Kagiso realised he’d never confided in any of them, or they in him. What had looked like intimacy was nothing of the sort. In fact, all the arguing and debating was a substitute for intimacy. Like a loveless couple, who fear the hidden threat of silence and inactivity, they had kept themselves busy. So long as there was another target to identify there was no time to tell François that he would respect him whether he was a co-conspirator or not. So long as there was another message to intercept, there was no need to help find something else to excite Two-Boy’s brilliant but delinquent mind. And so long as they had the next mission to consider, there was no time to tell Sharmi he’d like to revisit their past, to make sense of it.

His phone rang. With some relief he saw it wasn’t one of the others on the back-up number. Kagiso looked at his watch. Still only five thirty in the morning. He answered the call. It was a colleague from Soil of Africa.

‘Howzit, Stride? What’s up, man?’

‘Ah, no, I was just wondering if you’re back today.’

‘Come on, Stride! It’s five thirty and you calling me for that?’

‘Sorry. I couldn’t sleep. So you still in Jozie?’

‘Yeah. I’ll probably stick around for the day and get back tomorrow.’

‘Okay. Call when you get here. Sorry to wake you up, man.’

‘That’s okay. See you.’

The lie was instinctive. In the time he’d worked in Malelane he couldn’t remember a single occasion when anyone at Soil of Africa had called him to check on his whereabouts.

The sound of morning talk radio coming alive through the speaker hanging on a nail in the wall behind him startled Kagiso.

Mama Khethiwe called to him: ‘Is it too loud for you? The news is coming.’

‘No, it’s fine. I was just thinking of something,’ he said.

‘I been watching you, child. Since you came in you been thinking. What you got to be thinking so hard for?’

‘Ah, no, it’s nothing important.’

‘You got woman trouble? That or money, they the only two things get men worrying.’

‘No woman, no trouble,’ Kagiso said. ‘Just like Bob Marley.’

‘Like who?’

‘The singer Bob Marley, he actually said … It’s nothing …’

‘Then it’s the money. You lose your job or what?’

‘I’ve still got my job. I’m just tired.’

Kagiso looked at his watch. Nearly six o’clock. RiseFM’s signature tune came through the loudspeaker.

‘Good morning, sawubona, goeie more! Wherever you are, whatever you speak, welcome to RiseFM, the rhythm of Mpumalanga! I’m Jonny … and I’m Patricia. Hey! We’re cooking up a great breakfast show for you … But first let’s get the latest news from Celi Dube. What have you got, Celi?’