“Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him!”
“Let me kill this executioner! My brother and his family died at his hands!”
“F*ck, let me get him, I want to shred him into pieces!”
The soldiers cried out one after another. Good had committed many evil deeds and
harmed the families of many of his soldiers.
Li Du held Remonin and the soldiers back and shouted, “All of you, f*cking calm down!
Calm down! Calm down! Good must die, but not like this!”
Grabbing Remonin’s collar, he said, “Get the soldiers in the east wing to stop. We can
resolve this without bloodshed!”
Remonin held up his hand. “Okay! All of you, shut up! Soldiers, listen to the words of my
brother Li Du!”
Li Du dragged Good up to a jeep and Remonin finally understood, “You want to let the
miners deal with Good?”
“That’s right.”
Remonin shook his head, “No, not now. I know what I said just now, but we can’t kill
Good. I need to interrogate him!”
Li Du said, “Do you think you will get anything out of it? Believe me, I know what you
want. Those things are in the army camp and the commander’s quarters. You can get
them without interrogating him.”
Remonin shook his head again, “No, Li, I have to interrogate him personally.”
Li Du would not allow it. He said, “First, General, we have no time to waste, we have to
quickly resolve the miners’ uprising! Second, Good is extremely cunning. He will never
tell you anything useful, but would only try to sabotage our relationship. If you want to
take him away, I must return to South Africa at once. I do not want to fall out with you.”
Remonin hesitated while another soldier rushed over, yelling, “General, the fight at the
east wing is extremely fierce. Please order the helicopter and artillery tanks to support
them!”
Remonin stamped his feet on the ground and yelled, “Stop firing at the east wing, I will
go and resolve it myself!”
The troops drove towards the east wing. The soldiers and the fearless miners were split
into two sides that were shooting at each other. Among the flurry of shots, the gun
muzzles could be seen protruding from pockets of darkness.
Li Du picked up the loudhailer and yelled, “Miners! Miners! My good brothers! I am
General Remonin of Gold Grass Tribe. I have arrived at the camp to rescue you all. We
are brothers, we are kindred, and I am not your enemy.”
Despite his words, the hidden miners did not walk out and stayed obscured in the
darkness, their guns raised.
Remonin stuck out his head and said, “Most of them cannot understand English. Better
switch to Portuguese, Shona or Ndbele.”
Swaziland had three official languages: English, Shona, and Ndbele. Few lower class
people could understand English. More of them spoke Shona and Ndbele.
Li Du was getting impatient. He pushed the loudhailer at Remonin, “Find someone to tell
them that we’ve brought Good. We can let them deal with Good, but they have to halt
the fighting!”
Remonin nodded. He gestured for a scrawny black man to walk over, and started
talking in another language.
As his voice rang out, the miners finally reacted. A few of the black miners stood up and
answered in the same language.
The black soldier turned and said, “They want to see Good and punish him with their
own hands.”
Remonin nodded unenthusiastically, as he too wanted to do that too.
Two big-sized black soldiers shoved Good forward with a strong kick, pushing him far
up front.
A few miners rushed forward and pulled Good up. They inspected his face by the
firelight. Someone laughed, “Goodswin! Old executioner!”
Other miners rushed out and surrounded Good before elbowing each other to get a
closer look.
More than a few of them were crying as they squeezed their way through. Someone
raised a gun but was stopped by another miner, who shouted, “Put down the gun! We
won’t kill him just like that!”
Surrounded by the miners, Good tried his best to stay collected and calm. He glared at
the people, attempting to intimidate them. However, the miners were all riled up and
unafraid of him.
An old miner stood up and bellowed, “Find the torch! Find a pot!”
Soon, someone brought the torch and pot out of the storeroom.
Seeing the torture equipment, Good’s face changed. He shook his head with all his
might, trying to get the tape off his mouth. The fear in his face was getting more
intense.
“No diamond!” A miner called out.
“Those were not diamonds he used, but a sort of glass crystal,” the old miner said. “Go,
fetch some broken glass!”
Shards of broken glass were dropped into the pot. The old miner lit up the torch, heating
the pot.
The surrounding miners looked excited as they cheered. They looked quite demented.
“What are they trying to do?” Remonin was getting restless. “I think they are crazy!”
Li Du sighed, “Revenge. They are going to feed Good some of his own medicine
now.”
Glass was not a pure element and did not have a consistent melting point, but it would
begin to soften at about six to seven hundred degrees Celsius. As the pot grew
hotter, the glass shards inside softened to become a sticky mess.
The old miner ripped the tape off Good’s mouth. Good first took a huge breath before
shouting at Remonin, “Get me away! I will give you…”
A miner raised a gun and smashed it against Good’s mouth.
Good let out a shrilling scream, blood oozing out of his mouth. Nearly choking on his
own blood, he coughed and blood spewed out of his mouth, together with a few teeth
that had been knocked out.
He looked feebly at Remonin and tried to open his mouth to speak. Remonin wanted
to stop the miner, as he badly coveted Good’s treasures.
Li Du stopped him from trying to do that. “Are you mad? Do you want to start a battle?
These miners are mad, and if you tried to kill them, you would lose as much of your own
men! Do you really want to do that?”
Remonin removed his army helmet helplessly, throwing it onto the floor with an upset
face.
Good was unable to speak. Each time he opened his mouth, the miner smashed in the
gun. His mouth was almost completely gone by now.
The glass shards had mostly softened. Someone forced Good’s mouth open using the
gun muzzle. The old miner raised the pot, shouting, “Who first?”
“Me!” A youth who had lost his ears shouted back crazily.
“Me! Let me do it!”
“I want to do this! He killed my two brothers!”
In the end, the pot landed in the hands of a young black man. His face was full of
anticipation and eagerness as he poured the softened glass into Good’s mouth.
The burning green glass flowing into his mouth, Good’s body shook violently as he
screamed. The miners held him tightly, grabbed his head and stopped him from
squirming away even as he struggled.
Not far away, Remonin and his soldiers were watching them. They were unconsciously
retreating backward. Remonin said, “These people are too scary!”
Li Du said, “One day, if you become as violent and merciless as Good, people will treat
you this way too.”
Wearing a look a dignity, Remonin said, “I will never be like him!”
