Does it Hurt to Die (11 page)

Halfway into the flight he was unable to suppress his curiosity any longer. He had put his briefcase under his seat, not wanting to let it out of his sight, and despite the protests of the hostess had managed to keep there. In the seat to his left, close to the window, was an old white impeccably dressed Afrikaner woman, a rich farmer’s wife he guessed. When she reached towards the front pocket to examine the magazine provided by South African Airways, he partly opened the briefcase. Inside he could see the plain brown manila folder that Stein had given him. With one finger, he spread the briefcase for a better view. What then caught his eye in the middle of the folder was a South African Government official stamp with CLASSIFIED written in large letters and
‘president’s committee only’ stamped across the bottom. Never having seen anything like it before, Jannie was uncertain as to what he should do. If Stein had passed it to him surreptitiously, it might be quite dangerous to have it now in his possession. He wondered briefly whether he should return this to someone like Jacob Strydom without opening it further. The only problem he could see was that if he did, BOSS might think he was conspiring with Stein. Perhaps he had better get rid of it.

From the airport, he drove straight to Groote Schuur, drawn by a curiosity about the contents of the folder. He knew his mind would not rest until he grasped what was in there and could then formulate a strategy of how to deal with it. While he had considered destroying the folder, he knew its contents might also be an advantage. His office was situated on the second floor of the old Groote Schuur building, and it was mid afternoon when he arrived. He quickly parked his car, not bothering to use his designated parking space. That was one of the privileges of being the head of department; he could park anywhere without objection. He quickly phoned Renata to let her know that he would be late for lunch.

As he walked from his car to the front entrance, Mannie greeted him with a loud, cheery hello. Mannie was a middle-aged coloured man with grey speckled black hair. He had been a porter at Groote Schuur for as long as Jannie could remember. His good humour was usually infectious and brightened everyone’s day, but this evening Jannie was distracted by the folder and hardly responded. He walked up the stairs to his office thankful for some exercise after sitting for the last couple of days. Entering his office, he switched on the lights and put the briefcase on the desk in front of him. He deliberated whether he should open it. After a few moments of staring at the briefcase, he got up and locked the door. Then he took the folder carefully out of his briefcase and noted a single loose-leaf attachment, which was a typed letter from Stein.

I had been considering for some time my involvement in the project that has been codenamed Chalet. This is the cooperative agreement between Israel and South Africa to develop nuclear weapons and weapons systems that will deliver nuclear warheads. South Africa’s position as a threatened nation has been used as an argument to have a nuclear deterrent. Up until this point, I had agreed to participate and use my influence believing that it was a necessary part of our survival. The most recent decision to pursue Israeli Jericho missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads, provides the potential for significant devastation of surrounding countries, given the aggressive nature of the current government. I can no longer in good conscience therefore sanction this approach, which includes a preliminary strike. I am in the process of considering whether to release these documents, but I’m fully aware of what happened to the Israeli agent who wanted to inform the world about Israel’s nuclear programme. Israel has never been able to conduct open nuclear tests due to a covert agreement with the United States. There has been hypocritical approbation from the United States, whereby as long as Israel did not openly advertise its possession of nuclear weapons or publicly tested them the United States would tolerate and shield their nuclear programme. South Africa, in many ways, then, was an ideal partner whereby nuclear weapons could be field tested and observed without the United States’ condemnation of Israel. In exchange for supplying both Israel and Taiwan with yellow cake uranium that Israel required to develop its nuclear weapons, Israel agreed to supply the Jericho missiles as a delivery system. From Taiwan would come the red mercury that would be used as both an igniter and propellant in the missile systems. This was signed as a tripartite treaty, a copy of which is enclosed titled ‘Segrement’. I believe the world has a right to know the catastrophic potential which exists, through what I believe has become an uncontrolled unholy alliance. To whoever I may entrust this folder, I hope it is used in a way that may bring peace not only to my spirit but to those who may be devastated by the inhumanity of something immoral.

Jannie wished he had never read the letter. Stein had enormously complicated his life by passing his conscience on to him. He was mortified. This was not something that he knew how to deal with and was disappointed with Stein for trying to handball this to him. He wondered briefly whether he should just send the whole thing back to him. While thinking about this he quickly glanced to see what else was contained in the folder. Under CLASSIFIED and TOP SECRET, he saw a list of subsections.

1.              ARMSCOR

2.
              Enriched Uranium/suppliers

3.
              Jericho Missiles

4.
              Nuclear Fusion/Fission development programme

5.
              Red Mercury

6.
              International Arms Agreement

7.
              Covert treaties

8.
              Chemical/biological and germ warfare programmes

9.
              Genetic Research

10.
              SAA Helderberg

His interest was first drawn to the medical section with its details of the presentation on germ, chemical and industrial response to the outside threat of terrorism. As he skimmed through this, he realised that this was what the summary that had been presented by Dr Theo Krueger had been based on. It went into far more detail on the experimentation on groups in Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania and South West Africa. It documented the success of five research programs with infective agents. Krueger had presented a sanitised summary leaving out some of the more disastrous results, where chemical agents had killed groups of twenty or thirty as well as the people distributing the chemical agent.

Shocked as he was at the experimentation in the medical section, it was the other sections that gripped his attention more. The section dedicated to ARMSCOR, the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, detailed the manufacture and procurement of arms in South Africa despite international sanctions. Jannie remembered how during the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties South Africa had relied on arms imports mainly from Great Britain. With the United Nations Security Council passing a resolution in 1967 to prohibit all countries from supplying arms to an apartheid government, a solution had had to be found to produce them locally. Not only did ARMSCOR now produce arms to circumvent the arms embargo but also moved on to all kinds of weapons systems, including aircraft. All were now clearly being built in South Africa with the continued assistance of foreign countries that politically opposed the apartheid regime. Also in the folder were details of the alliance and support of the other nations, in particular Israel, Taiwan and the Philippines. Meetings of all the representatives were minuted, including the observer status of some members of the US Congress and log details of the export of arms and munitions between all four countries. These were details that the world was not privy to and which all the representatives and governments listed had denied any involvement in. It was information that would not only be hostile to the apartheid government but also would be internationally embarrassing if released. Perhaps that is what Stein was intending to release before he lost his courage.

Jannie read on quickly, finding a section on nuclear arms/weaponry and delivery systems. It was divided into subcategories such as raw materials, uranium enrichment, waste disposal, red mercury, delivery systems (missiles), and field trials. Appended was a section on SAA Helderberg, a South African Airways passenger aircraft that had crashed into the Indian Ocean. Also appended was a copy of an agreement between the two defence ministers of South Africa and Israel that detailed both governments’ plans to cooperate on nuclear weapons and germ/biological warfare.

Having read this far, he decided to delve no further into the information; it troubled him greatly having access to such information. He knew that having this information threatened not only his life but that of his family. If the security forces had any suspicion that he had the folder, they would assume that he knew the contents. He resolved to bury the folder with the other half of his genetic research in the back of the garden.

The death of Martyn Stein, not long after Jannie received the folder, caused him briefly to consider whether he should present it at the next meeting of the president’s committee. However, at the next committee meeting he was reassured by Van der Walt that Stein’s death had been secondary to an attempted robbery and so he had thought little more about it. However, something disturbed him about Stein’s death coming so soon after he had talked to him and been given the folder. While he presumed that Van der Walt had no idea that Stein had passed the folder on to him, over the next few weeks he had the feeling that he was under observation. There had been a number of conversations in which Van der Walt had directly asked whether Stein had given him anything during their ride to the airport, but he had always denied that. However, when he thought about the break-in that had occurred shortly after Stein gave him the folder, when the whole house at Wynberg was trashed, it caused him to think that perhaps they did not believe him. The police had blamed it on thieves, although Jannie remembered it was very unusual that pictures were pulled off the wall and the roof entered. That did not seem to happen in simple robberies that he had heard of.

His thoughts on everything that had happened with Van der Walt and BOSS were interrupted as he saw Renata pull up outside the hospital. He checked to make sure the two large envelopes he had put together in hospital were still in his bag. He picked up the bag as Renata walked in and greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.

‘Nice to see you standing up without any intravenous lines,’ she said, smiling.

It took about twenty minutes to get to their house in Wynberg. They did not talk much other than how Christian was handling things; politics was by tacit agreement off the agenda. When Renata pulled up at number forty-nine, Jannie looked at the white Cape Dutch cottage wondering how close he had been to not ever seeing it again. While he waited, Renata came around and opened the door of the car for him and took his bag. He hobbled up the steps to the front door and could hear the spaniels excitedly scratching at the door from inside. As he opened the door, they jumped up and began sniffing all around his feet, curious as to the bandage and the antiseptic smells around his injured ankle.

Jannie closed the door and put his bags down in the front bedroom. He sat and thought about Van der Walt’s threat but was still uncertain about whether he should tell Renata about his involvement with BOSS. Then he heard the phone ring.

‘
Just checking to see whether you made it home OK and whether you need anything,’ said Mike McMahon.

‘
Mike, I’m fine, other than this damn plaster cast. But can you come around and see me? There’s something I need to discuss with you.’

‘
If this is about the transplant, Jannie, you know that that has gone well. Sibokwe is now eating and the publicity has been very positive, especially given the terrorist attack on the church.’

‘
No, Mike, it’s not about the transplant; Susannah has updated me on that. It’s something more urgent that I need to discuss.’

‘
I can make it later this afternoon once my anaesthetic list is finished, if that’s OK?’

‘
I’d appreciate that, Mike. See you later.’

He busied himself with unpacking, considering whether he should discuss anything with Renata and then deciding he would ask Mike’s opinion first. He left his clothes on the bed knowing that
Lucy would put them away and that she would have left lunch for him in the fridge. Renata appeared in the bedroom doorway as he finished placing his clothes on the bed.

‘
So, Mike’s coming over and you’re going to talk to him before me,’ she said, the disappointment obvious in her voice.

He started to say something, but Renata cut him short
. ‘I thought the shooting might have changed you but obviously not. I hope Mike can help you through your anger. I’m going out. Lucy is picking up Christian and will be back shortly.’

Jannie heard the front door close and wondered briefly whether he should not have at least told her something. He walked down the hallway to the kitchen and found the salad that
Lucy had left him in the fridge, although by the time he had put it on the table he didn’t really feel like eating it. He picked at it with his good hand thinking about what he needed to tell Mike. He decided the big armchair was what he needed to relax in. He thought about the folder he had buried in the back garden and whether he should retrieve it and find a more secure place to hide it in. As he considered the alternative, whether he could trust Mike with the retrieved folder and information, he drifted off to sleep.