Child of Africa

by T. M. Clark

  Bongani went to the driver’s side, and Mitch jumped in the passenger seat. Joss knew that the Chizarira team were already in the second bakkie, getting ready to move into position to protect their departure.

  The gunfire signalled that the other guards from the house were rushing through the bushes almost blind. The sun was not quite up, and every time they fired their weapons, the flash from the barrels would blind them again. They tried to scare the running kids into stopping. Only this time it wouldn’t work because the bakkies and the rescue party were between the fleeing children and the guards, and the children knew this.

  Mitch adjusted his night-vision goggles. ‘Coming in fast at ten o’clock.’

  Joss took his .303 and held it ready. He looked through the telescopic lens and pulled the trigger, the sound loud and solid in the night, different to the pop-pop bullets of the guards.

  The training camp guards stopped, unsure where the gunfire had come from. Some of them dropped to the ground, while others attempted to hide behind tree trunks.

  Bongani kept the bakkie idling so that Joss could aim.

  ‘Two o’clock,’ Mitch said.

  Joss took down another guard.

  Mitch watched as the man was thrown backwards with the impact. ‘Bloody hell! What bullets are you using?’

  ‘Hollow points,’ Joss said. ‘They deserve the best I can offer.’

  ‘Remind me to never piss you off,’ Mitch said as Joss took out another pursuer.

  Two of the guards had been smart enough not to rush into the bushes; instead they had got a vehicle and were racing towards them now. Joss and Mitch could see the bakkie gaining on the guards, spotlighting them so that they didn’t run them over. Mitch took off his night-vision goggles and aimed at the spotlight.

  It was gone in a splintering of glass.

  The approaching vehicle stopped as Joss put a barrage of bullets through the radiator and into the engine block, before silencing its driver and passenger. He kissed his father’s .303 on its walnut butt. ‘You are a great weapon to have on our side! Any more surprises?’

  ‘Not close,’ Mitch said. ‘Leave them to the Chizarira guards to clean up.’

  Joss gestured to the other vehicle and the guards manoeuvred into position and immediately began to drop the other pursuers, not wasting any ammo, proving their skills were just as good as Peta had said they were.

  Bongani started the vehicle rolling forward. ‘I counted sixteen, including the two from the stopped vehicle, and Joss got ten,’ he said.

  ‘If they are out there, Peta’s team will clean them up,’ Joss said. ‘It’s time for us to go and protect the kids at the bus stop.’ He was grateful they had the extra team hidden to protect the buses the whole way to Bulawayo. Away from the place where nightmares were manufactured.

  ‘What do we do with all these kids, where do we bus them to?’ Mitch asked.

  Joss smiled. ‘The Baobab Tree Orphanage, that’ll be the best place. I’ll call their director once we’re on our way and tell him to expect us. He’s an Aussie like you.’

  * * *

  Joss used his right hand to close Ephraim’s eyes. ‘I hope you know that we came for you, and you didn’t die alone in that room. We were with you.’

  Bongani passed him a long plaster from the first-aid kit. With shaking hands he stuck one over each eye to keep them closed, taking deep breaths to control the anger that raged inside.

  Bongani put his hand on Ephraim’s shoulder. ‘You have passed over to the other side now. Know that I will look after your grandmother. Go in peace, and may your journey be a safe and pain-free one.’

  Joss looked up at the sky. The last stubborn stars were still trying to glow brightly despite dawn’s light starting to lighten the sky. ‘At least he got to see the stars one last time.’

  Mitch nodded. ‘To die knowing you are free after being a captive is a gift of its own.’

  Joss shrugged out of his combat jacket, and placed it over Ephraim so that the children couldn’t see the face of death. ‘I swear to you we’ll find the man who took you, and make him pay. His life for yours. Even if Bongani and I have to track him till the end of our days.’

  CHAPTER

  32

  The Fire Glows

  Tichawana heard the ringing of his cell phone and ignored it. But it rang again.

  And again.

  He pushed the woman who was draped over him away, and she fell to the floor, dragging with her the other two women chained to her. They landed in a heap. He smiled at the tangle of limbs next to the bed as he reached for the phone.

  ‘This had better be important—’ he began, then quietened as he listened. He stood up and began dressing. ‘I’m on my way to the emergency house. I will call you when I get there.’ He stabbed at the end-call button, and put his phone on the nightstand. ‘Clear out,’ he instructed the girls.

  Still a little dazed, they gathered their robes and walked silently to the door.

  ‘Wait. Do any of you have a car?’

  The oldest woman nodded. ‘Is parked at back of club.’

  ‘Good, where are the keys?’

  ‘In locker at clubhouse.’

  ‘I am going to unchain you. You go get them. Meet us at your car.’ He reached for his keys, unlocked the small padlock and removed her leather collar.

  She rubbed at her neck.

  ‘When we are all in the car, I will remove the chains from the other girls, do you understand? If you do not come back or you call for help, I will kill them both.’

  She nodded, bowed her head and silently moved to the door, then slipped away.

  ‘Right,’ he said as he put his shoes on. ‘Time to go.’

  The two women were so used to being chained together they moved as one. They walked quickly in front of him, sensing his change in mood. They didn’t try to attract attention; they were too well trained to do that. He was breaking the rules of the club by removing them. He knew it. They knew he knew it. He just had to believe that they would not turn him in to the manager and guards who patrolled the golf club. Besides, he owned the women, even if this would be the first trip he had ever taken them on.

  They reached the staff car park, discreetly hidden by a hedge. The older woman was already at the driver’s side of the car. No longer in her silk dressing gown, she wore Western clothes, a T-shirt and some faded jeans with holes in the knees. And she had on studded black boots.

  ‘Get in back,’ she said, ‘stay down on floor.’

  She was not going to turn him in. He let out a small sigh of relief that he would not have to kill them. After their years together, he had grown fond of them.

  He opened the back door and climbed inside. The older woman sat behind the wheel, and when the two younger girls got in the back, he passed them the key to unlock their chains.

  They closed the door and the older woman started the car. She began driving out of the car park. She threw the girls some clothes. ‘No go in street in dressing gown.’

  They changed while he looked down at the carpet, willing the woman to drive faster.

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘Head towards the Matopos. I will give you instructions when we get there.’

  For half an hour they drove silently south, until the driver pulled over to the side of the road. He raised his head and saw they were just before the Matopos turn-off.

  ‘We served you for many years. There is bond between us when we are chained to you; now chains are gone. You a rich criminal. We – us slaves. But we are not fools. If we leave you here on the road, you will send people. Find us. But if we drive you to your place, you keep us safe? You not kill any of us?’ the driver said.

  ‘I will not harm you; you have done nothing but please me all these years. Turn left at the next junction and continue to a sign that says Giraffe Lodge. Instead of turning to the lodge, turn right, and head down the dirt road until you come to a farmhouse,’ he said.

  He saw the tension in the woman’s sho
ulders ease slightly.

  They were no fools. He was still their master. They were still his slaves, but for now the four of them would run together, because when the bullets started flying, he’d have three other bodies he could use as shields.

  Fifteen minutes later they climbed out of the car at the old farmhouse. Once it must have belonged to some settler, who’d built it from local stone, and then later made it look more colonial, but he didn’t care about that as he pushed the front door open. He cared that the thick stone walls were impervious to bullets. He could hole up in this house for months, and unless someone shot a rocket down the chimney, there was no way he had to leave.

  He took his phone from his pocket and dialled Denisa Mlilo’s number. ‘I’m clear.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Have you got a full report? What happened?’

  ‘That brother of yours had help. He moved too fast. We did not expect him to find the boys or attack with such speed. Twenty-four hours and they came to Gwanda and took the children back. They freed all the others. I am following the buses now to see where they drop them.’

  ‘What about the extra guards?’

  ‘Dead. The police were called in, and they have begun to raid your other training facilities. But they only have six names so far – that is what my man in the police force has told me. They also said that one of their boys we went to Bishu to fetch is very badly injured, possibly dead.’

  ‘Possibly dead? He is either alive or he is dead, which one?’

  ‘I do not know.’

  Tichawana closed his eyes. ‘Which camp has not been named to the police?’

  ‘Mutare.’

  ‘Give instructions to all the staff to abandon their posts and reassemble in one month.’

  ‘What about the youths still in training?’

  ‘Bury them deep.’

  There was silence on the other end of the line.

  Tichawana asked, ‘What else? What else did my brother do?’

  ‘Not your brother directly, but I am sure they are working with him. The police also raided your warehouse in the Turk Mine area, and I have it that the police force are on the way to Beit Bridge.’

  ‘This is too much information for them to know so fast. Which lieutenant talked?’ Tichawana yelled.

  ‘We don’t know yet. But Mary, the one we had on the inside at your brother’s village, she is not talking any more. Her mouth is closed tighter than a chicken’s butthole.’

  ‘Make her talk. Hurt her grandchild.’

  Denisa said, ‘They already hurt her grandson; that is why she will not talk.’

  ‘Kill her. She is a liability. Find out who betrayed me.’

  He hung up before the man could say anything else. The phone started ringing almost immediately, and when he looked at the number, he took a deep breath.

  ‘Madam Lu Liang,’ he said politely and with as much respect as he could inject into his voice.

  ‘You have been compromised. You need to clean up your house.’

  ‘Yes, madam.’

  ‘You are to relocate to Tanzania. The Monkey Beach Safari Lodge. Be there within a week, or I will have you cleaned too. I cannot stand incompetence.’

  ‘Yes, madam.’

  She hung up on him. He threw the phone at the fireplace and it split apart, the battery and the cover scattering over the polished concrete floor.

  Silently, the oldest of the women went over and picked up the pieces, and passed them to the youngest. ‘Fix this. He need it.’

  The youngest put the phone together while Tichawana watched, and then she brought it to him. It started to ring again.

  This time he flopped down in the leather lounge before answering.

  ‘Talk!’

  Adam’s voice came through clearly. ‘The police just raided your construction company and your house. Your home staff have been taken in for questioning, as have the construction crews who were at the site.’

  ‘Is Harry with them?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then no one will talk. They won’t find anything in the crew; they know nothing.’

  ‘My father will keep them in line, yes. They also raided the club.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘They found your vehicle there and they seized your hunting rifles. They are saying that you kidnapped three women employees.’

  Tichawana shook his head. ‘They came with me of their own free will.’

  ‘Be careful.’

  His eyes flicked to the oldest of the women. He had owned her first, and for the longest. He was certain that, out of all of them, he needed to be careful of her the most, but he was sure she knew nothing of his business dealings.

  ‘Anything else I can do to help?’

  ‘I need a camo Hummer. Get hold of the Black Mamba, tell him we will need to speed up that shipment he promised me last month. Fetch my tracker from Esigodini. Get my hunting rifles back. We have to move our plan up. We need a pontoon boat that will hold the Hummer.’

  ‘The vehicle will take a few days. When do you want your tracker ready?’

  ‘Have the boat waiting in Milbizi. Bring the Hummer and my tracker together.’

  ‘Will do.’

  Tichawana rubbed his forehead. ‘Do you know how my brother found my camp so fast, and what information he gave to the police so that they had the audacity to raid my operation?’

  ‘Still trying to put it all together. We know that Francis Kanobvurunga didn’t react like we expected when his son was delivered. Instead of coming back to you, he seems to have gone mental, and the police got involved. He was taken into the Bulawayo police station. From what we’ve managed to find out, he was collected from there by your secretary but they’ve disappeared.’

  ‘Hillary? Why would she fetch Francis Kanobvurunga?’

  ‘Detective Sargent Kudzanai Mathobeni called your office when he couldn’t get you on the cell. He told her to fetch Kanobvurunga before they took him to hospital. So she did. She booked a bakkie out from the fleet from my father and no one has seen her since.’

  ‘So where did she go?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Any CCTV footage? Surely you know which direction she drove in?’

  ‘That’s been broken for years.’

  ‘Typical Third World country.’

  ‘What about the package arriving at the end of the week?’

  ‘Get hold of your client, and tell him that there has been unrest. Delay your safari. I will stop all deliveries until after I am chief. You find Hillary.’

  Tichawana ended the call and sat tapping the phone against his teeth, then he got up and went to the drinks trolley and poured himself a goblet of brandy. Gulping it down in one swig, he poured another.

  Hillary had Francis, but why would she collect him and where the fuck did she go?

  ‘Is anything we can help?’ the older woman asked.

  ‘No. Go choose a room, down the passage to the left. The maid will give us some lunch. I’m going to shower. I have work to do; do not disturb me.’

  * * *

  Four days later, Tichawana heard the Hummer arrive, the crunch of gravel loud in the quiet bush. He walked onto the veranda.

  His tracker was sitting in the passenger seat, grinning.

  Adam climbed out of the driver’s seat. ‘I’ve brought a few hand grenades that we had stashed. I figured we might need them. Also got these for you.’ Adam opened the back door and removed a familiar sports bag. Tichawana’s hunting rifles.

  ‘You have done well.’

  ‘I aim to please.’

  A Land Rover drove in and parked behind the Hummer.

  ‘My tracker, Brighton. Figured four of us was better than two,’ Adam said.

  CHAPTER

  33

  Breath of Air

  Joss sat on the veranda of the lodge. In his right hand he nursed a Zambezi beer. He watched the movement below him in the bushes as Mandlenkosi came to catch his nightly fish. The leopard was old
and losing condition; his days were numbered.

  ‘Kosi was born right here, raised by his mother, until he left for a while. When she died, he increased his territory to include hers. He’s not as fast or as agile as he once was, but he remains nearby,’ Joss said as he lifted his binoculars.

  ‘I could dart him for you, check him out,’ Peta said. ‘See if there’s anything I can do to make him feel a bit better, if there’s something that makes him eat such small prey now.’

  Joss shook his head. ‘He’s old – the drugs could kill him. I can’t take the dignity of dying in the bush away from him. I can’t believe how he has deteriorated lately, though. He’s still so beautiful.’

  ‘That he is,’ she said, and threaded her fingers through Joss’s.

  ‘It is just how life is. You are born, you live and you die,’ Bongani said.

  ‘No, there is more to it than that: you live and you love—’ she said.

  ‘Bring me a bucket,’ Mitch said.

  They laughed.

  ‘It’s nice to relax for a while. We seem to have been on the go since forever,’ Mitch said.

  ‘I’ll drink to that.’ Joss took a sip from his beer. ‘And I’ll raise one to Ephraim too. But don’t drink too much.’

  ‘To Ephraim,’ Bongani, Mitch, Hillary and Peta said together.

  Joss said, ‘I’m still not convinced we’re not in for a hard time one of these nights. I know everyone has settled down this week, but there will be retribution. There has to be. From what Bongani has always told me about his half-brother, and from what we know from Hillary, there is no way he’d lose everything like he has and not come and try to take Bongani out.’

  ‘That’s why we are by his side, constantly,’ Mitch said.

  ‘It’s good to have you here. Hope it’s helped you with your decision on what you want to do with your life,’ Joss said.