The lieutenant laughed. ?We will get him, Captain. You?'ll see.?
Fourteen kilometers south of Koffiefontein the Gatsometer gave its fine electronic scream and the officer closed the book in one flowing motion, checked the speed reading, stood up, and walked into the road. It was a white Mercedes-Benz, six or seven years old. He held up his hand and the car immediately began to brake, stopping just next to him. He walked around to the driver?s side.
?Afternoon, Mr. Franzen,? he greeted the driver.
?You got me again,? said the farmer.
?A hundred and thirty-two, Mr. Franzen.?
?I was in a bit of a hurry. The kids forgot half their stuff on the farm and tomorrow is rugby practice. You know how it is.?
?Speed kills, Mr. Franzen.?
?I know, I know. It?s a terrible thing.?
?We?ll look the other way this time, but you must please respect the speed limit, Mr. Franzen.?
?I promise you it won?t happen again.?
?You can go.?
?Thank you. Cheers,
Quinn motioned for everyone to keep quiet before he allowed Monica Kleintjes to answer. She had a headset on, earphones and microphone, and then he pressed the button and nodded to her.
?Monica Kleintjes,? she said in a shaky voice.
?You have a lot of explaining to do, young lady.? Lusaka. The same unaccented voice of the first call.
?Please,? she said.
?You gave the drive to the guy on the motorbike??
?Yes, I??
?That was a very stupid thing to do, Monica.?
?I had no choice. I ? I couldn'?t do it on my own.?
?Oh, no, Monica. You were just plain stupid. And now we have a real problem.?
?I?m sorry. Please ??
?How did the spooks find out, Monica??
?They ? the phone. It was tapped.?
?That?s what we thought. And they?re listening right now.?
?No.?
?Of course they are. They are probably standing right next to you.?
?What are you going to do??
The voice was still calm. ?Unlike you, my dear, we are sticking to the original deal. With maybe a few codicils. You have forty-eight of the seventy-two hours left. If the drive isn'?t here by then, we will kill your father. If we see anything that looks like an agent in Lusaka, we will kill your father. If the drive gets here and it is more bullshit, we will kill your father.?
Monica Kleintjes?s body jerked slightly. ?Please,? she said despairingly.
?You should know, Monica, that your daddy is not a nice man. He talked to us? with a little encouragement, of course. We know he is working with the intelligence people. We know he tried to palm off bullshit data. That?s why we ordered the real thing. So here?s the deal for you and your friends from Presidential Intelligence: if the motorbike man does not make it, we kill Kleintjes. And we?ll give the bullshit drives and the whole story of how they abused a pensioner to the press. Can you imagine the headlines, Monica? Can you??
She was crying now, her shoulders shaking, her mouth forming words that could not escape her lips.
And then everyone realized the connection was broken, and the director was looking at Janina Mentz with a strange expression on his face.
26.
He was doing nearly 180 when he saw the double tubes of the Gatsometer on the road in front of him and grabbed a handful of brakes and pulled hard, a purely instinctive reaction. The ABS brakes kicked in, moaned; one eye on the instrument panel, one eye on the tubes, still too fast, somewhere around 140, he saw the man run over the road, hand raised, and he had to brake again to avoid contact, realizing it was traffic police, one man, just one man, a speed trap. He must decide whether to run or stop, the choice too suddenly on him, the causality too wide; he chose to run, turned the throttle, passed the traffic officer and one car on the right, under the tree, only one car; he made up his mind, heart in his throat, and pulled the brakes again, bringing the motorbike to a standstill on the gravel verge. It didn?'t make sense, a lone traffic cop, one car, and he turned to see the man jogging toward him, half apologetic, and then he was standing there, saying, ?Mister, for a minute there I thought you were going to run away.?
For the first time she felt fear as she climbed the stairs with the director to his office.
In that moment when he had looked at her in the Ops Room, something had altered between them, some
