This time, the exchanged glances among Hateley’s three guests were longer and more meaningful.
“So you were involved in the Phuket incident that got us tossed out of Thailand,” Sam Fogarty said accusingly.
“I’m not sure the word ‘incident’ accurately describes the situation,” Max Kingman added. “I understand two helicopters were shot down, and a number of Thai Rangers were killed.”
“I don’t know anything about helicopters being shot down, or anyone getting killed; certainly not during our hunt,” Hateley said emphatically. “We did have a brief confrontation with some Rangers on patrol that night, but I believe everything was resolved amicably with an appropriate exchange of cash. They drove away and we continued on with our business. However, some kind of unfortunate event apparently did happen at a checkpoint later on — after I’d left Thailand — which resulted in the loss of my Clouded Leopard; and, it seems, our Thai hunting privileges being revoked, at least for the time being.”
The other three men looked at each other uneasily.
“Let me assure you, I regret that as much as anyone in this room; and I promise you that I’m going to do whatever it takes — and pay whatever it costs — to get that situation turned around as quickly as possible,” Hateley went on forcefully. “But, in the meantime, I also want you to know how much I value our friendship, and our little club; so much so that I am going to do something tonight that I never thought I would ever do.”
The three men were watching Hateley intently now.
“What I’m going to do is offer to share my next hunt with all three of you,” Hateley said. “A once-in-a-lifetime hunt that, if all goes well, will provide each of us with a trophy beyond our wildest dreams.”
“As you well know, Michael, ’beyond your wildest dreams’ is a mighty big mountain to climb, especially where my dreams and aspirations are concerned,” Caldreaux drawled before taking a sip from his brandy sniffer. “What exactly are you talking about?”
“Rather than tell you, because you won’t believe me,” Hateley said as he reached for a remote lying on the table beside his plate, “I’m going to show you.”
As Hateley pressed buttons on the remote, the room darkened, a four-foot-by-eight-foot digital screen slid silently down from the ceiling in front of the trophy wall, and a bright blue Powerpoint™ slide suddenly appeared bearing the words: the hunt of an era
Then, as the room remained hushed, Hateley clicked the remote once more and the picture of a single animal standing in front of a concrete wall filled the huge screen.
“What the hell — ?” Caldreaux rasped hoarsely.
“That’s… that’s — ” Fogarty sputtered, trying to get the word out.
“A mammoth?” Kingman whispered the word in an incredulous voice.
“My God, it looks real,” Caldreaux said as he leaned forward to get a better view.
“That creature is as real — and as alive — as the four of us in this room,” Hateley said matter-of-factly.
“But how is that possible?” Fogarty demanded. “I thought — ?”
“That Jurassic Park was a fictional tale?” Hateley smiled. “Well, you’re right, Sam, it was — and still is — a fairy tale. That creature you see on the scene was not created from the reassembled DNA of a mammoth, but rather by the genetic manipulation of DNA within a like-creature.”
Hateley thumbed the remote and a new image of a single animal filled the screen.
“You manipulated the DNA of an elephant, and turned it into a mammoth? Is that actually possible?” Caldreaux whispered disbelievingly.
Hateley thumbed the remote again and the mammoth image filled the screen again, only this time the image was digital video; and for a stunning ten seconds, the four men in the hushed room watched the creature swing its thick trunk back and forth between its two curved tusks as it stared at the camera. The sound of Caldreaux’s brandy sniffer shattering on the floor was barely noticed.
The video stopped, and for a long moment, the room was deathly silent.
“One of us is actually going to be able to kill and mount a real mammoth? Is that what you’re saying?” Kingman could barely get the words out of his suddenly dry mouth.
“But how would we chose — a drawing of straws?” The desperate greed in Fogarty’s voice was apparent to all three of Hateley’s guests, because each and every one of them was thinking precisely the same thing.
That mammoth has to be mine.
“No, we’re not going to draw straws,” Hateley said. “We couldn’t do that; we’d end up shooting each other in the back.”
The other three men were silent, almost afraid to speak, knowing that their host was right.
“Fortunately,” Hateley went on calmly, “we won’t have to compete with each other for the privilege of being the first human hunter in twenty thousand years to take a mammoth; because I happen to have access to four of these wondrous creatures — one for each of us.”
The other three men sagged in their chairs as one, relief and joy spilling across their now-smiling faces.
“My God, Michael, you are a genius; the Merchant da Morte, without question,” Caldreaux rasped, raising his water glass toward the wall-mounted boar’s head in salute, a gesture immediately followed by the other two men.
“Don’t be so quick with your praise,” Hateley said somberly. “There’s a very serious problem we all have to deal with before we can have our hunt and mount these trophies on our walls.”
“What problem? Are you talking about the law?” Caldreaux demanded. “That’s preposterous! This is none of their business!”
“After all, it’s not illegal to shoot a mammoth, is it?” Fogarty said. “I mean, how could it be? They don’t exist.”
“Except that now they do,” Kingman reminded in a voice that could only be described as reverent.
“The law is not our problem, gentlemen; or, at least, not for the moment,” Hateley said. “As Sam correctly pointed out, it is not against the law to kill mammoths. Our problem is more of an emotional issue.”
Hateley thumbed the remote once more, and this time the two images of the elephant and mammoth appeared to have been merged into one; except that one of the animals was suddenly much bigger than the other.
“Oh my God, it’s a baby,” Kingman said in a hushed voice.
The three men sat mute in the darkened room as the magnitude of the problem struck home with a finality that tore at their hearts.
“I — can’t shoot a baby mammoth,” Fogarty finally said in a choked voice. “Jesus, I mean, if anyone ever found out — ”
“At this stage of my life, as you all know, I don’t have many scruples left; perhaps none at all,” Caldreaux said in a voice filled with anguish. “But I can tell you one thing that’s as certain as the passage of time: I am not going to sit down to dinner and stare at that little creature’s head on my wall; or on any of your walls either, for that matter.”
“Then we just have to wait, until they get older,” Kingman offered hesitantly.
“But, what if someone else — ?” Fogarty couldn’t finish the unthinkable question.
“They do belong to you, Michael; that is what you said, isn’t it?” Caldreaux demanded, turning his head sharply to stare at Hateley.
“I said I have access to them; but I don’t own them,” Hateley replied evenly. “They will have to be purchased.”
“Then we have to buy them now, immediately,” Kingman said, “at whatever the cost, before someone outbids us.”
“Or we could just steal them, if the price turns out to be unacceptable,” Fogarty pointed out.
“Either way, I don’t care; just as long as one of them ends up being mine,” Caldreaux said emphatically.
The solemn nodding of all three heads around his table told Hateley what he had desperately wanted to hear from the members of his club. It meant the plan was now thinkable, and perhaps even doable.
“Gentlemen,” he said after pausing a few moments for effect, “now that I have your full attention to the crucial matter at hand, I would like to introduce a fifth guest to our table this evening.”