55. The Baxter brothers
They have travelled for a long time. They outwitted Morrison by first turning to the west onto the highway, driving away from Port Elizabeth, and passing the foot soldiers deployed along the fence on the other side of the road, up to the first crossroad. There they turned north heading inland. They then turned east and passed PE in the interior before they turned to the south and entered the city from the opposite direction from the east and so avoided all roadblocks. They are now sitting at a table in MacDonald’s quite hungry and tired after the long trip.
Rene asks Nico sitting opposite her: “What is the next step?”
“Francois and I are going to investigate and try to find out what is waiting for us at the smallholding. We will stop nearby and use a small drone we brought along in our baggage to look around. If everything is quiet, we will move in and make sure it is safe, and if so, we will call you via smartphone. We must try to enter today. If we wait until tomorrow, the gamble might be too great. I presume Morrison will probably try to block our way on both the smallholdings with heavily armed soldiers until the last moment, and if so, we will have to put our heads together and decide what to do.”
Jack has made his decision: “If we are blocked, we will have to fight to clear our path rather than to wait for the last moment.”
Shocked Rene looks at her husband: “Are you serious? What about the ladies and children?”
“The four men will do the dirty work and then we will call you.”
Rene earnestly disagrees: “Jack, you are not thinking straight! Do you want to kill soldiers? If you maybe succeed like the X-men and you pull it off, the police and army will not leave us in peace when we have entered. They will do their best to get to us and take us out.”
Michael supports Rene. “What if they remove or damage our solar panels and wind turbines on the roof? It is of cardinal importance for our survival down there for a month. The air conditioning, the cooling system, our lights, and electrical appliances are all dependant on the battery bank and they rely on renewable energy from the roof. They even might sniff out the inlets of our air conditioners and attack us with teargas. Rene is right, Jack, to fight our way in is no option.”
Emilie’s eyes widen. “Goodness, Michael, it seems as if you are light years ahead. I haven’t even noticed those things on the roof. To me, there is only one solution: negotiation. If the place is blocked, we must rather contact the colonel and explain our mission to him.”
Francois cut them short. “Leave it for now. Nico and I will first go and evaluate the situation. Maybe you are arguing in vain and we can go in unhindered.”
Emilie winks at him. “Let’s hope you are right and everything is quiet over there and that door opens when we reach it and stand in front of it. My stomach is tied in a knot. The tension is getting to me!”
Kadin touches Jack’s arm and appalled looks at him with big eyes. “Father, look!” With a swing of her arm, she directs his attention to the big flat-screen TV.
They all look at the TV and see their faces screened one by one. There is no sound but they can all read the text at the bottom of the announcement. A dangerous terrorist cell of eight persons is wanted urgently in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth. A reward of R500 000 is offered for any information that will lead to their arrest.
Nico gathers his belongings and whispers tersely: “That’s Morrison, let’s get out of here quickly while we can.”
Emilie whispers: “Where are we going to hide in the meantime? Our faces are all over the show.”
Kadin whispers: “Settler’s Park. There are several quiet, secluded picnic spots amongst the trees. Do you think they already know about which vehicle we traveled?”
Nico doesn’t think that. “I think they would have shown the kombi in the hope that someone would have recognized it, but we are going to play safe. Kadin, from here we are first going to get the Beetle at Jane’s flat and then you will drive with the kombi to the park and Francois and I will take the Beetle to go and investigate. Come now! Let’s get out of here before someone recognizes us!”
~*~*~
The two Baxter brothers suddenly emerge from under the garbage when Smithy arrives with his trolley. Joss quickly climbs into an empty garbage bin and Leo into another one. Smithy throws quite a few pieces of carton, torn to the right size, on both and pushes it down in four layers before he fills the bins up to the top with garbage. He then starts to push Joss’s bin, goes around a corner and then crosses the yard up to the gate.
The warden, Wellington, is on duty tonight and he nod-greet Smithy. “Are there many bins to take out tonight, Smithy?”
“Five tonight, Sir. This is the first one. I’ll get the rest soon.”
“Okay, I shall keep the gate open until you’re finished. But you must move your ass.”
Wellington takes an iron rod resting against the wall and walks up to the bin and pokes down with its razor-sharp point. Anxiously Smithy grits his teeth. He hopes the warder won’t prod through the tightly pressed cartons and jabs Joss or become skeptical because he cannot prod deep enough. He deliberately pressed down hard on the garbage to bluff the warder. This is a great risk but he has no choice as to play along. Devil Alex is in charge of this jail and you simply cannot ignore his orders without dire consequences. Relieved he watches as Wellington gestures that he can go through with the bin.
He pushes it around the gate up to the garbage area from where the truck early the next morning will fetch it. He hooks the bin loose next to other full bins and returns quickly with his trolley. Shit, that monster of a man was very heavy. His brother also is no midget but Smithy is certain he will be much lighter. He had to concentrate to handle this exorbitant weight without his body language giving him away. He is quite relieved because he was scared it could go wrong. He succeeded with Joss, so Leo will be a lesser problem. He will now first take out another two bins before he takes out Leo.
Wellington kicks him on his behind when he passes. “Move your bloody ass! We don’t have the whole day!”
Early the next morning the municipal garbage truck pulls in without incidence. At the gate, the usual routine inspection is carried out and then it drives through to the garbage area. The three workers at the back aren’t allowed inside the jail so they have to wait outside and the driver and his assistant must do the uploading themselves.
The sentries at the watchtowers watch the truck through their binoculars while it is driving into the area. The truck turns and then reverses up to right in front of the garbage bins. At that moment the vision is concealed from the sentries by the truck and the fence of the inner courtyard and that is the moment Joss is waiting for. They have only a few seconds. They must vanish underneath the truck before the driver or his assistant detects them.
Joss bursts out of his bin scattering garbage about. His body is stiff and pains after all the hours in the cramped position in that minuscule space where he was squeezed in like a sardine, but there is no mercy. They must be lighting quick now. He grabs Leo’s bin and topples it and pulls him out and they hastily pick up most of the garbage and throw it into the bins and put the bins upright.
The doors of the driver and his assistant now open and they climb out just as Joss with Leo who follows him disappears underneath the truck. Joss crawls up to the gearbox and pulls himself over the prop shaft and from there higher up into the space above the prop shaft and Leo worms himself in behind Joss. They end up like sardines in the frame, Leo’s head in between Joss’s tree stump legs that are now tightly fixed under Leo’s armpits. Leo pushes his boots into the U of the framework, bedding them in firmly and stares at the prop shaft nearly touching his head. He only hopes he survives up to the municipal garbage dump. It is not going to be a pleasant ride.
The driver and his assistant shake their heads at the garbage laying around two half-empty bins. These convicts remain lazy shits. They gather it and throw it into the bins and then empty the bins one after the other into the back of the truck and use the truck’s mechanism to compact the garbage. Satisfied with their work, they drive back to the gate.