by Tony Park
She remembered Chris’s touch, and his lips, as soft as a girl’s. Yes, she missed him, but it would all be worth it. She had saved Lion Plains, even if it would forever exist next to an open-cut mine, and she was about to reclaim her family’s fortune.
*
Kylie and Cameron looked out over the Big Hole. It was more than two hundred metres deep and four hundred wide, Kylie had read. It was a fitting monument, she thought, to endeavour and greed.
‘We can sink Tertia,’ Cameron said.
‘By calling old man Berger and ratting her out, you mean?’ Kylie said.
‘Yes.’
Kylie sighed and leaned against the railing, staring down, literally, into the abyss. ‘She’s doing something immoral, but not illegal. I wonder how many people have levelled the same criticism at our industry over the centuries.’
‘I know what you mean,’ he said. ‘I was never happy about us mining in a wildlife area, but I guess when you think of it, everywhere there’s a mine now was once a pristine piece of wilderness.’
‘I still believe in what we do,’ she said. ‘I know of communities in Australia and other countries where mining is their lifeblood. We can do it well, better than the likes of China Dynamic, and still give something back to the environment.’
Cameron shrugged. ‘Well, Global Resources looks set to pass into history, whether Tertia gets rich out of it or not, and –’
‘Luis!’ Kylie pointed to the man jogging up the walkway.
Cameron walked to meet him and they shook hands, then Luis took Kylie’s hand. ‘I’m so glad I have found you both.’
‘It’s good to see you, Luis,’ Kylie said, ‘but I think you may be too late to help us. Tertia Venter, the woman who runs the Lion Plains Lodge, has secured a neighbouring property and is about to sell the rights to mine on it to the Chinese company that’s in the process of buying Global Resources.’
‘She can’t do that.’
‘Well,’ Cameron said, spreading his palms, ‘there’s nothing we can do to stop her.’
‘No, but the law can.’
‘How so?’ Kylie asked.
‘She is guilty of murder, of arranging and paying for murders at least. Of your man Chris Loubser, of the security guard and Loubser’s assistant, and of the attempted killing of you two.’
‘But Wellington was behind all those,’ Kylie said.
Luis shook his head. ‘Wellington had a boss.’
‘This Mohammed whom he supposedly reported to, but no one knows anything about,’ Cameron said.
‘Mohammed was in South Africa all along,’ Luis said. ‘Wellington told me, just now, in Maputo. And Mohammed was not a “he”, but rather a “she”.’
‘Tertia Venter?’ Cameron said.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Kylie said.
‘Yes,’ said Luis. ‘She wasn’t just trying to save Lion Plains. She had been bankrolling Wellington by buying his gold for the last few years. By bringing down Global Resources she could stop the coalmine and increase illegal production at Eureka while your legal operations were shut down. Wellington told me she paid him to kidnap Chris Loubser and to get him to take contaminated air samples. She thought you two were getting close to discovering the truth, so she sent Wellington to sabotage your aircraft in Zambia. Wellington was ruthless, for sure, but this woman is evil. Even he seemed scared of her.’
‘And my daughter?’ Cameron asked.
‘Wellington wanted to kill her, but Mohammed – Tertia – wanted her kept alive. Apparently she dealt with gold buyers from the United Arab Emirates who would visit Lion Plains to negotiate, and one of them had expressed an interest in buying a white girl.’
‘I’ll kill her,’ Cameron said.
Kylie put a hand on his arm. ‘Cameron, be calm. We have to think this through. We need proof. Did Wellington sign a confession? Where is he? Do the Mozambican police have him locked up?’
Luis looked at the walkway for a second, then into Kylie’s eyes. ‘I was wearing a wiretap when I met with Wellington. He confesses to everything on the tape and names Tertia Venter, but my cousin, a policeman, took it from me and said he was going to erase it.’
‘For God’s sake, why?’ Kylie said.
‘Killing my wife was Wellington’s idea, so I didn’t think it fair that he live out his days in a prison. The recording makes it clear Wellington was begging for his life when I shot him. I am sorry, not for what I did, but for you not having your proof about Tertia.’
‘Shit,’ Kylie said. She rubbed her temples as she thought. ‘We’ve got to get Jan in on this. There’s no way Tertia can profit from all this killing. We’ve got to get the South African police onto the case. There must be phone records or bank details or something that can link her to Wellington and these gold buyers. We won’t let up until we’ve got her, but first we’ve got to put her out of business.’
‘I will testify, in court, as to what Wellington told me, but it will be the word of a former zama zama against a wealthy white woman,’ Luis said.
‘I’ll SMS Jan. He’s in the museum now. You have to tell him everything you’ve told us, Luis.’
He nodded. ‘Of course. And I need to talk to your Mr Stein, with you two present. I have found a coal seam in Mozambique, near my home town, which dwarfs the concession you bid for at Lion Plains, but we can negotiate a very good deal for Global Resources.’
‘Who’s “we”?’ Kylie asked.
‘My cousin, Alfredo Simango, is a police captain and his wife’s uncle is the governor of the province. While Alfredo and I cannot buy this land and sell it to you, we have already spoken to the right people. Mozambique needs more investment and employment and this will give you a presence in a different African country. People there will welcome a new mine and not care about Lion Plains and your problems here in South Africa, and the coal seam I have discovered is on land not being used for anything else.’
‘And what do you want out of this?’ she asked.
‘A job. Any job in a future joint-venture mine between Global Resources and the Mozambican government. I don’t care if I am a humble miner or the driver of a truck. I want an honest start, in my own country, in the industry I love.’
Kylie swallowed. They had gone out on a limb for Luis and he was repaying them with a find potentially worth millions of dollars. Jan had to hear about this. They would find a way to make this deal happen and Tertia would get her comeuppance, according to the letter of the law.
‘Here he comes now,’ Cameron said.
Kylie looked down the walkway and saw the tall figure of Jan Stein striding towards them.
‘Cameron, Kylie. I hope this is important. I had to leave the board with the Chinese and I don’t want them talking with me away from them.’
‘Jan,’ Kylie said, ‘this is Luis Domingues Correia. He helped us when Cameron went to rescue Chris. He’s got a deal for Global Resources – a new coal find in Mozambique.’
Jan gave a pained look but extended his hand to Luis. ‘So what is this deal you have for us? I really don’t have time to waste on a wild goose chase.’
‘No,’ Luis shook his head. ‘I will not waste your time. There is no deal.’
*
The Blue Train passengers were filing back onto the bus, their brief visit to Kimberley over. Luis showed the train manager his booking and agreed that, while it was highly unusual for a passenger to board the train halfway to Cape Town, there was nothing stopping him from doing so.
Luis had walked away from Jan Stein without another word and Cameron and Kylie had followed him. ‘I’ll tell you on the train,’ was all he had said to Cameron.
Cameron got up from his seat on the bus and walked to the rear, where Tertia was sitting by herself. He slid into the seat next to her. His rational side knew he should gather more evidence and get the police involved before he confronted Tertia, but quiet rage over what she had done consumed him. ‘I know who you are.’
‘I should think you should by now
,’ she said to him.
‘Mohammed.’
She didn’t flinch. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘You were going to sell my daughter into slavery. You had good people killed. Wellington was your attack dog. You’re going to jail, Tertia, for a very long time.’
She turned to him and fixed him with her narrowed eyes. ‘Prove it. I heard today Wellington was killed in a police raid in Maputo. Shoddy work, as now he couldn’t testify even if he wanted to.’
Cameron got up and went back to his seat, his fists balled by his side. When they got off, he and Kylie followed Luis and a carriage butler onto the train and waited impatiently for the suite briefing to be done with, then crowded into Luis’s suite. Cameron closed the door behind them. ‘You came all this way to make a deal and now you won’t even talk to Stein? Why not?’
‘His name’s not Stein. It’s Lotz.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Kylie asked.
‘I’ve seen him before, back in 1987, during the Mozambican civil war. He was a South African military adviser to the Renamo anti-government rebels. He was with the Renamo commander who ordered a massacre of civilians at the town of Homoine, near my home.’
Cameron ran a hand through his hair. ‘Are you sure it’s the same man?’
‘He had a moustache and sideburns then, and he’s put on a little weight, but it’s him – I could also tell by his crooked nose. I was pretending to be dead, lying in the grass, wounded. He was working with the Renamo commander and was as guilty as any of the rebels. Also, as soon he spoke I recognised his voice. I cannot deal with a war criminal.’
Cameron took out his cellphone and scrolled through his contacts until he found the number for Gert Cronje. He called it.
While he was waiting for the connection to come through Kylie asked him who he was calling.
‘I’ve got an old army friend, Gert, who wrote a book about the recces. I never remembered a Jan Stein – or anyone called Lotz for that matter – but on the odd occasions Jan and I talked about days on the border I could tell he’d been to the places he talked about and done the things he said he’d done. You get some guys who pretend they’ve been part of special forces and you know they’re faking it, but I could tell Jan was genuine – even if his name isn’t.’
‘It’s all falling into place, now,’ Kylie said, while Cameron dialled Gert’s number and waited. ‘Jan – Lotz – always avoided interviews with South African newspapers and magazines whenever they contacted Musa. He never visited here and he was grooming me to handle all the media in Africa. He was worried about someone recognising him.’
Cronje answered. After the initial pleasantries, Cameron said: ‘Gert, did you ever come across a guy called Lotz – first name unknown – in the recces? A shade under two metres, grey eyes, fair hair, bent nose?’
‘Lotz? Ja, I knew a Karl Lotz. He was a captain. I went to his wedding, in fact.’
‘Could he have served in Mozambique? In a covert role in support of Renamo, late eighties?’
‘Why do you ask, Cameron? You know some okes are still pretty sensitive about that sort of thing?’
‘It’s important.’
‘Well, all I know for sure is that Karl left the recces; he was seconded to another government department and you know what that means. The old government could have had him running covert support to Renamo, political assassinations, who knows? He dropped out of sight for a few years and the last time I saw him was in ’94, just after the elections. I saw him at Jan Smuts airport and he told me he had split up with his wife and was off to live in the bush in Botswana. But I thought you would have had plenty of background on Karl Lotz.’
Cameron was confused. ‘Me? No. Why would I know about him? That’s why I’m calling you.’
Gert laughed. ‘Man, I thought you big mining company okes would have done your homework better than that. Karl Lotz’s ex-wife has been running rings around you in the newspapers every day.’
Cameron was speechless.
‘You there?’ Gert asked. ‘You did know that Karl Lotz used to be married to Tertia Venter, didn’t you?’
40
The train started moving again and Kylie, Luis and Cameron left Luis’s cabin to confront Jan Stein.
‘Wait a minute. Just let me check on Jess.’ Cameron knocked on his daughter’s cabin. There was no answer. ‘Jess?’ He felt the panic rising inside him.
The automatic door at the end of the carriage shushed open. ‘You’re looking for Jessica?’ Jan said.
Cameron looked at him. ‘Yes.’
‘She’s in the lounge car, studying. I just had a quick coffee with her.’
‘We need to talk to you,’ Cameron said.
‘I’m busy. I’ve got another meeting with the board before dinner.’
‘We can do this in public, in the corridor, or in my cabin,’ Cameron said.
Jan looked to Luis. ‘I don’t want him in there.’
‘Luis is going to be in on this. He has made some serious allegations against you, Captain Lotz. We’re going to hear your side of the story and you’re going to tell us what’s going on between you and your ex-wife.’
Jan licked his lips and Cameron could see he knew he was cornered. ‘All right.’
It was close in the suite, as the beds had been made up. ‘Sit,’ said Cameron. He wanted to be standing over the CEO. Cameron folded his arms. ‘Your name is Karl Lotz.’
‘My name is Jan Stein. I’ve got an Australian passport to prove it.’
‘You killed innocent people,’ Luis said.
Kylie laid a hand on Luis’s forearm. ‘Let him speak, Luis.’
Jan seemed to crumple. He put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. ‘I was a soldier.’ He looked up at Cameron. ‘You know what it was like.’
‘I never murdered civilians.’
Jan shook his head. ‘Neither did I, but I witnessed some things. Terrible things. I was seconded from the recces to work for the intelligence service. I was a patriot. I did as I was ordered.’
Luis looked away, out the darkened window. A passing train blared its horn.
‘What happened between you and Tertia?’
Jan sighed. ‘When the old government started to unravel, when de Klerk surrendered to the blacks, a few of us knew we would be in trouble. There was already talk of a truth and reconciliation commission, but some of the things I did, under orders, Cameron, I knew I would not be pardoned for. Tertia and I were having troubles at home; I was drinking too much to try and forget the things I’d done and I was sure she was sleeping around when I was away on missions. We were going to split up, but as much as she disliked me, and what I had been involved in, she didn’t want to see me rot in prison. Some contacts arranged to get me out of the country and set me up in Australia with a new identity. I went back to mining and Tertia put it about that I’d run off with one of her female safari guides, to Botswana. I tried to keep my face out of the press as much as I could, but I supposed I always knew that when I became CEO someone here would eventually recognise me.’
‘Are we supposed to feel sorry for you?’ Luis asked. ‘You need to be tried for your part in the massacre at Homoine.’
Jan glared at him. ‘Do you know how many innocents Frelimo killed? It was a civil war; such things bring out the animal in men. I was an adviser to Renamo, but I never killed any civilians.’
‘For all we know you advised them to carry out the massacre. Innocent civilians were killed; the rebels even cleared out the medical centre, slaughtering the ill, pregnant mothers … everyone. It was a strategic move, designed to draw Frelimo forces from the north,’ Luis said.
Jan shrugged. ‘I did no such thing, and I won’t be going to Mozambique to face any trial. As soon as this deal is done with the Chinese I’m resigning. I’ll cash in some shares, for what they’re worth, and disappear.’
‘You passed up earlier opportunities to invest in coalfields in Mozambique,’ Kylie interj
ected. ‘I saw the proposals, but you always argued against them and convinced the board to bid for the Lion Plains concession instead. Was that because you were too scared to set foot in Mozambique in case you were exposed, or because you wanted to get back at your ex-wife?’
‘I don’t know; a little of both, perhaps. The thought of dealing with some Frelimo fat cat turned my stomach, and yes, Tertia had made it plain to me a few years ago that she was not interested in reconciling and moving to Australia when she lost her game farm to the local community. She accused me of ruining her life, when she was the one who had cheated on me. When the opportunity came up to bid for the coal reserves on Lion Plains I was attracted to the idea of hurting her.’
Kylie shook her head. ‘And she relished the challenge. And she won.’
‘Yes, she did. Fair and square as it turns out, even if she and Loubser were in bed together – perhaps literally – and set us up with the contaminated samples. In the end it doesn’t matter what dirty tricks she used because the presence of those bloody owls has finished Lion Plains as a mine for good.’
‘We’ve got more news about your ex-wife, Karl,’ Cameron said. ‘Wellington told Luis in Maputo this morning that Tertia was also a partner in the illegal mining operation in Eureka. She set up Chris Loubser to be kidnapped. Wellington knew when and where he and the others would be going underground and that Chris would have the monitoring pumps with him. If Kylie and I hadn’t rescued Chris, then Wellington would have eventually ransomed him back to us and smuggled out the samples to Tertia. As it was, Chris had the samples on him, which just made it easier for Tertia to set us up. Wellington also claimed it was she who ordered the killings of Barrica, Tshabalala, Sipho and Kylie and me.’
Jan’s eyes widened. ‘I knew she could be a vindictive bitch, but an organised crime boss? Murderess? Well, unless you can prove all you’ve said, it looks like she might get away scot-free.’
‘And she’s bought Kilarney and is going to sell it to the Chinese as soon as they take over Global Resources,’ Kylie said. ‘We can’t let her win, and we have to get the police involved as soon as possible.’
