CHAPTER SIXTEEN

We arrived in Christiana just after midnight. There were three police vehicles waiting for us at the Engen garage where we had arranged to meet. Yekani was in one of the vehicles and got out to greet us as we arrived.

''I've brought twelve men attached to the Recce's team from the army. Handpicked, I'm assured that they are the best. We cut off the entrance and exits to the only two roads leading to and from the farm. There is little traffic on those roads at this time of the night and little pebble is the only farm in the area so we have managed to isolate it. I'm told that three vehicles have been stopped and detained since the roadblock was set up. The police manning the roadblock have removed all cell phones from the occupants in all three vehicles so we are hoping that no messages have got through to the house but of course there are no guarantees. We have been told that there are approximately ywenty Vietnamese living on the premises. The house is massive and has a number of outbuildings. None of the people detained have admitted so far to seeing two blond boys but again that is no indication that they are not on the premises. Sam you will lead the team. They have been fully briefed on the mission. He looked at me- Shirley I am not happy that you're going – this may be an extremely dangerous exercise. I don't have to tell you that if those boys are on the property there is going to be a fight.'

I nodded. I couldn't tell him that I had a bad feeling about this. 'I will stay with Clem. I am waiting for the dogs to arrive. You may need them to track down the boys.'

He put his arms around Sam first and then me. 'Go well guys. Please be careful.' Clem also came up to us with tears in her eyes and hugged us. Words were unnecessary.

Yekani introduced us to the Recces- It was obvious that they were the best. I could see the steely grim determination and alertness in their eyes.

Fifteen minutes later we found ourselves at the roadblock.

There were five Metro police manning the first road. Two large trucks had been pulled over and were parked on the side of the road. The Senior Metro officer who introduced himself to us as Mac, told us that there were two occupants in each vehicle. Not one of them had ventured any information regarding the farm. The information had come from the second roadblock situated about five minutes away.

Sam asked all four occupants to exit the trucks. They were all Vietnamese. 'I'm going to keep this short and sweet. We have reason to believe that there are two blond six-year old boys being held hostage on the farm. I don't have to tell any of you what the penalty for aiding and abetting kidnappers is. I promise you all that you do not want to be in a South African jail convicted of a child kidnapping case. I will give you five minutes to discuss what to do amongst yourselves and if you still wish to maintain a silence so be it. You will he held here until we have completed out business on the farm and if we find the boys you will be charged accordingly.'

While Sam had been briefing them I studied them intently. They were not going to crack. I just knew that they feared their masters far more than the prospect of a South African jail. I whispered my thoughts to Sam who scowled at me. He knew I was right. Five minutes later one of the men came back and told us that they had nothing further to add. They were merely employees of the farm owner whose name was Pham Tho and their job was to transport maize from Lesotho to Botswana. They all lived on the premises but were not allowed to ever go into the main house and consequently had no idea what was going on, if anything.

Sam dismissed them – thanked the Metro Officer for a job well done and told them that if they hear any shooting they were to leave the area, go back to Christiana and take the four Vietnamese leaving the trucks behind.

We then left for the next roadblock.

There was only one truck parked at this roadblock. There were four Metro officers who confirmed that one of the two occupants in the truck had provided the information on the number of men in the house. The senior officer motioned the occupants to get out of the truck. One of them was Vietnamese. The other we immediately recognised as being the Somalian that had kidnapped the boys. Bingo! We were close now. Sam told two of the Recces to take the Vietnamese into the bush – he didn't want him to hear what the Somalian had to say.

'You are in big trouble, my man. Better that you spill every bean you can to save your sorry ass. We know that you kidnapped those two boys, where are they'?

Two of the Recces went and stood next to him. He recognised their cold stares. He could recognise a well- trained soldier probably better than Sam and I could.

'I had no option,' he said in perfect English. 'My son is being held hostage on that farm,' he said spitting in its direction.' They took my son. To get him back, I had to bring the boys here.'

'That doesn't make sense,' I said. 'Why did they not abduct the children themselves? Why get you to do it.'

'They couldn't take the risk. If the truck was stopped on route and the fingers pointed to them they would lose all of their South African and Lesotho businesses. They needed a decoy.'

I still had a number of unanswered questions but they could wait.

'Tell us about the farm. Where are the boys?' Sam said.

'I don't know, I presume my son is with them, that's why they made sure I had no idea where they were taken to. All I can tell you is that they are not in the main house. This Vietnamese guy,' he said, motioning to the bush, 'is my permanent guard. He sleeps outside my room which has no windows. He goes everywhere with me. You arrived just in time, I am supposed to leave this morning at five am with the boys and two Vietnamese escorts for Botswana. I have not been briefed yet as to whom I must hand them over. My minder and I had just been to Christiana to fill the vehicle and buy provisions for the road when we were stopped by the roadblock. I am sure that they know that something has gone wrong because we were supposed to be back on the farm two hours ago. They are sticklers for time-keeping so they may have sent their scouts out to look for us. There is a tracking device on all of the trucks.'

I knew then that we were in trouble. 'Are the children drugged,' I asked.

'Permanently,' he said. 'They give them some type of drug that turns them literally into zombies.'

The Recce leader, Jonathan Kimber, a wiry but fairly tall man approached us. 'Sam, we studied the layout of the farm while we were waiting for you. We managed to get a helicopter to fly over the farm and take photographs. We're comfortable to go in while its dark. It will be easier for us.' He looked at the Somalian, 'Do these guys strike you as being up to our standard of bush training?'

It was an indirect compliment to the Somalian – one bush warrior acknowledging another.

'Not a chance,' he said. 'Their security is quite sloppy.'

'Okay,' Jonathan said. 'Sam, can we spend fifteen minutes with this man. I just want to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row before we start the war games.'

'Of course, I trust you guys. From here on in you're the boss.'

The twelve Recces and the Somalian took a torch, put the photographs on the bonnet of one of their SUV's and brainstormed the game plan. The Somalian was comfortable with the process. He had obviously done this type of thing a number of times before.

After fifteen minutes they came back to us.

'We are going to split into four teams of four, Sam. You, our Somali friend and the lady will each join one team. What you don't know is that we already have three men watching the north fence perimeter, three watching the east fence and three watching the west fence. The helicopter dropped them off just after taking the photos. We knew that a helicopter going over the property in this area would alert them. You would only use a bird here if you're spraying crops and you wouldn't do it so late in the evening or if you were up to mischief. Hence the iron curtain.'

'Do you think it's a good idea for the Somalian to go with you,' I asked, 'do you trust him.?'

He looked at me impatiently, 'Do you trust me?'

Touché. Girls always ask the silly questions. Sometimes they are superfluous.

One of the Recces went to his vehicle and came back with camouflage shirts, pants, three AK 47's and combat boots for Sam, The Somalian and myself. I stripped to my bra and panties in front of the men and put on the garb. I could see from their expressions that they were impressed, not with what they had seen but with the fact that I was determined to be part of the team. Sam grinned. I knew that he had that filed that away for a rainy day.

Jonathan motioned his men to start moving. I saw him send a signal from a very fancy watch which I presumed was to the other men scattered across the farm. Although I knew that Sam had a search warrant I somehow doubted that we were going to need it.

I joined my group which was led by Jonathan. He gave me a pair of night vision glasses and we all moved towards the gate. We could see the farmhouse in the distance. The outside lights were on. Jonathan stopped and kept checking his watch. Three minutes later the outside lights went off. One of the Recces climbed up the fence, it was obvious that someone had cut the power and turned off the energiser for the electric fence. He opened the gate which had also been disarmed. In a few seconds we were in. One team headed to the left, one to the right. We headed straight. We walked in a fan with me in the middle next to Jonathan.

It took us a few minutes to reach the edge of the main house. Jonathan motioned us to stop. The house was surrounded by oak trees. Two of us positioned ourselves behind one of them, two behind another and Jonathan hid behind a large rockery by the pool area just in front of the main bedroom.

He waited until we had heard two pings which was the other two teams indicating that they were in position. Jonathan sent another message. The lights came back in a few seconds. We could see movement behind the curtain windows.

One of the Recces deliberately exposed himself and immediately a fusillade of shots was sent his way. We all dropped and started firing back. Everything happened so quickly – it was like a blur. We heard shouts and then Jonathan suddenly motioned us to stop. One of the Vietnamese had thrown a small shirt out of the window. Two minutes later a Vietnamese appeared at the main bedroom window holding a small black boy in front of him with a pistol to his head. I heard the Somalian wailing somewhere to the right of us. A voice boomed out probably from a megaphone. 'Stop or we shoot the boy.' One of our team pulled a megaphone from his duffel bag and handed it to Jonathan.

'Release the boy. We have a warrant to search this property. We have reason to believe that you have two other boys on the premises. Release all the children and we will put down our arms.'

'We do not have any other boys on this property. The boy is not a hostage. His father left him here with us when he went on a trip.'

'Liar!' The Somalian suddenly ran from out of the bush towards the house. A shot rang out. 'Stay, back, stay back!' the voice on the megaphone screamed. 'The next one is dead.'

'Can I collect him?' Jonathan asked coolly

There was a hesitation. 'Only you. No weapon.'

Jonathan did not hesitate – he dropped his AK47 and strode out to pick up the Somalian as if he was going for a stroll down the road. He looked for the wound – he had been shot in the lower leg – and then gently lifted him over his shoulder and brought him back. One of the other men hauled out a first aid box from the duffel bag and started to work on the wound. Within a minute he had removed the bullet, doused the wound with antiseptic and bandaged the leg. He also gave him a sedative to make him go to sleep.

Jonathan returned to the megaphone. 'Can I come in and discuss the situation with you?'

'No, no one approaches the house again. You must leave the property immediately, otherwise the boy dies.'

'No can do. We're going nowhere until we have the boys safely with us. If you harm the boy you would have just signed your death warrant, that's the only assurance I can give you.'

Nothing was said for at least half an hour although it felt like a few years. Jonathan's phone beeped. He left us for a few minutes to make a call on his cell phone.

We heard him whispering furiously and then he re-appeared- There was thunder in his eyes.

'We have to withdraw,' he said glumly.

'What…' I said. No way, we have those boys in our sights, we can't leave it like this.'

'I have orders to withdraw …I can't tell you from who but it came from very high above.'

'All that I can tell you is that I'm told that the boys are not at the farm and that we are busy creating an international incident. 'If we don't leave immediately the Hawkes will be sent to arrest us all.'

By this time the other teams had joined us. I could see from Sam's face that he had received a similar call. I felt faint for the first time in my life. My head was spinning what the hell was going on?

We arrived back at the roadblock in silence. I took Sam aside. 'What were you told Sam?' I asked angrily.'

Yekani phoned me to tell me that we had to back off. These guys have some serious political connections. The order came from ministerial level.'

'For goodness sake Sam, we can't allow a crooked minister to let these thugs take those boys across the border. I'm going back for those boys. I do not report to any minister. I refuse to throw them to those dogs without a fight.'

Jonathan had been listening to our conversation. 'I agree with the lady. I will go with her.' He quickly typed a message on his cell.' I have just resigned. I am a free agent,' he smiled broadly.

Two strapping young black Recces came forward.' Here are our resignations, boss, We're coming too.' Each of them had a pen in their hands. One wrote Godfrey resigned on one forearm and one wrote Aubrey resigned on the other.

We all laughed.

Four of the others stepped forward as well. Jonathan stopped them. 'No need for any more recruits – I appreciate the loyalty – you guys stay here in case we need to get away pronto. I don't accept your resignations.'

'Sure thing, boss.' They saluted him.

'The rest of you should leave,' Jonathan said to the other six, 'otherwise you may be called forward as material witnesses.'

'Sam, you go too,' I said gently. 'You have a wife and children to support. They will hang you from one of these oak trees. I am in good hands – don't worry about me.'

He couldn't look me in the eyes. He turned around, got into his car and drove off. The metro cops followed him.

In ten minutes, we were back at the ranch. A party was on the go. Music was blaring and we could hear woman and men laughing and shouting. Their connections were so good they had taken it for granted that everyone would cave. They were about to learn a hard lesson.

We went in through a door at the back of the house which had been left open. I love arrogance, it is so predictable. We found ourselves in a small passage leading towards the bedroom area. There were three bedrooms in front of us – two on the right hand side and one on the left. Fortunately the noise in the house was deafening. Highway to hell by ACDC was playing at full blast. I couldn't help chuckling to myself. How appropriate. Aubrey opened the first door to the right quietly and we spun into the room. There was a naked couple on the bed – to my surprise, two men. They had their backs to us and before they knew it they were tasered, bound and gagged. As we went out Aubrey locked the door, it might just buy us a few minutes if someone tried to get into the room. Jonathan and Godfrey exited from the room to the left a few seconds later. Aubrey showed him two fingers, Jonathan held up four. Jonathan motioned to me to stand guard as the three of them went into the last bedroom- This time I heard a shout and a moan but Highway to Hell had been replaced by Thunder so no danger of anyone hearing anything yet. They emerged a few minutes later and held up another four fingers. Great – halfway there.

There was a passage just past the left bedroom which had stairs leading down to an attic of some sort. The attic was locked. Aubrey disappeared back up the stairs and returned within a few minutes grinning broadly and showing us the key. He also made a gesture of grabbing someone by the testicles – it will always be the best way of opening a male's mouth.

The little black boy was in the attic, he was terrified, crying and shaking like a leaf. 'Where are the other boys' Jonathan asked.

'They're not here,' he wailed. They took them away after they shot my dad. They used motorbikes.'

I had noticed a small mountain just behind the property, they had probably made their escape that way. The Recces who had been watching the periphery of the farm had been told to go back to Christiana by Jonathan.

'Okay, let's go,' Jonathan whispered. We made our exit without any disturbance. When we got back outside Jonathan told Aubrey and Godfrey to take the boy back to the others and wait for us in Christiana. He also instructed them to send one of the other Recces to the other side of the mountain to wait for him and I.

'I saw how you moved though the property, lady – just like a ghost. I'd prefer you in this instance than these two lumbering buffaloes.'

'You sure know how to butter up a lady, don't you?'

'I think that they are on the mountain. They will probably be picked up tomorrow on their way to Botswana. The guys at the farmhouse are just hedging their bets. They just didn't take us into account when they laid the odds.'

It was easy to follow the trail left by the motorbikes. They were obviously off-road bikes and it was not difficult to keep to the trail.

We literally glided up the mountain. As good as I am at hiking, Jonathan was equally good. Just before we reached the peak we slowed down and stopped listening for any sounds of movement. The music in the house suddenly stopped and people ran out. Our little bundles of joy had been found. There was no time to lose.

Fate dealt us an ace. Human curiosity is one of our DNA weaknesses. A young Vietnamese lad appeared on the top of the mountain about ten metres away from us to see what was going on. He had a cell phone with him which started to ring. Jonathan gave him no time to answer, before he knew what was happening he was sleeping like a baby. We scuttled over the ridge and about ten metres down, we spotted a campsite. There was a tent to the one side with a wood fire burning out in front. The bikes were parked in a clearing not far from the tent. The second Vietnamese spotted us too late. He ran into the tent to collect his weapon but I managed to sail into him just as he reappeared. My momentum brought him down and Jonathan did the rest. I got up quickly while Jonathan was immobilising the young Vietnamese male and found the two boys fast asleep in a large sleeping bag. I tried to wake them up but to no avail. They were heavily drugged. I saw the pills lying to one side and quickly pocketed those. We would need to know what they were. Jonathan scooped one child into his arms and I took the other and we headed for the bikes. We heard two bikes and a 4x4 hearing up the hill. The problem was that the boys were out of it so we had to hold them with one arm and drive down the mountain using the other. Not fun but thankfully the off-road bikes made the terrain not a problem but I am sure that for Jonathan the ordeal was not much of a challenge. Although I am strong for a female, I still am one so I was at a decided disadvantage.

Just to make matters worse our pursuers reached the top of the mountain just before we reached the bottom and started to fire at us. I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder but reminded myself that if I could still hear the bullets and feel the pain I was alive. The adrenalin did the rest and we made it into a small forest area before any further damage was done. As we reached the edge of the forest we saw the SUV's. They were all there waiting for us. Every Recce was there. They had found the trail and knew we would come that way. They helped us all off the bikes and before we knew it we were on our way to Christiana. The same Recce who had patched up the Somalian started his magic with me. My shoulder was throbbing but by the time we reached Christiana it had settled.

A helicopter was waiting to take Sam, Yekani, the Somalian, his son, myself, Clem and the two boys back to Lanseria airport. Just before we boarded, Jonathan, Aubrey and Godfrey came over and took my hand. 'You're one of us now, lady,' Jonathan said. 'You have more guts than all of us put together. I could barely manage that damn bike with one arm, it will always be a mystery to me how you did it.' He went over to Sam, 'Look after her man. She is a diamond.' Sam still could not look me in the eye – I just didn't have the energy to talk to him yet. I put my arm around the two little boys and wept myself to sleep.

*****