Cross took his leave of da Cunha at the quayside. The would-be President of an independent Cabinda was a sorry sight: unwashed, unshaven, still dressed in the clothes he’d been wearing when they’d captured him. The cable ties had been removed from his wrists, but only so that they could be replaced by handcuffs.
“Farewell, dear Mateus,” Cross saluted him. “An Angolan jail isn’t the kind of accommodation you’re accustomed to, I’m afraid. They say most prisoners would rather die than spend the rest of their lives rotting in that particular hell. So . . .” Cross paused to savor the moment: “I wish you a long, long life.”
Da Cunha’s facial expression was a strange mixture of fury and despair, but before he could reply one of his captors thrust his baton into da Cunha’s kidneys and he fell to his knees, gasping with the pain.
For a second, Cross almost felt sorry for him.
It was another three days before the women were allowed to travel. “I’m going back to London with Nastiya,” Zhenia said, once the doctor had delivered his verdicts. “She needs help organising Paddy’s funeral.”
“I’ll come with you,” Cross said. “I can help, too.”
“No, we’ll be fine. Go back to Abu Zara. See Catherine Cayla. It will do you good to be around life, instead of death. And she needs her daddy to be with her.”
“You’re right, I should have thought of that. But we’ll be in London, both of us, in plenty of time for the funeral.”
“And I’ll be waiting for you . . .”
Cross emerged from customs and entered the arrivals terminal at Abu Zara International Airport. Suddenly Cross heard a high pitched shriek of excitement as Catherine Cayla spotted them, broke free of Bonnie’s grip and raced to meet her father.
Cross laughed as he tossed Catherine high in the air before catching her and kissing her. As he put her back down on the ground he looked in wonder at this gorgeous little girl whom he loved and who loved him in return. He thought of the woman waiting for him in London. He had spent the past week immersed in death, but now he knew that life had to go on and that this girl and this woman represented life and hope and joy to him. Together they had the chance to be a family, to build a home, to find a shelter from the storm that had surrounded him for so long.
He was in the car on the way back to Seascape Mansions when his phone pinged. He had a text message. It came in three parts. The first said, “I feel much better. But . . .” The second was a selfie of Zhenia flashing him a wicked, ravishingly sexy smile. The third said, “I need my man . . . beside me, on top of me, in me . . . Now!! xxxx”
A broad grin spread across Hector Cross’s face.
“Happy daddy!” said Catherine Cayla.
Cross looked down at his daughter and then, sounding slightly surprised, as if he’d just been told something that he had never realized before he said, “Yes, quite right. I am a happy daddy.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hailed by Stephen King as “the best historical novelist,” WILBUR SMITH published his first novel, When the Lion Feeds, in 1964. His books have sold more than 125 million copies worldwide and been translated into twentysix languages. Born in Central Africa, he now divides his time between London and South Africa.
www.wilbursmithbooks.com
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Also by Wilbur Smith
The Egyptian Series
River God
The Seventh Scroll
Warlock
The Quest
Desert God
The Ballantyne Series
A Falcon Flies
Men of Men
The Angels Weep
The Leopard Hunts in Darkness
The Courtney Series
When the Lion Feeds
The Sound of Thunder
A Sparrow Falls
The Burning Shore
Power of the Sword
Rage
A Time to Die
Golden Fox
Birds of Prey
Monsoon
Blue Horizon
The Triumph of the Sun
Assegai
Golden Lion
Thrillers
The Dark of the Sun
Shout at the Devil
Gold Mine
The Sunbird
Eagle in the Sky
The Eye of the Tiger
Cry Wolf
Hungry as the Sea
Wild Justice (U.K.); The Delta Decision (U.S.)
The Elephant Song
Those in Peril
Vicious Circle
CREDITS
Cover design by Richard L. Aquan
Cover photographs: © Alamy
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
PREDATOR. Copyright © 2016 by Wilbur Smith. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-227647-6 (hardcover)
EPub Edition MARCH 2016 ISBN 9780062276537
16 17 18 19 20 DIX/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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