Snippet #1925364

A little while after her chat with Saladin, Johanneke arrived at the garage where she spent the previous day working with Luce. Setting her gear down near the entrance, she called out into the cavernous work area for the young mechanic.

"Lucinda? Lucinda, are you in here?"

"Uh, hi." Luce said, sounding rather strained. She was trying to shove one of the large wooden crates they had received the other day into the truck with little success.

"Having some trouble? Let me help you with that." Johanneke offered, going over to assist. Taking the brunt of the weight, she lifted and pushed the crate steadily, relieving Luce of her burden until the crate slid onto the bed of the Hilux.

"There we go. What was in that thing, anyway?" Johanneke asked, wiping her brow with her forearm.

"Thanks." Luce sighed in relief. "I think they said mortar shells?"

"Jesus, and they left you to load them all by yourself? Jerks." scoffed Johanneke. "Will they fit my 'Commando' mortar thingy?" she asked, thumbing towards the tube-like object fastened to her rucksack.

The mechanic shrugged. "It wasn't that much trouble... they go and shoot people. I hopefully don't, heh." She glanced over the weapon and shook her head. "I dunno. Not a weapons person."

"Saladin told me you're gonna be in on this one. I guess this is an 'All Hands' kind of deal, huh? You nervous?" Johanneke asked. "Will you need a gunner?"

"Hopefully not. I'll only be there if stuff goes really bad." Luce said thoughtfully, patting the machine gun that Farin recently helped her install. "It's reassuring that you volunteeered so quickly, though." She added cheerfully. The two loaded some three more crates of 60mm mortar shells, and then a few crates of assorted M43. Then they loaded the anti-tank grenades that Farin had explained to her.

"Do you think this stuff is really safe?"

"I certainly hope so. I mean, they look new, which is a plus." Johanneke commented, picking up one of the grenades carefully before placing it back into the crate. "Maybe just a few additional Flak Jackets between you and the bed will help, you never know..."

Johanneke then looked at the PKM up top. "As for the volunteering thing, I do mean it. There was a certain point in my career as a cop that had me leaning out the window of a Jo'Burg Highway Patrol Bimmer with an R4 while my partner and I were chasing some fookin' bastard carjacker. I'd like to think that therefore I'm qual'd for shooting from a moving vehicle with a certain degree of accuracy."

"Huh. That's kinda scary." Luce laughed nervously.

"Maybe to you." Johanneke replied, her expression taking on one of determination. "Personally, I took a certain sense of satisfaction from that part of my job. Going that fast with a rifle in hand, not much room for error, and a nice fat carjacker target to shoot at... It was all I could ask for in those days, and to this day, I have no special mercy for carjackers. Did anyone ever tell you why I despise them so much?"

The young mechanic had a guess as to why, but she shook her head anyway. "No, why?"

"I really started hating them when I was a teenager. One of those bastards held me and some friends at gunpoint while we were out shopping. I was just going to let him take the car, and that would have been it, but..." Johanneke trailed off, looking down.

Luce felt a chill at the idea. She had grown up in idyllic little Californian suburbs, where the worst possibility was a ticket. But from what Farin had said about South Africa, she could only imagine what sort of things could happen to the unprepared.

Johanneke took a breath before continuing. "But this was Johannesburg, and carjackers will go to any lengths to get what they want. So he shot my friend. She was Gila Epstein, an exchange student from Israel, about my age, and the only thing she was guilty of was being out shopping with me and my best friend, Marie. This bastard, this monster, Luce, he shot and killed her like it was nothing and threw her to the street. Right in front of me and Marie. It was too late to do anything else, we had to get out of the car, or we would've been dead, too. But I'll never forget how her eyes asked me why it had all happened. All I know is that Gila died that day because a carjacker wanted my BMW."

Johanneke took another breath before continuing. "Sorry I laid all that out on you, but, I kind of needed to get that all off my chest. That day is kind of what drove me to be a cop. After what happened to Gila, I figured I should do something about carjackers and their ilk. Kill them, arrest them, it was all the same to me for a long while. As far as I'm concerned now, whoever these assholes we're fighting are, they're just as bad, and I volunteered my experience so that someone has your back out there if you have to be out there with us. It's kind of the same reason I'm worried about Saladin going out there to help with this mission. He's a gunsmith and not a professional soldier, and I don't want him getting killed out there. That said, he's up for the mission, but that doesn't make me worry for his safety any less. That's why I'm worried about your safety too, Luce. If you have to go out there, don't hesitate to go find me. Don't go out there alone, losing any more friends would kill me inside."

Johanneke lifted the lid of the mortar crate open and scooped out an armful of extra rounds. "I'll be taking some of these; I didn't get a chance to load up earlier."