Political chess game
“Hlengiwe, thank you for meeting me.” The waiter comes over and brings coffee. “Okay Smith, what do you want.?” Hlengiwe seems uncomfortable with all this. “And how the hell did you get my number?” Smith smiles, “Oh come now. You know how and I'm sure you have mine and I don’t think I ever gave it to you.” He takes a sip and looks at Hlengiwe, “Don't worry you can drink the tea, it is not poisoned.” He smiles.“I'd rather not take a chance.” Hlengiwe says. Not even a smile from her. “So will you tell me why I'm here, John?” she says. Smith leans back, “Look, you and I belong in the Dark World but not these families. The Nkosi’s and the Cele’s don’t belong here…” Hlengiwe interrupts, “Get to the point please.” She's irritated.
“All I am saying is that you know who we are and what we can do. We won’t be derailed by these people. You on the other hand are a politician. There’s always a room for a colleague in the table. They however, no one will miss them. Give them to me and then we can cut you in.” Smith says. Clearly Hlengiwe expected this all along. Politicians love to negotiate. And as they always say, ‘There are no permanent friends nor permanent enemies in politics.
She really wishes she had a recorder but they searched her first and her people searched him. This restaurant is low key and has no cameras. So this meeting doesn’t exist. It’s a meeting of ghosts.
“Look this is bigger than those couples, they have to go. And you of all people knows very well that in this job, we don’t let any lose ends.” Smith says.
“So do you want the piece of the pie or not? Because this offer happens only here and now and no more after that. “he takes another sip. “The other thing that could happen is that we expose all your dirty secrets. And you know how hard it is to find well-paying employment these days.” continues Smith. He looks dead serious. Hlengiwe stands up, she looks at him with disgust, “I will be in touch.” she says as she walks out. Smith smiles he senses that he may have got through her.
***
Little time passes and at the cabin secret meeting happens again. “Smith, did you find anything about these gentlemen’s military service?” asks the Emperor. “My people are working on it.” The next Smith saw was a glass of whiskey flying past him and smashing on the wall, “working on it?” shouts The Emperor. “Working on it? Do you realize election season has started? Campaign is in full swing for most of these mickey mouse parties and they are looking at anything to point us.” He is furious.
“Get whoever was their commanding officers in any tour and camp they worked in to speak. Someone must know something.”
Smith nods.
“Has Hlengiwe come back to you yet?” Smith shakes his head. He is struggling to talk to this man when he’s this upset. “Well I suppose we need to turn up the hit on her as well. I don’t need this hanging over us by the time we go into elections.”
One thing you must understand in politics is that there are no enemies, there are no friends. There are similar interests. If you don’t have information you lose. Information gives you power and control over those who have information on. A clean politician is a liability to everyone because he can’t be bought. Hlengiwe prides herself on honest living hence many of her colleagues across board revered her. They see her as the voice of reason.
But is it possible that she has no skeletons in the closet? Before she ran intelligence she was in different portfolios. She could have had moments of lapse in judgements somewhere. That’s all Smith is looking for, something that’s enough to peddle rumors. People believe everything during elections season.
***
As Qhawe, Themba, Zinhle and Nothemba sit on the lounge and watching the news, Hlengiwe's name is the last thing they expected to hear, “She held the portfolio at the time of the alleged misappropriation of find a,, the news anchor says. This is shocking the guys as they watch attentively. “The special unit will investigate whether Ms Hlengiwe was in any way involved in dodgy deals,, the anchor continues. Immediately Qhawe stood up and made a call as he makes his way outside.
“This can’t be right.” Zinhle says, “This is clearly a smear campaign.” she is clearly upset. “Of course babe, it’s not true.” Themba says as he comforts his wife by brushing her back. They continue to watch the news until they are disturbed by Qhawe, “Guys I was with Hlengiwe on the phone. She's watching.” And suddenly everyone becomes curious. “And...?” Nothemba asks anxiously. “She assures me that nothing will come of this.” This seems to take a breather.
“Smith thinks he’s clever huh…” Themba says as he pours himself whisky. “What are you talking about?” Qhawe asks curiously. “Well if this gets enough traction a debate on whether she's fit for office. That’s all Smith and his gang want. During election season everything is treated as truth in order to win people over.”
Now they all see where he’s going with this, they nod. “Yea, and the President may be forced to suspend or fire her even if there’s no evidence in order to appease supporters going to the polls.” Qhawe adds. “If she’s suspended, well then, we'd lose the recourse for counter intelligence and whoever comes in may just shut down this operation and Smith wins.” This seems to discourage everyone.
“But knowing Hlengiwe, she won’t take this lying down. She has a plan and we should trust her.” Qhawe reassures his friends. There is a sense that Smith is up to no good and everyone must stay alert.
The next few days they watch as this Hlengiwe saga unfolds. All commentators have their say, some against and some in her defense. There is clear evidence of her unquestionable work ethic and morals. It seems Hlengiwe will survive this one, which is good news for the Nkosi’s and the Cele's however people who worked with Hlengiwe in that portfolio may just switch side since some are implicated in this scandal that has been in the public eye for a week or two. Whether that will eventually affect Hlengiwe or not the guys just have to wait and see.
Just as Qhawe was thinking they are catching a breather, he is not ready for picture in the front page of the newspaper he just went to pick outside. He is certainly not ready for the headline. He comes storming in the house and goes straight to the kitchen where Zinhle and Nothemba are making breakfast.
Zinhle and Themba have been living at Nkosi mansion for a while now because it’s easier to work together on this dilemma they find themselves in. And it helps as well to not waste security resources by guiding two houses. They still move around with protection detail because they don’t feel safe since they are faced with secret societies. The kids went to Canada with Buhle, Nothemba's sister. They are schooling there and have settled in well. They video call every second day or everyday if possible just to say everything is okay. They have security detail there as well. Qhawe is taking no chances when it comes to his family.
“Guys, guys,” Qhawe shouts as she storms into the kitchen “Are you seeing this?” as he shows the paper to the ladies. Zinhle takes the paper, “What the hell?” she shouts in shock.
“What? What are you guys shouting about?” Nothemba asks with curiosity because then she was busy taking pancakes off the pan. She comes over and takes the paper and reads, “What?” she looks at Qhawe. “Where is Themba?” Qhawe asks, clearly put off by this. “He’s coming down in a moment. Themba, baby.” Shouts Zinhle.
“I’m here, what’s going on?” Themba asks curious about all the noise. Qhawe gives him the paper. He reads as he walks to the dining room. “Who’s the source of this story?” He asks as he reads on. “I don’t know man but it could have been one of our senior officers in that tour. It could be anyone man.” Qhawe says, shrugging his shoulders.
The front page has a picture of soldiers and the headline reads Unsanctioned operations during UN peace keeping mission in East Africa kills 8 children. In the picture is 12 soldiers forming part of the U.N. tours. In that squad there is Qhawe and Themba. The story suggests that the squad may have embarked on an unsanctioned operation that ended up killing 8 civilian youth. This is the last thing they needed. But there’s no doubt in their minds as to who is behind this leaked classified report. This will surely cause a stir not only in the country but around the world since the U.N. is the global body.
“We have to make some calls man,” Qhawe says panicky. “No man that’s not a good idea for now. Yes, sure we have to know how this got leaked but I say let’s wait and see what the reaction will be first.” Themba says as he indicates to Qhawe that they should go outside. They leave the paper and go outside by the pool.
They sit down. “Look man, for us to know what we are up against we need to first see the reaction of everyone first. It may turn up to be nothing.” Themba says trying to calm his friend.
“Or it may turn up that we are called into the enquiry at the U.N.” Qhawe says, anxiously. “Calm down man. It doesn’t help to freak out. I’m sure Hlengiwe will find something out.” Themba says. There’s quietness for a moment. “Yeah you are right man. But Hlengiwe is dealing with some difficulties of her own right now.” Qhawe says. “I will give her a call later and find out what she knows” he is now is calm.
All the while the ladies are reading the story in couch. They are done making breakfast. “You know just when I thought we were catching a breather then this happens.” Qhawe says but he’s then interrupted by Zinhle, “guys breakfast is ready please come inside.”
They go in and sit at the table. It’s quieter than usual. Qhawe is not touching his food. Themba is barely eating his. The ladies are sitting opposite them. At least they are eating theirs. The silence is broken by Zinhle, “what happened over there? Did you kill children.?” she asks with a soft voice but the question shocks everyone. Nothemba turns to her and indicates with her eyes as if to say ‘what’s wrong with you?’
But there is no answer. Qhawe stands and storms out of the dining room and goes upstairs. Nothemba looks at Zinhle again and clears her throat. “Excuse me.” She says politely as she stands up and follow her husband upstairs.
They leave Zinhle and Themba alone. Themba is looking down while Zinhle is desperately trying to establish eye contact. “So…did you kill children?” she probes her husband. This seems to irritate Themba. “Baby, please look at me, did you do it?” she insists. Themba sits up straight and looks at his wife but with no emotion in his face. Zinhle can tell her husband has no intention of answering this.
“Baby please talk to me. This will explode to the rest of the world soon and quite frankly it will explode in our faces too and like it or not it affects me to so I want to understand what happened.” She says looking at her husband in the eyes.
Themba can no longer keep quiet, “demit love,” he shouts. “Can you just leave this damn thing alone already? It doesn’t concern you.” he says as he stands up and lean by the wall. “Are you kidding me?” Zinhle shouts back, “of course it concerns me. Everything about you concerns me just like everything about me concerns you.” she says with a trembling voice. Themba looks at her, “oh really now?” he says. “Like being a spy concerns me right? Yet I didn’t know anything about it.”
Zinhle didn’t see that one coming, “Are you seriously going to take it there? So you will never get over that will you? So what? Now you will use that to hide things from me now?” she says, livid. Themba sighs heavily, “Of course baby I don’t mean it like that. All I meant was…” he couldn’t finish the sentence as Zinhle storms out of the room. She goes upstairs and lock herself up.
“Damn it” Themba whispers.
Meanwhile in the other room things are just as tense. “Honey, Zinhle didn’t ask in a bad way. It’s just that when you guys went by the pool we read the article and it mentioned some things. So we just wanted to understand if what’s written is true or not.” Nothemba says as she looks at her husband who’s staring through the window. He hasn’t done that in while.
“I know baby, but...” Qhawe says but he’s trying to find proper words. “this is a delicate matter and at this present moment we can’t divulge details of combat operations. That’s not how the army works honey” he says.
Nothemba is not impressed at all, “So what, we will hide things from each other now?” she raises her voice. “I’ve got to speak to Themba.” Qhawe responds as he walks out the room. She can’t believe he just left her hanging like.
Qhawe finds Themba in the lounge deep in thought. “Hey man, I take it Zinhle isn’t liking this either.” he says as he sits down opposite Themba who indicates with his head that they should go outside. They sit by the pool.
“Man, as much as I'd love to confide in my wife I can’t. We swore an oath.” Themba speaks softly. “I know man, I know. They'll come around.” Qhawe says. It is still so early in the morning but Qhawe felt whisky should do in calming their nerves so he brought a bottle and he pours for himself and Themba. “But bro, we have to give them something. Maybe not every detail.” he says as he downs the strong stiff in one go. “Some of this stuff will come out eventually and I'd rather they heard it first from us, don’t you?” as he frowns.
“Yeah, you're right,” Themba responds as he downs his stiff. “besides, I don’t want to go through that whole fighting again with my wife.” Qhawe smiles and says, “You got that right.”
The ladies aren’t too happy about this. They have a feeling there is more to this story and Zinhle is livid because she feels her husband was hard on her when he found out about her secret life but now he himself is hiding a secret. Why wouldn’t he tell me about his military service? He was serving a great course, what’s a shame in that? She’s asking herself in thoughts.
Then she’s disturbed by a knock in the door, “Can I come in?” it’s Nothemba. “Hey girlfriend, I just wanted to come and check on you.” She then sits in the bed next to Zinhle.
“I’m just a little confused babe, why wouldn’t they tell us about what went down there? They were soldiers which is something to be proud of. It’s not like they were mercenaries overthrowing governments right?” says a concerned Zinhle. Nothemba takes a huge sigh, “I know, sis. It is a little confusing. I understand that combat missions are mostly classified but I'm sure we are entitled to some level of clearance, right?” she says.
Zinhle can’t help but laugh. “What?” Nothemba asks as she laughs back. “No, I’m laughing because you are starting to sound like a spy yourself talking about clearance.” Zinhle says to which they both burst out laughing, “hahaha.”
They are disturbed by a knock, “Ladies” Themba says softly, “can we have a word with both of you down stairs please.” The ladies look at each other. This is somewhat a surprised. But they are curious. “Oh okay, please give us a moment. We'll be with you in a moment, “responds Nothemba.
After freshening up they go down stairs they find their husbands sitting in the lounge. Each sits next to hers. “Thank you for coming down,” Themba says as he clears his throat. “The information we are about to share with you is classified but we figured you deserve to know the truth”
There’s little moment of awkwardness. Qhawe clears his throat, “We were on tour with U.N. peace keeping mission in a village somewhere in Africa. We had received a distress call when civilians were trapped in a war zone area.” He takes a pause and looks at Themba, “that’s when we encountered hostiles who opened fire. The shoot-out ensued.”
Themba jumps in, “What we didn’t know was that the hostiles used human shields. We didn’t have Intel on that, so some civilians were caught in the ceasefire.” Another moment of silent. “But the report said 8 children died, how can you not see that those were human shields?” Nothemba breaks the silence.
“No that report is inaccurate.” Themba jumps in. “Yes maybe one or two were 19 years. But it was hard to see that because they ambushed us and everything happened so fast.” The ladies seem a little relieved because at least there is a level of openness.
“Look guys,” Qhawe adds, “If someone can leak that inaccurate report, for obvious reasons, premature response is not a good idea. We all have a pretty good idea as to who is responsible for the leaking of the report but we don’t know who the source is.” as he downs a glass of water. “we also don’t know who else has seen this report. So we figured it’s better to wait and hear what the U.N. senior officials and our government defense minister will say first.
I’m sure there will be investigation about the source of the leak.” Themba also jumps in. “We probably will be taken for questioning as well since we formed part of that squad.”
When things had looked like they were getting better now the couples are faced with a new challenge. If people only realized that the world looks great on the surface but underneath is a dark parallel world of chaos that no one sees until they enter it.
When was the last time these couples have had a normal life like any other citizen? Qhawe's are now living in a foreign country, Themba and Zinhle can’t go home...this dark world is their world now. What would have happened if Qhawe had taken John Smith's offer when he’d first shown up at his office door? Even though Monica does report from time to time on how things are going in the company but Qhawe misses going to the office every morning. It has been such a long time probably things have changed so much he won’t recognize most people there.
One thing is for sure, there's no running away from this now. They have to see this through. They must face their enemy with bravery if they want to reclaim their lives, if they want to get back to the other world which, by the look of things is more and more like a fantasy.
One person who enjoys this dark world is Smith and his gang. The Emperor likes the new developments because his goal is to discredit the Nkosi's and the Cele's so that whatever they say in public will not hold water.
“Great job Smith, with this story. I’m sure it will keep all major media houses and networks busy for the next couple of weeks or even months.” The Emperor says as he smokes his cigar. “Thank you, sir.” John says politely.
There’s few people in this cabin. There’s certain politicians and business people and as usual, ladies who provide entertainment. It seems Smith’s team is winning. But they have resources and financial muscle to launch a high scale of political offensive against two civilian families. One thing is clear, if Qhawe and his team with the help of Hlengiwe want to win this battle they have to catch their enemy in the act.
They must find a way to get real heavy dirt on these people. Smith should no longer be the primary target, but there are bigger fishes to fry here. That won’t be easy to do but the couples realize now that if they really want their lives back they will have to go out and get it.
***
Days go by and the dust doesn’t seem to want to settle down on this story. Instead, more and more sources keep coming up with new information that is even more damaging. Now it is no longer a local story but it is running on all major news networks.
Qhawe and Themba been called in for questioning by defense ministry to establish their involvement in these allegations. With Themba being a qualified lawyer, it helped their cause a great deal. He understands the legal processes even within military law. But there is one problem with this: the wives. Every time there’s a new source there seems to be evidence that shows Qhawe and Themba aren't telling all and the wives don’t like that.
“Thank you guys for letting me come over.” Hlengiwe says to Themba and Qhawe as she sits down. This is not like any other visit she normally makes. This time she’s here to specifically see Qhawe and Themba. They go to the study. “Can I offer you anything to drink.? We are having whisky. It seems to calm us down in the midst of this storm we find ourselves in.” Qhawe smiles. “Oh what the hell, you might as well count me in. It’s been a rough couple of months.” Hlengiwe says with a smile.
“oh yea how did that inquiry end up?” Themba asks as he pours a double and gives it to Hlengiwe. “Thank you,” she takes a sip. “Well there wasn’t much to find, at least not on me.” Hlengiwe says. “Sure some in my department then did transgress but not to a scale that warranted news coverage I guess.
But...” she takes another sip, “You my friends I can’t say the same about you two my friends. That’s why I’m here.” Qhawe and Themba show interest. Hlengiwe takes another sip, “I found interesting things when I went through your files. Such operations you ran in Africa.” she says.
Themba looks at Qhawe. Hlengiwe wears a little bit serious face, “Did you tell your wives the real truth about what went down?” Themba clears his throat, “What are you talking about?” he asks but this seems to annoy Hlengiwe, “Oh come on Mr. Cele who do you think you are talking to?” she asks, a little annoyed. There’s awkward silence in the room.
“Look, a while back Smith wanted me to hang you to dry in exchange for… lucrative deals.” Hlengiwe says to which Qhawe looks at Themba in amazement. “Don't look so shocked.” Hlengiwe says with a bossy voice. “That’s what politicians do.” She stands up and looks through the window and she turns and looks at them, “Of course I turned down his deal because I believe in you guys and what you stand for and I know you are just a pawn in a game of politics. So the fact that you won’t trust me really annoys me.” As her voice is raised.
She comes back and sits down, “I know everything that went down there, what that unit of yours did and the details of your operations.” she says. Themba and Qhawe are lost for words but Hlengiwe continues, “if I have that information it means some less friendly people also have it. Not to mention the fact that some of it keeps coming up in the news as a case in point. What happens when the real information comes out?" she asks.
"But I can assure you my friends, more than the bad guys we are faced with, it’s your wives you should be worried about if they get to hear the real things through other people.” as she pours herself this time, a bigger stiff.
“Okay we hear you, what do you suggest we do Hlengiwe?” asks Qhawe, nervously. Hlengiwe looks at them, “Tell your wives everything. I mean everything and leave nothing out.” They are shocked, “Are you serious Hlengiwe? Themba shouts as he looks around to see if anyone is listening. “You know we are not allowed to do that.” He stands up and walks around the room. He can’t believe what Hlengiwe is suggesting.
“Shhh…keep your voice down” orders Hlengiwe. “Keep your voice down. Would you rather get divorced? Huh? Besides, who will know you have shared this classified information? The longer you keep riding your luck with the hope that it won’t get to that, your luck will finally run out and then what? You will be fighting the bad guys while dealing with domestic issues on the other hand? You remember how bad that turned out to be?” she charges.
They all take a moment, simultaneously they take a strong sip of their glasses. Do they really have another option? They know Hlengiwe is right on this one. But they dread the reaction from their wives. Will things ever be the same if they tell the truth? But if they don’t, won’t that be even worse?
“Look I suggest you do this now, today. This...” Hlengiwe says as she points to the TV where the news is running the story, “This won’t go away, instead it will get worse in the next couple of weeks. Sit them down and tell them everything. By that I mean every bloody thing.” She stands up, “Well gentlemen, let me leave you to it.” They walk her to the gate and see her off as her convoy drives away.
It’s late in the night but they both know if they don’t do it now it will never happen. How the wives will take this is the bridge they’ll have to cross at that moment.
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