Someone Wishes to Speak to You (39 page)

‘Down there at the bottom, children – all that angry water
churning around – it’s known as the “Boiling Pot”. You wouldn’t want to go for a swim in there, would you?’

How Lucienne wished that she could have told Mathew that the hand he was holding so firmly was that of their son, the product of their one-time deep love for one another. But she had agreed with Daniel, whom she loved deeply and was so extremely happily married to, that they would only tell Marcus once he had reached his mid-teens that although she was his real mother, Daniel had adopted him when he was only a few months old, soon after they were married. Lucienne respected her husband very much for never having asked her the identity of Marcus’ real father. She had still to make up her mind whether she would ever tell Daniel, or at some time in the future reveal to Mathew that the young boy he had got on so well with when they met in Livingstone was their son.

As they walked back to the hotel, while Marcus and Polly chatted to the security officer, Lucienne said, ‘I was very lucky that I met and fell in love with Daniel after you left Atlanta. I am very happily married, and we are fortunate to have two beautiful, healthy children. It’s funny – Marcus seems to feel very comfortable with you. Thank you for holding his hand and reassuring him when we were near the rapids.’

‘I’m glad it worked out well for you. I’ve never felt comfortable with my decision to leave Atlanta when I did . . .’ Mathew sensed that Lucienne did not want to talk about the time of their parting, although he could never have guessed the reasons why. ‘I do hope I get to meet Daniel one day. I know I can rely on your discretion about this, but I too have found someone I wish to marry. . . It’s a very complicated situation. She’s a South African-born Rhodesian woman, married to a considerably older husband who treats her like a war trophy. She wants to divorce him as soon as the right opportunity presents itself.’ Mathew avoided giving Lucienne any details about who Jan was, even using a false name. ‘If
we have the chance to meet up again once Judy and I are married, I’m quite sure that you would approve of her.’

‘Mom, I like your friend very much. Can we see him again soon, with Daddy too?’ said Marcus when they were back at the hotel and Mathew was just about to get into the waiting taxi. ‘And I like you too, Marcus. And Polly. It would be lovely to see you again,’ he replied.

‘Mom,’ continued Marcus, ‘why does your English friend look so important, like Dad, when he only watches monkeys in the trees?’

‘That is a very good question,’ replied Lucienne. ‘A few lucky people are born to always look important, and my English friend is one of them.’ Mathew put his arm around both the children and gave them a light farewell hug, then kissed Lucienne with the fondest of goodbyes, telling the security man to take extra good care of them. As his taxi sped away towards the border, he found himself submerged under a deluge of reminiscences, mixed with sadness and joy.

Later, as he tried to relax in his room, Mathew tried hard not to dwell upon the unwelcome thought that Jan had spent her short honeymoon with Paddy Bushney at the very same hotel.

12

A Paradox of Valour

‘Honestly Mathew, you wouldn’t believe how irresponsible they were,’ said Anna as she updated Mathew on all the latest news after his return to Salisbury. ‘My friend said her husband and one of his colleagues were having dinner in a restaurant, when they heard an Englishmen sitting at the next table say how he had forgotten the name he had used to book into his hotel, and asked his friend whether he could remember what it was. He was completely unguarded. He may as well have gone to the nearest police station and given himself up. My friend’s husband and his colleague went over to their table, produced their CIO credentials, and asked the two of them to come to their CIO HQ.’

Anna’s friend’s husband had not given her any further details about what had occurred immediately after the arrest, although she was told that the two Englishmen were escorted onto a London-bound SAA flight within thirty-six hours of their arrival in Rhodesia.

He had also mentioned that during the latter part of the previous year, the CIO had arrested three CIA agents who had been accused of undermining Bishop Muzorewa’s authority. Such an arrest was to cause the US Government considerable embarrassment, by increasing the possibility that the CIA network in southern Africa could be exposed.

*    *    *

During the early part of 1979, Mathew found his tutorials at the university to be both stimulating and exacting, and staying with the Vaughan-Joneses to be most agreeable. However, he found living in such close proximity to Jan and maintaining the pretense of being just casual friends to be increasingly difficult.

At one of the weekends that they managed to be together at Carnock Farm, they had started to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

‘I’ve made up my mind,’ said Jan. ‘As soon as Rhodesia establishes a Government of National Unity, and the Bush War comes to an end, when the Selous Scouts are sure to be disbanded, I will file for a divorce. After a socially acceptable period of time, we can get married. It makes me so happy when I talk about becoming your wife; it makes it seem real. Once we’re married, we can go to England and start a new future together. There, doesn’t it sound easy?’

Throughout their relationship, Mathew had never mentioned that his father was a baronet, that he had been brought up in a mansion or that the family had a substantial ancestral estate. He was anxious to keep his family and Hartington Hall as much as of a surprise as possible.

Life went on relatively normally in Salisbury and Bulawayo, although the
Rhodesia Herald
regularly reported the brutal murder of rural people, even though the country’s security forces had been continuing to hammer ZANLA and ZIPLA operatives internally as well as in Mozambique and Zambia. However, as the RF Government came to recognise that it required at least one of the hard-line nationalists to authenticate a sustainable settlement for Rhodesia, it had for some time engaged in a love-hate relationship with Joshua Nkomo rather than the more belligerent Robert Mugabe.

By the end of January, the campaign for the referendum on Rhodesia’s new constitution came to a climax, with eighty-two
per cent of the white electorate having approved it. On 12 February, just when Rhodesians were becoming more confident that a satisfactory settlement for both the black and white communities could soon be achieved, within five months of Mathew’s flight to Victoria Falls to meet Lucienne, a second Viscount had been shot down just after it had taken off from the Falls Airport. It was already well known that the Soviet Union had supplied Zambia with SAM missiles for such attacks against Rhodesia, and soon after the downing of the Viscount, Joshua Nkomo and his ZIPRA insurgents triumphantly accepted responsibility for this act of terrorism.

By way of retaliation, RhAF Hawker Hunters of No 1 Squadron attacked ZIPRA bases near Livingstone and, at the same time, four Canberra bombers took off from a runway on the edge of Wankie National Park, crossed Zambia on a 4,000 km round trip to Angola and successfully bombed a garrison of UNITA insurgents. Also, during the confusion caused by the ‘overfly’, the jittery ZIPRA forces had in a case of mistaken identity downed one of their own Zambian Air Force Macchi jet fighters.

In early March, one of Mathew’s greatest fears had come to the fore again, with the return of Jeremy Hughes’ colleague. The unnamed diplomat almost immediately made contact with Mathew to reschedule their meeting. He had reserved a table for lunch on the Saturday at Brett’s Restaurant, and on Mathew’s arrival he was directed to a secluded corner table where a smartly dressed and clean-shaven middle-aged man was waiting for him.

‘Dr Duncan, so pleased to meet you at last. My name is Augustus Pitt. Do take a seat.’

Pitt ordered a bottle of South African Sauvignon and exchanged a few short pleasantries before he got straight to the crux of the matter.

‘I don’t want to waste your time, Dr Duncan. One of my MI6 colleagues has informed me that as a result of the second downing of a Viscount by ZIPLA, and the proven involvement of Joshua Nkomo, the Rhodesian Government have given the Selous Scouts the go-ahead to assassinate Nkomo at the earliest opportunity. As far as the British Government is concerned, it is of the utmost importance that such an assassination attempt is avoided at all costs.’ It was another verbal hand grenade, similar to that exploded by Piet Erasmus at Meikles.

As Augustus Pitt had already been told by Hughes that Mathew was the type of person likely to be susceptible to blackmail, he was ready with the ammunition he needed to secure Mathew’s cooperation. ‘I would like to share some of the considerable amount of confidential information that MI6 has had on their files in London about you for some time. This information not only includes details of Jan Bushney’s extramarital relationship with you, which has been provided by MI6 informers working undercover at CIO’s HQ in Salisbury, but also some valuable material about your time studying in the Deep South of America.’

‘Where on earth did you get that?’

‘I contacted one of my colleagues working at the CIA Langley HQ in Washington DC to carry out an information-gathering exercise on any significant movements during your time at Emory University.’

As was the case when Erasmus had informed him about the extent of the surveillance that the CIO had carried out, Mathew was totally taken aback by the involvement of the CIA.

‘They provided us with some information about your time at Scaife University in Mississippi, your membership of Tupelo’s Civil Rights Movement and participation in one of its protest marches, and also details of your time in Atlanta studying for your doctorship. Their documentation included a copy of an unpublished article written by an investigatory journalist from Macon’s local press agency. You may remember the title,
‘
In flagrante delicto
– Son of British noble engaged in immoral behaviour with black girl ends up with an assault charge’.

Mathew was stunned that the CIA could possibly hold such a file.

‘Believe me, Mathew, the last thing I want to do is release any of the information in this dossier to the press, but taking into consideration your close relationship with Major Bushney’s wife, I expect you to cooperate with me.’ Pitt concluded in a matter of fact tone, as if asking for the merest favour. ‘I want you to find out as much as possible about the Selous Scouts’ operations, in particular about their plans to assassinate Joshua Nkomo.’ Mathew had no alternative but to comply.

‘As soon as I find anything out that I consider to be of significance, I’ll call you.’

Mathew shook hands brusquely and left the restaurant, his head spinning. After driving to his office at the university, he wrote a note to Jan to ask that should Paddy be away during the course of the following week, it was important for them to meet at the earliest opportunity. He suggested that they could meet in the early evening at the botanical gardens and said that he would check his post office box daily for her response. On his way back to the Vaughan-Joneses’, he dropped the note into her Causeway box number and dreamt of the day when he would be able to rid himself of the degrees of blackmail that the intelligence agencies were subjecting him to. Mathew couldn’t help wondering whether there was anything else that he had done in his life that was not already known to either national or international intelligence agencies. He could not help dwelling on the horrific thought that as Daniel Olingo in his post as Cultural Attaché was a CIA operative, he may be aware of the dossier about him. If so, did he realise that the black girl referred to in the scandalous headline from Macon was indeed Lucienne? He just had to pray that the CIA file had not been copied to Daniel.

Mathew and Jan arranged to meet on the Wednesday
evening just after 6 p.m. To any onlooker, it would have appeared that they had just bumped into each other by chance while walking through the gardens. They even refrained from giving each other a welcoming kiss. As they did not want to risk being seen together for any longer than was necessary, Mathew came straight to the point.

‘It’s very important that this goes no further, but I have to tell you something urgently. I’ve just been approached by a well-connected British diplomat who has been informed by MI6 that the Selous Scouts have the government’s go-ahead to assassinate Joshua Nkomo. As the British Government consider that the assassination would be totally counterproductive to arriving at a satisfactory future political settlement, it is imperative that any attempt on Nkomo’s life is thwarted or, at least, that he is given prior warning.’

Jan had to suppress her disgust, and whispered, ‘I can’t believe the Selous Scouts have agreed to assassinate Nkomo . . . It can only make things worse. It will set back any settlement and cause more fighting and bloodshed – of course I’ll do what I can to find out if Paddy is already involved. I’ll be in touch as soon as I have anything to tell you.’ They shook hands and waved goodbye to each other nonchalantly, as if they were the most casual of friends.

While Jan walked back to one of the side entrances to the gardens, Mathew returned to the main gates and drove to the home of David Montgomery for a sundowner and an early dinner. The evening gave the two friends a chance to relax and reminisce about the happy times they had spent together in the Vumba, which helped to distract Mathew’s thoughts from the increasing amount of pressure being forced upon him.

Shortly afterwards, while her husband was attending a regimental dinner at his Inkomo Barracks, Jan took a considerable risk by entering his normally ‘out of bounds’ office at their home and
unlocking the draws of his desk, for she had always known where he hid the keys. In one of the top draws she found a file labelled ‘Top Secret/Restricted’ which contained a copy of an action plan entitled Operation Dodo.

The plan gave details of how a radio-detonated car bomb had been selected as an appropriate device for the assassination of Joshua Nkomo, and that the vehicle carrying the bomb was to be driven via Botswana to Lusaka by a captain of the Selous Scouts. Wearing civilian clothes, the captain was to be given a South African passport and impeccable documentation to describe him as a commercial traveller for a pharmaceutical firm with its headquarters in Johannesburg. At the same time, one of the Scouts’ undercover agents, already operating in Lusaka, would maintain surveillance on Nkomo’s movements.