Poacher by Leon Mare

come into
my office demanding explanations! This is police work and as a
civilian it has got absolutely nothing to do with you. The
circumstances and the follow-up in this matter is privileged
information. I must ask you to leave this station immediately. You
are interfering with our work.’
    By this time Sam was livid. Having half risen
out of his chair, he also took a turn in slamming the desk. Like
Tobacco-pouch, Colonel Aucamp was too awestricken to react
immediately. No civilian had ever had the audacity to back-chat him
in his own office.
    ‘Listen, Colonel,’ Sam said, trying to
control his anger. ‘Firstly, this is not entirely a police matter.
The man is not only a poacher and a murderer. He is also a foreign
solider who entered the country illegally, carrying arms and
ammunition issued by a foreign army. This makes it a military issue
as well. Secondly, I am not a civilian. I am an offer in the
Recces.’
    Taken aback, the colonel kept glaring at Sam.
‘A very serious claim to make, Mr Jenkins. Can you prove that you
are a Recce?’
    The Recces, or reconnaissance corps of the
South African Army, was a top-secret counter-insurgency branch of
the armed forces. Only the very best were invited to join the long
queue of aspiring recces, and of these very few passed the first
rigorous survival tests. The net result of the continuous training
was a brand of man entirely different from the special forces
anywhere else in the world. In addition to being expert in the
skills taught elsewhere, their absolute speciality was in
infiltrating the neighbouring states singly or in pairs, living off
the veld and sometimes penetrating for up to a thousand kilometres
without their presence being detected. Their main aim was locating
camps used by transient terrorists en route to South Africa.
Despite vehement denials by the neighbouring states these camps did
exist. They were marked by the Recces, and air strikes were
executed at times deemed feasible by the politicians.
    Hardly anybody knew anything about the
Recces; this secrecy only heightened the awe in which the general
public held the elite.
    ‘Colonel, I will give you an unlisted number
in Pretoria to phone. The current password is hipotrachus. The duty
officer will confirm my status as captain in the Recces. In a
sealed need-to-know file in your safe you may break the seal of
file 85 to confirm the procedure and the telephone number. You may
then proceed to write your report explaining the necessity for
breaking that seal.
    Colonel Aucamp leaned back in his chair and
waved the lieutenant away. ‘Well, I’ll be buggered. A real
honest-to-God Recce. First confirmed sighting I have ever had on
your species. No, I don’t think I need to break that seal. You’re
one of them, all right.’
    ‘Have it your way, Colonel. Now, what has
happened in the meantime?’
    ‘As you know, the bastard killed one of my
men in the escape. As to why a relatively inexperienced man was
given the guard duty, that is a matter I intend following up
personally once we have handled the crisis. I can assure you the
responsible party is going to find himself up shit creek without a
paddle. But that’s beside the point. I am afraid I have some rather
disturbing news. We are fairly certain that our man is already in
Mozambique. I have received a call from the Komati border patrol.
There was an apparent breakout on the fence about fifteen
kilometres south of Komati. The electrocuted corpse of an
as-yet-unidentified woman was found on the scene. Tracks indicate
the exit of one barefoot person. They are busy back-tracking.’
    ‘Damn! Can we get to the scene?
    ‘I’m going in by chopper. The pilot should be
at the airport by now. I would suggest we get you something else to
wear, however.’ He picked up the phone. ‘Lieutenant, send someone
up here with an extra large operations overall and boots, and lay
on transport to the airport. Make it snappy.’ The phone rang again
as soon as he replaced