Trackers (50 page)

Milla read the emails between Osman
and one Sayyid Macki.

Shipment arrives Monday 23 Shawwal 1430 A.H. at 02.00 (GMT
+2).

Day after tomorrow, at two in the
morning.

She looked in the
Sent
mail folder,
found Osman's answer:

Alhumdulillah.
We will be ready. The Madeleine to anchor at S33 49.517 E17 52.424, we will
have transfer vessel waiting, to transport Haidar to fully equipped reception
team at S33 54.064 E18 24.921, OPBC.

OPBC? What did that stand for? Was it
also Arabic, like Haidar, which meant 'lion'?

She recalled the password on this
computer.
Amiralbahr.
Another word with a Middle Eastern
feel.

Words were what she knew, she would
try to unravel this one. She would have to Google it, like Lukas. But how? She
wasn't familiar with her new cellphone.

Milla got up and fetched her new
cellphone and the box it came in, found the manual and started to read. 'Use
your mobile phone as an Internet modem,' was all she could find. She followed
the directions, plugged in the USB cable and activated the modem.

Network connection successful.

Pleased with her success, she opened
Internet Explorer on the laptop and went to the Google website.

She typed in 'Amiralbahr'.

Did you mean amir al-bahr?

Perhaps. She clicked on it.

Facts about amir
al-bahr:
etymology, as discussed in admiral (naval officer): the
title of admiral has an ancient lineage. It apparently originated before the
12th century with Muslim Arabs, who combined emir, or amir ('commander'), the
article al, and bahr ('sea'). . .

It meant 'admiral'. In Arabic. The
origin of the word.

She typed in the Google window:
'Significance of lion in muslim extremism'.

She scanned the first results. Only one was of interest:

Babur
Cruise Missile Pakistan
The Babur missile (Babur means lion
in the Turkic language Chaghatay; it is also suggested that the missile was
named after the first Mughal Emperor Babur) is the first cruise missile to be
fielded by Pakistan. The Babur is capable of carrying either
conventional or nuclear warheads and
has a reported r
ange ...

Suddenly a new window popped up on
the computer screen and hid the web browser:
Command
Prompt. Running email decryption script.

She saw white letters on the black background,
lines of code appeared rapidly, one after the other, then the window closed
automatically.

A small notification appeared at the
right bottom corner.
New Mail Message.

Email. The computer must have
downloaded mail automatically, since it was connected to the Internet now.

She opened Microsoft Outlook.

Right at the top, a new message, from
Macki.

She opened it.

Allahu Akbar, amir al-bahr

We agree
with your assessment. Arrival of The Madeleine and Haidar now 24 hours earlier,
at 02.00 (GMT +2) on Sunday 22 Shawwal 1430 A.H
.

They had moved the arrival time of
the ship a day earlier. Then it hit her. That was tonight. Tomorrow morning.
Her stomach contracted as she looked at her watch. Seven minutes past seven in
the evening ...

She heard a car door slam outside.
Lukas. She would have to tell him right away. She jumped up, walked to the
front door and opened it. She saw the Golf parked there, the boot open. Lukas
was busy behind it. She walked out to meet him.

A movement caught her eye, on the
right, down the road. Men were running towards them from the gate 200 metres
away.

Then she saw they were carrying guns.

'Lukas!'

He appeared suddenly from behind the
Golf, saw her pointing down the road. His head jerked around towards the men.

'Inside, Milla!'

She hesitated, frozen, her eyes on
the young coloured men who sprinted faster, five, six, seven of them, Lukas
pulled something out of the back of the Golf.

He had a firearm in his arms, short
and chunky. 'Go inside!'

She saw the men lift their weapons,
saw Lukas cock his. Shots, something smacked into the Golf, glass shattered
behind her. She stood still, unable to move, a cry in her throat. Lukas fired.
Two of the men fell, the rest swerved sharp right, looking for the cover of
parked cars.

'Christ, Milla!'

This time she responded, turned and
ran back to the front door, her legs like jelly.

Shots thundered from the cars, a
bullet smacked against the lintel ahead of her.

Then she was inside.

Janina Mentz sat at the back of the
Ops Room and listened to the radio connection between Quinn and Major Tiger
Mazibuko.

'ETA five minutes.'

'Roger.'

She would wait. Until Mazibuko
personally confirmed that they had Becker and the computer. Only then would she
tell Masilo that he could inform the Americans.

She got up and walked to Quinn,
stopped beside him and said, quietly and firmly, 'Tiger has permission to use
all necessary force. All we want is the laptop, undamaged.'

Quinn nodded and switched on the
radio microphone.

She stood in the sitting room with a racing
heart, her breath was shallow, hands instinctively shielding her head, knowing
it must be Osman's men. Lukas rushed in, short rifle in one hand, a dirty
canvas bag in the other.

He turned around and pointed the
weapon out of the door, fired off a burst.

'Come, Milla.' He was next to her,
grabbing her arm, pulling her towards the bedroom.

'Get the rucksack.' He pointed the
rifle barrel at the bag lying beside the bed and shoved the sliding door of the
bedroom open.

She grabbed the rucksack and her handbag
next. He was outside already, looking back at her. 'Come!'

She ran.

Ahead of them was a wire fence, high.
Behind that a big sand dune, densely overgrown.

He hurled the grubby canvas bag over, straining with the effort,
took the rucksack out of her hand and threw that after it. 'Climb,' he said,
his expression fierce.

She threw her handbag. Not hard enough, it hit the top of the
fence and dropped back.

'Fuck,' he said, picking it up and throwing it over the
fence. 'Now climb.'

Shots from behind in the flat.

She scrambled up the fence, propelled by adrenaline, a part
of her amazed that the wire didn't hurt her hands, that she could be so quick.
Then she was at the top. She swung her leg over, and slid, so that she dropped
into a thick green bush on the other side, the smell of wood and leaves
suddenly filling her nostrils, sharp points jabbing into her. For a moment she
felt disorientated, tried to stand up, her blouse ripped.

Lukas was with her. He pulled her up, shoved her handbag into
her arms, grabbed his rucksack, swung it onto his shoulders, took the canvas
bag and wormed his way into the shrubbery. 'Just stick with me.'

She pressed the handbag tightly against her body.

Shots cracked, she heard the whine of bullets, looked back,
could see nothing, just the greenery; looked forwards, Lukas crawling along
like a snake under the branches.

She
dived in after him.

'Shots being fired, repeat, shots being fired, it's a hot zone,'
Mazibuko's voice was high-pitched and excited over the radio.

'They're shooting at you?' asked Quinn.

'Negative, we're at the gate, no visual, we're going in ...'

The drone of the military vehicle's engine filled the Ops
Room.

'Two down, middle of the road, two coloured men ...'

'Shit,' said Quinn.

'Terror's men,' said Janina, standing beside him now.

Shots sounding across the ether, unimpressive, like crackers.

'Taking fire now,' said Mazibuko.
'Combat deployment...'

Janina Mentz took the microphone from
Quinn. 'I want that laptop, Tiger. I want it intact.'

'Roger. Out.'

They heard the shooting escalate when
they were halfway up the slope of the dune, invisible in the depths of the
bushes and trees. Lukas was right in front of her, she could see the soles of
his boots, he lay still suddenly, listening to the clatter, back and forth.

'Christ,' he said, looking back at
her. 'Are you OK?'

'Yes.' Her voice sounded peculiar and
shaky. 'Yes,' she tried again, more firmly, and that gave her something to cling
to, a consciousness that penetrated the fear and shock,
so, this
is what it feels like, mortal danger.

He looked ahead again, moved with increased urgency, and
Milla slithered after him, with thin bloody scratches on her hands and arms.

Deadly silence in the Ops Room,
minutes ticking away.

Then static filled the room, a wave
of sound. Mazibuko's voice, excited: 'Number twenty-seven is secure, we have
one man wounded, seven bogeys accounted for, five are dead, two wounded, one
seriously, they're fucking teenagers, Quinn, coloured kids with semis ...We
have one laptop, all shot up, no sign of Becker and the woman, but they must
have been here very recently, there's leftover food, some clothing, a
cellphone, I think they went out the back, we are securing the whole complex
now, over ...'

'The laptop,' said Mentz. 'I want to
know how badly damaged it is. But get Raj here first.'

She saw Becker stand up at the crest
of the dune, and survey the surroundings. He spotted something to the right.

'There,' he said, muted.

She stood up, looked in the same
direction. Between the branches she saw the shopping centre 500 metres to the
south, the big red and white logo of Shoprite high up on the wall. And down
below them, a sandy footpath like a snow-white snake, winding down the flank of
the dune.

He took her arm and looked at her
with great intensity.

She tried to smile. 'I'm fine,' she
said.

He waited another moment, and nodded.
'We'll have to run.' He turned away and moved down the dune, weaving through
the bushes.

'It's got three nine-millimetre
rounds through it,' said Major Mazibuko.

'Can you see if the hard drive was
hit?' asked Rajhev Rajkumar.

'I don't know ...'

'It's about six or seven centimetres,
by four or five, it should be the biggest thing you see in there ...'

'Shiny metal casing?'

'That's right.'

' Yebo
, it took a
hit.'

'Shit. Right through?'

'No, sort of on the front end, where
the little wires connect, only, they're not connected any more.'

'Is that it, just the wires gone?'

'No, it's sort of bent as well. The
casing.'

'Just in the front?'

'Yebo.. :

Rajkumar looked up at Mentz. 'Maybe,'
he said. 'If we're lucky.'

'Tell him to get it here.'

They ran down alongside the wall of
the shopping centre to the edge of a big wide street that bordered it. Becker
stopped, put down the canvas bag and then the weapon he was carrying. He
unzipped the bag. Milla saw more guns inside, two large automatic rifles, and Lukas's
pistol.