Blood at Yellow Water (27 page)

“But that’s absolute bullshit. She helped us
to save Koshi.”

“Yeah, I know. I think they’re trying to
nobble us from exposing the people responsible for Barry’s death.
I’m sure the local police will exonerate her when the facts come
out. Would you know of a lawyer in Darwin who I could contact to
help spring her out of gaol?”

“You could use the lawyer who helped Barry,
Gertrude Billson is her name. She’s pretty good and knows everyone
in Darwin. Just a minute and I’ll get her number.”

He was back in two minutes and gave Jake the
number.

“Jake would you like me to go to Darwin and
try to help secure Shoni’s release? If I leave now I can be there
later tonight.”

“That would be great, thanks Dad. I’ll ring
up the lawyer now and see how quickly she can act to seek Shoni’s
release. I’ll fly up to Darwin tomorrow night if I can help.
Another thing, would you mind collecting her things from her room
at the pub and taking them up to Darwin with you. And let her boss
at the pub know that she’s unlikely to be coming back. I think
she’ll want to go home to Japan after all this.”

He passed Bill the details of the remand
centre, thanked him and rang off.

He then rang the lawyer’s office and was put
through to Gertrude Billson. He explained who he was and his
connection to Barry Buckstone. She was clearly upset over Barry’s
death and was happy to help Shoni. She listened carefully to Jake’s
request and promised to act quickly.

Half an hour later, the phone on Jake’s desk
rang. He picked it up. A strange muffled voice came through.

“Is that Jake Stafford?”

“Yes, who’s calling?”

“Never mind that. I’ve got a simple message
for you. If you want to get your girlfriend out of gaol you’d
better keep your mouth shut about those papers you stole.”

“What are you talking about, I don’t have
any papers. They were stolen from me.”

“You heard what I said. Shut the fuck up if
you want the girl released.” The phone went dead.

Jake shivered as he digested the threat. He
could feel his temperature rising at the thought of Shoni being in
prison. Someone high-up in Government was pulling the strings and
trying to scare him into silence. He had been nearly run down,
assaulted and robbed. Now they were threatening Shoni. He was fed
up and had to decide what to do. He could let the whole thing rest,
hope that Shoni would be released and fly back to Tokyo with her.
But then he thought about Barry’s death and reasoned that the
people who caused it should be brought to justice.

On an impulse, he rang Helen Kwang and asked
if he could meet with her urgently. She suggested they have dinner
that evening and gave Jake details of the restaurant. Jake asked
her to open up the envelope he had posted to her from Daly Waters
and read the documents in it before their meeting. He suggested she
make a copy of all the documents and keep the originals in her
office safe.

He went back to his motel and sat in the
small room, chewing over what to do. He poured himself a brandy
from the mini-bar and switched on the television. He found a news
station and saw the familiar face of Malcolm Crichton being
interviewed on a current affairs program. He had just been
officially sworn in as Prime Minister by the Australian
Governor-General. Crichton announced that he had been contacted
directly by the Chinese Premier to advise that the Chinese security
forces had captured the ring leader of the Chinese terrorists, Lui
Chen, a disgraced ex-General in the Chinese Army. Cheng had
confessed to his crimes but had suffered a fatal heart attack while
imprisoned. Crichton emphasised the close relationship he had
forged with the Chinese Premier which had helped to bring the
terrorists to justice. He then went on to make a political speech
and announced a new policy to build up defence and security
services to safeguard the lives of ordinary Australians. Jake
switched off in disgust as he knew Crichton would do anything to
maintain power and to further his own interests.

He checked his watch and saw it was nearly
time to meet up with Helen. The receptionist at the motel ordered a
cab for him. The taxi driver dropped him at the Dragon Palace
restaurant which was located in Dickson, a northern suburb of
Canberra, well known for its numerous Chinese eateries. The
restaurant was elaborately furnished in typical Chinese décor with
a huge fish tank adorning one wall of the reception area. He walked
in and saw Helen sitting in a table at the back of the dining room.
When she saw him she smiled radiantly and gave him a big hug as he
sat down.

“Hi Jake, good to see you again. You’re
looking jaded. Are you coping O.K.?” she asked with genuine concern
on her face.

“Only just, it’s been a rough week and
getting rougher.”

Helen listened intently as he explained what
had happened since he arrived in Canberra, including the threat to
his life, the theft of his laptop and briefcase, his run-in with
ASIO and the arrest of Shoni.

“Goodness Jake, it looks like you’ve
uncovered a major conspiracy involving the most senior level of
government and big business. I’ve read the documents you sent me
and they have some explosive material in them.”

Helen paused for a minute as a waiter
brought a jug of water and left menus with them. Helen ordered
drinks from the waiter.

“This place serves the best Chinese food in
Canberra, Jake. My uncle owns it and you are my guest. I suggest we
order the banquet for two but you can choose anything you like,
even the live lobster crawling in the fish tank over there, if you
would rather. You look like you could do with a decent meal and
some fine wine.”

Jake scanned the menu. “The banquet looks
fine to me, thanks.”

Helen waved the waiter over and ordered the
banquet.

Helen opened her briefcase and pulled out
the documents that Jake had sent her and laid them on the table.
She opened up her iPad and started scrolling until she found her
notes.

“Jake, I’ve read all the documents and have
a number of questions. Firstly, are you certain these documents are
genuine?”

“Absolutely, they have already cost Barry
Buckstone his life and I have been nearly run down and had the
documents, my memory stick and my laptop stolen. And now there is
the threat to Shoni. They wouldn’t go to all that trouble if the
documents weren’t genuine.”

“Fair enough, but they would claim that the
papers are false or doctored.”

“You could easily verify the letterheads and
signatures of the correspondence.”

“O.K. we can do that. Now can you explain
what these documents mean?”

“Well the first one is an agreement between
the Australian company, Energet, to supply uranium to the Japanese
company Nippan Energy. It sets out normal terms and conditions of
quantities, prices, timelines and looks pretty standard. The second
one, marked “Highly Confidential”, is an agreement between Energet
to supply rare earths to a Japanese company, Mitsustrata, out of
the Jabiru mine. They have kept this agreement secret and only a
few people within the companies and at the top levels of government
would be aware of it. It is political dynamite as it seems the main
reason for the Jabiru mine is not so much to supply uranium to
Japan but to provide them with rare earths. They obviously wanted
to keep the arrangement secret from the Chinese given China’s
monopoly over production of rare earths and the tensions between
China and Japan. But also, Mitsustrata stands to make enormous
profits from this by supplying the Japanese Government with
material vital to its defence industry.”

“Mitsustrata was one of the companies you
asked us to check out?” asked Helen.

“Yes and it appears to be suspect. You will
recall that Sarah found out that the largest shareholder of
Mitsustrata is the Japanese billionaire Takaya who is also a
substantial shareholder of Nippan Energy. He is the biggest
industrialist in Japan and has huge contracts to supply the
Japanese defence forces with electronics and defence materials. He
is known to be dodgy and has been accused of corruption many times
but because of his high level contacts in Government has
consistently managed to avoid being prosecuted.”

“The interesting thing is that Sarah
established that Ruby Resources is also a substantial shareholder
in Mitsustrata. Ruby is an Australian company obviously wanting a
finger in the rare earths pie.”

“So what’s the big deal about rare earths?”
asked Helen as the first of their courses arrived. Jake realised he
was hungry and helped himself to some prawns grilled in a spicy
sauce.

“Rare earths are mainly used to make
electronics in the defence industry and certain types are extremely
rare. China has 95% of the world’s production and wants to
safeguard its control of world supplies. They are close to war with
Japan and refuse to supply them with materials that would make
their defence industry more competitive. I suspect the real reason
for the Chinese attack on the Jabiru mine was to prevent Japan
getting hold of the rare earths.”

“That’s a pretty heavy accusation Jake.” She
studied up her notes. “What about Northern Consulting?”

“Northern Consulting was contracted by
Energet to persuade the Kakadu Land Council to drop its opposition
to the development of the Jabiru mine which is on a sacred sight of
the Binugy people. The Land Council serves to earn $50 million on
behalf of the indigenous community from Energet in compensation for
giving up its land rights. Most of the money paid over so far has
ended up in the hands of a few directors, especially Bert O’Shea,
and some senior executives but little has filtered through to the
aboriginal communities. Thanks to Sarah we now know that Northern
Consulting is jointly owned by Tim Burston, Baobab Trustees and
Ruby Resources. Burston is the Managing Director of Northern
Consulting and has fronted the company in conducting all of the
negotiations on the land rights. However this letter shows Northern
Consulting made a number of payments to a company called Baobab
Trustees for “unspecified services.” We now have proof that the
owner of Baobab Trustees is none other than Bert O’Shea, the
President of the Kakadu Land Council. O’Shea was instrumental in
gaining the Land Council’s approval for the mine development. In
total he received $2.25 million in bribes from Northern
Consulting.”

Helen poured them each another glass of wine
as the second course arrived.

“So was that why Barry was killed?”

“Without a doubt. Barry suspected O’Shea all
along of being corrupt and had discovered the incriminating letter
linking Northern Consulting with O’Shea’s company. It’s going to be
very hard to prove it though unless the Northern Territory Police
can find the driver of the vehicle who struck him.”

“So who is behind Ruby Resources?”

“I don’t know for sure but I suspect it’s
someone high-up in Government, even Crichton himself.”

Helen raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“You must be kidding Jake.”

“I’m not. Only someone at the top level of
government could do this. He’s also got the Director-General of
ASIO in his pocket.”

“Can you find out for sure who it is?”

Jake replied. “No, not yet. All I have on
Ruby Resources is a Post Office Box Number at Manuka Post office.
I’ve checked with the Post Office and they won’t divulge the name
of the owner. Crichton is too smart to register it under his own
name in any case. ”

“Let me see if I can find out who’s
registered the post box. I’ve got some contacts in the Post
Office.”

Helen thought for a minute. “What if we try
to set up something? We could send a package by courier to the P.O.
Box number, contact Crichton’s office to advise an urgent parcel
addressed to Ruby Resources has been sent to the Post Office and
wait and see who picks it up.”

Jake rubbed his hip which was still
aching.

“That might work. Have you got someone who
could undertake surveillance?”

“I could ask Percy, our photographer. He
knows everyone in politics in Canberra and could take snapshots of
anyone familiar who goes in and out of the alcove where the post
boxes are kept. We could also make the parcel look distinctive so
it would be easy to identify it if anyone was carrying it out.”

“O.K. let’s try it.”

After a pause Jake continued, “Are you going
to run with this story?”

“I think it’s an amazing story. I’ll have to
run it by the Editor-in-Chief and our solicitors but I’m sure they
will agree to publish it. We could run the story line over three or
four days. I can start drafting the material as soon as I get
home.

Helen enquired, “Are you happy that we print
this story Jake? Of course your name won’t be mentioned but they’ll
guess it came from you. We don’t have to reveal our sources. But
once this material is published there would be no point in them
harassing you anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s why I decided to pass the
information to you.”

The waiter bought over the main course and
through the rest of the meal they talked about how Helen could
present the articles.

Jake was amazed how much food Helen could
put away. She was still eating well after Jake had laid down his
chopsticks. Eventually they finished their meal with a coffee and a
brandy. Helen drove him back to his motel.

Despite his concern about Shoni, he felt
relaxed after the huge meal and drinks. Back in his room, he
undressed, laid on the bed and drifted off to sleep.

FRIDAY - DARWIN

Bill woke up in his motel room in Darwin early in
the morning, flexing his back, his joints stiff after the long
drive from Daly Waters the night before. He had arrived in Darwin
at 10 p.m. and had found a small hotel on the outskirts of the city
where he crashed for the night. He walked out of the motel, found a
café nearby and ordered a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon.
After eating he took a walk around the city centre till it was time
to meet up with Gertrude Billson. Jake had pre-arranged an
appointment for him to meet with her at 8.30 a.m. to discuss
Shoni’s case.