Chapter 8

Gulls Flat. Range View Farm

Dale stopped the car in front of the familiar, stately two-storey farmhouse. John had played at being an “Indiana Jones” type of character there many times.

‘Your mum and dad still run the place?’ John asked, opening the door of the car.

‘Mum now, along with my older brother. Dad passed away a few years back. Looks like Sandra and Jillian are here as well.’

Dale pointed to the Ford LTD parked in the open garage.

‘I can’t go in dressed like this.’ John glanced down bemused at the rags he had on.

It was too late. A woman in white slacks and a green blouse appeared at the door of the house, walked to the ballast rail and looked in the direction of Dale’s car. She now approached the steps, her eyes fixed on John disbelievingly. She ran towards him.

‘John! Oh, my God! John, it is you.’ She stopped a few paces away. Then her arms went out.

John embraced her. He kissed her head and neck. Her perfume smelt the same as always. “Shrine”. It was a brand he had first bought her during their courting days.

She looked into his face. A tear rolled down his cheek and was soon consumed by his large beard. Jillian was crying too. He wiped away the tears and kissed her cheek. ‘My God, I didn’t think I would ever see you again.’

She snuggled into him. ‘Same here.’

Dale stood back, looking. He had not seen the Prime Minister ever look so happy. He walked over to his wife and kissed her. ‘It’s good to see, don’t you think?’

‘It is the greatest thing you’ve done, Dale. I’m so happy to see Jillian finally with a smile on her face.’ Sandra turned to them. ‘Come on you two lovers. I think this calls for a drink.’

John, carrying Jillian over the threshold, stopped at Dale. ‘Are the boys here yet?’

‘Tomorrow, John, they arrive in the morning.’ Dale grinned jubilantly as he slapped John’s back and walked past him.

The house was well-furnished, with a rustic appeal. Dale’s mother Nancy had insisted on both brocade and leather lounges, Maxique wood bookcases and lace curtains, now joined by a state of the art flat screen TV, with Foxtel and flat top box.

Nancy loved entertaining. She had spent the morning making homemade cakes and biscuits. She happily placed them on a polished, rough timber table that had been cut from the very first tree felled by her grandfather when he started clearing the land. He had been granted the acreage after serving in the First World War.

John remembered Nancy’s cooking. When he was a child at the local school, he and Dale would swap lunches. As John’s mother made only the normal predictable fare, Dale got the rough end of the deal every time. He eventually woke up and refused to swap.

Jillian sat on John’s knee, making it difficult for him to eat and drink, but he didn’t care. He was reunited with his lifelong love. That was all that mattered right now. After a while, he rose from the table and said he was going outside to smoke. Jillian followed him. As they both stood on the veranda, John felt his anger return towards her father.

‘Do you know why Dale brought me out of hiding?’ he asked, looking over the paddocks while leaning on the top rail.

‘No. Why? And who cares? We are back together.’

‘It matters, Jillian. Apparently, I’ve got to do something to save your government’s arse. My gut feeling tells me it has something to do with your father. The end result being his death, or at least being made accountable to both of us and the people of Australia for what he has done and is doing.’

Jillian faced John. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘It’s obvious your father never told you the truth about Devil’s Rock – only what he wanted you to know.’

‘He told me you and your team were killed in a fight during the guerrilla campaign that was fought on the island. He said you died bravely and if your remains were ever discovered they would be brought back here and given full military honours.’

‘He never told you I asked for your hand before I was deployed?’

‘No, I found that out from Dale.’

‘What about our son? Does he know the truth?’

‘I think Dale has explained things to him. I spoke to him on the phone before I left Canberra. He knows you are alive and wants to meet you.’

‘Meet his dead old man. Classic! I missed out on being his father – the footy; cricket; him growing into a young man.’ John lit another smoke.

‘What happened on Devil’s?’

‘I think Dale is best to brief you on that, along with why he’s got me here. I’m going to the guesthouse to clean up. Shave and look human again, instead of like some old wino out of the gutter, which is how I’ve been for the past fifteen years, thanks to your old man and the gutless party members he leads.’

John walked away, angry and dejected. Jillian wept.

She had not seen her kind, gentle John like this before. He had changed and she wanted to know why, the whole bloody story, and why he had been kept from her and their son for twenty years.

‘I will know the truth, my darling. I’ll find out everything.’

She watched as John disappeared into the guesthouse, 500 metres away.

Dale came out and hugged Jillian. ‘He wouldn’t tell you?’

Tearfully, she shook her head. ‘God, Dale, what happened?’

’Indigo was selected as his team’s training area for a reason. No satellite image could be detected on it. Any surveillance just showed as large black spots. You couldn’t distinguish anything. We discovered Devil’s Rock had the same area. That’s what the Yanks wanted secrecy. Bin Laden was waiting on the other side. John was to bring the President to him to discuss a treaty. Bin Laden only trusted John to be the go between. Once Bin Laden heard the President was dead, he bolted, knowing the Americans would blame him.

‘So the Yanks didn’t want anyone to know that you knew about the meeting?’

‘Not the Yanks, PM. David Gillman. It was worth too much to his party. Guaranteed election win. Lose the Yanks and the funding to the party is cut off.’

John went to the farm a long time before you got pregnant to ask for your hand, but your dad turned him down flat. His daughter was not marrying a simple army officer. A few months later, John’s team was sent to Devil’s. It was a set-up from the start. The proof is in your father’s records, stashed in the shed on his farm. That file, my dear, is something we need to get access to before we ask John and his boys to take a close look at Indigo. I should warn you – if they agree, they’ll want a lot in return. Some of it you may not be able to give.’

‘Given, after what he and his men have been through? It’s the bloody country’s damn duty to give! They will be compensated, even if they turn the mission down. No one deserves what they’ve been put through. By God, Dale, even if it costs me my job, I’ll make sure they get everything they want. Has your office got the ability to deliver?’

‘Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, but we need the file first so I know who the players were at the time, to get them on-side. That is, if they are not NWC operatives.’

‘NWC? What the hell is that?’ Jillian asked.

‘They, my dear, are the mob that set John up. Your father is head of the NWC for Australia. At least, we’re pretty sure he is.’

‘I’ll do everything in my power, Dale. PM’s honour.’

‘Best you tell John that, not me. He’s waiting to hear those words from your own lips.’

Dale turned to walk back into the house, stopping near the door. ‘He’s waiting for you.’