Jake and Koshi ran as fast as Koshi’s injured foot would allow through the open ground to the next clump of trees. Koshi cried out as he tripped on his injured ankle and sprawled over in the dirt. Suddenly, a voice yelled out in the distance behind them and they knew they had been seen. Lifting Koshi back on his feet, Jake dragged him to the nearest clump of trees. He peered behind to see one of the Chinese waving to his companions and pointing in their direction.
Knowing that they could not outrun the Chinese, Jake looked for a hiding place or some form of shelter. He saw a rocky outcrop about 150 metres away and thought it might provide some form of protection. Luckily they found a U-shaped band of high rocks which provided them with protection on three sides. Deciding that that was their best chance of survival they wedged themselves under the overhang of a large rock, out of sight from anyone coming up towards them. Jake pulled out his gun and waited with Koshi.
The Chinese conferred when they saw Jake and Koshi disappear behind the rocks. They split up in different directions, one was clearly intending to circle behind them.
Jake saw them coming and figured they were most vulnerable from the rear. Whispering to Koshi to stay where he was wedged under the rocks, he cautiously moved 100 metres behind another rock and waited for the attacker to come from the rear. He lay motionless for twenty minutes before he heard a slight noise to his left. A shape appeared 30 metres away coming towards him. It was the small Chinese man moving stealthily towards where Koshi was hiding. Holding the pistol in two hands, Jake waited till the Chinese was within 15 metres of him, stood up, took aim and fired. The Chinese cried out and collapsed on the ground clutching his arm. Jake raced over and saw that the bullet had hit him in the arm, causing him to drop the gun. The Chinese scrambled over to reach for the gun and Jake shot him twice in the chest. Picking up the gun Jake rushed back to where Koshi was waiting anxiously and slid back under the overhang of the rock. The realisation came that he had just killed a man and he gagged as he tried to stop himself throwing up.
The Chinese called out to their colleague but hearing no response started moving behind the rocks to where they heard the gunshots. They saw their colleague lying on the ground and looked around for Koshi and Jake. They climbed up a tall rock and scanned the terrain around them. The sniper adjusted his telescopic sights on his rifle and picked up a movement under a large rock. He gently squeezed the trigger. He grunted with satisfaction as he heard a scream and knew that he had hit at least one of them. He fired two more shots in quick succession.
Jake yelped when he felt white hot pain in his leg and knew he had been shot. He rolled away deeper under cover of the overhanging rock while more bullets sprayed around him, yelling at Koshi to follow him. Koshi was quick to respond and watched with dismay as Jake collapsed on the ground in agony, his jeans covered in blood. He helped pull Jake up to a sitting position, carefully rolled up the left leg of his blood-soaked trousers and examined the wound. The bullet had gone right through Jake’s calf muscle and shattered the rock he was lying on, causing numerous cuts to his legs from flying fragments of rock. There was a lot of blood pouring out of the entry and exit holes made by the bullet but Jake was relieved to find the bullet had missed major arteries. He ripped off his shirt and wrapped it around his calf tightly to stem the blood flow. There was now a hail of bullets smashing into the rocks around them and Jake knew they were sitting ducks for the sniper.
Bumping along on the Stockmen’s Track, Bill stopped the truck when he heard the first shots, trying to identify which direction they were coming from. Leaving the road he drove across the scrub and up to the top of hill where he had a view of the landscape. Grabbing his binoculars and rifle he jumped out of the car and looked down at the scene below. He could see four men firing into some rocks. He guessed that it was Jake and Koshi hiding in the rocks and knew that if he didn’t act quickly it would be too late to save them. He lay on the ground, sighted his rifle and took aim carefully at the assassins below him. Shoni lay alongside him, fearful for the lives of Jake and her Prime Minister.
The Chinese marksman smiled as he expertly pumped bullets into the rocks, knowing that it was only a matter of time before he finished off his prey. Suddenly a bullet smacked into the rock he was lying on, narrowly missing his neck, but spraying stone chips and dust into his face, temporarily blinding him. They were startled as another bullet just missed them and they scattered to find cover from this new threat. The bullets were coming from a different direction from Jake’s position and they realised that someone else was firing at them.
Jake wondered why the Chinese had suddenly stopped firing when he heard the sound of a vehicle. Then he saw a truck driving wildly over the stony ground coming towards them. With amazement, he recognised the truck as belonging to his father. Bill was honking the horn of the truck and waving animatedly at them. The truck skidded to a stop in front of them and his father yelled at them to get in the truck. They left their hideaway and hobbled into the back seat as Bill immediately headed back the way he had come. Bullets thudded into the back of the truck but in a few minutes they had outdistanced the deadly fire. It was only then that Jake realised that Shoni was sitting in the passenger seat next to Bill. She turned around with a look of deep concern on her face.
“Are you hurt badly Jake, we were so worried about you.”
He leaned over the seat and took her hand and looked into her troubled eyes.
“I’ll survive thanks.” He had never seen anything so welcoming in his life.
“Geez, that was a close one. You sure know how to get into trouble Jake,” Bill said as he drove wildly across the scrub dodging rocks and trees before eventually coming back onto the track.
“We’d better hurry, it won’t be long before those guys start coming after us. Can you two hang on till we get to the highway?”
“Yeah, we’ll manage but we could do with a decent drink.”
Shoni passed over two water bottles which they drank from greedily.
Jake introduced a bewildered Koshi to Bill and Shoni and explained what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Bill outlined how he had only received Jake’s message late last night before coming out to look for him. He had passed Jake’s message on to the local police and had heard nothing back although he knew they were currently out of mobile phone range.
Xu led his team back to the Jeep, furious that Koshi had escaped. He asked Blakey
“Can we catch them up before they get to the highway?”
“Unlikely,” replied Blakey. “They’ve got too big a lead on us.”
“Where are they likely to go?”
“The nearest hospital is at Mataranka. I reckon they’ll go there. But the place is likely to be crawling with cops once they get there.”
“Nevertheless, we must go there and kill Koshi. Otherwise our mission will have failed.”
“It would be suicidal trying to kill him in the hospital.”
“We must try. It will be suicidal for you if you don’t help us.” Xu spat the words out.
After what seemed an eternity, Bill and his passengers reached the Stuart Highway and turned north heading towards Mataranka. Now in mobile phone range, Bill rang Lizzie who was already working at the hospital and asked her to arrange rooms for two new patients. He then rang Constable Hobbs, explained what had happened and suggested he set up a roadblock at the end of Stockmen’s Track to capture the Chinese. He also asked him to arrange for a police guard at the Mataranka Hospital.
Hobbs in turn called up the Senior Constable at the Mataranka Police Station requesting help with putting up a roadblock and with a police guard at the hospital. He then rang Sergeant Barker at Jabiru and explained that the Japanese P.M. had been rescued and could he alert the AFP?
Sergeant Barker rushed over to the Court House, saw Commissioner Fisher talking to Williams and interrupted him. He blurted out the news of Koshi’s rescue to a shocked Commissioner. Fisher then sat him down and asked him t
o repeat it all over again. He looked angry when Barker told him he had passed on Jake’s message to Williams the previous night. He rebuked Williams for not bringing it to his attention but Williams blustered that he was running down other leads about the terrorists. Fisher called his Task Force together, apprised them of the developments and gave each of them specific instructions. One of these was to provide immediately a security team for Koshi at the hospital. He would personally fly down by police helicopter to interview Koshi. Before he left, he phoned the Acting Prime Minister and filled her in on the details.