Private Gold

Chapter 20

Joey and Isobel arrived at the coordinates exactly as the car clock flashed over to 18:01.

“Is this the right place?” Isobel asked uncertainly. The headlights cut the gathering darkness, showing that they were stopped on a large, barren piece of ground between the dirt track they’d been traveling on and a sand road that Joey guessed would eventually lead to the highway some distance away.

There was nobody else there. The rain had stopped, leaving the evening cool and clear. The setting sun was buried in a mass of clouds, and the first stars were shining overhead. Joey heard crickets chirping nearby and, from somewhere in the distance, the sound of frogs.

“This is definitely correct,” Joey said. “I guess it’s a rendezvous point, for who knows what. Out of the way, and leading to nothing but an abandoned site.”

“Do you think we’re too late?” Isobel gazed at the darkening landscape surrounding them.

“What time did the records state the trucks arrived?”

“Most often at six precisely — occasionally a minute or two later. They stopped for about a quarter of an hour, and then left again.”

Joey wondered what that implied. Probably a swift transfer of goods, done in the shortest possible time frame. Although six p.m. always made him think of shift changes, of guards coming and going from their posts on site.

“The storm might have caused delays. Let’s wait a few minutes and see what happens,” he said. On this flat piece of land, they’d be able to spot an oncoming vehicle from far away. But the driver would be able to see them, too. Joey decided it would be better to find cover. He wanted to be very careful, especially since the gunman who’d followed them earlier might not have given up. The chances were slim that the man knew where the back roads led, but Joey wasn’t going to risk getting in his sights a second time.

He drove in a large circle, looking carefully at the surrounding landscape. There was little in the way of shelter, but he saw some small trees in the distance behind a “Road Closed” sign.

“Shall we park behind those bushes?” Isobel was obviously thinking the same way he was.

“If we can get there.”

Driving closer, he saw there was a gap next to the sign. In fact, it looked as if somebody had driven through it very recently. There were fresh tire tracks in the muddy ground. Isobel saw them, too, and tensed.

“You think someone’s there?”

“I can see two sets of tracks. More likely a car came and went.” All the same, he put a hand on his holstered pistol, checking that he’d be able to draw it quickly if he needed to.

“Is there anything down this road?”

“It leads to a closed mine shaft, part of the Egoli East mine. It’s one of the places I worked with, although we accessed the site from the main entrance on the other side of the mine, where the roads are better.” Carefully, Joey drove round the sign before stopping.

“Why was it closed?”

“It became too dangerous to mine from the current access points. The rock above the reef is weak and riddled with fault lines. There were three tunnel collapses, each resulting in miners being trapped underground for days. They were lucky there were no fatalities. So they decided to close it until a safer tunnel could be constructed.”

“Do you think it’s being mined illegally?”

“I do. Unfortunately a lot of people know how rich it is, so it’s an obvious target. When Private Johannesburg had the contract, we posted two guards on duty here at all times. They patrolled the whole area, guarding the main and side entrances, which were both sealed.”

He looked at his watch, then down at the tracks again. “It’s ten past six now. We’re outside your rendezvous time frame.”

“So we missed our chance. That gunman must have known where we were heading and warned them not to come.” Isobel’s voice was heavy with disappointment.

“These tire tracks might provide another clue, or at least a chance to find new information. If they continue all the way to the mine’s entrance, that tells us something. We can check whether the access is still sealed, or if someone has tried to break in.”

He stopped the SUV behind the trees and killed the lights. Treading carefully in the near-darkness, they set off along the path.