Heart of the Hunter

The atmosphere in the Ops Room was morbid.

Janina Mentz sat at the big table, trying to keep the tension off her face. They were listening to the cacophony over the radios.

It is chaos up there,

she thought, chaos everywhere, the meeting with the American was chaos, the ride back with the director was not good, and what she found back here was a demoralized team.

Everyone knew of the death of Miriam Nzululwazi now, everyone knew Radebe had gone, everyone knew one of the RU members was badly wounded, and the fugitive? no one knew where the fugitive was.

Chaos. And she had no idea what to do.

In the car she had tried to talk to the director, but there was distance between them, a breach of confidence, and she couldn'?t understand it. Why had his circle of suspicion extended to include her? Or was it a case of kill the bearer of bad news?

Or did the director see all this chaos as a threat to his career? Was he thinking ahead, to explaining this mess to the minister?

She heard the first Rooivalk arriving at the wounded soldier.

She heard Da Costa report in over the radio of the Rooivalk.

Thobela Mpayipheli had hijacked the Oryx.

Her heart sank.

She heard Tiger Mazibuko?s reaction, the cursing tirade.

He is not the right man for the situation,

she thought

.

Rage would not help now. She would have to step in. She was about to get up when she heard Mazibuko call the other Rooivalks. ?The dog is going to Botswana. You must stop him. Get that Oryx.?

One by one, the attack helicopters confirmed their new bearings.

What are you thinking, Tiger? Are we going to shoot down the Oryx, with our people and all?

A terrible choice.

?And get Little Joe to a hospital,? said Mazibuko over the radio.

?Too late, Captain,? said Da Costa.

?What?? said Mazibuko.

?He?s dead, Captain.?

For the first time, the ether was still.

* * *

Vincent Radebe looked at the sleeping child in the sitting room of his Sea Point flat. He had made up a bed on the sofa and put the TV on, skipping through the channels for something suitable.

?I don'?t want to watch TV? said Pakamile, but he couldn'?t keep his eyes off the screen.

?Why not??

?I don'?t want to go stupid.?

?Stupid??

?Thobela says it makes people stupid. He says if you want to be clever, you must read.?

?He?s right. But it?s too much television that makes you stupid. We are just going to watch a little bit.?

Please, Lord,

he prayed silently

let me keep the child occupied, let him go to sleep so I can think.

?Just a little??

?Just until you go to sleep.?

?That must be okay.?

?I promise you it will be okay.?

But what do you let a child watch?

And there, on one of the SABC channels, was a series on a pride of lions in the Kalahari and he said, ?This will make you clever, too, because it?s about nature,? and Pakamile nodded happily and rearranged himself. Vincent had watched as sleep drew an invisible veil over the boy?s face, slowly and softly, till the eyes fell shut.

Radebe switched off the TV and the sitting-room light. The one in the open-plan kitchen he left on so the child would not be bewildered if he woke up in the night. He stood on the balcony and thought, because it was a horrible mess.

He would have to tell him his mother was dead.

Sometime or other. It was not right to lie to him.

He had to get the boy clothes. And a toothbrush.

They couldn'?t stay here; Mentz would find out that he had collected the child, and she would take him away to that little room.

Where could they go?