On Saturday morning, 17 March, the Commonwealth Police Bijedic team, still exhausted from the long hours they’d pulled accompanying the attorney-general on his ASIO raid, gathered at headquarters for a briefing from Inspector Harry Harper. Several of them were damp and bedraggled, having been caught outdoors by the fierce storm that had swept through the capital.
‘Morning, Wal, you look like a drowned rat,’ said Harper when Price entered the squad room.
Wally Price pulled a soggy ruin from his pocket to confirm the extent of the storm’s damage.
‘Yeah, caught in the bloody downpour. It soaked through a whole pack of smokes.’
‘Take a seat,’ said Harper. ‘I’ll duck out and organise a pot of tea.’
Sergeant Ray Sullivan and Al Sharp were already in the room.
‘You get any sleep, Wal?’ asked Sullivan.
Price threw the cigarettes in a bin and hung his wet jacket on the back of a chair.
‘Yeah, I was knackered,’ he said. ‘Woke up to a nice morning. Made the usual mistake of walking here and ended up in a fucken tempest.’
Al Sharp looked up at him. ‘Are you not moved, Wal,’ he intoned, ‘when all the sway of the earth shakes like a thing infirm?’
Price stared at him, wondering if he had a screw loose. ‘The fuck you say?’
‘It’s Julius Caesar, boofhead.’
‘Oh, shit, and I left my annotated copy behind.’
Harper returned with a large pile of documents. ‘This is all the research you’ll need for today, Wal,’ he said, taking up a bundle of telexes. ‘This is what’s accumulated in the past twenty-four hours. If anything, the threats are multiplying. We’ve got a shitload of reports to go through, and then I’ve got to write a brief for the commissioner for his meeting with the prime minister this afternoon.’
‘I heard that Peter Barbour’s coming up from Melbourne today to meet Whitlam,’ said Sullivan. ‘Is he going to make a formal complaint about our role in the raid?’
‘That’s beyond my pay grade, Raymond,’ said Harper. ‘We’ve just got to concentrate on keeping Bijedic safe. So, listen carefully.’ The inspector picked up the top telex and began. ‘Last night a bomb exploded in the Department of Supply Light Transport Depot at Woolloomooloo. It went off next to the Rolls-Royce, which was to be used to transport Bijedic during the visit.’
‘Jesus wept!’ cried Price.
‘It was a small device and there was only superficial damage,’ Harper explained. ‘But there’s speculation they might have been trying to plant it in the car.’
‘Suspects?’ asked Sharp.
‘Nothing specific on that, and nothing we can do about it. It just underlines that there are people ready to have a crack. That’s Sydney. From Melbourne, we’ve got a report from one of our own people’—he looked down and read—‘Constable Brian Devitt tells us that one Ivan Pavlovic, aged thirty-six, of North Melbourne, someone he’s known for quite a while, has told him, quote: “I am going to Canberra in my car, I have a gun too and will kill the bastard myself for coming to Australia to make trouble for Croatians.” Unquote.’
‘I know that name, Pavlovic,’ said Sharp. ‘He’s HOP, isn’t he? Croatian Liberation Movement.’
‘He is, and intel from informants, confirmed by his own statements, indicates he was a member of the group that has been planning to go to Spain this year, for the purpose of training for a further armed incursion into Yugoslavia.’
‘His own fucken statements,’ said Price, unable to conceal his contempt. ‘He wants to be stopped. He’s like a bloke looking for his mates to hold him back from rushing into a brawl.’
‘I’m inclined to agree, Wal,’ said Harper. ‘This fellow’s a housepainter with four kids, but we’ve had to put him under 24-hour surveillance. He’s planning to drive to Canberra today for tomorrow’s Croatian demo at Parliament House. He’s the registered owner of a rifle so we’ll have to stop him and search his car en route, and we need to find out where he’s staying here. Keep him on edge and keep him quiet. Wal, I’m going to leave that to you and Ray. You’ll liaise with Melbourne.’
‘Okay, boss,’ said Price, taking the telex.
‘They pulled the demo forward to Sunday?’ said Sullivan. ‘I missed that.’
‘Yes. Sorry, Ray—you’ve had a lot on your plate. The community finally listened to reason and cancelled their plans for a demo when Bijedic is here. That would have been a security nightmare. They’ve brought it forward to tomorrow. So there’ll be an influx of angry Croats coming to town today and tomorrow morning, and we need to keep track of the dangerous ones.’
Sharp interrupted. ‘We’ve had a team putting together a list of houses in the local Croat community where people might be put up,’ he said. ‘It’s a big list, I’m afraid.’
‘And we can’t follow everyone or raid every house,’ said Harper. ‘Our target list will concentrate on known militants, and especially those our informants are pointing us to.’ Harper pulled up a fresh telex and continued. ‘In that category is another Melbourne resident with family here. Blaz Kavran is a name familiar to most of us. He’s also been overheard threatening to shoot Bijedic during the visit.’
‘I know him, all right,’ said Sharp. ‘He was meant to have taken part in the Bosnian incursion last June, but he was arrested on another matter. He missed the whole thing because he was in jail.’
‘That’s him,’ said Harper. ‘And like Pavlovic, he has been named as one of the group of nine who are planning to go to Spain to train for another incursion this year. He’s also under surveillance and he’s headed for Canberra. Another one for you, Wal.’
Harper handed the telex to Price.
‘We’re going to be stretched thin, boss,’ said Price.
‘The whole of the ACT Police are at our disposal, along with elements from the army and air force. This was always going to be difficult; we can’t lock down the whole city, but we can’t ignore specific targets.’
‘Any more of them?’ asked Sullivan.
‘Even without Bijedic we estimate there’ll be more than two thousand Croatians here for tomorrow’s demo.’ Harper paused to hand the last two telexes to Sharp. ‘Al, you’re going to have to work with Mr Price’s team. We need a complete roster of surveillance ops finished today and we need to respond to new threats as they arise. If anyone gets anything new, from whatever source, come straight to me. We’ll do a triage and allocate resources where we need them most.’
As if on cue the tea lady came rattling in and they gathered around as she poured cups for each of them.