nor Kleintjes has moved.
?There are two surveillance teams with her and one in Guguletu, with him. The Reaction Unit is on its way from Bloem-fontein and should land at Ysterplaat any minute now. They will stay there until we have more information. That, people, is how things stand.?
She turned off the video.
?Now we must jump to it. Radebe, we have only one man in Lusaka. I want four more. With experience. The Gauteng office is closest and they have enough of the right kind of people. Preferably two men and two women who can book into the Republican Hotel as couples. Discreetly and certainly not at the same time, but I?ll leave that to you. Get your phone systems running. Quinn, we need to intercept the calls to the Nzululwazi home in Guguletu. Urgently. Rajkumar, bring in your team. I want to know who Thobela Mpayipheli is. I don'?t care what database you fish in; this is absolute priority. Right, people, go, go, go. Twenty minutes, please, then we are rolling.?
Tiger Mazibuko was last one off the Falcon. He let the members of Team Alpha go first, watching them, white, black, brown, each with his own story. Da Costa, sinewy descendant of Angolan refugees with the knife scar on his cheek and a five o?clock shadow on his jaw. Weyers, the Afrikaner from Germiston with bodybuilder?s arms. Little Joe Moroka, a Tswana raised on a maize farm at Bothaville, spoke seven of the country?s eleven official languages. Cupido, the shortest, the most talkatI've, a colored town boy from Ashton with a Technikon diploma in electronic engineering. Even a ?token Royal,? as Zwelitini, the tall, lean Zulu, liked to call himself, although he was not a member of the king?s family.
They stood in line on the runway. The Cape summer breeze blew softly against Mazibuko?s cheek as he dropped to the tar.
?Offload now. Hurry up and wait. You know the drill.?
At the front door he put his arms around her, pressed her thin body against him, smelled the woman smell, the faint remains of shampoo and scent after a long day, the aromas of the kitchen and that unique warmth that was special to her.
?I will have to stay over in Johannesburg,? he said softly in her ear. ?I can only catch a plane to Lusaka tomorrow.?
?How much money did she give you??
?Plenty.?
Miriam did not comment, just held him tight.
?I?ll phone as soon as I get to the hotel.?
Still she stood with her face in his neck and her hands around him. At last she stepped back and kissed him quickly on the mouth. ?Come back, Thobela.?
Janina phoned home from the privacy of her office. Lien, the eldest, picked up. ?Hello, Mamma.?
?I have to work late, sweetie.?
?Maaa ? You promised to help me with biology.?
?Lien, you?re fifteen. You know when you know your work well enough.?
?I?ll wait up.?
?Let me talk to Suthu. She must sleep over, because I won?t get home tonight.?
?Ma-aa. My hair tomorrow morning.?
?I?m sorry, Lien. It?s an emergency. I need you to help out there. You?re my big girl. Did Lizette do her homework??
?She was on the phone the whole afternoon, Ma, and you know how those grade sevens are. ?Did Kosie say anything about me? Do you think Pietie likes me?? It?s so childish. It?s
She laughed. ?You were also in grade seven.?
?I can?t bear to think of it. Was I ever like that??
?You were. Let me talk to Lizette. You must get some sleep, sweetie. You need to be fresh for the exam. I?ll phone tomorrow, I promise.?
5.
The taxi dropped him off outside Departures; he paid, took his bag, and got out. How long since he had last flown? Things had changed; everything was new and shiny, to make a good impression on the overseas tourists.
At Comair he bought a ticket with the cash Monica Kleintjes had handed him in a stack of new hundred-rand notes. ?That?s too much,? he had said. ?You can bring me the change? was her response. Now he wondered where the money had come from. Did she have time to go and withdraw the cash? Or did the Kleintjeses keep that much in the house?
He sent the bag through the X-ray machine. Two pairs of trousers, two shirts, two pairs of socks, his black shoes, a jersey, his toilet bag, the remaining cash. And the hard drive, small and flat, technology that was beyond him. And somewhere in the electronic innards were unmentionable facts about this country?s past.
He didn?'t want to think about it, didn?'t want to be involved; he wanted to give the stuff to Johnny Kleintjes, see him safe, come home and get on with his life. So many plans for himself and Miriam and Pakamile, and then he became aware of the two gray suits behind him, the instinct a relic from another life, a muted warning in the back of his mind. He looked back, but it was just his imagination. He took his bag and checked his watch. Thirty-three minutes to boarding.
?What should we do?? asked Quinn, looking expectantly at Janina with his headphones pulled down.
?First I want to know where he?s headed.?
