A/N: We jump straight to the aftermath of the raid at that derelict fishing hut from the episode.
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Mike pinched the top of his nose and closed his eyes as he was briefed by Kate and Jim during their post-mission meeting. He then looked at them seriously, "are we really sure about this?"
Jim nodded, "I think we need to at least warn the higher ups about the potential threat, so that they can raise the national alert level if necessary. The map of the Fleet Base East, the timetable of the Sydney Harbour's tides and the schematics that we found should be enough to warrant a report."
"Plus the radiation level at that hut was quite high based on the warning in our personal radiation device." Kate interjected, "and the man in that hut showed signs of severe radiation burns according to Swain. That could only happen if the Caesium were there. We must've just missed those being moved."
Mike then asked, "did we see any foreign footprint or anything on the road to the hut that could indicate their escape route?"
"Not that we can see, Sir. But I must admit that we were concentrating on not being detected at the time and not on the possibility of runners coming our way." Kate frowned worriedly.
"You're also assuming that there is only one way in or out, Mike." Jim countered. "There could be another route that we don't know about."
"Alright." Mike sighed, "I'll make the report to Navcom. Jim, can you brief Ms Cruise please?"
"Sure." Jim nodded to them before leaving the ship's office and the two officers alone.
"This is getting worse and worse, Kate." Mike shook his head as he digested the new development. "A dirty bomb making its way to Sydney naval base is the stuff of nightmare."
Kate sighed frustratingly, "I can't believe we missed the Caesium. How could they know we were coming to the hut?"
"Do you think the FFV crews contacted the people in the hut to warn them before we boarded?" Mike wondered.
"Maybe…. They deleted the hut's coordinate from their GPS after all. Maybe they warned the hut that they won't make it for Semtex delivery. We are lucky that 2Dads and RO could recover the coordinate from the shot-up GPS. Otherwise, we would never know about the threat to Sydney."
Mike nodded, grateful that his crews were on the ball this patrol. He then frowned as he saw her strained feature. "Kate, are you OK?"
"Yes," She pasted a brief smile but sighed when Mike raised his eyebrows indicating to her that he didn't believe her one bit.
"The guy in the hut, he blew his head off in front of Jim and I…."
"Oh Kate." Mike looked at her in sympathy. "But…."
"I know…." She interjected. "I know he's most likely a terrorist. Part of the plot, the bad guy, etc, etc. But it's not every day you see brain matters splatter to the wall."
"Take a break then." Mike stared at her seriously. "Grab a brew. Get some fresh air at the back deck."
Kate shook her head, "I have so many reports to do. We have had five boardings today plus the raid just before."
"It can wait for an hour. It's an order X." Mike said firmly as he saw her about to argue again. "An hour break, then back on the bridge for a fresh search. I need to talk to Maxine anyway. See what she says about how we should proceed from here."
"Yes, Sir."
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Dylan was doing the final check on all their gears and weapons before securing the locker when he felt someone was watching his move. He turned around to see who it was and proceeded to smile at the presence of his favourite human. "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you'll be on the bridge by now."
Kate smiled back at him before offering one the thermoses on her hand. "Take a break with me on the back deck?"
He looked at her quizzically but chose not to say anything and accepted the thermos. He then opened the door that led to the back deck before letting her passed through first. "After you, Ma'am."
"Thank you, Petty Officer." She nodded playfully at him before stepping outside and proceeded to walk to the direction of the farthest railings.
Dylan followed her but carefully looking around for any prying eyes before joining her against the railings.
For a few minutes they just stood next to each other sipping their brews while letting the breeze washed away their tiredness. Dylan then felt Kate resting her head on his upper arm which worried him a little bit. "Hey, what's going on?"
"I feel like everything is getting out of control."
He frowned, "in what way?"
"The Semtex, the dirty bomb, the guy committed suicide in that hut. The fact that we missed the Caesium again…. And of course, the possibility of Sydney base as the target."
"I think you felt that way because everything happened so fast in the span of few hours. But we are not out of this race yet."
"No?" Kate looked up to meet his eyes.
"Nope. It's only over if the base blew up before we could get to the bomb." He stared at her seriously. "Until that eventuality, we can't give up."
"I worry about you." Kate finally said at the end of their staring contest.
He frowned again. "Why?"
"I don't want you to blame yourself if we fail."
His frown got even deeper. "Kate, what's going on? Why do you think we would fail? And why worry about me?"
"Promise me that you wouldn't blame yourself if we failed this mission or God forbid, if anything happened to any of the Hammersley crews, including me." She then grabbed his right hand and held tight.
"I'm not promising anything until you tell me what's going on." He squeezed back her hand just as tightly. "Talk to me please."
"I love you." Her eyes tried to convey everything that she felt for him at that moment. "And I don't want to lose you, whether to a bullet, a bomb or to your own sense of honour. I want you with me, for a long time to come."
Dylan's instinct told him to kiss her as a reply to her declaration, but of course he couldn't. They were still working and they had already broken the rule by holding hands and being this close to one another. So, he could only whisper his love back to her ear and peck her temple briefly before letting her rest her head on his upper arm once more.
"XO and PO Mulholland to the bridge."
They both sighed at the call to resume their duties. They knew that they would need to talk some more about the cryptic way Kate had spoken about her worry before. But for now, it would have to wait.
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A/N: We jump straight to after Hammersley have found the Caesium in the cruiser.
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"Sir, the cruiser' crews have been secured in austere and Dutchy and 2Dads have commenced their steaming party back to Cairns." Kate reported succinctly as she popped her head into the CO's cabin.
"Thanks, X." Mike then looked at her seriously. "Can you come in please and close the door?"
"Of course." Kate did as ordered and stood against the wall. Mike's face turned gloomy as they finally had their privacy, which alarmed her. "Why the long face, Sir? I thought you'd be relieved that we finally caught a break and got the Caesium?"
"I just got off the phone with Maxine." Mike started, "she just told me that the Semtex was stolen from a West Australian mining company. The problem is that we have only recovered half of it."
"Great." Kate shook her head at the news. She should have known that finding the Caesium so quickly had been a fluke.
"Was it possible that those crews in the FFV had dumped the other half of the Semtex before we boarded them?"
"I doubt it Sir." Kate frowned, "I wasn't on the bridge at the time, but I presumed the dumping act would have been caught in the EOD if that had happened. It would have been hard to miss."
Mike nodded his agreement. He remembered that they had been watching the FFV like a hawk for at least 20 minutes before Hammersley had even announced its presence to the FFV.
"I hate to say this, Sir," Kate paused, "but what if the Caesium that we've just found is only half the quantity as well?"
"The thought crossed my mind too. We need to question those men in the cruiser." Mike then continued, "Go up and take the ship Kate. Head to Cairns, maximum speed. I'll find Swain, Jim and Ms Cruise and get them up to speed with the latest info."
Kate nodded, "Yes, Sir."
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Kate was sitting on the Captain's chair with only RO, Bird, Flick and Charge on the bridge when she heard Mike calling Charge's name whilst his footsteps could be heard bounding up the stairs.
She turned her head to ask him what the commotion was all about, but Mike was immediately heading towards the marine link and asking Charge to pull up the feed from austere. He then asked Bird to watch the feed as apparently Ms Cruise was in austere alone with one of the prisoners. Something about women being more observant about body language. She could only smile at his opinion.
"Ma'am?" RO's voice interrupted her musing.
"Yes, RO?"
"Dutchy just radioed in. He checked the cruiser's paperwork and found that it was hired from a Vagabond Boat Hire company based in Cairns."
"Right. Can you inform Navcom and pass the info to Ms Cruise and Captain Roth when you next see them please?"
"Will do, Ma'am."
She then saw Mike rushed down the stairs again. Seeing his odd behaviour, she met Charge's eyes instead. "Charge, what's going on?"
"Apparently Ms Cruise has finished her interrogation after only 15 minutes. I think the boss is heading down to austere to talk to her."
"That's quick." Kate raised her eyebrows at the news. "The guy is cooperative then."
"There is cooperative…. And there is cooperative, X." Charge wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"You have a theory that you want to share with the class, Charge?" Her lips curved up at his cheekiness.
Charge smiled, "nothing that I can prove anyway, X. So, best be quiet for now."
"There could be a grain of truth in your theory, Charge, so if it gets more probable, my door is always open to listen." She gave him a pointed look before looking back to the horizon once more.
"Yes, Ma'am."
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Hammersley finally docked in Cairns at around 9am the next morning. The steaming party was still a couple of hours away from port due to the cruiser's engine capacity but so far everything was in order.
Mike was still puzzled with the interrogation the previous night. He regretted that he had allowed the agent to conduct the questioning alone, leaving no one else privy to the actual exchange between her and the prisoner. At the time, he thought time had been of the essence, so he had placed his full trust on the agent. But after seeing the speediness of the event and the fact that Swain had told him there had been no yelling or screaming when the medic had been guarding the door, he had turned doubtful at the agent's assertion that there had been no other Caesium or Semtex shipment still floating around in Australian water.
Of course, short of ordering Swain or allowing Jim to interrogate the man, which they had no jurisdiction on, he couldn't do anything but wait until the Federal Police had finished their own questioning later on. In the meantime, he had a lot of paperwork to finish and the 6-hour shore leave would be the perfect opportunity to do them.
Meanwhile, Kate had the same thought as Mike. While she was not on duty watch for the next 6 hours, she chose to stay on the ship to finally made some headway with her own pile of paperwork. But as she arrived in front of her cabin, she could hear the agent's voice talking inside their shared cabin, reminding her that she most likely couldn't do her paperwork in her cabin, she would have to take her laptop to one of the messes instead. After a tiring few days with multiple boardings and raids, her patience was wearing thin and she felt like stomping her feet in frustration, but Jim's voice in her head reminded her to be smart and started listening instead. So, she did.
She carefully placed her ear to the door and tried to focus her hearing muscles to the voice inside. But no matter how hard she tried, she could only make out a few words such as 'the other planes', 'going ahead' and a few affirmatives like 'yes' and 'no'. Without a proper context, it would be hard to deduce anything for it. She then realised after a few minutes that the phone call was coming to an end, so she straightened up and opened the door to her cabin before the agent had a chance to discover her eavesdropping act.
The agent looked surprised at her presence but quickly pasted a smile on her face before pocketing her mobile phone.
"Oh sorry, Ms Cruise." Kate schooled her feature to look apologetic. "I didn't realise that you're still here. I thought you'll be heading out with the others. I'll just grab my laptop and go to the mess to do some paperwork if you would like to rest here."
"Oh, that's alright Lieutenant. This is your cabin after all. I'm the one who should move to the mess."
"You're not heading out to the city for a break?" Kate tilted her head curiously. "6 hours in a docked ship wouldn't be fun. I would've gone myself if not for the mountain of paperwork in my work folder. Beside you must be missing some civilian's food after the scran that we have here. Not that I'm saying Bird's cooking isn't good. Just different if you know what I mean."
Madelaine looked at the petite Lieutenant in front of her and started to wonder whether the woman had been listening to her conversation beforehand. She thought she had seen a shadow under the door previously, but she had dismissed it as people passing through the corridor. However, the Lieutenant's current chattiness and the sign of nervousness that she could see in the other woman's body language made her suspicious.
"You're right. I do miss a good eggs benedict for brunch. Maybe we could have brunch together right now Lieutenant?" Madelaine pasted her best convincing smile. "I just realised that we've never had a decent conversation. After all we are two women in a male-dominated occupation. It would be good to have an acquaintance in the industry. I'm sure our path will cross again at some point in the future."
It was Kate's turn to be surprised. She didn't expect the invitation at all. But Jim's voice rang in her head once more. This would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about the agent and her possible involvement in this whole saga. If she took her car and went to public place like the shopping centre, surely this would be a pretty low risk activity.
"Sure," Kate then looked at her watch. "If we go now, we might have around 2 hours for a decent brunch before I really have to go back and finish my paperwork."
"Don't worry Lieutenant. You will be back in time for your paperwork."
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Kate must admit it was nice to take a proper break and mingle with a normal crowd in the shopping centre. The last time she had done this was with Lani probably around 2 months ago. She wished that she could do this type of public outing with Dylan, but it was too big of risk before the official transfer had come through. Soon though. Very soon.
"I heard you'll be moving to a new position soon, Lieutenant." Madelaine started the conversation while they were waiting for their food and coffee.
"Yes," Kate's lips couldn't help but curved up at the thought, "it'll be a good opportunity in the big ship."
"Congratulations then. It sounds like you are moving up the ranks."
"Not exactly." Kate replied thoughtfully. "I mean the pay grade would be the same for the new position. But the career path is a lot clearer there. A lot more opportunities for promotion in the future."
"You are a career-driven woman then."
"Pretty much." Kate continued, "although in the last year or so, I started to think about family and settling down. I guess when a woman reaches a certain age, you realise that your clock is ticking."
"I think husband and kids are overrated, Lieutenant." Madelaine huffed at the thought. Her own experience with men and family values in general were ambiguous at best.
Kate smiled. "It's pretty clear watching you work that you are very career-driven as well. It must not be easy to get to where you are in the agency."
"I've been called every name under the sun by my male colleagues in the past. I guess they can't handle the fact that a woman can do a better job than them." Madelaine smiled bitterly. "I have been in the ASIO since I was 21 years old. I've outlasted half of the men that went through the graduate program with me. My method may seem extreme Lieutenant, but I wouldn't be where I am today by being weak."
Kate didn't know what to say to the other woman's words, so she stayed quiet for a few seconds. While she had experienced difficulties due to her gender, her overall experience in the Navy had certainly sounded more positive than the agent's. Maybe the pressure and the overall culture of the two institutions were vastly different. Hence the contrast.
Thankfully their coffees finally arrived at their table, giving the women a reprieve from the conversation. Kate sipped the coffee gratefully. Nothing beat the freshly grounded coffee beans.
"It's nice to have proper coffee. No offense Lieutenant, Hammersley's coffee sucks." Madelaine said with deadpanned expression, eliciting a smile from Kate.
"Have you been having the prepared coffee from the big thermos in the galley?" Kate grimaced at the thought.
"Yes, I thought that's the norm." Madelaine raised her eyebrows at Kate's expression.
"I'll let you in on the secret." Kate took a few more sips from her cup before leaning forward conspiratorially. "No one is having that. It's better to make your own in the ship. Bird is not exactly known for her coffee-making skill."
"Someone should teach her then."
Kate sighed. "The guys have tried for two years. They've given up by now."
"Wow…."
"Yeah…." Kate then felt bad for talking about Bird's shortcoming. "She's a really nice kid. And she has come a long way from being a gap girl straight out of high school. She can handle her weapons now and her medical skills have improved a lot. It's just that making coffee is not her strong suit."
"Maybe it's good." Madelaine replied thoughtfully, "that way, no one would expect her to be the coffee girl. Everybody must make their own coffee. Which is fair."
Kate nodded; she had never thought about it that way. Maybe this was Bird's way of avoiding exactly that. Clever girl, she thought fondly.
The arrival of their meals halted their conversation once more. Smoked salmon one for the agent and bacon one for Kate.
"The salmon looks good." Kate commented, "unfortunately bacon is my vice."
"Same with me. I would've chosen bacon if not for the promise I made when I was 18."
"Oh?" Kate tilted her head curiously.
Madelaine sighed, "I was adopted at birth Lieutenant. When I was 18, I was told the truth by my adopted parents. My biological parents were of middle eastern origin and had Muslim faith. So, when I found out, I started researching and found that pork and its by-product is not allowed as part of their faith. I guess not eating bacon is my way of honouring my biological parents. Which is really hard because I grew up with bacon and eggs in my adopted English-Australian household."
"That's very nice of you to do that." This little titbits of information about the agent had made her more of a human in Kate's eyes.
"It was a closed adoption too. So, I couldn't find out more about my biological parents. But a year later, I found out that I had a twin brother, who was also adopted at birth to another family." Madelaine's eyes then turned cloudy. "He passed away a few years later though when I just finished my graduate program at ASIO."
"I'm sorry." Kate replied sympathetically.
"It's alright Lieutenant. It happened ten years ago." Madelaine nodded curtly.
The ladies then tucked into their respective meals after a lull in the conversation. Kate was currently thinking on how to direct the conversation back to their work, but then the opportunity came when the agent's phone started beeping several times with incoming text messages.
"Work doesn't stop, does it?" Kate commented as she saw the agent started typing away on her phone.
"No. Unfortunately not."
"I thought that since the threat is over, you'll be getting more downtime. You must have a lot of annual leave saved. Maybe it's time to get on a plane and go to Bora-Bora or somewhere nice to celebrate."
Madelaine looked up from her phone to stare at Kate curiously. "Are you manifesting, Lieutenant? Maybe you should take that advice yourself?"
"Hmm, no such luck I'm afraid. I'll be getting on a plane soon. But not to Bora-Bora. Just to Perth to start the new posting."
"I have planned something since last month actually." Madelaine commiserated, "but I had to cancel it because of the recent development. I was planning to book another plane ticket this morning, but the ticketing agent was not helpful. I'll try again this afternoon."
"Oh, did I interrupt your phone call to the ticketing office when I went to the cabin?" Kate grimaced. "Sorry about that. No wonder you sounded like you were discussing plane options."
Madelaine pasted a smile at the confirmation that the other woman was indeed eavesdropping this morning. "That's OK Lieutenant. If you'll excuse me, I need to go to the ladies room."
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Bird was not often late for work, but she had foolishly taken a nap after a brunch outing with friends this morning and now, she was arriving on the dock around 20 minutes after the start time of her meeting with her XO to discuss the sign-off of her mentorship logbook. While her XO was quite easy-going in general, she was famous for not tolerating tardiness. So, Bird took off from the cab and run to the gangway where she almost bumped to Swain who was just coming off the ship.
"Wow Bird, be careful. Those two left feet of yours might not cooperate." Swain said teasingly.
Bird grimaced apologetically, "sorry Swain, I can't chat right now. I'm really late for a meeting with the X."
Swain sighed in sympathy, "while I don't envy your predicament right now, you still need to be careful. No running on the ship, alright?"
Bird smiled sheepishly, "yes, Swain."
She then forced herself to take a deep breath before climbing up to the gangway and saluted their mascot. Once inside, she went down to the lower deck and to her cabin to drop her seabag and grab her mentorship logbook. She then went upstairs once more to the direction of the wardroom. After fixing her ponytails and her uniform, she finally knocked on the door.
She frowned when she didn't hear any answer from the inside. So, she tried again. "X? It's Bird."
When she still heard nothing, she then carefully opened the door and found an empty room. No sign of anyone had been there either. No empty mug, folder or laptop on the desk.
"That's weird." She muttered to herself before deciding to check the X's cabin as she might have misheard the location of the meeting. But the X's cabin was empty as well even though her laptop was there. She then went upstairs again to check other places. The bridge, the ship's office, the senior mess, the galley, all had been empty, except the junior mess where she found 2Dads who was playing online card games in his laptop.
"Hey 2Dads, have you seen the X?" Bird was now a little bit worried as she had been searching everywhere for the last 15 minutes.
2Dads shook his head. "I haven't seen her since yesterday's boarding. Why?"
"I supposed to have a meeting with her half an hour ago. But I can't find her."
2Dads shrugged, "have you checked with Dutchy? He would probably know where she is. They're joined at the hip after all."
Bird scrunched her face in disgust, "eww, 2Dads!"
"What? I don't mean it literally," 2dads smirked at her face, "you're the one with the dirty mind."
She rolled her eyes at his comeback. "Fine, do you know where Dutchy is then?"
"Check the laundry room."
"Alright. Thanks!" Bird left 2Dads with his card games and went down to the lower deck again. She could hear the washing machine running as she approached the laundry room and to her relief, the bosun was there.
"Dutchy?" She knocked on the opened door.
Dylan turned his head at the call. "Hey Bird, what's up?"
"Sorry to bother you." Bird gestured to his laundry basket, "but have you seen the X?"
"Not since yesterday." Dylan frowned, "is she not here yet?"
Bird shook her head. "I supposed to have a meeting with her at 1pm. But I've searched everywhere and she doesn't seem to be here; which is really weird because she's the most punctual person I know."
Dylan's frown got deeper. He looked at his watch and with less than 90 minutes until they supposed to sail again, normally Kate would have been here by now.
"Are you sure you have checked everywhere?"
"Yes, except engine room of course, but I don't think she would have been there. I didn't see her on the deck either on my way in."
Dylan was now officially worried. Bird was right, this was very unlike Kate. "Alright, can you find Swain please and canvass the outside and the inside of the ship with him once more. I'll try her mobile and check with the CO if he has seen her."
Bird nodded and left the room to go find Swain.
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"Excuse me, Sir." Dylan knocked on the open door of the CO's cabin.
Mike looked up from his laptop. "Yes Dutchy?"
"Have you seen the X?"
"Not since this morning. Why?"
"Bird told me that she supposed to have a meeting with the X at 1 pm, but she's nowhere to be found. The pegboard showed that she was out of the ship but forgetting appointment is unlike her, Sir."
Mike got up from his chair and checked the pegboard himself. "That's strange. I am sure she told me this morning that she wanted to stay on the ship to do paperwork all day. Have you tried calling her?"
"Several times, Sir. Straight to voicemail."
The two men looked at each other worriedly before they were interrupted by Swain. "Sir, Dutchy. Bird and I have checked everywhere, still no sign of the X."
Mike shook his head at the troubling news. "Alright. Dutchy, you and Swain should check her cabin for any notes or anything else that could indicate where she went. I'll get RO to check with the guardhouse and the port security for any CCTV footage from this morning."
"Yes, Sir."
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To be continued….