Returning with another chapter now... and still sick . Thanks for the fabulous feedback throughout this story. I really do like to read what you have to say.
Enjoy.
Chapter Fifteen
In a climate where the temperature hung at around 32 degrees Celsius, not much different to Cairns, prevailing winds from the coast were desirable. It was early, but not too early, and the slow rift of leaves and sand as the sun rose over the Indian Ocean painted a very pretty picture. The balcony's railing was not the most comfortable seat in his hotel room, but it was the one with the most to offer: a cool breeze, fresh air and the sinking feeling one got when dangling so close to the edge.
There was movement in Mike's room and Kate knew her lover was still sleeping, albeit unsoundly. Her Executive Officer made his way carefully and quietly through the darkened room to her 'twenty' on the balcony.
"Mike's not sleeping well," Kate said, as though it were the reason for her migration to the outdoors.
"And you're just not sleeping," Raffy returned. There was little that escaped him, and it was the reason he chanced a discussion with her so early in the morning.
"What are you doing awake so early?"
Raffy shrugged. "Same reason, I guess."
She shook her head and looked beyond the rising sun. "Not the same one."
"No," Raffy agreed. "Not exactly."
Kate let their conversation wade into an uncomfortable silence. The discussion that had to be had was one she did not want to have. Not yet. Not ever. She suspected there would be a debriefing as soon as they left the hospital but, when there wasn't, she knew it would come in the morning. Some things were just too critical to be left for too long.
Raffy had other ideas. He inevitably crushed the lull. "I'm sorry for what happened last night."
"It's not your fault, Rafael," Kate told him surely. "I'm just glad you found us when you did."
"I didn't find you," Raffy said slowly, and the beginnings of shame were eliciting an awkward response from his facial expressions. "I already knew where you were."
Anger was not the first emotion. Confusion preceded it. And the look on Kate's face beckoned him to continue. And so he did.
"Ethan knew where you were all along. He passed on your location and the route you would travel back to the hotel to his informants in this faction, and they gave the information to Gudhunyo."
"What are you saying? He set us up to be captured by terrorists?" Her voice was markedly higher and all thoughts about preserving Mike's disturbed sleeping pattern were lost.
"He allowed you to be captured."
"Why?"
Raffy bit his tongue and tried to shake his head, but the impatient expression worn by his CO was too much. "For information. You were asked questions, yes? Otherwise he wouldn't have taken you."
"And Ethan wants to know what he asked so he gets a glimpse of our enemies' plans," Kate realised disdainfully. "You were involv-"
Raffy cut her off. "No. No, I didn't know about this until I went looking for you last night. After you didn't return from the Hammersley, I grew concerned. And then I found Ethan. And when I learnt what he had done, I made him get you out."
"He knew where we were all along?"
Raffy nodded. "He placed GPS tracker dots in your watches. Removed the back, I guess, and slipped one in. They're not that big, you know, and I guess he knew that you would be wearing your watch."
"Smart plan." But Raffy could tell that she was woefully disappointed with it. "He left out the risk assessment part, though. What if we'd been killed? What about what already happened to us because we resisted interrogation?"
"It's not his job to care about that. He only wants good intel and he'll get it any way he can."
"The big picture," Kate said. Anger was gnawing at her soul. An unrequited fury was leeching away logical thought.
"Lieutenant Commander Watson was flown to Darwin during the night," Raffy told her. "He's gonna make it. At least that's one good thing to think about."
"I suppose so. But then…" She leapt off the railing and onto the ceramic tiles before stepping into the open doorway. Mike was still sleeping, but his face contorted in a mix of fear and unbelievable pain. It wasn't a peaceful sleep and he was probably dreaming the worst imaginable. Slowly, his hand reached across the white sheet to where Kate slept and grasped the material tightly.
"I still have work to do," Raffy said in a quiet voice. "I'll see you this afternoon."
As soon as he left, closing the door silently behind him, she climbed back into Mike's bed and reached across the sheets for his clenched fist. It loosened at her touch and his face calmed when she grasped it in her own. Fresh tears were starting to sting her eyes as she considered what he was dreaming. Was there any coming back from this? Or was it always going to be a fence between them?
Dutchy's business was to stand in the back of the room and watch his XO's 'six'. He presumed that it would be his orders from the CO anyway, and he was enthusiastic about accompanying Raffy to Jakarta and to a non-descript office in the headquarters of the Indonesian National Police. After changing into jeans and a t-shirt, he was whisked off in an embassy vehicle to the airport and on to a chartered jet. His only instructions were to remain quiet. As it stood, he hadn't even asked what they were doing there.
The office was empty until an imposing middle-aged Indonesian man in a dull grey uniform entered. Raffy was wearing a black suit and tie, markedly different to his buffer's casual attire. He did not jump, flinch or even look up when the officer entered the room. As they sat opposite each other, an expensive ornamental desk in between, Dutchy's dread-o-meter was going into overdrive. He couldn't even work out what they were doing there.
"Lieutenant Rodrigues," he began, "do you want to tell me what you are doing in my office?"
Raffy just smiled. "Nice to see you again, Commissioner Budingan." He nodded to Dutchy who handed him a locked wooden box. "A gift. For our continuing cooperation."
Budingan was grinning when he opened it. "Mm. Cuban."
Raffy declined the offer to share. "Have you got anything on Asif Muhammad Gudhunyo?"
"Hm? You killed him last night, yes?"
Dutchy's ears perked up.
"Yes."
Budingan appeared pleased by his response. "I hear that you were supposed to capture him alive. Are you in trouble, Mr Rodrigues?"
"Unfortunately, he didn't leave me with much of a choice," Raffy explained nonchalantly. "He was in Iran two weeks ago. Do you know what he was doing there?"
His expression said no. "We have no information on him there."
Raffy was wearing sly grin, one that Dutchy had seen too often. Information was power, the XO had told him, and that just a little could lead to a lot. He was going in for the kill with whatever intelligence he had on this Indonesian police officer.
"Perhaps I should ask Mehdi Kharoubi from the Revolutionary Guard," Raffy suggested slowly.
Dutchy felt the room's aura change. Budingan's face grew serious very quickly, and there was something else he sensed… fear.
"Who?" Budingan asked. The truth was pathetically hidden.
"Don't try it," Raffy warned. "Of course, it's not just the Revolutionary Guard who have you on their payroll. What do you think will happen when your superiors find out you've been selling secrets to the ISI?"
Budingan was silent.
"I'm sure that you wouldn't live out the month," Raffy finished. The other two men in the room remained quiet. Dutchy now knew why he was banned from talking. This was not the sort of thing he was trained to get involved in.
"What do you want?" Budingan said finally.
"You signed off on a shipment from Bandar-Abbas," Raffy said quickly. "It was received in Medan. No further details available. What was it?"
"I don't know what you are talking about," Budingan told him forcefully.
Raffy stood up and stared at him. "You have until the end of the day to tell me or I send a video anonymously to General Kanikpan."
Dutchy followed his superior officer out of the office, shutting the door with a thump behind him. He didn't know what was going on. He worked out that there was a serious terrorist threat and something had been sent from Iran to Indonesia. He knew that his XO had killed a man the night before. But what he didn't know could fill volumes.
The external boundaries of the police headquarters were at least ten degrees warmer than inside. Dutchy was glad that he'd grabbed a t-shirt as opposed to a suit.
"Driver's five minutes out," Raffy told him.
Dutchy nodded and walked closer. "What was that about?"
The XO looked around hurriedly. "You were there. You heard everything. And I don't think that I need to ask you to keep it to yourself."
"Sir?"
"What is it that you want to know?" Raffy asked pointedly.
"You killed someone last night?"
Raffy stepped away from him. "I didn't have a choice."
"I know that look."
"What look?"
"Frustration," Dutchy answered simply. "Confusion. And what was that about in there? Treason here is not the same thing as it is in Australia."
"I know that!" Raffy shouted in a raised voice. Bystanders were visibly shocked and perturbed by the outrage. He dropped his tone again. "Treason is the same everywhere. I need the information."
As soon as it came out, he felt sick. His argument was the same as Ethan Saunders'. The ends justify the means and the big picture is more important than any one person.
"Right." Dutchy wasn't sitting on the opposite plane of self-righteousness. He and Raffy—they bat for the same team.
"They grabbed us, Dylan," Raffy began, "and they brought us down to their level."
"We're just doing what we have to," Dutchy countered. "To protect our country."
"That's almost the same argument as 'I was just following orders'," Raffy mused with an impenetrable stare. "Didn't quite go down like that at Nuremberg."
"But in the end, if we save a hundred or a thousand lives…"
"Will it be worth it?"
Dutchy smiled. "To all those lives, yes. You'll be a hero."
Lunacy was infectious, it seemed. What his buffer was suggesting was rather preposterous. "Hero? I think not. We're all dark knights battling through hell to come out with some sort of reward in the shape of national applause. But really we're just outcasts."
"I've seen the movie. Well thought-out plot, exceptional special effects and an award-winning cast."
Raffy wanted to laugh. His subordinate caught on fast. But there was a dreadful emotion eating away at his soul, and it took a piece every single time he came out of the worst with his head. He spoke again, in barely more than a monotonous whisper, and Dutchy had to lean in to hear. But his philosophical thought said so much more than anything the officer could have revealed about himself.
"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."