Hyena Dawn (47 page)

In spite of himself, he pulled her close to him. His lips touched hers briefly and he sensed the desire in her body. It frightened him. He had to think of some way to get her out of this place. Any development in their relationship could only be a disaster. ‘What are you worried about, Tongogara?’

‘
The attack the Russians have planned for next week. It will be terrible. It will probably go down as one of the worst massacres in history.’

‘
There is little you can do about it now.’

Now Sam sat in silence. She thought of all the people she knew who lived in Salisbury, most of them elderly, for the young ones had either left or joined the army. She could imagine what would happen - she had seen American soldiers running riot in Vietnam, civilised men reduced to the level of savages ... Of course, that was what Tongogara was scared of, the black man living up to his comic-strip image . . .

‘
You are thinking of the people you know there?’

‘
Yes . . . And more. You are right, it will be horrifying. And you will win anyway, without this invasion. History will look kindly on you if all that is recorded is the war for independence; but a massacre is different. Is there nothing you can do to stop it?’

‘
Not without destroying myself in the process.’

‘
Leave, Tongogara, and take Mnangagwa with you. Get out of here and get away. With a start like this, what sort of a country are you going to have anyway?’

He got up and paced up and down in the darkness. She could tell he was angry, angry at her and at himself.

‘
Maybe there is a way. If we incapacitated the Russian planes ... If they did not have the fuel to make the flight to Salisbury, then the attack would not take place. And a big enough explosion would be seen from Rhodesia and give cause for investigation. Yes, it would work, but at what a price? I would be known as the traitor who sold out my own people.’

He stared up at the stars in desperation. Sam rose and came across to him. He wrapped his arms round her and she looked up at his face.

‘
They would never know it was you. However, the main thing is that you would have prevented one of the worst episodes in

African history from ever taking place. It’s a decision only you can make, Tongogara. I cannot help you.’

‘
How I wish that I had never met you!’

She pulled away from him, her eyes flashing with anger in the darkness. ‘All I’m doing is reminding you of your responsibility. Don’t forget your men captured me in the first place! I’m just a reporter. Let me tell you that your attack on Salisbury would be the news story of the decade, and if I got out of here I could make myself millions by writing a book on it.’

‘
You would do that?’

‘
Well, what happens, happens. Why not? Of course, I wouldn’t reveal your name. Or I could write another book, in another time and another place, about a man who had the courage of his convictions, who stood up for what he believed was right and avoided something terrible.’

Tongogara reached out and took her hand. She resisted, but he pulled her close again. He spoke, drawing energy from her.

‘
For a woman you have much power. I cannot ignore the truth of what you are saying. If I do as I plan to, we will make for the border together - I won’t be able to live here again afterwards. Then we must go our separate ways. I shall be taking a big risk by trying to sabotage the fuel supply depot, something could well happen to me. You would have to fend for yourself. I don’t know if you would survive.’

His voice, which had been loud and angry, was now soft and caring. Sam steeled herself against this new tactic of evasion.

‘
Don’t worry about me. I’m not important - but what you have to do, is. As long as you think it’s the best thing for your people. I’ve survived this far, I’m sure I can make it on my own.’

He smiled. It was almost as if he had wanted to hear this declaration from her.

‘
Then it is decided. I will have to move quickly now.’

‘
You’ll ask no one to help you? Not even Mnangagwa?’

‘
Mnangagwa will be my eyes and ears here at the camp. He will explain my absence, he will say that Vorotnikov has sent out a death squad to get me. But I will do this thing alone. If it goes wrong, then I will be the only one that they can blame -1 cannot implicate anyone else.’

‘
When will you do it? You don’t have much time.’

‘
As soon as possible. This Sunday. I cannot risk leaving it for longer. They’ll start stepping up security soon, in readiness for the invasion.’

Sam looked at him in the darkness and knew that indeed he would do it, though at terrible cost to himself. She would not interfere any more. Perhaps, instead, she might even try to help him.

The heat of the midday sun was burning down on them, the black soldier and the white journalist. At their feet was an open bolthole, and lying at its entrance an array of arms and ammunition.

‘
There are thousands of these dumps all over the country. Only a few know of their existence. It’s our guarantee of safety - we learnt the hard way about the danger of keeping all our eggs in one basket, the Rhodesians hit our big dumps as easily as a man swats a mosquito bloated with blood. This cache contains arms and ammunition for fifty men, plus supplies of tinned food. I could have got the weapons through my own men, but that might have attracted suspicion. This way it is only you and I who are involved.’

Tongogara spoke softly. He stared at Sam who had dropped down on her haunches, her breasts clearly visible through her sweat-caked bush shirt. No, he told himself, she is not for you. Every day he had felt more and more drawn to her, and the force of this attraction frightened him. It reminded him of how he had felt for his wife when she was alive.

He wanted to maintain the pace they’d kept up since they’d left the kraal, but she seemed exhausted. She looked up at him, guessing his thought.

‘
Can you keep going like this all day?’ she asked.

He took the pack from her back and forced her to sit down. Then he loaded the weapons into his own rucksack. He spoke as he worked.

‘
It is only through long experience that I have learnt the value of swift movement. You kept up well, though I don’t think you would have lasted much longer.’

‘
Bastard!’

He smiled. He liked her spirit. ‘Ah ha. I see that you Americans also fear to hear the truth.’

‘
Touche.’

He carefully covered the bolthole with leaves and sand. Then he hoisted the massive pack onto his back and helped Sam to her feet. She looked him straight in the eyes. ‘Don’t worry, Tongogara. I’ll keep going.’

Loaded down with the weapons they had acquired, they now moved slowly back the way they had come. Tongogara was also more cautious because they were near the airport and the area was crawling with Russian troops. They kept to the shadows, and moved swiftly over any open ground they had to cross. It was nerve-racking, and frequently they rested in the bush, panting to regain their breath. Sam’s reporter’s curiosity was awakened. ‘Is this always what it’s like?’

‘
It is usually worse because when I am inside Rhodesia I can never relax. The man who feels comfortable is a dead man. Now I move like a disease through my own people, silent and deadly.’

‘
When will you strike?’

‘
Tomorrow afternoon.’

‘
So soon?’

His face hardened. ‘The longer I leave it, the more dangerous it will be. Often the more time I have to think about an attack, the more afraid I become. Waiting around for too long is death.’

They got up again and kept moving, skirting the airfield. Eventually they lay down in the tall grass running along the edge of the main runway. Sam stared aghast at the vast array of weapons and the camouflage sheets covering the planes. It would all be completely invisible from the air.

‘
Bombers and fighters,’ she whispered. ‘God, there’s a fortune sitting there on the tarmac, Tongogara. How do we take that lot on?’

‘
By not taking it on. All these planes need fuel to launch an attack - and I intend to cut off their supply. Once I’ve done that, we can come back here, but now we must keep on moving. We have to be in position by tomorrow morning.’

They crawled away from the runway, and only stood up once they were back in the thicker vegetation on the perimeter. Sam was sweating now with the fear of being so close to the enemy. She moved closer to Tongogara and whispered to him, ‘I had no idea it would be this bad. It’s crazy to attack them. They’ll massacre us.’

‘
Sam, that is the language of defeat. We have surprise on our side; when we attack they’ll have no idea of our numbers. I’ll rocket the tanks, which will go up in great sheets of flame - it will take them months to rebuild. I know the security on the fuel tanks is lax, it’s their weakest link. We must conserve our energy to get away as quickly as possible.’

Sam dropped her pack and put her arms around him. ‘Just hold me for a few seconds.’

Tongogara held her tightly. He could sense the fear she felt but would not admit, and his body shivered with the excitement of her closeness. He closed his eyes. Danger made him acknowledge what up to now he had been forcing himself to deny. Dammit, he said to himself. Yes, dammit, I am in love with her.

It was many minutes before Sam broke the spell. ‘Surely we’d be better off getting away in the darkness?’

‘
You’re right. We’ll attack the tanks just before sundown. Anyone who looks at the blaze will be dazzled for a long time afterwards. It will be very difficult for them to pursue us.’

They moved very slowly now, keeping to where the vegetation was thickest. The thorns tore at Sam’s skin so that soon her face was a mass of bloody streaks, and perspiration poured from her forehead and mingled with the blood. She felt terrible but did not complain. Eventually the enormous shapes of the fuel tanks appeared before them and they sank gratefully into the shade of a huge flame tree.

‘
Now we must rest. Tonight we can go down to the shore and wash, the salt will be good for the cuts on your body. You did well, Sam, it wasn’t an easy advance. Try to lie perfectly still, keep yourself calm with the thought of the water you will bathe in this evening.’

Sam lay down at Tongogara’s side, closed her eyes and tried to imagine that she was back in her parents’ house, playing with her brothers and sisters. She relaxed in the comfort of this image of her past, blocking out the sounds of the mosquitoes and the terrible heat. Soon she was dreaming.

Her brothers and sisters had taken her favourite toy away from her and she was desperately searching for it. Eventually she climbed out of a skylight onto the roof of their house, and saw that the teddy bear was lying in the gutter. She edged towards it, conscious of the terrible drop below, and was almost within reach and stretching out for it when the tiles beneath her started to shift, and she began sliding inexorably downwards.

Desperately she clutched the teddy to her breast, and then tumbled over into the void. Now she was flying through the darkness, and it was strange that she did not hit the ground but felt as if she was tumbling down an endless shaft, and the loneliness and oppression of the void pressed in against her so that she pulled the teddy bear closer. Suddenly she struck an object in the darkness, and the teddy was flung from her arms. She started to scream -

She woke to find Tongogara’s hand clamped hard across her mouth. Once he was certain that she was no longer going to cry out, he took his hand away.

‘
A bad dream?’

‘
I’m sorry, I nearly blew it for you.’

‘
Once you start apologising for your dreams, you might as well be dead. They are the secret messengers of your soul.’

‘
You believe that?’