Survival - 2. Surv Chapter 2

“Unfortunately, that includes your parents, they are not to know about any of this today, we will just have to make up a story to explain why you were kept at the base” Uncle Nat added. With no explosive devises found on the car, I was able to retrieve my overnight bag, and I was issued a swag, and set up my camp in Uncle Nat’s office, were I snoozed on the floor, while Uncle Nat and the Brigadier were working on the matter of the photographs, that showed a man stalking us, carrying a high powered rifle with scope, at three locations during our recent trip.

Firstly, on our day of sightseeing around Coober Pedy, followed by our half day of sightseeing around Alice Springs, and lastly as we were resting during our hike up Mt Woodroffe.

Most of the photos showed the man partially camouflaged, but there were two photos, that gave us a very good look at his features, even though his face was partially hidden behind a scarf of some kind. The Brigadier was able to have these two photos digitally enhanced, to get a closer look at him, from what we could see, he was of solid build, about 6-foot tall, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, and he looked around 30 years old.

Uncle Nat stared at these two photos for a very long time, and I sat on the spare chair and watched for a little while. “What is it Uncle? Have you seen him before?” I asked, which caught the Brigadier’s attention, “Sir, I have this feeling I know this guy from somewhere, but I can’t quite pin it down” Uncle Nat said to his CO.

“Well keep on it, I will pass that info into the DIO” the Brigadier said as he picked up the phone, and this time he didn’t bother to ask me to leave the room, I just stood up and began to leave.

“No need for you to leave Cadet Staff Sergeant, you are involved in this, you best stay” the Brigadier said to me, and I returned to the spare desk, and began to check all the photos again from the very start. I remembered the photos that I had deleted, so I went to the computers recycle bin logo, and clicked on it, and pressed on the “restore” command, before I started to look at all the photos again.

Twenty minutes later, I had another three more photos added to the large screen, and now both Uncle Nat and Brigadier Purnell were studying them closely, when there was a knock on the door, which opened without waiting.

An officer with the rank of Captain, walked in and handed the Brigadier a note, “Show her in please Captain Goddard, and from now on this office is off limits to all personnel except those with security clearance, have a MP posted in the hallway please” the Brigadier said, and the Captain looked at me and frowned, before leaving.

“The DIO liaison officer has finally arrived, and she will be leading the investigation” the Brigadier announced to us, as he read the information that I had typed in notes, attached to each photo on the big screen, which gave a date and time that the photo was taken, and an approximate location of each photo. A moment later, there was a knock on the door, and it opened straight away, and a tall lady in Airforce uniform entered, but I was not certain of her rank.

“Wing Commander Lawler, it is good of you to join us?” the Brigadier said in greeting, as he shook hands with the lady, “Thankyou sir, I hope that we will be able to resolve this issue as quickly, and quietly as possible” the lady said, before she faced Uncle Nat. “Hello Nathan, it is good to see you again, and who is this handsome young man?” the lady said as she stepped forward and shook my uncles hand.

“Hello Celia, this is an unexpected pleasure. May I introduce my nephew – Cadet Staff Sergeant Jacob Blackwood” Uncle Nathan said her the lady. “Actually, I already knew who you were, it’s nice to meet you at last, you were just 8 months old last time I saw you, Jacob” the lady said to me, which made me blush, and Uncle Nat just laughed.

“Well it looks like this is quite a reunion, maybe you can discuss it later when we have this issue sorted” the Brigadier interrupted, “Yes, of course sir, sorry about that, but firstly I have something to give young Jacob here.

We were able to get this rushed through, so now it is official, Jacob you now have level 3 AG Security Clearance, just like your uncle” the Wing Commander announced, as she produced a ID card out of her purse and handed it to me, which had my most recent Army ID photo on it. “Thank you, Ma’am” I said as I snapped to attention and saluted to her, which made everyone else in the room smile, as the Wing Commander returned the salute.

“Now Staff Sergeant, maybe you could give me a brief rundown on each of these photos, since you took the photos” the Wing Commander asked me. It was at this point that I remembered something, “Uncle Nat, where is your camera, you took heaps of photos too, during our trip?” I asked my Uncle Nat.

“Hells Bells, I had totally forgotten about that, I left my camera in my bedroom at home” my uncle replied, as he stepped up to his desk, and picked up the phone.

“Captain Goddard, I need you to do something for me, I will hand my keys over to the MP outside, I need you to go to my residence, and in my bedroom you will find a camera, sitting on the dresser, can you bring it back to the base and handed to the MP” my Uncle said giving him the instructions.

After hanging up the phone he opened the door and called the MP over to the door and handed him the keys. I began to explain each of the photos to the Wing Commander, giving as much information as I could, about when it was taken and where we were at the time of the photo, all thou, some of the photos were obvious.

About fifteen minutes later, the phone in the office rang and the Brigadier answered it. “Have some MP’s go there and secure the location, and a Defence Intelligence Officer will be there shortly, her name is Wing Commander Celia Lawler” the Brigadier said after listening to the conversation at the other end of the phone.

“It appears that you place has been broken into, Captain Goddard did not enter the apartment, but he reports that the door has been kicked open and the place has been ransacked from what he can see” the Brigadier reported to us, “Are you at the same address Nathan?” the Wing Commander asked my uncle, and when he nodded yes, she picked up her purse and left the room.

“I have this feeling that she knows you, very well, Uncle Nat” I commented, which made him blush a little, and this time it was the Brigadier who laughed, “I may tell you some more, if you behave?” Uncle Nat responded eventually, “I have a level 3 clearance, I deserve to know everything” I replied, which made Nat blush some more and the Brigadier to laugh louder.

“Smart arse teenager” I heard my uncle grumble quietly, which I heard, but not the Brigadier, and I gave him a little grin. “Right the fun is over, back to work. Major do you have any more idea’s, on who this man is?” the Brigadier asked, “No sir, but by the looks of these enlargements, he could possibly be military” Uncle Nat replied, I think you may be right with that surmise” the Brigadier replied.

Twenty minutes later the telephone rang, and this time I was the closest, so I answered it, “Cadet Staff Sergeant speaking… yes ma’am, I will let him know, goodbye” I said as I heard what the Wing Commander had to say, and after the call I turned to face my uncle. “She says that it is just the furniture in the lounge and main bedroom, that has been turned over, nothing is damaged or broken apart from the camera, which is in pieces, and the memory card is missing from it” I said passing on the information.

“Of course, silly me, in all the confusion of you coming to stay at my place last night, I had forgotten that I had taken the card out, and put a fresh one in, the one with all the photos, is in my wallet” Uncle Nat said as he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket, and he soon produced a memory card, which he handed over to me.

“Ok, you have about half the number of photos than me, so it should only take about half an hour, to go through them all” I commented, as I loaded the photos onto the computer, and brought the first one up onto the screen. There was a lot of photos of just me and the landscape around us, but I checked all of them anyway. In ten minutes, I already had three more photos on the big screen, which the Brigadier and Uncle Nat were looking at, as well as Wing Commander Lewis as soon as she had arrived back.

“Baxter, Lieutenant James Baxter is his name, I remember now, dishonourable discharge, for taking a high-powered rifle, with ammunition, off the base without permission, while on weekend leave. It was about 8 years ago now if I remember, I was a newly promoted Captain, and I was the reporting officer, and gave evidence at his Court Marshal trial” Uncle Nat said as he recalled the information.

“Well that gives us a clear motive on why he is stalking you, he is out for some revenge” Wing Commander Lewis stated, as she stepped up to the desk, and dialled a number on the phone.

“Commander Dixon, this is Celia Lawler DIO, I’m currently at Woodside Army Base, just out of Adelaide, can you please organise an arrest warrant for one James Baxter, former Army Lieutenant, approximately 30 years old, 6 foot tall, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, he was last seen armed, and is regarded to be highly dangerous, he is wanted for questioning regarding events happening in South Australia and the Northern Territory in the past week… yes that’s correct, thank you” the Wing Commander said before ending the call.

“I doubt that any information we have on our files will he current, except for his DOB” she added. Uncle Nat went to his desk and sat down, and a few moments later he had the information in front of him, and he had it printed out, which he handed to Celia. “Well 32 to be exact, but we are close enough, my friends at the AFP will soon tack him down” the Wing Commander said, after taking a quick look at the information she was handed.

“My brother-in-law and sister are away till tonight, I am wondering, if my place was broken into, maybe their place may have too, as we went there yesterday, and again early this morning” Uncle Nat said in a concerned tone. “I set the alarm again when I left this morning, so we would have known if it was triggered, as it is a monitored alarm” I added, as I fished out my phone and selected a phone number and pressed call.

“Dad, I am with Uncle Nat at the base, so I am safe, have you had a call from the security company, regarding a house alarm?” I asked as soon as the call was answered… “You have, ok don’t go home, it is unsafe to return, come here to the base at Woodside, Uncle Nat will organise for you both to enter, just have your driver’s licenses for ID, when you arrive, everything will be explained when you get here… ok bye” I said.

“Is that ok, sir?” I asked looking in the Brigadier’s direction, “Yes that is fine cadet, considering that it is an army matter, and your family is caught in the middle of it, we have no choice really, I will get your uncle to organise family accommodation for you and your parents, here at the base, while he organises his accommodation as well” the Brigadier replied.

“Jacob, I suggest that we keep it to as little information as possible to your parents, as this is an Army Security matter, maybe leave it to me and your uncle to give your parents a briefing on what is happening. Is Trent still an engineer and Anita a doctor?” the Wing Commander asked me, “Yes Ma’am, Dad is a Mining Engineer up at Olympic Dam Mine near Roxby Downs, 9 weeks on and 3 weeks off, and Mum is a Paediatric Surgeon at the Adelaide Children’s hospital” I replied.

“Ok, well I will have a talk with them, when they get here, we may have to relocate you from your current home, do your parents own it or rent?” Wing Commander Lewis asked, “They rent, it is a mining companyproperty, as is mine, I rent the apartment from the Defence Force Housing Authority” Uncle Nat replied. “Well that makes things a lot easier in that case, we just need to find you a new place to live, pack and relocate you, in the meantime, we will keep you all safe here at the base” Wing Commander Lewis responded.

When I saw my parents later in the day, they were not happy at all about being caught up in a major incident, that puts us all in danger, and they took most of their anger out on Uncle Nat. When we arrived at the allocated family house on the base, it was basic, but it was reasonably comfortable. Dad had two more days before he had to head north to the mine for his next shift, and on the same day Mum started her next shift at the hospital.

With four - week days left of the school holidays, I elected to stay at home on the base, where I was safe, and out of the way, and Uncle Nat checked in on me at lunch time each day, and Mum would be back by 6pm, to cook dinner for the three of us, as Uncle Nat was occupying the spare room at our home.

When dad arrived back in Adelaide, it was just a week before Christmas, and we spent that week, packing up everything from the house, which we hadn’t been back to since the say that we were broken into, and once everything was packed into the freight trucks, they were placed into storage till after Christmas is over, before we set off to our new home closer to the centre of the city.

Mum and Dad had found a large apartment, that has security gate entry to the undercover parking, and security entry into the building, and although there was nowhere to run around, the apartment complex did have a swimming pool and two tennis courts.

Returning to the Grammar school after a long holiday break, if I wasn’t attending sport training, or sporting matches, I would go to the hospital, and sit in the hospitals, family lounge, were I would do my homework, while waiting for mum to finish her day of work.

I was now making sure that I was doing a lot more sports at school, plus plenty of swimming at home, to keep physically fit, in hope that Uncle Nat will be taking me on another adventure during the Autumn holidays in April.

While we had moved to a city apartment, Uncle Nat had moved permanently into the base, and on the occasional weekend, I would travel out to the Army base, where I just had to show my new Army ID card to gain access to the base. In mid - March, while visiting my Uncle one weekend, Uncle Nat asked me if I was ready for another adventure, and I said yes, and I asked where we would be going.

“Well you will need a passport for one thing, so we need to get that sorted pretty quickly, as we are going to do some hiking around the MtCook National Park” Uncle Nat informed me, “Oh wow, New Zealand, that is so awesome” I responded happily, then my smile changed to a frown. “Do you think my Mum and Dad will let me go with you, after everything that has happened?” I asked.

“That is why I chose an overseas destination, because it will be harder for this bloke to follow us, unless he has the funds and resources to follow, I was hoping that he would have been caught by now” Uncle Nat replied. “Me too Uncle, I have been very careful when I am travelling to school each day, and most days after school, I go to the hospital to wait for Mum to finish work.

The days that I go home straight after school, I make sure I go a different way each time, and use different forms of transport too, and I am always watching to see if anyone is following” I replied. After school on the following Monday, as we were heading home, I asked Mum about going on a hiking trip to Mt Cook National Park during the Autumn holidays, and Mum said that would be ok, if I am extra careful and stay close to Uncle Nat.

It was about 30 seconds later, that Mum pulled the car over and parked the car. “Do you mean Mt Cook as in New Zealand?” Mum asked me, sounding a little shocked, when she realised where I was talking about, “Yes that is right, Mt Cook National Park, South Island, New Zealand” I replied with a big grin.

“Well I don’t know about that, I will have to talk to your father about it, and then we need to organise a passport too” Mum replied, “I have the passport application forms in my backpack, it takes about 3 weeks for them to be processed” I said to mum.

“Let’s wait to see what your Dad has to say” Mum said, before continuing home, later that evening, after a lot of discussions, Mum and Dad agreed to let me go, and I sent a text message to Uncle Nat to say that I have permission to go on the trip.