Basin. Powerful up-lighting illuminated the soaring rock walls, throwing them into beautiful relief.
‘Do you have anyone waiting for you, up north?’
‘What?’
The Tolkien fan had taken her by surprise, laying down her book and asking a question. Julianne had no desire to get into conversation with anyone, and kept herself closed off.
‘You look a little bit lost is all,’ said the girl. ‘Like you have nothing to look forward to. Are you going up to Queensland to work, or to meet someone?’
‘Oh,’ said Julianne, searching for an answer. As much as she wanted to just keep to herself, she had always been taught that good manners cost nothing, and could often serve as useful camouflage for one’s true nature. ‘I have a friend who’s sick,’ she said. ‘I’m going up to visit him. To help out a bit.’
‘That’s nice,’ said the girl. ‘You seem like a nice person. I hope it works out for you.’ And with that she went back to Middle Earth.
*
The girl left the bus in Coffs Harbour, a pleasant enough seaside town where they stopped for breakfast the next morning. Julianne’s luck ran out at that point, when the seat next to her was taken by an unwashed young man whose body mass was fifty per cent composed of stainless steel piercings. He played loud, terrible music through his disgracefully cheap headphones and farted with joyous abandon all the way to Brisbane.
She couldn’t really afford a good hotel room, but Julia Black could, so Jules booked a night at the Sheraton as soon as she arrived in the northern capital. She had no intention of staying for long. She felt the urgency of her need to get to Darwin as a physical discomfort. Soaking in her bath at the hotel, washing away the unpleasantness of the road trip with a bottle of champagne from the minibar, Julianne called down to the concierge desk.
‘I need to get in contact with someone in Darwin,’ she said. ‘A Mr Narayan Shah. He runs a security consultancy up there, but I’m afraid I’m not quite sure of the name of his company. I wonder if you might be a dear and see if you could track it down for me. That’s Narayan Shah. He’s a former Gurkha, if that helps … okay. Thank you.’
The phone next to her bed rang ten minutes later while she was tying up the thick, white bathrobe and contemplating a room service binge. If she was going to burn Julia Black’s ID and credit rating she might as well torch it in high style.
‘Ms Black, it is Arthur at the front desk, I have Mr Shah on the line for you.’
She heard a click and a beep and then Shah’s voice was in her ear.
‘Ms Black? This is Narayan Shah. How can I help you?’
‘You can stop calling me Ms Black for a start. It’s Jules, Shah. From the
He was, it seemed, surprised and delighted to hear from her.
‘Miss Julianne, this is a pleasure. I had heard you were back in Australia and was hoping you would call.’
She smiled at the rough, familiar tone of the old sergeant’s voice.
‘Hello, Shah,’ she said. ‘It’s lovely to talk to you. And yes, I’m sorry I haven’t been in contact, but, you know, trying to keep a low profile and all.’
She sat down on the bed and snugged the dressing gown closer around her.
‘I understand,’ said Shah. ‘The authorities, they did not make it easy for you with Mr Norman’s boat, and some of your passengers.’
He meant the Pieraro family. Her wealthy American refugees had walked down the gangplank and into the warm embrace of the locals. Not so much the penniless Mexican family.
‘Is there something I can do for you, Miss Julianne?’ Shah asked. ‘I still regard myself as being in your debt.’
‘Oh, don’t be silly. It’s me who owes you. We would not have made it without you and your men. And I’m afraid I have to call on your grace and favour again. I’m in a spot of bother, Shah, and it might be something that affects you, eventually. And maybe the Rhino too. Did he make it up to Darwin? I know he was headed there and wondered if you might have been in contact.’
There was a slight pause before the former Gurkha answered.
‘The Rhino, yes, he is up here. I have seen him once or twice. But he is a proud man, Miss Julianne, and he keeps his problems to himself. I would very much like to help him, and you if you are in need. But I cannot say that Mr Ross will want our help.’
Julianne gazed for a moment out of the hotel window. Julia Black had booked a room on the executive level, for the added security, rather than for the extra luxury. The elevation afforded her sweeping views across the city and out towards the coast.
‘Well, he’s going to need our help,’ she said. ‘And I’m going to need yours, Shah. Someone’s trying to kill me.’
‘Fascinating,’ said the soldier turned businessman. ‘Somebody is trying to kill me as well.’
There was silence between them for two heartbeats.
‘Oh, I’m sorry, Shah. I fear I may have dragged you into something awful.’
His laughter was unexpected but reassuring.
‘Miss Julianne, nobody drags me anywhere. Except my wife down to the shops during the sales. I apologise that I cannot stay long on the phone to discuss this with you now. I really do have some pressing matters to attend to here. But I wonder how quickly you might get to Darwin.’
‘Not quickly at all, unfortunately,’ she admitted. ‘My resources aren’t what they were.’
She hated having to talk with Shah like this, as if he were a mark. It spoke well of the man that he recognised what she was doing but did not hold it against her.
‘Nonsense,’ he said. ‘I shall organise a ticket for you on the next available flight. You are in Brisbane yes? And travelling incognito? As Ms Julianne Black?’
‘Julia. For now,’ she said. ‘I’ll probably need another ID in a couple of days. It’s Cesky, if you remember him, from Acapulco. The guy we didn’t let on the boat. The vengeful prick just won’t give it up. He’s had a couple of goes at both the Rhino and me back Stateside. And I think he’s found us over here now, too.’
‘I see,’ said Shah, sounding preoccupied. ‘It is settled, then,’ he said. ‘I shall organise you transport as soon as possible.’
‘I need to get to the Rhino as quickly as possible, too,’ she said. ‘He’s probably in danger. And you said you have had some trouble?’
‘Some, yes. I do not wish to be rude, Miss Julianne, but I would like to address these problems with dispatch. If you remain at your hotel I will send through details of your flights when they are booked.’
‘And the Rhino?’
‘He is working with one of the trawler companies up here. He may be out on the water, I do not know,’ said Shah. ‘But I shall have my men check for him, and when I send through your travel details I will also include some contacts for him. Places you might look when you get into town. I assume you’ll want to start straight away.’
‘I will,’ said Julianne. ‘I’ve had enough of this shit.’
15
DEARBORN HOUSE, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
James Kipper was grumpy. Jed could see he was grumpy as soon as he and Marilyn were admitted to the President’s private quarters - simply because he was in the process of getting dressed. Just his dinner jacket and black bow tie, known by presidential decree as ‘the Asphyxiator’, to go. He’d have started complaining as soon as he pulled his pants on, and stepped it up while trying to get the cummerbund to sit properly around his nonexistent waist. The performance would soon be reaching a crescendo of mumbling and grumbling about ‘these stupid monkey clothes’ while Barb attempted to do up the Asphyxiator. The President of the United States was nothing if not consistent. As was his wife. She sported the same furiously furrowed brow that Culver recognised from any number of these occasions over the past couple of years.
‘He was trying to get away with wearing a clip-on. Can you imagine that, Jed?’
‘All too easily,’ he snorted. ‘I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d tried turning up in a Hawaiian shirt or with a motorised bow tie that could spin like a propeller.’
‘Hey, I am the President, you know, fella,’ Kip protested. ‘And that sounds mighty like sedition talk to me.
