by Brian Cain
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Friday the 1st of October 2010, 7.45 am, the Pacific International Apartments, Canberra. Ben Porter was showering in the en suite of his apartment ready to attend his office in Parliament House. He finished dressing, adjusted his tie in the mirror and opened the door to the lounge area; Lake Burley Griffin looked a picture from the high rise apartment and he studied the view and walked through to the kitchen. Porter was a creature of habit. He went to the fridge and poured some orange juice into a tumbler, picked up his multivitamin tablets from the top of the fridge and washed one down with the orange juice. He went to a cupboard above the work bench top alongside the fridge and began to prepare some coffee, breakfast cereal and popped two slices of bread into the toaster. He turned to walk back into the lounge and looked Stanton in the face standing in the doorway wearing grey overalls. "My god how did you get in here?" moaned Porter.
"Ben, how nice to see you; we only met once but I never forget a face, especially when it's attached to an arsehole. Now come in here and sit down." Stanton backed up and took a position with his back to the wall facing the main access door and next to the table in the dining room. Porter followed him, his face carved with fear and sat slowly down at the table facing Stanton.
"You come to kill me?"
"Already have Porter; you just took a cyanide capsule coated in gelatine. You have maybe two to three minutes. You are the one who sent the sanction for my wife; you should be more thorough. It doesn't matter who you are; you went after one of my family, now you face the music. Were you involved in the arms sale?" Porter looked blankly at his hands on the table.
"You're bluffing; you can't just go around killing people."
"I’ll remind you, now probably only two minutes at the most. Suicide is an epidemic these days especially with the pressure some people are under. With all this shit going on you're already under the carpet Porter. Now does the name Tali Mahir ring a bell?" Porter looked shocked and lost colour.
"Stanton you have no idea what you are getting into, these people are way beyond us."
“They’re way beyond you Porter, that's why you always send me, now what do I need to know? Tucker was acting like you as well and the Hadar joker; you must know something more than you're letting on. Seems to me a lot of people are in danger." Porter starred out the window in a pale daze.
"Millions, tens of millions; it's beyond our control and as for you your time’s up. I summoned security with my pocket remote with any luck you'll be killed in the melee."
"Interesting outlook you have had on life, just push a button and everything will be okay. Your access to the system was shut down before I came in here along with the system for the entire apartment complex. As far as the people on the desk know I'm here to fix it. If anyone was to interrupt us I would simply shoot them. You have failed to access the gravity of what you have done. Now did you sell the weapons?"
"No, I took money to cover it up. I found out by error and made some foolish decisions like go after Jodi Simpson to shut her up under pressure from the perpetrators. It’s John Masters you’re after; he organised the deal. Hadar was looking for him, holding Tucker to ransom but Hadar had an accident before he could get to Masters. Masters redirected the money to other accounts; I have no idea why."
"Mm.... Well I was right you are an arsehole. Tell me do you know how old the girls are who work in your overseas endeavours?"
"You have no proof."
"What I have is regular payments to your Swiss accounts from a company in Indonesia you funded. Two brothels operating under the guise of a kitchenware manufacturing company. They are in your wife's name but she knows nothing about it because I rang her posing as the manager and she was very puzzled."
"You're a damn nuisance Stanton."
"Near time I reckon, I’ll tell you how old they are Porter. The youngest is twelve and the oldest is nineteen. Your establishments are actually quite proud of the fact they have this service as they call it, just ring them and ask. What do you think this is, living in an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful or something? I wouldn't give you the steam of my piss." Porter started choking and held his throat, coughed, groaned then slumped forwards, his face smashing down on the table.
Stanton looked at him for a few seconds then took a tumbler of pills from his pocket and marked them with Porters left fingers and palm letting the tumbler roll onto the table from Porter's left hand. He went into the kitchen and changed the contents of the vitamin pills on the fridge wiping the canister clean. He carefully took the glass of orange juice with a paper towel and two fingers on the lip of the glass placing on the table next to Porter. He put his wig and glasses back on and left the building.