by Ian W Taylor
*
SATURDAY -MATARANKA
A police escort met Bill on the Stuart Highway, some 50 kilometres from Mataranka and led them on to the Mataranka Hospital where Lizzie and hospital staff were waiting to take Koshi and Jake inside. They were immediately loaded onto stretchers, taken by elevator up to the second floor and wheeled out to separate operating theatres where medical teams were waiting. Jake was by now in a lot of pain and had lost quite a lot of blood from the wound to the leg. The medical staff administered morphine for the pain and set about cleaning up his wound. Before long he was attached to a number of drips feeding him antibiotics and saline solutions. He was sedated and quickly fell asleep.
In the next room, after being given painkillers, Koshi underwent a thorough assessment of his concussion and a clean-up of his many cuts and bruises. He had his ankle x-rayed which showed no breakages but severe strain to the tendons. He was sedated and moved into a private room next to Jake’s room with a connecting door. Exhausted by his ordeal he sank into his bed and was asleep in minutes.
AFP officers were stationed outside each of their rooms with instructions not to let anyone in except authorised medical personnel. Koshi was the first to wake up some two hours later and asked to speak to his wife. He was handed the telephone and talked to his relieved wife, assuring her he was safe and sound. By then he had a number of visitors anxious to talk to him; first the Japanese Foreign Minister and the Japanese Ambassador who been flown to Mataranka airport courtesy of a police helicopter arranged by John Fisher. They were clearly overjoyed to see him alive and in good spirits. He then took a call from Anna Sentoro who expressed concern at his ordeal, offering her full support to assist his recovery and prompt return to Japan. Lastly he was visited by John Fisher who was accompanied by one of his Task Force and an interpreter. That interview went for thirty minutes before Koshi started to get very tired and a nurse shooed them out of the room. They were shocked by the revelation that the terrorists were Chinese.
In the next room, after a dead sleep for a couple of hours, Jake awoke to see the familiar faces of Shoni and his father peering at him anxiously. He sat up and hugged them both in turn, feeling deep emotion for each of them for saving his life. He realised that they were the most important people in his life, his father who he had known all of his life but had never felt close to until now, and Shoni who he had first met just a few days ago but felt like he had known her all his life.
They discussed the events of the previous two days filling each other in on their experiences. A nurse entered the room, announcing that the AFP Commissioner was outside and keen to interview Jake. Shoni and Bill left the room while John Fisher and his assistant came in. They explained they had interviewed Koshi and wanted to get Jake’s version of what had happened. Jake answered their questions for an exhausting forty minutes before starting to doze off and they left him in peace, indicating they would return to continue that evening. Fisher then arranged for AFP officers to drive out to the Lost Temple to recover the bodies of the two dead Chinese and retrieve Jake’s rented Land Cruiser.