'Personally, I prefer the new Egyptian creations,' said an indifferent Daggat.
'What is it you wish to discuss?' asked Lusana.
Daggat came straight to the point. 'If I may be frank, General, the only reason you put on this dog and pony show tonight was in the hope of conning me into exerting my influence with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on behalf of the AAR. Agreed?'
Lusana could not conceal a cornered look, but he remembered to be courteous. 'My apologies, Congressman. I did not mean to be so obvious. Yes, I did hope to persuade you to lend your support to our cause. But a con job? No way. I am not fool enough to attempt to stuff cotton in the ears of a man with your reputation for shrewdness.'
'So much for preliminaries. What's in it for me?'
Lusana stared at Daggat with fascination. Such directness was hardly what he'd expected. His plans called for a more circuitous seduction. Now he was caught off guard. An out-and-out request for graft left him stunned. He decided to play coy in order to gain time to think.
'I miss your point, Congressman.'
'No big deal, really. If you want me on your team, it's going to cost you.'
'I still don't understand.'
'Cut the jive, General. You and I came from the same gutter. We haven't shoved aside poverty and discrimination to get where we are without picking up any smarts along the way.'
Lusana turned away and slowly, meticulously lit a cigarette. 'Do you wish me to open the negotiations with an offer for your services?'
'That won't be necessary. I already have a… ah… figure in mind.'
'Please name it.'
A smile lifted the corner of Daggat's lips. 'Ms. Collins.'
Lusana looked up, puzzled. 'And a very comely figure at that. But I fail to see what she — '
'You give me Felicia Collins and I'll see to it my committee votes favorably on funding an arms program for your revolution.'
Felicia leaped to her feet, her mahogany eyes ablaze. 'I don't believe this.'
'Consider it as a small sacrifice on behalf of a noble crusade,' said Daggat sarcastically.
'Hiram, for God's sake,' she snapped, 'tell this turkey to pack up and ship out.'
Lusana did not reply immediately. He gazed down at his lap and brushed off an imaginary piece of lint from a razor-creased pant leg. Finally he spoke in a soft voice. 'I'm sorry, Felicia, but I can't allow sentimental feelings to enter into this.'
'What crap! ' She stared at him, her expression devoid of belief. 'You're both mad, raving mad, if you think you can pass me around like a bowl of grits.'
Lusana rose and came over and brushed his lips across her forehead.
'Do not hate me.' He faced Daggat. 'Congressman, enjoy your spoils.'
Then he walked from the room.
For a long moment Felicia stood there, her face a study in mixed hostility and confusion; then understanding came and her eyes filled with tears. She made no protest, no gesture of resistance, as Daggat gently pulled her close and kissed her.
'You bastard,' she whispered. 'You rotten bastard. I hope you're satisfied.'
'Not quite yet.'
'You've won your pound of flesh. What more do you want?'
He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed her misting eyes.
'You forget,' he said, grinning sardonically. 'You still owe me a dollar.'
21
Pieter De Vaal closed the report folder on the Fawkes-farm massacre. His face was drawn and tired as he looked up. 'I'm still shocked by this dreadful tragedy. It was so senseless.'
Fawkes remained impassive. He sat across the desk from the Defence Minister and tamped the tobacco in his old pipe. The room fell silent; only the muted noise of Pretoria's traffic seeped through the large windows overlooking Burger Park.
At last De Vaal slipped the folder into a drawer and avoided Fawkes's eyes as he spoke. 'I regret that our patrols failed to catch the savages who were responsible.'
'Only one man was responsible,' said Fawkes grimly. 'The men who slaughtered my family were acting under his orders.'
'I know what you are thinking, Captain Fawkes, but we have no proof that Lusana was behind this.'
'I'm satisfied he was.'
'What can I say? Even if we knew for certain, he is beyond our borders. There is no way we can touch him.'
'I can touch him.'
'How?'
'By volunteering to lead your Operation Wild Rose.'
De Vaal could sense the vengeful hate that seethed within Patrick Fawkes. The Defence Minister rose to his feet and stood at the window, gazing over the sea of jacaranda trees that quilted the city. 'I sympathize with your feelings, Captain. However, the answer is no.'
'But why, man?'
'Wild Rose is a monstrous concept. If the operation failed, the consequences would prove disastrous to our government.'
Fawkes rapped his pipe on the Minister's desk, snapping the stem. 'No, dammit! My farm was only the opening thrust. Lusana and his bloody mob have got to be stopped before the whole country runs red.'
'The risks far outweigh the possible benefits.'
'I won't fail,' Fawkes said coldly.
De Vaal looked like a man torn apart by his conscience. He paced the room nervously, then stopped and stared down at Fawkes. 'I cannot promise to evacuate you successfully when the times comes. And the Defence Ministry will, of course, deny any association with the venture if you are uncovered.'
'Understood.' Fawkes heaved a great sigh of relief. Then a thought occurred to him. 'The train, Minister. How was it you traveled from the operating room in a Durban hospital to the Pembroke rail yard so quickly?'
For the first time, De Vaal smiled. 'A simple ruse. I went in the front door of the hospital and out the back. An ambulance carried me to the Heidriek Air Base, where I took a military jet to an airstrip near Pembroke. The train belongs to our President. I merely borrowed it for a few hours while it was traveling to a scheduled overhaul.'
'But why the complicated illusion?'
'I often find it necessary to cloud my movements,' De Vaal answered. 'And, I think you'll agree, Operation Wild Rose is not exactly a product we want to advertise.'
'I see your point.'
'And you, Captain Fawkes. Can you drop from sight without prodding suspicious minds?'
Fawkes nodded solemnly. 'I've left Umkono under a cloud of grief. My friends and neighbors think I've returned to Scotland.'
'All right, then.' De Vaal moved behind his desk, wrote on a slip of paper, and passed it across to Fawkes. 'Here is the address of a hotel ten miles south of the city. Check into a room and wait for the necessary papers and instructions to get the ball rolling. As of this moment. the government of South Africa considers you dead.' He relaxed his shoulders. 'God help us now.'
'God? No, I don't think so.' An evil light began to dance in Fawkes's eyes. 'I sincerely doubt he'd want any part of it.'
On the floor below the Minister's office Colonel Zeegler sat alone in an operations room and paced back and forth in front of a large table stacked with glossy photographs.
For the first time in his military career he was totally baffled. The raid on the Fawkes farm had an aura of intrigue about it that did not fit the usual terrorist scheme. It was accomplished with too much precision and sophistication for the AAR. Besides, it was not Lusana's style. Granted, he might order the deaths of white soldiers, but he would never condone the murders of Fawkes's Bantu workers, especially the women and children. That part
