by Wilbur Smith
At the very last moment somebody on board the ferry shouted and then the bows of the trawler crashed into her, taking her just forward of the beam. Raleigh had warned the skipper not to damage the cabin and risk harming the occupants.
The trawler checked and the bows rose high as she trod the smaller vessel down, and then the ferry rolled over in a flurry of foam and breaking water. The trawler drove over her, broke free of her swamped hull, and went dashing away into the darkness. Within a hundred yards she had disappeared.
'The chains will pull him under,' Raleigh shouted. 'Work quickly!" He fitted his face plate over his mouth and nose.
Robert sent the Zodiac roaring alongside the sinking ferry. She had turned turtle and her bottom was painted with orange antifouling. Her lights were still burning beneath the water and there were three or four swimming warders thrashing around, trying to get a grip on the sides.
Raleigh and Changi, each carrying a short jemmy bar, slid over the side and dived under the trawler's submerged transom.
Raleigh jammed the point of the jemmy into the lock of the cabin door and with a single heave tore it away. The door slid back and a burst of trapped air exploded in silver bubbles around his head.
The cabin was flooded, but the lights were still burning, lighting the interior like a goldfish bowl, and a confusion of bodies, clad in the serge uniform of the prison service, were struggling and kicking and swirling around the cabin. Amongst them Raleigh picked out the khaki cotton drill tunic of a prisoner. He seized a handful of it and pulled Moses Gama clear.
Changi took Moses Gama's other arm and they swam him between them out from under the heaving transom and up to the surface. It had taken less than sixty seconds since the trawler had rammed, and Robert gunned the Zodiac up to them the moment they surfaced. He reached down and caught hold of Moses Gama's arm, the two men in the water heaved from under him and he rolled over the side of the Zodiac on to the floor boards.
Raleigh and Changi seized the loops of rope on the Zodiac's side to pull themselves up and the moment they were on board Robert gunned the Evinrude and they shot away from the foundering vessel.
The splashing and cries of distress faded behind them as Robert turned the Zodiac back towards the shore. The long deserted stretch of Woodstock beach showed as a pale line of sand and surf in the starlight ahead.
Raleigh stripped off his face plate and leaned solicitously over the figure on the deck. He lifted him into a sitting position, and Moses Gama coughed painfully.
'I see you, my uncle,' Raleigh said softly.
'Raleigh?" Moses' voice was rough with the salt water he had swallowed. 'Is it you, Raleigh?" 'We will be ashore in ten minutes, my uncle." Raleigh tucked one of the thermal blankets around Moses' shoulders. 'All the plans for your escape have been carefully laid. Everything's ready for you, my uncle. Soon now you will be where nobody can touch you." Robert ran the rubber inflatable in through the surf at full throttle and they shot up the sand, clear of the water. As they came to a standstill, they lifted Moses Gama out of the Zodiac and ran with him up the beach, carrying him between them so his chained feet barely touched the sand.
There was a small closed van parked amongst the dunes and , Raleigh jerked the rear doors open and they lifted Moses into the back and laid him on the mattress that covered the floorboards.
Changi jumped in beside him and Raleigh slammed the rear doors closed. Robert would take the Zodiac out and sink it.
Raleigh stripped off the jacket of his wet suit. The key to the van was on a loop of nylon line around his neck. He opened the driver's door and slid behind the wheel. The van was facing back along the track. The track joined the road that skirted the industrial area of Paarden Eiland and Raleigh drove sedately along it, towards the black township of Longa.
The official Cape Town residence of the minister of police was one of those clustered around the prime minister's residence at Groote Schuur. The cumbersome physical division of the legislative and excutive arms of government between the cities of Cape Town and Pretoria made for costly duplications. During the annual session of parliament in Cape Town all the ministers and the entire diplomatic corps were forced to move down from Pretoria a thousand miles to the north, and official residences had to be maintained in both cities at enormous expense.
Manfred De La Rey's ministerial residence was an elegant Edwardian mansion set in acres of its own private lawns and gardens.
As RoeIf Stander parked his shabby little secondhand Morris in front of this imposing building, it seemed oddly out of place.
Sarah Stander had been desperately trying to arrange a private 'meeting with Manfred ever since her son had been convicted and sentenced to death. However, Manfred had been in Pretoria, or at his ranch in the Free State or opening a memorial to the women who had died in the British concentration camps during the Boer war, or addressing the National Party caucus, and therefore unable to see her.
Sarah had persisted, telephoning his office at parliament every day, telephoning Heidi at home and pleading with her, until at last Manfred had agreed to see her at seven o'clock in the morning before he left for parliament.
Sarah and Roelf had driven in the Morris from Stellenbosch, leaving before sun-up so as not to be late for the appointment. When the coloured butler showed them through to the dining-room, Manfred and Heidi were seated at the breakfast table.
Heidi sprang up and came to kiss Sarah's cheek.
'I am sorry we have not seen you for so long, Sarie." 'Yes,' Sarah agreed bitterly. 'I also am sorry - but as you explained to me, Manie has been too busy for us." Manfred stood up from the head of the table.
He was in his shirtsleeves and the linen table napkin was tucked into the top of his dark suit trousers.
'Roelf,' he smiled, and they shook hands like old friends.
'Thank you for agreeing to see us, Manie,' Roelf said humbly. 'I know how busy you are these days." The years had not been kind to Roelf Stander, he had greyed and shrunk and Manfred felt a secret satisfaction as he studied him.
'Sit down, Roelf." Manfred led him to a place at the breakfast table. 'Heidi has ordered breakfast for you - will you start with porridge?" He seated Roelf and then reluctantly turned back to Sarah. She was still standing beside Heidi." 'Hello Sarie,' he said. She had been such a pretty little thing. They had grown from childhood together. There were still the remains of that girlhood beauty in her eyes and the shape of her face. The memory of the love they had once shared rushed back to him, and he felt the sweet nostalgic yearning for his youth. He had a vivid image of her lying naked on a bed of pine needles in the forest high up on the slopes of the Hottentots Holland mountains on the day that they had become lovers.
He searched in his heart for a vestige of what he had felt for her then, but he found none. Any love that once had flowered between them had been smothered by the knowledge of her treachery. For more than two decades he had delayed his revenge, contenting himself with slowly undermining and reducing this woman to her present state, waiting for exactly the right moment to extract the final retribution. It had come - and he savoured the moment.
'Hello, Manie,' she whispered, and she thought, 'He has been so cruel. He has filled my life with pain that has been difficult to bear.
Now all I ask from him is my son's life - surely he will not deny me that also." 'So, why have you come to see me?" Manie asked, and Heidi led Sarah to a seat at the table. She took the silver tea-pot from the coloured servant and told him, 'Thank you, Gamat, you can leave us now. Please close the door." And she poured steaming coffee into Sarah's cup.
'Yes, Sarie,' she agreed. 'Tell us why you have come to see us." 'You know why I have come to you,' Sarah said. 'It is Kobus." A deathly stillness held them all over the slow passage of the seconds, and then Manfred sighed.
'Ja,' he said. 'Kobus. Why do you come to me about Kobus?" ,x want you to help him, Manie." 'Kobus has been tried and convicted of a sickening act of senseless brutality,' Manfred said slowly.
'The highest court in the land has decreed that he must die on the gallows. How can I help Kobus?" 'The same way you helped that black terrorist, Moses Gama." Sarah was pale and the coffee cup clattered as she tried to set it down on the saucer. 'You saved his life - now save the life of my son." 'The state president exercised leniency in Gama's case--' 'No, Manie,' Sarah interrupted. 'It was you that changed it. I know - you have the power to save Kobus." 'No." He shook his head. 'I haven't got that sort of power. Kobus is a murderer. The worst kind of killer - one without compassion or remorse. I cannot help him." 'You can. I know you can, Manie. Please, I beg of you, save my son." 'I cannot." Manfred's expression set. His mouth hardened into a straight unrelenting line. 'I will not." 'You must, Manie. You have no choice - you must save him." 'Why do you say that?" He was becoming angry. 'There is nothing I must do." 'You must save him, Manie, because he is your son also. He is the child of our love, Manie, you have no choice.
You must save him." Manfred sprang to his feet and placed his hand protectively on Heidi's shoulder. 'You come into my house and insult me and my wife." His voice shook with the force of his anger. 'You come here with wild stories and accusations." RoeIf Stander had sat quietly through it all, but now he lifted hi head and spoke softly. 'It is true, Manie. Every word she tells you i true. I knew she was carrying your child when I married her. Sh told me frankly. You had deserted her - you had married Heidi am I loved her." 'You know it is true,' Sarah whispered. 'You have always known Manie. You cannot have looked into Kobus's eyes without knowing Both your sons have your yellow eyes, Manie, Lothar and Kobus both of them. You know he is your son." Manfred sank back on to his chair. In the silence Heidi reache( across and deliberately took his hand. That reassuring touch seemet to rally him.
'Even if that were true, there is nothing I would do. No matte] whose son he is, justice must run its course. A life for a life. He mus pay the penalty for his deed." 'Manie, please. You must help us--' Sarah was weeping now, ant the tears at last spilled down her pale cheeks. She tried to thro herself at Manfred's feet, but Roelf caught her and held her. She struggled weakly in his arms, but he held her and looked all Manfred.
'In the name of our friendship, Manie, everything we have done and shared - won't you help us?" he pleaded.
'I am sorry for you, Roelf." Manfred stood up again. 'You must take your wife home now." Roelf drew Sarah gently towards the door, but before they reached it Sarah pulled out of his hands and faced Manfred again.
'Why?" she cried in anguish. 'I know you can - why will you not help us?" 'Because of you White Sword failed,' he said softly. 'That is why I will not help you." She was struck dumb by the words, and Manfred turned to Roelfi 'Take her away now,' he ordered. 'I have finished with her at last." During the long journey back to Stellenbosch Sarah huddled in the passenger seat and sobbed brokenly. Only when Roelf parked the Morris outside their cottage did she straighten up, and her voice and her face were ruined with griefi 'I hate him,' she. repeated. 'Oh God, how I hate him." 'I spoke to David Abrahams this morning,' Isabella said, leaning forward in the saddle to pat the mare's neck so that her father couldn't see her face. 'He offered me a job at the Johannesburg office." 'Correction,' said Shasa.
'You telephoned David and told him that Johannesburg needed a PRO at a salary of two thousand a month plus dress allowance plus five-day week and a company car - and I believe you even stipulated the make, Porsche 911, wasn't it? David called me the minute you hung up." 'Oh Daddy, don't be so technical." Isabella tossed her head defiantly. 'You wouldn't want me to dress in rags and starve up there would you?" 'What I would want is for you to stay here where I can keep an eye on you." Shasa felt the leaden weight of impending loss in his chest as he looked at her. She was the spice of his life, and she had only been back from London a month or so. Now she wanted to be off again. His instinct was to fight to keep her, but Centaine had advised, 'Let them go gently, and there is a chance they will come back to you." 'It isn't Siberia or the Outer Hebrides, Daddy. Do be practical.
It's just up the road." 'A thousand miles up the road,' Shasa agreed. 'And much closer' to the rugby stadium at Loftus Versveld." 'I don't know what you mean." It was very seldom Shasa could catch her off-balance, and vindictively he relished her agitation.
'Rugby football,' he explained. 'Great sweaty oafs beating their bony heads together." She recovered splendidly. 'Pater, if this has anything to do with Lothar De La Rey, I would just like to point out that he is one of the greatest athletes of our time and the youngest brigadier in the history of the police force - and that he means absolutely nothing to me at all." 'Your indifference is monumental. I am greatly relieved." 'Does that mean I can accept David's job offer?" Shasa sighed and the loneliness descended upon him like a winter's evening. 'How can I stop you, Bella?" She let out a triumphant squeal and leaned out of the saddle to wrap those long tanned arms around his neck, and Shasa's stallion danced under him with aristocratic affront.
Isabella chattered merrily all the way back to the chfiteau.
'One thing I forgot to mention to David was a lusing allowance.
Flats are so awfully expensive in Joey's. I couldn't find anything suitable on the pittance he is paying me." Shasa shook his head with admiration.
The grooms were waiting in the kitchen yard to take the horses, and still in their jodhpurs and riding boots they went through to the breakfast room with Isabella hanging lovingly on her father's arm.
Centaine was at the sideboard, helping herself to scrambled eggs
:: ill from the chafing dish. She was still in her gardening clothes and hid been amongst her roses since dawn. Now she looked at Isabella i quiringly - and Isabella gave her a happy wink.
'Damn it,' Shasa intercepted the exchange. 'I've been set up. It's conspiracy." 'Of course, I told Nana first." Isabella hugged his arm. 'I alwa start at the top." 'When she was little I always threatened to hand her over to policeman if she was naughty,' Centaine said complacently as sl carried her plate to the breakfast table. 'I hope this policeman ca cope with her." 'He's not a policeman,' Isabella protested. 'He's a brigadier." Shasa ladled eggs and fried tomato on to his plate and went to hid place at the head of the table. The morning paper was folded neatly o his side plate, and he shook it open at the front page as he sat dowl The main news was the proposed meeting between the British prim minister, Harold Wilson, and Ian Smith to settle the Rhodesian issm Now he saw that the suggested venue was a British warship at se Israel and Jordan were still disputing the Hebron Valley, and closer t home the Robben Island ferry had capsized during the night with th certain loss of at least two lives, while eight others were missing.
The telephone on the sideboard rang and Centaine looked up fror buttering her toast. 'That will be Garry,' she said. 'He rang twic while you were out riding." 'It's only eight o'clock in the morning,' Shasa protested, but hid, went to answer the telephone. 'Hello, Garry, where are you?" Garry sounded surprised. 'At the office, of course." 'What's the problem?" 'Swimming-pools,' Garry answered. 'I have a chance to get th franchise for a new process of making cheap swimming-pools. It' called Gunite. Holly and I saw it when we were on honeymoon ir the States." 'Good Lord, only the ver2 rich can afford private swimming.
pools,' Shasa protested.
'Everybody will buy my swimming-pools - every home in the country will have one by the time I'm finished." Garry's enthusiasm was infectious.
'It works, Pater. I've seen it, and the figures add up perfectly.
Only trouble is I have to give an answer by noon today. Someone else is interested." 'How much?" Shasa asked.
'Four million initially - that's for the franchise and plant. Another four million over two years for running costs, then we will be into profit." 'All right,' Shasa said. 'Go ahead." 'Thanks, Pater. Thanks for trusting me." 'Well you haven't let me down yet. How is Holly?" 'She's fine. She's right here with me." 'At the office at eight in the morning?" Shasa laughed.
'Of course." Again Garry sounded surprised. 'We are a
team. The swimming-pools were her idea." 'Give her my love,' Shasa said and hung up.
As he went back to his seat, Centaine said, 'It's the prime minister's budget vote this afternoon. I thought I'd drop in." 'It should be interesting,' Shasa agreed. 'I think Verwoerd is going to make a major policy speech about the country's international position. I have a committee meeting on armaments this morning, but why don't you meet me for lunch and you can listen to Doctor Henk's speech from the public gallery afterwards. I'll ask Tricia to get you a ticket." Ticia was waiting for him anxiously when an hour later Shasa walked into his parliamentary suite.
'The minister of police wants to see you most urgently, Mr Courthey. He asked me to let him know the moment you arrived. He said he'd come to your office." 'Very well." Shasa glanced at his appointment book on her desk.
'Let him know I'm here and then get a ticket for my mother for the public gallery this afternoon. Is there anything else?" 'Nothing important." Tricia picked up the in-house telephone to ring the minister of police's office and then paused. 'There has been a strange woman ringing you this morning. She called three times.
She wouldn't give her name and she asked for Squadron Leader Courtney. Funny, isn't it?" 'All right, let me know if she calls again." Shasa was frowning as he went through to his own office. The use of his old airforce rank was strangely disquieting. He went to his desk and began work on the mail and the memoranda that Tricia had placed on his blotter, but almost immediately the buzzer rang on his intercom.
'Minister De La Rey is here, sir." 'Ask him to come right in, Tricia." Shasa rose and went to meet Manfred, but as they shook hands he could see that Manfred was a worried man.
'Did you read the news report about the sinking of the ferry?" Manfred did not even return his greeting but came immediately to business.
'I noticed it, but didn't read it all." 'Moses Gama was on the boat when it sank,' Manfred said.
'Good Lord." Shasa glanced involuntarily at the ivory and gold}: !!