32. Quick thinking: For life or death.
Nico turns Johan’s smartphone off and put it in his own pocket. The next moment he grabs the professor’s arm with both hands and uses the whip of his elbow and his wrist to force his arm easily in a painful grip so that Johan screams from the pain and lands with his back against Nico.
Terrified Johan whines: “What are you doing? I must give myself over now! They are going to become suspicious! You are going to blow your cover!”
Nico whispers in his ear: “Professor, please give me a good excuse not to fulfill my order. I have just been instructed by the leader of our team to take your life. Your knowledge is dangerous and must not land in their hands. I don’t want to do it, Professor, but frequently we have to execute the most difficult orders for the benefit of the masses. It is your life against those of millions. Give me a better solution. You have ten seconds before I cut your artery. It will look like a robbery and your smartphone will be found in the hands of a bum who will be charged with your murder. That is the only solution we can think of. We have a drone over Green Acres Mall at the moment that covers Martie’s smartphone and a team is on its way that will follow them from the Mall up to their den. I promise we will do our best to save her. Your ten seconds start now!”
“They are going to cut her phone's signals and you are going to lose her! Kill me and you are never going to find them! If I die they will simply follow their Plan B. Maybe their weapon will be less effective but still deadly enough. It seems as if these people believe that Mother Earth’s time is becoming short and they will continue with or without me. Believe me!”
Johan expects the blade to cut through his throat at any moment, but silence follows and Nico doesn’t answer.
“Don’t do it, Nico! Don’t make a horrible mistake, Nico! I promise I have a far better plan!”
Nico yanks him around and pushes him harshly deeper into the cove. “Explain! I’ll give you a little more time, but it is running out quickly.”
Johan puts his hand in his inner pocket and takes out a notebook with a pencil attached and hastily begins to write something in it.
“What are you doing now, Professor? What are you writing in that booklet now?”
“You want to find their den and I am going to give it to you through this code”
“How do you want to achieve it? The moment they have you, you will be 24 hours a day under surveillance. How will you be able to give their position to us?”
“Just give me time to finish and then I will explain. It is the best option.”
Johan continues to write for a few seconds and then he tears out a page and hands it over to Nico. “Here, it is a simple code which I can easily hide without our enemy becoming suspicious.”
Johan looks at the code and frowns. “What is this, Professor? It doesn’t seem like a good plan. Remember, if they catch you writing a code, they will put two and two together and realize that you had made contact with someone outside before you have surrendered and that means someone knows about them and then our trump is blown. I’m sorry, I’m afraid this will not work.”
Nico comes forward and Johan realizes that he makes himself ready to do his dirty work with the knife. “No, wait! Look at the code. They’ll never know it is a code.”
Nico stops, frowns again and looks at the code while Johan explains. “These are Sanskrit signs that I simply paired with alphabet letters that sound the same. It makes it easy for me, so I can easily, without much thinking, write a message for you in Afrikaans but the message is going to look like Sanskrit. I know Classical Sanskrit and usually write some of my favorite verses down out of texts when I meditate. I shall make these people accustomed to this habit of mine. They are Indians and only understands a little of Classical Sanskrit. When I write a message for you in the booklet I am going to hide it in between real Sanskrit on one of the pages. You know Afrikaans and can easily decipher it, but they don’t know Afrikaans at all and even if they see the strange Sanskrit between the real Sanskrit, it will confuse them. I will tell them it is a strange old dialect I discovered in an Indian temple.”
Nico is amazed. “Professor, have you just now thought of this solution?”
Johan feels relief slowly coming. It looks as if Nico thinks his plan could work. “Listen, Ronald said that Martie and I can meet next Sunday over a week before she will move into our new home at our new occult family. I will then get the opportunity to explain to her that I first have to finish my important work in the underground laboratory before I can join her. I shall keep them on a string and shall not give away any of my knowledge before I have met Martie. I shall insist to meet her at our favorite spot and will explain everything to her while we, as usually, will be playing chess.
In the meantime, I am going to carry a notebook or a similar one on me that will give you their position. You have now a better hand of aces because you can follow us both and if you fail to find them, you can wait for them at the entrances of the park next Sunday and if you lose us again, you can get my code in the bushes.”
Johan points to a very small opening in the shrubs near the rockface of the cliff. “I shall pretend to go and pee there and shall place the booklet there unseen and they will never know. I shall make them accustomed to my habit of writing down Sanskrit continuously when I meditate and they will not be suspicious even if I carry Sanskrit notes with me.”
Johan’s heart races in his throat when he sees Nico is considering his plan. Nico comes forward and anxiously Johan wonders whether Nico will take out his knife.
“Professor, I only hope the leader of the team will understand, but I think it is unlikely. He is coldblooded as if he has no feelings for anyone or anything. I am sticking my neck out for you. So, please, don’t disappoint us, because I have a nasty feeling we are going to lose you. As soon as you have surrendered they are going to cut your signals. There is a probability that our drone over the park might pick you up before you vanish in the heavy traffic, but it is still on its way and I don’t know whether it will be on time. Walk slowly and take your time to give us the best chance to get out of here.
The traffic is heavy at Green Acres Mall and if they cut Martie’s phone signal before they get to less heavy traffic we are probably going to lose her as well. Go now, Professor! If you take too long they will become suspicious!”
Nico takes Johan’s smartphone from his pocket, activates it, puts it in Johan’s pocket and steps aside for Johan to proceed.
Johan exits the cove hastily and then walks slowly in the direction of the Target Kloof’s part of the park. He has just started when his phone rings again. He sees it is Martie’s phone again and answers while walking. It is Ronald.
“Why was your phone switched off, Professor? Don’t play games with us or Martie’s situation will turn ugly.”
“You win. I’m on my way. Promise me you will look well after her.”
“I promise, Johan. Keep on walking right down, men are waiting for you near the Target Kloof entrance. I am going to take Martie now to her new buddies and her wonderful holiday will start and I will see you tomorrow. Then we will talk business.”
The call ends and when Johan moves in amongst the trees and shrubs of the Target Kloof, suddenly from behind a bush, two men in black appear and the nearest one stops him with a leather glove in front of his chest. He takes Johan’s smartphone and throws it like a stone deep into the bushes.
He speaks English with a strange Indian accent. “Take off all your clothes!”
Johan notices the other guy has a carry bag and this man walks away from them and looks in the direction Johan has just come from. He probably looks whether Johan was followed by someone. Johan only hopes they are unaware of Nico.
The man orders again. “Pull out everything. Be quick!”
Johan starts to undress and stops when only his underpants and socks are left but the man indicates that he must get rid of them as well. He takes it off and stands now naked in front of them. The man gets a little box out of his pocket with handsfree earphones which he puts in his ears. He brings the box closer and nearly touches Johan’s forehead. Then it looks as if he scans Johan while he listens attentively and he covers Johan’s whole body in front and at the back down to his feet. When he rises he signals for the other man who takes out a tracksuit and throws it to Johan.
“Put this on!”
~*~*~
Nico yells out of frustration in his smartphone: “What do you mean? The drone over the park is gone and they both vanished!”
The German’s voice explains: “Their smartphones’ signals went dead shortly after he had left you. Our team is at the Green Acres security at the moment where they searched through all their cameras for her. They got her and followed them but were too late because they had vanished from the Mall and we will not be able to find them in the heavy traffic.”
“And the cameras in the parking lot?”
“No cameras where they had parked and they were gone before we could see their vehicle with a camera.”
Nico hits the cement table viciously with his flat hand so that he feels the pain shoots up in his arm. “What about the drone over the park! They probably left through the Target Kloof exit. Did the drone pick up something?”
“We lost the drone when it flew near the park and we dispatched a team to each entrance but they were too late and couldn’t find anything.”
“What do you mean you lost the drone?”
The American takes over: “These people make amateurs of us. They interrupted any drone’s signal in a radius around the area in which they operate.”
Nico shouts again: “Dammit!”
The American speaks again: “Nico, report to me immediately! I hope you have a very good explanation for why you disobeyed my direct order!”