War of worlds
After breakfast Qhawe is sitting by the pool like a man deep in thoughts, he is trying to imagine how this afternoon will be like, to finally face his enemy, the man who turned his world upside down just by a single visit to his office. But these thoughts are interrupted by Themba who has come to join him.“Hey are you okay man?” Themba asks. Qhawe takes a deep breath and sips his juice and then looks at Themba, “You know man, tonight just could be the night,” he answers him. “I’m just trying to remember how our world was like before Smith showed up in my office. Frankly I don’t even remember how it was like, in fact, I don’t even know now which world is real, this or that one,” Qhawe says with a low voice filled with worry.
Themba breathes heavily. He can see that his friend is in bad shape. “don’t worry my friend,” Themba says, “We are almost at the end now. All we can hope and pray for is that we come back safe.” Their conversation is interrupted by Zinhle and Nothemba who join them by the pool.
“Hey babe,” Qhawe says, “Where’s Hlengiwe?” he asks his wife. “she’s in her room with Mbali. I suppose they need this time alone. They have never had time to mourn her son because of the chaos,” Zinhle answers. “Yeah I think she has few hours before we start preparing for tonight,” Themba says with a low voice. Nothemba goes to the kitchen and comes back with two bottles, one of wine and another of whisky.
When they see this they all laugh loud. “hawu baby, what’s wrong with you? So early?” Qhawe says laughing. Nothemba sits down and starts pouring a glass of wine for her and Zinhle. “Well look, we might as well drink this because I hate being tense,” she says.
As confusing as this is, they all laugh about it, while Qhawe and Themba pour themselves whisky. There's an uneasy moment of silence as each one sips on their glasses. Whether this silence is caused by each enjoying their favorite poison or it’s the realization of the fact that this might just be the last time they are together, it is hard to tell.
Qhawe then breaks the silence, “Guys I would like to make a toast,” he says with a somewhat low key voice sprinkled with sadness. “I would like to toast to each and everyone here, to your restlessness, dedication and most of all friendship,” it looks like he is teary. “Zinhle, Themba,’ he says as he turns to them, “you’ve been there right from the beginning and have no words to describe our gratitude to you both. We love you guys,” he concludes as he lifts the glass.
In response, they all lift their glasses but Hlengiwe emerges from through the glass sliding door coming to join them in the moment. “Oh wow, I almost missed a party,” she says jokingly.
At that, Themba pours her a double. Hlengiwe takes it and sits down. Nothemba gets up and lifts her glass, “Well this isn’t a formal gathering but I just wanted to toast Hlengiwe as well,” she says as she looks at a blushing Hlengiwe who is visibly caught by surprise with that.
“You have been a pillar for us, a voice of reason. To a certain extent, a big sister both to me and Zinhle. You have calmed us down when we were clouded by doubts. You have been a counsellor when we needed advice. We would like to say thank you very much for being in our lives, we love you very much.” At that everyone responds by lifting their glasses towards Hlengiwe.
After that they all enjoyed a moment of laughter and togetherness.
***
Meanwhile at Locker’s compound, they are also preparing for tonight's showdown. It seems both teams are expecting a heavy fire fight with all the guns at the table. Locker has managed to secure quite a few hitmen for hire.
“Smith, how far are we with the preparations?” Locker asks John who’s busy reading something in a piece of paper. “Things are going according to plan sir, we have the men and firepower that is needed for tonight,” Smith responds as he continues to read the piece of paper. “Just make sure that if we can’t have Dan, they also won’t have him but the mission is to terminate everything and everyone tonight,” Locker says with authority. “Yes Sir,” Smith responds.
“Hlengiwe is smart, the location of this showdown gives them a huge advantage. But we just have to make our plans work as well,” Locker says as he goes by the window.
A knock on the door quickly gets everyone jumpy and pick up their guns and point by the door. Luke goes to the computer monitor to look at the security cameras. There is one just above the door. He looks to see who might that be. “It's them sir,” Luke responds as he goes to open the door.
Entering are Seth Gumbi, Sthembiso Majola, Emmanuel Green, Paul Reagan and Sipho Fuze. These are the ministers who resigned after the corruption scandal broke out on the news. They are followed by some of Locker's business friends.
“Locker what have you got us into? Why are we even here?” Sipho asks furiously but before Locker can even answer Paul jumps in, “Yes, why are we here? Do you know if we get arrested we all lose everything? Not just us, you also,” he says. Locker keeps quiet for a moment as all these people start to grumble and complain.
“Quiet,” Locker shouts in frustration. “Just keep quiet, okay. This wasn’t my choice. You being here is part of the exchange deal otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” Locker concludes as he goes by the window in frustration. “What?” Sthembiso asks in shock, “What did you do? You used us as part of the deal?
Did you set us up Jack?”
In a blink of an eye Sthembiso had pulled his gun and pointed it at Locker. That opened the can of worms because without a moment's notice everyone in the room had his gun pointed at someone next to them, except Locker who is standing by the window looking at the barrel of the gun pointed at him but he is so calm about it.
“now everyone, stop it, just stop it,” Locker shouts. “is this what you want? For Nkosi and Hlengiwe to win?” He continues to shout as he comes to sit down. He pours himself whisky. At this everyone lowers their weapon and put them away. Clearly levels of trust are also running low now but this is certainly working in Qhawe's favor.
“These were not the terms from me but terms from them,” Locker continues, “we all come to the meeting and get Dan Audrey in exchanged. Need I remind you that Dan is one person that can send all of us to jail. He is the witness for Christ's sake, so get a grip now, all of you,” he shouts again. “All we need to do is position ourselves right, this evening,” he concludes and then the room goes quiet.
“Alright, how do you propose we do that, Jack?” asks Reagan. Locker downs the stiff in his hand and goes over by the window again, he takes a minute to think and then he turns around, “Smith tell them what the plan is,” he says ad he looks at John. Without hesitation, going in front of them John shows them the meeting place, “this is where we will be?” He says
“we will have three men, here, here and here with sniper riffles and you,” he points to the former ministers, “will be standing here as we present you for Hlengiwe and her team to see. We assume there will have snipers as well so our men will go ahead to position themselves early in order to scout them.” At that point everyone is listening attentively as Smith continues, “Once we have I identified Dan and they have identified the kids and the girl the exchange will happen. Once we have secured the package, we give the order to take them out,” he concludes.
It was all fine until Smith said that, “Are you insane?” Sipho protests, “if you do that, won’t they fire back and shoot at us? I’m not prepared to go there to get shot tonight,” he says nervously. “Look if we don’t take them out, even if we have Dan, once the Nkosi's have their family back, what stops them from turning state witnesses? And this time there will be five of them, the Nkosi's, the Cele's and Hlengiwe. Don’t you think that makes their case stronger?” Smith says as he gradually raises his voice looking at Sipho and then he turns and looks at Locker, seemingly looking for Jack's approval but Locker motions with his hand.
“Alright, alright,” he says determined to avoid a dialogue between Smith and Sipho, and quite frankly to avoid unnecessary debate between the two. “as much as I would have also wanted to avoid any blood being spilt tonight, I have to say, Smith has a point, if we let them go they will turn state witnesses and we will end up in jail. They have to go,” he says with some authority.
“Okay, wait, just wait a minute here,” Gumbi shouts with an anxious voice. “In case you didn’t know one can’t have a career in politics if they are convicted of murder. Do you understand that, Locker?” Gumbi shouts with panic and it seems all the other politicians agree with him as they nod with their heads. Smith keeps quiet and waits on Locker's advice before continuing. Locker himself is waiting on the panicking men to calm down. He then moves from the window and comes back to sit down. “I’m going to say this just once,” he says as he looks at these men who are beside themselves with fear.
“Your political careers are the least of your problems right now. If we don’t do this, we lose everything. You think those offshore accounts where you hide your monies will be active if we let them go?” He shouts
“One thing for sure is that if they live, we all go to jail at the least, so what? Are you planning on starting a political party in jail? Tonight we leave no witnesses. These people will just disappear and no one will know what happened to them and in that way you continue chowing that money in those accounts. So what’s it going to be?” He asks firmly as he looks at them in the eyes.
Suddenly there’s quietness in the room, clearly they heard him right. Then Locker motions to Smith to continue laying out the plan. Smith looks across the room and sees that everyone is calm then he continues,
“As I was saying, once Dan is secured we then take them out. We are however expecting some level of resistance from them so we can’t rule out a fire fight.”
At this, everyone else look at each other except for Locker and Luke who are fixing their eyes on Smith who continues, “that is why we will attack first before they have had a chance to react. There after you gentlemen,” Smith points to those listening, “will go to this position here, where transport will be waiting for you. We figured in order to avoid being tracked down, we'll use another transport for escape,” he concludes and then indicates to Locker.
The silence in the room suggests that either everyone agrees and has confidence in the plan or, they have serious doubts about it but nothing will change Locker's mind about it. They then continue with their plan for another 45 minutes.
***
At the Nkosi mansion, the planning and preparation had begun and everyone is in the study to learn of their roles tonight. Hlengiwe is her authoritative self like a commander leading the troop to the battle if their lives. “Listen up,” she raises her voice, “we will go over the plan one more time so that no one makes a mistake, we can’t afford that tonight,” she says with a more serious face. In the room there is the Nkosi’s, the Cele's, the tech team and a number of agents.
“Team spear as you know left early to be in strategic positions, team parade will be positioned here, here and here,” she says as she points to the monitor. Team ‘parade’ leaves in 5 minutes I need them to go ahead and secure every entry and exits of this location and what you see,” she says as she looks at team ‘parade’, “is what team quarterback will see. And please team quarterback, I need you to be sharp because you are our eyes and ears. I need that drone up and running as soon as team ‘parade’ is in position.”
Just when she had said that, team parade ups and leaves. It is a team of 7 agents, dressed casually. As they go through the door, Hlengiwe shouts, “oh… and team parade please act naturally. I don’t want you spooking our target before we even get there.” As they move out, one of the agents says, “Roger that.”
“Alright, let’s move on,” Hlengiwe says. “Team Wing,” she says as she looks another group of agents, heavily armed and in black clothes, “you will be by the cars covering team hailstorm all the way. I don’t want anything happening to them. Lastly, team Hailstorm, “she says as she looks at Qhawe, Zinhle, Themba, and Nothemba, “you will be making the exchange and once you have the package, you take them to this vehicle,” she points to the screen.
Team Hailstorm look each other with nervousness but they know there’s no other way, this has to end tonight. Hlengiwe goes on for another 30 minutes to ensure everyone understood the plan.
It is two hours before the showdown and everyone has their quiet moment dealing with any demon they might have left. Qhawe is sitting by himself in the pool in quietness, drinking water. Tonight he needs a clear head, so he can’t take whisky.
Moments later Themba joins him, “Hey how are you feeling brother?” he asks Qhawe. Downing his glass of water like a very thirsty man, Qhawe responds, “this is it man,” he says with a worried face, “Tonight is the night I see my kids man,” he says as he looks at the picture in his hand. Themba comes and sits next to him. His friend needs him; he thinks to himself.
“It’s going to be okay man. We will get them don’t worry. After tonight, we will go back to our normal lives again,” he says to Qhawe. There’s a moment of silence and then Qhawe looks at Themba and smiles.
Inside the house Hlengiwe knocks in Nothemba's bedroom, “can I come in?” she asks a visibly down Nothemba who’s sick with worry over her kids.
“I know it’s a stupid question under these circumstances but, are you okay?” she asks. Nothemba looks at Hlengiwe and then takes a picture on top of the bedside drawer and gives it to her. “She was one year,” she says as she becomes teary. Hlengiwe looks at the picture and then smiles, “adorable,” she says. Then Hlengiwe sits next to her, “Look Mrs. Nkosi, I won’t let anything happen to your kids. I promise,” says as she brushes Nothemba's back.
“But how can you guarantee that? This man will do anything to eliminate all of us tonight.” Nothemba says as tears roll down her face. Hlengiwe goes by the window and pause for a second, “I have a plan. I know this man; he thinks he has outsmarted us but I have a big surprise for him. Your kids will be okay.” She assures a visibly panicky Nothemba.
“look we need to get ready, we are leaving in 30 minutes,” Hlengiwe says as she leaves Nothemba to get ready.
After 30 minutes everyone was ready. They are all dressed in black gear with bullet proof vests on and carrying heavy weapons. Some of the tech team will work from the house and another will operate from the van.
“Let's move let’s go,” Hlengiwe shouts. They all get into two vans and a car. They have Dan with his face covered and hands tied. Dan hadn’t seen the face of the people who grabbed him. They put him in the van. This is it. There’s no turning back now. As they travel in the road, each member is concentrating on the mission ahead. There is no time to break down now. This moment calls for big hearts and bravery.
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