Читать книгу The Mercenary: The Savage Seven - Katherine Garbera - Страница 5

AUGUST 1, SANDTON, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

The phone rang as Olivia Pontuf was in the middle of stripping down for a shower. It had already been a long day and it was only 10:30 A.M.

“It’s Olivia,” she said, answering her cell phone. Her BlackBerry was her lifeline to her old life. She relied on it. Last week she’d thought she’d lost it and had brought the entire household to a standstill until it was found. Ray had been amused, but Olivia hadn’t been. Everything she had was in that phone.

“Darling, I need you to bring me a file from my office,” Ray Lambert said.

She reached into the shower and turned off the water. “Okay, give me a second to go downstairs and you can tell me which one you need.”

“I don’t have a minute to waste while you do whatever it is you do to fill your day,” Ray said.

“I was getting in the shower, Ray, I trust you don’t want me to walk naked through our home,” Olivia said. Their home was a large estate house in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg. She really had no problem with nudity, but the three security guards who lived with them creeped her out a bit.

“Okay, but hurry.”

She bit her lip to keep from reminding him that she had just said she’d hurry. She pulled on her thick terry bathrobe and walked out of her bedroom suite and downstairs to Ray’s home office.

He said nothing while she made her way downstairs and she told herself that one of the things she’d always liked about Ray was that he didn’t waste time with small talk.

The room was darkly appointed and smelled faintly of the Cuban cigars that Ray liked to smoke after dinner. “I’m here.”

“About time,” he muttered. “Go to my desk and open the middle drawer.”

“Middle, middle? Or left middle?” she asked.

“Middle,” he said. Ray seemed tense, which wasn’t like him. He was usually relaxed and charming when he dealt with her. She’d seen him get short tempered with help or with service people who didn’t meet his standards, but never with her.

“It’s locked,” she said.

“Dammit. There is a key on the credenza behind you in the bottom of the Zen rock garden,” he said.

She turned around and saw the garden; she used the little rake to move the sand around until she exposed the key. She pulled it out and wiped it off on her robe before fitting into the lock.

“Okay, I’ve got the drawer opened.”

“The folder I need is in a black envelope. Do you see it?”

She rooted around in the drawer, uncovering the envelope in the back. It was padded and thick. She resisted the urge to linger in the drawer and see what else was important enough for Ray to lock away.

“I have it.”

“Great. Have Burati drive you to the mines. I need that file as quickly as you can get here.”

“I guess a shower is out,” she said.

“Yes, Olivia, some things are more important than appearance.”

Feeling like she’d been slapped, she was silent. “I’m well aware of that, Ray.”

“I’m sorry, darling. I just need that file. Please bring it as quickly as you can.”

“Of course, I’ll be there as soon as possible,” she said.

“Excellent. Bye.”

He hung up and Olivia knew she had to face the truth about this new life of hers.

She knew she had a life many would envy. She had grown up among the crème de la crème of European society, and moving from London to Johannesburg (or Jo’burg, as the locals called it) had seemed very exciting.

The reality of life here in Jo’burg was so different from what she’d imagined. The beauty of South Africa was marred for her by the constant threat of violence and crime. She couldn’t jog in the early hours as she’d always done at home but instead had to wait until mid-morning when it was safer.

She wasn’t a health nut but had found her habits made her life here seem more normal. And she relied on them to keep her sane.

Sure, she had a lot of social events to keep her busy and, as always, she was working on one of her fiction books about Krissie Carmichel, girl-spy. But there were also lots of bodyguards and trained attack dogs that were always nearby to keep her safe. Ten-foot-high fences surrounded the lush, leafy green residential neighborhood they lived in.

And she’d said yes to Ray’s offer of marriage because he was wealthy, good looking, and moved in the same circles she did. Now she was having second thoughts.

Ray worked almost every day from before sunrise, leaving their home with his bodyguards Nels and Mumba and not returning until well after the cocktail hour. She was doing her best to fit in here, but the shopping malls closed at three, which limited her outings, and her charity work was also limited to only daylight hours.

Her work seemed stymied lately. She attributed it to the move. Moving always threw her off her writing groove.

While the people she’d met were nice, the constant threat of crime and having to always stay vigilant was wearing her down. That was why today she’d had enough.

She took a brief shower and dressed quickly in a Chanel pantsuit. Despite the fact that she knew time was of the essence, she took ten minutes to put on some makeup; she felt naked if she went out of the house without eyeliner and lipstick on.

“Going somewhere, ma’am?” Burati asked.

“Just running this folder up to Mr. Lambert at the mines,” she said.

“I will have the car brought around,” Burati said. His accent was lyrical and she liked to listen to him talk.

“I’d like to try driving on my own this time, Burati,” she said. She needed to be alone for a little while. Her car was equipped with bulletproof glass and very safe.

“I will call Mr. Lambert and verify that.”

“No, Burati, you will not. I am perfectly capable of getting myself safely to Cullinan and back.” She disliked that the bodyguard treated her like a dummy. She felt his constant disdain every time she asked him to do something. If it wasn’t for her writing, this world would be strangling her right now. She was a grown woman and had already figured out that she needed to make this situation work.

Burati nodded and left. She found her keys and hurried out of the house, guessing that the bodyguard would go behind her back, call Ray anyway, and probably end up trailing her all the way to Cullinan.

Leon Burati didn’t exactly enjoy his job protecting Ms. Pontuf, but Phillip Michaels had been clear that protecting her came before collecting evidence on Ray Lambert. So the Soweto native had done it. Burati had taken the job for Lambert almost three years ago. His kid brother Thomas was working on the inside of Lambert’s illegal operation. Both of the brothers were working to shut down the man—Ray Lambert—who had been responsible for the deaths of their father and older brothers.

No one knew that Thomas and Burati were related. They’d been very careful to keep that connection hidden, and for the most part that had worked in their favor. And Phillip—one of the executives from the diamond consortium—wanted to catch Lambert and his cohorts in the act. Phillip was gathering information from both sides of Lambert’s operations and from his home life.

The diamond consortium was very aware that the output at Onyx Diamond Group was kept at the bare minimum and yet there were mining shafts that were constantly being closed or abandoned, which shouldn’t have happened that frequently.

Now that he knew where Lambert hid the key to his locked drawer, Burati could go through the desk while Ms. Pontuf was gone. Being a bodyguard to the fiancée of a man whose illegal actions had put the Soweto people in danger wasn’t exactly rewarding, but Burati was a patient man and would do whatever he had to until there was enough evidence to put Lambert away for life.

He let himself into the den and found the key where Olivia had left it in the Zen rock garden. The little garden had a place of honor on the corner of Lambert’s credenza.

Burati opened the desk drawer and took photos of everything in there with his BlackBerry. He’d send them all to Phillip as soon as he was done.

His mobile rang before he could send the photos.

“It’s Thomas. I’m at the mine and I’ve got the photos and the rocks that he’s been selling. But something is going down. Mr. Ray seems very tense.”

“Careful, brother. You shouldn’t call from the mine. His people are very loyal.”

“You worry too much. I can handle Mr. Ray. I’m leaving now. I will meet you in Pretoria.”

“I will be there in two hours. Take your time and don’t do anything to raise his suspicions.”

“I won’t,” Thomas said. “Be cool, brother. Everything we’ve worked for is about to bear fruit.”

Thomas disconnected the call. Burati offered a quick prayer to Allah that his brother wouldn’t do anything stupid and would make it to Pretoria alive. Burati had arranged for Thomas to work on the inside of Lambert’s illegal operation because he needed more information about how the actual illegal mining was done.

The many deaths at the Onyx mine were another red flag that had brought the mining operation to the diamond consortium’s attention. The other mines in Africa didn’t have the mortality rate that Onyx did.

Burati finished up in Lambert’s den and put everything back as it had been. Then he locked the drawer and hid the key.

He walked into the hallway and sent the photos to Phillip’s e-mail account. Phillip acknowledged the e-mail and mentioned he would contact Burati soon. Burati hoped now they would have enough evidence to arrest Lambert. Phillip had promised Burati a job at the Onyx Mining Group’s main offices running labor relations.

Labor relations was something that Burati was very interested in. He was always looking for ways to improve his fellow villagers’ quality of life. And he knew in a position of power he could make a real difference in the Soweto ghetto.

Burati had grown up in the worst ghetto near Jo’burg, Soweto. Though parts of the area had been revitalized, the section where his family lived was still a maze of cardboard boxes and dying HIV babies. He had gotten himself and his brother out as soon as he could. But Burati vowed he would save his entire village.