gaze.

Her pulse sped up. She calculated distances, angles. Lines of fire. In a small room like this, opening up with automatic weapons would be suicidal. The machetes, though. Those could be wielded to devastating effect without risking wounding or killing their own side.

She pushed off from the wall, balancing her weight equally on the balls of her feet. Getting ready to move.

Joshua was speaking again.

‘No. No courtroom. No lawyers. No judge. They would take me out into the bush, far from G-City. They would use knives on me. Like the ones my boys here have. Not kill me. Just cut my hamstrings, my Achilles tendons. Remove my hands. Then they would sit in their Hiluxes and wait. You know what for?’

‘An ambulance?’

Eli mentally applauded Stella’s bored response. It was worth a Best Actress Oscar.

‘Jackals. Hyenas. Lions. Vultures. They’d watch them tear me to pieces and film it on their phones. Then they put it on YouTube. A warning, you know? I have one I downloaded last year.’ He pulled his phone out of an inside pocket. ‘You want to see it? The screaming is very loud when a hyena cracks his skull open.’

‘I’m good. So tell me, Joshua. If you’re not going to deal, why are we here?’

‘To give you some advice and to suggest a different kind of partnership.’

A machete blade clanked hollowly against the wooden