Rogue Element

This was what hacking was all about, Joe remembered thinking at the time. Secrets were extremely tempting, even now when he was no longer hacking. There was something sexy about revealing them. He’d examined the box, walked around it in the black room. In the real world, it would have been made of hardened tool steel. Indeed, even in the virtual world it had appeared formidable, unbreakable, impregnable. But to someone like Joe, the safe might as well have been carved from balsa. He’d tapped out a coded sequence, the equivalent of a virtual shaped charge, lit the fuse and stood back. The ensuing explosion peeled the door from its hinges.

Inside the vault, Joe had hoped to find more than the general’s Christmas shopping list, but he’d not been able to make sense of any of it. Disappointed, he nevertheless thought what the hell and burned the lot onto a beer mat anyway.

Joe seemed to wake from a trance. ‘There were a few papers.’

‘Is that all?’ asked Suryei.

‘The general had made an attempt to keep them hidden. But, now I think about it, there was something weird.’

Joe stood and walked slowly about the small clearing, piecing the fragments of the memories together, shoulders hunched, drawn into himself. ‘There was something… I didn’t think much about it at the time. Australia was part of a map…’

‘A map?’

‘Yeah, it’s odd.’

‘Why? How?’

‘The names of all the countries. I remember now because those names were the only words I could understand. They were written in English. Except Australia. It was called something-or-other Irian Jaya.’

‘Okay,’ said Suryei, standing up, hands on hips, facing him. ‘Can you remember what that something-or-other was?’

‘I’m trying.’

‘Try harder.’ The blood had drained from her face.

Joe ignored her impatience. ‘There was another word that prefixed Irian Jaya. Like Salute, or Salami…’

Suryei’s face felt cold yet hot at the same time. The tips of her ears burned. Could it possibly be…? No way. The Indonesians would never conceive… It was too outrageous. Yet, they had been in a Qantas 747 that had been blown out of the sky. And now they were being hunted by Indonesian troops. Maybe it wasn’t too far-fetched at all and Joe had actually found something incredible, something so big that perhaps a plane-load of people had to die to prevent it being brought to the world’s attention. ‘Joe, think hard now. Was the word possibly… Selatan?’

Joe tried to visualise the map. ‘Yes,’ he said hesitantly. ‘I think that was it. Yeah, Selatan Irian Jaya. Why, what does that mean?’

Christ, thought Suryei, her stomach twisting. This was something she didn’t want to make a mistake about. ‘The word Irian means “high” in Indonesian. Jaya means “victory”. And Selatan means “southern”. Selatan Irian Jaya — Southern High Victory. Whose computer did you hack into?’

‘A general. A bloke called Soo-ang.’

‘You mean Suluang. He’s the Mr Big of the TNI.’ At that moment, Suryei saw it all clearly and a painful anxiety gripped her chest. She sat heavily on the ground, just as Joe had earlier. ‘I think what you might have found was part of an invasion plan.’

‘What…?!’

‘It seems bizarre, but the facts fit — the plane, the missile, the soldiers trying to kill us. The Indonesians trying to keep some sort of invasion of Australia secret. Something like that is big enough to make sense of everything.’ Suryei stared at the ground at her feet, in shock.

‘That’s why there’s been no rescue. I’ll bet the Australian authorities don’t even know where the plane is,’ Suryei said.

‘Then we’re fucked,’ said Joe quietly.

‘Is it possible they — the soldiers — know they’re chasing the person who uncovered the plan?’

‘I don’t know how they could.’

‘But if they did, it would make them pretty damned determined to put a bullet in you… us.’

Joe paced nervously and started towards the trees. ‘Come on. Let’s get moving. We can’t stay here.’

‘Hang on a sec. What are we going to do? We need some sort of plan here,’ she said to his back.

He stopped. ‘You’re right. We can’t go much further this way.’ Joe looked up at the escarpment towering above them.

‘I think we should head back to the aeroplane,’ she said.

‘Sure. And let’s put big red targets on our chests for those nice men in khaki.’

‘We’re not getting anywhere wandering around in circles,’ said Suryei, allowing his sarcasm to pass over her.

‘Aside from whether going back to the plane’s a good idea or not, I don’t know where we are, or where the plane is in relation to us. So how do you propose we find it?’

‘I don’t know, but we have to try. When rescue comes, it’ll go there, not out here. And there are plenty of places we can hide close by the wreckage until it does.’