Blood at Yellow Water (17 page)

*

Anna Sentoro was also up early after a short
and interrupted sleep. She was taking counsel in her suite with her
Chief of Staff, Allan Laidley, on how best to respond to the stream
of requests from her Cabinet members, the media and the Japanese
Government. When John Fisher rang with news that Koshi was safe,
she breathed a sigh of relief following the first piece of good
news after the nightmare of the previous day. She hoped fervently
that Koshi would be able to shed some light on the terrorists which
would lead to their capture.

*

SATURDAY -MATARANKA

A police escort met Bill on the Stuart Highway, some
50 kilometres from Mataranka and led them on to the Mataranka
Hospital where Lizzie and hospital staff were waiting to take Koshi
and Jake inside. They were immediately loaded onto stretchers,
taken by elevator up to the second floor and wheeled out to
separate operating theatres where medical teams were waiting. Jake
was by now in a lot of pain and had lost quite a lot of blood from
the wound to the leg. The medical staff administered morphine for
the pain and set about cleaning up his wound. Before long he was
attached to a number of drips feeding him antibiotics and saline
solutions. He was sedated and quickly fell asleep.

In the next room, after being given
painkillers, Koshi underwent a thorough assessment of his
concussion and a clean-up of his many cuts and bruises. He had his
ankle x-rayed which showed no breakages but severe strain to the
tendons. He was sedated and moved into a private room next to
Jake’s room with a connecting door. Exhausted by his ordeal he sank
into his bed and was asleep in minutes.

AFP officers were stationed outside each of
their rooms with instructions not to let anyone in except
authorised medical personnel. Koshi was the first to wake up some
two hours later and asked to speak to his wife. He was handed the
telephone and talked to his relieved wife, assuring her he was safe
and sound. By then he had a number of visitors anxious to talk to
him; first the Japanese Foreign Minister and the Japanese
Ambassador who been flown to Mataranka airport courtesy of a police
helicopter arranged by John Fisher. They were clearly overjoyed to
see him alive and in good spirits. He then took a call from Anna
Sentoro who expressed concern at his ordeal, offering her full
support to assist his recovery and prompt return to Japan. Lastly
he was visited by John Fisher who was accompanied by one of his
Task Force and an interpreter. That interview went for thirty
minutes before Koshi started to get very tired and a nurse shooed
them out of the room. They were shocked by the revelation that the
terrorists were Chinese.

In the next room, after a dead sleep for a
couple of hours, Jake awoke to see the familiar faces of Shoni and
his father peering at him anxiously. He sat up and hugged them both
in turn, feeling deep emotion for each of them for saving his life.
He realised that they were the most important people in his life,
his father who he had known all of his life but had never felt
close to until now, and Shoni who he had first met just a few days
ago but felt like he had known her all his life.

They discussed the events of the previous
two days filling each other in on their experiences. A nurse
entered the room, announcing that the AFP Commissioner was outside
and keen to interview Jake. Shoni and Bill left the room while John
Fisher and his assistant came in. They explained they had
interviewed Koshi and wanted to get Jake’s version of what had
happened. Jake answered their questions for an exhausting forty
minutes before starting to doze off and they left him in peace,
indicating they would return to continue that evening. Fisher then
arranged for AFP officers to drive out to the Lost Temple to
recover the bodies of the two dead Chinese and retrieve Jake’s
rented Land Cruiser.

*

SATURDAY -DALY WATERS

Blakey had driven the Chinese back to the Stuart
Highway and turned the Jeep left heading back towards Daly Waters.
They knew that the police would be looking for them and figured
that they would be safer back in their hide-out in Daly Waters. As
he reached the turn-off to Daly Waters he saw two police cars
rushing past in the opposite direction heading towards Mataranka.
He expected they would be soon putting up road blocks at the
Stockmen’s Track intersection with the Stuart Highway and at other
points on the highway. He also knew that before long Jake would
have given to the police a description of his vehicle and would
have identified the Chinese and probably himself.

On the outskirts of Daly Waters, Blakey took
a side track and after another 20 kilometres reached the old
farmhouse. The owners of the farmhouse had moved out years ago and
its isolation made it ideal as a hide-out for the Chinese. Blakey
had made the place liveable by installing additional appliances,
beds and furniture and had stocked up on food and other household
goods for the Chinese. They had been hiding there for the past two
weeks. He had been well paid for his trouble and there was more
money to come but the recent turn of events had made him question
the worth of his involvement with them. He parked the Jeep next to
his truck in an old cow shed out of sight from the track and they
all piled out and went inside the house. After grabbing beers and
some snacks they all sat round the table waiting for Xu to plan
their next move.

*

SATURDAY -MATARANKA

Commissioner Fisher had taken over the Sergeant’s
office at the Mataranka Police Station and was issuing instructions
to his Task Force and local police. His main concerns were to
provide security for Koshi and to track down the terrorists. They
had managed to avoid the roadblocks to date but he was convinced
that they were hiding out somewhere nearby. He rang Sergeant Barker
in Jabiru asking him to release the people held in detention after
questioning them about possible sightings of the Chinese. Barker
filled him in over the death of Barry Buckstone from a hit and run
accident following interrogation by AFP officers. Fisher cursed
loudly and asked who gave the order to release Buckstone. Barker
said he would find out and provide a full statement of the facts to
Fisher. It was yet another major issue Fisher would have to deal
with once Prime Minister Koshi had been returned safely to
Japan.

JABIRU

After the call from Fisher, Sergeant Barker set
about releasing the protesters held in detention in the overcrowded
community centre at Jabiru. He had questioned each of them but none
could throw any light on the Chinese terrorists. The crowd outside
the station was still in an ugly mood but moved back when the
protesters were released. Barker let himself out the back door and
walked over to his car. With trepidation, he drove out to Barry’s
house to break the news to his widow and family. He wasn’t looking
forward to the next few days.

SUNDAY MORNING- MATARANKA

Jake woke about 3.a.m feeling sore but a lot better
after a deep sleep. The bullet wound in his calf muscle was deep
but had been cleaned out and stitched up. There had been no damage
to arteries and veins and according to the surgeon his leg would
heal quickly. He still had several intravenous drips connected to
his body but was assured that subject to a medical check, these
would be removed in the morning. There was a huge bandage round his
lower leg and bandages on a number of places on his head and body.
He had to use the toilet and made his way on crutches to the
bathroom pulling the mobile drip stand with him.

He was in the process of drying his hands
when he heard the fire alarm go off. He shuffled out to the door of
his room and poked his head into the corridor. The two police
guards were still outside Koshi’s room looking down the hallway
where there was a wisp of smoke coming from under the door of the
elevator. An orderly rushed down the corridor stopping at each room
yelling

“Fire, fire, everyone evacuate immediately
via the stairs.”

Jake cried out to the policemen “Quick get
the Prime Minister out of there.” One of the policemen rushed in to
Koshi’s room while the other remained on guard at the doorway.

A shocked Koshi was in the process of
getting out of bed, when the policeman hurriedly wrapped a dressing
gown around him.

Jake could hear the siren of a fire brigade
in the distance. The smoke was now starting to billow out from
under the elevator door. He shuffled back into his own room,
removed the I.V. drips and his gown and quickly threw on some
clothes. He went out into the corridor and saw two firemen coming
from the direction of the stairwell checking the patients who were
being ushered towards the stairwell. He sensed something wasn’t
right. They were both dressed in uniforms that looked too large for
them and neither was wearing boots. With a jolt he realised that
the faces were Chinese. He warned the guard standing outside and
rushed into Koshi’s room yelling to the other police officer

“This is a trap to kill the Prime Minister.
They are Chinese terrorists not firemen. They’re coming down the
corridor looking for him. We must get him out of here.”

The policeman looked stunned and rushed to
the door to join his colleague in the corridor. Jake pushed Koshi
through the connecting door to his own room.

The police officers had their guns drawn but
hesitated momentarily when they saw two uniformed firemen coming
towards them. It was a fatal mistake as the Chinese pulled out
their hand guns hidden under their coats and shot each of them in
the chest. One of the officers tried to get up but was shot in the
neck by the Chinese and crumpled to the floor.

Jake heard the shots and knew the Chinese
would soon work out that Koshi had moved into the next room. He
looked around and saw that their only means of escape was through
the small window on the outer wall of his room. He wrenched it open
and looked out. They were on the second floor and it was too far to
jump to the ground. There was enough moonlight to show that there
was a flat roof over the first floor about three metres below them
surrounding an air conditioning unit. They had no choice but to
jump for it. Jake went first and landed with a roll onto the roof,
wincing as his injured leg hit the metal roof. He then waited for
Koshi to squeeze through the window and jump. He hit heavily but
Jake was able to cushion his fall to some extent by grabbing his
shoulders and stopping him pitching head first into the roof.

Jake chanced a quick look upwards and saw
one of the Chinese looking down at them through the window. He
ducked when he heard a shot which narrowly missed Koshi and they
scurried around the air conditioning unit out of sight. There was a
maintenance room next to the unit with an outside door which
fortunately was unlocked. They climbed down a ladder and found
themselves in a storeroom on the ground floor. A passage led them
to an emergency exit which came out onto the street. They limped
across the road to the comparative safety of the Town Hall directly
opposite the hospital. Smoke was billowing out of the hospital
which was a scene of turmoil illuminated by the flashing lights of
fire brigades and police cars. Firemen were hosing down the
basement and ground floor of the building and were containing the
fire. The fire had started underneath the elevator shaft where the
terrorists had set fire to a huge pile of cardboard boxes. Patients
were being herded out of the hospital by staff and escorted across
the street and seated in the ballroom of the Town Hall.

The police had sealed off the area around
the hospital and had set up roadblocks on the Stuart Highway both
north and south of Mataranka. As soon as the firemen gave the all
clear, the police started a room by room search at the hospital
looking for the terrorists.

In the Town Hall, Jake and Koshi sought out
a police officer and asked to be directed to John Fisher. After a
few minutes Fisher and Williams strode into the Town Hall. Fisher
was clearly relieved to find them unharmed and quizzed them about
the attempt on their lives. They had yet to find the Chinese
assassins. The two policemen who were shot were wearing
bullet-proof vests but the one shot in the neck was in a serious
condition and had been evacuated by helicopter to the hospital at
Darwin.

*

Blakey was parked in the shadows in a side
street, a block up from the hospital, when Xu and Liang came
rushing out from the basement of the hospital. He was driving his
old green Ford utility as the police had descriptions of the Jeep.
He flicked his lights and they piled into the tray of the utility
and Blakey pulled a tarpaulin over them. He drove around the back
streets of Mataranka and circled back onto the highway praying that
the police hadn’t had time to set up a roadblock. When he got to
the highway he swung the Ford south towards Daly Waters. Fire
brigades and police cars passed him coming from the opposite
direction rushing towards the hospital. He was just starting to
relax when he saw the flashing lights of a police car up ahead and
two policemen in the process of setting up a roadblock. He drove up
slowly to the roadblock as one of the officers waved him down.

Blakey poked his head out of the window.

“What’s up officer?”

“We’re looking for some Chinese guys who
started a fire at the hospital” said the young constable as he
peered into the driver’s cabin.

“Well, I don’t have any Chinese on board but
I got a couple of dead roos I shot tonight if you’d like ‘em,” said
Blakey pointing to the tarpaulin.

“No, you can keep your roos, have you seen
anything unusual tonight?” asked the policeman.”

Blakey shook his head “No, officer,
certainly not any Chinese.”