17: Sydney
They were planning to fly to Sydney, since it was a ten-hour drive otherwise, spend George's birthday sightseeing and then the next day with ASIS before flying back. Alice and Katie shared a dislike of cheap hotels so they were booked into a four-star hotel in the centre of the city at Alice's expense. The plan was to to fly out the night before so they could get an early start on George's birthday. This wouldn't have been a problem, except that George was still expected to do his deliveries that evening and he'd decided to spend the day sunbathing on the grass with the first two books in a series about teenage football players than actually pack anything for the trip.
Unusually, he was directed straight to a residential address a few miles away from St Albans rather than picking up the drugs first, and he guessed that it would be something different to his usual drop-offs. All he needed was to be back at home by eight so they could catch the flight.
"Yo, Brian," a bulky Javanese man called Tirto said, giving him a fist bump as he chained up his bike. "Good to have you on board."
"Something up, boss?" George asked, studying the house they'd stopped outside.
Tirto was Kuwat's second-in-command and sometimes ran the show when Kuwat wasn't around. "Pretty basic stuff, really. Kuwat's inside, doing a deal with some Malaysians. We provide the cash, they give us the product. Problem is, we're expecting an ambush by some other gang."
"Someone tip you off?"
"I think so. Anyway, you can't be too careful, so the moment Kuwat's out with a few packs full of product, we're gonna divide it up and send everyone their separate ways. Here's the address you're going to." He showed George an address on his phone and George used the map function on his own phone to plan a route.
"If you get attacked, drop the stuff and run as usual," Tirto said. "No point losing blood over it."
George nodded. The map said it was a forty-five minute cycle ride, which he could handle, but it would cut it close for time getting back home. "Any idea when he'll be out?"
"No. You late for something?"
"We're flying out to Sydney this evening and I've gotta be back before eight if we're going to make it," George explained, checking his new watch and working out that he had two and a half hours. "If he's not out in half an hour, we're going to miss the flight, I reckon."
Kuwat would probably have torn a strip off him for trying to bail out of an operation, but Tirto was friendlier and thought for a moment.
"Tell you what mate, if he's longer than half an hour, I'll drop my product off and then swing over to you to drive you out to the airport. Kuwat will probably deduct the petrol from your pay, but better than missing a flight."
"Cheers," George said, sitting on a nearby garden wall. "My aunt will kill me if I'm late."
Kuwat took nearly an hour to conclude the deal, but George had rung Katie and asked her to pack some clothes and stuff for him, explaining the situation. He could tell she was annoyed, but it was bad mission practice to get into a row when he was undercover so she just hung up and left him to it. He played on games on his phone for most of the rest of the wait, before switching off all of the sound effects and taking the opportunity to get photographs of everyone who left the house with Kuwat.
"Here you are, get going," Kuwat said, handing George a carrier bag. George shoved it into his backpack without looking at the contents and cycled off at a brisk pace, anxious to get away as soon as he could. Tirto jumped into his van and overtook him as he turned onto the main road, giving him a quick wave as he did. George just followed the directions on his phone, which included a useful cut across some parkland, dodging in and out of the last remnants of Melbourne's rush hour traffic.
"Sorry, I'm here now," George panted after a mad dash through the airport to find the check-in desk. Alice and Katie were in the queue already but hadn't reached the front, which meant that George had to duck under the fencing to get to them. A few people gave him suspicious looks, but he was young enough to get away with it and Alice just ignored the disapproving glances that came her way.
"Here's your suitcase, passport, and ticket," Katie said, handing them over. "I did my best to pack everything for you, but if I've left anything then it's your fault."
"Thanks sis," George said, flicking open his passport to check it was all okay.
"We've got forty minutes until the plane leaves, which will probably be long enough to clear security," Alice said, looking relaxed. "Just don't get held up with something stupid in your hand luggage. It's only a ninety-minute flight so if in doubt, put it in your suitcase now."
Their hotel was plush and George had his own room which connected to Alice and Katie's by a door, so when he woke up on his birthday he was feeling chilled. After he'd fallen asleep someone had put a pile of cards at the foot of his bed, so he spent half an hour opening them before he went to wake up the others. It was mostly the same people as he'd had Christmas cards from, except he also had one from the Chairwoman and one from Pete, which said 'see you soon' at the bottom. He didn't bother to lay them out, instead putting them into his suitcase in case anyone from the hotel saw them.
"Happy Birthday!" Alice said, poking her head around the door. "We guessed you were awake and we've ordered breakfast from room service."
"Sounds good," George said, pulling on a white dressing gown the hotel had provided and going through to their room. Katie was drying her hair, wearing a similar robe, and gave him an apologetic look.
"Sitting on planes always takes it out of me, so I went for an early morning run," she explained. "Anyway, your presents are on the top of my suitcase."
George pulled two wrapped packages out of her case and tried not to look at the girly underwear that was beneath them. The first was a couple of car-themed DVDs from Katie and the second turned out to be a man's size leather jacket with a woolen lining that looked expensive.
"It's from me," Alice explained. "ASIS told me that I'm not really supposed to give you gifts because they're the proceeds of crime, but this used to belong to my boyfriend at Caltech and he won't be asking for it back now he's married with two kids. Thought it might suit you once you've grown into it a bit."
"Thanks," he said happily, pulling on the jacket which almost came down to his knees. "Maybe if I roll the sleeves up?"
Alice laughed. "Anyway, happy twelfth birthday."
"Many happy returns," Katie added. "Now go away so I can put some clothes on."
George was chuffed with both presents, although he regretted the fact that it would be a good few years before he could wear the jacket. He put them both into his suitcase and spent a few minutes lying on his bed wondering how it felt to be twelve before breakfast arrived.
The three of them spent the day sightseeing around Sydney. Alice had grown up in Sydney so she showed them all of the best spots with the eye of a local, avoiding the crowds at some of the more popular places. Neither he or Katie had been to Sydney before so they took in the opera house and harbour bridge before checking out some of the other sights. George's favourite part was a cinema complex they visited in the afternoon; they watched a film he'd seen a few trailers for, and instead of seats there were beanbags at the front. The cinema was quiet for a weekday afternoon so they talked through the boring bits and Katie let George eat most of her popcorn.
Afterwards they took a winding trip into one of Sydney's northern suburbs to visit a steak restaurant that Alice knew. The owner recognised Alice and gave them all free desserts, which meant that George stuffed himself on a double sundae. Since it was his birthday, neither Alice nor Katie said anything when he spent the entire trip back complaining about being extremely full.
"I'm going to see some old school friends tomorrow while you see ASIS," Alice said once they were back at the hotel. "I'm not supposed to sit in with you, so if I'm not back by the time you're done, call me and I'll go back to the hotel to pick you up."
"The flight's at seven, right?" Katie said, using her phone to pick up her emails. "We should have plenty of time."
"The hotel has a baggage service, so just leave everything there tomorrow," Alice added. "I'll drive you to the restaurant."
Katie rang ASIS to confirm the details while George used the TV in his room to watch some cartoons, pleased his birthday had been a success.
The restaurant ASIS met them at was a family-run Chinese place on the outskirts of the city centre. Alice ran into traffic on the way over and they arrived twenty minutes late, which meant that by the time George and Katie were being shown into a VIP room at the back, Dawn and Linda had already ordered drinks.
"Get whatever you like," Linda said, sipping at some iced water. "We've booked this room for the entire afternoon so we can take a long as is necessary."
They left the actual briefing until after they'd finished eating and spent the meal discussing the latest bits of gossip from the travel agency and chatting about their experiences working for ASIS.
"Okay, so I expect you're interested in where all of the information you're giving us is going," Linda said once their coffees had arrived. "We're processing it all at our Sydney office and referring anything we don't understand to experts at headquarters in Canberra."
"We've got a team of three analysts working on all of the results and they think they're close to cracking it," Dawn continued. "Two of them have a legal background so they know exactly what's needed to secure convictions."
"So what's the bigger picture?" Katie asked, sipping her espresso.
Linda finished her mouthful before speaking. "We are more or less sure that the Syndicate is moving into the drugs trade. Up until now they're restricted their activities purely to finance, but with the power vacuum in Melbourne it's too good an opportunity to miss for them."
"That ties in with them getting plenty of cash," Katie agreed.
"The main market in Melbourne is for methamphetamines. The gang that used to control about seventy percent of the trade was beheaded, so the street price has soared and we think Zach's been in contact with suppliers to buy up their excess stock."
"If there's demand for it, why don't they just sell it all?" George asked.
Katie answered. "The manufacturers and suppliers don't have the contacts on the street to sell it, and if they start doing it themselves the local gang will turn up and start robbing them."
"Exactly," Dawn said. "The Syndicate is going to use its good reputation to step in as the middle man and get the drugs onto the street. Highly profitable and the high-ups in the Syndicate are taking hardly any risk."
"Unless we can link them to it and chuck them in jail," George grinned.
Katie wasn't so convinced. "Problem is, from what I've heard, the meth trade is stabilising and the price is coming back down. If the Syndicate was going to get involved, they should've done it two months ago."
"Zach's no idiot," Linda replied, "he knows the opportunity has gone. But that doesn't leave any explanation for why the Syndicate is stockpiling laundered cash. Unless they know there's a lucrative deal to be had, why do it?"
"Maybe Zach'll take it all and run off to Brazil or somewhere?" Katie asked.
George shook his head. "Zach's a family man. If he ran off, he'd take his wife and kids, and why do that when you can live comfortably in Melbourne without a problem?"
"George is half-right. Running off might be unexpected, but we can't rule it out," Linda said, tapping a painted fingernail on her mug. "However, he can cut off all ties to the Syndicate and be left with nothing but clean money, so there's no reason for him to move further than here or Adelaide."
"So the answer is, we don't really know," Dawn summarised. "The missing link is what the Syndicate will use all the cash for, and we can't find that out without risky surveillance on Zach or a lucky find."
George sucked the rest of his lemonade up through the straw, making a gurgling sound. "So what's the plan?"
"We've had about twenty meetings and the solution we've come up with isn't perfect, but it's the best we can do," Dawn said, pulling a stack of paper out of her bag. "The details are in these files, so we need to go through it carefully."
"Also, we've received a diplomatic cable from the British High Commission in Canberra marked most urgent," Linda added, cracking a grin. "It's for you, George. Looks like your teachers have realised you're not doing any work and have a few suggestions."
George deflated and looked sadly at the sheet of paper. "I knew they'd catch up with me eventually."