Country Retreat - 65. Julia & Co

Once in chambers, Koen explained that there had been recent breaches in the police database, with searches for the whereabouts of his two protected witnesses, which are currently under investigation. Koen added that since they were unsuccessful in finding information on the databases to give their whereabouts, they are now attempting to use the courts to demand their location and have them come before the courts, to kill them, which would result in a dismissal of their case through the appeal process.

The judge expressed concern about this news, and he asked Koen about this Protected Persons programme, where the two witnesses are currently hidden away. Koen explained that a group of like-minded people from around the world, who all work in Law Enforcement or Intelligence agencies of their home country, have created a system to protect people who are not criminals and who are caught in a situation where they witness or know someone who is a witness to horrendous crimes, where their lives have been put at risk.

He said that the two brothers, who the two wanted by the accused lawyers, are currently settling into a new environment, where they feel a lot safer, and are free to start a new life, with only one dozen people knowing of their exact location. The judge asked Koen if he was one of those people who knew their exact location, and Koen said that he refused to answer that question, as it would put him at risk of harm, which the Judge accepted.

Back in the courtroom, the Judge dismissed the applicant's request to have the two witnesses present in court for the hearing of the appeal but allowed for them to appear via video link if required, and although it was not exactly what they wanted, it would give the lawyer and his clients the chance to locate the two lads, by hacking into the video link, well that was their plan anyway.

When the weekly video conference arrived, Koen announced to all of us what had happened in court in the past week, with the accused trying to locate the Adamson brothers, no doubt to silence them permanently, and after some discussion, it was decided to not tell Simon and Tristan about this right away, and wait until a set date has been made for the court appeals hearing.

During these discussions, some ideas were put forward in ways to disguise where the lads are, with the assistance of fixed lighting and background sound effects, which I thought was a great idea and Giles said that he would look into ways of trying to bounce the signal of the video link so that it cannot be traced back to the complex. I informed the group that I was still intended on finishing my latest degree, and that I would soon be attending University in Perth, so there may be some times when I can’t attend the video conferences.

A week before the Canadian Federal Appeals Court hearing was to take place, the judge was notified that there had been an attempted breach in the video conferencing system, which put clients and witnesses at risk of being tracked, so the judge dismissed the case on the grounds of interference with the judicial system, and he was informed by the lawyer that he would be appealing to the Supreme Court on this matter. Koen kept us updated on what was happening, and we still had not informed Simon and Tristan of what had been happening over the past few weeks.

I had been having counselling sessions with the boys together and individually, and I could see from those sessions, that they were very easily upset when getting into details of what happened, which resulted in the death of their parents, and them being threatened with harm. They did express that they are both happy to be alive and protected in a new home, which I wrote in a report and sent to Koen.

As the weeks passed, there was still no news on what was happening with the Adamson Court case, but there had been several more attempts to gain information to find out their whereabouts which was very worrying, as these people were determined to get that information, no matter who got burnt in the process, which resulted in the location of 16 law enforcement officers been caught and charged with illegally obtaining and passing on information about protected persons.

In the end, a joint task force managed to capture and charge several people in three gangs, with a long list of offences regarding this case, and the Federal Courts issued an order that all persons assigned to the International Protected Persons Programme will have all of their details sealed, and can not be accessed without the specific order of just one Federal Judge.

Koen would have monthly meetings with the judge to discuss IPP Programme business, without any official paper trail of any kind. Koen kept us updated on the latest news regarding this case, and on hearing what had been decided, we were finally able to relax and get on with our work of running the farm, as well as protecting the Adamson brothers.

I returned to university studies in early February for my final year of university studies, and I would stay at my Grandparent’s place three nights a week to spend four days at University attending lectures, attending tutorials and working on my assignments. This also gave me the chance to see my siblings a bit more regularly, as they often spent weekends with our grandparents, and they were always happy to see me, with Deacon now being 15 and Amara being 13 years old.

The Adamson boys had settled into their new home very well and were kept very busy with both working in the gardens and outside on the property. The only time that they had restricted movements, was mostly on weekends, when campers stayed at the campsite down the beach and spent the day at the barge wreck swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving around the wreck.

Most weekends that I was back at Manakoora, I was supervising Tristan with his school work, which he was doing very well, although it did take him a bit of time to adjust to the Australian Distance Education system, but I was very happy with his progress so far, while Simon was doing very well working on the farm, from the reports I get from Marcus each week. When the mid-year semester break arrived in July, I was looking forward to getting back to work on the property, and not having to worry about my studies for two whole weeks.

I had received news from Jarrad during our weekly conference, that he had some new arrivals to Manakoora arriving shortly, and that travel plans were in their final stages. I was informed that the family of an English/Australian woman and her twin sons, who had travelled back to Australia after 3 ½ years of living in the UK, where she has family and where her sons were born, but she is Australian and studied at University here for a few years earlier.

“Where did she attend university and what are her qualifications?” I asked, without realising that I was about to be hit with a bombshell of news. “That is the thing, mate. You actually know her… It is Julia Webb,” Jarrad said to me, and suddenly the news that Julia was back in Australia filled my thoughts of where had she been for all this time, and… “Wait a minute, you said twin sons? How old are they?” I asked.

“Just over three years old, and yes… she said they are your sons,” Jarrad replied, and all of a sudden everything went dark. Meanwhile, after hearing a crash, Marcus found me unconscious on the floor, and seeing my mobile in hand, he pried it out of my grip. “Hello, this is Marcus speaking, who is this?” he said into the phone, “Hey buddy, this is Jarrad in Canberra, is Oscar ok? What happened?” Jarrad replied.

“He is out cold on the floor, what did you say to him?” Marcus responded, as he rolled me onto my side and made sure I was still breathing and that I had no injuries. “Ok, look after Oscar, I will call back in a while when things are a little settled,” Jarrad said before ending the call, just as I came too. “What happened, where am… oh,” I said as I remembered what happened.

“Care to tell me what Jarrad said to you that caused you to faint?” Marcus asked me as Rebecca arrived and she immediately began to check me all over for any cuts or bruises, as I waited until she had finished and I was back seated in a chair again. “Jarrad was briefing me on some new arrivals that will be coming soon… You remember my former girlfriend Julia, who left suddenly to go to Europe in October during my second year at University in Canberra?” I asked, “Yes… is she the new protectee?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes, and her twin sons… our sons,” I replied, and there was total silence in the room. “Wow… you’re a Dad now?” Marcus said breaking the silence, “Yes, apparently so, and I guess I blacked out with this news,” I replied, as Marcus hit redial on my mobile. “Hello, how is Oscar?” Jarrad asked when he answered the call, and I chuckled. “I am fine but a little sore from hitting the floor suddenly. I have just told Marcus and Julia what you told me,” I replied. “That is good news, I am sorry for the shock buddy, I guess I should have briefed one of the others first,” Jarrad said in response.

“Yes, that would have been a wiser move there Mr… Now tell us some more about Julia,” Rebecca asked loud enough to be heard, as Marcus switched the phone to loudspeaker. “Ok, well she unknowingly was in a relationship with an accountant, who was working for a gangster mob in Sydney, and when this accountant-boyfriend was stealing from this mob of gangsters, they started to threaten her and the boys with harm, if he didn’t return all the money that he had stolen from them. She managed to flee and call the AFP, who interviewed her and put her into protective custody, and I was unofficially assigned to her case, so there is no paper trail,” Jarrad announced.

“Ok, so what now? Do you have plans in place to get here to us?” Rebecca asked, “Yes, I am working on it. I have taken a week off work, officially as sick leave to get them to you, and Giles has done the same. We are currently in transit west.