Rage - Smith Wilbur - Страница 184

He caught the bus at the corner and took the seat nearest t door, placing the suitcase on the seat beside him, but retaining 1

grip on the handle all the way.

The bus stopped outside the side entrance of the Johannesbu railway station, and Jakobus was the first passenger to alight. Lu ging the suitcase, he started towards the station entrance, and th, his steps began to drag and his mouth went dry with terror. The was a constable of the railway police at the entrance, and as Jakob hesitated he looked directly at him. Jakobus wanted to drop t] suitcase and run back to the bus which was pulling away behiI him, but the.press of other passengers bore him forward like a de leaf in a stream.

He did not want to catch the constable's eye. He trudged forwa head bowed, concentrating on the heels of the fat woman in whi shoes just ahead of him. He looked up as he came level with tl station portals, and the constable was walking away from him, hid hands clasped lightly behind his back. Jakobus's legs felt rubbel and his relief was so intense that he thought he was going to be il He fought down his nausea and kept on going with the stream commuters.

At the centre of the concourse under the high arched skylight glass there was a goldfish pond surrounded by wooden benches. A though most of the benches were crowded with travellers snatching few minutes' rest between trains or awaiting the arrival of friend..

there was room for Jakobus at the end of one of them.

He sat down and placed the suitcase between his feet. He wa sweating heavily and he had difficulty in breathing. Waves of nause kept welling up from the pit of his guts and there was a bitter sic taste at the back of his throat.

He wiped his face with his handkerchief and kept swallowing bar.

until gradually he had control of himself again. Then he lookel around him. The other benches were still crowded. In the centre o the one facing him there was a mother with two daughters. Th youngest one was still in napkins, she sat on her mother's lap with dummy in her mouth. The elder girl had skinny sun-browned leg: and arms and frilly petticoats under her short skirt. She leaner against her mother's side and sucked a lollipop on a stick. Her moutt was dyed bright red by the sticky candy.

All around Jakobus passed a continual stream of humanity, coming and going down the broad staircase that led up to the street.

Like columns of ants, they spread out to reach the separate platforms, and the loudspeakers boomed out information on arriving and departing trains, and the hiss and huff of escaping steam from the locomotives echoed against the high arches of glass above where Jakobus sat.

He looked down at the suitcase between his feet. He had drilled a needle hole through the imitation leather. A strand of piano wire emerged from the aperture, and he had fixed a brass curtain ring to the end of it, and taped the ring to the brown leather beside the handle.

Now he picked at the tape with hi fingernail and peeled it away.

He stuck his forefinger through the brass ring and gently pulled the wire taut. There was a muted click from the interior of the suitcase and he started guiltily and looked around him again. The little girl with the lollipop stuck in her cheek had been watching him.

She gave him a sticky smile and shyly cuddled closer to her mother's side.

Using his heels and the back of his legs, Jakobus pushed the suitcase slowly under the bench on which he was seated. Then he stood up and walked briskly across to the men's toilets on the far side of the concourse. He stood in front of one of the porcelain urinals and checked his wristwatch. It was ten minutes after two. He zipped up his fly and walked out of the men's room.

The mother and the two little girls were still sitting where he had left them, and the brown suitcase lay under the bench opposite. As he passed the child recognized him and smiled again. He did not return the smile but went up the staircase into the street. He walked down to the Langham Hotel at the corner and went into the men's bar. He ordered a cold Castle beer and drank it slowly, standing at the bar, checking his wristwatch every few minutes. He wondered if the mother and the two little girls had left, or if they were still sitting on the bench.

The ferocity of the explosion shocked him. He was almost a block away but it knocked over his glass and the dregs of the beer ran across the bar top. There was consternation throughout the bar room. Men were swearing with surprise and astonishment and rushing to the door.

Jakobus followed them out into the street. The traffic had stopped, and people were swarming out of the buildings to block the pavements. From the station entrance a cloud of dust and smoke billowed and through it staggered vague shadowy figures, powdered with dust, their clothing hanging off them in rags. Somewhere a woman began to scream, and all around him there were shouted questions.

'What is it? What happened?" Jakobus turned and walked away. He heard the sirens of the police cars and the fire engines coming closer, but he did not look back.

'No, Tanhie Sarie, I haven't seen Kobus since we last met at Waterkloof." Lothar De La Rey tried to be patient. The Standers were old friends of his parents, and he had spent many happy childhood holidays at the cottage on the Stander farm at the seaside.

That was before Oom RoeIf Stander had been forced to sell the farm.

'Yes, yes Tannie. I know, but Kobus and I live in different worlds now - I know how worried you must be. Yes, of course." Lothar was taking the call in his private office in the headquarters complex of Marshall Square, and he glanced at his wristwatch as he listened to Sarah Stander's plaintive voice. It was just before two o'clock.

'What time was it when he telephoned you?" Lothar asked, and listened to her reply. 'That was an hour ago. Where did he say he was speaking from? All right, Tannie, what is his address in Hillbrow?" He scribbled it on the pad in front of him. 'Now tell me, Tannie, what was it exactly he said. Something terrible and you must forgive him? Yes, that doesn't sound very good, I agree. Suicide?

No, Tannie Sarie, I'm sure he didn't mean that, but I will send one of my men to check his flat, why don't you ring the university in the meantime?" One of the other telephones on his desk squealed and he ignored it. 'What did they say at the university?" he asked. 'All right, Tannie, I will telephone you and Oom Roeif just as soon as I have any news." By now all three of his telephones were shrilling, and Captain Lourens, his assistant, was signalling him frantically from the door of his office.

'Yes, I understand, Tannie Sarie. Yes, I promise I will telephone you. But I must ring off now." Lothar replaced the receiver and looked up at Lourens.

'da, what is it, man?" 'An explosion at the main railway station. It looks like another bomb." Lothar jumped to his feet and snatched up his jacket. 'Casualties?" he demanded.

'There are bodies and blood all over the place." 'The bloody swines,' Lothar said bitterly.

The street was cordoned off. They left the police car at the barrier and Lothar, who was in plain clothes, showed his identification and the sergeant saluted him. There were five ambulances parked outside the station entrance with their lights flashing.

At the head of the staircase leading down into the main concourse Lothar paused. The damage was terrible. The glass in the arched skylights had been blown out and it coated the marble floors, glittering like a field of ice crystals.

The restaurant had been turned into a first-aid station and the white-jacketed doctors and ambulance crews were at work. The stretcher-bearers were carrying their grisly loads up the staircase to the waiting vehicles.