A Sailor's Honour Read Online Free

a message. But they had come looking for him the last time he had been to South Africa. He’d been forced to take an earlier flight out of the country to evade them.
    â€˜Did he say anything else?’ he asked.
    De Villiers could hear a door slamming and someone saying good morning. ‘Yes,’ Weber said softly. ‘He said that he had a message from the general for me. It was: “It’s time to get even.”’
    For a time neither spoke. Then De Villiers broke the silence. ‘What do you think this means, Johann?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ his brother-in-law said, ‘but I think we are going to find out soon.’
    â€˜Well, I’ll think about it and get back to you,’ De Villiers said.
    â€˜Yes, I think we are both going to have to think what we might have done to have them threaten us in this manner.’ A thought occurred to Weber. ‘Do you think it’s the same people who came looking for you last year when you were here?’
    â€˜The major, for sure,’ De Villiers said. ‘But I can’t for the life of me imagine why.’
    â€˜There must be a reason,’ Weber said.
    For a time neither man spoke while De Villiers tried to think of a reason. ‘I can understand that they would hold a grudge against me,’ he said eventually. ‘But not you.’
    â€˜It might go back a long time,’ Weber suggested. ‘A long, long time.’
    De Villiers took the cue. ‘But why now? And what could they want?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Weber said and rang off.
    They found out within minutes.
    De Villiers dressed slowly as he thought the matter over. What happens at 5 p.m. here and at 7 a.m. in Durban that would affect both Johann and me?
    The answer came as he was tying a shoelace.
    Zoë comes home from school here at the same time that Liesl Weber goes to work there.
    De Villiers had stayed with the Webers for nearly three months in the winter of 2008 when he was receiving radiation therapy at the Durban Oncology Centre. He knew the timetable of their household intimately. Liesl Weber leaves for work at her Aids clinic at 6.45 a.m. three days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
    It was Monday.
    â€˜I think we’ve been threatened,’ he said to himself.
    â€˜What did you say?’ Emma asked behind him.
    â€˜Nothing,’ he said.
    He scrolled to his bother-in-law’s number on the cellphone and pressed Call . Weber answered on the second ring.
    The idea came to De Villiers as he spoke. ‘Contact Liesl immediately and take her to a safe place. I’m going to fetch Zoë.’
    â€˜I was about to phone you and suggest the same thing,’ Weber said. ‘If they touch my wife, they’ll have a war on their hands.’
    De Villiers remembered his brother-in-law’s soft lawyer’s hands from their last meeting. They were not hands used to making war. ‘It won’t be a war,’ De Villiers said. ‘If they hurt Zoë, I will kill them in their beds, every one of them.’
    He ended the call and rushed from the house. It was a short walk to the school. He followed the route Zoë always took. Left into Murvale Drive. Right into Maugham, left into Priestly and left again into Wycherley Drive to the school. He had forgotten to take a coat or an umbrella. Cold rain ran down the back of his neck and spine. He shivered as he walked. Numerous children in their school uniforms were walking in the opposite direction. The school was deserted. Even the teachers had left. He retraced his steps and was soon back home. Emma was in the kitchen preparing dinner. He went into every room.
    Zoë was missing.
    He returned to the school along a different route, running this time. She was not supposed to take that route. It was longer and carried more traffic. When he arrived back home, Zoë had still not arrived.
    He went outside and phoned Johann Weber.
    Weber phoned back ten