Chapter 9

(About that time the Don and Tracy switched off the light in the hotel in Gaborone, the lights at the farmhouse were slowly extinguished, one by one... )

Alex had been attentive to what was happening in and around the farmhouse. Inside was a guess at any rate. Outside there was minimum movement. Once a car had gone and came back after a while. The Bitch was with the two Guys in the car. Something still bothered Alex.

Alex was still a little unsure of the bitch. She looked a little too tall for a fourteen-year-old. Her hair, a little too light for what he was led to believe, matched. She has changed her clothes since being with this Donovan guy. She also had an attitude of control about her. Sort of a self-assurance he could not place. Not some screwy sex slave bitch. Did this Donovan Guy let her lose? Alex thought that this Donovan would use his unexpected luck and fuck her silly. But then again, he took her to the Cops. His informant inside the Cops told him where she was. And she is the only female he has seen all day. There were some farmhands going about their duties. But they lived near the toll road on the south side of the property. Not a problem.

Alex waited patiently. Once he got a call from Ludwig. He assured Ludwig that he’s got everything under control. He has seen the bitch and will terminate her shortly. Ludwig said that he’s going to move the other girls, not waiting any longer. He will not include her in the sale. She is to be terminated. Loss of good money, but the operation cannot be jeopardised.

Alex waited. Slightly sweating in the ghillie suit. The sun was hot. Bearing down on him under the little, short tree next to the huge boulder where he sat. The heat energy radiating off the boulder, heating him up.

It was dark. Alex thought of moving closer to the farmyard. He saw no dogs. Good. It was to be a moonless night. Only starlight. All seems to be quiet and normal. Crickets doing their irritating crick crick song. A slight breeze came from the south. This would benefit him. Muffling his approach but amplifying any sound from the house. Careless people. Not even dogs. No security fencing. Only a small rickety five- or six-foot wire fence around the yard. Normal diamond mesh. Easy to get through.

Alex moved slowly out of his hiding place. Crouching, he moved stealthily. Suddenly a Lapwing (Kiewiet) flew up, loudly protesting her warning to Alex that he was too close to her nest. Alex halted. He waited until the lapwing settled down a little further along the hill, eyeing him suspiciously.

Alex continued downward. On his way down the hill, Alex saw movement in one of the upstairs windows. A woman. The light in the room casting a reddish glow over her hair. She was drawing the curtains closed. She now looked much shorter than before. Now he had a spot where she will be. The east side. End room. A little to the side of the house. He hoped the house did not have wooden floors. The house did indeed look quite modern. So, concrete floors.

The lights in the house went out one by one. Darkness falls on the house. No security lighting. Alex needs to be vigilant. There could be those movement detecting spotlights. Alex came to the fence. He sat down. Looking. Listening. Smelling the night air. Uneasy of another Lapwing this close to the house.

Alex took a wire cutter out of his combat jacket pocket. He started cutting the diamond mesh wire. Always attentive. Listening. Every sound sounding, loud to his ears. The wire opened up wide. Wide enough for Alex to crawl through. Alex looked at the dark farmyard around him. Everything is quiet. Not a sound out of place. There is the gap in the wire in front of Alex and he stepped through.

(Inside the farmhouse.)

Half expecting something to happen, Charley let Aubrey go to sleep. He will wake him at two. Aubrey will take the watch to about four when Aubrey will then wake Laura to take the graveyard shift and maybe fix breakfast for them.

Charley was reclining on the sofa in Don’s study. He was in surveillance mode. Not fully awake, but not fully asleep. His attentive, relaxed mode. Ready in a nanosecond if need be.

A beeping sound got Charley’s attention. He was instantly in full alert mode. He turned his head to the alarm panel on the wall next to the big oak desk. A little red light blinking on and off, showing the position of the intrusion on the outside perimeter fence representation on the panel.

Charley took out his 9-millimetre pistol from his belt holster. He cocked the pistol, raking a round into the chamber. Slowly he rose up from the sofa. Softly, like a cat, he went to the window. He looked through the crack between the curtains that he left there intentionally, before turning in for his watch.

There. Approaching stealthy from the direction of the foliage around the lawn. A Shadow. Black against the lighter grey of the lawn in the starlight. Moving slowly, carefully picking his path so as to not make a sound. One shadow. One only. No other movement.

Charley Slowly moved away from the window, went out onto the passage. Charley got to the stairs, he needed to wake the other two.

Charley got to Aubrey’s door, knocked three knocks, and opened the door. Aubrey was awake and already got out of bed. Charley whispered to him. Informing him of the coming threat. Just then the house alarm started to ring.

Laura heard the house alarm. She jumped up, drawing her 9-millimetre pistol from the holster beside her on the bed nightstand, raking a round into the chamber. She did not switch on the light. Laura walked over to the door and slowly, silently, turned the door handle. Opening the door carefully. Her room was around the bend in the passage on the first floor of the house. Next to Tracy’s room. Laura went out in the dark passage, crouching low against the wall.

Alex found the front door unlocked. What a stroke of luck. No lock picking now. He smiled to himself. Alex turned the door handle. Alex pushed the door open. Instantly he froze as the house alarm sounded. Fuck!

Alex decided to not withdraw. He has to be fast. In the dim light, Alex could see wooden stairs just up ahead, giving access to the first floor of the house. He left the door open and moved stealthy, but quick to the foot of the stairs. Looking for any movement, Alex knew that he must be quick. While the occupants of the house were disorientated, he must strike. Alex went up the stairs.

Aubrey and Charley crept, crouching low, towards the steps to the ground floor of the house. No sound came to them, except the low wail of the alarm. A shadow appeared on the top of the stairs.

Charley fired, at the same time as Aubrey flicked on the light switch, destroying Alex’s night vision. Alex blinked. Bright light. Defining sound as a gun was fired. The projectile wiping past his ear like an angry bee. Alex recovered most of his senses, levelled his Glock, and fired. The projectile missing Aubrey by millimetres, careering down the passage ricocheting off the left passage wall. Alex saw the Bitch at the end of the passage. Ignoring the two threats before him, Alex lined up on the bitch and fired.

Laura just came around the corner in the passage as the lights went on. Two thunderclaps of pistol shots assailing her ears. Splinters flew off the wall a few metres from her. Plaster flying around the passage. Glass breaking somewhere. The passage light took on a dim eerie mist through the dust, caused by flying concrete and plaster, the mist, suspended in the air.

She saw in slow motion, the guy at the end of the passage, sighting on her. Laura levelled her own gun, getting the sights on the guy. Laura saw a little flame flick out of the guy’s gun. Then she felt a burning sensation in her left side, a sledgehammer hitting her. Spinning her around. She hit face-first into the wall. A dull hammering pressure starting to rise in her head. Laura struck out her left hand, trying to steady herself against the wall. Her legs folded in on her. There was a ringing in her ears. A reddish mist before her eyes, slowly turning to darkness ... Dark ... so dark...

Alex saw the Bitch go down. Like a rag-doll spinning, that honey golden hair splaying out as she turned, hitting the wall, and folded up, dropping like a rock. He knew he was successful. He jumped back from the landing. Turning to slide down to the ground floor. Close, a shot rang out. Alex felt a surging, burning, pain through his right thigh, like a red-hot poker being pushed through his leg. Scorching his flesh.

He was on his way down. The door only metres away. Something wet on his trouser leg. His leg felt like a block of wood. Not responding. He knew he was bleeding. But he got the Bitch. Still, something nagged at his brain. Her hair! She was blond, not ginger red! She looked older. Definitely not fourteen! Shit! Alex staggered from the house. Dissolving into the night.

Aubrey and Charley ran down the stairs in an attempt to stop Alex. Reaching the front door first, Charley flicked on the outside lights. Both reached the patio. Charley saw the blood trail on the cement of the patio, down the stairs. A few drops on the paving next to the flowerbed. Although the floodlights outside made the yard into daylight, there was no sign of Alex.

“We’ll follow it when it gets light,” Charley said.

“Yip. No sense now, He won’t get far. You clipped him well.” Aubrey said.

“Where’s Laura?” Aubrey asked. “She didn’t sleep through all this?” They both started back to the house. Charley went up the stairs, closely followed by Aubrey.

When Charley got to the top of the stairs, he could see down the passage. Laura! Laura laying sprawled, in an impossible, weird, twisted way, in the passage. Her 9-millimetre pistol a metre away from her. Blood smears on the walls to her left and right. A blood spatter on the opposite wall. Charley ran...