“Thank you Rolf, you and your father are always too kind.”
“Not at all. Is there anything else we can do?”
“Well actually, there is a helicopter full of soldiers in a park about one and a half miles from here, most of them will be fairly badly injured, you couldn’t grab them also?”
“Already done. We have them all, you already asked.”
“Of course, I’m sorry. There’s been so much going on. Great, thank-you.”
“I can’t wait to hear the story. We have to go now as the officers we bribed will need to come back shortly.”
“Thanks again Rolf, I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
Lela ran over, she had been retrieving Pieter’s phone. She gave Rolf a huge hug and thanked him profusely.
As Rolf and his men left with their excess baggage, Kisho turned to Tom and asked, “Who, exactly, was that?”
“That was Rolf.”
“And who is he?”
“He is the son of the king of the South African underworld,” replied Tom.
“How do you know him?”
“My father has a lot of interests in South Africa and before they sorted out their problems, we were having a lot of problems with gangs and violence. Despite being an underworld boss, Rolf’s father is a very honourable man. He does not deal in drugs but concentrates on gambling and money laundering. He says he makes more than enough money on that. It was getting to the stage that my father was going to have to close down most of his businesses in South Africa. Rolf’s father heard rumours that my father was going to pull out and so contacted my father to ask why. My father explained that the companies’ losses were directly attributable to violence against his staff, armed robberies and corruption. It got to the stage where he couldn’t sleep at night for fear that his staff may be injured or even killed. Rolf’s father explained that the effect of Alba International moving out would be devastating to the economy and a large number of decent families would suffer. My father flew down to meet him and they agreed that Rolf’s father would organise security and secure our businesses if my father made a commitment to keep the companies in South Africa. They agreed and my father was delighted with the results. The companies flourished and as a gesture of thanks, my father gave him a 10 % stake in his South African businesses. It’s all done through offshore businesses but it’s his and it’s legitimate. My father reckons that Rolf’s father is one of the least corrupt and most honourable men he’s ever met and they’ve been friends ever since. Bizarre but true.”
Chapter 56
Reaper was feeling very uneasy. It had been over an hour since he had heard from either Pieter or Tom. For this mission to be successful, he had to have both Tom and Lela in his possession. Without them, he seriously doubted whether Donald would do what was required when the time came. With his son and surrogate daughter in a room with a knife to their throats, he knew that he would do whatever they asked.
His phone rang. It was not Pieter but Tom.
“Oh my God, it’s a disaster, they’ve all gone,” said Tom almost crying on the phone.
“What’s happened?” Reaper said.
“The soldiers, they snuck behind us and they had a fight with your men.”
“What happened, where are my men?”
“I don’t know. There was a huge battle and Lela and I just got out of there in time. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“OK, where are you now?” Reaper didn’t know what to do. If he didn’t get the kids, his plan and his life were over.
“We’re in the main terminal. There are lots of people here and hopefully nobody will find us.”
“Wait there. I’ll try to get hold of my man on the ground,” said Reaper.
As he went to make his call, a breaking news story came on TV.
“Violence in Johannesburg International Airport leaves fifteen dead. A gang war erupted this evening in a baggage hall at South Africa’s largest and busiest airport. The information we have is sketchy but it appears that the authorities are unsure about what caused the dispute or how the rival gang members managed to clash in a secure area of the airport. What is clear is that at least fifteen men are dead and at least one other seriously injured. The injured man is unconscious and the authorities do not expect him to regain consciousness for some time. They do not know who the injured man is but have released a description of him in the hope that if anybody knows him, they may be able to help the police with their enquiries. He is a large man, six foot four inches and weighs around 250lbs. He has blonde hair, a distinctive scar across his right eye and a tattoo on his right forearm of a lion roaring. Anybody recognising this man is asked to come forward and help police with their enquiries. Back to our main story. The hostage crisis…”
The news broadcast had just described Pieter. He had ten men with him and Tom had told him there were five soldiers, that was fifteen men in total, fifteen were dead and Pieter was unconscious. What the hell had happened, these bloody kids were a death magnet and very bad news.
Reaper went back to Tom, who was holding on the line.
“I’ve just watched a breaking news story. It appears everybody is dead,” he said coldly. “Now that leaves me with a problem, I need you two back here. I have some other men who should have arrived just after you.”
“Oh God, that must have been the helicopter that ran out of fuel a miles and a half from here. There was a helicopter crash not long ago. If they were in the same chopper as us, I’m not surprised, we landed on fumes.”
“WHAT!” Reaper could not believe how such a simple thing, picking up two young kids, could cause such devastation. So far, over thirty men had died trying to capture Tom and Lela and at least twenty five of them were highly trained and skilled operatives.
Tom had to pinch himself to stop laughing, the man was apoplectic with rage. Tom’s plan had worked perfectly. He would ring Paula later to thank her. Her parents owned the largest media group in South Africa and she had managed to release the fastest press report in history. The release was perfect. The fact that nobody had died in reality and that the mercenaries were enduring a rather unpleasant stay in South Africa, courtesy of Rolf’s father, was neither here nor there.
Reaper calmed down. “I will make this simple. If you’re not at the gates of your house within the next twelve hours, your mother dies.”
“Well you better just kill her now,” said Tom.
“WHAT?” This kid was really getting to him. He was really going to enjoy killing him.
“We’re about 6,000 miles away from you. Even if we boarded a plane now, which we can’t, we could not get there in 12 hours.”
“So when can you be here?” Reaper said almost giving up.
“We have no passports. That’s a major hurdle and we have missed the last flight tonight. The BA flight left at 9.20 p.m. and it’s now 9.30 p.m. local time…”
“So when can you be here, just answer the question!” Reaper was fuming.
“There is an Albair flight tomorrow afternoon at 5.00 p.m. that would get us into Glasgow at 2.30 a.m.”
“What!! That is over 24 hours away. You must be able to do better than that. I’ll call you back.” Reaper hung up and turned to his communications man. “Find me the quickest route from Johannesburg to Glasgow from now.”
Two minutes later, he phoned Tom back.
“There is a flight in three hours via Nairobi. That will get you here tomorrow evening,” announced Reaper.
“And what do you want us to do about not having passports. Tell them that, due to a hostage situation, we were unable to travel with our passports so please let us on or they’ll kill our parents?” Tom replied sarcastically.
