Virus Hunter

摘要

"We're going to have to shoot him on the run," Richard Kock shouted above the roar of the Land Rover. "Pull up as close as you can and don't slow down." The Kenyan driver nodded and sent the pickup weaving through the desert scrub, accelerating over the coarse red sand. Richard stood in the back, gripping the roll-bar with one hand and clutching his capture gun with the other. As we glimpsed the lumbering neck of our quarry through the brush, the driver shifted gears and swerved between two low-crowned acacia trees. The next time we spotted the giraffe, it was loping past a clearing with an aluminum dart dangling from its shoulder. The needle had struck bone and the tranquilizer had failed to inject. A second dart had glanced off one of its hind legs. Wary after two ineffectual hits, the animal seemed to sense the range of Richard's gun. Our only hope was to chase after it as fast as we possibly could.