Rogue Element

David A. Rollins is a former advertising creative director and copywriter who lives with his wife and three children in Sydney. He is currently working on his next novel.
David’s website:
www.davidrollins.net

DAVID A
ROLLINS

First published 2003 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited
This Pan edition published 2004 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited St Martins Tower,
31 Market Street, Sydney

Copyright © David A. Rollins 2003

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

National Library of Australia
cataloguing-in-publication data:

Rollins, David A.
Rogue element.

ISBN 0 330 36464 2.

I. Title

A823.4

Typeset in 10/13 pt Birka by Post Pre-press Group Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

Author photograph: Samantha Rollins

These electronic editions published in 2003 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney 2000

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

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Rogue Element

David A Rollins

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For Sam

About the Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Prologue

Indonesian air space, 35 000 feet, 1840 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

NSA Pacific HQ, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 1843 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

Sulawesi, 2015 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

Bali, 2036 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

NSA Pacific HQ, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 2050 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

Sydney, 2150 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 2155 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

Central Sulawesi, 0130 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Maros, Sulawesi, 0350 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Exmouth Gulf, 0455 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

NSA, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 0457 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, 0500 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 0500 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Central Sulawesi, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Denpasar, Bali, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Sydney, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Sydney Airport, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Central Sulawesi, 0635 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

NSA, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 0705 Zulu, Wednesday, April 29

Parliament House, Canberra, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, April 29

Hasanuddin Airport, Maros, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, April 29

Central Sulawesi, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Central Sulawesi, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Sydney, 0900 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Central Sulawesi, 0915 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

NSA HQ, Fort Meade, Maryland, 1210 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Jakarta, 1210 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 1325 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Central Sulawesi, 2200 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Sydney Airport, 2200 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 2200 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Hasanuddin Air Force Base, Sulawesi, 2305 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

NSA HQ, Fort Meade, Maryland, 2330 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

Central Sulawesi, 2330 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 0436 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

US Embassy, Canberra, 0530 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

Jakarta, 1005 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

Central Sulawesi, 2136 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

Parliament House, Canberra, 2145 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

Central Sulawesi, 0155 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

East Timor, 0155 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 0230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Jakarta, 0230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Sydney, 0420 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Parliament House, Canberra, 0425 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

US Embassy, Canberra, 0510 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Dili, East Timor, 0515 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Parliament House, Canberra, 0515 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Dili, East Timor, 0530 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Jakarta, 0600 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Timor Sea, 0605 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Jakarta, 0655 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Sydney, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Java, 0745 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Somewhere east of central Sulawesi, 0745 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 0758 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 0834 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 0930 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Central Sulawesi, 1010 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Parliament House, Canberra, 1010 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

1500 feet AGL, Banda Sea, 1040 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Parliament House, Canberra, 1100 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Jakarta, 1100 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Sydney, 1230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

Sydney, 2315 Zulu, Wednesday, 6 May

20 000 feet, Eastern Australian airspace, 2032 Zulu, Tuesday, 12 May

Sydney, 0800 Zulu, Monday, 18 May

Author’s note

This novel is a work of fiction, written to sound like fact, the line between the two blurred so that you don’t twig to where one stops and the other begins. Of course, whether I’ve succeeded in that is up to you, the reader, to decide.

I’m not a social scientist, a historian or a military specialist. Much of the material contained in this story was found in the public domain. That said, I did call on the services of a number of experts where the available information was either inadequate or when good old-fashioned experience was required. I would very much like to thank those people publicly, because they only get two rewards in this business. One is the satisfaction of knowing that, where their specialty is concerned, at least accuracy has been maintained. Two is acknowledgement that they’d probably rather be out playing golf than sitting on the phone to me, or correcting the manuscript yet again.

And so . . . Thank you Andy Bates for taking me on the wildest 747 ride ever. Thank you ‘Woody’, former USAF F-16 fighter pilot, for your patience and enthusiasm. Thank you Gideon Marshall for showing me one end of an M16 from the other. Thank you Neville Farley, SASR veteran, for making sure I wasn’t completely off the planet. Thank you Chris Sherwood for the ins and outs on the Black Hawk. Thank you Mr Yuwono for the guided tour of Sulawesi. And thank you Bob Buick, Vietnam veteran and Military Medal winner, for your contacts and for your astonishing bravery under fire.

Also, thank you Patricia Rollins (me mum) for your tireless editing, suggestions and encouragement.