This deals with the fall out over the 12 hours after the events at Iggy's bar, you also get so see some of Dutchy's reaction when interviewed by the Federal Police.


Small Fishing Vessel, off Queensland Coast

0138 Middle Watch

The small cabin cruiser was sat just off the isolated shoreline as the tinny approached, shrouded in darkness. Reaching the cruiser one of those on board tied the two vessels together and helped drag the heavy sack aboard dropping it the foot or so to the deck. Once the two from the tinny had climbed aboard one pulled in the anchor while the other hurried up the stairs to find the skipper at the controls, "okay it's time to go," he instructed. The Captain looked a little nervous and started pressing buttons and switches and the boat spluttered to life. After a moment the engine revved and they moved away from the coast into the main estuary.

Once they were clear of the headland and less visible to anyone ashore two dark figures dragged the sack across the deck before one lent down and opened the top revealing the unconscious figure curled in the bottom.

Joined by the apparent leader who had been on the fly-bridge, he leaned over to observe. "Boy, Midge's boss is gonna be so pleased about this. He still didn't believe we'd tracked her down. Get her below and secured, don't want to take the chance that a random Coastwatch plane might see us." He towered over her for a moment then crouched down and caressed her cheek. "Shame you're not going to look so pretty for much longer," he muttered to the unconscious form. Straightening up he glanced at his men, "I'm going to keep the skipper occupied." He stomped away and up to the fly-bridge. Satisfied they were far enough away from the coast it was time to enact the next part of the plan.

"Change of plan mate, we're heading out to sea. We're out for a bigger catch than the tiddlers along the coast."

"How far out? I'm not equipped for open water."

"I'll worry about that how about you just concentrate on steering. Keep your speed constant and head for these coordinates."

The man pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and spread it across the console in front of them. The skipper started entering them but stopped before he finished. "We can't go straight there."

The thug pulled out a knife and held it to the skipper's throat. "Does it look like I asked your opinion?"

"No, but you still can't go there." The fisherman answered somewhat defiantly.

"Shut up and steer!" The thug ordered loudly.

The skipper entered another number then stopped again. "We'll run aground."

"What are you talking about?" asked the thug pressing the knife further into the skipper's neck, causing a trickle of blood to run down onto his shirt. The act an attempt to get the truth out of the man.

"There's a five mile sand bar runs parallel to the coast, if we don't change course we're going to beach." The skipper almost struggled to get the words out, obviously fearful of what could happen to him.

"Stop delaying things and enter that code or I'll slit your throat."

The skipper reached out to add the last digit but stopped again. "I know this coastline, been sailing it all my life, I'm telling you if we do this we'll beach. I can show you on the map."

The thug paused for a moment, there must be something to what the old man was saying if he was so insistent and of course he wouldn't want to damage his boat, it was his pride and joy. "Show me."

The skipper lit up a screen in front of them and brought up their location and true enough a sand bar was clearly shown on the map.

"Okay pops you've proved your point, now get us to those coordinates as fast as you can, but safely, we all want to get there in one piece." He relaxed his pressure on the man's neck and turned to walk away as the old sailor complied, but stopped when he reached the top of the fly-bridge and looked back, catching the old man reaching for the radio. He stomped back over snatched the microphone and yanked it from its connection, then he grabbed a nearby safety axe and hammered the radio to pieces.

"Now get us on course and don't think about trying anything else." The thug hovered nearby watching the skipper to ensure he obeyed.

Meanwhile both of the other men bent over their captive. One grasped her arms and the other her legs they lifted her without too much gentleness and half carried, half dragged her inside. Setting her down in a storage cupboard they left her and locked the door before returning topside.

"She'll be out for a couple of hours at least yet, so we don't need to worry about the neighbours," waving his arms about to indicate the scattered vessels at anchor around them. The number thinning out the further out to sea they went.

"I hope whatever the man wants with this one he lets us have a piece of her first," he commented rubbing his lower leg. "Damn bitch was wild."

"Mate you should have expected that from a Navy chick, they're trained to kill. Lucky for us we kinda took her by surprise."

"Yeah, but she ain't really Navy, she's a doctor, besides she ain't been Navy for years."

"I told you to be careful, once Navy always Navy and knowing she was on the run from the Midge's boss she would have kept her skills sharp."

The other guy continued to whine so the first one turned and headed into the cabin out of earshot and helped himself to a beer from the Esky they had also brought aboard.

x-x-x

HMAS Hammersley, Home Port, Cairns

0247 Middle Watch

After being taken to the hospital for an assessment Dutchy returned to the ship with Kate and they were now in the Ward Room with Dee Morris, one of the Federal Agents who had been involved in transferring Kari to the ship.

"How are you Petty Officer?" Asked Dee, opening a notebook, the introductions having been made by Mike before he left to speak to the rest of the crew.

"I'll live. Have you found Grace yet?" He had no qualms about using her real name this time. After all the story would be all over soon if it wasn't already and looking at the slight woman in front of him it was no wonder that they let things get so out of control.

"No, but we've got everyone out looking. How do you know Lt Finch's real name?" she asked, concern now etched over her face, "and what else do you know about her?"

Dutchy was tempted to rub his face, but knew it would cause pain to his bruised nose, he curled his hands to a fist to help contain his frustration, but when he eventually answered he sounded tired, "we met in the Gulf."

"And you Lt-Commander, did you know about them before tonight?"

"Yes, they both told me the first hour or so at sea. I made the call to keep them both on board. I figured that Dutchy had a vested interest in her welfare and he would keep an eye on her."

"What kind of a vested interest?"

"We were friends, we used to meet during R&R." Dee suddenly realised that this was likely to be the sailor who had been due to transfer out, and one with a very close personal connection with her victim that no one apparently knew about. Whatever happened in the next few hours or days was going to blow the whole case wide open and she just hoped that everyone would be prepared for the fall out. Although not knowing the connection at the beginning she now needed to be sure that her suspicions were correct.

"Friends with benefits?" she asked again. Dutchy didn't answer. "I know it's against navy rules to be on together now, different ranks and all, but back then I'm guessing there weren't restrictions, so I'm going to ask you again were you friends with benefits?"

"No," he answered belligerently, choosing not to expand his answer.

"I need you to level with me Petty Officer, I know she was involved with someone in the Gulf and the way that Lieutenant Commnader MacGregor spoke it sounds like it was more than a passing acquaintance. I can't help you if you don't tell me the truth and it could be more than Grace's life on the line here." Dee was firm and authoritative, clearly she didn't trust what he was saying. She was pissing him off, which on top of the pounding in his head was not the best situation for calm and rational thinking.

"Fine!" he snapped, "I was going to ask her to marry me when we got home. Is that what you wanted to know?"

Dee felt the invisible punch. His admission made the awful state of affairs even worse, but it wasn't something they could deal with now and she filed the information away for the future. "I'm sorry about that. Perhaps after this is all over you will get a chance."

"Not now, it's all too late and she's an officer. It's taboo."

Uncertain how to react to the statement and with the CO keeping quiet the agent moved on with their questioning, "I need you to tell me in your own words what happened tonight."

Over the next twenty minutes Dutchy was forced to relive the events of the evening. He recalled as much as he could including the description of the tan Ute which had carried her away kicking and screaming. With four guys in the car with her, two of which attacked him as two others grabbed her. As he spoke he accepted the mug of tea handed over by Kate.

After a period of several more questions the federal agent wrapped up her notes and put the book in her pocket. "Thank you for your help."

"I have a question." He stated as the agent began to turn to the door. When she nodded Dutchy began.

"Why is she in Witness Protection anyway?"

"I'm sorry that's not information I can divulge." She felt awful for not saying anything, but for now everything about the case had to stay under wraps. "As soon as we have any information we can share we'll let you know," she added and with that said she left the room and the door closed behind her. Kate turned to Dutchy.

"I'll follow up with NAVCOM to see what we can do. How are you doing really?"

Kate had seen him before when he felt he hadn't protected her well enough. At least then they were together and he ultimately saved them both, but tonight he had lost out to the team of thugs that had been intent on kidnapping the woman with him and ensured they had the manpower to do it. Now he was tired and frustrated and needed to sleep. The hospital had ruled out a major brain injury but he could still be suffering a concussion and needed observation for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Thankfully the archaic ritual of waking people up to test their level of consciousness had now been dropped due to advances in brain scans. In his current frame of mind she couldn't rule out that he might lash out at anyone that tried to rouse him. A CT had ruled that the knocks to his head while perhaps giving him some unsightly bruises for a few days had caused no real serious damage.

Kate observed him. He was mentally and physically exhausted, but whether his guilt at not protecting Kari would let him sleep was another matter.

Swampy knocked on the door and entered. "Ma'am, Agent Morris has left the ship. If you don't need him I suggest Dutchy goes to his rack and rests."

"You don't need him here to keep an eye on him?" Kate asked.

"No, I just read the hospital report, sleep and light duties are what is required."

"No," Dutchy's voice, piped up. "I have to find her."

Kate rested a hand on his shoulder as he began to move and indicated with her head for Swampy to leave, a moment later with just the two of them present and the door closed she tried to talk to him. "Dutchy you are going nowhere tonight. You either go to your rack and sleep or I will have Swampy watch over you here. The federal police have things in hand and they will let us know as soon as they have any news."

"I let her down boss, I promised her she'd be safe. Now it's happened again."

"Dutchy listen to me," her voice was firm. "This is out of your control. You did what you thought would be good for her, got her off the ship for a night out with about half a dozen sailors. It was bad luck that you were caught on your own. If she didn't trust you or her shipmates she wouldn't have gone and would not have let you talk her into it."

"But I didn't stop them."

"Dutchy you were outnumbered the police found evidence there were at least four of them who took her and there's an alert out all over, they will be found and we'll get the her back. Now the most important thing is to get you right, so that when she comes back you're fit and you don't worry her. Go to your rack and sleep."

Feeling too drained to argue, he tipped his head in acknowledgement. Maybe a few hours' sleep would help the fuzziness and pain.

x-x-x

Rendezvous, Undisclosed Location, Still somewhere off the Coast of Northern Queensland.

0354 Hrs First Watch

The small fishing cruiser had moved further into open waters during the last two hours and had successfully navigated around the sand bar and was approaching the designated coordinates.

The thug in charge, Logan, stepped on to the fly-bridge and nodded at his team mate who was watching over the skipper. "Bob, go give Jerry a hand to move the catch."

Bob nodded briefly then descended the steps to the main deck. For a few seconds the skipper seemed to relax now that the oppressive presence of the bigger man had gone. However, it was short lived as the guy in charge pulled him away from the controls and pushed him to the floor.

With an experienced manoeuvre he changed the GPS co-ordinates and adjusted the boat's direction and increased the speed.

Feeling the boat shift gear the skipper began to collect himself from where he had fallen, when pushed. Only to find himself face to face with Logan holding a gun out at arm's length. "Don't old man, we've got a change of plan. We're taking your boat."

The skipper seemed to think twice about arguing, but in the end said, "I'll take you wherever you want, just please don't take my boat."

"Pops, it's already a done deal, after all you're not going to need it anymore." Logan had barely finished speaking when he fired at the skipper sending a bullet right through his forehead. The old man slumped to the deck a pool of blood rapidly spreading out around him.

Logan turned his attention back to the controls and stuffed the gun back in his waistband.

Down below the other thugs had removed Kari from the cupboard and dragged her out on deck. She was still unconscious.

Jerry arrived on the fly-bridge and sniggered as he stepped over the body of the skipper. "She's still out, but we're ready for the transfer."

"Good, do me a favour and get rid of the skipper, then clean up. We'll rendezvous with the trawler in less than an hour."

Jerry unceremoniously hefted the skipper over his shoulder and disappeared down the stairs. A moment later a loud splash was heard and when he reappeared he had a mop and bucket. Sloshing water around the deck the blood was soon disposed of. "There, just like new."

Logan glanced over his shoulder and nodded. "Make sure there's no evidence anywhere else."

x-x-x

Naval Command Headquarters, Northern Division, (NAVCOM) Cairns

0906 Hrs Forenoon Watch

Kate, Mike and Maxine White were all assembled in Maxine's office to debrief over the previous night's events.

"How is Petty Officer Mulholland this morning?" asked Maxine.

"He slept well considering and is confined to the ship on light duties on medical advice." Kate answered, opting not to share the he's also a bear with a sore head informationshe was privy to from their encounter when he assumed watch at 0800.

"Good. I hear he was interviewed by the Federal Police after rejoining the ship and was able to provide more information?"

"Yes ma'am, he was able to describe the vehicle and the number of attackers, which matches some evidence apparently found near the bar."

"Excellent. Now to the matter at hand. It seems last night's events have left egg on the faces of the federal police and they got a bit of a kick in the teeth. Since Lieutenant Finch was abducted they have been on high alert and the investigation has moved forward considerably."

A seaman escorted a visitor in plain clothes to the door of the office and knocked. Maxine waved them in. "Agent Morris?"

"Commander White, yes, thank you for seeing me," greeted the agent from the night before.

"My second in Command, Commander Mike Flynn and I believe you know Lt-Commander McGregor from HMAS Hammersley," she introduced the two other officers with her. Dee acknowledged them. "How can we help you agent Morris?" Maxine asked as they took the seats she indicated, while Mike perched against the book rack at the side of the office.

"First of all on behalf of the Federal Police we want to apologise, we dropped the ball on this. We underestimated the imminent threat to your officer."

"More than dropped the ball I'd say," Mike added gruffly.

"Commander, no one is more sorry than I am. I have been the case officer for the whole time. My team may have changed, but I am the one constant in trying to protect your Lieutenant, probably the closest thing she has had to a friend since this all started."

Maxine could see Mike bristling for another dig, but she spoke first, "Agent Morris, as you can imagine we are very concerned for our officer, what can you tell us of the investigation? Is there any news?"

"There have been some developments. Through security cameras we managed to track the Ute, it headed towards a small Marina on the outskirts of the city, but we lost it before it arrived. We believe they took cover in shrub land along the coast and possibly transferred to another vessel, likely a boat of some kind." She handed over a file, which Maxine looked at. "First thing we interviewed the Marina staff and they confirmed a small fishing cruiser sailed about thirty minutes before the abduction heading north. Two men on board. They noted it as it is not usual for the skipper to go out at that time, but he had been preparing for an early charter. We think the gang had someone hijack the master and his boat and head out to a rendezvous away from cameras."

"You lost them?" Maxine asked in shock. "Why didn't you apprehend them before they got out on the water?"

"We weren't there, by the time our unit got to the marina they had already disappeared. We brought in Coastwatch first thing this morning, but we can't track the vessel. We want to enlist the Navy's help."

"And you wait until now to come to us." Maxine answered crossly. "Why didn't you tell us last night, they could be anywhere by now."

"It's taken us a while to gather the intel and confirm what happened, we thought with her connection to the navy they would avoid taking her out to sea."

"I'll deal with your incompetence later, but for now let's deal with the matter at hand. Kate crash sail Hammersley, I'll retask Kingston and Childers to assist. Will Petty Officer Mulholland need to be landed?"

"He's on light duties, but when he hears he will want to be involved. He feels extremely guilty for not stopping the abduction and if he's not with us he is likely to take off on his own, so I'd like to keep him aboard. Lieutenant Bedford will be able to lead any boarding party with Chief Petty Officer Thorpe."

"Very well. I suggest you also now be open with your crew so they understand the situation." Maxine's advice was sound, the crew had already been asking questions which she had overheard at breakfast.

"No," Dee interrupted. "You cannot break the Lieutenant's cover."

"It's too late for that. The crew already suspect a furphy after last night. They deserve the full story and I trust them one hundred percent. If you want to keep it up for the other crews, fine, but for Hammersley I will be telling them the truth." Kate was firm and barely disguised her anger in the response.

"You don't know the truth," Agent Morris responded.

"I know you have had her in witness protection for three years separated from her family and friends. This outstrips any normal process. You've told everyone that she died in a helicopter crash in the gulf and you kept moving her around supposedly to protect her while the criminals she is supposed to testify against go scott free."

"How do you know all that?"

"Because I trust my sailors. The attempt to reassign Petty officer Mulholland before she joined us failed, they knew each other immediately." Kate shot back. "When they realised what had been going on they confided in me and we kept up the ruse for the rest of the crew."

"So it wasn't a coincidence that you assigned them together for steaming that yacht to port." Maxine commented.

"No, but not because of the fact that they knew each other. She was the doctor and was tending a patient. Also should anything have happened he was the best person to have protecting her."

"Didn't appear so last night." Dee answered in a critical tone.

"That wouldn't have been necessary if you were doing your job," Mike responded equally critical.

"Okay, calm down. Kate, recall Hammersley, we'll liaise with Coastwatch and see what we can salvage. Agent Morris we need all information you have on the vessel and the time and direction they left in."

Dee realised that she wasn't going to earn their favour unless she gave them more information and it was clear that the navy would have the advantage when it came to tracking the gang by sea. "It's an O'Brien thirty-three according to the Marina manager, it's used for charters along the coast for fishing tours. Not kitted out well for long range or deep sea."

"It's a common vessel in these parts. The good news is that any charters are by law supposed to have on board GPS. We'll need the GPS locator code from the owner," Mike commented.

"What sort of range is something like that going to have Mike?" Maxine asked.

"About six hours more if they're doing top speed, but if they want to stay under the radar they will be fitting in with other vessels, so probably they'll probably have about a four hour lead. Of course they may only have gone a short distance and stopped along the coast."

"We're already following that up, but we need help with a sea search."

"Okay, you heard her, Kate we'll work up a search grid and assign target areas as soon as we can, for now prepare to sail."

"Yes Ma'am," she answered standing up, and saluting before leaving the room.

"Mike, have Agent Morris provide you with all details. I'll get our teams working on the search."

Maxine followed Kate out and stopped outside her door facing the various staff around the tables in front of her.

"Attention everyone. We have had a request from the Federal Police to help the search for our missing Lieutenant. I want you to check in with all our assets and confirm their locations and alert them we will be assigning them a search grid, looking for a fishing vessel. She turned to the Lieutenant sat nearest her. Lieutenant Jones, I want you to review all radar footage recorded by our ships from 2300 hours last night, looking for a vessel leaving Cooper's Marina, also if there is anything you can get from Coastwatch have them send it over."

"Yes Ma'am."


So there is a lead and Hammersley are on the tail of the gang who abducted Grace.

Posted: 25Feb19