Chapter ten
Welcome to my first Sea Patrol story. It's really the first time I write a story, so please comment on my work. I'm from Belgium, so English isn't my native language. I don't own the show or the rights to the show. This story is my creation. I used the original characters, but I added some of my own.
This story starts approximately 2 years after season 5.
Enjoy chapter ten of my Sea Patrol Story!
28th October, 4 miles out of Samaru coast, Afternoon watch, 1330
HMAS Arunta and HMAS Hammersley were laying brotherly next to each other. Hammersley wasn't a small boat, but she almost fitted three times in the Arunta. Kate and Alex boarded the Arunta more than an hour ago to discuss some practical matters of their patrol when a yacht called for help on the radio.
"Hello, this is the yacht Romanov calling for help on channel 67. Over." Robert answered the call. "Yacht Romanov this is HMAS Hammersley, what is your emergency? Over." "Hello Hammersley, not really an emergency but we saw a fishing boat on the east of Malinu. A young girl was in there. She wasn't older than 13 or so. She was just staring. When she saw us, we could hear her yelling and she took off with the boat. Maybe you can check it out." "Ok, if you give us the coordinates we'll have a look."
Nav took a look to the coordinates. "Call the Arunta and ask who must go. Captain Flynn is senior so it's his call." On that moment, Nikki saw Alex and Kate stepping in the RHIB.
"Set out for the fishing boat." Kate said when she entered the bridge, "We'll answer the call. Captain has the ship." she said happily. Nav looked at her. It was funny to see Kate smile after being on the warship. "Mike… euh… captain Flynn will patrol the area between the US shipping route and Samaru. We'll stay in the Samaruan waters." Kate said, "What's our ETA to the boat with the girl?" "2 hours ma'am." Nikki said.
28th October, 7 miles out of Malinu coast, First dog watch, 1545
"I have her in my sight, ma'am." Spider said to the CO. he was staring thru his binoculars on the bridge. X took the mike and called all hands to boarding stations. The RHIB left and sailed towards a small white and fishing boat.
A young girl with black hair was on the fishing boat. When she saw the RHIB with the uniformed men close in, she became hysterical. She yanked the motor from the fishing boat, in the hope she could outrun the RHIB. Buffer was faster. He jumped on the fishing boat. Alex, the XO, bird and Charge followed him. She yelled even louder. She crawled in a corner of the steering house and yelled some words. Buffer tried to go to her, but the girl was yelling and screaming. "Sir, I think she's saying: 'Don't kill me!'" Spider said to the X. Alex looked at him. "Yeah, I picked up some words from Daisy and Jaylinn. I'm starting to get the hang of this Togo-lango." "Why the hell would she say that? Buffer come out, Bird go to her and try to calm her down. We'll stay on deck."
After fifteen minutes, Bird finally got the girl to calm down. Her story came out in pieces and bits. It was horribly. The X radioed it in to Hammersley:
"She said she lives in a small town on the Malinu coast. Armed uniformed men came and rounded everyone in the village up. They asked some questions. When they didn't get the answers they wanted, they started to hit the men. When the villagers stood up, the shooting started. The armoured men shot at everyone. Some people could flee. She and her father ran to the bushes and from there to his boat. Her father put her on the boat and pushed the boat in the water. Then an armed came saw them and he shot at them. She saw her father fell down on the beach, when the boat took off."
When back on Hammersley, Bird gave the young girl a sedative. The ships officers were looking to the maps. "Based on the current and where we found the boat, the town could be in this bay." Nikki said and she pointed to the shore of Malinu. "We'll check it out. RO, call the Samaru police and give the story."
When Hammersley entered the bay, they knew they were right. Birds flew above the beach. Something or someone was lying on the sand. When the RHIB landed, Bird ran to the guy on the beach. He was bleeding heavily from several bullet wounds. "He's still alive, sir." Bird yelled to Alex. "Good. I'll call the second RHIB so we can go in land."
The boarding party left the beach when the second RHIB landed on the beach. Bird's able mate took over from her. She took her steyr and took off with the rest of her team. They found a massacre in the village. At least 150 men, woman and children laid on the market square. No one was spared. The foul smell of death was hanging in the small town. In the local police station, the bodies of 11 officers were found.
A couple of hours later the Samaruan police and the army and a couple of medical workers arrived. Police colonel Jean Kusuma was among them. When he arrived he made sure the area was safe and then he puked his guts out when saw the massacre. He still looked a bit pale. He almost wept when he saw the police station. The lieutenant in charge was his brother-in-law. Now, he was drinking some water he got from Bird. "It's the seventh village on the island that's murdered like this." Kusuma told Kate who came ashore shortly after the village was found. "Lately it's always Malinu. In the beginning the attacks were on Samaru island but lately it's always Malinu. I've stationed more police officers here to keep the towns safe. There's an entire detachment of the army patrolling the hills. But they still found nothing."
Kate and the colonel heard a rumble and shouting in the jungle behind them. A couple of his agents and some soldiers came out. They had 3 young guys with them. "They were sneaking around in the jungle!", a corporal said. "they were armed." Another soldier carried 3 hunting rifles, some revolvers and a couple of machetes. The youngest of the of the two broke loose from the police men and ran to the body of a woman and started crying and yelling. The agent wanted to take him back but the colonel said to leave him alone. "It's his mother." Kusuma said.
The other boys were still in custody of the soldiers. "What did you do in the bushes?" Kusuma asked angrily. "What did you do to prevent this!" One of the boys shouted back. "We warned over and over again this would happen." "I gave you more agents!" "Well it's wasn't enough, was it! Look around. My sister, my father and my 2 brothers lay there!" he pointed at a group of the dead victims. "Your officers didn't stop them!" Kusuma got really angry. He grabbed the boy with his shirt and spoke with a warningly hissing voice: "You watch that big mouth of yours. The husband of my daughter lays death in that police station. He's was a far better man you will ever become. If you don't shut up, you will see the rest of your family a lot faster than you expect." Kate knew Kusuma meant it. His eyes were firing red.
"Stop it! The both of you!" Kate said. "You! Do you know what happened here?" Kate asked the boy. He nodded. "Good. Then we all sit down and you talk us trough. Colonel, we do this on Hammersley, so we don't interrupt the work of your men. Spider, Donovan! You take this boy with you to the RHIB!" Kate commanded. The group left to Hammersley.
28th October, 4 miles out of Samaru coast, First dog watch, 1910
Donovan and Spider took the young boy the ships office. The colonel and the ships officers were following. "Ma'am, it's him." Spider said to Kate. "It's him I saw." "It's who?" Kate asked. "That afternoon on the market. He trew the flyers out of the jeep." "Are you sure?" Spider nodded. "Do you still have yours?" Kate asked Spider. He gave it to her and they both went in.
"Go ahead. Start telling." Kate commanded the boy. Donovan, Spider (both armed and keeping a close eye), Kate, Alex, Nikki, the colonel and the boy were all sitting in the ships office.
"They came around…" "No! From the beginning. Not just this afternoon. The whole story." Kate said. "Start with stating your name."
The boy understood this would not be a picnic. He became rather nervous. "My… my name is Aric Muzumi. My family and I are farmers on Malinu. We mostly deal in palm oil." Kate nodded and started taking notes. "Last year, we and other farmers were contacted if we were interested to sell our land. The price was good, so some of them did it. But not all. When there were troubles with the price payments, some farmers didn't want to sell anymore. Then the intimidation started. Some of the farms were burglared. A couple of them even got beaten up. So we went to him." He pointed to the colonel. "All he did was sent a detective, but he found nothing."
"I also sent you a sergeant and 4 extra police officers to patrol the villagers for months and they didn't find anything."
"everything cooled down for a couple of months. No more land was bought. But mid-summer, the insurgents came back. And they work for the company that buys the land!" the colonel turned with his eyes. "You said that before, but I didn't find any prove of it." "Who is buying land?" Nikki asked to the colonel. "An Indonesian company, Adaland, but they also have operations in Australia and the Philippines." "Why are buying?" Nikki asked "They want to grow palms for the oil. It's a legit business. I had one criminal and two financial experts to check it out. They wanted cheap land to build a plantation. Malinu was ideal. Cheap land, not far from Australia so a huge market to sell."
"Why do you think Adaland is behind the insurgency?" Kate asked Aric. "The first attacks happened on the farmers who didn't want to sell. They aren't insurgents. They're trained hit men hired to make us sell our land." "And this? Here you accuse Cobana to be a murderer. This also comes out of your vivid imagination?" Kate put the flyer on the table that Spider got from the market square. "It's true!" the boy said, "Joseph Cobana is in on it. One evening, I saw him talking with one of the buyers after my neighbours sold their land."
"let's go to this afternoon, to the ambush. Why were you sneaking around with your guns?" the colonel asked Aric. "We… we weren't sneaking around. We were patrolling the area around our town. Yesterday someone was watching the town from the bushes. When we spotted him, he jumped on a motorcycle and sped off. I'll told your lieutenant." Aric said to the colonel. "I know, he called it in and I gave him 2 extra men to patrol the town."
"Yes I know, they arrived yesterday evening by boat." Aric said, "But me and my mates, wanted to search the biker ourself this morning. We didn't find him. When we returned home, it was already happened. We saw the navy in our town and watched what you were doing. Then your guys came and found us."
Donovan whispered something in Kate's ear. She nodded. "Listen mate, I'm a coxswain. You know what that is?" the boy shook his head. "I'm a navy cop. I investigate crimes and keep order on the ship. I'll tell you this. Your story is completely circumstantial. You have no prove to collaborate your story. But I have some prove for you. I can put YOU on a crime scene." Everybody looked at Donovan. "The soldiers who brought you in, showed me the weapons you had. .38 calibre revolvers, hunting rifles calibre 22 long rifle and the shot gun. You guys ambushed that Lyons convoy last month." The boy became pale and nodded. Spider stept forward, pulled the boy up by his shirt and wanted to take a swing at him. Alex and Donovan pushed Spider back. "Take it easy, leader! Restrain yourself or I put you out." Spider was raging inside but he calmed down.
"Go on!" Alex said to the boy who was pretty shaken up. "Keep talking or I'll led Spider have a go on you. His girl was in that convoy."
"Take it easy!" The boy said fast, "We had heard those murderers would bring a large shipment of weapons and ammo to the hills behind Kariki. So put up a post on the high road."
"Why there? Did you know they would pass there?" Kusuma asked.
"We didn't but it was the fastest road if you want to go to Kariki."
"you're an amateur and an idiot! You could be killed in that ambush. What would you do if they had a bullet prove vest. With guns like that, they wouldn't even feel a tickle." The colonel said. "And you shot at my officers! I'll have you hanged for that."
The boy started crying. "I just wanted to protect my home." "No! you didn't want to listen to me of anyone else. You are partly responsible for the actions that led to today!"
"Can you confine him on the ship until we are back on Samaru?" Kusuma asked Kate. Spider and Donovan took him to the austere and cuffed him.
"What do you think of his story?" Kate asked the colonel. "It would like to believe it's just the vivid imagination of a 17-year-old-boy, but I'm not so sure. At least it explains some facts from the last month. The ambush, why the insurgents are so active on Malinu and why they suddenly came back. It could be a good lead."
"And Cobana?" Kate asked.
"hmmm… I don't know. I don't like him and so does no one in my government. They would be very happy if they could put Cobana out of business. He's like a spider in a huge web. He has friends and connections everywhere. It's a possible answer why he was against Australian boots on the ground. If he is really behind the insurgency, the Aussie army would put a stop to his land buying plans… but…"
"But what?" Kate asked.
Kusuma continued: "For one, when I checked Adaland out, I asked permission to my minister of interior affairs, so I had access to a lot of information. Cobana's name never came up, nor one of his companies or organisations. He's just not connected to Adaland. Of course, he can be a silent partner or something but there's no prove of it."
Kate nodded she was listening intently to the colonel.
"For second, palm oil? I mean, it's a very popular product used a lot in processed foods. But no way it's so important that someone would start an uprising for it. If you would say that there are diamants or gold or something in the ground, that could explain the value of the land. But a palm oil plantation? It's just not possible. That's a pile of crap."
29th October, Samaru harbour, Morning watch, 0630
Nikki knocked on the door of Kate"s cabin. "hmmm… enter!" Kate said with a sleepy head. "Yes, what is it?" "There is something you want to see on the bridge." Nikki said. "pfff… I'm coming…" She was still sleepy. Yesterday evening she had given the colonel a ride back to Samaru island and when back in his office, they discussed every possible idea why the insurgency could be happening. She didn't return to the ship before 2 o'clock.
"OK! What's up?" she asked while entering the bridge. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" Mike said. Kate looked bedazzled. Mike stood in front of here with two cups of hot strong coffee. "I bring you the best coffee from Samaru and some very fine croissants. Just out of the local bakers oven." "Why are you here?" Kate asked. "Yes, good morning to you too, and you're welcome for the breakfast." Mike said teasingly.
"If you don't want it, I'll gladly take it out of your hands, ma'am." Charge said from his console at the back of the bridge.
Kate ignored him. "Sorry, good morning, love." she said and hugged and kissed Mike. The crew started humming. "Ooh, grow up, you lot." She said smilingly. "Thank you for the breakfast. It smells deliciously." Kate turned to Charge. "Sorry Charge. All mine, but I'm sure Bird has some lovely bread left from yesterday." "hmmmm, that was yesterday evening already hard." Charge replied. "Oy! If you don't like my cooking, I'll put you on lettuce and raw carrots the rest of the patrol." Bird said while entering the bridge. "No, no! I like your cooking just fine." Charge said quickly to Bird. "Good morning, Sir. What brings you back to our cosy home? You miss us already?"
"Haha! I miss you all, Bird, but's that's not why I'm in port." Mike said to Bird and Kate. "You remember Jaylinn? James Petersons daughter. She works here in a local hospital." "Yes we've met her." Kate said. Charge blinked at Riley, who shivered and rubbed his chest when he heard her name.
"Yesterday evening, she called her university for assistance. She thinks she has a very special case in her hospital. Her call went up the chain, all the way to the PM's office. 20 minutes later, Maxine called me. I had to sail to Samaru at top speed, so my ship's doctor could have a look at her patient." Everyone looked stunned. "That makes no sense." Kate said, "What does she has in her hospital, that you must break off a patrol and sail a warship like the Arunta back to port so an army doctor could assist her?"
"Well, I didn't believe Jaylinn when she told me, but half an hour ago, my ship's doctor confirmed it. She has a patient who has all the signs of … radiation poisoning…"
Kate looked stunned and led the cup of coffee fall out of her hands. "That's… that's impossible." she said.