Chapter 4: The Attack

Wednesday 20.03.2019

On Wednesday, all the girls were at work. Even though autumn had already started in the southern hemisphere, the sun was scorching that day. I knew it was going to be a hot day. In the morning, some of the girls had uncovered the pool. In the afternoon we were going to have fun in the pool.

Sula and Babette accompanied me to the container store. We were sorting through the stock, still sifting through the boxes and pallets that we had put in containers just two years ago. Esther had given us a rough idea, but we wanted to check the exact contents. Hopefully the tinned food had not gone off.

At about 10 o’clock I heard a low hum in the distance, which grew louder and louder. Before we had activated the siren, the other three sirens were screaming. Soon a small helicopter appeared almost exactly over the Rus crash site, turned north into the valley, and then flew in a wide loop towards the guesthouse.

We looked at each other in surprise, even fear. A helicopter meant danger. “You stay here, arm yourselves, but keep covered. Just to be careful, like I told you.” They nodded.

But I saw fear in Babette’s eyes. She had felt my excitement. Sula, on the other hand, checked the submachine gun and took a spare clip like an experienced soldier. Who knows what she had seen in the savannah. Fortunately, we had hidden weapons and ammunition in four places in the valley, and here, in an empty container behind old packaging, there was a scale and one of the two rifles in a flat wooden box. My voice was tense; the inner excitement had gripped me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my small pistol with me. To this day, I don’t know if that would have been a good thing back then.

A red-haired woman and two men jumped out of the helicopter, the rotor still kicking up dirt and grass on all sides. They were obviously unarmed. The two men ran into our guesthouse. The woman was standing on the stairs. Alejandra and Olivia had not shown themselves, just as we had arranged. When strangers come, everyone is supposed to hide as best they can. We had practised this several times.

But it didn’t help. Now I had to be as offensive as possible. So, I ran up to the woman and shouted, “Olena, it’s great that you’ve come.”

The woman looked at me in surprise. She was probably wondering how I knew her name. I was sure it was the Russian or Ukrainian woman whose false passports I had found in the safe.

The men came running out of the house, cursing in Russian or some other language. They looked at me in astonishment. Suddenly I saw a pistol and the redhead pointed it at me. She asked me about the guns. I looked stupid. “What weapons? There are no weapons in the valley, except two pistols.”

Immediately she fired a warning shot at the ground next to my leg. A stone hit my calf. I screamed loudly, although it wasn’t that bad. The woman repeated ‘Kalashnikow’ several times, so she knew about submachine guns.

One of the men hummed something in a foreign language. Olena’s English was very limited. She said something about a ‘Chemondan with money’. The man showed the outline of a suitcase or box. I said I didn’t know anything and pointed to the crash site.

We went there. Unfortunately, it was a mistake, because they saw the seven slightly overgrown graves next to the two freshly dug burial mounds of the gold diggers. Whoever had buried the bodies must also have found the money suitcases. That’s how the woman interpreted it. She also wanted to know who the other two bodies were. I tried to explain, but she looked at me questioningly.

Again, she asked about the money, what they were looking for. I tried to distract her, to buy some time. Using gestures, I made it clear that if there were any suitcases containing money, they would still be in the back of the helicopter. The pilot, Rus, and his three companions would have been thrown down with the seats.

One of the men climbed up to the fuselage of the helicopter. I was supposed to go up too, but I showed my bandaged ankle. We had gained some time. It must have taken an hour to get up and down. Olena shouted something in Russian to the man who was getting up. Then she led me to the helicopter, her pistol at the ready. The attendant took the gun and let me sit back. The woman was holding a microphone while the pilot connected her to someone by radio. She was talking to a man in Russian, an Alexander Sergeyevich, so I thought I understood. It’s a pity Lenya wasn’t there. I would have liked to know what they were talking about.

Suddenly she asked me, almost naively, why I was still here in the valley. Obviously, the man in the distance, whom she now always called Alex, knew about the plan to blow me up. I said, “Only because I had survived the explosion.”

Then she repeated a word that sounded like ‘liquidate’: ‘likwidierowatsch’. Who was to be liquidated, just me or everyone? I had to be on my guard, I realised that now.

After the radio contact, she wanted to go to the main house. As I had suspected, our buggy was now in the forecourt. Babette and Sula had come here to protect the house and the people while we were at the crash site. There was no road to be seen from there and the golf cart moved almost silently. It was only later that I realised I had underestimated the cleverness of my girls.

I shouted loudly in the vestibule, “Don’t be afraid. Stay where you are.”

That’s when the man with the gun hit me on the head. A shot went off and hit the wall. The Russian did not speak English and had not understood my reassuring words. I was a little dazed, but I told the redhead that there were thirteen children here. I’m sure they’re scared of the gun and the strangers.

“Let them come out.”

“Never. You want to liquidate everyone. Or what does ‘likwidierowatsch’ mean?”

Lenya shouted from above, “Liquidate. They want to kill us.”

Olena looked angry. She had no idea I had picked up the word. The Russian man was a bit stupid and fired the next bullet senselessly towards the stairs. Then the leader took the gun back.

A little later the second companion rushed in, grabbed me like crazy and shouted, “Where is ... money.” Then he hit me with his fist. I managed to dodge some but staggered back. At that moment it became clear that their only goal was to get the millions of Rus. That’s why they had made the long journey from Europe and had taken the risk of an unauthorized helicopter flight over a foreign country.

Olena stopped the frenzy, but raised the gun and said I had three seconds to think. In this moment, Lenya jumped onto the stairs with a rapid-fire rifle. She shouted something in Russian. Olena immediately fired in Lenya’s direction. She fell on her back, dropping the submachine gun. The two men ran to grab the weapon. Then Sula intervened, completely unexpected for the attackers. She jumped out from behind the stairs with her gun and shouted “Stop!” As the men continued to run, Sula fired two volleys at the attackers.

Olena threw herself to the ground and tried to shoot back, but I was already on top of her and knocked the weapon away. But she was obviously well trained in hand-to-hand combat. She got free, kicked me in the stomach and jumped for the gun. Then another volley hit her legs. Sula was fearless and relentless. The leader of the attackers went down, and Ramona ran over and kicked the gun under the table.

“Be careful. She probably has a second gun,” I shouted.

Sula approached, the German ‘Wieger’ pointing at the woman. “I wish she had the guts to do that.”

The Russian woman groaned. I took my belt and pulled her forearms together with all my might. Meanwhile, Ramona had learned that the two men were dead.

Suddenly the pilot came in, followed by Babette with a battered rifle. “He was trying to escape,” she said quickly.

So, she had been guarding the helicopter all along. Ramona and Esther tied the stranger with ropes to the bench in the anteroom. Babette insisted on staying with the prisoner as a guard.

Luisa spoke to the pilot. He said he had nothing to do with this. He had flown here illegally from Colombia with the three attackers and had to return urgently today. If he was caught in Peru, he would go to jail and the helicopter would be confiscated.

Luisa found the pilot’s passport. The name and country of Colombia were correct. We got rid of his hands after I searched him for weapons, and Cara brought him tea and a flatbread sandwich. Meanwhile, Ramona had attended to the Russian. She was bleeding so badly that a puddle had formed under her legs. I went over to her, turned her slightly to the side and grabbed the back of her belt. As I suspected, I was holding a small lady’s pistol. At some point she would have used it against us if she had gotten the chance.

Ramona had stopped the bleeding but told me that the right leg could only be saved in a special clinic. Sula looked at me cautiously. I hadn’t even considered her state of mind. She had killed two people, seriously injured a woman and caused some damage to the house. I pulled her to me, lifted her up and kissed her on the forehead. “Thank you so much, my dear. You saved my life, maybe the life of everybody. You were great.” She got another kiss on her forehead.

I saw a small smile in her eyes, but she remained introspective and trembled. She had also injured herself during the shooting. An automatic rifle is not really for teenagers either, but I was glad that I had just trained her in it. I had also taught Lenya to shoot, but in the excitement she had understandably failed. How was Lenya’s mental state? She seemed to be in control again.

Esther took Sula into her loving care, but immediately showed me that the Kenyan’s shoulder and hip were very red, and she was in pain there. I suspected at least one bruise. We had practised the correct shooting position, but an emergency was different. Esther led Sula to the doctor’s room and wanted to rub her shoulder with an analgesic ointment.

Meanwhile, Priya had brought the four girls who worked in the village. They had to wait outside the house, just as Zarina and Fahsai had done for several minutes. It was enough for six girls to be frightened to death and then have to run around the dead bodies. I told Mayari to take the girls for two big laps around the garden to calm them down. Our sports instructor was to do the same with Sula, Babette, Cara, Esther, Priya, and Lenya after dinner. Running and breathing deeply was a good way to get rid of the fear and the bad images in their heads. They had to think of something else as soon as possible.