Chapter 17: Building the Plan
Morning came quietly.
Not with rain.
Not with storms.
Just calm sunlight leaking through the cracks of the safehouse door, turning the small underground room gold.
Dombi hadn't slept much.
Kabelo sat beside her at the desk, the USB plugged into his old laptop. They had been reading files for hours — contracts, emails, bank statements, deleted voice notes someone tried to wipe out.
Every new file felt like another knife in her chest.
"Your parents were planning to expose Mandla," Kabelo said softly.
"They had enough proof to end his whole operation."
Dombi rubbed her face.
"And that's why he killed them."
She said it without trembling now.
Kabelo didn't answer — because he didn't need to. The truth was all over the screen.
An entire section of the USB showed Mandla's network:
a corrupt police colonel
a judge in his pocket
two board members secretly shifting money
a government official receiving payments
and someone unnamed, someone inside the Ntuli offices feeding him information regularly.
Dombi pointed at the last line.
"That mole… that's our first strike."
Kabelo nodded.
"We find them. We stop the leaks. We weaken Mandla."
Dombi leaned back, breathing slowly.
"This is bigger than both of us. We need more people."
"I know," Kabelo said.
"But we can't recruit just anyone. One wrong person and everything collapses."
She understood.
They weren't just gathering help.
They were building a resistance.
Setting Up the Team
Later that afternoon, they spread papers and notes across the safehouse floor.
Names.
Times.
Meeting logs.
Bank transfers.
Call records.
Dombi drew a rough map of the Ntuli headquarters.
"This is the boardroom," she said. "This is Mandla's private office. And that—"
She circled the hallway.
"—is where the mole accesses files."
Kabelo studied it quietly.
"We need a place to operate from," he said.
"This hideout is safe, but too small. And Mandla has people searching this area. We need distance. Neutral ground."
Dombi nodded.
"I know a place," she said.
"A forgotten property under the Ntuli Group — my father used it for old projects. It's empty. No one checks it."
Kabelo's brow lifted.
"That could work."
"It will," Dombi said.
"It'll be our base."
Discovering the Mole
They returned to the files. Kabelo opened a folder labeled: INTERNAL COMMUNICATION LOGS.
One line caught Dombi's attention — a name she recognized painfully well.
Her heart dropped.
"No…"
Kabelo leaned closer.
"You know this person?"
"She was close to my mother," Dombi whispered.
"She helped run the office. She acted like she cared."
Kabelo exhaled slowly.
"That's the mole."
For a moment, Dombi didn't speak.
Then her voice hardened.
"Good. That gives us someone to watch. Someone to corner."
Shaping the Infiltration Plan
By late afternoon, the plan was written in front of them on the safehouse table:
STEP 1:
Move operations to the old Ntuli property — their new base.
STEP 2:
Observe the mole. Track her movements. Learn her patterns.
STEP 3:
Enter the Ntuli building at night, when she works overtime preparing for Mandla's 48-hour announcement.
STEP 4:
Plant:
one recorder in the boardroom
one inside Mandla's private office
and one tracking device in the mole's computer
STEP 5:
Gather proof of Mandla's corruption before his big announcement.
STEP 6:
Prepare for a confrontation — not physical, but legal and public.
Kabelo leaned back.
"This is a real plan," he said.
"A dangerous one."
Dombi straightened her spine.
"He destroyed my family.
He stole my inheritance.
He lied to the world."
Her voice steadied.
"And now he wants to erase me."
Kabelo met her eyes.
"So we hit first."
Dombi closed the laptop and held the USB tightly.
"For my parents," she whispered.
"For the truth."
Kabelo nodded.
"For justice."