Chapter 14.
HMAS Hammersley was approaching its destination. The weather was threatening tropical monsoon rains, not unusual for the Wet Season. On the bridge, Kate was scanning both the heavy clouds and the approaching island. It was slowly darkening, and the RHIB crews were suiting up, and checking weapons. Captain Wentworth gave his team a final briefing.
Just then, the heavens opened, and the heavy rain fell, diminishing visibility, and hampering efforts to assemble on the sea deck, prior to boarding the RHIB.
The Chief Marine Technician, Jack 'Buck' Rogers, who was watching the EOD spoke;
"Contact, bearing 215 degrees ENE, Ma'am."
Kate moved to the navigation control. Sure enough, a small dot was moving at high speed toward Bright Island. The RO then said, "I have Childers on UHF Ma'am."
Kate spoke into the mic. "Childers, this is Hammersley, over."
"Hammersley – Childers. We boarded this FFV earlier about 150 nautical miles west of your current position. Two on board, registered to Cairns as a tourist operator vessel. No passengers on board. NAVCOM have just confirmed this vessel as stolen from Cairns Harbour two days ago. It looks headed for Bright Island, over."
"Roger that, Childers. We'll keep it under watch. Hammersley out."
The rain continued, but not as heavy as before. The insertion party were in the port RHIB, awaiting the order. Darkness had fallen, and Kate gave the order,
"Away seaboat."
Then: "Darken ship".
The crew on the bridge watched for the signal from the operatives on the shore. Buck Rogers' alert eyes picked up the brief flash. "Light dead ahead," he said.
"Xray2 this is Charlie2, insert, insert, insert."
The RHIB gunned its engine, and the sound faded as it left the ship.
Turning to her Chief, Kate said, "prepare second boarding team. Kevlar vests, extra plating." At the order, Jack Rogers left the bridge.
Silence fell on the bridge, except for the rain and the beeping of the ship's instruments. Nobody spoke.
AB Harvey, watching the RHIB's progress, saw the fast-moving dot on the radar, heading for the same co-ordinates as the RHIB. "Ma'am, boat Childers boarded headed straight for the RHIB" As Kate moved to Harvey's side, the boat changed course, and headed north-west to another small bay on the islands.
Something is not right, thought Kate. What is that boat doing? A chill went through her, and she grabbed the mic, "Childers, this is Hammersley. We have tracked your FFV to a small inlet north-west of our current position. I have reason to suspect that is a pick up for the terrorist group."
Roger that, Hammersley. Moving into position now. Out."
At NAVCOM, Steve Marshall responded to Childers' call. He ordered the captain, "stay below horizon, but keep that boat under surveillance. Board as you see fit."
Buffer paid off the taxi, grabbed the food and beer, and ran for the front door of the house where Mike and Kate lived. Mike let him in, and Buffer said, "It's raining like hell out there."
He noticed that Mike was still in uniform, and he seemed pre-occupied. "Sorry, Pete. Kate's out there in this."
"So's Nikki. Have a beer?" Buffer then saw a little girl in her high chair. Although she had Mike's dark hair, she was the living image of Kate. Buffer said, "Well, who have we here?"
"This is Jessica."
As the child smiled, he said, "I'm Peter."
"Hello, Peter," said Jessica, and she reached her arms out to him. Buff smiled and took the child on his knee. "She seems to know me, Boss, er, Mike."
Happily, the child took the chips Buffer offered. Then she said, "Love you Daddy," and Buffer watched his former captain's face soften.
The men took up their beers, and talked over old times. Both, however did not talk about Charge. Mike seemed to veer away from that subject, and he was still uncomfortable talking about Swain. Finally, Buffer said, "Mike, you did all you could. What I don't understand is why Swain was onboard. That's a bosun's job."
"Swain volunteered. He'd had experience with dirty bombs elsewhere. Not a day goes by when I'm not thinking of him. I ring or email Sally at least once a week." He changed the subject. "How's things with you and Nikki?" he asked.
"Mike, I think I love her. I had feelings for her before, but ET was in the picture. I went to WA, because I thought she didn't like me, and now I'm not sure."
"If there's anything I have learnt, Pete, is that when you meet a good woman, and you have feelings like that for her, do all you can to keep her. It took me years to admit to myself that I had feelings for Kate, and I pretended that I didn't for so long, I almost believed it, and nearly lost her."
Buff smiled, "All of us could see you loved her, mate. It was written all over you. Whenever she led a boarding party, Nikki would say that you'd pace around the bridge, then watch every boarding white-knuckled. We knew, and we wondered how long it would take for you to catch on."
Mike smiled, "That bad, huh?"
Pete said, "Yep." Then he looked down at his lap, where Jessica had fallen asleep. "I would like one of these, one day."
Gently, Mike took the sleeping child from him, and went up the hall. Some moments later, he returned, and said, "She's in bed. Sound asleep".
Pete opened two more beers, and against the backdrop of the falling rain, the men continued talking.
On board Hammersley, they could hear the RHIB returning. Buck Rogers already on the ship's deck with the second boarding party, went to the crane to lift the RHIB on board. The SAS team were still on the island, and from the ship, they could hear gunfire on the island. XO Patterson had returned with the operatives. Kate met her X as they descended into the ship from the deck. She had brought the ship back to night conditions. She could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. This was confirmed when she saw the boarding party with four of the five operatives.
"X. Where is the other ASIO team member? There's supposed to be five. I can only see four."
"I brought five back with us, Ma'am," answered the X.
"Find that spook. Something's wrong." The crew spread out to search the ship. No sooner had they started when an explosion rocked Hammersley.
Then they heard Buck yelling, "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!"
Kate rushed toward the noise, and clambered down the stairs to the engine room. The XO raced to the bridge, and activated the fire-extinguishing in the engine compartment. The buffer, Sam Davies, grabbed breathing equipment, and descended the ladder to the engine compartment. When he got there, he saw, through the smoke, Jack Rogers lying unconscious, with burns to his face and upper body.
But Kate MacGregor-Flynn was not there.