Alex Palmer - The Tattooed Man

The truck moved on down the dirt road. Eventually it came to another, larger village that seemed equally deserted. They were passing a large white building when the truck stopped suddenly. It had broken down.

Next, the driver and the villagers were inside what must have once been a schoolhouse. The eye looked out of the window. The other truck carrying the soldiers had stopped outside. In the open space in front of the school, Beck and du Plessis got out of the cabin; the armed men spilled out of the back. They surrounded the building. Through a window, Beck could be seen standing and shouting at whoever was inside the school.

Then Beck gestured to three of the men. The eye watched them return from the truck carrying jerry cans. Then it followed them from window to window as they threw what could only be petrol against the walls of the building. One of them tossed a lighted rag onto the petrol, which burst into flames. The woman with the child ran out of one of the doors. What happened to her the camera did not show and there was no sound. In its eye view, the walls and roof had begun to burn fiercely. Flames rained down around the camera. It saw people burning. Then it was pushed through a door into another room, a storage area with a window on one side. At floor level there was a long metal grille. The ceiling came down in curtains of flame. The eye was propelled towards the dirt floor against the grille. Then there was nothing.

When the video was over, Harrigan and Grace sat in silence for some moments. Then she got to her feet and went to the kitchen where she began to make coffee.

‘Now we know how Brinsmead got his burns,’ Harrigan said. ‘He was an agent in an undercover operation that went wrong.’

‘Yes,’ Grace said shortly, her back to him.

He went to her. She was crying. He put his arms around her and comforted her, pleased that he had this to do. Anything to occupy his thoughts while he tried to find some meaningful way to deal with what he had just seen.

‘That’s why I do the job I do,’ she said. ‘Knowing that people can do that kind of thing to other people. I hate it, and if I can stop them or get them, I will.’

The coffee was ready. She poured them a mug each and lit a cigarette.

‘Go after them,’ she said. ‘Go after the people behind that massacre with everything you’ve got. Get du Plessis. Take him to trial.’

‘I’m doing my best. But someone with the authority to do it shut down that original operation.’

‘Had they seen that video? They could have prosecuted Beck and du Plessis on the strength of that.’

‘But they didn’t. We don’t know why and I don’t think anyone’s going to tell us.’

‘Daniel Brinsmead will know,’ she said. ‘Somehow he got out of there and was still alive enough to be flown back to London. He must have had that video on him then.’

‘You want my opinion? He’s involved in the shooting up at Pittwater. Him and Jonas together. For all I know, they’re our murderers. I can’t feel for him.’

‘We don’t know that for sure.’

‘Calvo didn’t have the motive to kill those people and then advertise it. That video gives Brinsmead all the motive he needs to kill Beck.’

‘He and Sam didn’t talk that way when I was listening to them the other day. They talked like professional agents. If they are, they can’t be your murderers. Did you find out if they were legitimate?’

‘I’ve asked the question. I don’t know when I’ll get an answer or even if I’ll be told.’

‘That video is as much motive for Calvo as it is for Daniel Brinsmead,’ Grace said. ‘It’s what she has to cover up. She is a murderer. A murderer just like the people behind the killings we saw on that video just now. Someone who gets other people to do it for them. They don’t even have the guts to do it for themselves. They’re worse than the people who actually pull the triggers.’

‘She’s definitely one of them. Grace, you need to calm down. We can only deal with this calmly. That’s the only thing we can do for those people now.’

Grace moved away, restlessly. ‘I want to know the whys and the wherefores,’ she said. ‘Who’s behind what. Calvo would know.’

Harrigan’s phone rang.

‘Paul,’ the commissioner said. ‘Can you come to a meeting in my office immediately? We have a significant development in the Pittwater investigation.’

‘Are you referring to the video that’s on the net, Commissioner?’

‘It’s connected to that. We’ll see you as soon as you can get here.’

‘I’m on my way.’

‘You have to go again,’ Grace said.

‘I don’t know when I’ll be back but I’ll call you. I’ll let you know what’s going on. That’s a promise this time.’

‘I’ll wait,’ she said, wiping her eyes. ‘What else can I do but sit here and be useless?’

‘Just stay safe.’

It wasn’t yet five when Harrigan hit the road. The traffic was sparse in the early summer Saturday morning. There was a fragile sense of the dawn’s coolness soon to disappear in the heat of the day. When he reached the commissioner’s office, Chloe was waiting for him. She ushered him in immediately. Another man was there for the meeting. Harrigan didn’t recognise him.

‘Paul, let me introduce you,’ the commissioner said. ‘This is Stephen Grey; he’s a first assistant commissioner with ASIO. Stephen, this is Commander Paul Harrigan. With the special assistant commissioner’s demise, he’s the executive officer in charge of the Pittwater task force.’

They shook hands.

‘Thank you for coming in at this hour, Commander,’ Grey said. ‘I’ll get to the heart of the matter. I’m here to advise you that at about 3 a.m. today, we attempted to execute arrest warrants on two individuals who, the commissioner tells me, are persons of interest to your investigation: Dr Daniel Brinsmead and Sam Jonas.’

‘Do you have them in custody?’

‘We do not. They’d flown the coop. At present, their whereabouts are unknown. Let me give you the background. The photograph of the dead associated with your investigation showed a Jerome Beck. Shortly after that photograph was published on the net, he was recognised by a certain agency in Britain with the code name Falcon, a highly secret anti-terrorist organisation. They contacted us and asked us to place a watching brief on your investigation. They sent us photographs of two individuals they were interested in, the two I’ve just identified to you. Both are former agents of Falcon. Both were the primary operatives for the operation recorded in that dossier and also in the video that was posted on the net this morning. Their operation was shut down in December four years ago. It was ruled a failure that almost resulted in Brinsmead’s death. These two individuals have stolen and now illegally published secret information. Both have turned rogue, in other words. Jonas was at one time a highly respected career agent named Sophia Ricks. At present, she’s impersonating a dead woman.’

‘I should tell you, Paul, I was aware that this watching brief was in place,’ the commissioner said. ‘When you spoke to me yesterday, I rang ASIO to take advice on what information your squad should receive. It’s impressive that you found these two individuals out through your own investigations.’

‘It’s also the reason we’re having this meeting,’ Grey said. ‘Secrecy is of the utmost importance at the present. It was necessary for you to be made aware of the gravity of the situation before that information was passed on.’

Harrigan thought how much easier life would have been if he had been told sooner.

‘Do we know what made these people turn rogue?’ he asked. ‘Because that operation had gone bad and was shut down?’