Blood Is a Stranger

by Roland Perry

  ‘Then where did the Hercules come from and go to?’

  ‘Darwin airport.’

  ‘Bullshit!’

  ‘Look, Burra!’ O’Laughlin said, ‘the bloody thing is there. It’s at the hangar. One of my blokes inspected it at dawn today. Do you want to go with me now?’

  Burra’s eyes searched O’Laughlin’s creased face. He trusted him but didn’t believe Richardson’s story. Burra had to see for himself.

  ‘It’s a con trick!’ Burra grumbled as O’Laughlin showed him the Hercules in Richardson’s hangar at Darwin airport. The plane was empty except for mail bags.

  ‘It’s a sting,’ Burra added angrily.

  ‘Well, you tell me how,’ O’Laughlin said, ‘and I’ll do something about it.’

  ‘I’m certain it was flown out of the country!’ Burra said. ‘My son and three other Bididgees watched those forklift trucks getting yellowcake barrels into the plane!’

  ‘If we had proof that he smuggled yellowcake out of Australia, Richardson would be up to his arse in crocodiles.’

  ‘Have you checked with Radar?’

  ‘This is supposed to have happened on Saturday night, right?’ he said.

  Burra nodded.

  ‘Well, I hate to tell you, mate, but the coast guard and the army don’t run the radar stations on the weekend up this way . . .’

  Rhonda awoke with instant memories of the night’s fears and a tumble of mixed emotions livened her face.

  She looked at the puffiness and black barnacles under Cardinal’s eyes.

  ‘It’s nearly nine,’ he said. ‘You got some good sleep after all.’

  ‘Did you?’

  ‘Some. At least I didn’t dream.’

  ‘You’ve had bad dreams?’

  ‘Since I heard about Harry. Hadn’t you better call the Australian Embassy?’

  ‘I should,’ Rhonda said sitting up. She rang and scribbled notes during a brief conversation with the ambassador’s secretary.

  ‘They’re letting me go!’ she said. ‘A flight this afternoon at four. Why don’t you come?’

  ‘Not until after that Soviet party, if Perdonny can get me to it.’ He smiled at her. ‘You’ve plenty of time if your plane leaves at four.’ Cardinal moved close and held her.

  Rhonda searched his face. ‘Why did you come on to me last night?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘it was the moment.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t underestimate how much you attract me.’

  ‘Wasn’t it just an opportunity?’

  ‘Sure.’ Cardinal shrugged. ‘But it happens that I felt something very strong from the first time we met at the ferry.’

  ‘That’s what they all say at the ferry.’

  ‘You don’t believe me?’

  ‘You didn’t show it.’

  ‘I wasn’t feeling too confident then.’

  ‘I understood that,’ she said, touching his hand. ‘You did flirt with me at that first lunch.’

  ‘I have been pre-occupied with this business. You know that.’

  He eyed her closely. ‘I don’t think I understand you.’

  ‘Not many people do. Just about everyone I meet thinks I’m a freak.’

  ‘The fat lady at the circus!’

  Rhonda pulled his hair. ‘Yes! Just like that! People don’t know how to approach me.’

  ‘I didn’t know you from Eve when we met.’

  ‘You have never seen me on the box?’

  ‘Never,’ he said, looking closely at her. ‘Have you worked out of New York?’

  ‘No. So far I’ve had postings to Jakarta, Tokyo and London.’

  ‘New York or Paris would suit you.’ Cardinal leaned over and kissed her.

  ‘Are you teasing me?’ she asked.

  ‘About New York? It would be much richer if you were there. Have you been married?’

  ‘Seven years. We split two years ago. There were a lot of problems.’

  ‘Children?’

  ‘That was a problem. He wanted kids. I wasn’t ready to break my career.’

  ‘What does he do?’

  ‘That was another problem. He used to be my producer. We work at the same network.’

  ‘You see him every day?’

  ‘Not now. He sits at the right hand of the network god on the board, and as an adviser.’

  Cardinal began to caress her back and neck. ‘I want to be inside you . . .’

  Perdonny used a magnifying glass to examine the six aerial photos laid out on his desk before looking up at Myrta, his young Sumatran assistant. She was dark and thin, and had lost an arm in a Jakarta train accident.

  ‘It’s a Hercules,’ Perdonny said. He leant back in a swivel chair. ‘It has the same markings as the one we saw a few days ago at Ujung Pandang. Where did it come from?’

  The girl swept her black hair from her face and sat for-ward. ‘We have a definitive report from our people on Timor.’ She tapped one of the photos. ‘It landed there the night before last and was camouflaged at a military airfield. As soon as it was dark last night it took off again and landed at Ujung Pandang.’

  ‘But where had it come from originally – before it arrived in Timor?’

  The girl shrugged. ‘All we know is that it came in from a southerly direction, which indicates Australia.’

  ‘Has anything relevant been reported from there?’

  ‘Not publicly. We’re checking it.’

  ‘Do you think the plane was used for a hijack?’

  ‘A radio report from Australia says Aborigines in Arnhem Land believe yellowcake was airlifted out of there secretly.’

  Perdonny shot forward. ‘That has to be it. A secret deal between Canberra and Utun to supply yellowcake!’

  Myrta shook her head. ‘Australia would be just as paranoid about Utun getting fuel for nuclear weapons as we would.’

  ‘What about a secret deal between Richardson and Utun?’

  ‘More likely. Utun’s got the people to make bombs, now Van der Holland is in the country. All he needed was the sort of high-grade yellowcake Richardson could supply.’

  ‘Has there been any reaction from Chan at the Cambodian Embassy?’

  ‘Our plant says there was great excitement at the Embassy yesterday over a telex from Ujung Pandang. He could not get hold of it but thinks Chan may be flying there soon.’

  Perdonny congratulated the girl. ‘There is some connection between Blundell, Utun and Chan over the yellowcake and Van der Holland,’ he said. ‘Could you get people working on that?’

  ‘Are you sure there is a three-way connection? You did see Chan and Blundell meet at the docks. Obviously they didn’t want Utun to know.’

  ‘Concentrate on the three-way link for a start.’

  Myrta nodded. She handed Perdonny a letter. ‘From the Soviet ambassador, an invitation for Ken Cardinal to the Soviet party.’

  ‘Did they manage to get a reply from Hartina Van der Holland?’

  ‘Not yet. They couldn’t even tell me if her mother, Tien, was coming. But they expect her. She hasn’t missed a Soviet revolution party for a decade.’

  ‘So Mrs Rich-bitch is a Marxist at heart?’

  Myrta nodded. ‘Especially when she makes such big aluminium sales to the Soviets.’

  Perdonny’s grin evaporated. He stood up to his full height and looked out of his office to the villa’s pool.

  ‘This Chan link to Utun worries me,’ he said. ‘They are seen together often. He seems to have great influence over the president. He virtually “controls” Utun’s strike force. He seems to be displacing, or at least joining, Dalan as the president’s closest confidant.’

  ‘I’m more concerned about Utun getting nuclear weapons,’ Myrta said. ‘I find it hard to believe that the Americans would condone that.’

  ‘Why? Indonesia could never threaten the US.’

  ‘I just don’t think they would go that far in arming a surrogate. It would leak out. Then the Americans would be universally condemned. The Russ
ians might be inclined to give its surrogates nuclear weapons.’

  ‘I’m not so sure,’ Perdonny mumbled. He sat down again.

  ‘What can we do?’ Myrta said in frustration, ‘assassinate Blundell? If your theory is right, he must be masterminding the whole thing.’

  ‘No. We’ll need the US when Utun topples.’

  ‘Well, you can’t hit Utun. It’s been tried. He is so closely guarded.’

  Perdonny agreed.

  ‘Which leaves Chan,’ Myrta said, ‘and he has his own highly trained commandos.’

  ‘But he is the most vulnerable,’ Perdonny said ruminating, ‘for our purposes.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  Perdonny reached for his phone. ‘Our aim should be to sever the three-way links,’ he said, ‘build doubts in their minds about each other.’

  A hundred refugee peasants from a flood two hundred kilometres east of Jakarta trudged with remarkable dignity and elegance towards the poultice hot city as Perdonny’s driver, Bani, took Rhonda and Cardinal to Halim. The peasants toiled with baskets balanced on poles across their backs.

  Cardinal’s eyes fell on an army base opposite a tourist hotel, and the traffic was soon forced to slow down for a tank escorted by two army trucks. The tank squeaked along with its gun barrel thrusting ahead. Their vehicle was almost brought to a standstill.

  ‘Anything you want me to do in Australia?’ Rhonda asked.

  Cardinal considered her for a moment. ‘If you could get hold of the autopsy report,’ he said.

  Rhonda pulled a face. ‘And steal the crown jewels,’ she said, making a note on a pad. ‘I’ll try, but they aren’t made public’

  ‘I didn’t get a chance to go over Harry’s bank statements. I’ll write to the manager authorising you to have them.’

  ‘What should I look for?’

  ‘See if he went into debt. He was a gambler. He liked roulette. Used to spend weekends in Altantic City losing money.’

  ‘What about his girlfriend?’

  ‘I couldn’t work out how close they were. Maybe you could. She said she would move out of Harry’s house soon. I’m having it rented out for the next year until it can be sold.’

  Rhonda scribbled as the driver overtook the tank. ‘Anything else?’

  ‘At the house,’ Cardinal said, ‘you’ll find photos of Harry taken by Kim. Could you check if he has a ring on the small finger of either hand?’

  Rhonda frowned. Cardinal pulled out the photo of him with his son. ‘On this you can see it’s on his right hand,’ Cardinal said giving it to her. ‘On the corpse it was on the left.’

  ‘Any significance?’

  ‘I dreamt that it was on his right. It was in this photo, at least.’

  She eyed him.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ he said. ‘I haven’t fully accepted his death.’

  ‘But you identified the body,’ she whispered.

  ‘Sure, and people who have to do that normally have no illusions that somebody is dead. But I guess because I couldn’t see his face, I still have doubts. I’m compelled to follow them through, for my peace of mind.’

  ‘You sure that’s all you want to know for?’

  Cardinal did not answer. He was thinking beyond a meeting with Hartina.

  ‘If you learn anything,’ he said, ‘please let me know.’

  ‘I promise.’

  Rhonda looked at her watch. ‘That tank! I hope it hasn’t made me miss my flight!’

  Cardinal urged the driver to speed up, and he pulled out to pass other vehicles. Cardinal noticed him glancing in a side mirror. ‘Anything wrong?’ he said.

  ‘Red BMW,’ Bani said.

  Another car was keeping with them. Cardinal kept his eyes on it and when it came close he could see the four occupants, all of whom were dressed in floral shirts and dark glasses.

  ‘Are they following us?’ Rhonda asked.

  ‘Think so,’ Cardinal said. ‘Utun has given you an escort.’

  Suddenly the pursuit car overtook them. It cut in close. Bani was forced to swerve onto the roadside gravel. He had trouble controlling the car. The BMW stayed in front of them.

  ‘Get past them!’ Cardinal ordered. Bani, with his fixed grin becoming demonic, tried to overtake the BMW, but each time he pulled out it did the same. Frustration grew as the minutes slipped by and they were reduced to a crawl.

  ‘Look, we’ve got to get there.’

  ‘Let me drive.’ Cardinal said. The Ambonese pulled over to the left. Bani slipped over into the passenger seat as Cardinal strapped in. He bustled the Holden out into the traffic. The BMW had stopped up ahead, but it pulled out in front. Cardinal checked the rear-vision mirror and accelerated as if he was going to try to pass the BMW on the left. It pulled hard left. Cardinal spun the steering wheel right and slipped past. He put his foot down.

  The BMW was soon on their bumper. Cardinal had his right foot flat to the boards. He eased his left foot onto the brake and then pushed it down without reducing speed with his right. The BMW braked and skidded into the gravel in a cloud of dust. Other vehicles overtook it as it slid to a stop, and then tried to get back into the traffic. Cardinal continued to gun the Holden until Halim was in sight. The BMW gained on them, but only caught the Holden as they arrived at the airport.

  Cardinal ordered Bani to wait as he and Rhonda ran to the ticket counter. The red boarding light was on for her Qantas flight.

  ‘You might just make it,’ the receptionist said, with a look at her watch.

  They dashed for the passport line. There were several people in front of them.

  ‘There was one thing I really wanted to tell you.’ Rhonda said leaning close to Cardinal, ‘Perdonny can help you. I know you don’t trust him, but he will help if you ask.’

  Cardinal was watching the entrance. One of the floral-shirted ‘escorts’ was dodging his way through passengers towards them.

  ‘Did you hear what I said?’ Rhonda asked.

  Cardinal nodded.

  ‘If you have trouble getting out,’ she said, dropping her voice, ‘he can arrange things.’

  Floral-shirt had positioned himself some paces from the passport official.

  ‘Forget me,’ Cardinal whispered. ‘Let’s get you out!’

  Rhonda hugged him. ‘There’s a pilot at Bogor,’ she said in his ear, ‘an Australian working for Perdonny’s company. If I can’t get out today, Perdonny said he might take me early Friday.’

  They reached the passport desk. Rhonda handed over her documents. The official nodded towards four men waiting to inspect luggage at his whim.

  Cardinal stepped forward. ‘She’ll miss her plane!’ he said. He pointed at the departures board.

  Floral-shirt took a few paces forward.

  The customs official pointed at the inspectors and Rhonda was forced to open her case. There was a sharp exchange in Indonesian between Floral-shirt and the customs man. Her case was given only a cursory look before she was bundled through. Rhonda looked back once just before she disappeared.

  Cardinal turned and was face to face with Floral-shirt, who touched the rim of his glasses and strode away. Cardinal walked up one flight of stairs to the main terminal lounge. He could see a bus pulling up at the bottom of the Qantas plane ramp, just as a steward began closing the front cabin door. It was shut firm. Cardinal watched Rhonda jump out of the bus. She hesitated and seemed uncertain what to do.

  ‘Go up!’ Cardinal hissed to himself, ‘get up those stairs!’

  Rhonda hurried to the top of the ramp. She hammered on the door. Nothing happened. She took a few steps down the ramp. The door began opening. Rhonda turned and stepped into the cabin.

  Cardinal had been uncertain whether he was under surveillance. But on the return to Jakarta, he had no doubts, as the BMW stayed close. His dilemma was whether to let them know he was staying at the Sari Pacific or attempt to give them the slip. He discussed it with Bani.

  ‘Robert say you no go to hotel,�
�� he said. ‘I meet you at Hot Hands Harry again in maybe two hour?’

  Cardinal wondered how they would get away from the BMW. He suggested taking the wheel again, but the Ambonese was adamant: he was remaining in the driver’s seat.

  ‘Okay,’ Cardinal said. ‘Drop me at the Borobodur. I’ll pretend to be staying there and leave when I can.’

  ‘No risk, please,’ the driver said.

  Cardinal got out in full view of the tailing car. It was Bakin, the Indonesian secret police.

  Cardinal was alert to the subtle change in manner of Perdonny towards him at their second meeting, this time at his villa. There were no anti-American jibes, and he seemed concerned, in his laconic way, about Cardinal’s safety.

  ‘We are worried about Chan,’ Perdonny said. They strolled to the wall beyond the pool that separated them from a swamp. ‘We fear his influence over Utun.’ He told Cardinal about the Hercules at Ujung Pandang: ‘We have just heard that the yellowcake is to be taken to Bandang for processing. Utun is anxious to use it at the reactor.’

  ‘Could you do anything about Chan?’ Cardinal asked.

  ‘It’s not easy.’ The little man frowned. They looked out over the wall. ‘There are considerable risks.’

  ‘In what?’

  ‘In getting rid of him.’

  ‘You’re that worried about him?’

  ‘He represents the only vulnerability in some conspiracy we are certain exists between the CIA, Utun and Chan.’

  They reached the wall overlooking the swamp. Perdonny pointed out monkeys in the jungle behind it.

  ‘It’s certain that Utun is developing secret weapons at Bandung with Hartina Van der Holland as chief scientist,’ Perdonny said.

  ‘But what’s Chan’s connection?’

  ‘One theory is that the CIA and the Khmer Rouge could be asked to experiment with some new weapon in the Kampuchean resistance against the Vietnamese.’

  ‘Not nuclear weapons?’ Cardinal said.

  ‘They could be small tactical weapons. It depends on what’s happening at Bandung. They may be special Star Wars developments your government wants tried in South-East Asia.’

  ‘Rhonda had an idea that the whole thing had been transferred to Indonesia.’

  ‘Utun would want a trade-off. It’s no secret in Jakarta that he is keen to have nuclear weapons.’