helicopters of the bad 1980s.
Their satisfaction was due in large part to the content of the giant hangars: twelve almost brand new AH-2A Rooivalk attack helicopters, impressive air platforms with nose-mounted 20 mm cannon that could fire 740 rounds per minute and the capacity to carry up to sixteen air-to-ground missiles such as the ZT-35 laser-guided antitank missile. And on the wingtips were fittings for the Darter air-to-air missiles to lie snug. Add the Rooivalks electronic warfare capability, the fully integrated HEWSPS (Helicopter Electronic Warfare Self-Protection Suite) with radar warning, laser warning, and countermeasures system and the pilots felt they were the only ones in the South African Air Force with twenty-first century technology between their legs, which was their regular joke in the officers? club over their Red Heart rum and Coke.
The call came at 21:59 from General Ben van Rooyen at air force headquarters for two Rooivalk helicopters with extra fuel tanks for an extended operating range of 1,260 kilometers, to take off for Beaufort West as part of a real-life operation (and not the simulated warfare of the past thirty-six months). The biggest dilemma of the Sixteenth Squadron?s commander was how to explain to the pilots and gunners who were not chosen how he had made his choice.
?How is it possible that MK has no record of him, Rahjev? If she is right and he was in Russia and Angola, how is that possible??
?Ma?am, we don'?t know. We can only look at what is in the databases and analyze it, that?s all.?
?What is the probability that an MK member is not on record??
Rajkumar pulled at his ponytail hanging over his shoulder with a plump hand. ?Hell, ma?am ? fifteen percent??
?Fifteen percent.?
?Round about.?
?If there were ten thousand MK soldiers, as many as fifteen hundred are not on record??
?Not on electronic record.?
?If there were fifty thousand, are seventy-five hundred just missing??
?Yes, ma?am.?
?But they might be in the files in Voortrekkerhoogte??
Radebe answered: ?I think the odds are greater that they will find him in the Voortrekkerhoogte files.?
?How long before we hear??
?An hour or two. They have three people searching the archI'ves.?
?And the Boers? microfiche library??
Radebe pulled up his shoulders. ?It depends how strongly the orders from above came through.?
She did a circuit of the room. To be dependent on others was a great frustration. She shook it off.
?What is a motorcycle gofer doing with a consultant at Absa?? Janina asked the Ops Room in general.
?Tell me I can scratch around in the Absa system, ma?am. Please?? Rajkumar stretched his interlaced plump fingers in front of him, cracking his joints in anticipation.
?How much time do you need??
?give me an hour.?
?Go for it.?
?Yeah, yeah, yeah!?
?What is the situation on the road?? she asked Radebe.
?The tollgate says no big bikes have gone north tonight? a few came through south, but no black man. We are working through Police Head Office. They say the local law enforcement and petrol stations as far as Touws river have been alerted. They are phoning Laingsburg, Leeu-Gamka, and Beaufort West now. But if he doesn'?t take the N 1 ?
?He will.?
He nodded.
She looked at them. They were keen to please.
?Are we making progress with the people that helped Kleintjes with the computer integration??
?There is a transcript coming, ma?am.?
?Thank you.?
So much careful planning. So much exception management. Long, careful months of fitting the gears one by one into this clock. And now it must all change, thanks to one middle-aged motorbike gofer.
10.
Miriam Nzululwazi lay on the double bed in the dark room, hands folded on her chest, eyes turned to the ceiling. She did not hear the familiar sounds of Guguletu at night, the eternal barking of dogs, the shouts of groups going home from the shebeen, their last fling before the week began again, the revving of a car engine in a backyard repair shop, the insects, music somewhere only audible in bass, the sigh and creak of their house settling for the night.
