Blood at Yellow Water (14 page)

He recalled his father’s words about the
site of the Lost Temple half way along the track and wondered if
that might provide an avenue of escape. He had been driving for
over two hours and must be getting close to the turn-off. He risked
turning the Toyota’s lights on so he could pick up any sign posts.
At that moment, to his relief the headlights picked up a sign post
to the Lost Temple. Jake switched the lights off and turned into
the track. He jumped out of the Toyota and pushed the sign post
over, hoping the turn-off wouldn’t be noticed by his pursuers. He
got back in the cruiser and drove carefully up and over a hill. In
the distance ahead he could just make out some dark shapes and
eased the Toyota along until he came to what appeared to be large
stacks of curiously shaped rocks. He presumed this must be the Lost
Temple. He risked turning the lights on so he could find a way
through the rock formations. The track petered out and there was
just stony desert in front of him dotted with large pinnacles of
rocks. Driving carefully for another 100 metres, he picked up a
rocky outcrop covered by trees and bushes and eased the Toyota into
a small gully behind some rocks. He stopped the cruiser, fished out
a small flashlight from his luggage and searched the immediate
surroundings. He decided it would have to do. He drove the cruiser
deeper into the bush and parked it. He listened for the sound of an
engine but there was only silence. Only then did he look at Koshi
who despite the bumpy ride was asleep. Jake checked his pulse and
breathing, both of which seemed normal. He scouted around the
wagon, broke off branches from trees and bushes and used them to
cover up the Toyota. He pulled out the jack handle from the boot of
the wagon and after some strenuous heaving managed to lever the mud
guard back off the wheel. Breathing deeply to relieve the stress
coursing through his body, he took a drink from his water bottle
and sat on a flat rock listening to the sounds of the night.

FRIDAY EVENING - JABIRU

Back at Jabiru, order had been gradually restored at
the mine site. The fire brigade had put out the fire at the plant
while the injured had all been attended to by the ambulance
officers or taken to hospital. A team of police forensic experts
had arrived from Darwin and were combing over the bomb sites at the
mine and the railway track for clues as to what had happened.

It was not so orderly in the town where the
Federal and local police had rounded up all the protesters and were
holding them for questioning at the Jabiru Police Station. Barry
Buckstone once again found himself in custody with the rest of his
group of protestors. He was being interrogated by police about his
movements during the last week. After providing written statements,
his colleagues were released but Barry, as the ringleader, was kept
in custody overnight.

The police were going through a similar
process with the other protesters and interviews were conducted
well into the night. They had commandeered the local community
centre as the Police Station was too small to accommodate all of
the protesters. All the ringleaders were held in detention
overnight for further interrogation the next morning.

Bert O’Shea let himself into the Lands
Council Office in Jabiru, grateful to be alive after the explosion
at the mine. He needed a stiff drink and kept a bottle of whisky in
his office. He was surprised to see the door to his office
unlocked, but shook his head thinking that he must have forgotten
to lock it. His chair wasn’t in its normal position and his lap top
computer was on when he was sure he had closed it down when he last
left the office. He checked through his emails and files which
seemed to be in order. He did a memory search on his files and his
eyes widened when he saw that some files relating to the mine had
been opened only few hours ago, presumably while he was at the
luncheon.

He rang up Mary, the receptionist. After
explaining what had happened at the mine he asked her “Was anyone
in the office this afternoon?”

She answered, “Only Barry Buckstone who was
picking up a couple of things.”

“Did he go into my office?” demanded
O’Shea.

“I don’t know, he was leaving in a hurry
just as I was going in.”

“Fuck!” screamed Bert. “The bastard’s being
into my computer and copied my files.”

He hung up on Mary and dialled a number.
When a voice answered he said “We’ve got a problem.” He spent the
next ten minutes talking anxiously on the phone.

FRIDAY EVENING -YELLOW WATER

The media was in a frenzy over the terrorist attack
and every major T.V. and radio station and on-line news service
were featuring the story. Big bold headlines announced the
assassination of the Australian Prime Minister by terrorists. The
graphic photos taken by Percy Usifail and the first-hand account of
the disaster by Helen Kwang featured in the National’s On-line News
Service and were repeated by other media outlets. The black and
white flag draped on the train was identified as the flag used by
the Islamist State extremist group ISIS. The media commentators
were quick to condemn ISIS for the terrorist attack and demanded
urgent action by the authorities to capture the terrorists.

The news had quickly spread to Japan where
the immediate reaction was one of outrage that their Prime Minister
was missing, presumably abducted by terrorists. There was sympathy
towards Australia which had lost its own Prime Minister but there
was also trenchant criticism of the Australian Government for not
providing adequate security for the Japanese delegation.

Anna Sentoro, still shocked by Murray’s
death and the mayhem at the mine, was back at the Yellow Water
Resort and had set up a war room in the conference centre, staffed
by a team of advisers including senior AFP and ASIO officers. As
Deputy Prime Minister, and soon to be Acting Prime Minister, she
had immediately taken control of the situation. She had appointed
John Fisher, the Commissioner of the AFP, to head up a Task Force
to find P.M. Koshi, investigate the bombings and track down the
terrorists. Fisher issued instructions for the AFP to round up any
suspected ISIS supporters around the country for interrogation.

Anna had set up a teleconference with her
Cabinet colleagues and briefed them on the terrorist attack and
consulted with them on the action she was taking. The Cabinet
members were full of questions but she was pressed for time and
left her Chief of Staff, Allan Laidley, to discuss the details with
them. She then held a briefing session with a badly shaken Japanese
Foreign Minister and the Japanese Ambassador. Her most difficult
call was to Murray’s wife to convey her deepest sympathy and to
assure her she would do everything possible to capture the
assassins.

With the media hounding her and her staff
over speculation about the Prime Minister’s death she had no option
but to announce a press conference that evening.

At 7 p.m. she fronted the media in a packed
conference centre at the resort and told them calmly and succinctly
that the Australian Prime Minister and nine others had been killed
in a terrorist attack and an extensive search was under way to find
Japanese Prime Minister Koshi. Except for the presence of the flag
on the train there was no clear evidence that the attack was
undertaken by an ISIS terrorist group. She confirmed that
everything was being done to track down the terrorists and locate
the Japanese P.M. She answered questions from the media for twenty
minutes before excusing herself from the meeting, leaving her Media
Adviser to handle the numerous questions from the reporters. She
was escorted back to the war room shaking with emotion, a coffee
was handed to her which she gulped down. She had never been faced
with such a crisis before and hoped she was capable and tough
enough to see it through.

FRIDAY EVENING - THE LOST TEMPLE

“Fuck!” yelled Blakey as he slammed on the
brakes.

“What’s the matter” shouted Xu.

“There’s no dust on the road ahead. We’ve
lost them.”

“You imbecile Blakey, how could you have
lost them?”

“They must have turned off somewhere. We
were gaining on them so either they’re hiding off the road or
they’ve found another track,” Blakey retorted as he turned the Jeep
around and headed back the way they’d come.

“Find them quickly Blakey or your life won’t
be worth living,” threatened Xu.

Switching the lights onto high beam, Blakey
drove steadily scanning the sides of the road for any sign of a
track. After fifteen minutes he was beginning to doubt his own
judgement when something caught his eye. He stopped the vehicle and
jumped out searching the side of the road. Xu followed him.

Blakey pointed to a shape in the ditch on
the side of the road.

“Look there.”

“What is it?” demanded Xu.

“It’s a dead kangaroo. It’s got fresh blood
on it. They must have hit it and damaged the car. They can’t be far
away.”

Blakey drove carefully up the road but still
saw no sign of any exit route. He went back the other way and after
a few minutes he yelled in exultation to Xu. He pointed to tyre
marks turning into a narrow track and to a sign post laying on the
ground.

“The bastards have gone this way,” he yelled
pointing up the track.

Jake woke up with a start and looked up to
see Koshi standing over him. He didn’t know how long he had dozed
off but thought it could only be a few minutes. Koshi was visibly
shaking from a combination of both the trauma he had been through
and the cold night air. Jake sat him down on the rock and explained
what had happened. He shook his head incredulously while listening
to Jake’s account of the events. Jake explained to him the gravity
of their situation and that the Chinese could be close at hand. He
checked him over but apart from a strained ankle and some scratches
and bruises he seemed to be physically sound. He was, however,
suffering from shock and complained of a severe headache. Jake gave
him some more painkillers and some water which, after a while,
seemed to revive him.

As Koshi stood up, he cocked his head to one
side.

“I hear something.”

Jake listened. Sure enough he heard the
faint drone of a car engine.

“It’s a car coming this way. We must find a
safer place to hide.”

They pulled some more bushes over the Toyota
and brushed away any tyre marks they could see. Then they hurried
off to look for a hiding place.

The moon appeared behind some clouds and
there was just enough light for them to look around their
environment. It was an extraordinary and eerie place. The large
rock stacks seemed to be in a regular formation and resembled the
ruins of a huge ancient temple. As they wandered around, Jake
supporting Koshi under one arm, they both felt an eerie sensation.
Behind the temple there were dark shapes embedded in some hilly
outcrops. Shining his torch Jake noticed some caves and entered one
of them, taking care not to trip over rocks which were partially
blocking the opening. There were old ashes in the centre of the
cave which suggested it had been as a meeting place by aboriginal
groups. Around the side of the cave was a narrow opening which led
to a larger cavern. He stopped in awe when his torch lit up some
magnificent paintings on one wall of the cavern. He explained to
Koshi that the paintings were ancient rock art, depicting
aboriginal stories. He could hear water dripping and found a small
spring at the back of the cavern. They drank their fill and Jake
filled up his water bottle which was close to empty. There was a
thin beam of moonlight shining into the cave and by climbing up
some rocks Jake could see there was another exit near the roof of
the cave. He squirmed up through a narrow tunnel and came out on
the side of a hill. He scrambled back down to where Koshi was
waiting.

“This cave is probably as safe as anywhere
else to hide out. We have shelter, fresh water and a place to rest.
If they find it, we could climb out the other exit.”

Close to exhaustion, Koshi nodded in
agreement and gratefully sat on the ground. Jake quietly pulled
some rocks in front of the main opening to the cave to disguise the
entrance and took up watch behind them.

Blakey drove up the track, following the
tyre marks of the Toyota. When the track petered out, he and Xu
stepped out of the Jeep and examined the terrain. There was just
stony ground in front of them and the beam from the Jeep’s
headlights didn’t pick up any sign of the direction the Toyota
might have taken. The moon was covered by clouds and the darkness
was almost complete. Blakey switched on a powerful torch and walked
on ahead, waving it from left to right. Eventually, he stopped,
beckoned to Xu and pointed to some flattened grass.

“They’ve gone this way, I’ll walk on ahead
and you can follow me in the Jeep.”

After a hundred metres, Blakey stopped and
walked back to the vehicle.

“It’s no good. I can’t find anymore wheel
marks in the dark. We’ll have to spread out in a chain and see if
we can find them. They can’t have gone too much further in this
terrain.”

The Chinese stumbled out of the Jeep and
formed a line. The moon broke through the clouds providing them
with a faint glow to help their search. Eventually one of them
grunted and pointed to a tyre mark in the dirt. Carefully they
walked towards a thicket. Blakey, walking in front, cleared away
some loose branches and thought he detected a gleam of metal. With
a heave he lifted up a large branch and sure enough there was the
Toyota. They surrounded the vehicle with guns drawn but a quick
inspection proved it that it was unoccupied. They checked the Land
Cruiser over but found nothing of interest.