Tom was receiving constant calls updating him on the status of his requests. He had received positive responses to all bar two. One was negative and one was pending.
“We are twenty minutes from Randburg heliport,” announced Kisho.
“OK I’ll make the call,” said Tom.
Tom dialled the number.
“Hello,” said Reaper.
“Hi, it’s Tom. We have a problem. We’ve run out of fuel and can’t make Randburg. We’ll have to land at Johannesburg International.”
“Rubbish, you must have plenty of fuel left.”
“I’d agree, had we not been chased by an Apache. We had to fly at maximum speed for a while.”
Reaper was surprised that they had noticed the Apache but it explained why it could not catch them and it also justified their lack of fuel. If he got hold of Pieter, he might just make it in time.
“OK but make sure you don’t get seen,” said Reaper.
Tom could hear the anger in his voice. Whatever Reaper was planning was crashing around him.
“What do you want us to do when we land?”
“I want the three of you to wait for my men.”
“Three of us?” Tom asked as innocently as he could.
“Yes. You, Lela and the Chinese boy,” said Reaper, also trying to sound innocent.
“Oh, Chen. Sorry, he didn’t make it. He was shot at the camp.”
“What?” Reaper could not believe it, his trump card was dead.
“But that can’t be, he was seen getting on the chopper.”
“That’s right, he was dragged on board but he was already dead.”
“Just wait for my men and try to lose the soldiers, OK. I’ll call you when my men arrive and remember, if you want to see your mother again, you’ll do as I say.”
“Yes, I understand,” said Tom, enjoying the call. He had clearly rattled the man.
“Pieter!” shouted Reaper.
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“Just landed.”
“Well take off again. You need to get to Johannesburg International and quick,” commanded Reaper.
“That’s not going to be easy. It’s huge and very busy,” protested Pieter.
“Just get there and get them.” He hung up.
Kisho steered the helicopter towards the most remote part of the airport. They could not afford to cause a fuss and from what Tom had said, the man was sounding desperate. They knew they were going to be met, they just didn’t know by whom or by what.
“What’s that?” asked Lela pointing to the edge of the radar screen.
“Another helicopter. Why?” asked Kisho.
“Because I’ve noticed it a few times,” she said.
“Recently?”
“Yes and a while back.”
The helicopter was fitted with a similar video system to that found in combat aircraft. Kisho zoomed in on the dot in the horizon.
“We’ve been followed. That’s the other chopper from the base. So whoever they are, they’ve got back-up behind us. There were forty soldiers on that base and we took out ten. There could be anything up to thirty soldiers on that chopper.”
“What do you think Kano?” asked Kisho.
“No problem, we know they mean us harm and it’s an easy shot.”
“Yeah, for you,” said Kisho laughing.
“What are you talking about?” Tom asked.
“Kano here is going to shoot the birdy.”
“What?”
“Kano is going to shoot the chopper down.”
“Won’t that cause a massive scene at the airport?”
“If we shot them down at the airport maybe, but Kano will shoot them down over a mile away.”
“But the explosion?”
“No. He won’t blow them up, he’ll shoot them down literally. They’ll drop where they were and simply crash land. We’ve done it before, don’t worry.”
They landed the chopper and took their positions. Kano would deal with the chopper while Lela and Kisho dealt with whatever came their way. He would join them as soon as he could. They were fairly certain that no weapons would be used as this was a major international airport and weapons would alert the authorities.
Tom made a call to finalise arrangements on the ground.