As if Robert's words where prophetical they hear a helicopter droning nearer and when the chopper turns over the farm house, they see something dropping from it on top of Michelle's car and there’s a explosion and the car is alight.
"The bastards! Look what they've done to my car!" Michelle exclaims angrily. "They do not want us to be able to leave the farm," Robert remarks. While the helicopter drones away Robert and Michelle carries their rucksacks to a farm shed, where Robert opens a false wall and unlocks a hidden safe.
To Robert's surprise he finds the red file, for which Morgan is looking so desperately and the boxes of ammunition for his Walter, for which he had opened the safe. Robert reloads his Walter's magazine and then stows the ammunition and file away in his rucksack. "So you knew all along where the file was hidden?" Michelle wants to know. "No, I only found it now. My dad must have left it here for some reason."
Robert can hear the horses neighing nervously in the coral and he quickly saddles his horse Mistress and a brown mare called Lady, for Michelle. Michelle swings into the saddle like a farm girl and they leave the farmstead, just in time, for they can hear the Cresidda’s returning with the farm road.
They pull the horses on a gallop and after a while the mansion disappears behind a kopje and they let the horses walk when they near a water stream where both Robert and Michelle swings out of the saddle.
"Where have you learnt to ride so well?" Robert inquires. "I love horses and attended a riding school when I was a teen ager,” Michelle answers him. For a moment there is some pain etched on Robert's face, when he swings the rucksack from his back. "What's wrong?" Michelle wants to know. "I'm fine," Robert tells her and when she touches his back lightly he is not able to stop a groan from rolling over his lips.
"Liar," she says jokingly and unbuttons Robert's shirt in a hurry. When she sees his back, pain etches through her as she holds her self-responsible for the way that Morgan had treated Robert. "Oh no! Robert what have they done to you?" Michelle remarks and there is guilt and pity written all over her face. Robert's back is a crisscross of dried blood and blue and green marks where the whip had lashed out at him. Michelle cleans his wounds with an antiseptic and some ointment that she finds in the first aid kit and Robert ties his rucksack to the saddle of his horse before they mount their horses again.
When they reach an open field they give their horses the reigns and the animals thunders away and they reach a clump of trees just in time, for a helicopter nears them at tree top level. They dismount swiftly and the horses are pulled in beneath the trees. When the helicopter passes over them, they can clearly see a thug leaning out of an open door with a submachine gun clenched in his hands.
"That was almost," Michelle remarks and after the helicopter disappears in the distance they lead the horses, as the terrain had become to steep and rough to ride. The sun fries down at them mercilessly when they near a creek having passed a series of kopjes. After watering the horses, they mount them again and ride at a comfortable pace.
Suddenly Michelle's mare stops in her tracts and stand on her hind legs hitting with her front legs and the horse hits out furiously with it's front legs into the air, as if she is fighting a invisible enemy. Michelle is thrown from the saddle and flies with a arch over the horses head and lands just out of reach of its milling hooves and then the faithful animal lifts it's legs higher and falls stone dead on it's back.
Robert's Walter is in his hand in a split second and it barks in the direction of the Ring necked spitting cobra, which was ready to strike Michelle and the impact of the bullets, hurls the snake away from Michelle to where the snake gives it's last convulsions.
Robert jumps from his horse and rushes to where Michelle still lies unconscious, from a knock that she had gotten from falling from the horse. "Damned snake!" He swears angrily when he reaches Michelle.
It seems to Robert that nothing very seriously is wrong with her and at that moment he hears the nearing thundering whine of a helicopter and he runs with the girl in his arms, to where his horse is waiting nervously.
At the horse he splashes some water over Michelle's face and when her eyes open he unceremoniously lifts her in the saddle in front of him and the horse gallops away over open field as fast as it can carry it's riders.
It isn't long before the helicopter reaches them and a thug starts firing at them with a submachine gun. The horse is hit and it falls away beneath Robert and Michelle and they are thrown into some bushes.
The helicopter hovers over the dead mare and Robert and Michelle is just in time to duck behind some boulders, when the thug with his submachine gun starts firing at them again.
"Damn you all! Try this for size!" Robert shouts steaming with anger and aims carefully at the helicopter with his Walter PPK and the blighter with the submachine gun, is thrown back into the helicopter’s cabin as if been hit by an invisible hand.
The pilot decides to fly away to safety when another bullet hits the window in front of him and then Robert has time to talk to Michelle. "How are you?" Robert wants to know with concern showing on his face.
"I'm fine. I just have a few bruises and a terrible headache,” she assures him and he takes her into his arms and kisses her tenderly afraid that they may not leave the farm alive. Michelle swings a rucksack onto her back and Robert carries his in his hands while they pass some flaming red Aloe's and while they walk, Robert points out some shrubs, plants and trees to Michelle who is touched by the small miracles of nature.
"What are those orange coloured fruit?" She asks inquisitive like a child. "We call them wild peaches," he answers and picks some of the orange colour fruit for her. She pulls her face when she tastes the fruit and Robert asks:
"Do they taste wild to you?" She nods her head and he teases her: "So I have find something wilder than you," at which she just smiles. "To where now?" Michelle wants to know while they walk along a narrow ledge up a kopje. "We'll find a place that can give us shelter," Robert assures her and takes her hand, while they climb up a steep ridge past some Sugar bushes of which the magnificent Protea’s are in full bloom.
It is as if Robert had seen a ghost, when they reach the top of the kopje and they look down at another kopje that is shaped like a giant's boot. "Why are you so preoccupied? I have tried to talk with you, but you are not answering me?" Michelle wants to know. "Let's rest for a while in the shade of that tree and I will tell you a story," Robert replies and take one of the water bottles from his rucksack and when Michelle had drank some of the water, helps himself to it.
In South Africa today security plays a vital part in any business or private home. This book and the volumes to follow, will guide you step by step through the essential precautionary measures to be taken in protecting your family and valuables. From employing security guards, evacuation of your site and security measures to burglar bars and alarms in your private home.
a Book compiled by me from experience gained after 10 years in the security industry as Industrial relations officer with Nosa qualifications, 1st Aid, fire protection and also S.O.B. grade A.
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