11

The Mercenaries

2008–2009 . . . Inside The Company . . . The Bulawayo connection . . . McConnell gets a new assignment . . . Klaussen settles in . . . Joseph Hunter and the enforcers . . . Dispatched to Somalia . . . First days in Galkayo

For the likes of Lachlan McConnell and Felix Klaussen, the world of The Company—as Le Roux's mercenaries sometimes called it—was a potent combination of a rich man's fantasy, a military operation, and an anything-goes underworld. To thrive— and even, at times, to survive—often required a calm resourceful- ness and reserves of courage. At other times, their jobs could feel like a paid adventure. There were scouting missions to be con- ducted in the forests of Vanuatu, gold dealers to negotiate with in the back alleys of Accra, military-style rafts to pilot under the cover of darkness in the South China Sea. “I'd sit there and think: 'Did that really just happen? Did I really just survive that?'” said Tim Vamvakias, the former U.S. Army K9 handler, of his years working for Le Roux. “The whole lifestyle was surreal. You never knew what was coming next.”

Surviving in Le Roux's organization also meant tolerating his mercurial micromanagement. He seemed to keep every detail of the sprawling organization in his head—“his hard drive,” Felix