The Prey (24 page)

He nodded. It was part of the deal they’d struck over two more rounds of drinks at Lion Plains.

Cameron had unknowingly set the whole thing in motion when they had emerged from the mine. Cameron and Chris had carried Luis to a waiting ambulance, before the police had time to speak to him. ‘When you get to the hospital, tell them you work for us,’ Cameron had whispered to the barely conscious Mozambican.

Cameron had called into the Mediclinic at Nelspruit the next day, once he had finished giving a detailed statement to the police. Luis had undergone surgery, but the bullet had passed through the flesh above his left hip, missing his vital organs, and the doctor predicted he would be released within a week.

Luis had been in a panic after the operation, and pleaded with Cameron for a legitimate job with Global Resources, not at Eureka but at any other mine. Cameron had told him that while he was happy to continue the charade with the hospital so that Luis’s medical expenses were covered, he was realistic too: there was no way he could give Luis a real job.

Cameron had thought that was the last of it, until he’d taken Luis’s call at the lodge the night before. Luis had talked quickly and urgently: there had been two alarming developments. First, Wellington Shumba had found out where Luis was and was threatening to kill him, and second, which seemed of even more concern for Luis, his wife was on her way from Mozambique to visit him.

Luis’s cover had been blown when he’d been spotted shuffling down the Mediclinic corridor by one of the four badly injured
zama zamas
who the police had pulled from the rubble of the collapsed tunnel in Eureka. Although there was a police guard on their ward, the men must have had a way of communicating with Wellington, as a nurse had delivered a telephone message to Luis’s bedside that read:
I will see you back at work as soon as you are released. W
. Luis had explained the unwritten threat in the note. He knew too much about Wellington and his illegal pipelines in and out of the mine. The Zimbabwean could not afford to have Luis at large, or in police custody. Luis promised that if Cameron offered him a job, somewhere far from Barberton, he would tell him and the police all he could about Wellington’s operations.

Luis’s contact with his wife had been via letters sent to a post box at Barberton, which was cleared by a legitimate miner above ground, who then added Luis’s mail – mostly letters from his wife and son – to the regular shipments of contraband carried underground to the
zama zamas
. The miner, who had become something of a friend to Luis, visited him in hospital to bring him his latest mail. To Luis’s horror, the last letter from his wife revealed she was travelling by
chapa
from their home far in the north to the border post at Ressano Garcia, where she expected to leave the Mozambican minibus taxi and transfer to a similar vehicle on the South African side at Komatipoort and make it to Barberton by the next day.

Cameron had heard Luis out, and then promised him that he would discuss his requests with his superior – Kylie – and call him back that night.

‘I’m not giving in to blackmail,’ Kylie had said, over yet another drink. ‘We can’t offer him a job at any of our mines – word would get back to the union too soon about his background. He’s admitted he has had direct contact with your people at Eureka.’

Cameron had liked how she had said your people’. He did still think of himself as manager of the mine, whatever the politics and whatever she and Jan wanted to call him. ‘You’re right. He can’t expect us to help him, and only tell us what he knows about Wellington if we give him a job. We could turn him over to the police.’

‘We probably should,’ Kylie had said.

‘But he did save our lives by taking a bullet from that sentry,’ Cameron said. Suddenly, through his drunken haze, the answer came to him. ‘The reward!’

‘What reward?’ Kylie asked.

Chris had sunk into one of the lodge’s deep armchairs and his head was lolled back and his eyes closed.

Cameron snapped his fingers. ‘Six months ago I posted a reward of a hundred thousand rand for information that led to the breaking up of the
zama zama
gang at Eureka. None of my guys came through with any information; they were all obviously too scared of Wellington to give him up, or worried the legitimate miners supplying the
zama zamas
would get them if they gave information that ended the smuggling.’

‘So?’ Kylie asked. The alcohol was slowing her uptake.

‘So, I didn’t specify that it had to be a Global Resources employee to claim the reward. If Luis gives us the dirt on Wellington, then he’s entitled to the money. It’s not a fortune, but it might be enough for him to get back to Mozambique and set himself up in some sort of business.’

Kylie looked dubious. ‘He’s a criminal, Cameron.’

Cameron had shrugged. ‘So what? Plenty of criminals collect rewards for spilling the beans on each other, and plenty do deals with the police and prosecutors to avoid being convicted. We’d be offering Luis the same thing.’

And Luis had gone for it.

To Cameron’s surprise it had been Kylie who had come up with the idea of staging a meeting for Luis and his wife at the Eureka offices. Cameron had laughed at the prospect and now that it was happening it still put a smile on his face. Kylie had a heart after all. She winked at him as Luis walked, still a little painfully, arm in arm with Miriam to the boardroom.

Chris was there, as were Hannelie, Coetzee, Casper and Roelf, all of whom Cameron had confided in.

‘Thanks everyone for coming, and for those of you who don’t know her from her picture, allow me to introduce Miriam Correia to all of you.’

Miriam looked embarrassed by the attention paid to her, but smiled and nodded greetings to the rest of the team.

‘I’d like now to hand over to Global Resources’ head of health, safety, environment and community, Dr Kylie Hamilton.’

Cameron sat and Kylie stood. In front of her was a picture frame glass-side down.

‘Thanks Cameron, and thanks everyone for making time to join us here for what is a very sad, but also happy moment for Eureka. Sadly, Luis met with Cameron yesterday and, quite unexpectedly, tendered his letter of resignation from the company as chief metallurgist at Eureka.’

Cameron saw Miriam’s eyes widen as she turned to her husband. Luis put a hand on her arm to quieten her for the time being.

‘While this was a sad moment for us, Luis’s reason for leaving touched our hearts. I hope I’m not embarrassing you, Luis, when I explain to the rest of the team that your prime reason for leaving was your love for your wife and son. Many miners spend long periods away from their families and sometimes those relationships suffer. No one will begrudge you wanting to go back to Mozambique and I am sure you’ll be very happy being back home on the coast at Inhambane.’

Miriam was grinning. Cameron had wondered if she would be angry to see her husband lose his supposedly well-paid job at Eureka. Cameron had no idea how much Luis had made from Wellington’s illegal underground mine, but he guessed it had not been a fortune.

‘As you’re all aware,’ Kylie continued, ‘Luis was injured by a gunshot during the rescue of our colleague Chris, just a week ago. He put his life on the line to protect others who were taking part in the rescue operation. As Luis hasn’t been with us long enough to claim any retirement benefits, and is leaving us of his own volition, he isn’t strictly entitled to much more than some accrued holiday
leave, but in recognition of his bravery and the injury he’s suffered, I’d like to, on behalf of the company, offer him a small token of Global Resources’ esteem and a certificate of appreciation for his bravery underground. Please step forward, Luis.’

Luis winced as he stood, clasped his wife’s hand, then let go of it. Kylie shook his hand as she handed over the framed certificate and then an envelope.

Cameron saw Luis was too embarrassed to say anything. He opened the envelope when he sat down, and passed it to Miriam. His wife put her hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp when she read the amount on the cash cheque. Cameron looked at Kylie and winked at her. She smiled at him.

‘W
ellington’s buyer is an Arab named Mohammed,’ Luis said.

Kylie sat back in the boardroom chair and folded her arms. Miriam was in Luis’s ‘office’ reading a magazine and drinking a cup of tea. It was time for her husband to live up to his end of the bargain. ‘Come
on
, Luis. You’ve got to be kidding. You have to give us more than that. An Arab named Mohammed?’

He nodded. ‘I am sorry. I know they meet sometimes in Malelane.’

‘Where?’ Kylie asked.

Cameron explained: ‘It’s a small town north of here, on the N4, not far from the Mozambican border. It’s based around cane farming and it’s a shopping stopover for people coming from Mozambique to South Africa or vice versa. But Kylie’s right, Luis, we need more than that.’

Luis nodded and sipped from a glass of water. ‘I think this Mohammed comes from Mozambique, or takes the gold there. Wellington has also sometimes been there to meet him; I’ve heard Wellington bragging about … well, bragging about being with people and having fun in Maputo.’

Kylie was touched by his modesty. If Luis had been present at some of the conversations she’d had with miners in Australia – mostly
started with the aim of embarrassing her as the only woman present – his toes would curl. ‘What sort of people does he like to “be” with?’

Luis shifted in his chair and looked to Cameron, who gave a slight nod of his head. Luis took a deep breath, then finally looked at her. ‘He rules by fear and he enforces this fear by taking what he wants, who he wants. He will “be” with whomever he wants at that moment – the women the miners would sometimes smuggle down, even young ones, even men if he wishes. I heard things, terrible things down there.’ He closed his eyes.

‘I’m sorry, Luis,’ Kylie said.

He opened his eyes and looked into hers. ‘Please tell me, Dr Hamilton, that you are not thinking of going after him.’

Kylie chewed her lower lip. Her gut instinct was that Luis was a decent man who was genuinely trying to repent for his life of crime, but there was no way she was going to tell him what she intended to do, partly because she didn’t know. She was beginning to understand what had made Cameron defy her orders and Jan’s and set off on his one-man vigilante mission. The police here were useless, his own bosses were sitting on their hands, and this bastard Wellington had killed one of his men, kidnapped another and was laughing at him. ‘That would be a matter for the relevant authorities,’ she said.

Luis interlaced the fingers of his hands and studied them for a few moments. He seemed to be deciding, Kylie thought, whether to continue telling them what he knew. She thought it would be best to say nothing, and let him fill the void. She glanced at Cameron whose rough-hewn face was immobile. He was quite a good-looking man, in a craggy sort of way. Luis exhaled. ‘You were right about how he transports the gold. There are crossing points between Swaziland and Mozambique where the gold is moved by one vehicle, then carried through or under the fence, and then loaded onto another.’

‘How does he get it across the border from South Africa to Swaziland?’ Kylie asked.

‘Underground?’ Cameron ventured. Luis nodded his assent, so Cameron continued, for her benefit. ‘There are old tunnels that date back decades, perhaps a hundred years even, linking mines in South Africa and Swaziland.’

‘Yes,’ Luis confirmed. ‘But do not ask me where they are, because I was never shown. Wellington compartmentalised the operation and only he and Ncube knew how all the pieces fitted together. Originally the Lion would use men to carry the gold part of the way to Swaziland, then others would meet them there. The ones on the South African side would never be able to find the escape holes on the Swazi side, and those on the Swazi side would likewise not be able to find their way into the heart of the operation at Eureka without Ncube or one of the porters. Lately, though, he has been carrying the gold himself.’

‘What are you going to do now?’ Cameron asked Luis.

He shrugged. ‘I cannot stay here, I must leave as soon as I can.’

‘Will you go back to Mozambique?’ Kylie asked.

Luis put his glasses back on. ‘I think that is best. Your gift – please do not think I am ungrateful – will only go so far here in South Africa. In Mozambique my family has land. It is not much, but perhaps I can buy some seed and some tools and go back to doing what my ancestors did, living off the land, or fishing.’

He wasn’t playing them, Kylie thought, just telling it as it was. He had broken the law and was in South Africa as an illegal immigrant. In her country he would be scooped up and put in a detention centre before being deported. At least this way he was going home with something in his pocket. Still, she thought, it was a shame that they couldn’t use his knowledge and experience. If it leaked out that Global Resources was employing ex-
zama zamas
with no work papers they would be in even hotter water with the unions and the government than they were over the air quality results. ‘Is there anything else you can tell us about Wellington?’

‘Yes, Dr Hamilton. I will tell you to be careful.’

*

Two doors down from the boardroom, Chris checked his computer clock for the tenth time in three minutes. There was a sound like a bubble popping up on the surface of water and he felt a corresponding surge of adrenaline.

Safarigirl43
is online, said the small pop-up on the screen. He maximised the chat window and saw she had written
Hi
and nothing else.

Just got here myself
, he lied to her. He didn’t want her to think he had been sitting here, like Pavlov’s dog, waiting for her permission to drool.

Ja, right, lol
, she typed.
You’ve been waiting for me, haven’t you?

She had his measure, and more. He was sure she was as addicted to him, and to all this running around, as he was to her. He just didn’t want to show it. He couldn’t let it become so encompassing that he would make a mistake.