In Arlington Virginia USA it was around 7.30 pm on the 29th of September when the meeting of government heads in Australia dispersed. Dirk Truman lived not far from the Pentagon for easy access for his position as field agent with the Central Intelligence Agency. Truman was eating out at a restaurant with his wife when interrupted by his working partner Conrad Wayne. Truman excused himself from the table, moving out of earshot of anyone in the restaurant to outside the door on the sidewalk. Wayne whispered quietly with a broad southern accent.
"We’ve found Hadar Mukam."
"Holy crap what a break, we've been looking for that son of a bitch for two years," replied Truman.
"Well what's left of him anyway."
Truman raised his eyebrows. "Dead?"
"Shot and fried in a fire in Australia."
"Australia, how the hell did he get out of Karrachi?"
"We don't know, and get this. Marshall Tucker seen at the same place Hadar was killed."
Truman smiled as he replied. "Marshall Tucker wouldn't hurt a fly, to busy taking a long shot in the casino."
"Get this, all right under the nose of the nation's capital Canberra. Hadar was fried in a fire at the airport. We hear he was shot before he burnt. Real pro job, no leads, just the fact Tucker was there."
Truman nodded in response. "Okay this is the strongest lead we've had; one of us has to head for Australia to check it out." Wayne’s face turned to a serious reflection of concern.
"You remember a guy called John Stanton?"
"Yeah. Ex-MI6. That Stanton?"
"Yeah."
"Dangerous bastard, lives in Australia now, has files on FBI and CIA operations he was connected with from years back. He's on the protected species list of just about every western government. Yes I remember him, we didn't get on."
"Suppose I better go then," suggested Wayne.
"Stanton doesn't scare me."
"Nevertheless he's still alive at sixty, you think you're gonna make sixty Dirk and do what he's done?"
"Who knows, maybe," commented Truman.
"We have something else we just found out on Stanton."
"And…"
"He has his own satellite system, we thought it was two but now believe he has four. He may be listening to what we are saying here right now."
"Four, if they are in the right place that gives him twenty-four hour line of sight."
"Exactly why should we be worried about Stanton? He's done nothing but help us," enquired Wayne.
"I'm pretty sure he sanctioned agent Whelan; he went to Australia five years ago and just disappeared. He was looking into a British agent hold-up in Australia blackmailing the FBI about a corrupt agent laundering drug money."
"We don't know that Dirk. We do know Stanton took out the British renegade because he has his information and the guy was one of his creed who stepped outside the line. I got plenty of time for that, the fact he acquired the information really doesn't make any difference, he could sink us without it. Why are we arguing about one of us? If anyone can help us it's Stanton." Dirk looked sideways and thought for a while.
"You go Con, what you said is right. I just miss Whelan that's all."
"I’ll take Leah and can be in the embassy in Canberra in less than 20 hours. Hadar Mukam was holed up in some motel, they must have turned up something from his belongings."
"How do you know all this?"
"Someone sent me an email, I traced the source to someone called Joe Blow in Black Beach Hawaii."
"Why would someone leak this to us?"
"I was wondering the same thing. Whoever it is we would be cold without it. The official press release from the Australian government is a motor vehicle accident. I called our embassy in Canberra and the name of the driver in the accident has not been released. I was calling every motel in Canberra asking for Mukam and got lucky on the third call, they also said he had not returned to his room and the police were there."
"Give me the email link and I’ll check out Mr Blow in Black Beach."
"If you want to do that you need to go yourself. We are the only ones who have this lead so having other agents involved is an unnecessary risk. This just may give us the lead we are looking for to Tali Mahir."
"Agreed, Mr Blow may be able to give us more than he already has so I’ll leave in the morning. If Mukam got out of Karachi without us knowing then Mahir maybe can to and we really need to know that."