Vortex

She waited in terror, hearing screams and thumps all around, but she knew she would be safe. The rags smelled, and the air was stifling, but the police had never found her in here.

The screams stopped, and she wanted to get up and see what had happened, but Alice remembered her mother’s instructions. There was a silly song about a monkey and a rhinoceros that she was supposed to sing three times, and so she sang it to herself, always enjoying the part where the monkey tricked the rhino.

Then she finished and scrambled out from her hiding place, shaking off the rags and blankets.

Her mother lay on the floor, next to her grandmother and uncle. Shaking her only elicited a faint moan. Alice ran for water. The police had whipped her mother once during a raid-leaving her bruised and bloody. And her uncle had told her to fetch water. That had helped.

She was halfway to the pump when she heard her mother screaming, “I cannot see. I cannot see!”

Alice ran back and tried to rouse her uncle or grandmother to help her, but they were both dead. She knew how to check, and she answered her mother’s questions about them. Neither had any wounds, but their staring, horrified expressions showed that they’d died in agony.

“Momma, what should I do?”

There was no answer.

Several thousand South African civilians-blacks and whites alike-lay dead or wandered maimed through Potgietersrus.

NOVEMBER 25-HEADQUARTERS, CUBAN

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, PIETERSBURG

Jonathan Sasolo served as Gen. Antonio Vega’s liaison with the African

National Congress. Classified by South Africa’s laws as “mixed race,” he was a wide man, with big hands and a loud voice. He held the rank of major in the ANC’s military arm, Umkhonto we Sizwe, and theoretically was accorded that rank here at headquarters. Vega’s staff hadn’t treated him with enough respect, though-an injustice that only served to amplify his anger and outrage.

“Is this how you liberate us? Kill half of our people and let the rest starve?”

Vega was trying to be diplomatic, and both Suarez and Vasquez were present to lend their arguments as well.

“Comrade Sasolo, please understand. We had no control over the wind.

“

“But you knew its direction and strength. And you ignored the very predictable results of a nerve gas barrage!” Sasolo leaned over Vega’s desk, yelling at him in a way that left his staff aghast.

“More than a thousand dead, Vega, and thousands more maimed. There are so many dead that we haven’t yet had time to count them. What kind of a victory is this?”

“An important one,” Vega retorted.

“Our forces, which include your men,

I might add, lost only fourteen dead and thirty-seven wounded while annihilating an entire enemy brigade. “

Vasquez nodded.

“Think of the shock in Pretoria, Comrade Major. Think of how much closer this brings us to victory.”

Sasolo scowled angrily.

“Victory? I tell you, man, there will be far fewer people to celebrate this victory of yours if you continue like this. Especially if your troops confiscate every scrap of food in the city! What are my people supposed to live on?”

“We only took food from stores in the white areas, Major.” Suarez’s tone was calm.

“All the blery food is in the white districts, you bastard! There is no food anywhere else.”

Vega answered him this time, clearly losing patience.

“The supply echelon will bring up more food soon, comrade. Our own logistics have been snarled by air raids and commando attacks. Fuel and ammunition have first priority anyway. That’s why we had to collect food in the first place.”

“Letting my people starve.”

Vega’s tone began to harden.

“Major, I am concerned only with the rapid, efficient advance of my forces. My men are fighting and dying to liberate your people from this fascist regime. I am sorry about the deaths here. Many others will no doubt die before we are done. But their deaths will not be in vain.”

Sasolo stood his ground.

“Pretty speeches won’t change the masses’ minds,

Vega. They’ve seen the Boers, and now they’ve seen you. They say, “Where is the differenceT ” The ANC major stepped back from the desk.

“I have been discussing this matter with our executive committee.”

Vega nodded. Vasquez had told him of several coded communications passing back and forth between ANC headquarters in Lusaka and Sasolo-codes that the Cubans hadn’t been able to break.

The major continued, “I now believe that we should withdraw from this alliance. That we must chart our own course for the liberation of South

Africa. You are using us… just as the Soviets once used you.”

Vasquez went to the door.

“That’s enough, Major.”

Sasolo turned to see two Cuban soldiers, rifles pointed at him.

Vega pointed to the ANC guerrilla.

“Arrest him.”

Sasolo’s astonished protests quickly faded away as they grabbed him and hustled him out of the room.

Vasquez shook his head.

“He’s not alone, Comrade General. Many of the ANC troops are grumbling. We may have trouble with them over this matter.”

“I know, Vasquez, I’ve read the reports, too.” Vega sighed.

“Weaklings.