Vortex (37 page)

Sibena popped the trunk and got out to help them load the car. He looked scared.

“Anything wrong, Matt?”

The South African shook his head rapidly.

“No, meneer, ah, Ian. But when I heard the shooting and the sirens from there… ” He flapped his hand toward the university and swallowed hard.

“I was frightened of what the police might do if they found me here.”

Ian nodded sympathetically. He couldn’t blame Sibena for being afraid. In fact, he’d halfexpected to find the kid gone when they came out. It couldn’t have been easy sitting out in the open, just waiting for an
AWB
thug to wander along, whip or gun in hand.

The young black man had more than earned his meager pay over the past couple of weeks. Unfailingly and excessively polite, he’d displayed a working knowledge of every major thoroughfare and back alley in

Johannesburg. Even skeptical Sam Knowles had to admit that his shortcuts had saved them several hours of transit time. But they’d never been able to gain his trust. No matter how hard they tried to reassure him, Sibena always seemed braced for a blow or curse.

Sound gear, camera, and tapes securely loaded, Knowles slid into the front beside their driver while Ian crammed himself into the Escort’s cramped backseat.

The South African’s hands clutched the steering wheel.

“Where to now,

Meneer Sheffield?”

The habits of a lifetime were hard to break.

Ian leaned forward over the seat.

“Just take us back to the studio, Matt.

Nice and easy. I don’t want anybody in uniform taking an interest in us before we’ve dropped our little package off. Got it?”

Sibena nodded convulsively and cautiously pulled out into traffic, threading his way south through a steady stream of ambulances, military trucks, and wheeled APCs. Helmeted policemen riding north toward the university stared down at the little car, but nobody made any move to stop them.

Not right away.

Not until they were within five minutes’ drive of the TV studio and relative safety.

Ian heard the wailing, high-pitched siren first. He swung round in the backseat and stared out through the Escort’s rear window. Damn. A police car racing fast up Market Street, blue light pulsing in time with the siren.

“Oh, God.” Sibena pulled off to the side and switched the engine off with shaking hands.

The squad car pulled in behind them.

Ian leaned forward again, trying to reassure the younger man.

“Don’t sweat it, Matt. You’re with us, right? You haven’t done anything wrong.”

He just wished his own voice sounded more in control.

Sibena gulped a quick breath and nodded.

The police car’s doors popped open and three blue-jacketed officers climbed out. They stood staring at the Escort’s rear bumper for a moment, then one leaned in through the car window, reaching for a radio mike.

“Checking our number plates,” Knowles muttered.

Ian nodded. One of the riot troops must have gotten suspicious and reported them. Now what? Could they bluff it out? Fast-talk their way past these creeps long enough to hide the film inside the studio?

Maybe. And maybe not. He grimaced. This was getting ridiculous. Every time they got close to a big story, South Africa’s security forces seemed ready and waiting to snatch it away from them.

The policeman with the mike thumbed it off and motioned in their direction. The other two moved forward, hands resting prominently on the pistols holstered at their hips. Pedestrians who’d gathered around the two parked cars, drawn by the flashing lights, scattered out of their way-curiosity suddenly quenched by a sensible desire not to get caught up in whatever was going on.

The older of the two policemen, glowering and gray haired, rapped impatiently on Ian’s window.

He rolled it down, reminding himself to be polite no matter how hard the

South African tried to provoke him. The tape locked in their trunk was too important to risk losing in a senseless run-in with the police.

“Yes?”

“You are Sheffield?” The policeman’s harsh, clipped accent marked him as an Afrikaner.

Ian nodded cautiously.

The policeman’s lips twitched into a thin, unpleasant smile.

“I ask that you all get out of the car. Now, please.” His tone made it clear he hoped they’d refuse.

Swell. Another South African cop out for journalistic blood. Ian caught

Knowles’s raised, questioning eyebrow and shrugged. What realistic choice did they have?

Ian popped the door and clambered awkwardly out of the Escort’s backseat.

Knowles and Sibena followed suit. Sweat beaded the young South African’s frightened face.

Ian folded his arms, trying to appear unconcerned.

“What seems to be the problem?”

The Afrikaner’s fixed smile thinned even further.

“You and your ‘colleagues’ —he stressed the word contemptuously—were seen filming a minor demonstration at the

University of the Witwatersrand. That is a serious violation of our law.”

Blast. Some of the riot police must have spotted them. Or somebody else had betrayed them. Maybe the landlord they’d bribed…

Ian shook his head.

“I’m afraid your information is inaccurate, Officer.

We’re on our way back from shooting a few background pictures of your city.

Nothing controversial or prohibited. Certainly nothing exciting.”

I ‘in that case, meneer, you won’t mind letting us take a look at them, eh?”

Ian hid a smile of his own and did his best to look upset.

“If you insist.

But I’ll protest this interference to the highest levels of your government.” He turned to Knowles.

“Please give these gentlemen the tape from your camera, Sam.”

His short, stocky cameraman looked sour as he unlocked the trunk and reluctantly handed over the wrong cassette. He started to slam the trunk shut.

“Halt! ”

Knowles stopped in mid slam his back suddenly rigid.

The Afrikaner shouldered him aside and bent down for a closer look at the gear piled inside the trunk. He pawed through the stacks of equipment and muttered in satisfaction as he uncovered the carrying case full of unlabeled tapes.

“And what are these, Meneer Sheffield?”

Ian tried to keep his voice even.

“Blank cassettes.

“I see.” The policeman nodded slowly, his eyes cold.

“I think we shall confiscate these as well. If they really are blank, they will be returned to you.”

Damn it. Another story and hours of hard work down the drain. He tried to ignore Knowles’s quiet, steady swearing and said stiffly, “I insist on a receipt for the property you’ve illegally seized.”

“Certainly. ” The Afrikaner looked amused. He nodded toward his counterpart, a younger man who’d hung back from the whole scene as though reluctant to involve himself.

“That fellow there will be glad to write any kind of receipt you want, won’t you, Harris?” Spite dripped from every word.

Ian glanced at the younger policeman with more interest. What could he have done to warrant such hatred from his older colleague? Maybe he just had the wrong last name. Some Afrikaners never bothered to hide their long-standing, often mindless dislike for those descended from South Africa’s English colonists. It was a feeling that the English usually reciprocated.

Without another word, the older man turned on his heel and strode back to the waiting squad car, holding the case of videotapes out from his body as though they were contaminated.

“Mr. Sheffield?” The younger policeman’s voice was apologetic.

Ian looked steadily at him.

“Yes?”

The South African held out a piece of paper.

“Here is that receipt you asked for.”

Ian took it and stuffed it into his shirt pocket. Great. Instead of a story that would lift the lid on Vorster’s security services, he had a junior policeman’s signature on a piece of meaningless official notepaper.

The policeman cleared his throat and stepped closer, lowering his voice so that his colleagues couldn’t hear him.

“I’m truly sorry about this, Mr.

Sheffield. Not all of us are happy with the things that are happening in our country. But what can we do? We must uphold our laws-no matter how much we may regret them.”

Ian restrained an impulse to feel sorry for the man. Individual apologies couldn’t atone for insufferable acts.

“I imagine that’s exactly the same excuse used by Russian cops. And by those in Nazi Germany, for that matter.

”

The policeman flushed and turned away, his face almost as unhappy as Ian felt.

Doors slammed shut and the police car pulled away from the curb, accelerating smoothly into traffic. None of its occupants looked back.

Knowles stared after the squad car, anger in his eyes.

“Well, fuck you, too, you bastards.”

Sibena just stood silently, eyes firmly fixed on the sidewalk.

Ian shut the Escort’s trunk and opened the rear door.

“C’mon, guys. No sense in standing around brooding about it.” He tried to tone down the anger in his own voice.

“Hell, it’s not like that’s the first piece of film we ever lost.”

Knowles glanced at him.

“No, it sure isn’t.” He lowered his chin, looking even more stubborn than usual.

“Kinda funny, though, ain’t it? I mean, how the cops always seem to know right where we are and exactly what we’ve been up to. Almost like they’ve got their eyes on us all the time.

“Now just how do you suppose they’re doing that?”

Ian shook his head, unsure of what the cameraman meant. He’d certainly never spotted any police patrols following them. Then he followed

Knowles’s steady, unblinking gaze. He was looking straight at Matthew

Sibena’s slumped shoulders and downcast face.

AUGUST
30-
PRESIDENTS
OFFICE
,
THE
UNION

BUILDINGS
,
PRETORIA

Karl Vorster’s spartan tastes were not yet reflected in the furnishings of the office suite reserved for South Africa’s president. Since taking power he’d been too preoccupied by both external and internal crises to worry about redecorating.

And thank God for that, Erik Muller thought, sitting comfortably for once in a cushioned chair facing Vorster’s plain oak desk. The dead Frederick

Haymans may have been a softhearted fool, but at least he’d had some modicum of taste.

Across the desk, Vorster grunted to himself and scrawled a signature on the last memorandum in front of him. The memo’s black binder identified it as an execution order.

“So, another
ANC
bastard gets it in the neck. Good. ” The suggestion of a smile appeared on Vorster’s face and then vanished.

“Is that everything, Erik?”

“Not quite, Mr. President. There’s one more item.”

“Get on with it, then.” Vorster’s flint-hard eyes roved to his desk clock and back to Muller.

“General de Wet is briefing me on the military situation in a few minutes.”

Muller clenched his teeth. South Africa’s chief executive

was spending more and more of his precious time trying to micromanage the stalled Namibian campaign. And while Vorster moved meaningless pins back and forth on maps, serious political, economic, and security problems languished-unconsidered and unresolved.

Muller cleared his throat.

“It’s a travel-permit request from Mantizima, the Zulu chief. He’s been invited to testify before the American Congress on this new sanctions bill of theirs. ”

“So?” Vorster’s impatience showed plainly.

“Why bring this matter to me?

Surely that’s something for the Foreign Ministry to decide.”

Muller shook his head.

“With respect, Mr. President, there are vital questions of state security involved-too many to entrust such a decision to the minister or his bureaucrats.” He pushed the document across the desk.

Vorster picked it up and skimmed through the Zulu chief Is tersely worded request for a travel permit.

“Go on.”

“I believe you should reject his request, Mr. President. Beneath that toothy smile of his, Gideon Mantizima’s as much a troublemaker as any other black leader. I fear that he could make even more trouble for us in

Washington if you allow him out of the country.” He stopped, aware that he’d probably overplayed his hand. The President seemed to be in a deliberately contrary mood.

Vorster waggled a finger at him.

“That is nonsense, Muller. I know this man. This Zulu has cooperated with us in the past when all the other blacks toed the communist line. He’s even opposed sanctions by the Western powers.

Why, I can almost respect him. After all, he descends from a warrior tribe, not from wandering trash like the rest of the kaffirs. ”

He sat back in his chair, hands folded across his stomach.

“No, Muller.

Mantizima and his followers hate the
ANC
almost as much as we do. They’ve been rivals for decades. And we rarely interfere in the way the Zulus handle affairs within their own tribe land The chief has no reason to make trouble for us. ”

Vorster rocked forward, pen in hand.

“Let him visit America. His testimony will only confuse our enemies in their Congress and show the world that we have nothing to fear. ”

Muller watched in silence as his leader signed the travel permit.

Vorster’s growing tendency to see only what he wished to see disturbed him. In the past, Mantizima. had publicly opposed economic sanctions on

South Africa because he believed they hurt his people more than they hurt whites -not as a favor to Pretoria. And the wily Zulu chief’s struggle with the ANC was a battle for future political power in a black-majority government-not the signpost of a permanent alliance with the forces of apartheid.

He took the signed permit from Vorster’s outstretched hand and left quietly. Further argument would only endanger his own position.

Gideon Mantizima might continue to cooperate with Pretoria, but Muller doubted it. The Zulu chief was shrewd enough to recognize a dead end when he saw one. South Africa’s director of military intelligence suspected that Vorster would regret allowing Mantizima the freedom to choose a new course.