Matt Eaton - Blank

The General was seated on a recliner a short distance away. A much younger woman was sitting next to him.

“The Brigadier doesn’t like you much,” Shearer remarked.

“Hadn’t noticed,” Luckman returned with a grin.

“Let me introduce you to Captain Maxine Warrington. Max works with me at the DIO in Canberra.”

Luckman shook her hand. “Pleasure.” She had a firm grip and a steely gaze.

“Captain Luckman.”

Shearer pointed to another swivelling leather armchair and Luckman took a load off.

“Thanks for joining us. I didn’t want to spill the beans in front of Jim Martin, but the thing is we’ve got something we’d like you to do for us.”

“Really?”

“It’s right up your alley. The political landscape is shifting, Stone. There’s a thought taking root in Defence that China will choose a soft target as their first shot at America.”

“You mean us – Australia?”

Shearer smiled and looked at Captain Warrington. “Told you he’d catch on quick.”

“If you were planning Chinese military strategy,” Warrington hypothesised, “what would be top of your list of Australian targets?”

Luckman thought for a moment. “Canberra certainly. That takes out government and military command in one go.”

“But that doesn’t actually hit the Americans where they hurt,” she replied.

Then the penny dropped. “They’d go for the joint defence base at Pine Gap. Take that out and you take out all of the Pacific Fleet’s communications.”

“Got it in one,” said Shearer, like it was a test and Luckman had just passed.

“Pine Gap is critical in providing battlefield intelligence to the US Pacific fleet,” said Warrington. “It gives them early warning on ballistic missile launches and is an integral part of nuclear weapons targeting. It’s their primary link to all military satellites. China has the base in its sights, without a doubt.”

“Thing is,” said Shearer, “we strongly suspect they will nuke the bloody base just to make a point.”

“Why?”

“Australia is the only nation on Earth not currently facing a nuclear catastrophe,” said Warrington.

“Are you suggesting they’d nuke us out of spite?”

“It’d sure make America think twice if they did,” said Shearer. “Which is why the Australian Government has come to the conclusion it would be better to take Pine Gap off the table.”

“Mind telling me how do you plan to do that?” Luckman asked him.

Shearer grinned. “We’re going to destroy it ourselves.”

“Which is where you come in,” Warrington added.

“Then why don’t you just send in a Super Hornet to bomb the crap out of it?”

“That would be rather too obvious. The Americans are still our allies. We want to appease the Chinese but, for the moment at least, it would seem foolish to risk fracturing the US alliance.”

“And the Prime Minister’s in favour of this?”

“Not officially,” Shearer admitted.

Thus we come to the nub of it , thought Luckman.

“Come on, are you going to sit there and pretend you don’t like the sound of blowing Pine Gap to kingdom come?” Shearer taunted.

Luckman smiled, pausing for a moment to consider how best to respond.

“To be honest, General, I think you’re out of your freaking mind. No offence.”

“You’re quite right, of course. It’s a crazy plan – but that’s what’s so brilliant about it. We stop this insane war in its tracks before it begins. China will take a step back and the US would stand down because suddenly all their focus would turn to Alice Springs.”

“Exactly what are you proposing?”

“You take this plane,” said Shearer. “All the firepower you need is already stowed in the hold. Stinger missiles, a couple of kilos of C4 in case you can get in close. Hell, I even threw in a mortar kit. You fly out there, spend a day or two in reconnaissance and then bam. You’ll have to take your own pilot – I need mine to find me a ride back to Canberra.”

“What are conditions like on the ground?”

“There’s no contact with the base itself. Not at our end anyway,” said Shearer. “Everyone out there could already be dead for all we know. But the relay station itself is functioning perfectly.”

“We’ve likewise detected no signs of life in the town,” Warrington added. “The Army has conducted no reconnaissance flights to Alice Springs in the past two months. Seems someone in Army logistics wrote the place off from day one.”

“That makes no sense at all,” said Luckman. “You’re telling me no-one has bothered to check on the joint defence facility?”

“You know all about the cluster-fuck of chaos we went through in the first weeks after the disasters,” said Shearer. “Everything was devoted to disaster recovery in the major population centres. The status of the intelligence apparatus didn’t figure highly on that list, or at least not until China and the US started pointing missiles at each other. Then within days, the Americans were at DEFCON 2 and demanding we surrender all operational control of Pine Gap.”

“So in a nutshell,” Luckman concluded, “you have no idea what’s happening out there.”

“Come on, it’s not exactly flying behind enemy lines. Just keep your eyes and ears open, that’s all we’re saying.”

“If I do this, there’s someone else I’d want to take. She’s a civilian but she has skills that could prove useful.”

Shearer shook his head. “That’s a complication we don’t need.”

He was right. There was no way to justify taking Mel along, other than his own gut feeling that she’d be useful combined with a certain sinking feeling that came with the idea of leaving her behind on her own in Amberley.

“If you want me, she’s part of the deal. Unless you think you can find yourself another saboteur.”

Shearer stared at him and seemed to go pink in the face. He glanced at Warrington, who shook her head.

Shearer sighed. “Fine, take her with you. But if you fuck this up, I’ll have your head. Hers as well.”

“I’ll get it done,” Luckman assured him.

“We’re trying to prevent a war, son. That means you do whatever it takes to get it done.”

If only his friends at Greenpeace could see him now.

“Won’t they see me coming?”

“I told the US Embassy we were sending out a reconnaissance mission to re-establish contact with the base. I didn’t get any argument,” said Shearer.

“How soon do you want me to leave?”

“As soon as you can get your people on board this plane.”

“Don’t s’pose you’ve cleared this with Brigadier Martin?”

“Jim Martin will do what I tell him to do.”

Eddie Bell levelled out the jet as they reached a cruising altitude of 11,400 metres. At a speed of 850 kilometres an hour, flight time to Alice Springs would be about two and a half hours. Luckman unclipped his seat belt and climbed out of the co-pilot’s chair to check on his passenger.

He sank into a leather recliner and swung it around to face her. He knew full well that Shearer had used the luxury jet to bait the hook. It wasn’t what made him bite, but it sure as hell was a nice way to travel.

Mel was perturbed. “What are you so happy about?”

“Almost feels like going on holidays.”

She shook her head at him. “To Alice Springs, as predicted by Seamus’s little spirit friend.”

Luckman shook his head incredulously. “Not sure what to make of that,” he admitted. He reached over to a bag he had stashed on one of the other seats. “I got you something.” He pulled out a compact Canon digital video camera.

She took the camera and began checking it out.