DIAMOND RAIDERS
by Bob Curby
Chapter 1

Namibia, September 26th, 1986, dawn, 2 miles north of the town of Swakopmund, in the ‘Forbidden Zone’, the diamond fields and the domain of the protective diamond mining companies. The desert spreads out like a huge stony Martian landscape from the sea, out as far as the eye can see. Unfriendly in more ways than one.

A silver thread of almost perfectly straight tarmac, the one and only road through the region, the C34, was just visible in the tawny brown of the stony desert landscape. Along that ribbon, Rick Van Rensberg, was unfolding his sunglasses in preparation for the glaring sun about to pop up over the horizon to his right. His gunmetal grey Mercedes SL600 was whispering along the road at an easy 60 miles per hour. Alongside him was Marie his Russian wife, still dozing from the night drive up from the South African border, and in the back, sound asleep was a small girl, just 5 years old. It had been a long journey and the first time they had ventured out of Cape Town. How green and lush that seemed in comparison to this unfriendly landscape. The family were travelling all the way up to visit Rick’s brother in the north of Namibia, up near the Okavango, and he had wanted to get a good way up before the sun got too hot. Just beyond his vision, over the dunes ahead, was one of the largest storage facilities of uncut diamonds in the world, Swakopmund Mining Corporation known locally as SMC, constantly monitoring the area for would-be thieves and manifesting its presence by lookout towers and hovering security helicopters.

SMC chose this spot because the Namib Desert provided no cover for anyone approaching from the land and approach by sea was almost impossible without early detection, not to mention the extreme shallowness of the water for quite a long way out. Diamonds lay on the desert sand, sparkling in the sunlight and on the seabed in gravel layers under the oyster shells. SMC had staked a claim alongside the De Beers operation with its even bigger facility and veritable army to protect it. Though much smaller SMC held its own when it came to security and although not having an army, trained guards fully equipped to protect their underground storage facility were a force to be reckoned with. SMC was very efficient in preventing the theft of even one diamond from their area. Rick’s Mercedes passed one of many signs that carry the message “WARNING! DO NOT STOP ON THIS ROAD. IN THE EVENT OF BREAKDOWN, DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE. ASSISTANCE WILL BE PROVIDED.” Rick had been advised by the South African Automobile Association that this area was restricted, a ‘forbidden zone’ and that he was not to stop and certainly not to get out. If he was to break down, he was to remain in the car with side lights on and SMC or one of the other mining companies would send out a rescue party. He had snorted at that warning, he didn’t really believe that they had the authority nor would they do anything if he stopped.

He failed to notice the blackened patches alongside the road with odd pieces of metal protruding. He was not aware of the methods SMC in particular used to ‘recover’ diamonds they believed had been picked up from the sand. He did not know that if he got out of his car, they would burn it and sift the ashes. If they found one diamond he would go to prison, if they failed to find anything, they’d buy him a new car. That’s how it worked. He just drove on, humming to himself in the glow of the morning sun.

There was a muffled thud from the right front of the car.
They had either hit something, or a tyre had just burst. Struggling to keep it in a straight line Rick drew the Merc to a standstill. He sighed, with the air-con running and his sunglasses on, the desert was almost bearable, but now, they were going to open the doors and let a heat blast in. He opened his door and stood up, in the road where he was fully visible to the towers. He slowly made his way round to the side where Marie, his wife, was sitting patiently. He looked down at the wheel.
"Bugger!"
The tyre was not only flat but was shredded. They had hit something a few yards back and it had slashed through the tyre.
"I'll have to change the wheel, check on Analise while I do this, she might need a drink or something, and maybe her cough medicine, it's about due."
"Oh, that's annoying, have we got a spare?"
"Yes, I'm sure, but I've never had to change a wheel before, my guys always do it for me."
"Do you want any help?"
"Have you changed tyres then?"
"Back in my home, yes, Dad always said women are as good as men - and he made sure we had the same training as the boys."
"Well, I'll give you a shout if I get stuck, how's Analise?"
"She's ok, still asleep."
"OK, well, I'll just get the jack and spare wheel out."
“Hurry up! The chopper's on the way and I can see a jeep coming!”
"So, we haven't done anything - I have to change this wheel, maybe they'll help."
"Why does that sign there say we mustn't stop?"
"It's because of these." Rick scooped up a handful of sand with it's precious store of small uncut diamonds, "at least, that's what the AA man said when I told him we're driving through here."
"What's that, I can see sand with bits of quartz or something."
"Diamonds my love, hundreds of them, everywhere."
"Well, they won't be happy then to see us here and you scooping up handfuls of the sand, will they?"
"These are just industrial quality, good for sandpaper." Rick knew nothing of diamonds and couldn't recognise the high quality Northern Cape Blues in their uncut state."No-one's going to tell me off, you'll see."
The jeep arrived and the men jumped out as the helicopter 'gun-bus' hovered overhead.
"Damn, the spare is flat. I'll have to walk back to Swakopmund and get help. You start the engine and keep the air-con going until I get back."
“STOP! You will GO nowhere!”
The gruff voice jangled at them and shook them into silence. They realised that they were almost surrounded by armed men, all pointing their guns at them.

"I'm sorry, please, look, my tyre burst, my spare is flat, I have to go back to Swakopmund to get help - maybe you can drive me hey?"

“That is out of the question, you are under arrest, you will come with us, NOW!”
The security force looked like they were part of a crack commando unit, not just ordinary working civilians in fancy clothes.
“You have no authority to do that! We are South African citizens, and I am also still a citizen of the Netherlands, and my wife here is a citizen of Russia. We are sorry, we had to stop, we don't intend to get involved in anything, honest, please help us, I mean, it isn't as if you own this road is it?”
“Silence! You see that sign, that’s our authority, and yes, we DO own this road!”
“But we had to stop, we hit something - back there, the tyre blew, look, it's flat....”
“Half the people we have to arrest have stories to tell! Now, this way please, we need you away from this vehicle.”
“Not only that, my little girl’s ill, I’ll have to get her medicine, it’s here somewhere, I’m sure ….”
Ricky went to the rear of the car. Instantly he was struck down by one of the guards and lay motionless on the tarmac at their feet.

“Rick!” Marie shrieked,“Please, you cannot be so callous, look at her, we don’t want to steal diamonds, why would we, we just trying to fix the wheel. My little girl's woken up and she needs to take her medicine. I really cannot believe that you can do this, have you a family? What if this was your child?”
“Maybe you have thought about all this before you stopped!”
“Look you -----“
“No, you look, you’re in big trouble and if you’re really worried about that child you’ll get into the jeep, now! We have a doctor back at base, he’ll take care of her – and he’s closer than Swakopmund, and, don't worry about the wheel, we'll fix that in a minute. Now move!”
Two men picked up Ricky and dragged him to the large jeep and tossed him in the back like a rag doll.

Marie was so angry she couldn’t speak, Rick’s head was oozing blood from a very large lump, Analise was wheezing in her arms, and she was feeling a little faint from the stress.
“Pig!” was all she could manage to get out between clenched teeth as she gasped in the seering heat.

“Torch it!” The man in charge called back to the men standing by the Merc.
“WHAT! – You’re going to burn our car? You can’t do that, it’ll cost you thousands!”
“Listen, we have the authority to recover our diamonds by whatever methods necessary.”
“There aren’t any diamonds in the car!”
“Well, we’ll know when it cools down, won’t we.”
“You can’t burn our car!”
“Look – it’s burning well already.”
“Ohhh!” Marie’s head dropped into her hands and she sobbed like it was the end of the world. One of the men, who had neither touched them nor spoken, put his arm around her shoulders.
She recoiled as if he had just plugged her into the electrical socket, “don’t you touch me!”
“I’m sorry, it’s our job, you see we…”
“JAN! That is enough; we do not make excuses for the job we have to do.”
Rick moaned and tried to sit up, “Marie, Analise…..” he called out from the back of the jeep.
“We’re here darling, are you ok?”
“Well I’m still alive, but everything hurts, and I’ve got blood in my eye.”
“We’ll talk to our solicitors as soon as we can get a phone.”
“We’ll get someone to take us down to Swakopmund and deal with it straight away.”
“They’ve burnt the car!”
“THEY WHAT!”
“Burned the car.”
“You burned our car? What kind of people are you?!”
“The kind of people that make sure that stealing diamonds isn’t worth it.”
“Rick, I’m worried about Analise, she’s not looking well.”
“Please, do whatever you want to satisfy your bosses - but get us out of this heat and get my child to the doctor, quickly, please.”
"Rick, they are driving us back as fast they can, maybe we should try to co-operate."
"Maybe I should have got my gun out of the car and shot a few in the first place!"

One of the men thrust an automatic rifle close to Ricky’s throat, the commander calmly said, “Maybe it would be better if you all die……….”



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FA©T 2008