by Gary Gregor
“I think he seen us,” Jabaldjari said.
“Saw us, John,” Tracy said. “It’s ‘he saw us’ not ‘he seen us.’
“Yes, Miss, he did saw us,” Jabaldjari responded.
Tracy put a comforting arm around the young aboriginal boy’s shoulder. “Okay, John, let’s join the others.” She ushered him into the group and they all stood together, watching the plane circling above.
“Okay, everyone,” Tracy addressed her class. “Let’s all wave at the plane. Use both hands to wave if you want to. So the pilot knows that we see him.”
The children waved frantically at the plane, turning around with it as it circled. Their arms were tired and their tiny bodies were spent but they waved with an enthusiasm that surprised Tracy. These children were amazing, she thought. They had to be almost out on their feet but they jumped, waved, and shouted at the plane with the gusto of children on the first day of great adventure.
The plane was very low now; low enough for Tracy to make out the silhouette of the pilot. It was a small single-seat aircraft Tracy recognised as one used by cattle station owners at mustering time to spot herds of wandering cattle scattered far and wide over the vast land area of their station properties.
As she watched, the pilot wiggled the wings of his plane. It looked like he was waving back at her and the children. Smiling wider now, her cracked and bleeding lips no longer a concern, Tracy waved back. The pilot had seen them! He was wing-waving at them! They were going to be rescued! A single tear escaped Tracy’s eye and tracked down her dust covered, sunburnt cheek.
The plane turned and flew away to the east, the same direction she and her class had been walking. Silently relieved to know they had been heading in the right direction, Tracy watched the plane until it disappeared in the distance.
“Where’s he going, Miss?” she heard one of the children ask.
Tracy turned to face her class. “He’s going for help,” she answered, addressing all of the children. “He saw us. Did you see how he waved his wings at us? He was telling us he saw us down here and now he is going for help. We will rest here until they come to get us.”
She looked at Toby Miller and John Jabaldjari. “Toby, John, will you please collect all the water from the rest of the class and put it all together so we can see how much we have left?”
“When will they come to get us?” another child asked.
“Very soon, Mary. The pilot will radio for help. He will tell them where we are and they will come very soon. Let’s all sit back down and rest. If there is enough water left, we can all have another drink. There will be no more walking today,” she smiled at her class.
42
Cameron Barker, Russell Foley, Sam Rose, and the two cops from Papunya, David Sparrow and Richard Smart were gathered on the front porch of the Papunya police station building, drinking coffee, discussing the case. With only three chairs available, Barker and Foley stood leaning against the porch railing with their backs to the Papunya community.
The conversation, centered on the case, took many twists and turns as each offered his own comments and speculative views on each aspect as it arose. Occasionally, Cameron Barker, wanting to familiarise himself with the very latest up-dates, would move to the end of the porch, away from the small group, and place a call to Alice Springs.
Barker had just ended one such call and was moving back along the porch to rejoin the others when his phone, still in his hand, rang shrilly. He paused, opened the phone, and retraced his steps to the end of the porch. He looked at the caller ID and answered.
“G’day, Mac,” he greeted the caller. “What have you got?”
Barker looked back at Foley, Rose, Sparrow, and Smart. His eyes widened as he listened to the caller and he offered a slight nod of his head to his four colleagues.
“Where?” he asked the caller. “All of them? Anyone else? Are they okay? Do you have co-ordinates? Yeah, give me a second, Mac.” He called to Foley “Russ, take this down, will you?”
Russell Foley fumbled in his shirt pocket, removed his notebook and pen and crossed to where Barker stood. As Barker repeated a set of GPS co-ordinates given by the caller, Foley copied them down in his notebook.
“Okay, Mac, we’ve got that,” Barker said into his phone. “Get the stand-by health team and the bus on the way ASAP. Give them those coordinates and sent them straight to the location.” He paused and listened to the caller. “Yeah, mate, we will make our way there now. We’ll stay with them until the bus and the health team arrive. You got that pilot’s details? Excellent, well done, Mac. I’ll contact you when we arrive at the location. Thanks, and well done.”
Barker ended the call and looked at Foley. The tone of the one-way phone conversation had roused the interest of Foley, and the others. Rose, Sparrow, and Smart rose from their chairs and now stood close around Foley and Barker.
“What is it, boss?” Foley asked Barker.
Cameron Barker smiled and looked directly at Richard Smart. “We found them!” he announced.
“The hostages?” Foley asked.
“Yeah, the hostages,” Barker answered.
“All of them?” Smart asked.
“Yes, Max, all of them.”
“Where?” Sam probed.
Barker turned and looked out across the settlement. “Out there,” he said. “Out there in the desert. The cattle station owner who conducted the last fly-over spotted them walking in this direction.”
“Are they okay?” Sam asked.
“The pilot flew above them, circling down to a couple of hundred feet from the ground. He said it was difficult to tell from that distance, but they all looked to be okay. They were all waving at him and seemed happy to see him.”
“I bet they were,” Sparrow commented. “And, they were all there?”
“One woman, and eleven young children,” Barker answered.
“No one else?” Foley asked.
“No sign of anyone else,” Barker confirmed. “Just Tracy and the kids.”
“They must have escaped,” Smart suggested.
“Maybe,” Barker said. “But I don’t think so. I think the kidnappers let them go. They’ve got their money – at least they think they’ve got their money – and they have released the hostages.”
“They’re in for a surprise when they find out there’s no money,” Sam said.
“A bigger surprise when we lock their arses up,” Barker said.
“There can’t be many of them left,” Sparrow commented. “Two dead in the vehicle smash, and Cornwell dead in his hotel room.”
“Gotta be at least one left,” Foley said. “Someone had to be watching the hostages.”
“Okay chaps,” Barker said. “We are wasting valuable time standing around here speculating. Spog, can you get hold of some large containers of water we can take with us, and some snacks, I’m sure they will all be thirsty and hungry?”
“I’ll go to the store,” Sparrow said. “Both the manager and his assistant have kids among the hostages.”
“You have two station vehicles here, right?” Barker asked.
“Yes,” Sparrow answered. “We’ve got a Toyota four-by-four cage vehicle, and a two-wheel-drive twin-cab.”
“Where do you get fuel here in Papunya?”
“The store has two pumps,” Sparrow answered. “One diesel and one unleaded petrol.”
Barker addressed Richard Smart. “Max, go with Spog. Fuel up both vehicles, then you and Spog bring the supplies and we’ll meet you both back here. We’ll all leave together. You and Spog will take the four-by-four and Russell, Sam, and I will take the twin-cab. Oh and, is there a nurse here at Papunya?”
“There’s a local indigenous nurse here,” Sparrow answered. “She’s from here and she is a fully trained midwife.”
Barker looked at Smart. “I don’t think there will be anyone out there in need of a midwife – is there Max?”
Smart’s cheeks reddened slightly. “No, sir,” he answered.
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br /> “Just kidding, Max,” Barker smiled. “Find her and bring her back here with you. She can ride with us in the twin-cab. Ask her to bring whatever medical supplies she can carry.”
“Do you think there will be injuries?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know, Sam,” Barker answered. “If they’ve been walking around out there in the heat some of them might be dehydrated. There might be some bad cases of sunburn. Even a few minor cuts and scratches. There’s a health team on the way from the Alice but they will be a good three hours away yet. Better to be safe than sorry.”
“What do you want us to do, boss?” Sam asked.
“We will wait here for Spog and Max to return,” Barker said. “I want to make a couple of phone calls to HQ. I want to make sure the road-blocks are on full alert in case the remaining perp, or perps, make a run for it. I don’t want to take all the hostages back to the Alice, away from their families, or disrupt their lives any more than we have to, so we will need a few of our chaps out here to take statements.”
Foley turned to Sam. “Perhaps you can make the boss and me another coffee, Sam.”
“I made the last one,” Sam protested.
“And, damn fine coffee it was,” Foley smiled.
Sam turned to walk back inside the station. “Shit,” he mumbled. “I’m a highly trained, highly skilled detective and now I’m reduced to being a humble house servant.”
“What?” Foley called as Sam’s shuffled away, collecting the empty coffee cups on the way.
“Nothing,” Sam mumbled.
The children were exhausted. Most of them had curled up on the hot ground and slept. Even Tracy dozed intermittently. They had each consumed an extra ration of water and eaten what remained of the snack-food items they carried with them. There remained only a couple of litres of water left; Whoever was coming to recue them had better come soon, Tracy thought. They had all come so far together, dying of thirst in this God-forsaken desert while on the verge of freedom was simply not an option.
Tracy chose not to lay down on the ground. She knew if she did, she would lapse into a deep sleep and she needed to be alert, taking care of the children. She sat, slumped forward floating in that shallow, ethereal, state between consciousness and deep sleep. Occasionally her eyes would flicker open and she would gaze disconnectedly about at the children scattered haphazardly on the ground around her. Then the sheer weight of exhaustion would drag her eyes closed and once again she slipped into the twilight zone.
There was that nudge against her arm again. She slapped sleepily at it; like one would an annoying irritation.
“Miss Tracy!” she heard from a long way off.
The next nudge came a little more forceful. The distant voice now not so distant.
“Miss Tracy! Miss Tracy! Someone coming! Someone coming!”
Tracy opened her eyes and saw John Jabaldjari once again standing over her. “J… John,” she mumbled sleepily. “What is it?”
“Somone coming, Miss,” Jabaldjari answered.
“What?’
Jabaldjari pointed to the horizon away to the east. “There, Miss. Might be that car coming.”
Tracy awkwardly climbed to her feet. “A car? Where, John?”
“There, Miss,” Jabaldjari pointed. “Long way.”
Tracy looked towards the east and then she saw it. On the horizon, clinging close to the ground, a cloud of dust billowed above the wavering heat haze. She watched it for a few moments and then looked down at Jabaldjari. It was then that she realised that all of the children were on their feet and crowded close around her.
Eleven-year-old Jet Tomlinson stood on Tracy’s left. “I reckon it’s a car, Miss,” he said.
“I think you’re right, Jet,” Tracy responded.
“Might be the cops, Miss,” Toby Miller announced from her right side.
Tracy looked at Toby. “You mean the police, Toby,” she scolded lightly. “Not the ‘cops’.”
From somewhere behind Tracy, Milly Ungwanaka pushed forward and clung onto Tracy’s skirt. “They coming to save us?” she asked in her usual timid, soft-spoken voice.
Tracy smiled down at Milly and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. “I hope so, Milly,” she said. She shaded her eyes against the glare of the sun and focused on the cloud of dust in the distance. “I hope so.”
As she watched the dust cloud, it grew in size. It had to be coming closer, she thought. Then, suddenly, the cloud split in two. Now two smaller clouds, one alongside the other, tumbled across the horizon, gradually growing larger as they approached. In front of each cloud, Tracy thought she could see a small dark shape. Had to be cars, she thought. Two cars. Coming fast.
For just a brief moment, Tracy wondered if it might be the kidnappers coming back. The man who had held them captive all this time had associates. She knew that right from the first day when they stopped the bus. Could this be them, she wondered? Were they coming back to re-capture them and take them back to that awful place beneath the ground?
The Toyota twin-cab was never designed for desert driving. Russell Foley wrestled with the steering wheel as the vehicle bounced and rocked across the rocky ground.
“Shit!” Sam Rose cursed loudly. He sat, leaning forward in the passenger seat, straining against the restraint of his seat belt, trying desperately to hold a pair of binoculars steady against his eyes.
“What?” Foley asked.
“Are you deliberately trying to hit every bump in the road?” Sam asked.
“What road?” Foley asked sarcastically. “There’s no fuckin’ road. Just bloody great clumps of spinifex and several trillion gibber stones. I’m doing my best here.” He turned his head and looked briefly at the nurse sitting next to Cameron Barker in the rear seat. “Sorry, for the language,” he said.
“Well it’s not working!” Sam said. “These bloody binoculars are going to take my fuckin’ eye out if you hit another one! Are you driving with your eyes closed?”
“No, I’m not driving with my eyes closed!” Foley answered. “Just shut the fuck up and keep looking! I can’t concentrate with you screeching in my ear!”
“Screeching?”
“Yeah, screeching! You sound like my ex-wife!”
From the back seat, Cameron Barker leaned forward. “How about you stop the car, Russell, and then you and Sam can get out, punch the shit out of each other, and then we can get going again?”
Foley looked at Sam.
Sam looked at Foley.
Foley glanced in the rear-vision mirror at his boss in the back seat.
Sam turned in his seat and looked back at Barker.
“Sorry, Boss,” Foley said, finally. “Sorry, Miss.”
“Yeah, sorry, Boss,” Sam said. “It’s just Russ being his usual cantankerous self.” He glanced across at Foley. “We’re good, aren’t we Russ?”
Foley glared at Sam. “Yeah, we’re good,” he said, somewhat reluctantly.
“Wait! Stop the car!” Sam yelled suddenly.
Foley braked hard and brought the Toyota to a stop in a cloud of dust. Twenty metres to their left and slightly ahead of them, ‘Spog’ Sparrow, riding with his 2IC ‘Max’ Smart, skidded the four-wheel-drive cage vehicle to a stop.
“What?” Foley asked Sam.
Sam leaned forward and peered through the binoculars at a point way out to their front. He lowered the binoculars and pointed out through the windscreen. “There,” he announced. “Out there, directly ahead of us. I think it’s them.”
A few moments silence followed as Sam, Foley, and Barker stared out through the windscreen, in the direction Sam pointed.
Finally, Foley spoke. “I think you’re right,” he said to Sam.
Sam turned and smiled at Barker. “He likes me again,” he said.
Cameron Barker ignored Sam’s attempt at levity. “Hit the lights, Russell,” he ordered. “If that is the teacher and her class, we need them to know it is us coming and not the baddies.”
Sam wound d
own his window and called across to Sparrow and Smart. “Hit the lights, Spog! I think we’ve found them!”
Tracy, surrounded by her eleven young students, watched the twin dust clouds approach. Quiet murmurings, liberally laced with questions, speculative answers, and wild guesses in relation to the approaching vehicles, filtered back-and-forth among the children.
Tracy remained unsure. Had the pilot of the aircraft they saw fly over called for help? Or, was he one of the kidnappers reporting their location back to his co-offenders?
She turned her back on the approaching vehicles and looked down at her class. What an untidy gaggle of urchins they looked, she thought. Their clothes were covered in layers of dust and grime accrued over five days and nights spent in the dirty bunker followed by the long walk across the desert, and weariness to the point of collapse was deeply etched across their perspiration-streaked faces. How could anyone not love these kids, Tracy thought. She had met a few adults in her life who she very much doubted would have coped with the ordeal these kids had been through. Generally, children were tough and resilient little people. Yes, they were scared, that was to be expected. But they never gave up, not one of them. If there was ever going to be any heroes in this awful mess, it would be the eleven grubby, wide-eyed children gathered around her at this moment.
“It’s the cops!” one of the boys called suddenly.
“Yeah, it’s the cops!” someone else parroted.
“Look, Miss. The lights are flashing!”
Tracy turned back and looked out across the burning desert. The dust clouds were much closer now. There were two vehicles coming fast. She shielded her eyes and focused. Through the glare of the sun, she saw the red and blue lights flashing. It was the police. Would Richard be there, she wondered? Yes, of course he would be there. He was coming to save her – to save them all. She wiped at an errant tear that escaped and ran down her cheek.
Tracy turned back to her class of grubby urchins. “The police are coming, children,” she said. “We are being rescued.” Then, she paused for a moment as an idea came to her. “Here’s what I want you all to do… “