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sensitive vegetation or problematic soils.’
    ‘That would be pointless,’ Jade agreed. Even she could see that would be a non-starter.
    ‘Meanwhile, the local communities have their own problems. They’re among the poorest in the country and they rely on natural resources to survive. With the park a protected area, it means that the forests outside its boundaries are starting to become depleted. They’re pressurising the authorities to open up the areas within the park, because they need more space and materials for subsistence farming.’
    ‘That’s depressing.’
    ‘Not as depressing as the fact that the developers have now managed to get a review on the titanium-mining ban. They have requested an ecological reassessment of the area to be done, which will be starting next month. It’s a real worry that the results of that report could tip the balance and see industry winning over the environment again.’
    ‘I can see how that could happen.’
    Craig sighed heavily. ‘It’s a beautiful, peaceful part of the world. But under the surface, it’s a simmering pressure cooker of conflicting interests, and we’re all hoping we can keep the lid from blowing off.’
    Ahead, Jade could see the wooden gateposts that marked the boundary of Scuba Sands. They’d walked the length of the driveway. No sign of the person she’d seen earlier. Perhaps he’d simply been using the resort as a shortcut and had gone on to take shelter from the rain somewhere else.
    Then Jade recalled how she’d noticed the change in the man’s demeanour; from his aimless wandering along the beach to the focused purposefulness with which he’d then headed up towards the chalets.
    And then she caught her breath. She’d seen movement, illuminated for just a moment in one of the passes that the torch had made.
    ‘Over there,’ she said. ‘Something’s there.’

11
    ‘You’ve seen something? Where?’ Craig swung the torch back in the opposite direction.
    ‘Over that way.’ Jade pointed to a clump of trees. ‘More to the right. Yes, there. Look.’
    The beam picked up the gleam of two eyes amid a brown-grey wall of skin. Its shape and size were unmistakable. Out of the water, it looked almost comically porcine—very different in real life from the smiling, cartoon-like animal on the doormat outside the Huberta room.
    Jade’s legs felt suddenly unsteady. She knew only too well that these mammals were responsible for more human deaths than any other.
    ‘It’s a hippo,’ she whispered. ‘And it’s moving.’
    Craig slowly arced the torch back across the trees. ‘It’s OK— it’s heading away from us, I think, into that thick bank of bushes.’
    They strained to hear it making its way through the undergrowth, but above the clamour of the wind and rain Jade wasn’t sure if the tearing sounds she thought she could hear were real or her imagination playing tricks on her.
    ‘Still, we’d better get out of here,’ Craig said softly. ‘We certainly don’t want to get between it and its intended destination.
    ‘The brochure in the chalet did say to be careful about going out at night. Now I can see why,’ she whispered.
    They turned and headed swiftly back down the road, Jade still feeling lightheaded from adrenaline and wondering if it would be possible to outrun three tons of angry hippo moving at more than forty kilometres an hour, should the beast decide to chargethem. Thinking about it more logically, though, surely all she would have to do would be to outrun Craig?
    One thing was for sure—with hippos on the loose, she didn’t think that many vagrants would be choosing to bed down for the night anywhere near their chalets.
    They walked along for a while in companionable silence and, as she saw the lights of their resort ahead, she felt herself start to relax.
    ‘You’ve got good eyesight, Jade,’ Craig said. ‘At that distance, in that light, I’d never have spotted it on my own.’
    Jade nodded. ‘I’m lucky that