The Colour of Gold (35 page)

The floodlights
in the car park flickered on as the daylight faded. van Wyk felt
the two bulky stun grenades that he was carrying in the pockets of
his trousers. They had been most uncomfortable, continually
dragging down his trousers and forcing him to tighten his belt by
two notches which made things even more uncomfortable as his STAR
PD single action ,45 was tucked into his belt in the small of his
back and it pressed painfully against his spine wherever he moved.
Silently he cursed the war that they were fighting to save the
country from communism. What on earth made the kaffirs think that
they could run the country better than the whites did? They
couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery, but now they wanted to
show the whites how the country should be run. All they would do is
fuck up the whole place and then the whites would have to step in
and fix everything. Kaffirs couldn't build things; all they could
do was break things. They should be grateful for what the whites
had done for them ever since van Riebeek landed in the Cape. They
now had schools and some of them even had electricity and running
water and there was plenty of work for them on the mines. Well, if
he came across these terrorist bombers he would be sorely tempted
to kill the bastards even though the Captain had told him not to do
anything else but report their presence.

Van Wyk watched
the two cleaners disappear into the Plaza. He moved across the area
until he was in a position to watch them. They put down their
equipment and began mixing the cleaning liquids in one of the
buckets. Once this was done they began to slowly clean the floor.
Lazy bastards! Van Wyk thought. At the rate they were working it
would take them a whole year to clean the complex.

Just then he
heard someone whistle. He turned and saw a man holding up a coin in
his hand. He hurried to the shopper.

"I shouldn't
give you a tip." the man said angrily. "You're supposed to be
watching over our cars and you're daydreaming instead. Did I wake
you up?"

Van Wyk was
just about to tell the man what he could do with his tip when he
remembered that he was on duty and had to behave like a subservient
car park attendant.

"Sorry, sir."
he said. "It's been a long day and I was watching some
suspicious-looking men who might have been intending to steal a
car."

"Yea, right."
the man said and walked away to his car.

Warrant officer
van Wyk walked back to where he had been standing watching the two
cleaners. To his surprise they were no longer there. That's
strange, he thought. Surely they couldn't have finished the whole
area in such a short time. He reached for his two-way radio.

***

Shadow and
Isaiah mopped the floor at entrance three in the Oriental Plaza.
They had just hidden the plastic bucket containing the bomb in a
metal rubbish bin that was unlikely to be emptied until the
cleaners arrived the following morning, and were preparing to leave
the complex. As they placed their equipment against the wall of the
entrance area Shadow glanced into the interior of the shop next to
where he and Isaiah were standing. The shop was a tailors and he
was surprised to see the Indian owner still at work at the back of
the shop. He turned to Isaiah.

"Okay, let's
get out of here." he whispered. "There's no point in staying here
any longer."

Isaiah nodded.
"Shouldn't we take the equipment with us?"

"Yes, I suppose
we should." Shadow replied. "If we leave it here it may raise
suspicions and cause the police to search the place."

As the two men
began to gather up their equipment Shadow looked out of the
entrance towards the car park and froze with shock. A yellow police
van had just screeched to a halt in the car park opposite the
entrance and armed policemen in camouflage dress were climbing out
of the back. He turned quickly and looked back into the Plaza.
Three white policemen, two in uniforms and one in plain clothes and
holding automatics in their hands were standing watching them.
Shadow could also see that the men held what looked like stun
grenades in their other hands. A movement next to him attracted his
attention and he saw the Indian tailor step out of his shop pulling
a wheeled suitcase behind him and turn to lock the door of the
shop, completely unaware of what was happening near him.

Realising that
they were trapped, Shadow put his hand inside his overalls and
pulled out his 9mm Smith and Wesson M39 single action automatic and
moved quickly to the unsuspecting Indian. He put his left arm
around the man's throat and pushed the automatic roughly against
the man's head. He swung the man around to face the advancing
policemen who were beginning to move towards the entrance to the
complex.

"Get behind me
Isaiah!" Shadow shouted. "We're trapped! Take your gun out and face
the policemen behind me!"

Isaiah assessed
the situation instantly. He withdrew his automatic from under his
overalls and moved quickly to stand behind Shadow waving his gun
menacingly at the three policemen.

"Move back or
the Indian dies!" Shadow shouted at the policemen in the car
park.

The policemen
stopped and stared at the two black men and their hostage,
uncertain of what to do.

The plain
clothed policeman behind Shadow, obviously the officer in charge,
tucked his automatic into his belt and stepped forward, raising his
hands in front of him. Shadow glanced over his shoulder as the man
began to speak and a vague sense of recognition that he had seen
the man somewhere before filtered into his memory.

"You'll never
get away!" the white policeman said. "You're completely surrounded!
Let the hostage go and throw down your weapons!"

"Never!" Shadow
shouted. "We don't care if we die, but if we do, the Indian dies
with us! We have no fear of death and we're happy to die for our
cause and for our people!"

Shadow looked
back at the men in the car park.

"Move back and
let us pass!" he shouted. "If you try to stop us the Indian will
die!"

The policemen
hesitated, unsure of what to do.

"Move!" Shadow
screamed. "Get out of our way!"

Behind him he
heard the police officer's voice.

"Move back,
men!" the man shouted. "Move well back and don't try and apprehend
them."

The men in
camouflage uniform moved away slowly and Shadow could hear them
muttering angrily. Holding the Indian firmly around the neck Shadow
spoke to Isaiah.

"Take hold of
my shoulder with your left hand and walk closely behind me and
watch the three bastards behind me. Watch them very carefully
because they are the real danger to us and if they look like
they're going to do something shoot them."

Slowly Shadow
moved out of the Plaza, his arm firmly around the terrified
Indian's neck. Isaiah followed, watching the three men in the
complex warily and waving his automatic menacingly.

The two black
men and their hostage moved slowly across the car park until they
reached the street. Shadow glanced quickly over his shoulder. The
policemen were following them at a considerable distance, their
weapons at the ready.

"It's no use
following us!" Shadow shouted. "You are aggravating the situation!
We are prepared to die and we will kill the Indian if we have
to!"

"Please let me
go!" the Indian tailor pleaded. "I've done you no harm!"

"Even if I
wanted to let you go, I cannot." Shadow said. "You were in the
wrong place at the right time. As long as we have you we will
survive. It's up to our enemies whether you live or die. It's not
our decision. Just do as we say and you'll live."

The policemen
continued to follow Shadow and Isaiah at a distance and they had no
doubt that there were other policemen watching them from the side
streets and from the rooftops of the nearby buildings but as long
as they had the Indian they were safe. The police and the
government couldn't risk and international outcry if the hostage
was harmed.

"Once we get to
the car we'll get the hell out of here." Shadow said to Isaiah.
"Bogdan is going to have to prove to us that he's as good a driver
as he claims to be. If he is then we should be able to get away
successfully. The police will try to follow us but I don't believe
that they'll try to stop us. As long as we have our Indian friend
were safe."

The two black
men and their hostage moved as quickly as they could through the
streets, their shadows moving from behind them to in front of them
as they passed under the street lights. In the distance Shadow
could see the dark blue BMW with Bogdan sitting in the driver's
seat. As they get closer he could see that Bogdan was watching them
in the rear-view mirror and hopefully assessing the situation. As
they reached the vehicle the engine burst into life. Shadow opened
the back door of the car and shoved the Indian into the interior,
following him quickly and slamming the door closed. Isaiah hurried
around to the front passenger's door, opened it and climbed in. The
car pulled away, its tires screeching as they tried to grip the
tarred surface of the road.

"Get going,
Bogdan." Shadow said, urgency making his voice shake. "Show us just
how good a driver you are. We had to take a hostage and I've no
doubt the police are ready to follow us. We've got to lose them
quickly. Get to Soweto as quickly as you can. Once we're there go
to the safe house but stop about two blocks from it. Then we'll
walk the rest of the way.

Bogdan nodded
as the car accelerated along the streets, swerving around the
evening traffic in front to them and sliding around the corners. At
times Isaiah was certain that they were going to smash into other
cars or roll as they careened around the corners but Bogdan's
driving skill prevented this every time. They reached the freeway
to Soweto and hurtled towards the dark city. Both Shadow and Isaiah
stared out of the rear window anxiously but they could not see any
vehicles that appeared to be following them. The Indian hostage sat
cowering on the back seat too terrified to do anything.

"I don't see
anyone following us." Shadow said. "I don't think that the enemy
allowed for a hostage situation."

The speeding
car reached the turnoff to Soweto and Bogdan slid the vehicle
expertly onto the off-ramp and into the dark rutted dirt streets of
the black city.

"I think we've
lost them." Shadow said with a nervous grin.

Bogdan was
forced to slow the car. He switched off the headlights and drove
with the parking lights on. The car bumped and swayed over the
uneven streets.

Although the
three black men couldn't see any police vehicles following them,
what they also couldn't see was the police helicopter hovering high
above then in the night sky and monitoring their progress with
night vision equipment.

***

"Right, men."
Captain Tiaan Botha said to the four policemen as they stood in the
operations room at the Brixton police station. They were dressed in
camouflage outfits and carrying FN FAL automatic rifles and hand
grenades. The Captain was also dressed in a camouflage uniform but
only armed with an automatic pistol and two stun grenades. "From
the helicopter that followed the terrorists we now know exactly
where they are in Soweto. Apparently they dumped their car and
walked two blocks to number sixty nine Embo Street in Zone One in
Diepkloof."

The policemen
listened attentively.

"The main house
is a brick dwelling but there's a small shack made of wood and
corrugated iron sheeting at the back and it's my guess that the
bastards are in the shack. We'll move into the target area quietly
and assess the situation but there'll be a Casspir on standby. As
soon as we've surrounded the shack we'll identify ourselves and
call on the bastards to surrender. It's very important that we get
that Indian hostage out alive. If the bastards won't surrender, and
I don't think that they will, we'll cause a distraction and I'll
try to sneak up behind them and lob a stun grenade into the shack.
If we can do this we'll move in quickly, rescue the hostage and
kill the kaffirs. Any questions?"

The four men
shook their heads. They'd done this type of operation many times
before and all of them had notches on the wooden stocks of their
weapons that recorded the number of blacks that they had
killed.

***

Shadow, Isaiah
and Bogdan stood inside the tiny wooden shack behind the house in
Embo Street, their faces grim in the light from the single white
candle standing on the small wooden table in the centre of the
room. Each of them was armed with an AK47 and their automatic hand
weapons.

"Are you sure
that you know how to use an AK47?" Shadow asked Bogdan.

"Yes." Bogdan
replied. "Isaiah spent some time earlier today showing me how it
works, but I've never actually fired it. Don't worry though. When
the time comes to use it I won't let you down."

The Indian
hostage sat slumped on one of the kitchen chairs next to the table
and stared up at the three men, his face filled with anxiety.
Shadow turned to the terrified man.

"What's your
name?" he asked.

"Bala Desai."
the man replied. "Please let me go. You don't need me any more.
You've escaped from the police, haven't you?"

"Unfortunately
Bala, we had no option but to take you hostage." Shadow said.
"Although none of us is scared to die we have to fight our enemies
with whatever we can and never give up. If we'd surrendered at the
Plaza we would have ended up being tortured and shot or hanged. We
will win the struggle eventually, even if we have to die in the
process. The white man cannot keep us down forever."

"Please let me
go." Bala repeated. "You really don't need me now. I've got a wife
and a little girl. What will they do without me?"