Chapter 7

Colonel Dawson’s words hit home; it’s now or never. Bobbie will be the priority, but what if it was not them? What if it was just a group of guys out for a smooch with a willing girl, looking for a quiet place? What if?

The car came on slowly and when they reached the gravel patch, it made a one-eighty degree turn and stopped. Nothing happened. The car just stood there idling in the dull lamplight.

My heart was beating in my chest. Why are they waiting?

Then the right-hand back door opened, and a guy got out. He stood for a moment looking around him, drawing deep on a cigarette. Nervously, he looked around, and as if reaching a decision, flicked the cigarette away. The glowing tip arced through the air and fell a metre or two away from him on the gravel patch in a shower of sparks. Then he reached back into the car and dragged something out. A girl!

In the lamplight I caught sight of a reddish hair. It was Bobbie! The guy then pushed her away from the car and jumped back in, slamming the door shut. The sound of the slam came clearly to us.

Bobbie stumbled away from the car and then stood in the middle of the gravel patch looking disoriented and frightened. I had an almost overpowering urge to jump out and just go get her. Wrap her up in my arms and soothe her.

The car pulled away in a cloud of dust and flying small pebbles.

“Now!” Jonah Dawson spoke into the radio.

All hell broke loose. Lights flashed on all around the gravel patch, in the road leading off the parking lot, and police cars rushed in, blocking the Toyota from driving off.

I was out the car and running towards Bobbie.

The Toyota moved a few metres and came to a stop. The back doors and the front drivers’ door flew open and three guys scattered in different directions.

I reached Bobbie.

“Bobbie, darling!” I shouted, and she turned to me. For a moment she just stood there, trying to make sense of what was happening. Then she must have recognised my voice and in the dull lamp light saw me running towards her. She started to move and ran towards me, her ponytail flying out behind her.

“LOUIS!” She shouted and crashed into me. I wrapped her up in my arms and just held the trembling and shivering girl.

“Louis...” She whispered.

“It’s okay, Bobs ... You’re safe now,” I soothed softly, just holding her.

“Get her to the car,” Dawson said at my side. I looked over towards him, and he smiled. “Get her to the car. Keep her warm. There’s an ambulance on the way here...” Then he handed Bobbie her other shoe. She took it and slipped it on.

“Where’s the assholes?” I croaked.

“Into the bushes. We’ll find them...”

“At night?”

“We’ll get a chopper from George or Port Elizabeth to come and light up the scene, and some tracker dogs from George or Knysna also.”

“That will take hours!”

“FLIR!” Jeff said one word next to me, and at that moment it dawned on me that not fifty metres away, sitting on the helipad was a good helicopter with Forward Looking Infra-red system and all the night flying gadgets. The Puma.

“Come Bobs, you get to ride again,” I called out, and started to run towards the airport entrance, pulling her along with me. Jeff was on our heels.

“What now?” Jonah shouted a question and Jeff called over his shoulder:

“FLIR! We have a helicopter here equipped with FLIR!”

“I’m coming!” Dawson called and followed us into the airport. A security guard moved as if to stop us, but must have recognised Bobbie, me or Jeff.

“Open the door to the apron!” I shouted while still ten metres away. Flustered, the security guard got out his building keys, selected the right one, and unlocked the door out onto the apron. We careened through. The Puma sat silently on helipad one. Cold and dark.

At the Puma, Jeff just flung open the cabin door and jumped in. I got Bobbie strapped down in a seat at the back. Lucky we configured the Puma back to PAX carrying configuration after the fire.

Jeff was running the abbreviated checklist. I got Bobbie and Dawson secured and equipped with headsets. By this time the whine of the number one engine spooling up was evident.

I shut the cabin door and went up front and dropped into the pilot seat. I scanned the instruments. All was looking good, and we had two hours of fuel on board. Then engine two fired and Jeff and I watched impatiently for the N1 to settle, and the rotor speed to settle at flight idle.

A record emergency take-off. Only thirteen minutes had elapsed since we rushed into the airport.

Dawson was speaking into his hand-held radio.

“Delta Zero to all Delta personnel! Report where are the targets?”

“Delta Zero, Delta Seven One, they ran towards the trees at the south of the airport. There’s three of them!” I heard the reply.

“GO GO GO!” Jeff instructed.

As I lifted off and hover climbed to seventy feet AGL, I looked back into the cabin. Bobbie sat rigid in her seat with her eyes closed. Her small hands balled into fists at her side. Not good. We need to get her to medical attention soon.

I dropped the nose of the Puma, and she picked up forward speed. At 40 KIAS, Jeff retracted the undercarriage. I flew straight out to the south. Jeff initialised the FLIR, and I switched off all the NAV lights, cabin lights and unnecessary light illumination on the helicopter.

“Tell your men to douse all headlights and torches,” Jeff instructed his little brother.

“Why?”

“I want to see what the night wants to show me...” Jeff smirked and pointed to the flickering screen of the FLIR system.

“Okay...” Dawson replied and picked up his radio. By this time, I was slowing down to ten KIAS and going into a hover above the blue-gum trees south of the airport.

“Delta Five, I heard tree branches breaking to the east!” Someone called on the radio. I swung the helicopter left, coming around to the east. The rotor down wash flattened the low bushes and grass. The blue-gum tree branches swung madly around.

“There!” Jeff indicated, “Fifty metres dead ahead.”

I glanced over to the FLIR screen and saw as clear as daylight a person running. Jeff zoomed in on the image and together we saw the running figure dropping something to his right side. It flipped over in the air and Jeff shouted:

“Gun! He dropped a handgun. Looks like a parabellum or a forty-five.”

I scanned the blue-gum trees that reached up to fifteen metres. They were close together and spaced irregularly. I can’t go lower than twenty metres. I’ll just follow the scumbag. If we get one, we will get the others as well.

Jeff gave the location and Jonah relayed it on the radio.

It felt like forever but suddenly more heat signatures appeared on the FLIR Screen. I counted eight of them. Three of the figures moved to converge on one and then the lone figure dropped to the ground with the tree figures around him.

“Got one!” Jeff spoke into the boom microphone. “Jonah, how many guys you’ve got out there?”

“Six!” Came the reply.

“Well, then there’s one more out there, in the picture!” I interjected. Just then the radio broke squelch again. We could hear the SAPS transmission as Jeff patched us in on the COM two radio:

“Delta nine! I got another one down!”

“Where are you nine?”

“Just east of you.”

“Okay, I hear you.” And we watched on the FLIR as two figures merged with the top one.”

“Another one bites the dust...” Jeff murmured, but loud enough for the boom microphone to activate.

“Now for number three...” I replied and slowly started to swing the helicopter to the right.

Just as I was turning the helicopter, a spark flashing on the ground between the trees caught my attention. Jeff was already panning the FLIR sensor towards the spot.

Another spark flashed, and I instantly recognised it as a muzzle flash fired from a handgun. Someone was shooting!

The FLIR lit up the figure on the ground and another light flash showed up with a small pinpoint of light arcing up into the sky at us. The asshole was shooting at us, while stepping backwards all the time.

I flipped the cyclic left and forward, while pulling the collective up. The Puma responded and swung left while dipping its nose down. We shot off in a south-easterly direction, gathering speed as we went. Centering the cyclic, I let the Puma climb to eight hundred feet MSL and circled around to try and locate the figure again.

Full circle and nothing on the FLIR! I kept up the circling.

“Where’s that asshole gone to?” Jeff muttered. “He can’t just disappear!”

“The FLIR will get the heat signature. He must be around the south...” I said and kept quiet, looking over at Jeff.

“Unless ... he stepped off the cliff!” Jeff completed my sentence.

Coming around to the south again I flew us out over the cliff and over the ocean, slowed down and made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, back the way we came.

“There!” Jeff shouted. “About halfway down the cliff!”

“I see it!” I responded. “Heat signature. Could be human!”

“What? Bozo number three went and splattered himself?” Jonah asked.

“Maybe ... we’ll see,” I replied. “Jeff, kill the FLIR, I’m lighting us up. NAV lights, strobes, and landing lights.”

Slowly I brought the Puma in on the cliff face, feeling the updraughts of air currents as the breeze from the seaside collided with the cliff, and spilled back and up, buffeting the big helicopter.

Jonah was communicating with his men on the ground.

The landing lights of the Puma are not floodlights, but close enough. They send out a beam of bright white light about seventy metres ahead of the aircraft. At twenty metres from the cliff face the scene sprung into bright daylight. Laying on its back sprawled across a boulder, was the form of a man. Crimson and red streaks spotted his clothing. I thought he was dead.

Then slowly the form on the cliff face, laying perilously near a vertical drop of about one hundred meters, raised his hand as if to reach out and grab hold of us!

“He’s alive. The motherfucker is alive!” I said, not believing my eyes.

“SHIT! How do we get him out?” Jeff asked.

“We’ll get the mountain rescue team to come and get him!” Jonah informed us and spoke into his hand-held radio.

“Come, let’s go back!” I said and lifted the helicopter vertically up and flew off over the cliff towards the plateau and the airport beyond.

As we flew low over the airport fence, I noticed many blue flasher lights and two red flasher lights. Okay, looks like the police were here in force and an ambulance or two were also in attendance.

Jeff and I secured the Puma and made our way outside of the airport. Jonah Dawson had already rejoined his men and was issuing orders as Jeff, Bobbie and I walked up.

Bobbie seems to have started to relax but was still shivering. It was not cold, although the sea breeze was a little on the nippy side.

“You cold, Bobs?” I asked the teen still plastered to my side.

“A little,” She responded in a faint girlie voice.

“You’re safe now, but I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Why, did they take me?” She asked, and I realised that Bobbie had no idea what transpired. “I did nothing to them.”

“Bobs, it’s a long story. First, we need to get you checked out to see if you’re okay. This was a bad experience for you,” I soothed her, holding her close, my arm around her shoulders.

A woman in a paramedic uniform walked up, carrying a small suitcase.

“Miss McGee? I’m Lucy Du Toit from Ambu-med. Do you hurt anywhere?”

“N ... No, I’m ... fine...” Bobbie answered, but her eyes said otherwise, that she was still much traumatised.

“Are you allergic to anything, Darling?” The Paramedic asked and reached out with her hand about touch Bobbie.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Bobbie screamed and ducked to my back, still clutching me tightly. “STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!”

I wrapped Bobbie up in my arms and soothed the girl. “She’s just trying to help you, Bobs. It’s okay ... She’s fine ... No-one will hurt you...”

“NO! They want to take me away again! Louis, help me!” Bobbie reacted, and I knew that it was the shock, and the trauma of being taken with force. I turned to the paramedic.

“Coffee! Strong black coffee and a blanket, please,” I said. Then softer so that only the paramedic heard me, “And put a sedative in the coffee.” For a moment the woman looked at me, then shook her head in understanding and handed me a space blanket.

A second woman walked up and must have heard the last comment from me.

“I’m Doctor Alicia Brown, and you ain’t taking that girl anywhere without I give the okay and release her,” She commanded, and the paramedic looked at the new arrival.

“She looks uninjured, Doctor...”

“I will decide!” The Doctor replied.

“And while the two of you argue about what you don’t know yet. I’ll just care for this girl. She is traumatised and scared, AND you are not making the situation any better. So, stay your distance until Miss McGee here has calmed down,” I hissed.

“You are interfering with our jobs here, Mister,” The doctor shot back.

“Do you have any psychological background, Doctor?

“No! And that’s beside the point! This girl needs medical care.”

“I thought so. NO psychological experience. Therefore, you can’t see that her condition is more fright than medical. SO! BACK OFF,” I defended Bobbie. “Besides, the profession of a doctor ain’t a JOB, it’s a CALLING!” Then to Bobbie I said:

“Come, Bobs, let’s go sit down a bit,” I offered and started towards Jonah’s car, calling over my shoulder: “That hot coffee, Lucy, as we discussed.”

“Your office, Let’s go to your office, please,” Blue eyes pleaded with me.

“Okay.” I conceded. “My office,” Lucky I had my keys with me. I hardly ever go anywhere without the keys to everything I lock up.

“ ... or ... your cabin. I still have some cashew nuts there, and I’m hungry.” Bobbie said, and for a moment I looked at her. Colour was returning to the pale face and if she realised we were at the airport, then she is on her way to recovery.

Jeff strode up to us and looked at Bobbie, “I’m so glad you are safe Miss Bobs.”

“Thanks Uncle Jeff. I will be fine ... now I’m back with my Louis...” The brave teen said, but I could hear in her voice that she was far from being the old Bobbie. And what did she mean by; “My Louis”?

“Jeff, let’s go to my cabin and get something to drink. I must still phone Jenny and John also. Tell them Bobbie is okay.”

“Do you have Rooibos there?”

“No, but Earl Grey...”

“Not the best, but good enough. Let me just tell Jonah where we are.”

“Right, come along at your own time. Bobbie and I will be going over there.”

“Over where?” The paramedic, Lucy, asked, as she joined us and just heard the last of my conversation with Jeff.

“Bobbie wants to go rest up for a while, and I’m taking her to my cabin, here on the airport property.”

“She needs to go to the hospital to be thoroughly checked out.”

“I am okay. I don’t need to go to no hospital,” Bobbie said firmly.

“Leave this to me. I know she is in shock and needs treatment, but no forceful actions, please?”

“Okay ... Here’s her coffee...” Lucy said and handed me a Styrofoam cup with steaming coffee. “I’ve put extra sugar in it.” Wink.

I got the meaning. The sedative was in the coffee.

“Here, drink this so long. It will warm you up,” I said to Bobbie and handed the coffee to her.

“Thanks...” She said and took the cup, took a sip, then blew on the surface of the coffee. “It’s hot!”

“It’s coffee. It’s supposed to be hot.” I replied.

Dull blue eyes just looked at me, no smile, no giggle. Just a stark looking face. I died a bit.

“Come, let’s walk. I’ll carry your coffee for you. By halfway to the cabin, the coffee will be drinkable.”

“It’s okay ... I’ll manage.”

And off we went. I held her hand, and she gripped my hand tightly. Dammit! I’ll kill her mom!

Behind us, the flasher lights started to dim out as emergency vehicles pulled away, some heading off to town and some towards the cliff. Only one remained. That of Colonel Jonah Dawson.

We walked through the airport building, out onto the apron, past the Puma, across no-man’s land, the runway, and on to the five log cabins on the north-western side of the airport. All the while Bobbie sipping her coffee.

As we came across the runway, Bobbie stopped on the huge white painted number 12 on the runway.

“I always wanted to see this up close,” she sighed, standing in the middle of the letters 1 and 2, looking at the runway designation as if seeing it for the first time.