How far will you go to get what you want?
“Thank you for meeting me general,” Locker says to this seriously looking gentleman sitting next to him in the back seat of the car that is parked in a dark under bridge somewhere.“Mr. Locker, so you said this is urgent…” the general doesn’t finish his sentence as Locker interrupts, “please call me Jack." he says. The general pauses for a minute. “Jack, if this is a state meeting, which I don’t see how, considering we are meeting in dark corners shouldn’t I be contacted by my counterpart from your state department? I mean, what is it that you do again?” the general is curious.
“General Malan, I’m an adviser in the presidency and as you’d appreciate, this is a matter of national security hence we are discussing this matter in a discreet manner. Away from the prying eyes as it were.” Locker says as he looks at Malan. “After you hear what I have to say, I promise you will understand why this matter is of paramount importance and the need to urgently deal with it,” Locker says as he looks through the window.
Outside there’s security detail for Locker as well as that of Malian. Clearly this is a meeting of high importance. The guards are keeping an eye on each other while their respective bosses are busy talking inside the car.
“Okay Jack, I’m listening,” Malan says as he pours himself a drink. Jack brought with him an expensive bottle of whisky as a token of friendship. He listens attentively. Locker pauses for a second as if to think where to begin. “Well as you may recall, recently news broke out about U.N peace keeping missions in Africa. Most of these missions weren’t officially sanctioned by the U.N. and involved a special forces task force that ran covert ops where women and children were killed…” he doesn’t finish his sentence as Malan interrupts, “Yes I remember. What about this?” He asks anxiously.
“Well sir,” Locker continues, “You were also directly involved in that and needless to say, your country is now involved too since its all over the news.” This seems to be making the general very uncomfortable, “Jack where are you going with this?” He shouts in frustration.
“Well general, as you know that the U.N. has already began investigations on the countries involved and…” Malan interrupts Locker again, “Yours too, your country too Mr. Locker. Don’t you forget that.” Jack smiles and he is liking the fact that he’s making the general so nervous. “Yes of course General I'm aware of that. We have managed to plug the leak, stopped the bleeding and managed to contain the situation from getting out of control but, who knows who will talk from any of the soldiers that formed part of that task force. We are talking about countries like yours, mine, Serbia, Austria, France etc. If any of them speaks, hell will break lose.”
Malan sighs as he knows Jack has him in the corner, “So what do you propose we do?” he asks reluctantly. “Well, sir I'm already in contact with the countries involved. We are talking of forming a joint task force that will work on ensuring that this goes away.” Jack says as he looks at a rather shocked Malan.
“By that, you mean what exactly?” the General asks. “You know exactly what I mean General,” a dark side of Jack says. “We have to contain this because if the U.N. investigators get to these soldiers the world won’t be pleased with what they learn. And if you don’t get on board with this you are on your own when the U.N. finds out what you did,” Jack says with a threatening tone. “So General, do we have an understanding?” He looks at Malan firmly in the eyes.
“Yes we have an understanding,” Malan says reluctantly. “Good. I’ll be in touch.” Jack says as he exits the car and jumps into his car. The General gets out and watches Jack and his security drive off.
***
In the house they are enjoying some peace for a while. Though they are enjoying this break everyone is on high alert. They realize Locker is not the giving up type, he must be working on something. Monica has come over to see Qhawe and Themba. They are sitting by the pool area while the ladies are in the house.
“Thank you Monica for all the updates, you have done a fine job there and we really appreciate it. I’m sure we won’t even recognize the place when we finally return.” Qhawe says as he hugs Monica. Themba then jumps in as he hugs her too, “Yeah keep up the great work. It means a lot.” They walk her to the gate and see her off. They return to the house and find the ladies having a great time, something they haven’t done in a long time.
“Hey is everything okay baby?” asks Nothemba. “I saw Monica so I thought maybe…” Qhawe cuts her off, “No baby everything is fine. She just wanted to update us that's all. Can we now join in the fun?” he says as he kisses his wife. They all sit down and have some drinks.
***
It’s a week before elections and the past few months’ events have proven to have a huge influence on how this election will go. The ministers linked to the corruption hasn’t helped the ruling party in its campaign even though the ministers eventually stepped down. What these ministers didn’t expect was getting back on the news again.
Qhawe and the team are watching the news about the leaked photos of ministers with escort women in a cabin. The photos are all over the news, papers and social media. This is the last thing the party needed.
“Oh well it seems phase two is also working just fine.” Themba says as he holds and cuddle with his wife on the couch in the lounge room.
“Excuse me, I'm sorry for being blunt but how does this phase two help us? I mean these ministers resigned a few months ago?” Nothemba asks as she seems confused at this. “Well honey, it’s all about the timing,” Qhawe says as he kisses her in the forehead. She still looks lost.
“Look at it this way darling,” Zinhle jumps in, “During this time, the campaign season, even an ant can punch like an elephant. It means Locker must know that we have the power to destroy him and his party anytime. We can take this election away from him.”
Nothemba looks really worried, “okay I get that but, won’t this affect Hlengiwe as well? I mean, they…this government hired her as well.” There’s bit of silence in the room. Qhawe jumps in, “Yes it may affect her if this government loses out on retaining the power but Hlengiwe is not all about that. She’s about justice.” He is trying to reassure his wife, who still looks confused.
“Well we hope this works because if they get re-elected after all this, then they will come at us with all they have got.”
There’s a moment of silence in the room as they realize Nothemba has a point. They keep watching the news as the photos of politicians entertain themselves with prostitutes. “Where does the President stand on this?” Nothemba asks, “Is he also on Locker’s pockets or he seeks justice? Because if he seeks justice then, maybe this phase two isn’t a bad idea but if he’s working with Locker then it’s bad. He can just fire Hlengiwe and dissolve the entire intelligence structures that has been working to bring Locker down.” She looks at all of them in the room.
“You do have a point,” Zinhle interjects, “But according to my knowledge the President's heart is in the right place. He just wants to do what’s right. On the other hand, Locker has been controlling certain ministers and business people in order to profit from them.”
“But what can stop him from switching sides of this party loses elections?” Themba asks and no one seems to have an answer to that. “Well bro,” Qhawe says, “All I know is that we have to stop him from controlling whoever will be President.”
The ministers' scandal ran every day until election, just the way Hlengiwe wanted it. People headed to the polls for two days and voted. That was followed by three days of counting of votes. It is a little hard to call where this will election will go but usually in politics those who are in power never allow others to take that power away. So it is difficult to even imagine the ruling party to give it away. But the bravery of Hlengiwe, risking her career in every way to expose corruption, may have swung things in a different direction.
***
The day of the announcement of the result has come. Jack Locker and the gang are meeting in the cabin for the announcement. The mood isn’t that of people ready to pop up bottles. They are anxious, while at the Nkosi mansion, the same can be said. They are not really planning to have a big bash irrespective of where the results go. All they know is that they may have had a hand in the way today’s result will go. They are glued on the screen and the IEC facilitator is on the podium.
They all tensely sit on the edge of their seats when the announcement is made, ‘With a total of %55.4 People's Congress wins the elections. A new party will be mandated with the task of leading the country.’
They all can’t believe it, there will be new President and a new party in power. They look at each other but with a moment of silence. Qhawe stands up and hugs Themba and then Zinhle. After that they all hug each other. Even though they know this will most definitely have consequences in one way or the other they are satisfied that they may have had a hand in bringing this change. They are just hoping this will be a good change and that it will give them their lives back.
***
As expected, in the cabin things are tense. There is a sense of loss. Everyone is bitter and angry. They knew it was going to be tight but they didn’t expect to lose. It’s fair to say Jack is spitting fire even in his silence. The room is silent. No one dares to make a comment at this point seeing that the boss hasn’t said a word.
“I’ve got to give it to Hlengiwe, she did well.” This comment from Jack confuses everyone. But he is not done, “Now I have to find another way of dealing with her. She cost me everything, she and her friends.” Out of nowhere, he smashes the glass of whisky in her hand to the wall. Now that’s the reaction everyone expected from him.
He then sighs heavily, “Now we have to deal with her decisively. She and her team must pay for this.” he says but Smith decides to interject, “But how are we going to do that? We have no protection now since things will change.” He says calmly.
“Well,” Jack says as he pours himself another glass, “I have recently put together a task team that will deal with them. This team is international.”
Everyone looks confused as to how he could have pulled that one off. “How did you do that?” one of the ministers asks. “The U.N. investigations are under way over those leaked classifieds. I have managed to convince some of the other countries’ officials implicated to join forces in containing the situation. Everyone involved on those missions know too much. The soldiers were following a direct order, so when the investigators come knocking they will co-operate and we can’t have that, can we?”
This seems to make sense to everyone else. There is no better cover for Jack other than using this covert mission to take revenge on his enemies. “Smith, I need you to gather all Intel on their families as soon as possible. Hlengiwe knew what she was doing when she took me on. So now she is about to be taught a lesson.”
Everyone looks at each other and realize that things are about to get messy here. “Okay I'm on it,” Smith replies with a smile. He’s been looking forward to this. After all, Hlengiwe and her team are responsible for his company being exposed. Everyone stands up, they shake hands and everyone off to his car with their security detail. The war has been declared. The battle lines have been drawn. Each team will go as far to get ahead. Qhawe and his team will do whatever is necessary to regain their lives, while Locker will do whatever he can to unleash vengeance on those who brought him trouble.
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