Country Retreat - 64. Staff leave

The next morning, I was up early, even though I had only a few hours of sleep and I was making a cup of tea when Marcus and Hunter appeared. “Good morning boss, I was expecting you to have a sleep-in with the late night you had last night,” Hunter said to me. “By the looks of it, you haven’t had much sleep either,” I commented, “That’s true, but someone had to be close by in case the new arrivals needed anything. I slept on and off in the pod lounge of the lad's pod, they were still asleep when I last checked on them,” Hunter replied.

“Thanks for doing that Hunter, I think it will help them know that we are caring people, and ready to help them whenever needed,” I said to Hunter. “What are the plans for today boss?” Marcus asked me as we all sat down in the dining hall. “How are things on the property, including the orchard and gardens?” I asked my property manager, “All is good with our fruit and vegetables, and I just need to do a stock check this morning, and a boundary check later on in the day,” Marcus replied.

“When are all the spies returning to their bases?” Hunter asked, which made Marcus and I laugh. “What is so funny?” Koen asked as he entered. “Hunter just asked when all the spies are returning to their homes,” I said to Koen, just as Hugh entered, and they both smiled. “Very funny young Hunter. As a matter of fact, we only have a few days left before we need to head off to our home countries of Canada and New Zealand, we are on the same flight to Sydney before we go our own directions,” Koen replied.

Giles and Jarrad entered shortly afterwards, “When are you two heading back to Canberra?” I asked, “Trying to get rid of us already?” Jarrad replied smiling, and I gave a short laugh, “No, it’s just that Koen and Hugh were saying they will be leaving in a few days,” I replied. “Oh, ok. Well, I think we are on the same flight to Sydney and onto Canberra, at the end of the week,” Giles replied, and Jarrad nodded to confirm that.

“So by the end of the week, the place will be half empty of staff,” I said sadly, “Yes, but we will be having weekly video conferences as we planned remember, I think that what we managed to do last night went very well, but I can see a few areas where we could get a little unstuck, so we need to work through them,” Koen said to the group gathered. There was a knock on the door a few moments later, and we all called out “Come In” in unison, as Simon and Tristan entered the room.

“Good morning, you don’t need to knock, to enter the general use areas, just walk in ok?” I said to the lads. “Are you both ok, have you had enough sleep?” Hunter asked them, “We are ok for now, maybe we will have a sleep later on, but for now, can we have some food please,” Tristan replied and Hunter headed into the kitchen area to start cooking up a big breakfast for everyone.

After eating and cleaning up, Marcus, Koen and Hugh went out to do a stock and boundary check, while Hunter, Jarrad and I gave the lads a more detailed tour of the complex. “Are we underground?” Simon asked, “Yes sort of, it is a big hole dug out the side of a hill, with natural stone walls and a framed roof, to provide weather protection, as well as hide all the buildings inside.

It was something that my grandparents designed and built which can now accommodate a team of 10 staff, of which nearly half of them are living and working elsewhere, so there are only 6 staff here full time. We also can accommodate 8 single men, 4 single women and 4 families of five. We have an education centre, a medical centre, and an administration centre, which is restricted to senior staff only.

We have a community activity centre and a shopping store, where we provide basic personal supplies, and we can get shoes and clothing when required, plus the dining hall and kitchen which you have already seen. You would have passed by our sports field and pavilion as you came over to the dining hall earlier, and we like to kick a soccer ball around a lot to keep active.

We also have snorkelling gear and kayaks for when we go down to the beach to relax and have some fun. The beach is a public open space, and although the farm is reasonably remote, the beach is a popular spot, as there is an artificial reef created by two barge wrecks just off the coast, so it is a popular spot for scuba divers and snorkelling, so we need to take care for when you are out in public,” I said to the lads.

“For now, we want you both to have one of the staff with you at all times when out on the property outside, but be aware that there is a large boundary fence around the property, which is to keep unwanted people off the property, and it has some electric wires on the fence, which had already been in use with attempted trespassers.

Most of the property is surrounded by natural bushland, so most of the boundary fence is hidden from public view. Inside the complex, you are free to wander and use all general open areas, but please respect all staff person areas. If you need to speak to Oscar or one of the senior staff, just look in the kitchen or dining room, where there is usually a staff member there most of the day and at night time, there will be someone close by until you have fully settled into your new surroundings,” Jarrad added as we continued to walk around the complex.

Both lads expressed an interest in helping in the orchard and vegetable gardens, which was great to hear, so I made a mental note to mention this to Marcus when he gets back from the farm checks. By the end of the day, Rebecca, Lincoln and Jamison had returned, and they were introduced to the lads and welcomed them to Australia and the Manakoora Project.

Sadly the day came when Hugh and Koen had to return home due to work commitments, so using one of the farm vehicles, as I wanted to keep my vehicle away from the airport for the time being, I transported them to the International Terminal, even though it was a domestic flight to Sydney, they had international flights to connect too, and I stayed with them as they checked into their flights, and we went upstairs and had one final cuppa before we said our goodbyes and they headed for the security zone, to pass through customs and quarantine.

I waited in the general airport area and watched their flight pull away from the terminal and taxi to the end of the runway and take off before I returned to the vehicle and headed into the city, where I had a long list of shopping to do for the compound, as well as shoes and clothing for our protectees.

A few days later, I made my second trip down to the airport, this time to drop off Giles and Jarrad, as they headed off to Canberra, to begin work in their new jobs, and I was really upset when I had to say goodbye to them for goodness knows how long till I next see them in person. After I watched their flight take off, I headed to Kings Park for a long walk, and it was fairly late in the afternoon before I finally arrived back home on the property.

“Hey buddy, we were about to give you a call, to see where you are and see if you were ok,” Rebecca said to me as I appeared in the main complex, “I am fine, just a little sad that is all. Everyone is going their own way, and it is hard to accept that there is always change happening in my life,” I replied. “Yes, that is part of life sadly, but you still have most of us here to support you as we begin this new adventure with the project,” Rebecca replied.

Simon and Tristan had settled in fairly quickly into their new surroundings, and we went out onto the beach as often as we could while the weather was still warm, but only when there were no other people around the area. We kept tight security around the property for the first week that the lads had arrived, just in case someone had managed to uncover their whereabouts, but we began to relax a little after the second week.

Once a week, we had a video conference meeting with everyone, with it set for 1 pm Perth time, which was 10 am for Koen in BC Canada, 3 pm for Jarrad and Giles in Canberra, and 5 pm for Hugh in Auckland, New Zealand, with the meeting usually lasting for no more than one hour. Anything to do with the Manakoora Project that required sending emails was sent encrypted, to protect the project from any hacking, and we discussed the vetting process we needed to put into place when accepting new protectees to the project, as there was a big concern for the safety of the project and the staff that run it.

This concern became bigger when Koen, as a member of the Canadian NCB team, received word through a colleague that there had been enquiries made about the whereabouts of the Adamson brothers, that attempts had been made to try and locate them, via hacks into law enforcement databases. Koen also received a Federal Court order to have them attend court for an appeal hearing for those who had been convicted for the murder of the lad’s parents.

When Koen attended a pre-appeal hearing conference before a judge with the lawyers of the client who was convicted, Koen explained to the judge and the opposition lawyer, that due to both witnesses being out of the country under a Protected Persons arrangement via the National Central Bureau of Interpol, it would not be possible for the witnesses to appear personally in court, but he said he was willing to arrange for them to appear via video link, with enough warning to arrange it to take place.

When the judge asked what the Protected Persons arrangement was, as he had never heard of it, Koen explained that he would be happy to explain it in private to just the judge and no one else present, which the Judge accepted with much protest from the lawyers for the accused, who demanded to know what this arrangement is as well, but thankfully the judge dismissed his protests, as the hearing was put on hold for this private conference in chambers.