by Larry Bond
Wrapped up in his own thoughts, he missed Irene Roussouw’s reluctant, uncertain reach for her telephone.
Muller took the steps down to the Ministry’s garage two at a time. He was breathing easier already. Better to be a rich exile in Europe than a corpse in an unmarked grave in South Africa.
He was smiling when he emerged into the small underground garage reserved for the Ministry’s senior servants.
The smile flickered and died when he saw the four men waiting close to his black Jaguar. The deputy minister of law and order, Marius van der
Heijden, and three others-men whose grim, almost lifeless eyes quickly scanned him and as quickly dismissed him as any serious threat.
“Going somewhere, Erik?” Van der Heijden nodded at his bulging briefcase.
The fear was back. Muller moistened lips gone suddenly dry.
“Just taking a bit of work home with me, Minister. Now, if you’ll excuse me?” He took a step closer to his car.
At a barely perceptible nod from van der Heijden, two of the grim-faced men moved forward to block his path. The third stayed by the older man’s side.
Van der Heijden shook his head.
“I’m very much afraid that I can’t excuse you just yet, Erik.” He smiled unpleasantly.
“There’s a small matter the
President has asked me to… well, let us say, discuss with you. “
Muller realized his hands were shaking and he tried to hide that by moving them behind his back.
“Oh?”
Van der Heijden nodded slowly, his smile twisting into a sneer.
“A small matter of a videotape it seems, Erik. A videotape showing you and a kaffir boy.”
They knew! Those bastard Americans had lied! They’d betrayed him after all. Muller’s stomach knotted abruptly and he swallowed hard against the taste of vomit. Oh, God. They knew…
His knees buckled and he sagged forward, watching numbly as his briefcase clattered onto the concrete garage floor and broke open-spilling forged documents and traveler’s checks out in a damning pile. Van der Heijden’s agents grabbed his arms and hauled him upright.
The older man looked down at the multiple passports and money and then back up into Muller’s horrified face.
“Well, well, Erik. Your work is almost as unusual as your sexual
habits. One would almost think you planned to flee our beloved fatherland.” His smile disappeared, replaced by a disgusted scowl.
“Take this boy-loving pig away. I have some questions to ask him in more private surroundings.”
No! Muller felt his blood run cold. He knew exactly what van der Heijden had in mind. Torture. Lingering, mind-flaying torture. His knees buckled again. Pain was something to be inflicted—not suffered! Please God, he prayed for the first time in decades, grant me a swift bullet in the back of the neck. Anything but this.
“Marius, wait! Please!” He squirmed in the grasp of the two men still holding his arms.
“You don’t need to do this! I’ll tell you everything!
Everything! I swear it!”
Van der Heijden nodded again to his men. One of them shifted his grip and locked an elbow around Muller’s throat -choking him into silence.
The older man leaned forward and took Muller’s red, tearstained face in one deceptively gentle hand.
“Oh, Erik, I know you’ll talk. I know you will. But you mustn’t deprive us of our little fun, eh?” He shook his head in mock regret.
“In any event, the President has already ordained the manner of your death. You, meneer, have nothing left to bargain for, and soon you will have nothing left to bargain with.”
He stepped back and stood watching as his men dragged Erik Muller kicking and gagging toward a waiting unmarked van.
South Africa’s onetime director of military intelligence was about to learn what it felt like to lie helpless and at the mercy of merciless men.
NETWORK STUDIOS, JOHANNESBURG
The photocopier flashed again and again, throwing rhythmic pulses of blindingly bright white light against Emily van der Heijden’s tense, determined face. She stood close to the copier, watching intently as the
ANC documents they’d blackmailed out of Muller fed themselves one by one into the machine, emerged, and then cycled through to begin the whole process over again. Complete sets joined a growing pile on one end of the copier table.
Ian Sheffield spoke from behind her.
“I’m still not sure this is necessary. Or wise. I mean, to all intents and purposes, the story’s out already.” He glanced at his watch.
“People all over the world are going to find out what really happened to the Blue Train and your government in a couple of hours or so. Vorster can’t possibly put the cork back in this bottle.”
Emily brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and leaned forward to check the copier counter. Twenty down and twenty sets of duplicates left to go. Then she turned to face Ian.
“He may not be able to stop the rest of the world from finding out what’s going on, but he can certainly clamp down on the news here in this country.”
Ian looked unconvinced, doubting whether any wall of censorship could hope to keep the story they’d so painfully and painstakingly pieced together from eventually leaking through to South Africa’s restive populations. If nothing else, too many people owned shortwave radio sets that could pick up news broadcasts from around the world. He said as much to Emily.
“True enough.” She pulled another collated and stapled set out of the machine’s grasp.
“Many will hear the news… but how many will believe it?”
She shrugged.
“I’m afraid too many of my countrymen are all too used to ignoring foreign newscasts.” Emily laid a careful hand on the unwieldy pile of copied documents.
“I have the names and addresses of many influential men-men who could lead others against this government. But such men will need to see the proof of Vorster’s treachery for themselves-this proof. “
She stepped closer to him and took his hands in hers.
“I ask this of you,
Ian. I ask your help in what I must do.”
He stared first into her serious, hope-filled face and then down at the pile of papers behind her. Emily had to know what she was asking. If he helped her send these documents to a cadre of potential rebels, he’d be stepping across an
important line-the line between simply reporting the news and creating it.
Did he want to go that far? Could he go that far?
Then he remembered a car burning fiercely in the night the car that had been driven by Sam Knowles. And there was an entire government, murdered by a ruthless power-grabber. That same man had started a war and tortured thousands of people. Sam’s death was tragic, but certainly not the largest of Vorster’s crimes.
Somehow that put things back into focus. He’d already stepped across the line. Hell, he’d been shoved across it by the dawning realization of just what Karl Vorster had done to seize and maintain power. Thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of innocent people had already died to satisfy that man’s ambition and private hatreds. And a nation struggling to shake off its unsavory past had been pulled back into a nightmare of state-mandated racism and tyranny.
Ian shook his head. Other journalists might be able simply to grit their teeth and carry on just “observing” events in this troubled country. He no longer could. What happened to South Africa and its divided peoples mattered to him now.
Ian gathered Emily into his arms and held her tightly for a moment before whispering, “Okay, I’m in. ” He’d help her distribute the documents that could ignite a bloody civil war.
He’d go back to being a dispassionate observer when Karl Vorster and his cronies were where they belonged-dead or behind bars.
OCTOBER 28-BBC WORLD SERVICE
The recorded chimes of Big Ben faded, replaced by the smooth, honeyed tones of the BBC’s leading radio announcer.
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“Good evening. Here is the news.
“American television news broadcasts claiming that South Africa’s security services had advance warning of the plot to assassinate President Frederick
Haymans and other members of his cabinet continue to send shock waves around the world. Although the reports, which first aired yesterday, are as yet unconfirmed, they have prompted emergency meetings at a very senior level in London, the other European capitals, and in Washington.
“Relations between the world’s democracies and South Africa are already under tremendous strain owing to Pretoria’s invasion of Namibia and its brutal re imposition of total apartheid at home. Confirmation that the nation’s current president, Karl Vorster, knew beforehand of the ANC’s plans to attack his predecessor and did nothing to thwart them would surely call into question the very legitimacy of South Africa’s existing government.
“Official pokes men in Pretoria have so far maintained a tight-lipped silence, refusing all comment on what they label ‘communist-inspired propaganda.”
“
The announcer’s voice shifted down a notch. “in other news from Africa,
Cuba’s President Fidel Castro announced the dispatch of an additional motorized infantry division to Namibia. Castro made the announcement in the midst of a three-hour speech to Cuba’s Communist Party Youth Congress, claiming that the additional soldiers would enable his forces there to crush South Africa’s invasion army in a ‘final battle of liberation.”
“Western military sources confirm that Cuba’s expeditionary force does appear to be preparing for a renewed offensive against South African troops holding positions along the southern edge of the Auas
Mountains-barely forty kilometers from the Namibian capital of Windhoek. .”
CHAPTER
Tailspin
OCTOBER 31CNN HEADLINE NEWS
Four days after it first aired, the furor generated by Ian Sheffield’s story showed no sign of fading away. Events in south em Africa continued to dominate newspaper front pages and TV nightly newscasts. CNN’s half-hourly news recap was no exception.
As the computer-generated graphics signaling the start of the broadcast disappeared, the screen split, its upper right hand corner showing a stylized map of South Africa, while the rest showed CNN’s glittering, hightech
Atlanta studio and the familiar, grave face of its daytime anchor.
“In the news at the top of the hour, the German government has just announced that its ambassador to South Africa is being recalled ‘for consultation s’-bringing to eight the number of major powers that have withdrawn their senior diplomatic representatives from Pretoria. Several more European nations, including France and the Netherlands, have actually broken all ties with the Vorster government and are closing their embassies completely.
“Western governments may hope this latest round of diplomatic saber Tattling will encourage their citizens living and working inside South
Africa to leave before the situation grows any more violent. If that’s the case, it may already be too late.”
The map of South Africa expanded to fill the entire screen.
“Despite a total foreign-press blackout, there are persistent reports of rioting in
Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and several other cities. An accurate casualty count seems impossible to obtain, but key members of the country’s fragmented political opposition claim that hundreds have been killed by police and security units in just the past three or four days.”
Red stars sprouted on the map, highlighting each mentioned location.
South Africa looked hemmed in, its entire coastline a sea of bright-red trouble spots surrounding a seemingly placid white interior.
The camera cut back to show the anchor’s somber face and a file photo of
Ian Sheffield.
“In related news, the story filed by American newsman Ian
Sheffield, now believed to be in hiding somewhere in South Africa, has been partially corroborated both by sources inside the ANC and inside the
South African security forces. CNN has also learned that U.S. government officials have been given copies of the documents -presumably so that they can be authenticated.
“In Pretoria, the Vorster government continues to refuse to comment on the claim that it allowed the ANC’s attack on the Blue Train to go forward without interference. And though black opposition groups have long campaigned against Vorster, sketchy reports of growing dissatisfaction seem to indicate that white opinion inside South Africa is finally turning against the regime-including many of the far-right groups ordinarily thought to be a source of political strength for the current government.
A picture of a scowling Karl Vorster took shape over the anchor’s left shoulder.
“President Vorster is scheduled to address his nation at eleven
A.m. Eastern time tomorrow. CNN will, of course, carry that speech live,”
Vorster’s picture vanished, replaced by a drawing of a gold bar surmounted by an arrow rising at a steep angle.
“South
Africa’s worsening political, military, and economic crisis continues to send shivers through the world financial community. Gold closed today on the
New York exchange at near six hundred dollars an ounce, and the price is expected to continue rising tomorrow. The gold price rise parallels similar price increases affecting all other strategic minerals exported by South
Africa. We’ll have more details on what that could mean for the average consumer in Dollars and Sense, later in this half hour.
“In domestic news, police in San Francisco refused to speculate on whether a bomb found near the Federal Building there this morning had any connection with a recent series of attacks blamed on radical environmental groups .. ….
NOVEMBER I -JOHANNESBURG
Ian, Emily, and Matthew Sibena sat uncomfortably close together on a small sofa facing a black-and-white television set. Even with all the drapes drawn, the lateafternoon sun turned the tiny, one-bedroom apartment into a sweltering hotbox.
Ian wiped the sweat off his forehead and resisted the temptation to complain about the heat and the lack of working air-conditioning. He suspected that the same adage that applied to gift-horse dentures applied to borrowed apartments-especially for those on the run from the police.
They’d been lucky enough that Emily’s reporter friend and reluctant Army reservist, Brian Pakenham, had agreed to lend her a key to his flat without asking too many inconvenient questions.
Lucky indeed. Ian didn’t doubt that police guard posts now ringed his apartment, the network studios, and probably the American embassy in
Pretoria. And he was quite sure that his picture had been distributed to every roadblock and checkpoint on the roads leading out of Johannesburg. No
South African police commander was going to let the foreigner who’d so insulted his president escape his dragnet.
But after being cooped up for nearly ninety-six hours straight, Ian was almost ready to take his chances out on
Johannesburg’s crowded streets and empty highways. Almost anything seemed better than staying here in sticky, fearful ignorance. He shook his head wryly at the suicidal thought and tried to concentrate instead on the halting English translation of Karl Vorster’s harsh, grating Afrikaans phrases. Maybe he could piece together some idea of what was going on in the world outside South Africa.
“.. . I know that my words will reach not only my fellow South Africans, but many others throughout the world as well. I welcome this opportunity to speak to those outsiders, those foreigners, who have had so much to do with the crisis we face. “
The camera pulled back from its close-up of Vorster’s strong, square-jawed face-backing away until it showed him standing proudly in front of a huge blue-, white-, and orange striped South African flag.
“Many of these small-minded outsiders have opposed our struggle to build a South Africa on our own terms. They have oppo
sed our fight against the
Marxists and terrorists bent on pulling us down into shame and degradation. They do not understand the conditions we face here in South
Africa. Most have never even visited our land-our beautiful fatherland!
They ignore the chaos and corruption afflicting socalled Black Africa!
Instead they yammer and whine at us. At us! They preach at the people of the Covenant! At men and women who have fought and bled and died to hold this land for God and for civilization!” The camera zoomed in again, focusing on Vorster’s red, angry face and pounding fist.
Ian shivered. My God, the man was hypnotic! Even though he didn’t understand the language, he could feel the raw power of Vorster’s voice and rhetoric. He glanced at Emily sitting pale and tense by his side. Did she feel it, too? His eyes slid down to where her hands were clenched so tightly that all the blood seemed to have drained out of them. Yes, she fell it—the appeal to a common heritage of sacrifice and of suffering.
The instinctive response to form a laager-to circle the wagons-in the face of overwhelming and alien forces.
He looked back toward the television. Vorster was still
speaking. He spoke more softly now, picking and choosing his words in a calm, dispassionate tone that seemed strangely at odds with his violent and bloody message.
“Well, we have words of our own for them-for these small-minded foreigners.
No fight is ever desirable. And no fight is ever pretty. But this struggle of ours is necessary. We are fighting for the very survival of our society, of our people. And we will not submit. We will not give up. We will not surrender our sovereign power while a single enemy, a single communist, or a single rebellious black is alive to menace our wives and our children.”
Vorster paused and stared grimly straight into the camera for a moment.
“Many of you may have heard the foreign charges that my government came to power illegally.” He snorted contemptuously.
“Illegally! What does that mean? What could it possibly mean in the circumstances our beloved country faced when I took office?”