Stanton, more than most, knew the global arms industry was a very lucrative way for businesses to profit from death, destruction and oppression. It is estimated that each year 2% of world gross domestic product, or more than US$1 trillion, is spent on the military. Australia’s rich had always wanted a greater share of this global industry. Some state governments had been attempting to be the most arms industry-friendly place in the Asia Pacific. Promoting exhibitions and laying on lavish affairs for manufacturers and dealers. The Australian government’s military spending is over Australian $62 million per day. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Australia was the eighth largest arms importer for the period 2003-07, accounting for 3.08% of world deliveries. Most of this spending was a result of Australia’s involvement in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, but there has also been lavish spending securing Australia from the threat of terrorists, and the big players in the arms industry have been quick to exploit this market.
Stanton thought these things over to come up with answers. He was not surprised to hear John Masters’ name, the biggest arms dealer in the Pacific based in Australia with the Tucker Empire in his pocket along with others including Russians and Chinese. Masters was born in Israel but held British and Australian passports being educated at Cambridge University. There he met some of the rich and greedy and was now a money junkie. Lord Adam Hollis had at one stage attempted to have Masters’ British passport cancelled on grounds he was a threat to western security but it was defeated by points of law.
Masters was also well entrenched in the annals of power in Canberra but Stanton knew it did not extend to Bevan Stanwell's cabinet as Stanwell detested Masters, at one time ordering that Masters be exempted from government dealings whilst a backbencher. Porter had been got at from lower down. Another thing that concerned Stanton was Masters had been delving in nuclear weapon delivery systems and was sure he had meetings with the Russians regarding warheads.
Masters was a difficult person to access. He was rich, powerful, had friends in high places and poor morals. He had no family, woke every morning with the explicit attitude of “I run a money making business and that's all that matters”. His parents had been killed in a Palestinian rocket attack on Jerusalem from the west bank whilst he was studying at Cambridge. No one had claimed responsibility for the attack and he still had people looking for the perpetrators. Stanton made up his mind that Masters must be eradicated and if he got information on the way all well and good.
Masters’ main weakness was that he attacked whoever challenged him legally or physically. Stanton knew this left him wide open with the correct approach. Masters had often asked Stanton for advice on security and followed his every detail, even having doubles parading around in places when he was elsewhere. Stanton wanted to interrogate Masters or he would simply use sniper tactics. This made things more difficult. To find Masters’ whereabouts he would need to extract it from someone he knew, namely his right hand man Bakir Mashun. Stanton knew he would send no one else to confront Stanton, whom Masters feared more than anyone. Stanton knew Bakir Mashun did not share Masters’ fear. The ex-Israeli army colonel had been dishonourably discharged because of information supplied by Stanton some year before on his dealings with Masters. Masters and Mashun had been friends from primary school and formed a blood brother alliance and Mashun took care of all Masters’ dirty work. Stanton had worked things out by the time he got back to the John Gould Island lair. He sent out some information via satellite to Masters’ network revealing where he would be, cloaked in a message to his ex-wife. Stanton also made sure they got the press release on the death of Ben Porter with the official statement of suicide. Stanton checked Masters’ whereabouts by phone tracing and his personal jet flight plans forwarded to the aviation authorities. Masters was in Sydney which indicated Mashun would be as well; he estimated a better than fifty percent chance. Stanton left the lair, placed himself, and waited.
Masters had a suite at the Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport on the top floor overlooking the suburb of Mascot. He seldom ventured far from airports, cutting down the chance of assassination as Stanton was not the only one with an axe to grind with Masters. This was also a very public place and difficult for anyone to access without being detected and very difficult to make a fuss. Masters was always impeccably dressed in floral shirts and designer shoes and slacks, and he was busy throwing things around his lavish apartment and yelling at the walls; he had been given the information Stanton had sown. His tanned complexion showed a tint of shine from nervous sweat. Masters kicked chairs as he yelled.
"Sharp dead, Porter dead so he says I'm next ahh!" Masters turned on the bringer of the news. "Get out, go on… get out!" The messenger scampered through the exit and into the corridor and passed Mashun going in. The messenger, Masters’ direct aid, looked at the ground and stepped out of Mashun's path, his wide shoulders and ample rounded wide jaw taking up most of the hallway. Mashun closed the door behind him; Masters had calmed and sat down on a stool at the bar and poured himself bourbon. Mashun spoke in his obvious Middle Eastern accent.
"What is troubling you?" he asked.
"I have found out Stanton killed Sharp and Porter and says I'm next. He's made a mistake; one picking on me and two inadvertently disclosing his whereabouts."
Mashun looked serious as he replied. "Stanton is sixty years old, he does not make mistakes."
Masters handed Mashun some papers. "Here look for yourself." Mashun studied the reports and as he read on he began to smile.
"A message to his wife to come to Katoomba, where is this place?"
"Blue Mountains to be exact, he has a house there. He states Katoomba for confusion purposes no doubt but we have information on his link to the property, perfect place for an intimate meeting now he is back with his wife. It's about an hour and a half from here." Mashun asked to use Masters’ lap top computer and brought up Google earth.
"What is the address?"
"Stanton's not that stupid. I can give you the coordinates." Masters read out the degrees and minutes location cross reference and Google homed in on a farm house atop an escarpment ridge in the Blue Mountains. Mashun studied the property from all angles and printed out several views. He placed them on the table and ran his fingers over the road and track network.
"Here look, a track along the edge of the escarpment coming up behind the dwelling and in thick trees sheltered from the building’s view. I can access here out of sight and sound then go on foot across the open gardens of the house. I will need an off road vehicle and weapons." Master's stood at the window looking out across Mascot towards Sydney and thought for a while before he spoke.
"Early in the morning when the sun is coming up… he is preoccupied with the past then. See what information you can extract from him. His wife is very beautiful, I think you will find her most satisfying before she dies. Perhaps you could get Stanton to watch, I can't think of anything more likely to bring out information." Mashun smiled widely, his three-day stubble and skin creasing as he laughed.
"I prepare now and strike early in the morning." Mashun headed for the door when Masters turned from the window and gave him one more instruction.
"My aid has read this, take care of him on the way; no one must know about this or we could end up with half the planet up our arse."