Wolf Logic

by Masha du Toit

  An alarm button, mounted up against the side of one of the cells. Out of reach of the cell’s occupants, but easily within reach of somebody standing in the corridor. She glanced to check—everyone was focused on the action in the cage.

  Nobody was watching her. She reached, found the button and pressed it hard.

  Wolf Logic

  “I’m deeply disappointed.”

  Captain Witbooi did not raise his voice, but few of the cadets dared to meet his eye. The entire group, new recruits and senior cadets, had been called away from their breakfast to gather in the parking lot. Many were shivering, but the captain did not seem to notice the spits of rain from the lowering clouds nor the chilly breeze that plucked at his uniform.

  “The senior cadets responsible for organising this—this escapade, are to blame. But the new recruits who went along with it, you are equally guilty. You know the rules. You knew you were doing wrong.”

  Gia tried to pull her jacket closer around her. She stared at her shoes, wishing she were anywhere but out in this freezing morning air.

  “I’ve given the perpetrators of last night’s disturbances the opportunity to step forward and take the punishment they deserve, but none of you have the decency—the plain, honest decency, to take responsibility for your own actions.”

  A long pause. No one moved or spoke.

  “Rules were broken. Cadets left their rooms after lights out without permission. Cadets compromised security by accessing a restricted area. Cadets interfered with Special Branch property.”

  The wind freshened. All around them, the morning routine went on; trucks rumbled out of the gates on their way to their morning patrols and constables walked past, looking curiously at the gathered cadets.

  “I’m particularly disappointed in the senior cadets. You are the ones who are supposed to be the leaders, the role models for these young people here. Very well. You leave me no option. I’m cancelling weekend leave for all cadets for the next two weeks. And if any of you are thinking of repeating this particular escapade, I’ve given instructions for the compromised locks to be changed. All keys issued to senior cadets will be confiscated until further notice. That means all keys, to all areas. You have shown yourself unworthy of the responsibility. To regain this privilege, you will have to earn back that trust. That will be all.”

  -oOo-

  “Well, it doesn’t make much difference to us,” Motsepe said, as they trooped back to the refectory. “We don’t get to go home for another three weeks anyway. It’s three weeks, isn’t it?”

  Jooste, walking just ahead, was muttering to Govender. Gia caught the words “As long as nobody chirps, but I’d like to catch the bugger who pulled that prank.”

  So far nobody seemed to suspect that Gia had been the one to set off the alarm. The corridor had been too dark and too crammed with panicking recruits. And then Jooste had to focus on avoiding getting caught. Gia had to admit that despite her less attractive qualities, Jooste made an excellent leader in a crisis. This was the second time she’d led them safely through the grounds and back to the dormitory block. They’d spent a lot of time hiding behind rubbish bins, taking a long way around the back of the complex with Jooste scouting ahead to pick the safest route. They’d returned to their beds and waited for the footsteps and accusing voices, but these had never come.

  All through breakfast Jooste sat by herself, ignoring her companions. More than once Gia saw that Jooste was looking at her in a most unpleasant, calculating way. But the entrance of several people into the refectory: Warrant Officer Naudé, Sergeant Kemp and Captain Witbooi interrupted Gia’s thoughts. There was a rattle of cutlery and scraping of chairs as all the cadets sprang to their feet.

  “Yes, good morning, cadets,” said the captain. “Please sit down. We have an announcement to make to you all. You already know, I believe, about the Mere Delegation that is taking place tomorrow. The new recruits may not be aware of our part in this important ceremony. Every year, we choose two cadets that show particular promise, to be part of the welcoming committee. It is a great honour to be chosen for this role and a great responsibility. The Mere Delegation ceremony is one that happens in the middle of the full glare of media attention. The eye of the world will be on us. So it is with great pride that I ask Warrant Officer Naudé to announce the names of our chosen cadet ‘ambassadors’ as we like to call them.”

  The captain stepped back a little, sweeping his hand toward Naudé.

  “Thank you, captain.” Naudé shuffled the papers he held and cleared his throat. “We’ve been gathering information from all the officers that work with the Youth Brigade cadets and, using this, have chosen two candidates. As always, we’ve chosen one male and one female candidate. They are Cadet Randall Mantjies and Cadet Gianetta Grobbelaar.”

  Gia started at the sound of her name, feeling an unpleasant sting of adrenaline. The officers led the way by politely clapping their hands and the cadets started applauding as well. Several of Mantjies’s friends shook him by the shoulders, or slapped him on the back. Gia noticed that nobody even met her eye.

  This must be Kavitha’s doing. I wish she hadn’t, I really don’t need the extra attention.

  Naudé gestured for silence. “That is all,” he said. “You can all be on your way now to your regular tasks. Except for Mantjies and Grobbelaar, you two follow me now, please.”

  -oOo-

  The briefing took place in Captain Witbooi’s office and was led by Warrant Officer Naudé. The captain sat at his desk, busy with his computer, only occasionally interrupting. Naudé spoke rapidly and at times it was all Gia could do to keep up with him.

  Apparently there were to be two parts to the ceremony. One took place at the Grand Parade, where Luxulo Langa and Kavitha would address the crowds that would gather there. Then Langa and Kavitha would be driven to the Waterfront, where the Mere Delegation would be waiting.

  “That’s where we will be,” said Naudé. “While the speech is happening at the Grand Parade, we will be welcoming the Mere delegates when they first come ashore, at the Waterfront. We will form a symbolic guard for the delegates, until Mr Langa’s party arrives. Then there will then be a ceremony in which Mr Langa and the Mere delegates sign the latest form of the Free Ocean Declaration.”

  Naudé went over each stage of the ceremony in great detail and also spent a fair amount of time on the history of the ceremony and the role of each of the participants. Gia and Mantjies, as it turned out, would have to greet the delegates with ceremonial phrases, so these had to be memorised and repeated back.

  Gia found it hard to keep her mind on Naudé’s instructions. Each time Luxulo Langa’s name was mentioned, she felt a touch of dread.

  He keeps coming up. Luxulo Langa. The bulldozer. The time she’d seen Mandla talking to Doctor Scubbe, one of them—was it Mandla?—had spoken about Luxulo as though he were part of their plans. ‘Tell the bulldozer he can relax.’ And those constables, when she’d been on patrol, they’d said that the doctor was working with Luxulo Langa. If they’re setting things up to look as though Special Branch have successfully thwarted a terrorist attack, they’d do it at a big, public event, wouldn’t they? Something like this ceremony?

  Naudé was going over the details of the ceremony again and it was all Gia could do not to get up and start pacing. She wanted to act, but what could she do? It all depended on Granny, now. Would Gia’s letter be enough to help her track down the people who’d kidnapped Nico? And there was something else she didn’t understand. The White Lady had seemed very sure that Billy and Spyker were not Belle Gente agents. So who were they and what did they want with Nico?

  Maybe she’d have another chance to speak to Nico and she could ask him. And warn him again, to stay away from whatever it was his captors were planning.

  -oOo-

  The briefing took up the entire morning. Gia missed her wolf cage duty as well as most of lunch. She barely had time to bolt down her food and get to data capture in time. She’d
been looking forward to data capture. Getting into the file system was something she could do, although she was not entirely clear on what she might find there that would help her brother.

  But when she walked into the room, she had an unpleasant surprise. Her usual seat at the back was occupied. A man sat there, frowning at the computer screen. As she took the seat just in front of him, Gia tried to figure out who he might be. Unlike all the other personnel Gia had seen in Special Branch, he was not in uniform. He wore jeans and a faded T-shirt, and his hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

  “Afternoon,” said Sergeant Abrahams from the front of the room. “We’ll be continuing with our filtered search exercises today—” There were some groans from the cadets. “Yes, lots more to learn,” she said with a grin. “But first we’ve got to deal with something else. It seems there’s been a security breach and we have a directive from IT that all passwords must be changed.”

  Gia felt as if she’d swallowed a lump of ice. This is it. I’m done. They don’t know it’s me yet, but it’s only a matter of time now. It was all she could do to follow Abrahams’s instructions and reset her password. When Abrahams called her name, she nearly squeaked out loud.

  “You missed yesterday, cadet.” Abrahams gave her a sheaf of papers. “But if you read through this, you’ll catch up soon enough. Start from this part here and ask me if anything doesn’t make sense. Okay?”

  Gia nodded and took the printed instructions, avoiding Abrahams’s gaze. Her cheeks were hot, and she felt vaguely sick. What a fool I’ve been. I should have known they would figure it out.

  Abrahams spoke to the man behind Gia. “Find anything, Tinus?”

  “Maybe...I’m not...quite sure yet.”

  An icy prickle of fear travelled down Gia’s spine. He’s sitting at the same computer that I was using. What’s he looking for?

  Abrahams made her way to the back of the room, easing in behind the table until she was right next to Tinus. “It came from this machine?”

  “I think so.” Gia, looking surreptitiously behind her, saw him scratch at his stubbly chin. “Thing is, I’m probably wrong about all of this. It may just have been a routine operation—it certainly looked like one. I would have missed it if I hadn’t happened to be running a diagnostic at the time.” He pushed his chair back and stretched. “Jeez, I need a coffee. Been at this through the night.”

  “Some kind of message went out of our system, right?” Abrahams sounded more interested than worried. “And you think it came from this machine?”

  “Yep, but with the switchover from the old system to the new, we’re still half on the old and half upgraded—it’s such a bloody mess, it’s anyone’s guess what’s been going on. I’ve only been here a few days and I’m already neck deep in scrambled database guts. Whoever was managing this system before had some strange ways. Who’s this user?”

  Abrahams bent over the screen and Gia held her breath.

  “Oh. That’s a guy who left recently. Brakman. You know, one of the ex-werewolf dudes they got rid of. Creepy little guy. But...that’s weird.”

  Gia did not dare turn around to look at them, but she wished she could see the screen.

  “Yes. Look at the dates,” said Abrahams. “That’s Brakman’s login, alright, but that’s after the date he left here. And he’s not easy to miss. I think I’d know if he were sneaking in around here. And that login is the captain’s. He never comes in here.”

  “Well, looks like I’ve got myself a nice little puzzle to solve,” said Tinus. “But first I need a break. Going out for some coffee and a smoke. You make sure nobody touches this station, okay?”

  -oOo-

  Gia spent the rest of that session barely able to concentrate on her work. Waiting for Abrahams to say “Hold on. I remember who was working at that station. It was you, Grobbelaar!”

  But Abrahams got involved with helping some of the other cadets and when Tinus came back from his smoke break, Abrahams didn’t continue her conversation with him. By the time the session ended, Gia felt exhausted. Her head was whirling with questions as she left the building.

  How did I get myself into this? Every day there are more problems. What if they track down Brakman—they must know where he lives—and bring him in for questioning? Should I try to warn him? But how?

  The weight of it was becoming unbearable and she wondered why she didn’t just go to Captain Witbooi and give herself up.

  It would save time. What’s the point of putting it off? There was a certain dark fascination in imagining what might happen if she just gave herself up. It’s not like they’ll just ask me to pack my bags and go home. I bet they’ll have a few questions. She shuddered. What was his name? That cadet they suspected of spying, the one who “slipped on the stairs?”

  “Grobbelaar!”

  She jerked with fright, looking about her. It was Controller Pienaar. “Listen, do you have a moment?”

  Not yet. They haven’t found me out yet. “Yes?”

  “Can you come sit with Lizzie? I’ve got to go do some things and I don’t like leaving her by herself right now.”

  Gia felt her heart sink. What’s happened now? “Sure,” she said. “Is something wrong with her?”

  Pienaar gave a bitter laugh. “You could say that.” He was heading back to the wolf cages now and Gia had to walk fast to keep up. “They did another of those experiment sessions this morning. It was really rough on her this time.”

  He unlocked the gates and stood aside to let her in. “I’ve been sitting with her, but now I’ve got to go do some stuff to prepare for this bloody Mere ceremony thing. Might be an hour, two hours. You seem to have a knack with her, all I need is for somebody just to keep an eye.”

  They walked quickly down the daylight row to the kitchen, where several people were cleaning up, mopping the floor and washing containers with loud bangs in the stainless steel sink.

  “She’s in the twilight row now,” said Pienaar, unlocking the light-lock door. “Getting ready for her next transition.” He shook his head. “How they think she’ll cope with that on top of all the other stuff they’re doing to her— Anyway. Not your problem.”

  He unlocked the inner door of the light-lock. “Listen, I don’t know how long I’ll be. You’ll be missing supper, right? There’s food in that little fridge in the kitchen. The little bar fridge. Just take whatever you want. I’ll tell the others.”

  Gia nodded, then realised he couldn’t see her. “Thanks,” she said. “What do I do if anything happens?”

  “I’m giving you my radio so you can call for assistance. I can’t give you keys. I’ll have to lock you in. Damn. That means you won’t be able to get to the food.”

  “That’s okay.”

  “There she is. In that cell, right there. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  The door thumped closed and Gia heard the lock click. For a moment she stood there, feeling as if she’d been picked up by a whirlwind and dropped again. The twilight row was quite small, just a few cells and an alcove with a basin and some cupboards. Her eyes were already adjusting to the dim safe light, but it was still hard to make out much. As far as she could see, most of the cells were empty—or she guessed they were empty, since their doors were standing open. There was a chair drawn up to the cell that Pienaar had pointed out and Gia went closer, peering into the red-stained shadows.

  There. On the ledge, at the far side of the cell. Was somebody lying there? The cell was so narrow that if the bars had not been in the way, she could have leaned over and touched the figure lying there. She could hear the sound of their breathing: soft, slightly rasping, with a little cough on the exhale.

  “Lizzie?” She kept her voice just above a whisper, but it still seemed loud.

  No response.

  “Lizzie? It’s me. Gia.”

  An intake of breath. Lizzie turned her head away from the wall. There was something wincing in the movement, a weakness Gia had not seen in her before. They’ve hurt her ba
dly this time.

  “Hey.” The word was hardly louder than a breath. “Hey, girl.”

  Gia felt for the chair and sat down, not taking her eyes off Lizzie. “What have they done to you? Was it bad this time?”

  Lizzie shook her head ever so slightly. “Man. Was it bad.” She coughed weakly.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

  A soft gasp. Was that a laugh? “Not your fault. What—” Another cough. “What could you have done?”

  “I don’t know, but I should have been there, at least.”

  The girl’s rasping breath made Gia wince. “Do you want some water?”

  “Sure,” said Lizzie. “Thanks.”

  Relieved to have something to do, Gia went to the basin and felt around in the shadows until she found a chipped mug. Back at the cell, she stopped in dismay. The bars of the cell were too close together to pass the mug through.

  “Hatch,” said Lizzie.

  “Oh, yes.” Gia found the plate of the hatch near her feet. She’d opened similar hatches often enough before to shove the metal bowls of food and water into the werewolf cages, but it felt strange to use it for something as familiar as a mug of water.

  Lizzie groaned a little as she knelt to pick it up then eased herself back onto the ledge. She took a sip and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Thanks. Needed that.”

  “Did they test something new on you?” Gia sat down again. “Or was it just the same stuff again? You seem worse than before.”

  “Don’t know. Don’t want to talk about it.” Lizzie gave another cough and drank again. “Much rather talk about you.”

  “About me?”

  “Yes. Been asking about you, girl. Very interesting.”

  Gia felt a touch of apprehension. “What do you mean?”

  Lizzie laughed, a soft laugh that ended in a cough. “Don’t sound so worried.” She took another sip of water. “I’ve been careful. But you gotta admit, you’re pretty interesting. Smelling like you do and acting as you do. You just don’t belong in this place, sweetheart.”