53. Getting it wrong

Panting the dogs sit in the dark while Chloe nimbly moves from one to the other cutting the wristbands’ cable ties quickly. She throws them in a cloth bag and then gathers the water bag and opens it anxiously and plunges the cloth bag into it. She binds up the water bag and puts it in her rucksack.

She has now killed the signals here where the kombi stood. She hears the helicopter’s noise and she sees the reflection of the lights right above her through the tree tops. Probably a line of foot soldiers is closing in and with the dogs she jogs in an easterly direction. She must now run east to avoid the line of foot soldiers coming in from the northwest. She is sure the highway in the southeast is already cut off by soldiers and if she doesn’t hurry eastward far enough, the soldiers will encircle her and cut her off from both sides.

She and her dogs must as quickly as possible get out of the area in front of the end of the line of the soldiers before they discover her. Darkness is her friend now because it makes it difficult for trackers and hopefully it is going to hide her movements for now. She only hopes that they don’t have a brilliant tracker that by chance points his flashlight and see something amiss; but if you don’t dare you’ll never win.

Eventually she reckons that she has moved far enough to the east to avoid the end of the line and she dares and turns to the north and jogs in the direction of the farm dam. She and her dogs will be out of the danger zone when they reach the dam in the northeast, far away from the highway, because the task team will not expect anyone there. Chloe and the dogs jog without stopping and suddenly they burst out of the woods into an open area. She stops and laughs. They succeeded! She is at the dam!

Chloe takes her smartphone and switches it on while walking out into the open area and stops in front of the dam. The moonlight reflects in the dam and the water is lapping the bank in front of her boots while she tries to get her panting under control and phones Jane.

“Chloe?”

Slightly out of breath she answers: “We did it, Jane! Call the dogs and get them back in their cages as soon as possible and go to sleep. It will take some time for me to reach home.”

“Be careful, Chloe, it is not past yet. Not before you are back unseen at your husband’s side.”

She now sees the dog’s cute reaction and knows Jane has just now blown her whistle and they realize they must get back to their cages.

Batista and Buddy first look at her and she smiles. She loves them so much. What is she going to do if something happens to them? Before all these guests have arrived they followed her everywhere. It worries her that they now must stay in the cages with the other dogs although she visits them from time to time during the day and take them out on practice sessions with the younger dogs. It was different when they could roam free on the farm. When she was in the front part of the house, they waited outside and when she moved to the back part of the house they ran around and watched there. When she had to drive somewhere she had to speed away or else they would have been running after her all the way. They always wanted to know exactly where she was and if she was safe.

“Yes, go my lovies! Go and overindulge. You earned it. Good work! See you tomorrow, right!”

Buddy and Batista sprint away and the dogs run around the dam and vanish in the woods northwest in the direction of the cages. Chloe search for a biggish rock on the bank of the dam. She finds one and pulls the water bag with the wristbands out and lowers the rock into the bag. Rising she holds the open end of the bag tightly with both hands and then she swings the bag like a hammer thrower to get momentum and she let loose at the right moment with the right angle and it climbs far and high into the air. Then it descends and lands somewhere in the deep part of the dam.

The rock pulls the bag with the wristbands down and it lands on the bottom of the dam. She swings her rucksack onto her back and briskly walks to where the dogs have vanished in the woods.

~*~*~

The task team and the soldiers are extremely frustrated. Already it is in the small hours of the morning and they find no trace of the fugitives. They don’t know whether they already have departed through the opening in the fence which the foot soldiers discovered and cut off, but everything indicates that it is highly unlikely. The foot soldiers of Greyhound 1 and 2 jumped back in their Casspirs when the red dots suddenly changed direction from west to east and hastened to the east of the farm gate. When they were deployed there they discovered the opening in the fence. At that stage, the red dots were not near them but on their way to the opening and it looked as if the fugitives would walk straight into the arms of the soldiers that cut off the highway and the line of soldiers approaching the fence. Morrison was so sure and exited at that stage because it looks like only a question of time before they catch them. But then the dots gathered on one spot and the next moment the signals vanished not far from the opening and by the time the line of soldiers reached the place, the fugitives have vanished in thin air.

Morrison snaps at his expert. “How the hell did they do it? Heinrich, you and Hannes are our so-called experts. Tell me how did they do it! Where are they now?”

Embarrassed Heinrich answers: “They surely must still be on the farm, Colonel. Our soldiers have been at the opening already when their position was to the north of that on the farm. There were lines of soldiers to the north and south of them at that stage. They must have realized that they are boxed in or else they got rid of the wristbands and escaped from us by fleeing either east or west. I propose that you order all the foot soldiers to patrol all along the highway. They are only deployed in the east and the fugitives could have escaped by going west.”

Hannes comes into the office just as Morrison hits Heinrich’s desk angrily so that the writing utensils roll down and land on the floor.

“Bullshit! The damn vehicle is nowhere to be found! How are they going to escape without a vehicle, Heinrich? How?”

Morrison eyeballs Heinrich very sarcastically indicating that he at this moment questions Heinrich’s intelligence very seriously.

Hannes answers in his place: “The helicopter had to land because we were low on fuel, but it is a waste of time to search further on the farm. I am sure they have escaped already. They are through that opening already. Dexter told us over the radio because Greyhound lost your signals. His trackers found their tracks and also those of the vehicle they used. In one way or the other they used the wristbands to lead us on the wrong track to the west. I think the fugitives, in the meantime, had gone through the opening in the east while we followed the wrong signals in the west. They somehow swopped the wristbands or imitated it in one way or the other. I’m sure they are now on their way to PE. I don’t know how they managed it, but I’m sure the tracks will tell us everything by dawn tomorrow.”

Morrison points with his forefinger at Hannes. “Nail on the head and you’d better analyze all the tracks tomorrow and enlighten me as soon as possible how they achieved it and who helped them. Damn Heinrich! Contact General Geldenhuis of the SADF immediately and tell him to erect as many roadblocks between the farm and PE as possible. The first one must be in place as in now before the entrance to Wilgersfontein, because it is the first crossroad on the PE highway. Be quick man, before those shitholes reach there! Send photos of the bastards as in now! We must apprehend them! Motivate the general by convincing him they are terrorists probably on their way to PE with a live nuclear weapon in that vehicle. We suspect they are planning to blow up PE the moment they arrive. That will put fire under the general’s ass!”

Hannes Haasbroek thinks the colonel is now out of line: “Colonel, there are children and innocent women amongst them. I think it is irresponsible to give that message to the general. You will be putting their lives in danger.”

Morrison roars at Hannes: “Fuck all of them! I don’t give a damn how I will stop them, but stop them I will! It is now clear that they are hiding something very important from us and this is a case of international significance. An unpleasant awakening awaits them. Why do you think they are on their way to PE?”

Heinrich tries: “I think you were right. Those sun panels and wind turbines on the roof of that house on the smallholding are there for a reason. There must be a secret hiding place that they want to reach before the plague breaks out.”

Morrison nods. “That’s right, but precisely why they had to go through this drama to hide just there; that we don’t know. I am going to ensure that it will be impossible for them to reach the hide-out. The plague will overwhelm them if we can’t stop them at a roadblock.”

Hannes frowns. “What are you saying, Colonel? You must realize that the soldiers we are going to deploy there must be flown back in time to avoid the plague. They probably plan to wait until the last moment when our soldiers leave and then at the last minute enter the hide-out.”

Morrison grins and shakes his head from side to side. “Not so! That is precisely where their bright plans will be dimmed and they are going to get more than they bargained for.”

A crackle over the radio draws their attention and Heinrich tunes the apparatus and then Captain Dexter’s voice comes loud and clear: “Greyhound here, come in.”

Morrison yells: “We hear you, Greyhound, over.”

“Our trackers found something very interesting. There are a lot of dog tracks in the vicinity of the vehicle’s tracks in which they escaped through the opening in the fence. We are now following the dog tracks and it is clear they went east before they turned to the north. Also there is one set of smallish boot tracks accompanying the dogs.”

Amazed Morrison eyes widen and he looks at Heinrich. “What is the pulse rate of a huge Boerboel, you turd?”