Operation Southern Cross - a Gideon Marais thriller

By Ben Kunz

Simon's Bay Naval Base - Midnight
The wind whispered across False Bay, laced with salt and secrets. Beneath the shadowed cliffs of Simon's Town, a rigid-hulled inflatable boat cut silently through the dark water, its low profile blending into the inky black sea. Four figures in black tactical gear crouched low, eyes fixed on the faint glow ahead - the lights of a rust-streaked freighter, anchored just beyond the official shipping lanes.
On the boat's helm, a veteran operator named Pieter Kapp tapped his earpiece.
"Ten seconds."
No one spoke. No one needed to. These men were part of an off-the-books operation sanctioned by no state but funded by the shadows of the South African elite - men with deep pockets and deeper fears about what was slipping through the cracks of the nation's borders.
The target: Ibn al-Khattab, a ship registered in Liberia but owned through a daisy chain of shell companies. Intelligence reports - from sources too dangerous to mention aloud - suggested it was moving more than just illicit arms or endangered species. Something far more sinister was brewing in Southern Africa's waters.
As the boarding team latched onto the ship's stern ladder, a sharp crack echoed across the bay. Then another.
Tracer rounds screamed overhead.
"Ambush " Kapp shouted, instinctively pushing one of his men behind a steel drum. The water beside the RHIB exploded as bullets found their mark.
From the deck above, a voice barked in Arabic. Moments later, the freighter's engines rumbled to life. The boat began to turn - fast. Too fast.
In the chaos, Kapp caught a glimpse of something he would never forget: a row of crates, each stamped with Cyrillic letters and an emblem he hadn't seen since the Angolan Bush War.
Then came the explosion.
The freighter erupted in a fireball that lit the sea like daylight.
Of the team sent to intercept the Ibn al-Khattab, only one man survived - barely. He would remain in a military hospital for weeks, unable to speak, trembling each time someone mentioned the coast.
The incident was buried. No media. No leaks. Not even a footnote in the defence archives.
But among a small circle of South Africa's most powerful men, it confirmed what they'd feared all along:
A new enemy had arrived. And South Africa - battered, corrupt, and bleeding from within - was now a frontline.
They made a decision.
They would call in a man they trusted, one who owed them nothing - but who owed everything to the land he loved.
Gideon Marais.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FKG1J2Y3
• ISBN13: 9798294666019
• Release Date: July 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"