Sarah took a long breath, and tried to steady herself. ‘Do you think they’ll be caught?’ she asked.

‘I doubt it,’ Dan said wearily. ‘They’re regulars, these guys. In and out over the border for a quick bit of poaching, or a raid on some manyatta where they can steal cattle and make off with the women. Sometimes they’ll kill a couple of moran. They take the scrotums away with them, you know, as trophies. Then they hightail it back to Somalia. They used to come on foot. Now they have trucks, and I’m pretty sure they have local help too, especially when it comes to trading the rhino horn and ivory. That’s big bucks. It may be illegal, but you can be sure there are plenty of people this side of the border mixed up in it – politicians and traders, as well as the ordinary watu.’

‘But there must be something that can be done to stop them?’ Sarah could hear the shrill note in her voice.

‘It’s the same old merry-go-round. We need more patrols, which the Game Department can’t afford, and the government is too inefficient or corrupt to organise. And a conservation programme that benefits the local tribes, so they begin to see the value of protecting wildlife instead of slaughtering it.’

Dan’s reply was matter-of-fact, and she realised that he was using the discussion to give her time to regain control. She stood up, making a resolution not to fall apart like this again. Dan was looking at her dusty, tear-streaked face and she could see that he was concerned. He helped her into his car.

‘I know how you feel about the elephants,’ he said, as he got into the driver’s seat. ‘You want to protect them at all costs. But you have to remember you’re a scientist first.’ She was about to argue, but he stopped her. ‘No, listen to me, kid. Your job is to watch and record. We’re here to observe the daily lives of these herds, to understand what they do and why, to see how they react to different situations. We can only ensure their protection if we know what sort of ecosystem they need to survive, and what conditions present the most danger. Disease, drought, poaching. Whatever. But we can’t interfere. Otherwise it’s not real. We are recording the natural cycle of elephant living in their natural habitat.’

‘But what happened last night wasn’t natural.’

‘No, it wasn’t, and everything must be done to stop poaching. But mankind has been killing animals since the dawn of time, Sarah. We’re dealing with wildlife in the wild, and their predators these days include poachers and bandits. We don’t have the resources to create a utopian animal sanctuary, a kind of giant, benevolent zoo, out here. You can’t be soft when things like this happen, otherwise it will destroy you.’