The Cadet Under-Officer

by Christopher Cummings

  Bargheese turned to face them. The female CUO began telling him what she thought of him in loud and insulting terms. CUO Bell was again crouched ready to spring. Martinez and Lewis seemed to be just standing paralysed. Bargheese aimed the shotgun just over their heads and fired again.

  At the shattering bang there was instant silence. “Sit, or I start shooting at you,” he shrieked. He was desperate and this communicated itself to them. His men looked worried and fingered their weapons. The cadets remained standing and Bargheese felt his desperation rise. He aimed the shotgun at the two CUOs. “Sit!” he snarled.

  The two CUOs stood defiantly, ready to pounce. Barheese tightend his finger on the trigger.

  “Sit,” said Mrs Standish quietly. She had regained her feet and was holding her throat. The cadets at once sat down silently.

  “There she is!” Murphy called. Bargheese turned to look. Berzinski and Vincent had gone down over the river bank out of sight but Barbara had reappeared three hundred metres away just on top of the bank. She was running hard through the thorn trees towards Black Knoll.

  “Get going Murphy! Cut her off! Take the vehicle you fool.”

  Murphy raced to a Landcruiser and jumped in. In a moment he was roaring along the track. Bargheese fired the shotgun to try to attract Berzinski and Vincent back up the bank. They hadn’t taken a radio and couldn’t hear his shouts. All the cadets began shouting again. He turned to face them and levelled the gun. The cordite smell wafted over them and their CUOs silenced them.

  The girl was half a kilometre away by this. Murphy was now up level with her, only a hundred metres on her right but Bargheese saw that the vehicle wasn’t slowing down. Instead it kept following the road to the right of Black Knoll and vanished over the crest in a cloud of dust.

  “The gutless rat! He’s run out on us,” Bargheese swore. He felt sick. Everything seemed to be going wrong. He grabbed his radio and called the helicopter. At that moment Berzinski appeared on top of the bank and set off after the female CSM. She vanished into a creekline at the bottom of Black Knoll.

  The helicopter arrived with a clatter of rotors and Bargheese directed it on. It detected the girl almost at once, climbing up Black Knoll. Bargheese thought he got a glimpse of her though the trees. His best plan was to use the helicopter to put someone down in front of her, on the Canning Road or the gravel scrape at the bend in the Canning. ‘But who can I send?’ he wondered. Then he realized that it had to be himself. He called the chopper back.

  The helicopter circled to land. ‘That will only leave two men to control the cadets. Is it enough?’ Bargheese worried. ‘It will have to do,’ he decided.

  Bargheese ran towards the helicopter. As he did he saw a Landcruiser coming down the track. Murphy coming back? He stopped and waited.

  It was Falls returning. He asked, “Where’s Murphy goin’? I just saw him turn onto the highway headin’ for Townsville?”

  “The gutless bastard has run out on us. Stay here and guard these cadets. I’m chasing that bloody girl.”

  “What, The girl?”

  “No, that bitch of a ginger-haired Sergeant Major,” Bargheese spat. “Stay here and help guard this lot. I won’t be long.” He ran to the helicopter and clambered in.

  The helicopter was airborne even before he had his seat belt done up. It then clattered along just above the tree tops, climbing up over Black Knoll. Berzinski was visible running on the flat area on top of the cliff and Vincent could be seen plodding along in the sandy bed of the river but there was no sign of the CSM. Bargheese cursed and had the helicopter circle low so he could look into the gullies and behind rocks. With a sinking heart he realized that catching this girl would be a very different kettle of fish. She was no shrinking violet. She was physically fit and mentally tough and was dressed for the job. Undoubtedly she was trained at camouflage and concealment and wouldn’t be afraid of the bush, or get lost.

  Then more bad news. The pilot told him they were short of fuel. For a moment Bargheese contemplated going with it to start his own escape. But it was only 3pm. It would be an hour or so before Barbara reached the Army Camp (he admitted it as a certainty), but it would be some time after that before the police would react. There was still a chance. He told the pilot to drop him back at the tents then go and refuel.

  “Be back as quickly as you can.”

  CHAPTER 30

  BARGHEESE THE BEAST

  Bargheese landed to be confronted by Falls and a very angry Mrs Standish. Falls was almost beside himself with fear. He gestured to where the wounded CUO lay on a stretcher beside Cadet Hamley. “You bloody fool Bargheese! As if we weren’t in enough trouble already!” Falls shouted.

  “Shut up Falls, you ignorant toad. If we don’t get that brown notebook we are dead so never mind the police. They’re the least of our worries.”

  Mrs Standish intervened. “She got away then.” It was a statement. If she had so much as smirked Bargheese would have hit her but he suddenly felt deflated and drained. He nodded.

  Mrs Standish continued, “Good. Then this murder can stop. CUO Bronsky is in great pain. He needs a doctor. I think his shoulder blade is broken. Cadet Hamley is coughing blood and will die if he doesn’t get proper treatment.”

  “They will. When you give me the brown notebook,” Bargheese replied.

  “Alright. Your game is up anyway. Give me the radio.”

  “No more of your tricks!” Bargheese threatened.

  Mrs Standish looked at him with disdain and spoke to the signals corporal, still sitting at his table. “Call Four Platoon for me Cpl Henning.”

  The corporal called but got no response. He called again. “They’re not answering Miss.”

  “Give it to me. Hello Graham. This is Mrs Standish,” she said. There was no response. She tried again, her voice starting to tremble with desperation. “Graham. This is Mrs Standish. Speak to me please. Over.”

  Five times she called. No answer. The radio was working but she wasn’t getting through. They tried using two of the platoon radios which were set on the same frequency. Still no response.

  Bargheese was satisfied it was no trick. For some reason they had lost radio communication. Mrs Standish turned away, sick with despair, and went to help with the wounded.

  Bargheese sat down feeling utterly exhausted. He instructed the signaller to keep trying every five minutes. Time passed. The aircraft called. It was also running short of fuel. Grudgingly he gave it approval to return to the airstrip.

  Falls came to him. “What are we gunna do now?” he asked, almost on the edge of panic.

  Bargheese thought hard. ‘I’ve only got Falls, Martinez and Lewis to keep over a hundred cadets and their officers under control. What should I do next?’ Uncertain he sat and poured himself a drink. ‘What is Kirk doing?’ he wondered. ‘How can I find out?’

  At that moment the cadet signaller called again. Still no reply. The boy noted the call in the log.

  Bargheese watched him. Was there a clue somewhere here? ‘They warned Kirk from here,’ he thought. ‘Has Kirk somehow told them his plans?’ he wondered. He took up the Signal Log. Where was it? Ah, yes! Here! He reread the 10:40 signal.

  “By CSM. BLACK PIG and warning.” The implied racial insult suddenly dawned on him and he seethed, then remembered how Kirk had radioed when they’d been at his bivouac site warning the OC about a ‘big black pig’ in the rubber vines. ‘The boy must have been hiding nearby laughing,’ he thought. He ground his teeth in fury. ‘I will make the CUO pay for that insult,’ he vowed. He went on scanning the Signals Log. He saw all of the calls to and from platoons reporting how the search was going. Then he looked at nicknames written on the map and remembered the list of nicknames and code words.

  There was a BLACK PIG but it meant only ‘crossing Dingo Creek’ but there was no BROWNS COWS. ‘The captain called himself BROWNS COW but on this net diagram on the clipboard he is shown as 49,’ he noted. Another trick! Bargheese remembered the red-haired girl
sitting here writing just after he’d first arrived. ‘That was what she was been up to!’ he thought angrily.

  There was a cardboard box being used as a rubbish bin and in it he found bits of torn up nicknames. The signals corporal wouldn’t admit this but his stubborn face said it was true. ‘The cunning bitch!’ Bargheese thought.

  Again he looked at the Signals Log. ‘Ah! Here is something. The signal corporal’s efficiency is his undoing. He hasn’t been briefed so he kept on logging things down.’ It read: “11:15 from 44 to 4. For CSM. Coded msg.” Coded!

  Bargheese let out a little gasp of satisfaction. ‘That will give me the answer! Why else would it be in code? And what was that fool Murphy doing during all this?’ He turned to the signal corporal. “Where is the coded message?” Bargheese asked in a voice filled with menace.

  The boy wouldn’t meet his eyes. “The CSM took it,” he replied.

  Bargheese began twisting Cpl Henning’s fingers and arm till the boy screamed in pain. Mrs Standish tried to stop it. “Leave him alone you animal!” she cried.

  “Keep out of this, woman. I’ve had enough interference, and enough insults, I warn you,” Bargheese snarled.

  Mrs Standish sighed. “Tell him Cpl Henning. It doesn’t matter now.”

  “What Miss?” Cpl Henning asked nervously.

  Bargheese leaned threateningly close “Who wrote the message out when you received it?” he asked.

  “I...I...I...did. I gave it...to the CSM to decode. She took it... I don’t know what it said.”

  “Did you see the message?” Bargheese asked Mrs Standish.

  She shook her head. “No, I didn’t. You had us in the next tent at that time. The CSM may have told the OC when he returned but he’s still unconscious.”

  Bargheese swore. Mrs Standish tried to distract him. “Can the cadets have some water and use the toilet - at least the girls?”

  “Only if you co-operate with me.”

  “We are co-operating. For God’s sake! Those kids are dying. They need a doctor,” she cried. Tears sprang into Mrs Standish’s eyes and she clenched her fists in frustration. Bargheese was unmoved.

  His radio crackled.

  Falls answered it then turned to Bargheese. “It’s those two pig hunters you hired. One of them’s been shot by a girl. They’re at Quigley’s Mill and they want help,” he said.

  “That bloody bitch!” Bargheese screamed. He instantly knew which girl. Furious he stood up. ‘I can’t afford to take away any of the guards,’ he thought. ‘I will have to go myself.’ “Keep them under control. I’ll be back in half an hour,” he said to Falls. Hurrying out he got into Falls’ Landcruiser. “And don’t worry. I’ll be back. You find that code and keep these kids under control.”

  With that he started the engine and drove off as fast as he dared. First he turned left on the Canning Road and stopped at the bottom of Black Knoll. He blew the horn loudly several times and after a minute Vincent came into sight limping slowly along the road from the direction of the causeway.

  “What’s going on?” Bargheese yelled.

  “I dunno. I ain’t seen Berzinzki or the girl. All I seen is a bloody great big wild pig,’ Vincent replied. He looked exhausted and fed up.

  At that moment Berzinski appeared out of a creek full of rubber vines and was like an angry bull. Barbara had escaped him and he was sore. “Get in!” Bargheese ordered. They did and Bargheese turned the vehicle around and drove up to Bare Ridge and then turned left along the Sandy Ridge Track. As he drove along the dirt track Bargheese looked out and decided he was heartily sick of this part of Australia! Within five minutes they were stopped beside the pig hunter’s truck at Quigley’s Mill.

  The pig hunters were in the sandy bed of Scrubby Creek fifty metres away, near the smouldering remains of a fire. Bargheese saw that the fat ugly one was lying with his leg bandaged and splinted. The thin one with the cowboy hat studded with bullets was holding a cup to his friend’s mouth and seemed glad to see them. “Damn red-headed bitch of a girl in army clothes shot Lenny,” he explained.

  Questioning revealed that the pig hunters had caught three cadets, two boys and a girl. They tried to make them talk with a bit of ‘persuasion’ and when that hadn’t worked they tied the boys to a tree, then stripped the girl and tied her to another tree. They had just begun to torture her with a heated knife blade when the other girl had arrived.

  “She snuck up and got Lenny’s rifle which was leanin’ on that tree. Stupid damn dogs didn’t smell her an’ we’d tied ‘em up,” Wally said. “She ordered us to let them go and Lenny went to throw the knife.”

  “I didn’t think she’d have the guts to shoot,” Lenny moaned.

  Wally nodded. “Yeah, she shot him. The bullet’s broke his leg and he’s lost a lot of blood. She made me back off and took my rifle too. Then she cut the cadets free and after the girl was dressed they went on along the creek towards the highway,” he explained.

  “How long ago?” Bargheese asked. He found the two evil-looking and foul-smelling men repulsive.

  “Be about twenty minutes or half an hour now. Hey, you gunna help me get Lenny in the truck? He needs a doctor,” Wally whined.

  Bargheese ignored him and looked around. Scrubby Creek lived up it its name. It had a thick wall of trees on either side of its sandy bed, the foliage meeting overhead to form a gloomy tunnel. Beyond the creek was a tangled mass of rubber vines and forest of thorn trees.

  ‘There’s nothing to be gained here,’ Bargheese thought. ‘We will never find the female Sergeant Major in that; and none of these men will be keen to go looking,’ he decided, not with the evidence of her ability to use a rifle groaning on the sand at their feet. Bargheese knew he had lost this one. He calculated that Barbara could already be at the highway and he had no doubt she would reach the Army Camp within the hour. Ignoring the pig-hunters pleas for help he led Berzinski and Vincent back to their vehicle and drove off without a word.

  It was already twenty past four. Time was running out. ‘If we haven’t found Kirk within the next couple of hours it will be dark and then we will have no chance,’ he thought.

  Falls called on the radio reporting the helicopter was back patrolling the highway near Bunyip Bend and wanting to know what was going on. They drove back to the cadet bivouac. Bargheese went to sit in the Command Tent. He said to Mrs Standish, “We have just come from two pig hunters who are helping me. They caught three of your cadets and have a nice little girl cadet tied to a tree. She has no clothes on. The pig hunters haven’t done anything to her yet but will if I say so - and don’t forget that Miss McEwen is also my prisoner.”

  Into Mrs Standish’s eyes came a haunted look. She believed Bargheese but didn’t see how giving in would help as she didn’t trust him. She was in a terrible dilemma as it dawned on her that if she helped this monster find 4 Platoon there was no guarantee he would not harm them, particularly Graham and Elizabeth, out of revenge, or that he still wouldn’t hold hostages. Whatever she did was liable to cause death and suffering. Faced with this appalling knowledge and still failing to get permission to get the wounded to hospital, she decided there was no point in further co-operation. She shrugged and turned away.

  Bargheese turned his back on her. The cadet signaller tried again to contact 4 Platoon. There was no reply. Bargheese sat down. He had it in mind to compose a message for the corporal to keep transmitting as he was sure Kirk was listening. ‘I will threaten to execute hostages,’ he thought. He pulled the Army Message Pad of tear-off sheets over and picked up a pen.

  “Ah!” he gasped with satisfaction as his eye caught the patterns. He bent and looked. Clearly visible were the shadows cast by the indentations where a pen had pressed into the paper. Bargheese sat and carefully copied out the letters onto another sheet of paper. He felt excited as he looked at the result. Here under his hand lay the clue. He had never seen anything like it before and, like so much he'd met in the military system in the last three days, it puzzled him
.

  The message consisted of groups of three letters. Bargheese counted the groups. There were 9 of them but they were just a jumble of the alphabet and it didn’t make sense. Beside him was the signal corporal who had been sitting watching wide-eyed with fear.

  Bargheese held the pad under his nose. “How do I decode this, boy?”

  The signals corporal said nothing. Bargheese slapped him and stood up to twist his arm. Mrs Standish went to stop him but was held by Berzinski who said, “There’ll be a codebook boss ... Yeah. There’s one under the kid’s waterbottle.”

  Bargheese picked up a wad of pocket-sized pages stapled together. There were groups of three letters with letters, words and numbers beside them. They were only low security trigrams made up by the cadet unit for training but they were enough to baffle Bargheese. He tried a couple of combinations and became angry and frustrated.

  He considered more torture to make the boy decode it. What rankled most was that it was obviously simple if you knew how and he thought they were all secretly laughing at him. He was about to order Berzinski to start applying a lighted cigarette to the boy’s arms when his eye found a trigram which matched. Next to it was the word OBJECTIVE.

  “There! I’ve got a word. ‘Objective’,” Bargheese said. He felt almost childishly elated at cracking the code. He looked at the next trigram on the page - NQZ - and there it was on the codebook next to the word BLACK. He wrote it down. Then he saw another - JTR, next to PIG. He was about to turn the page when one more group of three letters met his eye - S. Then another - L, and then an A, an I and an R. He wrote them down, then rewrote them and read the message: - OBJECTIVE BLACK PIGS LAIR.

  Then the meaning hit him. ‘Kirk is heading for Brendan Creek!’ A spasm of real fear gripped Bargheese. Failure loomed up to wash out any satisfaction at discovering the CUO’s plans. He told Falls to stay with Vincent and Lewis to hold the cadets hostage ‘until further orders’ (which he had no intention of sending), then he called the four security men from ‘Fossicker’s Reward’ who were now at Bunyip Bend and told them to drive to Brendan Creek as quickly as they could, getting guns in Charters Towers on the way. He then called the helicopter to come and pick him up.