Disputed Sea - 1. Disp Ch 1

It has been close to three years since Ocean City has been fully operational at the Abrolhos Islands, off the coast of Western Australia, and since then, we have had a successful Cray Fishing Industry as well as a successful tourism industry all operating together, with our floating City being the heart of it all. The State Government was also very happy with the facilities, especially with the access that we allow to the Fisheries and the Parks & Wildlife Departments, and all of the additional tourism that the city also gets.

I have been keeping busy with my marine research, and thankfully I haven’t had any more run-ins with the sharks, making sure that I was always with someone when diving, and that we are fully protected and armed in case we do get attacked. I was so busy, I had not noticed that my best mate and now boyfriend, had been planning a totally new project, that I was unaware of at all, until I was called to the Ocean City to attend a video conference with Mr Lloyd, just a few hours after starting work for the day at the research facility a few kilometres away.

“Do you know what this meeting is about?” I asked Joshua, as I entered the conference room and sat down next to him, “I do, and you better hang on, because we are in for one heck of a ride in the next few months or so,” Joshua replied, just as the video screen came to life. “Hello Mr Lloyd, how are you today?” I said formally, to Joshua’s grandfather. “I am well, thanks for asking Kipling. Now grandson, have you explained anything to Kip yet?” Mr Lloyd responded.

“No sir, as requested it has all been kept totally hush hush for security reasons,” Joshua said in reply, which now had me wondering what in the hell was I about to get involved in now! “Very well, now this is for you to know and no one else… For the past nine months, we… that is my grandson and I have been working on a project that will have dramatic International consequences when this project goes into action.

For the past two years, the Lloyd Corporation has been improving its technology in a way to be able to enforce stronger rules on those who may be ignoring or flaunting international law. Our Corporation has several top International Law specialists who have been working out the finer details of the project, which is now a lot closer to happening.

What I need you and Joshua to do, is to quietly under the auspice of going on a holiday, finalise the commitments from those who will be working in partnership with us, to put a stop to a certain group causing huge amounts of tension in the South East Asia region,” Mr Lloyd announced to me.

“Sir, I still do not understand, what it is that we are doing,” I said still confused about what was just said to me. “Let me put it simply… we are going to put a stop to a certain large Asian country from continuing to ignore international law and illegally establishing bases and patrolling areas, that are not in their jurisdiction,” Joshua said to me, and I thought about this for a few moments, before it clicked.

“China? We are going to stop China? But how?” I asked sounding surprised at this announcement, as I saw my friend smile and nod his head to confirm what I had asked. “Yes my friend, we are going to put a stop to them once and for all, but first you and I have a bit of travelling to do,” Joshua said to me. “Do you have all of the information that I sent to you?” Mr Lloyd asked Joshua.

“Yes sir, I have it locked up in the safe, and while we are travelling, it will remain locked in that briefcase with a diplomatic seal on it, so it remains sealed,” Joshua replied, which also caught me by surprise.“Well, good luck boys, this project is now in your hands, I look forward to hearing from you soon,” Mr Lloyd said before the screen went blank.

After some time of thinking about what I had just learnt, I turned to Joshua, “Ok Mr, care to explain to me the finer details of this crazy plan of yours?” I asked. “We are under the guise of being on a holiday, going to meet a few very important people, to let them know of our plan, and to start putting our plan into action,” Joshua responded, “What plan? Come on Josh, tell me more please?” I asked.

“As part of this plan, we will rely on the transponders of all vessels, including major shipping freighters, and fishing vessels that pass through the region, to determine from which country each vessel is from and whether it is used for trade or used for military or spying purposes,” Joshua announced, “What for?” I asked confused.

“So we can hopefully cripple the illegal Chinese military bases and Chinese military ships in the far South China Sea that are illegally in the Spratly Islands region. What we are doing is establishing a barrier of sorts, that will disable the Chinese bases and their patrol boats, and stop them from entering the South China Sea below 14 degrees South,” Joshua announced.

“How in the world can that be possible?” I asked, wondering how such a barrier can exist, that would put a stop to the tensions in the region, caused by the Chinese Government. “Let's just say, we have already laid a network of underwater seabed sensors and instruments 14 nautical miles from the coasts of the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia, which when activated will create a net that will disable all unauthorised Chinese shipping and patrol boats from entering the region below 15^th Parallel South, which is 60 nautical miles south of the Paracel Islands.

In the South China Sea itself, this network will go from the 15^th Parallel South on the Vietnam coast near Mihn Tan Bac, across to the 15^th Parallel South on the Philippines coast near San Narciso and from there down the Philipines coast, across the Sulu Sea to the Borneo Coasts of Malaysia and Brunei, then along the east and north coast of the Riau Archipelago in the North Java Sea, across to the Malay Coast at Kuantan.

From there, up the east coast of Malaysia, to the Kelantan River, and across the Gulf of Thailand to Vietnam, stopping any Chinese vessels from trying to sail around the bottom of the region to reach their illegal bases,” Joshua informed me. “So kind of a second Bermuda Triangle?” I asked, which made Joshua laugh, “Exactly and I think your description is perfect, so we will call it just that, The Bermuda Triangle Project,” Joshua responded.

Over the next half an hour, Joshua explained in more detail what was going to happen. What surprised me the most was that unknown to most people in the world, is that the leaders of six major South-East Asian countries would be attending an unscheduled top-secret conference at an undisclosed location, which Joshua and I would also be attending.

Two days later we arrived in the city of Darwin, the capital city of the Northern Territory, where we are booked into a new hotel located on the north-western edge of the northern suburbs of the city, in an area that was former Department of Defence land at Sandy Creek, just one kilometre south of Lee Point, the most northern point of the Darwin Suburbs.

Located just past the Lee Point Village Resort and the Club Tropical Resort, which are on the eastern side of the road, this new hotel is located on 50 acres of freehold land, with uninterrupted views, 600 metres of beach frontage, and located just 4.5 kilometres north of the main northern suburbs Casuarina Shopping Centre, and 9 kilometres north of the Darwin Airport.

Set back halfway between the main road and the beach, the five-star hotel has a limestone wall boundary on three sides, with the ocean of the Beagle Gulf on the western boundary. To make the hotel exclusive, the stone wall goes 15 metres into the ocean to the low tide point and has a wire netting across the ocean, to stop sharks and in particular crocodiles from entering the private beach.

“Welcome to the Grand Wake Hotel,” the porter said to us, as our limousine pulled up to the sheltered portico, where large fans provide a little bit of breeze to combat the humidity. Leaving the porter to bring our luggage, we headed inside to the comfort of the air conditioning, where the reception area was very grand looking.

“Mr Alliston and I presume you are Mr Ashburton, welcome to the Grand Wake Hotel, your Suite is ready for you. Please just sign the register and we will show you to your suite,” the receptionist said as we arrived at the front counter.

Arriving on the top floor of the six-level hotel, the sign in the lobby pointed to just two suites, in opposite directions, Wake Suite and Abrolhos Suite, with the second one being where we were led to. After the porter had delivered our luggage and left us to settle in, I sat down on the very comfy lounge chairs. “Ok Josh, what on earth is going on here? Does your grandfather own this hotel?” I asked, and Joshua chuckled.

“Yes, sort of. A branch of the corporation owns this hotel, and it is the only hotel that was designed specifically to have four separate wings, each with its own separate elevators, to allow for easier security measures to be put into place if need be. Here on this level, as you may have noticed, there are just two suites, both are used exclusively by the corporation family only, no other guests are permitted anywhere near this floor.

Each of the two suites includes two staff mini-suites, that have two bedrooms each, when grandfather needs to bring staff with him. There is also a staff kitchen and pantry area, for final preparations of meals, with our own chef and butler at our call 24 hours a day,” Joshua announced. “Sounds a bit too excessive for me, is it really necessary?” I asked Joshua.

“Most certainly it is. This hotel has only been open for three months, and already several high-level conferences have been held here, mainly because of the very high-level security measures that can be put into place, when diplomats, politicians and foreign dignitaries are staying here.