Blood at Yellow Water (15 page)

The Chinese conferred and decided they would
split up to search the immediate area and return to the vehicle in
one hour. With torches and guns at the ready they split up, each
allocated an area to search.

After an hour, they returned to the car
frustrated by their inability to find any trace of Jake and
Koshi.

“It is no good in this cursed darkness,”
said Xu. “We will have to wait till first light to continue our
search. They can’t have gone far, Koshi must be injured.”

Liang kept guard while the others settled
down amongst the rocks and tried to make themselves comfortable for
the remainder of the night.

From his view point at the cave entrance,
Jake had seen light from a torch some twenty metres away but
breathed a sigh of relief when the Chinese had continued on past
the cave entrance.

FRIDAY EVENING -DALY WATERS

Just after 10 p.m. Bill Stafford drove into the
caravan park at Daly Waters. He had driven Lizzie to Mataranka as
she had an early morning shift the next day at the hospital. Her
car was being repaired following an altercation with a kangaroo so
Bill had offered to drive her up to Mataranka. He had heard about
the drama at Jabiru on the radio but was unconcerned about Jake,
presuming he would have left Jabiru before the explosions. He
entered his cabin and made himself a coffee. He checked his mobile
phone which he had left in the cabin connected to a charger earlier
in the day as the battery was running low. He saw there was a
message and clicked on it. With alarm he saw it was from Jake and
listened to his message.

“Christ!” he cursed, “he’s in big trouble.
I’ve gotta help him.”

He rang up the local police constable, Max
Hobbs, and passed on Jake’s message. Initially Hobbs was
incredulous but he knew Bill well enough to take him seriously. He
promised to relay the information to the AFP and get back to Bill
as soon as possible.

Bill grabbed a bottle of water, collected
his two rifles and ammunition from the closet and rushed out the
door. As he was getting into the car, he saw Shoni walking
hurriedly towards him from the hotel. She had arrived back from
Jabiru the night before.

“Mister Bill, have you heard from Jake? I’ve
been ringing him for the last twenty-four hours but he hasn’t
called me back. With the terrorist attack at Jabiru I worry about
him.”

Bill repeated Jake’s phone message. She
looked aghast and asked Bill what he was going to do. When he told
her his plans she insisted she was coming with him.

“Oh no you’re not! This could be very
dangerous. We might need you back here in case Jake turns up.”

Defiant, Shoni jumped in the passenger seat
of his truck and despite Bill’s pleas refused to get out. He
shrugged his shoulders, jumped in the truck and after filling it up
with petrol at the all-night service station, roared northward up
the highway until he came to the turn-off to the Stockmen’s Track
where he took a right turn.

*

After hanging up from Bill, Max Hobbs,
telephoned the Jabiru Police Station and spent half an hour on the
phone trying to get hold of anyone who could actually help him.
Frustrated, he rang the mobile number of Sergeant Neville Barker,
who he knew from previous contacts, and repeated the message from
Bill Stafford. The sergeant listened intently, jotted down some
notes, said he knew Bill and had met Jake. He advised Hobbs that he
would pass the information on to the Task Force and get back to
him.

Barker immediately went over to the Jabiru
Court House where the Task Force had been set up, asked the
receptionist to see John Fisher, the AFP Commissioner. She advised
Fisher was in conference with his advisers, and couldn’t be
interrupted but he could talk to the Task Force’s Liaison Officer,
Jim Williams, the Defence Attaché at the Australian Embassy in
Japan. Williams came out and Barker relayed the information from
Jake Stafford.

“We have nothing that indicates there was
any involvement by a Chinese group. Our priority is to check out
ISIS sympathisers. I know Jake Stafford and he lacks credibility.
He is a friend of one of the leaders of the aboriginal protest
group we are investigating.”

“But I’m sure this is genuine. I’ve met Jake
Stafford and know his father and they don’t seem to be the types
who would make up crazy stories,” protested the sergeant.

“Look we’re chasing dozens of leads at the
moment and this has less credibility than most of them. We’ll
follow it up but it’s not our first priority,” replied Williams
brusquely as he showed Barker the door.

SATURDAY MORNING - JABIRU

At the request of Commissioner Fisher, Sam Popolo,
Assistant Commissioner of the Northern Territory Police, had driven
down from Darwin to Jabiru to lead the forensics investigation. He
had worked through the night with the specialist forensics team
trying to identify what had caused the explosions and to find
evidence about the terrorists. The power had been restored in the
plant and after clearing away the twisted metal, the team had been
able to identify parts of the bomb that had been used to blow up
the processing plant. Searching the cause of the explosion to the
railway line had proved a lot more difficult. While they had set up
powerful lights over the wrecked train engine and carriages, they
had not identified any possible bomb parts by midnight and decided
to re-start their investigation at dawn. However, they found traces
of the plastic explosive C4 at the plant and they suspected that
the same material had been used to blow up the train.

Fisher had called a meeting of the Task
Force for 7 a.m. He listened to various reports of his group who
had each been allocated specific tasks. They had set up a Hotline
to encourage anyone from the public to relay any information
relevant to the bombings. They had conducted countless interviews
with employees of the mine, the protesters and the participants at
the opening function but to date, none of these had led to any
concrete leads. Apart from the Islamic State flag, nothing had
pointed to ISIS involvement.

Sam Popolo reported to Fisher the initial
findings of his team’s forensic investigation. He showed a piece of
the explosive found at the mine to Fisher and other members of the
Task Force.

“This is a C4 plastic explosive, and it is
the most sophisticated version any of the team have seen. The
people who have made this and set the explosives are experts. Few
people around the world would have access to such technology, it
must be a highly organised terrorist group that set it up.”

Fisher responded “Have you seen it used
before Sam? Do you know which countries produce it or terrorists
groups that have access to it?”

“I’ve only heard of it being used once
before, by the Israelis in the Middle East. But it’s possible ISIS
could have got hold of it. I believe the Americans and the Chinese
have the technology to produce it.”

“Could a local group be responsible? We are
holding a number of the protesters in custody as suspects,
including from the aboriginal group. Would they be able to get
access to this explosive?”

“I doubt it very much. Even if they did
somehow manage to get hold of some C4 they wouldn’t know how to use
it, they’d probably blow themselves up. No, this was carried out by
professionals,” stated Popolo with certainty.

“O.K. we need to focus our attention on an
international connection.”

Turning to his team he asked “Has anyone
mentioned seeing any strangers or foreigners?”

A Task Force member ventured “Most of the
protesters were blow-ins. There was a group of anti-uranium
Japanese protesters but we’ve interviewed most of them and they
seemed innocent enough. We could check them out again.”

“O.K. do that,” said Fisher.

“There were quite a few foreigners in the
catering staff for the reception. It’s possible that a terrorist
could have posed as a caterer and gained access to the mine,”
opined another Task Force member.

“That’s a good thought, can you check out
thoroughly all the contractors used to set up the reception and
provide food and hospitality?”

After another half hour, the meeting
disbanded with Fisher emphasising the urgency of obtaining results
quickly.

*

SATURDAY MORNING- THE LOST TEMPLE

The aboriginal warriors danced in a circle around
the fire, their white painted bodies gleaming in the firelight.
They cast huge shadows around the cave as they chanted their songs
and raised their weapons in the ancient war dance. Suddenly, they
stopped their dance and with blood-curdling shrieks thrust their
spears into the terrified white man lying in the middle of the
circle.

Jake woke up with a start, in a cold sweat
from his nightmare. The early morning light filtered into the cave.
He looked out from his viewpoint from the cave, hoping that the
Chinese had given up their quest. He was soon proved wrong as he
heard a twig snap not far away. He could just see one of the
Chinese moving towards their cave. He was armed with a
semi-automatic pistol. Jake hurried back to the main cave where
Koshi was sleeping and shook him awake. As he got unsteadily to his
feet, Jake could see he was still suffering from the blow to his
head and various cuts and bruises. His ankle was badly swollen but
he was able to limp along. Jake motioned to Koshi to move towards
the exit at the back of the cave.

Jake saw the beam of a high powered torch
sweep the first cave expecting that the Chinese would find the main
cave any moment. He urged Koshi to climb up a pile of rocks to the
exit and pulled him through the small hole that led them out onto
the hillside. He pulled some loose branches over the hole. They lay
waiting at the top hoping the Chinese hadn’t heard their scrambling
up the rocks. It wasn’t long before they saw the beam from the
torch flickering across the main cave. They held their breath for
several minutes as they could hear footsteps coming from the cave.
Then the light disappeared and the footsteps retreated.

From their position on the hillside they
could see the Lost Temple in silhouette against the sunrise,
looking like an ancient Inca ruin, some 200 metres to the east of
them. They spied one of the Chinese searching the temple pillar by
pillar while another was searching the stony ground to the west.
Counting the one in the cave below them, that just left one other
and Blakey.

Jake was thinking desperately what their
best options would be. They could go back into the cave and hope
the Chinese wouldn’t look there again which seemed unlikely. They
could try to outrun them but Koshi’s strained ankle would slow them
down. They could stay put and hope that they would be rescued, if
Bill had got Jake’s message. Or they could try to sneak back to the
Toyota and make a getaway - but presumably the Chinese would have
left someone behind to guard the vehicles.

In the event, Jake’s mind was made up for
him. A sudden noise behind him startled him and he looked around
into the barrel of a gun. One of the Chinese was just pulling
himself out of the exit from the cave with his gun pointing at
Jake. Jake put his hands up in surrender as the Chinese motioned
for him to stand up.

“Where is Koshi?” shouted the Chinese in
broken English.

Jake could see a movement behind the Chinese
but pointed down the hill.

“He’s just down there.”

Jake watched in amazement as the Chinese’s
face suddenly transformed into an horrific grimace and he slowly
toppled backwards into the cave. Standing directly behind where the
Chinese had just been was Koshi with a huge rock in his hand and a
look of satisfaction on his face.

They quickly peered into the cave to see the
Chinese’s body lying face down on the rocks. They scrambled back
down the opening and carefully rolled him over. He was completely
lifeless and after checking his breathing and pulse Jake realised
with a shock that he was dead.

“Shit, you’ve saved us Koshi but we’re
really in deep trouble now. They’ll come looking for him soon.
We’ll hide the body under rocks and hope they don’t find him for a
while.” They pulled the body into a corner of the cave and packed
rocks over the corpse.

“Now we’ve got to get out of here quickly,”
said Jake picking up the dead man’s pistol. They discussed which
direction to take.

“They’ll be expecting us to head further
west away from the road so why don’t we go north at first and then
circle back towards the road.” Koshi grunted in agreement.

Keeping low to the ground they moved as
quickly as they could northwards. So far they had been able to keep
behind bushes and trees of the woodland to screen them from the
Chinese but before them now was only open ground.

*

SATURDAY MORNING - JABIRU

At 6 a.m. Barry Buckstone was woken up from his
temporary cell in the Community Centre by a policeman and dragged
across the street into the interview room at the Jabiru Police
Station. He tried to break away but was quickly subdued and pushed
onto a chair opposite two burly policemen. They grilled him for two
hours, repeatedly asking him to go over his movements during the
last week. They were aggressive, accusing him of masterminding the
terrorist attack. When he protested his innocence and tried to get
out of his chair they slapped him hard across the face knocking him
to the floor. They picked him up and threatened to charge him for
resisting arrest. He was refused water and told he wouldn’t receive
any refreshment until he confessed. They half-carried him back to
his cell and dumped him on the floor. One of his cell mates rushed
to help him up on a chair and gave him some water.

He was still sitting on the chair thirty
minutes later when one of the policemen entered the cell and hauled
him up out of his chair and dragged him into the office.