Mistress-of-the-Game - By Tilly Bagshawe Sidney Sheldon Page 0,42

go.

"Can we, Dad? I've never been to South Africa. Lexi and Robert go all the time; it's supposed to be amazing. Pleeease?"

"You realize Mommy won't be going." Keith tried to conceal his surprise. "It would just be you and me."

"I know, but Mommy's already been there, loads of times, so I don't think she minds. Please?"

Keith felt close to tears. Max wanted to go. With him.

He'd even called him Dad.

Was this it? After ten long years, could this really be the turning point?

"Come on, Dad, come over here. Look how high up we are!"

Keith turned to see Max, right at the canyon's edge, hopping from boulder to boulder like a mountain goat. He's fearless. Not like me. Clouds snaked around him like cigarette smoke. Occasionally a larger cloud would descend from the heavens and engulf the boy completely. Whenever that happened, Keith felt his heart stop.

"Buddy, I've told you, get back from the edge. Quit fooling around like that, it's not safe."

Cape Town was the last stop on their great South African adventure, and the only place where they were staying in a hotel rather than camping. Up until now they'd traveled from reserve to reserve and from camp to camp across the Karoo with their guide, Katele, a permanently smiling six-foot Bantu native with the sort of six-pack abs Keith had only ever seen on television commercials for torturous-looking exercise equipment. He looked like an extra from one of the early Tarzan movies. Keith felt weak and inadequate in his presence, but he tried not to show it.

Katele told a wide-eyed Max: "The Great Karoo is the largest natural ecosystem in South Africa - and one of the world's great scientific wonders. Its rocks contain fossil remains spanning three hundred and ten million years. You can do everything here. Hot-air balloon flights, horseback riding, stargazing. We have some of the best rock climbing in the country."

"What about the animals?"

Katele grinned. "You won't be disappointed. We have animals you haven't even heard of, my friend. Kudu, gemsbok, aardwolf, klipspringer. And plenty that you have: black eagles, baboons, rhinos, mountain zebras."

"Can you hunt them?"

Keith was shocked. "We're here to observe beauty, Max, not kill it. I'm sorry, Katele."

But the guide was on Max's side.

"It's quite all right, sir. Of course the boy can hunt if he wishes. I'll take you to Lemoenfontein. The big-game hunting there is exceptional."

"Can we, Dad? Pleease?"

"We'll see," said Keith.

He did not approve of ten-year-old boys handling guns. In fact, he'd argued with Eve on this very point only days before they left, when she finally admitted to giving Max her grandfather's pistol.

"He's never used it, darling," she assured him. "It's never even been out of the safe. Besides, it's so old, I'm sure it doesn't work anymore."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Keith turned the pristine Glock over in his hands. In its own way, it was a thing of beauty.

"I gave it to him as a token," said Eve. "Something from his family heritage to make him feel grown up. Don't be a spoilsport about it."

Max begged to be allowed to bring the gun to Africa.

"Mommy got me the papers specially. I'm allowed to take it because it's a family air balloon."

"Heirloom, darling." Eve smiled indulgently, rolling her eyes at Keith as if to say, See how innocent he is?

"I'm not sure, Max. A gun is not a toy."

But in the end, Keith was so overjoyed to be in Max's good graces for once, he'd let his happiness cloud his judgment. The gun was packed, but on the strict condition that it would not, under any circumstances, be used.

"I tell you what." Keith put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Why don't we forget about hunting for now and start with a hot-air balloon ride? That sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

"Sure, Dad. Whatever you say."

Max was anxious.

He wanted to use his gun. A hunting accident, that was the plan. His mother had told him to stick to the plan. Max had never strayed from Eve's instructions before.

But a hot-air balloon ride? It was a gift.

He played out the scene in his imagination.

I couldn't stop him! I told him to get down, but he was trying to get a better picture. He slipped and...oh, Katele, it was awful. I saw him fall, I watched him get smaller and smaller, and then he was gone, I was up there all alone...

Damn. That was a problem.

If Keith had an accident hundreds of feet above the Gariep Dam and plunged