Prose

Early the next morning Ryno is testing the six Unita-soldiers that have been given as a team to him.  Equipped with their firearms they jog a few kilometres into the field, where he put up some beer bottles as targets to test the shooting abilities of the men.
 
There AK-47 sub-machineguns are in prime condition and each of the soldiers is not only veterans, but their shooting is accurate and they are reasonably fit.

Later back at the camp each one is examined by Maria and they confirm that they have been trained in the handling of hand grenades, knifes and strangling cords.

Maria studies the sketch plan with Ryno and builds them a model of the Cuito Canavale air base, from cardboard and Ryno discusses the plan of the raid with the six Unita-soldiers.
 
“All of us will be armed with AK-47’s, hand grenades, knives and strangle cords.  The hand grenades and rifles are only to be used if we have no other choice.  It is important that we set the explosives and escape without being noticed, before the explosions take place, than to become tangled in a fire fight with a much bigger enemy force,” Ryno explains.
 
He later takes the men on training sessions to exercise the raid through the small town, where they run into empty houses and ruins and practise at setting up the explosive devices.

A variety of explosives are available in the camp, to make the bombs with.  They can use fertilizer, (ammonium nitrate) and diesoline by dividing sixteen parts of the one component with one part of the other in proportion, but the explosives will be far too heave to carry around.

What they need, must be light with a lot of power.  Every bomb consists out of a M970 white phosphorous grenade and plastic explosives.  The plastic explosives alone may not completely destroy their targets and Ryno had decided to use the phosphorous grenades as well, as he reckons that the fuel lines of the aircraft along with the phosphorous grenades will provide for the total destruction of every aircraft.

They make the bombs in old tea tins.  Every bomb is made to detonate electrically from a wrist watch that is only set for a few hours because Ryno wants to destroy the aircraft in the early hours of the morning, when the reaction time is at its slowest and they are well away from the enemy camp.

Day after day they expect some more air attacks from the enemy which does not come and every day they practise for the raid.  During this time Maria’s feet heal properly and although Ryno would have wanted her to rather stay at the camp if it was at a normal time, she have got to come along as he have got other plans that he wants to put in motion along with the attack on Cuito Canavale air base.

”You must try and get us some civilian clothes,” he whispers one night to her and when he takes the small bag out of his backpack that he had brought along from the downed light aircraft, she is astonished.  “It is full of big diamonds that Unita had sent as payment to the South African government,” she whispers urgently and he puts it back into his backpack without opening the small bag.

There is something magical about the sunrise and at first light Ryno is awake and he watches Maria, where she lies curled up like a cat while she is sleeping and there is an expression of satisfaction on her lovely face.

The red rays of the rising sun gives a kind of softness to her face and when she changes her position, her breasts peep inviting at him.

Her skin is soft and hot under his fingers and his hands glide butterfly soft over her stomach and further down, while he takes her big nipples the one after the other in his mouth.

When her eyes open he reads passion in them, before she stares at him with a slight smile and there is a kind of expectation in her eyes and on her face.

With one movement she throws the blanket off from both of them and he admires her whole body and he kisses and caresses her everywhere, while her fingers reach hungry at him.

Her tongue glides in a sensual movement over her lips and when his kisses move down her flat stomach, she moans and presses him tightly into the spray of her waterfall.

She moans again and bends over backwards and pulls him down to her with compulsive fingers, while she opens her legs.  Her body is wet and hot beneath him and he can hear his blood flowing in his ears, while her body whirl and eddy beneath him.

When they leave the camp with the Unita-soldiers Maria and Ryno carry their own equipment and not only that which they will need for the attack.

There is the far off roar like the sound of thunder that comes from the West, from the other side of the river, and later huge clouds come together and the rainstorm pours down upon them.  For just more than an hour the rain really pours down and later it clears up and becomes a hot sunny day.

The wilderness around them is to Maria like a piece of paradise and she watches some herds of antelope that they are passing.  Where Ryno thought that Maria would be as hungry as a raven and he himself is eating well, she barely touches the food.

”Are the food not to your taste?  Or are you getting ill, or something.  We have still got a big distance to go to Cuito Carnavale and you must stay strong darling,” he remarks worried.

She smiles about him being worried.  “No, I am just not very hungry.”  They walk further to Cuito Carnavale in a patrol formation and come upon a wart-hog family. Most of the wart-hogs flee screaming but the boar starts running in their direction before it stops snorting and then turns and runs into the direction of the other hogs.

At dusk they camp near to a river and of the few fish eagles that they had seen with their arrival there now are no sign and the bird noises that they can hear above the sounds of the river, is also suddenly silent.

It is just after midnight when Ryno becomes awake from the trumpet call of angry elephants, out of the direction of the river.  The animals had picked up the human smell on the night wind and they are angry at all humans.  A group of elephants storms at forty kilometres an hour at them with flapping ears and Ryno and the soldier’s fire above their heads to drive them away.

All of the elephant, but for a big bull turn away and then run off.  One of the soldiers start to fire at it and wounds the angry animal and it storm right at Ryno and Maria and at that very moment Ryno’s rifle is knocked from his grip by a solder that is running away and anxious Maria fires from her hip and the elephant dies right at there feet.

”What is with the elephant that they are as mad as this,” the Unita-soldiers want to know.  It is quite unusual for elephant to storm at humans like this in the middle of the night.

”Those elephant now hate humans as the crazy Fapla’s, had mown them down in a landmine field.  At the very moment my rifle is knocked from my hand and now the enemy will also know exactly where we are,” Ryno complains.

”We haven’t gone really far, Nkosi.  The Fapla’s will not know from where the shot had come.  Probably none of the Fapla-forces had head the shooting,” one of the Unita-soldiers remarks.

The stars glitter like a thousand bright lights above them and the golden moon throws long shadows over them, where Ryno and Maria lies somewhat away from the soldiers in each other’s arms.

Somewhere in the bushes around them they hear jackals calling and hyenas laughing and in the distance the lights of Cuito Canavale is glittering.

”I can hardly believe that we are still together,” Maria remarks happy and the wind brings the smell of bully beef that the soldiers are frying to them.

The events of the past days have brought them closer together and Ryno’s fingers stroke through her silky black hair.

”How long have I dreamt to again hold you in my arms and to be caressing you,” Ryno whispers and touches the dimples on her cheeks when she smiles at him.

He kisses her with passion and her lips are hot and wet beneath his and he smells the sand and sweat of the last few days that they have been walking through the bushes.

”You were right.  A person cannot measure love in seasons or time,” Maria remarks.  There is a fire in her gaze and while Ryno touches her tenderly, with caresses that almost do not touch her and is kissing her softly she can hardly bear it any longer.

He is caressing her as if she is fragile and as if she is a elevated being that he is praying to and the intensity of his emotions and love, makes her realize that she have become almost a obsession for him.

Maria feels how his hardness touches her and her body is aflame, when instinctively she reaches for him.

He is so perfect between her legs that she feels as if she is reeling and her body opens like a flower beneath him and he feels her heart beating wildly, while her whole body begs him to fill her.

They come together and they are so finely tuned to each other like light on glass.  Their passion is like a clear note that builds up to something far past perfect and it is so matchless that it explodes in thousand of stars.

Later for the first time she again feels safe.  Where she was in constant fear for that the PJI would catch her and did not know what Petrofski would do to her and if she would be able to survive, now she feels safe again.

They are in the middle of a war, without really knowing what the next day is going to bring and she is feeling safe.  For a moment she is thinking that it is absurd, but she realizes that she is completely trusting Ryno and as he came to her rescue, she knows instinctively that he will find a way for them to leave this country that is ravaged by war.

She watches Ryno where he is sleeping without any sign of worry and when she strokes over his chest, he reaches out for her in his sleep and draws her into his arms.