The Colour of Gold (34 page)

"Excellent!"
Shadow said. "Now, the second thing we need to discuss is something
that I read in one of the newspapers. Apparently the authorities
want to try to attract more shoppers to the Oriental Plaza shopping
centre in Fordsburg so they're arranging for a group of dignitaries
to visit the Centre in two weeks time. Amongst the dignitaries will
be some top police security experts who will be there to assure the
public that the complex is adequately protected. What I want to do
is place a bomb in the Centre a day or two before the visit by the
dignitaries. We'll place it somewhere where it will do a lot of
visible damage but not endanger anyone's life. In that way we'll
get a lot of publicity for the struggle."

"Good idea."
Isaiah said. "Who'll be in the team?"

"You, me and
that chap Bogdan." Shadow said. "He will drive the car and you and
I will place the bomb. We'll do it late in the afternoon just
before the Centre closes and we'll set the bomb to explode at
midnight. What we have to do though, is work out how to get the
bomb into the Plaza and where we'll place it. Perhaps we can use
two of your disguises."

"Yes." Isaiah
said, grinning. "That will be fun."

***

Bala Desai
stepped off the train at Lenz station and dragged his new wheeled
suitcase filled with newly altered and mended clothes towards the
exit gate. Because of his injury he had had no option but to
abandon his old suitcase and buy an expensive one with wheels that
allowed him to drag if along behind him. It was already nearly
eight o'clock in the evening and the coaches of the train had been
packed, forcing him to stand for the entire journey. The wound in
his stomach was still painful at times and after the long day that
he had just got through it felt as if his stomach was on fire. He
gritted his teeth and began to trudge along the dusty street to his
little house. The wheels of the suitcase were small and this caused
problems on rough uneven roads of Lenasia causing Bala to walk
slower than normal to prevent the suitcase falling over.

As Bala walked
along the dusty street towards his home his mind went back to the
first day that he'd gone back to his shop when he considered his
wound sufficiently healed. The backlog of alterations had been
depressing but he had set to work with a will, grateful that he was
able to work at all and determined to reduce the backlog as quickly
as possible. To do this and not disappoint his customers he had
decided to work an extra two hours every evening after he closed
the shop at five o'clock. Working this extra time meant that he
always got home well after dark and sometimes, if the trains were
delayed, after his beloved Salona had gone to bed. Fortunately the
streets of Lenasia weren't as dangerous as those in Soweto where
gangs of child psychopaths roamed throughout the night killing and
maiming anything that moved.

Fatima had been
wonderful during his stay in hospital, working at her sewing
machine at home while also cleaning the house, doing the washing
and ironing, cooking meals and looking after Salona. On top of all
this she still found time to visit Bala at the hospital every day.
He shook his head in wonderment. He felt incredibly humbled to have
such a willing and dedicated wife who never complained, was always
cheerful and supported him in everything that he did.

Now, ten days
after he had returned to work, the backlog had been reduced to a
more manageable level and the income that the business was
generating was covering his expenses. He sensed that his customers
had understood his predicament and made allowances and as a result
he and Fatima had gone out of their way to satisfy their needs.

Bala was also
pleased to read in the newspaper that a group of dignitaries,
including some high-ranking police officers would be visiting the
Oriental Plaza shortly in an effort to promote the complex. The
paucity of shoppers at the Plaza was very worrying to all the
tenants, especially as the complex itself was very attractive with
a pleasant laidback atmosphere and plenty of free parking. It also
had a large variety of retailers and styles with a decidedly Indian
origin.

Bala reached
his home and entered through the front door, dragging the suitcase
across the floor and parking it in one corner as his beloved Salona
came running to him.

"Daddy!" she
shouted excitedly. "You're home!"

Bala picked up
the little girl and hugged her tightly.

"So, how's my
precious little girl?" he asked.

"We went to do
some shopping today and mommy bought me this!" Salona said, showing
Bala a beautifully beaded bracelet.

"Wow! That is
beautiful!" Bala exclaimed. "And what else did you do today?"

"I helped mommy
do the washing and while she was sewing on her machine I swept the
kitchen floor with the broom." Salona said.

"My, but you
have been busy!" Bala said as Fatima walked into the lounge from
the kitchen where she had been preparing their supper. He put
Salona down gently and hugged his wife.

"How was your
day, my dearest?" she asked. "You look tired. Has your wound been
worrying you? Come and sit down in the kitchen while a get our
supper ready."

"It's still a
bit painful, especially later in the day." Bala said. "But it's
getting better every day. But, if all goes well, I should have
everything at the shop back to normal by the end of next week."

"That will be
nice." Fatima said as she began dishing their food onto the plates.
"Then you can go back to working normal hours. I worry so about you
travelling back on the train in the dark."

"It's a little
safer on the trains now." Bala said. "The Railway Company has begun
deploying more guards on the trains. There have just been too many
attacks lately for them to ignore the situation any longer. There
was even a protest march in Soweto a few days ago. But, how was
your day?"

"Busy." Fatima
said with a smile. "As Salona told you, we went shopping this
morning. It's nice to see that more and more shops are opening in
Lenasia and more and more people are settling here. I still miss
Pageview though. There was such a lovely closeness amongst the
people there that we don't have here."

"Did you see
any one that we knew in Pageview?" Bala asked.

"Yes. I met old
Mister Cajee." Fatima said. "It's so sad to see how he has
deteriorated. His clothes are old and shabby, he doesn't shave
regularly so his beard is shaggy and it looks as if he doesn't even
bother to comb his hair anymore. He hardly recognised me when I
spoke to him and we were neighbours for quite a long time. I think
that he still misses his friend Mister Dhupelia very much as well
as all his other friends and neighbours from Pageview."

"Yes." Bala
said with a sigh. "The older one gets the more difficult it is to
adjust and cope with change, especially the traumatic changes that
the government has forced on our people."

***

"The visit to
the Oriental Plaza by the group of dignitaries is scheduled to take
place in two days time." Captain Tiaan Botha told Brigadier van
Tonder as they sat in his office. "The mayor of Johannesburg will
be the main dignitary and there will be representatives from the
Department of Trade and Industry as well as Generals Piet Byleveldt
and Jan Geldenhuis. I've already got men covering the whole area
around the complex in plain clothe disguises and several snipers on
some of the roofs of the surrounding buildings. They have strict
orders not to engage with the enemy until I give the order though.
It's vital that we take these bastards alive. The bomb will
probably be in a suitcase, a cardboard box or a plastic shopping
bag. The Yugoslav Vodnik informed me s few days ago that the enemy
planned to make another four bombs and that he had ordered the
necessary parts. I then supplied him with four faulty detonators.
Assuming that they use one, the bomb that they plant should be of
little concern to us and we can focus on capturing the
bastards."

The Brigadier
nodded.

"But how do you
plan to capture them?" he asked. "They're bound to be heavily armed
and will very likely fight to the death."

"Yes, that's
the difficult part." the Captain said. "The whole exercise is
pointless unless we can take them alive and force them to reveal
who their superiors are. If we're going to kill them, then we might
as well do it now."

"So what are
you going to do?" the Brigadier asked. "We can't continue with this
operation without a definite plan."

"The only way
that we can subdue them with a minimum of injuries to them is to
use stun grenades and electroshock guns." Tiaan said. "But the
timing will have to be perfect and we have to be really close to
them and immobilise them quickly when this happens. I've supplied
each of my men with two stun grenades, a stun gun and a two-way
radio. The guys will work as a team. As soon as the enemy team is
detected my men will gather around the group and, at a given
signal, will saturate the area where the enemy is so as to totally
immobilise them."

"You're quite
right when you say that the timing will have to be perfect." van
Tonder said. "If the bastards realise what's happening before it
actually does happen, you could have a bloodbath."

"Yes." Tiaan
said. "The men have been practicing the procedure for almost a week
now and they all have effective disguises so I think that we can
pull it off."

"What about
backup?" van Tonder asked.

"We'll have two
cars on standby in case they manage to make a break." the captain
replied. "I s there any chance of a chopper being on standby?"

The Brigadier
grimaced.

"It all depends
on what's happening at the time." he said. "There are always
helicopters on standby but I can't give your operation priority.
We'll just have to hope that nothing else is happening at the
time."

CHAPTER
13

"I've
reconnoitred the Oriental Plaza over the last few days." Shadow
told Isaiah and Bogdan as the sat in the kitchen of the little safe
house in Soweto. It was almost midnight and the three men had
agreed to spend the night in the shack rather than risk being
caught by the killer children who roamed the streets at night.
Isaiah had arrived at the house disguised as a South Africa
Railway's guard with a khaki uniform and cap while Bogdan wore a
priest's robe.

"All the shops
close at five o'clock and, although the Centre stays open until
ten, there are very few people there: mainly people window
shopping. I've given a lot of thought to what we should put the
bomb in. A suitcase is too obvious as is a plastic shopping bag. We
need something that won't look too conspicuous."

"What about
delivering a parcel to the manager just before closing time?"
Bogdan suggested. "Then it's likely to be left there until the
following morning."

"That might
work." Shadow said. "But the manager may not accept the parcel.
What I think that we should do is that Isaiah and I go to the Plaza
disguised as cleaners. The real cleaners are contracted to the
Plaza and do the cleaning early each morning. Bogdan, can you get
us two of the cleaning company's overalls?"

"Easily."
Bogdan replied. "Just give me the name of the company."

"Okay." Shadow
said. "So, this is what I think we should do. We'll park the
getaway car about two blocks from the Plaza and Isaiah, you and I
will walk to the complex dressed in our overalls with buckets, mops
and cleaning liquids. In the bottom of one of the buckets we'll
hide the bomb under cleaning rags and bottles of cleaning fluid
while the other bucket will have another bucket inside it. We'll
thus be able to leave the Plaza with two buckets, having hidden the
bucket with the bomb in it. Bogdan, you'll stay in the car with our
AK47s. Any questions?"

"Won't the
police be suspicious if a cleaning team arrives in the evening
instead of in the morning?" Bogdan asked.

"I don't think
so." Shadow said. "The police obviously work in shifts so the
police on duty in the late afternoon are unlikely to know about the
early morning cleaners."

"Only two
cleaners for the whole complex?" Isaiah asked.

"No. We'll
pretend that we're only cleaning the entrance areas." Shadow said.
"There are only five entrances so we'll start at number one and
move through the entrances until we come to entrance five and leave
the bucket with the bomb in it somewhere along the line."

Isaiah and
Bogdan nodded in satisfaction.

"It should
work." Isaiah said.

"Okay, so
that's the plan." Shadow said. "Bogdan will get the overalls,
Isaiah will get the buckets, mops and cleaning fluids and I'll
arrange for a car and the AK47s. We'll hit the Oriental Plaza at
five thirty and be out of there by seven."

***

Warrant Officer
Petrus van Wyk, disguised as a parking attendant, watched the two
black men dressed in dark blue overalls and each carrying a white
plastic bucket, a broom and a mop walk across the car park towards
entrance one of the Oriental Plaza in Fordsburg. It was half past
five and the car park was almost deserted. van Wyk sighed. It had
been a long boring day and he looked forward to relaxing in the
little pub at the Brixton police station where he was currently
based. Looking out for a group of kaffirs carrying a suitcase or a
plastic shopping bag into the Plaza was difficult to do while at
the same time directing shoppers in and out of their parking spots.
He shook his head in disgust. If you needed someone to guide you in
and out of a parking space you shouldn't have a drivers licence.
After all, how difficult was it to park a car?

The only people
that van Wyk had see carrying suitcases, plastic shopping bags and
cardboard boxes had been leaving the Plaza; not going into it. The
Captain had said that there was a possibility that the complex
would be bombed by the black terrorists. Well, he thought, let them
do it. The Plaza was for Indians, not for whites, even though he
had seen quite a lot of white shoppers going into the building. Let
the kaffirs blow the place up. The more Indians we get rid of the
better, he thought.