04 – The murderer is in control

Chloe is dispirited. Her arms and ankles are tightly bound and it doesn't help to fight against it; her position is hopeless. Then the creepy voice comes again right into her right ear. "Chloe, yell after me as if you really mean it; imagine you are in the sitting room and there is a knock on the front door and you invite someone in." Anxiety churns her stomach when she asks carefully: "What must I say ...?" She jerks from fright as the voice screams in her ear: "Hunter, the front door is open, please come in." Suddenly the truth dawns upon her. She now knows that they were captured by the murderers. The same murderers that executed Clea and Tony so cleverly by mixing poison in their whiskey, have now swooped in and want to exterminate Hunter. The devils poisoned Tony and Clea so professionally that no evidence was left. The phantoms that had up to now destroyed her family, probably want to use her and Isaac to lead Hunter in a trap and murder and eliminate him. Hunter is naturally near success. She wishes that he had not been so secretive and told her more. She feels so helpless because the murderers are completely in control and it looks that they are going to trap Hunter. How is she going to warn Hunter? They are completely at the mercy of the murderers; the situation is grim. ~*~*~ It is 25 August 1987 and the sunset in the Namib is again absolutely breath-taking and is slowly transforming the army base Ford Foot. Fort Foot is near Rundu on the banks of the Okavango River. Angola is just across the river. The base's colour changes as the sun transforms from yellow to an orange round ball on the horizon. Eventually, the sun will become a big round red light and then disappear slowly for the darkness to take over and cover everything. Then it will be time for the seemly impossible, suicide mission, Operation Coolidge, with twelve operational soldiers on standby; ready for action. The bush war is at a breakpoint. A team of recces will shortly be flown deep into Angola to sabotage a strategic bridge over the Lomba River to stem the advance of four enemy brigades and disrupt their flow of critical supplies and equipment and thereby derail their offensive. It is the same team that was part of the operation that sank Russian ships in Port Namibe and blew up tank repository installations which rendered the enemy dysfunctional and stopped the offensive. Soviet general Shaganovich was determined to win the war and the Russians flew in a force majeure like never before at the Lubango and Luanda air bases for the greatest offensive yet. UNITA and the South African forces had to be wiped out at any cost by taking complete control of the air and the offensive of four brigades. The offensive targeted the taking over of UNITA's base in the south at Mavinga and aimed to demolish their head base at Jamba, but that offence had was thwarted by the South Africans. A mortar attack on the brigades at Catato Woods stopped them in their tracks before they, severely disrupted, were driven away by the Valkiri rocket launchers, the Ratel 90 anti-tank units and the G5 battery. Now the recces must use this opportunity to disrupt the preparations of the alliance of Cubans, Russians and FAPLA for their next offensive by blowing up the strategic bridge and so hamper the flow of critical provisions and equipment. Major Freddie Hunter (Hunter) en Staff Sergeant Anthony Eastwood (Tony) are sitting and relaxing in front of their Ford Foot bungalow in the serenity of the sunset while the last minutes are ticking away before they embark on this dangerous mission. They have been bosom pals since their school days. Hunter sees how Tony puts the letter he's just read and also the photo that accompanied it away and begins to fill his pipe with Rum and Maple tobacco. When the pipe is lit Tony takes a few deep puffs before he blows a cloud of smoke in the air and stares into the sunset. Hunter knows what that stare means. Something must bother Tony because he only smokes that pipe when he ponders something far away on their family farm. Hunter only hopes that it hasn't been bad news and that it would not be a distraction and influences his concentration. That will be very bad. "What's bothering you, Tony?" Tony doesn't answer. He just puffs another two times on his pipe and hands the letter over to Hunter. Hunter never gets mail, because no one writes to him. He has no family left and he prefers it that way because it makes him extremely effective in his role as recce leader. Tony, on the other hand, is the only son of farmers and his parents are anxiously waiting for him to return from the war and take over the farm. Hunter opens the letter and starts reading. It's not the first time he has read Tony's letters and he recognizes his mother's neat handwriting. "My dearest Anthony. We all miss you and don't want to upset you and hope you will read this letter at an appropriate time. We don't want to bother you while you are busy, because we know it can be life-threatening. However, we have no choice and must inform you of something quite important, my son. Do you remember your leave last winter here? You were intimate at the nightclub with a beautiful, young girl, Clea. Anthony, she only knew your name when she realized that she was pregnant with your child. Zoey was born on 1 March 1985 and Clea started looking for you. Eventually, she found out where you were at school and is now here on Eastwood Estate. They are residing on the farm and we are all waiting for your return. We are quite comfortable with each other. She really is the most wonderful girl, my son. I'm sure you and she will make a happy family. Please quit the war and come home my child, and take care of your family as soon as possible. Please take very good care of yourself; you are a father now. You can expect a letter from Clea soon; she just wanted to give me a chance to break the news to you and warn you. I enclose a photo of Clea with your little daughter Zoey." Hunter looks at Tony with disbelief in his eyes. Tony takes the photo out of his pocket and hands it to Hunter. He immediately recognizes the beautiful, blond Clea. He remembers that evening at the night club. Tony and Clea bonded immediately; they were oblivious of anything and anybody around them and melted into each other. Afterwards, he could see how Tony struggled to get her out of his mind when they were back in the war. Recces must out of necessity forget those that stay behind in the Republic because they feel it is unfair towards them to know that the recces' lives always hang on a thread. Yes, he now remembers how Tony and Clea quietly vanished and as a consequence; Zoey simply looks adorable in Clea's arms. Baffled he returns the letter and photo to Tony. "The timing couldn't be worse, my friend." "Don't you worry, Hunter, I am going to concentrate even more intensively than in the past. We are going to kick those commies' asses solidly." ~*~*~ The sharp searchlights of the enemy that guards the bridge is now starting to penetrate the river as the six pairs of divers come nearer so deep underwater as possible. Their explosive devices are ready for deployment. Thus far the mission had been successful. They were dropped yesterday evening seventy kilometers to the north by a Puma helicopter. With Klepper canoes and diver's equipment they rowed down the river and with sunrise they hid themselves and the canoes on the bank of the river. They stayed there and started to swim down the river at sunset. The river is infested with man-eating crocodiles, but they survived without casualties. From now on every second count! It's now or never! Are they going to succeed and cause enough damage to the bridge to cut off the enemy's lifeline from the north and render the forces of the enemy impotent? Hunter and Tony form the first pair. Suddenly they encounter a barricade of coiled razor wire under the water. There is no way to move forward. They split and each pair seeks an opening somewhere but there is none. Back together Hunter signals to Tony that they must go over the wire. This is a dangerous risk but Hunter knows that is the only way and they had not come all the way to be halted now. Hunter swims nearer to the surface of the water and sees that the river flows strongly and that the distance between the wire and the surface is such that he can go over unnoticed without breaking the surface. He slides over and is relieved with what he achieved without the wire grabbing him. Tony follows without a hitch. Again and again, they encounter the razor wire and cross it unseen. They are now very close to the pillars of the bridge. The next barricade is so high that they have to break the surface to get over in order to avoid the wire to grab them. Hunter shoots out of the water and is over and Tony follows quickly. Suddenly a 9mm hand pistol goes off. Here it comes now! A sentry must have seen them at this barricade. This is show time and there is only one way and that is forward. The sound of a siren suddenly yells through the night and the automatic firing of the deadly Kalashnikovs scream from all sides from the bridge. They hear how the bullets around them penetrate the water. Then explosions underwater jerk them around as hand grenades explode around them. They will have to reach the bridge very soon to place their exploding devices and then evacuate as fast as possible. Hunter shoots over the next barricade but the razor wire grabs him mercilessly with a relentless grip. He is hanging high and dry; an open target; a sitting duck. He tries to struggle free but in no way can he succeed because the more he struggles the deeper the bite of razors within his clothes. Is this now the end of me? He has shot and shrapnel wounds from previous encounters but survived like most of his buddies, but this time it's final. He looks up and sees soldiers running towards him with their Kalashnikovs and he awaits the final fatal shot. He only hopes that Tony and the rest meet with more luck than he has now.