Chapter 6

(Meanwhile: While Don and Tracy were out with the whirlybird, a telephone conversation took place in the near vicinity of Cape Town. Let’s listen in on Alex and Ludwig.)

Ludwig was just a bit miffed. He expects results. Fast. Now Alex, his very trusted second in command, tells him that the trail has gone cold.

“Zoe say Zoe tracked zee girl to zee hairport?” Ludwig confirmed Alex’s report.

“Yes, Her Hertz. As I said, Security cameras picked them up in the parking garage at the Waterfront. Also, as they left to get onto the highway out of the city.” Alex replied. Ludwig said nothing.

“I could get the registration number and make of the car off the video. My friend in the Police confirmed that the car belonged to a Car Rental firm at the Airport. A contact at the Rental firm gave me the name of the Guy that rented the car and returned it the next day. One, Donovan Gordon Lambert.” Alex said.

“Deenavon Gordaan Lamebaart? A local?” Ludwig asked.

“Not local, local, but he apparently resides in Jo’ Berg. He has a house on the outskirts near Sandton. I believe he took the girl there.”

“Did zya Fly out?” Ludwig asked. “Come, come, do I have zoo pull everyzing out zoe.” Ludwig was getting impatient.

“I do believe they flew out. I don’t get any info on flight reservations. Everything just stopped at the airport Car Rental. No surveillance footage of them entering the airport. They just vanished, gone, disappeared into thin air.” Alex said.

Ludwig was absent-mindedly pushing papers around on his desk, stacking them to be filed, while listening to Alex on the speakerphone. There was silence from Alex. Ludwig was about to put another waybill onto the stack when he stopped and stared at the paper.

“Alex! Wott wause zee name off zee man?” He spoke. Shaking a little. Then composing himself.

“Donovan Gordon Lambert,” Alex repeated.

“Zoe wer right! Zay flew out! But not on a hairliner. Zay flew out on a zet. A private zet!”

“What! How do you know that Her Hertz,” Alex asked? Ludwig laughed.

“Zoe weel not believe wot I found lying on my desk. A waybeel, zined by a Dee Gee Lamebaart. He flew out on ee zet to Woenzerboom wiff ee cargo from uz!”

“Wonderboom? But that’s in Pretoria, Tshwane, not Jo’ berg!” Alex said.

“Woenzerboom, Joohazesbuhrg, Pretorzea, Wott efwer. Zay are very close to-ge-zer. Heez flown to Woezerboom, but stay in zee Joohanzebuhrg. Ja!” Ludwig explained.

“I’m on my way!” Alex said.

“Gut. Getz zee girl. I don’t zink she has spoken to zee Polizie. Bott if zhee did...” Ludwig let his words hang in the air.

“Got it Herr Hertz. She doesn’t know me or you.” Alex said.

“Und Alex...” Ludwig said

“Yes, Her Hertz?”

“Make my probemzz go hawaay.” Ludwig said and broke the connection.

He still sat at his desk for a while longer. Contemplating his next move. He’ll have to report further up to his Boss. It’s just an inconvenience for him. Why did that nincompoop, what’s his name, tried this stunt? If he stuck to orders, everything would have been fine.

Maybe he got scared. The girl escaped. He just should have got her back and chained her up, until all the girls could be moved. Three days more. Only three days and there would not have been a problem. No! He had to take things in his own hands. Imbeciles!

If only he reported the matter of the escape to Alex. Damage control could have been done. Now? Now the girl has probably talked! There are just over five point seven million people living in Johannesburg.

Then Ludwig had an idea. A brilliant idea. The cell phone Service Provider. yes. He can trace this Donovan through the Cell Service Provider. Once he gets his people going on it, he could track him. Yes! He will put Alex onto it. Alex is good with computers. Ludwig smiled to himself, as he dialled Alex’s number on his cell phone.

Meanwhile, Alex had thoughts of his own. He was getting himself ready to depart for Gauteng. Gauteng is the smallest Province, not large, in land-area, but has the biggest population of all of the Provinces in the Country. At least he had an address in Sandton.

Alex took out his travel bag. He won’t be gone long. If the girl is in the Sandton house, he will take appropriate action. To eliminate the threat. He doubts that she has spoken to the Police. If she had, well, then he’ll have to see that she is no longer available to attest. The case will be dropped. She was in Cape Town. If she departs to the Angels in Gauteng, who cares! As long as the little bitch can’t be linked to Hertz or him. Fine. No problem.

Alex was picking out his clothes for the journey and placing it in his bag. How will he do it? Long-range sniping? Car crash? Too risky, with no guarantee of success. Or will he just go in at night, take her and silence her. There are many open and unsupervised mine shafts in Gauteng where he could dump the body.

Some of these shafts are so deep, it could be maybe only in the next century that someone would only find a dehydrated powdery skeleton. It’s a risk he must take. And Hertz would reward him well.

Alex smiled. The rush of the upcoming hunt and chase slowly kicked in. First bringing a calm in him. A deadly calm. The Huntsman has revived again. Coming out of hibernation. Ready.

Then Alex’s cell phone rang. Her Hertz on the line.

After the call from Hertz, Alex took his travel bag, locked up his apartment in Bellville, and went to his car. He placed the travel bag in the boot of the car, got in, and drove out. Heading for the N1 North. He did not see the black sedan pull out of a parking spot behind him and follow him. Neither did he see the green 4X4 following him through the Huguenot Toll Plaza towards Worcester. He also missed the Courier 2X4 following him out of Worcester towards De Doorns. Or the slight difference in the appearance of the vehicle compared to the real Courier vehicles. He smiled to himself. The hunt was on!

(Back to somewhere in the sky in a little helicopter.)

With the engine running and all gauges in the green, I pulled the collective up to a spot just where the rotors will produce enough power and downdraught. The Copter rose off the ground to about 5 feet. Correcting with the rudder pedals and the cyclic, I kept her stable in a hover.

“Ready my Doll?” I asked Tracy, grinning.

“My Doll, me Ass.” She said returning the grin with fire flaming in those green eyes. “THIS Doll’s ready!” Giggle. I laughed and pulled on the collective to have us rise to thirty feet and pushed the cyclic forward. The copter responded and the nose dipped to about three degrees, slowly making forward speed. At forty knots, I levelled out at 500 feet AGL.

(AGL not MSL. MSL = Mean Sea Level. Ground Level here is four thousand eight hundred above Mean Sea Level. So, to tell how high ABOVE ground we are, Above Ground Level, we use AGL. Okay, you aviation nuts know this, but there are other fine people that don’t know this lingo. Be Kind.)

This little bird can fly. No wonder her ‘sisters’ was called “Little Bird” in the Vietnam War. With the throttle open to the stops, she whisked away to about 140 KIAS. (Knots Indicated Air Speed. About 260 Km/h or 160 mph.)

Tracy’s head was on a swivel. Looking out right, up, and downward.

“You can see everywhere! This is awesome!” she exclaimed. Nearly blowing my eardrums on the intercom. I turned to the right, banking about 30 degrees. This let the right side of the Copter lift. Showing Tracy only sky on her right and a crazy slanting horizon in front.

“Wheee! Can we do it again?” She was definitely enjoying the ride.

“Okay, Sweetie-pie. Let’s see what the farm looks like.” I said and slowed the copter down to a crawl, dropping to about 150 feet AGL. Tracy was looking everywhere. That red hair, not kept in place by the headset, flicking about.

Then! Tracy saw her first live Giraffes, standing to the side of a tree, happily munching on the leaves.

“They’re HUGE!” Her eyes were just as huge. “I never thought them to be so big. Pictures don’t do them justice.”

“You should see them at ground level. When you learn to ride a horse, I will take you out to see them.” I said.

“On horseback, Like cowboys ... er ... cowgirls?” Giggle.

“Yeah. Like a ‘cowgirl.’ I use a horse. You can get much closer to them. All the animals, at that. Because they see the horse. Four legs. They think it’s one of them, so they don’t run away. Only check for danger. If they feel no danger, they graze on and you could get up close to them. To where it’s safe, that is. Those giraffes out there can pack a mean kick. Kill Lions with one kick. And they run faster than a horse!”

“You don’t say!” Tracy was excited.

We flew on. Checked all thirty-eight kilometres of fencing. I flew us across the farm and Tracy saw other antelope and zebras.

“Horses with stripes! Are they white with black stripes, or black with white stripes?” She asked while smirking at me.

“Well, actually, according to research, they are black with white stripes!” I said. Tracy stuck her pink tongue out at me.

Looking out to the left I saw a dust stream with a car on the point, driving up to my homestead. Okay, let’s have a look-see.

I banked the copter to the right, kicking in full right rudder, in a tight one-eighty-degree turn. This time, dropping Tracy’s side of the helicopter.

“Wheee... ! Here we go again! And now I only see the ground spinning around!” Tracy said. Excitement up on a high.

The car, in the meantime, came to a stop in front of the house porch. Three occupants climbed out and stood with hands shading their eyes out of the sun, watching the helicopter descending for a landing on the lawn next to the house.

After shutting down the helicopter, I used the rotor brake to stop the rotors from spinning. Tracy and I got out and approached the two guys and a girl standing next to the nondescript car. They were dressed in casual wear. One guy had a denim dungaree on.

“Good Morning!” I greeted. The three stepped forward.

“Mister Lambert?” The one guy asked.

“Don Lambert at your service, this here is Tracy,” I said

“Pleased to meet you, Mister Lambert, Tracy.” He said. “I’m Charley. This is Laura, and this guy, looking like he’s gone to roll in the hay, is Aubrey. We were to report to you for farm work.” He grinned.

“Good to meet y’all. Let’s go to some shade and talk. Coffee, Tea, coke?” I asked.

“Coke will be fine for me,” Laura said. The other two confirmed that coke was good.

“I’ll fetch for us! Five coke’s coming up!” Tracy said and skipped into the house. We all sat down on the porch chairs.

“That, the little girl?” Laura asked. Indicating with her head in the direction Tracy just left.

“Yes. And a wonderful kid at that.” I said taking out my pipe and makings.

“We were briefed about the situation,” Aubrey spoke. “We’re here to sort of protect you two. We will be doing things around here, but never far from you or her. That’s why Laura came along. Female, you know.”

“I’d gather that from what I’ve seen,” I said. “Having you around will ease my mind. Being here all alone with Tracy.” I addressed Laura directly.

“Understandable,” Laura said. “Does Tracy need anything? Girlie, I mean.”

“You should talk to her. It’s only her second day here. I bought her some gear, but only what she needed for clothes. Not “Girlie” stuff. I suppose she needs other things as well and you can help in that department. I will provide the money. No sweat about that.” I said.

“True! He’ll pay! He bought me as well, now he must support his asset.” Giggle from the door holding a tray with glasses, an ice jar, and a two-litre bottle of Coke. Tracy.

Laura laughed. The other two just looked at me and grinned.

“Mighty fine purchase! You must tell me in what aisle they keep them at the shop!” Charley quipped.

With ice-cold drinks all around we spoke at length about how we are going to proceed. Aubrey, the senior of the three Police Officers, laid out all the percussion and tactics to be used. Laura would be Tracy’s shadow 24/7. Until the matter was resolved. Nothing was left to chance.

With the cold drinks done and the discussion over. Aubrey and Charley left to scout out the surroundings. Looking for possible inroads that could cause trouble. Tracy took the tray with glasses back to the kitchen. As I knew her, she would set about washing the glasses.