Choices. Jeff Edwards

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      ‘How many times do I have to tell you that?’

      ‘And he had no OTHER connection with your people?’

      ‘Of course not. What else could there be?’

      Spink gave Connors a shrewd look and then shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose you must be right. I mean … you would have protected him if he had been one of yours … wouldn’t you?’

      ‘Of course!’

      ‘Well if you’re sure, I suppose that’s an end to it. It was simply that to our way of thinking Travers seemed to be such a “convenient” person to have around.’

      * * *

      Connors felt very uneasy about the exchange, and reported the conversation to the deputy director of ASIO, Colin Truscott.

      ‘He was convinced that this Travers person has some other sort of connection to ASIO.’

      ‘I’ve checked every source I know, and no one claims any knowledge of the man. All that we have is what is on our records or on his police department employment file.’

      ‘Nothing unusual?’

      ‘Nothing.’

      ‘What do we do about him? We can’t allow him to continue with this charade.’

      ‘We’ve requested the authorities at ICAC to cease any further investigations to do with Travers. From now on ASIO will handle the matter. If Travers continues with his attempted deception we’ll bring the full weight of federal law down on his head, and he won’t be able to spin his way out of trouble so easily then.’

      ‘Are we watching him?’

      ‘Not yet, but we do know where he is.’

      ‘Where’s that?’

      ‘He’s having a high old time with a couple of his mates from the army. They’re surfing at a place called Seashell Cove.’

      ‘I wish I had half his luck,’ sighed Connors as he made his way back to his office through the chilly Canberra afternoon.

      * * *

      Unfortunately ASIO’s information was slightly out of date.

      Dan, Rick and Sam left Seashell Cove early that same morning, and as the meeting was taking place at ASIO headquarters the trio were standing at the check-in desk at Sydney airport with their surfboards in their individual travel bags, and their backpacks slung casually over their shoulders.

      Once their luggage was checked in the trio moved on to the customs counter.

      It was here that Dan expected to encounter trouble, and his heart was in his mouth as he handed his travel documents over to the smiling woman on the other side of the desk.

      Nimbly she entered the relevant details into her computer while Dan held his breath.

      Had the trio attempted to leave the country as little as an hour before a warning would have flashed across customs’ computer, but since the ICAC had been told to cease their surveillance on Dan the computer alert had been deleted.

      With a stamp and a smile the young customs officer returned the documents to Dan and waved him through to the waiting lounges.

      ‘I need a beer after that,’ smiled a very nervous Dan.

      ‘Too right mate,’ smiled Rick as he slapped his friend on the back. ‘I reckon we could all do with a few to get us on our way.’

      CHAPTER 8

      As a former member of a renegade motorcycle gang, Arny Holland missed the long road trips in Australia’s outback with his fellow gang members, but could not help but think that his current life in Bali had many compensations.

      An arranged marriage to an Indonesian bar girl meant that he did not have to return to his land of birth anytime soon, and the longer he stayed away the less chance there was that he would be arrested for ignoring the various warrants arrests issued against him since he had left his homeland.

      Arny now operated an import/export business that not only turned a tidy profit in the field of cane furniture but also used those import items to smuggle drugs past the alert customs officials.

      Carefully disguised amongst his export goods were clear plastic bags of white powder that turned instantly to gold when they reached their destination, and many of his former gang members, especially his brother Ray, were the recipients of those goods.

      When customs in Australia had managed to intercept a number of his shipments Arny had reverted to the age-old practice of using fellow Australians as ‘mules’ to carry the drugs back home strapped to their bodies or hidden within their personal luggage.

      These mules had been selected carefully from among the variety of people who owed money to their drug suppliers, and had fallen on hard times with little chance of making good on the money owed. Arny preferred to use both men and women who had previously travelled between Australia and Bali, hoping that the customs officials would see that they had cleared customs without adverse findings in the past and would therefore avoid the intense scrutiny of a less seasoned traveller.

      Eventually this plan had also failed, and a number of his mules now sat on death row in Indonesian jails, awaiting execution by firing squad.

      Arny had been able to hide behind a number of corporate entities, and the detailed investigation in both Indonesia and Australia had failed to uncover his overall command of the drug ring, but the problem remained of getting his goods to the market and he now had to find yet another scheme.

      This morning he had received an e-mail from a source he did not recognise, but the message went into so much detail about events that he thought he alone had been privy, Arny was inclined to accept it as a genuine attempt to offer him a solution to his dilemma. However, Arny was not a stupid man, and he was careful to ensure that the proposed meeting would be at a time and at a place over which he had complete control. To that end, he now sat in a cheap Balinese motel watching cartoons on a dilapidated TV. Across the room a pair of his toughest and most loyal bodyguards sat beside the only door while a third scanned the outside from beside the room’s front window.

      Suddenly there was a loud crash in the street outside, followed by shouts of anger and the whoosh of an explosion and the smell of a fire.

      The bodyguard beside the window quickly scanned the street and reported a traffic accident on the road outside the motel and that both cars were on fire.

      Sensing trouble, Arny ordered two of his guards outside with orders to stop and search anyone who attempted to come near their room. He then told the guard beside the window to keep an eye on the accident scene and to warn him if he saw anyone showing more interest in their room than the accident. Arny then turned up the volume on the TV to block out the noise from outside and settled back to wait for his visitor.

      * * *

      Having heard the commotion outside, the man waited a few more minutes, biding his time.

      Then, unseen to the occupants СКАЧАТЬ