Rogue Element

The air smelled tangy and salty, the combined perfume of sweat, sex and propellant. Vince’s nose twitched. He retrieved the small brass shell casing, rolled it between the dead man’s thumb and forefinger, then let it fall to the carpet. Next he removed the gun’s silencer, pocketing it, and placed the gun on the carpet close to the bed after pressing it into the man’s hand to ensure the stock was marked with the proper fingerprints. Forensics would fail to turn up evidence that supported suicide, such as grains of gunpowder burned into the skin of the general’s hand, but Vince knew that sort of inspection would take a couple of days to process. By then, he would be long gone. Vince could hear the water running in the bathroom — Elizabeth. There was no reason to disturb her. Each knew what had to be done. He went to the door of the hotel room and placed the hole in the side of his head against it. There was no sound from the hallway on the other side. Vince was out and gone, just another European tourist in a five-star Jakarta hotel full of them.

Elizabeth exited the bathroom, dressed and ready to leave in a tan Chanel suit. Her hair was up and she wore expensive make-up. The young waitress was gone. In her place was a sophisticated businesswoman, a marketing director or an advertising executive, perhaps, from a big multinational agency. The man she’d left alive not ten minutes ago was now very dead, as she knew he would be. She was impressed — Vince worked quietly. White sheets, red blood, brown skin: very artistic. She observed that her g-string was still dangling from the general’s fingers. She shrugged. What would it hurt to leave it? She wondered if it would cause a stir. At the very least, it would give the police something tantalising to put under their microscopes. The thought made her smile, exciting her. Elizabeth, not her real name, left the suite without a backward glance.

Sydney, 1230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

ABC Radio 702: ‘In news just to hand, it has been announced by the Indonesian government that two survivors have been found at the crash site of the Qantas 747. The names of the two survivors, believed to be a man and a woman, have not been released. The survivors were found early this morning by an Indonesian air force rescue team flown in after the location of the site was revealed by a spy satellite.

‘The Indonesian government has invited Australian military and civilian aviation authorities to investigate the causes of the crash.

‘Qantas Flight QF-1 was bound for London via Bangkok when it disappeared from air traffic control screens three days ago. The flight was fully booked, and it is believed over four hundred people are likely to have perished in the tragedy. The majority of the flight’s passengers are thought to have been Australian, and Thai nationals returning from Australia. The crash brings to an end Qantas’s fatality-free safety record.

‘It is now believed that the location of the downed plane was known for at least twenty-four hours by several Indonesian military leaders, but withheld by them in the hope of embarrassing the Indonesian government prior to attempting a coup d’etat.

‘One of those implicated in the cover-up and failed coup was General Suluang, Commander in Chief of the TNI, the Indonesian army, who was found dead in a hotel room earlier today after committing suicide. His death has sparked further tensions between rival military factions in Jakarta where a standoff…’

Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

The operation had been underway for at least an hour and it was running like a Rolex. General Kukuh Masri sat propped in an APC. He moved his bandaged head to an angle that lessened the hammer that pounded in his brain despite the cocktail of drugs he’d been dosed with. In his mind, Masri went over the strategy devised by the Australians with himself and members of the Indonesian government. His partners in the coup were all, by now, more than likely dead. They would not have seen their deaths coming.

Suluang was already removed, found in a hotel room with his brains staining the walls. Suicide was the initial verdict. There was no note. There would be no national mourning. He would be found a traitor to Indonesia, as would Rajasa and the others. The coup would be announced, the perpetrators rooted out and that would be that. Case closed.

Masri would be proclaimed a hero for delivering the traitors to the Indonesian people. Then he would retire quickly and quietly leave Indonesia, never to return. The truth about his involvement would eventually come out, but by then he would be long gone. The thought saddened the general. He loved Indonesia and didn’t want to leave it, but there was no alternative because he also loved living. Masri was just thankful that he was needed to subdue Suluang’s men. Otherwise, he too might have ended up in a lonely hotel room sucking a pistol like Suluang.