Free Bodyguard: Ambush (Book 3) by Chris Bradford Page B

see a stocky man in a khaki
     shirt and knee-length shorts standing at his open doorway. He wore desert boots and a
     wide-brimmed safari hat. His suntannedface
     was rugged, furnished with a goatee beard, and deeply lined from a life spent
     outdoors.
    ‘I’m Joseph Gunner,’ said
     the man, entering the room and extending his hand in greeting. ‘But you can just
     call me Gunner. I’m your park ranger.’
    ‘Hi, I’m Connor.’
    ‘You’re British!’ he
     remarked, somewhat surprised and, judging by the extra squeeze in his handshake, pleased
     at the discovery.
    Connor nodded. ‘Where are you from?
     You don’t sound or look like you’re from Burundi.’
    ‘South Africa, born and bred,’
     he replied with a hint of pride. ‘Used to work in Kruger National Park until I was
     offered this opportunity.’ He cast his eye over the gear spread across the bed.
     ‘You’re more prepared than most tourists. What are you, a boy
     scout?’
    ‘Sort of,’ admitted Connor,
     beginning to repack.
    The ranger pointed to the knife. ‘Do
     you mind?’ he asked, picking it up.
    Connor shook his head. ‘It was my
     father’s.’
    Gunner examined it. ‘Well, he’s
     a man who knows his knives. Solid wooden handle. Full tang.’ Eyeing the blade, he
     carefully ran a finger along its edge before grunting in satisfaction.
     ‘There’s a saying in bushcraft:
You’re only as sharp as your
     knife
. Glad to see you’ve kept this one well honed.’
    Resheathing the blade, he handed it back to
     Connor, who felt oddly gratified that his father’s heirloom was held in such high
     regard.
    ‘Always
     important to carry a good knife in the bush,’ Gunner explained, tapping an
     impressively large hunter’s knife on his hip. The ranger picked up the SAS
     handbook lying on the bed and leafed through the pages. ‘You interested in
     survival skills then?’
    Connor nodded. ‘More than you might
     believe.’
    Gunner smiled. ‘Well, you’ve
     certainly come to the right place to test them out.’

No Mercy stood guard on an outcrop of rock
     overlooking the hidden valley. Below, men worked like ants, digging at the earth with
     shovels and their bare hands. Like layers of peeling skin, the green vegetation was
     stripped back to expose rocks and mud and hopefully diamonds. Other press-ganged workers
     panned the sediment of the dammed river for the precious stones. They toiled in grim
     silence, their clothes mud-stained and drenched in sweat.
    Keeping a watchful eye over their labours,
     General Pascal’s army of child soldiers stood with their guns lazily trained on
     the men who were all old enough to be their fathers. Not that any of them thought they
     needed fathers now they were warriors of the ANL. No Mercy dimly recalled he’d
     once had a father, but the general had shown him the weakness of such men. His father
     had failed to protect his family – slaughtered at the hands of a rival rebel group. And
     now they were all gone No Mercy only had himself to fend for and he wouldn’t be as
     feeble as his father. The general had taught him the power of the gun. And led him on to
     the righteous path of glory.
    No Mercy heard a whoop
     and saw one man stand up, his arm raised high.
    General Pascal, reclining in a plastic
     deckchair beneath the shade of a palm tree and sipping from a water bottle, beckoned the
     worker over. The man handed the general his find. Closing one eye, General Pascal held
     the rock up to the sparkling sunlight and inspected the stone. Even from where No Mercy
     stood, he could see the reflected gleam and the grin spread across the general’s
     pockmarked face.
    Another diamond had been found.
    General Pascal waved the worker away, no
     longer interested, and the man trudged to the makeshift workers’ camp, little more
     than some pieces of tarpaulin strung between the trees. For his valuable find,
     he’d been rewarded with an hour’s extra rest and a double ration of
     food.
    No