Lusana rose and came over and brushed his lips across her forehead. “Do not hate me.” He faced Daggat. “Congressman, enjoy your spoils.”

Then he walked from the room.

For a long moment Felicia stood there, her face a study in mixed hostility and confusion; then understanding came and her eyes filled with tears. She made no protest, no gesture of resistance, as Daggat gently pulled her close and kissed her.

“You bastard,” she whispered. “You rotten bastard. I hope you’re satisfied.”

“Not quite yet.”

“You’ve won your pound of flesh. What more do you want?”

He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed her misting eyes.

“You forget,” he said, grinning sardonically. “You still owe me a dollar.”

Operation Wild Rose I 87

21

Pieter De Vaal closed the report folder on the Fawkes-farm massacre. His face was drawn and tired as he looked up. “I’m still shocked by this dreadful tragedy. It was so senseless.”

Fawkes remained impassive. He sat across the desk from the Defence Minister and tamped the tobacco in his old pipe. The room fell silent; only the muted noise of Pretoria’s traffic seeped through the large windows overlooking Burger Park.

At last De Vaal slipped the folder into a drawer and avoided Fawkes’s eyes as he spoke. “I regret that our patrols failed to catch the savages who were responsible.”

“Only one man was responsible,” said Fawkes grimly. “The men who slaughtered my family were acting under his orders.”

“I know what y,ou are thinking, Captain Fawkes, but we have no proof that Lusana was behind this.”

“I’m satisfied he was.”

“What can I say? Even if we knew for certain, he is beyond our borders. There is no way we can touch him.”

“I can touch him.”

“How?”

“By volunteering to lead your Operation Wild Rose.”

De Vaal could sense the vengeful hate that seethed within Patrick Fawkes. The Defence Minister rose to his feet and stood at the window, gazing over the sea ofjacaranda trees that quilted the city. ” I sympathize with your feelings, Captain. However, the answer is no.”

“But why, man?”

“Wild Rose is a monstrous concept. If the operation failed, the consequences would prove disastrous to our government.”

Fawkes rapped his pipe on the Minister’s desk, snapping the stem. “No, dammit! My farm was only the opening thrust. Lusana and his bloody mob have got to be stopped before the whole country runs red.”

“The risks far outweigh the possible benefits.”

“I won’t fail,” Fawkes said coldly.

De Vaal looked like a man torn apart by his conscience. He paced the room nervously, then stopped and stared down at Fawkes. “I cannot promise to evacuate you successfully when the time comes. And the Defence Ministry will, of course, deny any association with the venture if you are uncovered.”

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