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that cannot be removed, you know?”
    â€œI don’t think hardware is the origin of the expression, but I take your point. So, I ask again, what do you do now?”
    â€œI die quickly or slowly. That is my choice.”
    â€œYou’re being too harsh. Look, the best course for you now is to play along with the local police. Modise is a guy you can trust, I think. Besides, if you do, I have a plan.”
    â€œA plan. What plan, Leo? A plan to free me from the Bratva, the police, and who knows what or how many Russian agencies that have me on its list of undesirables?”
    â€œI may have lost my edge with the politicos, but I still have a few cards I can pull out of my sleeve, Yuri. Now drink up. The foreman on this construction job—that’s using the term loosely—says he’s ready on the west end. We have the new wing to check out. Do you have the punch list or do I?”

Chapter Four
    The hyena with the sobriquet Kotsi Mosadi would have rejected the name and the reputation it implied were she capable of conceptual thought which, of course, she was not. She was no more dangerous than any other of her species. Hyenas, male and female, compete with every carnivore in the park, large and small cats, dogs, raptor birds, and even an occasional large insect. Not to do so, and aggressively, would end with either her replacement as the pack leader, the demise of the pack itself, or quite possibly both. The bush is not a place for sentimentality or a Disney personification of wildlife. You may do that in animated movies with casts of cuddly cubs and wise old baboons, but in the park, it was eat or be eaten, be the hunter or be the prey, nothing more, nothing less.
    Realistically, hyenas have only two enemies, humans and lions. Either would kill them on sight and both would do so simply out of traditional enmity. That which existed between hyenas and lions was historical and innate, a rivalry that stretched back into the mists of time. But with humans the hatred had been learned, was of more recent origin, and seemed to have more to do with aesthetics than rivalry—they are such unattractive animals. Ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, were said to domesticate hyenas and, like pig farmers of a later era, fatten them and bring to them to market to be eaten, presumably, as a delicacy.
    Kotsi Mosadi held the key position in the pack and, to the extent such concepts were to be understood, had responsibilities. The welfare of her pack, male and female alike, rested on her hunched shoulders. In addition, once a year, she and the other females bore litters ranging from one to four—the young necessary to the pack’s survival. If hunting with great success and being a fierce protector of her pack made her dangerous, then so be it, but her behavior differed little from every other leader of spotted hyenas or their smaller, shyer, brown relatives that shared the park. She just happened to be more successful and therefore more obvious to the game rangers charged with monitoring her behavior. In truth,Kotsi Mosadi, was spoken of by them more in admiration than contempt.
    Game rangers are charged with the management of the park and its denizens. Poachers, intruders of all sorts whose intentions are less than beneficial to the animals, are pursued aggressively and punished severely when caught. That would include any attempt to hurt Danger Woman. Lions, however, were given a pass should they manage to hunt her down and dispatch her. And given half a chance, they would do that. For her part, a sick or weakened lion would be fair game. The difference between them: the lion would never deign to eat a hyena, while a hyena will eat anything, including an unlucky lion.
    From the relative shade of the bush she stirred from her midday doze. With those of her pack who were also awake, she watched Sanderson’s Land Rover bounce by and pause while its occupants inspected a pile of bones. The hyena’s