[COMPLETE] African Pride

9. Dark Clouds of the Past

The following afternoon, I walked to Baba's office and stopped to look both ways before nodding to Halima to guard while I slipped inside. I didn't have much time to dally; Baba was out having lunch with Scarlet, a fact that irritated me. That woman didn't smell right and that shimmer... that shimmering didn't make sense to me. However, right now I didn't have time to think about her, they would be back within two hours which didn't give me much time to complete my mission.

Stopping when I closed the door behind me, I looked to his desk and felt my lip to begin to quiver. Ghosts of the past started to dance before my eyes, as I remembered one of the many times I ran to this room, shrieking with laughter as Mama chased me inside. She was 'hunting' me, growling like a lioness as she 'pounced' on me to 'gobble' me up.

Those were the happy days, the carefree, simple days, the days in which I felt like a child. However, after Mama's death, I was forced to leave my childhood behind and grow up to step into her shoes, and what big shoes they were. Without her, a dark cloud was over this household, blocking out any sunlight that tried to shine down.

Sitting in Baba's seat, I logged his computer and clicked on the icon that would activate the program that I needed to use. As a pencil pusher for the Nairobi Animal Sanctuary, Baba had access to an online database that contained information on virtually every known poaching syndicate in the world. The lists grew by the day, as more and more data were added, but what I was currently interested in was their symbols. Virtually all syndicates had one, something they would use to strike fear into their enemies; like pirates.

Typing in what I was looking for—a trio of black claw slash marks—I pressed enter and then sat back for the program to run. Images and text flashed before my eyes with the speed of a cheetah, most of them meaning nothing to me now. Several of the names and symbols I recognized as past syndicates I had taken down or planned to take down. At the moment, my plan was focused only on a syndicate that had was after the white lion pride.

It took an hour and a half for the program to identify a candidate who's symbol matched the three black claw slashes, and it was the stupidest sounding name I had heard.

Black Claw.

They sounded like some cheat movie villain, but I didn't have time to judge as I looked over this syndicate's file. The bizarre thing was that there wasn't much information on them, as all I saw was the name and that they were based in England. Besides, that was a note never to engage them as they were level red in danger.

Well, that was a waste of time.

Frowning, I slumped in my chair in disappointment. While poaching white lions was nothing new, this syndicate was quite bold in attacking the Animal Sanctuary. They risked being captured by the Game Wardens, yet I doubted that they would have cared. They wanted the white lions, but I didn't know if they were hunted just for their pelts or something more?

Busar mentioned a 'darkness coming' but didn't specify what that meant. Although, in my case, darkness most likely meant some roho mbaya was coming; but even then, I didn't know what roho mbaya it could be. There were so many different types of Red, Yellow and Black Eyes, that it would be impossible for me to settle down in a single culprit.

My ears flickered as I heard distant voices outside of the office, heading my way. I recognized the deep bass of Baba's voice and the high-pitched flirty voice of Scarlett. It was at that moment that I realized that she had a British accent, something that quirked my interest.

Black Claw was based in England, but not a single member had ever been caught before. Scarlett was from England and worked in animal conservation there. Add her smelling strange and that shimmering... The connecting thread was thin at best, but it was a thread nonetheless. Emailing the files and information about Black Claw to myself, and making a mental note to run Scarlett through the database; I clicked on another tab just as the door opened.