The defenders struggled to their feet in fearful apprehension at this totally unexpected and horrendous assault.
All around them was a strange silence.
The advancing jungle green line had hesitated. The gunships seemed to have veered away.
“Are they bombing?”
“Is it an earthquake?”
Tane carefully raised his head above the truncated battlements and looked out towards the Hollow Mountain. Did his eyes deceive him? At the very top there was a steep rocky bluff. Part of this bluff seemed to have given way, and the rocks were moving down the steep slopes below, rending the trees and rolling all before them.
Another roar and the sound of the avalanche swept over the flat like a mighty wind; it hit them with its blast, shaking the fort again.
He had seen avalanches before. Bluffs like that just did not collapse.
He saw the sky behind the mountain.
It was changing to red. Yet it was not sunset.
“It’s a volcano!” yelled Kate.
He saw the attackers standing in their tracks and looking back at the Mountain, their faces eerie in the red glow.
The faces of the people around him were also fixed on the Mountain. In a moment David and Kate were beside him.
The Mountain, like some giant prehistoric monster in its death throes, was convulsing, heaving, divesting itself of trees, rocks, collapsing in on itself, while from its shattered cone poured like dragon’s breath a towering sheet of fire and smoke.
“How can it be a volcano if it’s a limestone mountain?”
“Then what is it?”
“It cannot be …”
“The tutumaiao,” he said quietly.
“It’s come at last?”
“The revenge. It is the utu.”
CHAPTER 45
16:00 hours on Wednesday 26th January.
The Mountain or the remnant of the Mountain had ceased to belch out fire. The fiery glow remained and the bush appeared to be still burning on the flat at its base though smoke obscured the flames.
The attackers seemed to have fallen back into the bush and the gunships had disappeared.
Suddenly a familiar and ominous roar broke in on the defenders.
“They’re coming again,” called Johnny.
Then Kate saw the helicopters. They were not black and unmarked, but white with a red kiwi on a blue roundel.
“They’re Iroquois and they’re ours, lads,” cried Johnny.
Kate saw the marked helicopters landing on the river flat. Policemen in light and dark blue and soldiers in khaki leaped down from them and rounded up the jungle-green soldiers who seemed to have lost their urge to fight.
The policeman at the head of the arriving force raced towards the pa and was scaling the barricade.
“What the hell’s going on here?” said Matthew Piriaka.
The defenders did not answer but gathered together round him, anxious and white-faced.
“What about our families?” asked Johnny.
“They’re safe,” said Matthew. “Our guys and airport control picked up the Black Hawk on radar and communicated by radio with the pilot. Apparently he didn’t know what he was carrying. We got him to land on a Kaingaroa Forest air strip.”
You would have thought the people in the fort were the All Black team which had just won the World Cup and Matthew Piriaka was their captain. With huge smiles and faces awash with tears, they raised him on their shoulders in the midst of a cacophony of whooping and weeping.
An army officer approached Matthew with a puzzled expression. “Those boys didn’t want to fight us,” he said. “They handed over their weapons and then asked what money we could offer them.”
Bill who was standing nearby grinned. “I’ve met some of them. When they think they’re not going to get paid, they just switch sides.”
Stumbling over the flat now came a forlorn and ragged knot of people. They were neither soldiers nor policemen. More like refugees fleeing from a war zone. Originally they may have been dressed in white or blue uniforms, but their clothes were burned, blackened and torn by the smouldering forest through which they had come. Many were hobbling or dragging damaged limbs. Though they were in a group, they did not seem to be supporting each other, but every now and then looked back with fearful glances towards the grotesque red glow of the Mountain.
“Do any of you speak English?” David called.
One of the group nodded. His face was pale and soot-covered. His fair hair was interlaced with congealed blood which had already stained his tattered blue overalls. He blinked as if unable to focus.
“Sorry, can’t get used to this sun.” The accent appeared to be American.
“Your men will get help,” said David. Already Kate, Dick, Stan and Bill were setting up a first aid station and assisting the refugees to it.
He looked surprised. “Thanks.”
David pointed to the Mountain. “So you got out of there?”
“It was hell. We had only twenty minutes to leave; then as we tried to get away across the flat, we heard and felt the explosion and next minute the rocks were falling everywhere and trees started to catch fire.”
“What happened inside the Mountain?”
“I don’t know.”
“Matthew, did the air force bomb it?”
The policeman shook his head.
“Can I help?” Another man spoke with the same accent but with a tone of authority. One arm hung limp, his face was deeply gashed and his once white laboratory coat hung around him in soot-covered, bloodstained rags.
Tane broke in suddenly: “Are you Stephen Deveney?”
“I was his assistant. When I was called to the Control Room,” his voice broke, “I saw him.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was lying over the control panel. I knew he was dead. Then I saw the Chairman. He had a gun. He was shouting at me and telling me to stop something. But the sirens had already started and I realised what had happened. I said I couldn’t do anything, and he began shooting. I only just got out.”
“What did he ask you to stop?”
“Something which should never have been started.”
“Is it an emergency device?”
“Stephen designed it to stop his work falling into enemy hands.”
“How was it set off?”
“Stephen’s body appeared to have fallen on it.”
“Do you think he had anything to do with it?”
“If he did, it was a damn fool thing.”
In his mind Tane saw the scene inside the Control Room just before Stephen had died. He saw a scientist like himself, brilliant but blind. A man who had been deceived, but whose eyes were suddenly, terrifyingly, opened.
Could this have been his last, desperate defection?
“I wish I’d known him.”
Tane looked out over the wreck of the Hollow Mountain. He saw the fiery red glow which lingered over it like the terrible glow of the tutumaiao. He saw the truncated cone, gouged out and black, like a fearful monster mutilated in its death struggle and transfixed in a pool of its own blood.
So Papatuanuku’s price had been paid. It had been paid in the destruction of that beautiful taonga of which he was the discoverer. It had been paid by the burial of the mineral which would have defiled it. It had been paid by the life of the man who, like him, had been tragically caught up in this defilement.
He knew then that in spite of the destruction the mountains were healed.
He knew also that in their healing his own healing was complete. He had done what his grandmother had hoped he would do. He had taken away the shame of Hone and his family. He had made right what was wrong.
CHAPTER 45
The events in the Raukumara Ranges were accompanied by the reinstatement of Rotorua’s power by technicians quickly flown in from overseas.
There followed a nationwide announcement by the Prime Minister. Upon that announcement Gordon Harding had pondered long
and hard. Though old and tired, and a man whose values and loyalties many considered to be outworn, he did not lack courage in facing what was for him a crisis of the most ego-shattering type. Upon calling for an enquiry into the activities of the secret political group, The Brotherhood, which controlled the Hollow Mountain base, he was immediately given a list, showing as members some of his cabinet colleagues and their coalition partners who had urged negotiation with the terrorists. The realisation that they already knew of the Hollow Mountain complex and were using the base to engineer the take-over of his country by a secret racist group had a profound effect upon him.
He consulted briefly with Sir Robert Roydhouse, one of the few loyal members of Cabinet, then made his broadcast on 1YA National Radio at 6 p.m. on Thursday January 27th.
New Zealanders, men and women from all walks of life, and all those who hold our country dear, I have a vital announcement to make to you. I have this evening received a joint report from Police and Army Headquarters of the forestalling of an anthrax attack on the City of Rotorua by a terrorist group located in the Raukumara Ranges. This group was also responsible for the recent sabotage of the Rotorua power station. At the same time the army and police have captured and destroyed the terrorists’ base in the Raukumara Ranges. I would like to commend Sergeant Matthew Piriaka of the New Zealand Police personally for directly contacting me with information which led both to the forestalling of the attack and to the location of the terrorist base. I thank him and all those who were in action in the Raukumara for their courage and resourcefulness against great odds.
I have ordered a full-scale enquiry into the activities of the secret group known as The Brotherhood, who have, under cover of the Waitoa Huia Sanctuary, set up this clandestine military base. We have reason to believe that many positions of influence in industry, the professions, business, the public service and even in Parliament itself are held by its members. Their main characteristics are racial, national and ideological intolerance and incalculable duplicity. Moreover, this group have been responsible for a media campaign using fabricated acts of violence which has shown a total disregard for the truth in a deliberate attempt to promote racial disharmony and to set the scene for a racist coup. I apologise now publicly on behalf of our whole nation to our Maori citizens for the unwarrantable and baseless insinuations cast at them as a result of the malicious orchestration of the terrorist highway attacks.
It has come to my notice that two people died as a result of the engagement in the Waitoa. The first was the chief scientist at the base who assisted our military operation by destroying the base during the engagement. We understand this action which cost him his life was undertaken because of his conscientious objection to the use of anthrax, and we are pleased to honour him posthumously by pardoning his part in the conspiracy. The second was Sir Charles Hawthorne, a generous benefactor and outstanding citizen. We can only regard his part in this misguided project as a tragic and inexplicable mental aberration and trust the good he has done in our society may yet be remembered.
People of New Zealand, I love my country, and I love its people whatever race they belong to. Maori or Pakeha or any other race, we are all proud to be New Zealanders. The Hollow Mountain complex and the terrible biological weapons stored there would have become the base from which other cities would have been attacked in the same way as the City of Rotorua. Fortunately, with the destruction of the base this secret terrorist group has collapsed and New Zealand has been spared this fate.
It now remains to decide on the future of the Waitoa Sanctuary. There is no doubt that false information led to the setting up of this sanctuary. It is now obvious that the reported sightings of the huia were fabricated for political purposes, and the Government deeply regrets the disappointment that this will cause to many, especially the Maori people. However, there exists yet the hope that the huia will be rediscovered in this area. For this reason the Government has decided that plans to open the Raukumara Ranges for tourism and mineral exploration will be shelved and the Ranges will remain as a natural wilderness so that these birds if present may be undisturbed.
Finally there has been a suggestion that in memory of events of the last few days, the site of the destroyed base in the Waitoa Valley be named the ‘Valley of Peace’. Bearing in mind the naming of Hiroshima after the last war as the City of Peace, this would appear appropriate.”
CHAPTER 46
“I was very annoyed about the Prime Minister’s speech,” said Kate as she passed David a cup of tea and sat down opposite him in her flat. “It wasn’t the police and the army who defeated the Hollow Mountain.”
“What does it matter? Tane is coming back to the Department. He asked me first if they would have him back. I told him he’d have to mend a few bridges and share his research. He already had decided to do both. Apart from that no one wants him to give up his ideas. We’d all be the poorer if he did.”
“But, seriously though, nothing would have happened if it hadn’t been for you. Those people would have taken over.”
“I only started it off, but in the end, if we are honest, we would all be dead if it hadn’t been for Stephen.”
She nodded. “I’m glad he’s been posthumously pardoned. I noticed that the Prime Minister didn’t mention the uranium.”
He smiled. “Tane was relieved. Though he always knew that uranium mining was not forbidden in New Zealand law, he was never happy about it. In any case it’s now buried beyond recovery and the underground exit is blocked.”
“Did you hear about the vigilantes?” she asked.
“Donald Borrow and his mates really did disguise themselves with brown paint and tattoos. They’ve all been arrested and charged with the four highway assaults. And you were right about your conspiracy too. There was a well-known public relations firm involved, and there’s been a lot of sackings in their political team. The directors said they didn’t know what was going on. Since the PM’s announcement there have been extraordinary scenes – Maori and Pakeha hugging each other and shaking hands all over the place, in the streets and the pubs and on the beaches. I never thought that New Zealanders could be so emotional.”
“The healing has begun,” she said softly.
“Tane now says this healing is our greatest taonga. I didn’t understand him before, but now I’m learning.”
“What happened to Sir Charles?”
“The staff at the Mountain who got out said he would probably have tried the underground exit to Pataratara, but I guess he didn’t make it when the tunnel collapsed.”
“What about the other members of The Brotherhood in New Zealand?” she asked.
“The Hollow Mountain defence force and scientists are all going to be sent back to their own countries. The army didn’t want the defence force. Quite a few prominent professional people, civil servants and Parliamentarians have been arrested, including Randall Richardson, Dr Holcroft and Kevin Carr. It appears that the anthrax attack was ordered by Sir Charles alone, so there will be some mitigation.”
“It’s a pity they can’t let them all go free,” she said.
He looked at her in surprise.
“I suppose they’ve made mistakes, but so have we all. I mean they just got angry, didn’t they?”
He knew she was also talking about him. “Fortunately, some of us can change,” he said.
She smiled and took off her glasses. Her eyes twinkled in the same way as they had when he first met her on One Tree Hill. “I’m glad you’ve changed.”
“I need a lot of help. I mean I still get angry.”
“I’m sure you’ll work things out on your own.”
There was a pause. “What about you? What are your plans?”
“They were going to fire me, but now it’s back to the balance sheets and the profit and loss. It all seems a bit boring after this.”
A longer pause. “We were a good team, weren’t we?”
Her eyes twinkled again. “The best.”
A third pause
even longer. “I was wondering if we could continue – er – to be a team.”
She gave that rippling laugh. Then she came to sit beside him on the settee and somehow her fingers became entwined with his. This time she kept them there. “Mr Professor, when will you ever say what you mean?”
***
David and Kate’s wedding was duly held at the Church of St Peter-on-the-Hill, where Harry Mountjoy, reinstated as vicar with a public apology from the bishop, officiated together with Kate’s pastor.
When Kate came alongside David in front of the altar, she smiled that beautiful smile and whispered “Hi, Sir Galahad.”
Kate’s father, a ruddy-cheeked farmer from the Kaniwhaniwha, gave her away. Her mother had been delighted to make Kate’s wedding gown, and her two brothers were ushers. Mr John Corbishley was present and expressed to everyone his opinion that his son who was a quiet worker had somehow discovered the best wife any man was ever likely to find. He also confided that he had found “just the right house” for the young couple and it was “a great buy”.
The occasion was also marked by a notable Raukumara reunion. Tane was talking with Eruera who was representing Te Whanau-a-Apanui. Matthew, now Detective Inspector Piriaka, attended without a police cordon. Stan McTaggart’s baritone voice could be heard in fullest flight, and Eleanor was at his side, together with John and Leone. Dick Burton and his wife were there, Dick already speaking of his plans to rediscover the huia. Bill Weatherley and his wife were there, with Bill waiting to get outside to light up. Johnny Matiu and Tom his pilot flew up in the helicopter with their wives and were in no danger of being hijacked. And many were the tales of the Raukumara told and retold with much wine, laughter and good fellowship.
***
Healing has come also to the Waitoa. Over the wounded, violated land – the burned ground, the broken trees, the slips – the bush begins to grow again. In the Valley of Peace, the river sings softly through the flat below the Hollow Mountain to a glorious symphony of bird song. On its banks may be spotted at certain times a familiar ginger-haired figure with a tape recorder in his hands, listening for the calls which all New Zealand is waiting to hear.
Show Me a Huia! Page 25