Indonesian Gold (51 page)

‘
If you say so.
'

‘You don't think I have principles?'
Angela feigned surprise.

‘Or course you have,'
he raised his hands in mock defeat.
‘I think it's time to go.'

Angela hesitated.
‘No, Stewart, if you don't mind,
let's talk some more. Here, not back in the hotel.'

Campbell
frowned.
‘Something I've said has upset you?'

‘
No. It's nothing like that.
'

‘Okay, then what?'
he
asked, filled with a sense of foreboding.

‘Well, it's difficult to know where to start – or
continue.'

‘Does it have something to do with our
relationship?
'
‘Yes.
'
‘Then tell
me what it is, that's bothering you.
'
‘I meant to say something at the swimming pool, earlier.
'
   
‘What, Angela? God,
you're killing me here!
'
   
‘It's about the
costume I wore. I didn't want you to get the wrong idea.'
   
‘That stunning
outfit that barely covered your beautiful figure? – Don't
remember a thing,'
his frivolous attempt fell flat, into
an empty silence.

The Chinese manager ordered staff to clean the table and
remove remaining dishes, sending the couple a message that it would be appropriate for them to
leave. More than twenty guests remained queued, waiting patiently for a table in the popular
restaurant.

‘It was the only costume I could find, Stewart. I was in a
hurry to get there on time. Having let you down so much over the past two days, I didn't want to
disappoint you again.'

‘You didn't disappoint me, Angela. You are a very
beautiful woman. Why hide it?'

‘You don't seem to understand,'
she looked around the crowded restaurant, unaware that they were expected to leave.
‘I need to discuss where we are, together, as friends.'

‘Friends?'
Campbell
jerked back in his seat.
‘Surely we mean more to
each other than ‘friends'?'

‘I'm sorry, Stewart. I'm not expressing myself very
well.'

‘You didn't seem to have that problem,
today,'
he said, somewhat churlishly.

‘Please, Stewart, I don't want us to argue. I only wanted
to…'

Campbell
leaned over the
table.
‘Let's get out of here and go somewhere quiet.There's something I need to say to you
and this is not the place.'

‘Stewart…'

‘Angela,'
he
interrupted, again, leaning on the table with arms crossed.
‘Tell me this. Do you love
me?'

Angela had expected he would ask.
‘Yes, I
do.'

‘Then, what is this all about?'
Campbell
demanded, glancing angrily at a woman
on the adjacent table whom he thought may be eavesdropping.

‘
It's about commitments, Stewart.That's what I'm trying
to explain.'

‘Commitments?
'

‘Yes.'

‘I don't understand, Angela. I haven't seen anyone else
for at least five, maybe six months.That should say something about my feelings for
you.'

‘
I don't mean that type of commitment.
'

‘Angela, help me out here. I'm lost.What are you trying to
say?'

It was Angela who now leaned closer. She lowered her
voice.

‘I'm trying to explain that I'm not going to have sex
with you.'

Campbell
's disappointment
edged closer to anger.
‘If you had no intention of pursuing a relationship with me, what in
the hell am I doing here?'

Angela could see that his judgment was now impaired.
‘Stewart, don't do this, please?'

He reached out, her open hand lying on the table too
difficult for him to resist. His hand slipped into hers, both grasping the other in that moment
of uncertainty.

‘What brought you to this decision?'
he asked, grimfaced
.
    
‘It wasn't an
easy decision,'
she said
.
    
‘But, one you
made all by yourself.'
He fabricated a smile, withdrew
his hand, looked around with a touch of desperation, spotted a waitress and
waved her over.
‘I'll have a double Chivas,'
he said. The manager stepped forward before
the girl could take the order. Experience told him that the couple was likely to remain and he
intended inviting them to the bar, releasing the table.

‘Thank you, sir, would you mind…'

‘Stewart, is that necessary?'
Angela interjected.

He looked up at the manager then back at Angela. He shook
his head.
‘
No, I guess not. Cancel that. We're going home
.
Would you mind giving us
a few more minutes?
'

The man looked down towards reception, mumbled something
in Chinese and, spotting another group in the process of leaving, swept across the room to
arrange for the table to be reset.

‘You must try to understand,'
Angela said, sadly, once the manager was out of earshot.

‘Seems already clear enough, for me.'

Angela reached back across the table and took his hand,
again.
‘Stewart, we have known each other for some time now and I do have deep feelings for
you.'

Campbell
's mouth cracked wide
with a forced smile.
‘Well, at least that's…'

‘Please, Stewart, let me finish. There's a great deal more
that you have to learn about me, my people, my responsibilities, just as there's so much left for
me to achieve before I can consider entering into a commitment to marry. Somehow, I knew you were
going to ask, and I believe that you really, do love me. But…'

‘
Why is it that I suddenly have this feeling, that all
of this has something to do with what happened today?'

‘The conference?
'

‘Yes.'

Angela's eyes fell.
‘I don't feel it's possible for us
to have the relationship you want, right at this time. There's so much more that I can do for my
people, Stewart, and it wouldn't be fair on either of us if we were to consider marriage, at this
time.'

Campbell
's image of their
relationship was rapidly disappearing into shadows. He had not expected any of this.
‘There's
no reason why you couldn't continue with your career,'
he argued.

‘Working for my people's rights is more than a
career,'
she shot back, not intending to rebuke,
‘and must
take priority over everything else.'

‘
Are you saying that you'll never
marry?'

‘No. What I'm trying to explain is that I need more
time.'

‘How long?
'

‘I'm sorry, Stewart,'
she answered,
‘I can't answer you that, right now.'

****

During their flight back to Jakarta the following morning
Stewart Campbell remained distant, contemplating a future without Angela Dau. They would remain
close friends and, although she had not said it in so many words, when they had parted the
evening before Campbell was left with the impression that she would not overly object if they
were to terminate their relationship, completely.

Disappointed, hurt and in disconsolate mood, he had woken
with a Chivas hangover, and prepared for the two-hour, return flight to Indonesia. He phoned
Angela and suggested they meet for breakfast, then sauntered down to the ground-level coffee shop
to wait. By then, most of the conference delegates had already departed, one, recalling having
seen Campbell and Angela together, reached over and tapped Stewart on the shoulder.

‘Have you seen this yet?'

Campbell
turned, his face a
blank of recognition and, with a forced smile, accepted the newspaper, his eyes falling
immediately to the page-one photograph, of Miss Angela Dau. The caption announced,
“Dayaks
Deserve Better Deal”,
and when Campbell had finished reading the feature story, he knew that
Angela's career, if not personal safety, would now be in jeopardy. That Angela may have
anticipated the possibility of a negative reaction in Jakarta to her speech, and had deliberately
placed their relationship on hold, to protect him, came to mind. He had challenged her at
breakfast, Angela raising his ire when she refused to discuss the matter further. They had left
for the airport together, in awkward mood, exchanging only a few words during the flight,
Campbell now resigned to the reality that he may have lost Angela to the greater, Dayak cause,
forever.

****

Longdamai Sial Mining Camp – Mahakam River

The yellow-toothed grin on Eric Baird's face said it all.
He cast his eyes over the data once more, his expression that of a man who had just won the
lottery.

‘According to this,' he said, one hand tapping the
analytical laboratory's report, ‘you, Miss Ducay, have done it again!'

‘We, Eric, we! After all, it's been a team effort.' Sharon
needed that they all bask in any credit associated with the fabricated find.

‘We should do a preliminary estimate on tonnages,' Baird
recommended.

Sharon
could see that Baird's
infectious excitement could as easily work against them. ‘I'd prefer to wait for the next batch
of assays.'

‘Why?' Baird had already run some basic estimates through
his head, ‘No harm in getting a little enthusiastic, Sharon.'

‘No point in getting them excited,' she indicated Alderson
and Patrick who had finished for the day, and were quietly observing them from a
distance.

Baird wasn't sure. ‘Wouldn't hurt to let them know that
the first results are promising,' he suggested.

‘We need to finish this drilling run without anymore
holdups,' Sharon stated. ‘If those two realize what's going on before we complete this month's
program, they will ask for more money.' In fact, had the situation arisen, she would have agreed
– Sharon acting her part as if the results were genuine.

Baird considered this. ‘Why not just give them a teaser,
then?'

She seemed receptive. ‘Tell them that we have some
positive showings, but don't get them too excited.'

‘Bonuses?' he asked, the timing appropriate.

‘I'll put it to Vancouver,' she agreed.

‘How much?'

Sharon
wanted to smile. ‘Let's
wait and see how we fare with the next batch of results before we start putting the screws into
head office.'

Baird seemed content with this. ‘I've got a very strong
feeling in my gut, Sharon, that this is the big one.'

‘It's early days, don't you think?' she parried, enjoying
playing the man.

‘Maybe,' he said then fell quiet, Sharon taking her cue to
reenter her quarters where she unlocked an aluminum trunk, returning moments later with two tin
mugs and a bottle of Hennessy's XO Cognac. Baird looked up, surprised, his grin immediately
returning with the gesture.

‘To Longdamai Sial,' she toasted, smiling at her
unsuspecting associate, secretly excited with the prospect that when her stock was released,
unencumbered from escrow, she would have at least twenty million dollars for her
trouble.

Drilling continued uninterrupted and, when subsequent
assay results flowed back to the Longdamai Sial site over the next weeks supporting earlier
expectations, Sharon arranged for a telephone hook up between Longdamai Sial, the analytical
laboratory and BGC in Vancouver – the connection arranged via their Jakarta office. She asked
that the laboratory verify the results directly to Christopher Fielding, the company President
and, following the euphoric exchange, set about raising the grades of subsequent assay results,
by increasing the volume of gold injected into the samples.

****

Jakarta

General Sukirno listened intently as the retired Air Vice
Marshal disclosed the salient points in the three-way, international communication
exchange.