Bodyguard: Ambush (Book 3) (43 page)

What inspired you to set
Ambush
in Africa?

I lived for a short while in Africa and have
done some charity work out there and it’s a fantastically rich place in which to
set an adventure. I wanted to give Connor and the bodyguards a new challenge, which
involved protecting them not only from a legitimate threat, like gunmen in this
instance, but also from the wilds of Africa. From my experience of being in Africa,
it’s a fantastic continent, but it’s also a very dangerous one and I wanted
to bring out those survival skills in Connor.

How did you go about researching
Ambush
and
the dangers Connor faces?

I had the personal experience of encountering
lions, scorpions and snakes so I’ve used those experiences, but I’ve also
researched these animals too. I looked at the most dangerous creatures – for example,
crocodiles, hippos and mosquitos – and the ways to overcome them from a survival point
of view, if you’ve got nothing around you.

Connor has to combat his fear of snakes in
Ambush
. What would you be most afraid of
encountering?

My worst nightmare is sharks. I get a shiver
of fear even if I just see a picture of one! You do see them in Africa but only on the
coast. In the chapters where Amber encounters the spider, I used my own phobia of sharks
to describe her paralysing fear.

What are your top three tips for surviving in the
African bush?

The three basics of survival are water, food
and shelter. Without these, your chances of staying alive for any period of time are
seriously reduced.

In the savannah, it might not rain for weeks
or even months. This makes finding water a difficult task, but there are ways:

• Search for animal tracks and follow them to see if they lead
  to water.
  
• If you find a fast-moving river, you’re in luck. Beware
  stagnant streams and rivers as these can harbour parasites and bacteria.
  
• If possible, boil any water you find to make it safe to drink.
  
• If you don’t find water, dig at the lowest part of a river.
  Often water lies beneath the surface of a dried-up riverbed.
  
• If you do find water, use a piece of clothing to act as a
  sponge and trickle the water into your mouth.
  

Food can also be difficult to source, but if
you find water then you’ll likely find food nearby too. Berries and fruit might be
your easiest and most abundant source of nutrition, but, before eating any, it’s
crucial to check if they’re poisonous or not:

• First, cut open the fruit and smell it. If it smells like
  peaches or almonds, it’s poisonous.
  
• Rub the fleshy part of the fruit on your skin and wait at least a
  minute to see if it produces a rash or reaction. If so, it’s poisonous.
  Discard it.
  
• Next, touch the fruit to your lips. If you feel a burning
  sensation, the fruit is not safe to eat.
  
• Otherwise, move the fruit to your tongue but don’t
  swallow. If the fruit doesn’t aggravate your tongue, take a bite of the fruit
  and wait several hours to see if you become sick. If not, the fruit is edible.
  

In addition, good sources of protein are
termites or larvae!

To sleep safely at night:

• Make a
  boma
  – a circular enclosure of acacia
  branches. The thorns will keep nocturnal predators away.
  
• Climb a tree and tie yourself securely to the bough.
  
• Find a hollowed-out baobab tree to take refuge inside.
  
• Or climb up to a wide rock ledge and secure yourself so you
  don’t roll off in the night.
  

The key factor is to keep out of reach of any
potential predators while sleeping at night.

• Lions are the second largest big-cat species in the world,
  after tigers.
  
• Adult males can eat up to forty-four kilograms of meat in one
  sitting! How much do you weigh?
  
• A lion’s roar can be heard from eight kilometres away.
  
• Equipped with teeth that tear effortlessly through bone and
  tendon, lions can take down an animal as large as a bull giraffe. Once grabbed, the
  prey is subdued and suffocated with a quick neck bite or a sustained bite over the
  muzzle.
  

How to Survive a Lion
Attack:
If you encounter a lion, never turn your back and try to run. That
is a death warrant. Your best chance is to stand still, stretch out your arms to look as
large as possible, and try to outface the lion!

• A crocodile can snap its jaws shut, trapping prey within fifty
  milliseconds.
  
• Crocodiles have the strongest bite of any animal in the world. The
  muscles that open the jaws, however, aren’t so powerful. A reasonably strong
  person could hold a crocodile’s jaws closed with their bare hands!
  
• Each crocodile jaw has twenty-four teeth that are meant to grasp
  and crush, not chew. They swallow stones to grind food inside their stomachs.
  
• ‘Crying crocodile tears’ – displaying fake sadness
  – comes from the myth that the reptiles weep when eating humans. They do wipe their
  eyes when feeding, but only because their eyes bubble and froth when eating.
  

How to Survive a Crocodile
Attack:
Most victims never see the crocodile coming. If caught in its jaws,
trying to pull free is usually futile and may induce the crocodile to go into an
underwater death roll. The only hope of survival is to fight back: hit or poke the eyes,
the most vulnerable part of a crocodile’s body. If that fails, strike the nostrils
or ears. As a last-ditch attempt, go for the palatal valve – a flap of tissue behind the
tongue that covers the crocodile’s throat and prevents the animal from drowning.
If your arm is stuck in a crocodile’s mouth, you may be able to prise this valve
down; water will then flow into the crocodile’s throat, and hopefully it will let
you go.

• The fastest snake in the world, the black mamba is capable of
  moving at speeds of up to nineteen kilometres per hour for short distances.
  
• Its venom is highly toxic. Two drops of venom can kill a person,
  and a mamba can have up to twenty drops in its fangs.
  
• The black mamba gets its name because of the black colour inside
  its mouth (its body is usually olive brown).
  
• It is easily identified by its length (2.4 metres, average),
  slenderness, speed of movement and its coffin-shaped head.
  
• The black mamba has a reputation for being very
  aggressive.
  

How to Survive a Black Mamba
Attack:
Untreated bites are fatal. Put a tourniquet above the puncture
wound to slow the spread of poison and seek medical attention immediately. The sooner a
person is treated after the bite with antidote, the better the chances of survival.

• Extremely aggressive if threatened, the hippo is responsible
  for more human fatalities in Africa than any other large animal.
  
• Hippos can easily outrun a human, reaching up to fifty kilometres
  per hour.
  
• Hippos can kill crocodiles.
  
• The most common threat
  display is the yawn, which is telling you to back off!
  
• An overheated hippo looks as if it is sweating blood; glands in
  its skin secrete a sticky red fluid that acts as a natural sunscreen.
  

How to Survive a Hippo
Attack:
Never get between a hippo and water. It panics them and they
charge. Most human deaths happen because people surprise hippos accidentally.

• Built for hunting, leopards have sleek, powerful bodies and
  can run at speeds of up to fifty-seven kilometres per hour.
  
• Leopards are also excellent swimmers and climbers, and they can
  jump long distances.
  
• Mostly nocturnal, leopards hunt prey at night. A common tactic is
  to leap out of trees on to their victim.
  
• Leopards protect their food from other animals by dragging it up
  into a tree. A male leopard can drag a carcass three times its own weight –
  including small giraffes – sixteen metres up a tree!
  
• A leopard’s characteristic call is a deep, rough cough,
  repeated ten to fifteen times, sounding like a saw cutting wood. An aggressive
  charge is heralded by two or three short coughs.
  

How to Survive a Leopard
Attack:
You probably won’t!

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