Cherry buried her face in his chest.
“Come, let’s move while they’re all still distracted,” he said.
An intense hatred rose in him. He vowed he would see Van Rhyn dead, no matter what it took. Bile rose in his throat. He thought he’d seen the worst of the worst, but this capped it all. Men who did this to their fellow humans were no more than vermin and were to be treated as such. Killing them would be a pleasure. He wondered who was responsible for issuing the order that resulted in this despicable deed. There would be a reckoning.
Chapter Nine
They moved deeper into the cluster of prefabs, keeping to the shadows and away from the tunnel openings. They had to get inside the smaller tunnel, which did not appear to be used by the excavating trucks, although its entrance was guarded by two armed security guards. Nonetheless, it would be wise to be patient and observe before undertaking any action.
Peace climbed onto the roof of a prefab and hid behind a large corrugated zinc water tank, from where he watched the comings and goings from the tunnels through binoculars. The heightened vigilance of the guards was evident. Two vehicles appeared every so often — they were obviously patrolling the grounds as the occupants were armed with assault rifles.
The wind had strengthened, tugging at his clothes and bringing with it a threatening rainstorm. An exceptionally strong gust suddenly buffeted him and a large cloud of dust obscured his vision. He was no longer able to see the mine’s cliff face. Here was an opportunity, he thought, so he clambered off the roof and came to stand next to Cherry.
“Come on, this is it. We’ll get in under cover of the storm and dust.”
She nodded. They moved off, trying their best to remain in the shadows. Soon they were at the ramp, the stairway in front of them. Most of the workers had disappeared, obviously having sought shelter, but there were still the odd individuals, probably guards, bent over protecting themselves from the flying dust and sand. The wind had now intensified.
They descended the staircase and a few others joined them as they all tried to find shelter. No one gave them a second glance. Cherry was tall, and in her smock and gumboots with the helmet covering her short hair she could easily pass for a man.
Down in the deep hollow near the cliff face the wind was not as strong and they moved towards the smaller tunnel. As they neared, Peace could see inside and was astounded at its size, which was well lit with row upon row of fluorescent lights strung along the roof. As with the hangar, access was barred by a wall of steel bars, but in this instance, a guard was stationed there too. At intervals along the wall, pockets cut into the rock face contained electrical control boxes or similar equipment.
In a deep recess in the tunnel wall before the barred entrance, they found a large toolbox and pieces of electrical equipment, including heavy duty circuit breakers and lengths of insulated cable. Obviously, electricians were still busy with work in the tunnel, no doubt doing this during the day.
“I’ve got an idea,” said Peace. “I’m a supervisor, right? You’re my assistant. We’re here to work on the electrics. Let’s carry some of this equipment — hang on, we better pick up some tools as well. We then simply walk through the access gate. Notice how the guard at the entrance waves the occasional man through. If we’re dressed as they are, I reckon they’ll let us past.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “If we’re captured, that will mean death.”
“Not if we do it while this damn wind is blowing dust and sand all over the place. Nobody’s going to be looking carefully at anything… I mean, you can barely open your eyes! If we are to do it, it’ll have to be now.” He ignored her obvious fear and picking electrical items at random, put them in her hands, and then took some himself. “Follow me,” he said, and strode purposefully towards the guard who manned the gate.
The guard saw them approaching and straightened a bit, probably because of the words HOOF OPSIGTER[9] emblazoned on Peace’s helmet. As they neared, a guard asked, “Wat is dit nou?[10]”
For a moment Peace was dumbstruck, and completely at loss as to what to say. He used the first, best explanatory word that came to mind. “Problem,” he replied, showing the man the circuit breaker. As luck would have it in this instance, and with Peace at that moment ignorant of the fact, that in South Africa, spoken Afrikaans is peppered with many English words, as is English with Afrikaans. The Afrikaans for problem is probleem which was fortuitous.
The man looked at him without expression and then opened the gate and let them pass. Peace breathed a silent sigh of relief. Cherry faked a coughing spasm brought on by the dust and bent forward, partially hiding her face.
They moved away from the entrance as fast as they could. Various sub tunnels branched off the main tunnel about a hundred yards in, their entrances barred by stainless steel doors. Everything appeared spotlessly clean with no sign of dust. Peace realised that the air-conditioning and filtrations maintained a higher pressure inside than out and would contribute to this. He headed for the first electrical distribution board he saw, opened it, and busied himself pretending to inspect its innards, while Cherry stood attentively next to him. He hoped they looked the part. While they were standing there, a group of men came out from one of the tunnels jabbering amongst themselves in Afrikaans, evidently excited about something.
“Did you catch any of that?” Peace asked.
“They said something about an aircraft disappearing off the Namibian coast. That’s all I heard.”
That particular piece of information was of no interest to him, so he continued to pretend to be attending to something on the distribution board. He knew they had to be out of the complex before daylight and there were only a few hours left.
At the end of the tunnel was an entrance to another tunnel which had the usual steel barricade into which a smaller gate for pedestrian access was also fitted.
“Grab a couple of items. We’ve got to get a look in there.”
Holding the circuit breaker, testing instrument and a few tools, they casually made their way to the gates and passed through without interference. Once inside they stopped, staggered at the sight before them.
The tunnel opened into a vast cavern, at least eighty yards in width, and the roof at least two storeys high. They were standing on what resembled a mezzanine floor. Two stairways led down to the main floor and between the flights was a large caged industrial elevator. Above them, a huge crane hung from a massive gantry attached to the granite ceiling and walls which ran the length of the cavern. On one side there was a curved panel, many feet in length, which contained switches, dials and numerous video terminals. Attached to the walls were international warning signs depicting radiation.
They quickly made for another electrical distribution board, located close to the main doors which they opened. They then remained there for a short while to check their surroundings. The ruse worked as it had before. Once inside, they were again surprised at what they saw. The only items on the hall floor were cylindrical missile-shaped objects resting on pneumatic wheeled metal cradles. Four had black stencilled letters on them. The fifth was different; it had Cyrillic writing on it, and a red Russian star.
A cold shudder passed through Peace as he realised what these were. He felt Cherry’s fingers digging into his arm.
“My God! Those are the missing bombs!” she hissed.
Their job here was done; they’d seen enough, it was time to get out. Peace closed the distribution board. As he turned around, he saw a man approaching, dressed as they were but wearing a red hardhat with the word HOOF BESTUURDER emblazoned on it.
“Wat is die probleem hierso?[11]” the man asked.
Peace didn’t understand but assumed he’d been asked what was going on.
Cherry stepped in and spoke rapidly in Afrikaans. The man’s eyes widened when he realised she was a woman. He barked something at her and grabbed her by the arm. Peace made an instant decision. He knew he couldn’t leave an unconscious man to be found. He
rammed his pistol in the man’s side.
“Be quiet and don’t make a move!” he said, assuming the man could speak English. The expression on the man’s face turned to one of shock.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Just fuckin’ shut up! Do exactly as I say. Walk ahead of us as though we were a group just going about our work. Make one false move or utter a wrong word, and you’re a fuckin’ dead man.”
“You’ll never get out of here alive. How did you even get in here?”
Peace prodded the man hard with the gun, and the man winced. “Move — and don’t make a sound!”
Slowly they retraced their steps. It was only as they neared the tunnel entrance that they encountered people. One or two even raised their hands in greeting to the manager. Finally, they were outside and climbed the steps alongside the incline towards the prefabricated offices.
They found that the wind had subsided, although it still lifted the occasional dust cloud. When they were out of sight of others, Peace raised the silenced automatic and shot the manager in the back of the head. The man’s body jerked and crumpled to the ground.
“You cold-blooded bastard! Was that necessary? That’s bloody murder,” Cherry blurted, her hand at her mouth and her eyes wide. He’d summarily executed the man.
“What was I supposed to do? Just hit him over the head, so he can later say he found us in the chamber that housed the nuclear weapons? Hell, he was one of the bosses — he deserved what he got. They might know somebody was here, but I doubt that they’d ever think we’d got as far as where the bombs were stored. They’d need to investigate in case it was true and the longer this is delayed, the better.”
Cherry shook her head. “You’re no better than they are. You people have no respect for human life.”
“Jesus, just listen to yourself,” he said disdainfully. “Don’t be ridiculous! Look, this lot was prepared to kill millions — who’s worse?”
“I was never told that we might kill in cold blood.”
“Well, welcome to the new world,” he murmured sarcastically and shrugged his shoulders. “Of course you were told! But you, like all of us at first, chose not to believe it. If you want to work for us, this is what the job entails; you have no choice. Now, forget it, let’s move on. Our position here is compromised.”
Again, using the prefabs as cover, they moved from shadow to shadow, carefully making their way towards the cuts in the fence. No rain had fallen, the clouds had been blown away and the moon was again visible.
The scrub around the airfield had not recently been cleared, and they were able to make their way undetected to the inner steel mesh fence with relative ease. Once, while amongst the prefabs, they bumped into two guards. The men did not stop them, but murmured a greeting in passing, probably because of Peace’s helmet. Before leaving the cluster of prefabs, they returned to where they had changed and discarded their borrowed overalls, boots, and helmets.
Peace carefully undid the wire that held the break in the steel mesh fence together. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a movement in the cleared corridor beyond the fence. Two hyenas loped towards him, whooping as they approached. The animals flew at him, with only the fence stopping them. He stepped back, and as they raised their forelegs up against the fence, four rapids shots followed. They yelped and both fell to the ground. He swung around to see Cherry standing with her automatic in her hand, the silencer still attached to the barrel. She’d done the only thing possible.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
He noticed that her attitude to him seemed to have softened. Whether this was out of necessity given their current circumstances, he did not know.
They clambered through the opening, not bothering to close it, dashed across the open piece of ground, and passed through the outer perimeter fence. They carefully made their way back to the hotel, being careful to avoid contact with any other people. Fortunately, the town seemed deserted. They crept into the hotel through a rear door and before entering the hotel foyer made sure no one was around to see them. They slowly approached the night-desk and found the on-duty guard asleep. The lack of security in the town was in direct contrast to the mine. Silently they passed him and made their way to their room. Hopefully, if they were questioned, no one would ever believe they’d left their room.
“I’m going to shower,” she said and started to remove her clothing.
He grabbed her arm. “You can’t do that. We have to be quiet — very quiet. We’re still asleep; remember? Nobody’s to think we were up at this ungodly hour. Just undress and get into bed. We’ll shower in the morning.”
“I understand.” She looked at the hand that still held her arm. “Am I allowed to pee?”
He chuckled and released her arm. “Only if you do it quietly.”
She returned from the bathroom and appearing oblivious of his presence, stripped to her underwear. He turned away to give her some privacy and heard her get into her bed.
“God, I hate getting into bed like this feeling unwashed,” she said.
He slipped off his clothes and clad only in his Jockeys, began collecting their clothing and boots and squeezed them into a holdall, which he zipped, and put inside a cupboard. She watched him.
“Why do that?”
“I don’t want any obvious evidence around. Who knows, they might snoop around tomorrow morning, or pay us an unexpected visit. Somebody’s going to start investigating soon enough.” He took both automatics and slid them under their pillows on the bed. “Just in case,” he added.
As he made his way to his bed next to hers, she suddenly flung back her bedclothes. He saw that she was nude, noting her perfect breasts with her nipples slightly protruding, and the hint of her dark pubis.
Sweet Jesus, she stripped all the way down when my back was turned.
“So, she relents,” he murmured softly to himself.
“Please, I’m still shocked and frightened. Climb in, and don’t you dare refuse, because if you do then I’ll never speak to you again. I’d be too embarrassed, me coming on to you like this and you rejecting me.”
For a moment, he hesitated. She’d branded him as an unfeeling murderer. Why this? For the first time since he’d met her, she appeared truly vulnerable. He slid under the sheets beside her, immediately aware of the warmth and smoothness of her body against his. He thought she would turn her back to him, but she did not. To hide his surprise, he took her in his arms and kissed her, and she responded immediately.
Finally, their lips parted. “That was sudden. I thought you found me brutal and barbaric. Why the sudden change?” he whispered.
“You won’t believe this, but whenever I’ve survived something like we’ve been through, it just does something to me. I know it’s crazy. It’s like a realisation that I’m a woman, that maybe I shouldn’t be doing what’s really a man’s job. It’s in contrast to my primal instinct of nurturing and care, if you understand what I mean. I need to be reminded that beneath this all I’m still a woman.”
“I thought you said you were scared.”
She giggled and snuggled close. “Damn it! I was terrified! But I’ll say this, I don’t think our bosses really appreciate you. You are what your colleagues believe you are — a cold-blooded, calculating killer which, of course, no one would say to your face.”
He slid his hand over her body. He kissed her neck, his lips then moving down until they found her breast.
“I’ll have to remember that, but then, so are you if the moment demands it,” he whispered.
She moaned slightly as his lips plucked at her hardened nipple. He moved his hand down between her thighs. As his fingers found her, she gave a low groan.
At his touch, she whispered hoarsely, “See, I told you so — beneath it all, I’m a woman.”
Finally, he surrendered himself to the familiar feeling of sexual euphoria.
Chapter Ten
Peace was in a deep sleep when he became aware of someone knocking a
t the door and it took a few seconds to glance at his wristwatch — it was just after seven.
A voice shouted, “Police! Open up immediately!”
He grabbed the bedspread, wrapped it around his waist, and made for the door, swearing loudly and prepared for a verbal confrontation with whoever had dared disturb them. “Coming!” he shouted with what he thought was the right amount of indignation. At the commotion, Cherry sat up in bed and pulled the sheet to her neck, obviously naked beneath it.
Peace flung open the door. “What the hell is the meaning of this, waking us at the bloody early hour?” It was pointless trying to pretend to be anything else but an Englishman.
Two white police officers stood in the passageway in blue uniforms, wearing shorts, long blue woollen socks to their knees, and black shoes. One was a Warrant Officer.
From their reactions it was clear that they had not expected to come upon both a very personal and embarrassing situation. He saw their looks of initial surprise and hesitation as they looked at Cherry who was clearly naked beneath the sheet she clutched to her neck. It was all too obvious what they imagined had been happening, and the officer’s indecision was written over his face.
“Good morning, sir. Sorry to disturb you,” the senior officer said in heavily accented broken English. “Mr and Mrs Sedgwick, I believe? Just a question or two, this is only a routine check.”
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