Dark Intent by Brian Reeve Read Free Book Online Page B

warlords are free men. We aren’t and we’d be hunted down, leaving our young leaders open to criticism they can do without.’
    As he spoke a large cockroach, its shiny wings laid flat like fine si lk, streaked across the floor, twitching the inch-long feelers protruding from its head. Ngubane saw it out of the corner of his eye and with the speed of a snake retracted his foot from under the table and slammed it on the insect, squashing it with a crunch, spreading it thinly on the cheap linoleum. He viewed it distastefully and resumed.
    ‘After a little planning we can conduct a campaign of elimination, beginning with Moses Shozi. Inkatha sees the ANC as an undisciplined, disorganized rabble and it’ll be the last thing they expect.’
    ‘He’s well guarded,’ said Ngwenya. ‘His men never leave him.’
    ‘There is always an opportunity,’ countered Ngubane. ‘We must take it. When he’s dead we’ll concentrate on the others. We’ll always be on the move. No one will be able to pin it on us or the ANC.’
    The room was owned by Joshua Dhlamini and the three Xhosas were his guests, sleeping at night on the solid floor, their bedding and spare clothing stacked during the day against the wall. The accommodation, with an external toilet and shower behind, was a few hundred metres from Dhlamini’s house. It was situated on the road running through the township and surrounded by a pigmentation of banana trees and a thick convolution of Natal bush. In addition to his duties as mayor, Dhlamini ran a general store on the outskirts of the settlement. He had purchased the room for storing sacks of meal, canned food and dried meat, but the extra storage had never been required and he now used the room for housing guests who passed through, like the three guerillas. It suited him because he feared Inkatha and playing host to their arch-enemy in his house would have placed his life and the lives of his family at great risk.
    When Ngubane finished speaking Dhlamini went to the table. He had heard the conversation and was worried, the furrows on his brow deeply engraved. ‘Inkatha will seek the most terrible revenge,’ he said tremulously. ‘They have informers everywhere and will quickly find you. My family will be destroyed.’
    Ngubane soothed him. ‘We’ll leave this place,’ he said quietly. ‘While we’re at work we won’t come near you or anyone else. We’ll live in the bush as we’ve been taught to do.’
    Dhlamini gave a watery smile, a little reassured, but Inkatha atrocities were still an ugly scar. He was weak at heart and admired the three men, wishing he had their nerve. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I’d rather die than see my children dismembered and put to death in front of me.’
    Ngubane smiled. ‘They’ll never find us.’ He knew Dhlamini had little courage, but the man was loyal and he had his purpose. He addressed the other two. ‘Tomorrow we’ll visit Shozi. Now let’s sleep.’

Chapter 14
     
    Near Moses Shozi’s house
     
    When the first hint of dawn revealed the disarray of ramshackle dwellings that formed Malakazi township the three guerillas left Dhlamini’s room for the undergrowth that bordered the settlement. In fifteen minutes they reached Mrs Mkhize’s house and passed quietly, noting the broken door and blackened earth around which the killings had occurred two evenings before. Even at the early hour they saw others pushing along the narrow paths of the grassland to the nearest road where they could pick up the bus to the city.
    After three kilometres Ngubane, his round shoulders like those of a roosting crow, went off the path, calling a halt.
    ‘The house is in the next valley,’ he said adjusting a ten-inch knife he carried at his waist. ‘Meet here at noon.’
    They were a third of the way up a hill on a path that soon descended through grey head-high boulders and thorn trees. About to split up Nofomela and Ngwenya inched forwards then stopped as Ngubane spoke