'As you are already friends. I can safely leave things to you both from now on,' the minister said happily. 'I greatly approve of Miss West's plans and she knows her business well.'
'She's a tough television lady,' Kip put in drily, and Gabriel Basoni looked at him askance.
'Surely not tough. She had treated me very gently; even her tape recorder did not intrude.'
Kip's dark eyes slid to Natalie's suddenly apprehensive face. If he said anything about last night's dinner she would face a great deal of embarrassment. 'You use a tape recorder, Natalie? That should be useful. Keep it out of sight though when you're recording me. I might get anxious with stage-fright.'
A very subtle rebuff. Natalie risked a glare at him but he simply smiled right into her eyes and the minister settled down to enjoying his lunch. He had interviewed Natalie, given his own interview, brought the two interested parties together and very gently issued an order. She would work with Kip. Kip's amused dark eyes recognised her predicament and she was very pleased to be able to walk off and leave him as they returned to the official car. By the time he left the city she would be back at the hotel if she could manage it. She would contact him only when it was absolutely necessary, preferably with every other member of her team there.
At first it was easy. Kip made no attempt to contact her and she had her own transport. She planned the film meticulously, wandered around the town until she was quite well known, people willing to stop and smile into her camera as she took her shots. Factories were going up, housing being built, and already the cables that would carry the power for prosperity stretched out of sight on high pylons that strode like giants into the distance.
It was all coming together beautifully, the shots, the sounds, the script growing under her hands. Many nights she ate dinner in her room and worked and gradually the alarming excitement of Kip's touch faded into a dream. She would deal with the dam itself when she felt more sure but it could not be put off much longer and for that she would need Kip.
She gave herself one more day. During her chats with local people she had been told of the falls that were hidden high in the jungle-clad hills. The Tamberi Falls marked the point where the Kabala River dropped from a higher plateau and it would make a good camera shot if they could get up to it. Natalie had to find out and then she would send for the team because time was running out fast.
She set off early and the people at the hotel were quite prepared to make up a packed lunch for her and provide a map. The road was good, she was told, and she started out with plenty of film and high hopes for a successful day.
At first the road was good and with the car windows wound down, her sunglasses protecting her from the bright glare, Natalie enjoyed her adventure. It was nothing new for her to take off across some ^unknown country, breaking ground for the camera and the production team, and this seemed quite normal.
It was only after an hour, when the metalled road disappeared and the familiar pot-holed red earth track became her highway, that Natalie had misgivings. The jungle now seemed closer, the trees higher, and she kept an eye on the side of the road with increasing anxiety.
The air was almost burningly hot, still and heavy, the humidity making her breathless, and she longed to stop and get out of the car. She had more sense than that, however. Since leaving the metalled road she had seen no other car and this part of the country looked altogether wild. Wild country held wild animals and she found her eyes darting into the thickening trees with increasing frequency.
Natalie was almost ready to turn back and give up the idea altogether when she heard the sound she had subconsciously been waiting for, the great thunder of rushing, falling water. Around the next bend the trees miraculously fell away, the area almost returning to scrub land. There was a huge basin that looked at least a mile across and through this the great river rushed in a torrent.
Looking up she saw the high land above her, sparsely clad with trees and over the top the Tamberi Falls leapt into the air and fell to the river below, wild, white water that filled the air with thunder, crashing over huge rocks, glittering like cascading diamonds, the rumble and roar of plummeting water reverberating around the huge natural basin.