The Cadet Under-Officer

by Christopher Cummings

  “Oh hurry up, hurry up!” she called to herself. “Oh help!” She recognized it as a NORMAC vehicle. Despair and fear welled up in her. She turned like a cornered animal. The man was coming up out of another gully.

  Elizabeth ran from him, across the road and up a low bank. Another fence barred her escape but she scrambled under the bottom strand. The barbed wire tore a long rip in her blouse and a barb made a jagged cut in her back. She cried in pain but kept going. Scrambling to her feet she ran up a long slope through short grass and open bush. As she ran she looked frantically around for some escape, for somewhere to hide. But there was nowhere to hide - no undergrowth, hardly any logs - just lots of small gum trees. ‘Not even any long grass!’ she wailed.

  She looked back and saw the man was on the road not even a hundred paces behind but to her relief he stopped to wave down the NORMAC vehicle and then shouted orders to the men in it. As she reached the top of the gentle ridge Elizabeth saw him bound on in pursuit. A man with a rifle jumped out of the Landcruiser to follow him. Fear almost choked Elizabeth.

  Ahead she saw a small dip leading off down to the left. In desperation she ran down it. After fifty metres it joined a shallow, v-shaped gully. She raced down this at a frantic stumble but was now exhausted and near the end of her strength. Gasping fro air and with eyes going blurry from perspiration she ran around a bend into a much larger dry creek and was confronted by a man in an army camouflage uniform.

  Elizabeth staggered to a halt, her breath coming in painful sobs, her body a mass of flame and pain. Her heart beat like a drum and her eyes were misted and hazy. Despair and defeat took over and she stood swaying on the edge of collapse.

  CHAPTER 4

  THE CADETS

  Cadet Under-Officer Graham Kirk was 17. He was in his fourth year in the army cadets and, as a CUO, was platoon commander of No 4 Platoon, the senior cadet platoon in his cadet company, which came from Cairns. It was the fourth day of the cadet unit’s annual camp which they were spending this year at the Bunyip River Army Camp. This was the third annual camp that Graham had spent in the area.

  Graham’s platoon was bivouacked on the low wooded ridge on the north side of the highway opposite the entrance to the army camp. The ridge was nicknamed ‘Sandy Ridge’ and during the previous two camps the whole cadet unit had camped there for several days. This year, in line with the new army policy of ‘Tier Training’, designed to ensure cadets were not placed in a situation where a cadet was unprepared for an activity, the First Year cadet platoons were in the army camp doing basic training while Graham’s ‘Seniors’ were doing more advanced fieldwork. That morning Graham had arranged three activities on rotation for his sections. While one section was practicing patrol formations a second section was carrying out an ‘Observation and Deduction’ exercise and the third a ‘Static Observation’ exercise against a time limit.

  The Observation and Deduction exercise consisted of a course along which items were placed. Together they told a story. The cadets moved along this individually, sent off one at a time by their corporal at five minute intervals. Graham was at the end and he sent them on to the ‘Static Observation’ exercise, which was being run by Lieutenant Sandra McEwen, the lady teacher who was the Officer of Cadets supervising the platoon while it was away from the company; a requirement as there were seven girls in the platoon. Graham wore army camouflage uniform, slouch hat and basic webbing.

  The course Graham had laid out was down the dry creek line from their campsite to near the highway. At this point two dry creeks came together. Between the two creeks was an open grassy flat dotted with a few dark leafed Burdekin Plum trees. Beyond the second creek was a gentle, grassy slope up to a feature the cadets had nicknamed ‘Bare Ridge’. Along the crest of Bare Ridge ran a dirt road, the Canning Road. This ran north from the highway and went on to cross the Canning River two kilometres away.

  The observation course consisted of some empty food tins, boot prints in the sand; then, at intervals of 25 to 50 paces, a litter of items such as webbing, a ‘bloodstained’ shirt and bandages, helmet, tins of food, a broken stretcher, more bandages, then a soiled map and, where Graham was waiting, a small ‘camp’. The camp consisted of a plastic shelter tied between two small trees, a ground sheet, pack and mess tins on a hexamine cooker.

  The exercise was going well and only the last section had to go through each activity. The first cadet of 12 Section, Roberts, had just come past and been sent on to Lt McEwen at the clump of rocks near the top end of the other creek.

  Graham stood in the sandy bed of the small dry creek bed waiting for the next cadet. As he stood there he hummed happily and reminisced about previous camps. He was happily remembering an incident in this very creek when he was a corporal two years earlier when he heard the sound of someone running down the gully which joined the creek. Out of curiosity he turned, wondering who it could be.

  To Graham’s surprise a terrified girl in a white blouse and purple skirt burst into view. She saw him and came to a panting stop. Her long hair was all over her face, which was lined with fear and streaked with grime. Her blouse was dirty and torn and marked by blood on her right shoulder. Her knees and hands were scratched and bloody and she had lost a shoe and hobbled painfully. Clearly she was desperate and in great distress.

  Then recognition came simultaneously to both of them. They both went to the same school! Graham’s cadet unit had marched out to camp on the Wednesday before the school holidays whereas Elizabeth had only left Cairns the previous afternoon. Graham not only knew her, he had had a strong ‘crush’ on her earlier in the year. Elizabeth was a Year 10, two years behind Graham.

  “Elizabeth!” he cried. His jaw dropped with disbelief. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong? Who are you running away from?”

  Elizabeth had been about to collapse in defeat when she recognized Graham. She thought he was a good looking boy with his sandy hair, blue eyes and strong, clean features but she did not particularly like him. He was a very determined person and she had experienced some difficulty in getting him to stop paying her attention when he had been ‘in love’ with her earlier in the year. Not only did she not like him, she disliked and despised the army cadets. To her they represented evil and she saw them as a lot of military morons and petty tyrants.

  Now she realized in an instant that he was her only hope.

  “Oh! Help me! Save me, Graham!” she gasped, the fear and desperation strong in her voice.

  “What! What from? Who?”

  “Men......trying to kill me.....They’re chasing me,” Elizabeth gasped as she tried to regain her breath. She looked behind her anxiously. That single glance with obvious terror in her eyes decided Graham.

  “Who are they? What do they want?” he asked incredulously but already prepared to help.

  “D...drug smugglers...They killed my uncle back down the road and now... now they’re after me....They’ve got guns....I’ve got proof here.” She held up the briefcase.

  “OK....” Graham looked around. If they had guns he couldn’t do much. “Quick! I’ll hide you.” He pointed to a dead log just behind the little shelter. There was a large prickly bush at one end and a smaller bush at the closer end. Beyond the log was a hundred metres of almost bare ground. ‘There is nowhere else,’ Graham thought.

  After another frightened glance behind her Elizabeth ran forward and jumped the log.

  Graham urged her on, looking anxiously around as he did so. “Quick! Lie down and push into the bush a bit,” he instructed. As she did this it occurred to Graham that there might be a snake living in the dead log. ‘I hope not!’ he thought. But he said nothing, comforting himself by remembering that he had sat on it most of the morning. The ground was sandy with a few prickles but it was a measure of Elizabeth’s fear that she didn’t hesitate. She lay flat, pushing her feet into the bush and holding the briefcase beside her.

  Graham grabbed a drab green plastic groundsheet and draped it over her, pushing it into the
bush around her feet. He picked up his pack and dumped it on the end near her head so that it looked like a heap of gear. Then he walked the few paces back to the creek bed, his heart beating fast with excitement and his mind in a whirl.

  He was not a moment too soon; but it was another cadet who appeared, not a drug smuggler. It was Cadet Lawson and he was fifty metres away coming down the creek. If Lawson had been looking he would have seen but he was obviously busy searching the creek bed, wary of more ‘trip wires’ and pretend ‘landmines’.

  Graham stood waiting, trying to look relaxed and bored. Then his ears picked up the dull thudding of someone running. He looked up and saw a dark-skinned man in black trousers, white shirt and tie come running down through the bush beside the little gully Elizabeth had come down. The man carried a pistol, the sight of which made Graham’s stomach go queasy.

  The man saw him and surprise registered for a moment on his face. Then the man bounded down into the creek bed. Graham felt fear and apprehension but tried not to show it. The man radiated malevolence.

  “Have you seen a girl?” the man snapped.

  “A girl?” replied Graham, trying to sound surprised.

  “Yes, a girl, in a white blouse and purple skirt.”

  “A girl, here! ... No.” Graham tried to sound genuinely astonished. He saw the man looking around, plainly trying to come to grips with the new situation.

  The man turned back to face him. “Who are you?” he rapped, his tone both frightening and angering Graham.

  “I’m Cadet Under-Officer Kirk,” Graham replied, then followed up ... “Who are you?” He almost added sir because of the man’s demeanour and gun.

  “Police,” replied the man. “We are chasing a girl who has stolen a valuable briefcase. She ran this way.”

  At the word ‘police’ Graham felt a real twinge of alarm and doubt. Was Elizabeth telling him the truth? ‘I could get into awful trouble if I lie to the police and hide her,’ he thought. But despite his doubts he shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen a girl,” he replied again, with a sinking sensation in his stomach. ‘I will have to check the truth of Elizabeth’s story somehow,’ he thought.

  The man turned to watch a yellow Landcruiser driving north along the road on the bare ridge. It stopped just out of sight at the head of the little valley. Then he saw another cadet coming down the creek. “You there! Have you seen a girl run this way?” he called.

  Graham could see the man was very worried and angry. Cadet Lawson gaped at him in astonishment. Graham prayed he hadn’t seen him talking to Elizabeth or hiding her.

  “W..w..who m..m..me?” Lawson stuttered.

  The man nodded. “Yes you! Did a girl run past here?” he snapped.

  Lawson wasn’t very bright and was now confused. “Only.. only Nelms,” he said.

  “Who is Nelms?” the man snarled.

  Graham spoke up. “She’s one of my cadets.”

  “A girl, a girl cadet?” the man queried with a tone of disbelief.

  “Yes, there are girls in the cadets,” Graham replied firmly. It was an important principle in their cadet unit that girls be treated with equality and for that reason they were mixed in with the boys in each section and platoon.

  Lawson turned and pointed to where another camouflaged figure had come into sight around the bend in the creek. “Yeah, she’s following me ... There she is.”

  They all looked. Cadet Nelms was a big, well-built girl with large breasts and even at a hundred metres and in a shapeless army camouflage uniform she was most obviously a female. The man stared at her then swept his eyes around the area and looked baffled, obviously wondering how the girl could have vanished. For a moment his eyes rested on the shelter and sleeping bag beside the log and, to Graham’s dismay, he eyed the bushes. Then the man shook his head and looked up and down the creek.

  To distract the man Graham pointed up the small valley. “There are more of my cadets along this creek and a group up there at the top of that other little creek,” he said. As he spoke he was relieved to see the tiny figures of some of his cadets a few hundred metres away. The man looked astonished and muttered something about the place crawling with cadets.

  All the while Graham’s mind was racing, trying to come up with a plan to get the man away from the area. He said, “You can go and ask the others if you like. There is an Officer of Cadets up there, Lieutenant McEwen. She might be able to help.” What was really causing him to perspire with anxiety was that he had just noticed the imprints of Elizabeth’s shoe in the sand right near the man’s feet - unmistakably a girl’s shoe, not an army boot.

  To his relief the man accepted this idea. Cadet Rosemary Nelms arrived and the man stared hard at her. Graham had been a bit concerned the man might think Rosemary was the girl but as she was blonde and Elizabeth was a brunette the man did not seem to doubt she was a cadet. He merely asked her if she had seen the girl. Rosemary looked surprised and shook her head.

  “The only girls I have seen are cadets,” she replied. Her eyes met Graham’s and he gave her a reassuring smile. He liked Rosemary, was very attracted to her in fact, but as she was a cadet he had mentally put her ‘off limits’. ‘No fraternizing across the rank levels’ was the rule and he tried hard to stick to it even though Rosemary’s large bosom held great appeal for him.

  Graham then told them to take the man to Lt McEwen and on the way to search the other creek. He then walked between them and the log to shepherd them past it. The man was now becoming quite agitated. He checked his watch, then began walking as fast as he could. At Graham’s urging the two cadets began trotting along behind him. Both looked puzzled.

  As soon as they reached the other creek, only fifty metres away, Graham walked back past the log and said quietly: “Stay still Elizabeth, they’ll be gone soon.”

  Then he walked down to the creek bed and carefully and deliberately walked over all of the shoe prints he could see. After that he stood and watched the group, their heads and shoulders visible in the small creek bed, until they were right up near the outcrop of rocks. All the while his mind was going full-speed and he was filled with foreboding that he might have made a terrible mistake.

  CHAPTER 5

  ELIZABETH’S STORY

  As soon as the next cadet, Lance Corporal Szelag, had been sent on Graham sat down on the log facing up the creek. Knowing that there would be a few minutes before the next cadet was due he said: “Ok Liz, they’ve all gone for the moment. Stay hidden where you are and tell me what is going on. I’ll tell you to be quiet if someone comes.”

  Elizabeth was feeling cramped and uncomfortable. It was hot and sweaty under the groundsheet and there were ants. Her cuts and scratches were now starting to really hurt, a multitude of pains varying from sharp little needles to throbbing aches. Her breathing had steadied but her heart still beat very fast. She was hot and thirsty and had trouble speaking to begin with.

  “Can I have a drink please?” she croaked. Graham slipped one of his waterbottles in under the groundsheet and she managed to have a drink without pushing the plastic sheet off. Feeling much better she handed the waterbottle back and began her story. She sensed that Graham was in a quandary over what to believe so she went slowly, starting from when Uncle Jack had picked her up that morning.

  When she mentioned Bargheese Graham interrupted. “That’s the man who was just here, who said he was a policeman?”

  “Yes. His name is Bargheese. He’s not a policeman. He’s the man who shot at us. Uncle Jack said he was the mine secretary. He’s lying, I’m sure.” She was positive in her own mind and still very conscious of her own peril and discomfort. Graham was inclined to believe her and kicked himself for not having asked the man for proof of his identity.

  Elizabeth went on to describe the car chase, which now seemed to her just a horrible nightmare. Even now she had trouble accepting that it had happened it was so unlikely and unreal; but when she came to Uncle Jack’s heart attack and the crash her tears came again and
she had trouble talking.

  This was so genuine Graham was moved and patted her shoulder through the groundsheet in sympathy. “Alright Liz, stop for a moment. Here comes another cadet. I’ll tell you when to start again.”

  Elizabeth lay in her stifling hide. With an effort she stopped sobbing and calmed herself. She had been close to hysteria and needed the break. She was also feeling cramps in her arms and legs, sick in the stomach, and needed to go to the toilet.

  The cadet was one of the girls, Cadet Lillis, a pale, thin girl who looked weak and feeble but who was surprisingly wiry. Graham sent her straight on to Lt McEwen. He looked in that direction carefully but could see no sign now of the man Bargheese and was annoyed with himself for not seeing which way he had gone. Not knowing his whereabouts was a worry. As Graham stood watching Cadet Lillis walk off he saw another yellow NORMAC Landcruiser drive north along the road on Bare Ridge. It vanished out of sight.

  He sat and told Elizabeth to continue her story. She now recounted her own flight, on foot and by train, the genuineness of which Graham did not doubt for one moment from her obvious fear and appearance. Liz then again mentioned the proof in the briefcase.

  Graham looked carefully in all directions. “Can you show me some?” he asked.

  “I’ll try. It’s very hot in here and I’m getting a cramp,” she replied, biting her lower lip from the pain of the thorns in her right foot. Sweating and feeling ill she wriggled around, trying not to pull the groundsheet off. Graham held it in position as she pushed the briefcase around to her front.

  Graham stood near her head and held up the groundsheet to give her some light and room, all the while keeping careful watch. Elizabeth clicked the briefcase open and handed out some passports and a computer print-out. Graham was not familiar with passports but recognized what they were and after thumbing through a couple passed them back. Then he scanned the computer sheet.