Chogm

27

"Before I tell you I need to explain something. I have worked for these people for the last two years and up until very recently I thought that they were the good guys, at least that was what they kept telling me. My involvement until this assignment was to provide certain important people with 'entertainment'. I wasn't involved in the actual entertainment but because I knew so many models who would do just about anything to make money so that they didn't have to have a 'normal' job to survive, I had no trouble in finding all they needed.

This job was different. I was to keep an eye on the comings and goings at the hotel. When I noticed that you were doing the same thing I contacted my control and reported it. I was asked to get close to you and find out who you were and what you were doing there. I didn't have any real problems with that because even then I sort of fancied you.

There were however two important things that I didn't count on. First and most important, I found myself falling in love with you. That in itself was great, I could handle that, but when I found out that they were not the good guys that they made themselves out to be, I stopped feeding them information. I told my control that I was going away for a while and would be in touch when I got back. I didn't leave a forwarding address so they didn't know where I was. I imagine that they have only just recently found out that I had joined you and the others.

When they couldn't find me they suspected the worst and when they tracked us to my parent's house they decided to teach me a lesson, so they took our mothers. When they saw you and me arrive at the railway station to pick up our mothers they were probably not very pleased with me, hence this warning. Darling what I'm trying to tell you is that I have been working for the CIA."

"We really fell for that one didn't we? You said that you have been working for them as if you no longer worked for them."

"As of a two days ago I have resigned from the service. They don't know about it yet but I think that they have reached that conclusion all by themselves. How could you expect me to keep working for someone who would stoop to using innocent people for 'leverage'?"

"What are we going to do next?"

"My most pressing thought is 'do you still love me after we have gone through?"

"Of course."

"Do you still want to marry me?"

"Naturally."

"Even with my face all smashed up?"

"Well we could always get plastic surgery on it to restore it to its former beauty."

"Bastard, be serious."

"Apart from that bit about the plastic surgery I have never been more serious. Just you try to worm your way out of this and avoid marrying me. You'll find yourself sued for breach of promise. Now where are we and how do we get out of here?"

"I think that they have us in the same building that they used to hold our mothers. As to how we get out of here, I'm afraid that I don't have any suggestions at all."

Russell looked around and saw that the only window was far too high for them to seriously consider climbing through, and even if they did get through they would probably break every bone in their body falling down the other side. Even if they managed to get through without serious injury they would still have to face the prospect of recapture if a guard had been left. "I wonder what is on the other side of that partition."

"Probably some kind of office, but what good is that, we have to get there first?"

"If it is an office there is probably a phone. As to how we are going to get there, we would probably be best trying to get through the door. I wonder if they did leave a guard."

"I thought that I heard someone outside the door after they left, so I presume that they aren't taking any chances."

"What's your acting ability like, can you improvise?"

"Sure, what do you have in mind?"

"We are going to have a blazing row and I'm going to accuse you of lying to them about what our role is in this. That should make him sit up and take notice. When he comes through the door I'll belt him over the head, that's if I can find something to do the belting with. . ." Russell looked around the room until he came across a one metre long piece of three by two hardwood. "Ready?"

"Yes."

"You stupid fucking bitch! What did you tell them that for! Don't you realise that when they find out that they have been led on a wild goose chase they will come back here hopping mad and it will most likely be curtains for us!" Russell's voice cut through the still air like a whip crack.

"But I thought. . ."

"That's your problem you didn't think! The more I am with you the more I realise that you are nothing more than a very decorative but dumb blonde. Next time let me do the thinking."

"But you were unconscious and it was me that they were belting around." Jenny sobbed.

"And I suppose you think this hand hurt itself?" Russell slapped his thigh as hard as he could with his good hand. Jenny cried out 'in pain'. It sounded realistic enough for the guard to want to investigate. They heard the sound of a chair scraping back as he stood up.

Russell crept over to stand behind the door so that he could surprise the guard when he came into the room while Jenny continued to sob out a plea for mercy while slapping herself convincingly.

Russell had read somewhere that the sound made by someone being hit over the head was similar to the sound of a melon splitting. It was not like that at all. Maybe he didn't hit the man hard enough, although he fell immediately and lay motionless on the floor. To Russell it sounded more like the sound he remembered from his high school cricket days that of leather against willow when a forward defensive stroke was being played. Not the sound he reasoned, of a full blooded cover drive, but the result was effective.

There was indeed an office next to the room in which they had recently been kept. Finding the phone Russell dialled the number of his flat to be greeted by the sound of a phone not being answered. "What is your home number?" Russell dialled the number that Jenny gave him. "Hullo Mr Petrelli? Russell. Yes we're okay, I think, for now. We are going to need someone to come and pick us up. We are, I think, in the same building as they kept my mother and Mrs Petrelli but I don't think it advisable to stay here a moment longer than necessary. I think I know where they are so we will head in the opposite direction. Could you pick us up on Pyrmont Rd, we'll be heading towards Parramatta Rd. Thanks, see you when you get there."

Jenny came back into the office. "I've locked our friend up in the room after all we can't have him getting out and ringing his mates before we can get well clear, can we?" Russell yanked the phone cable out of the wall socket.

The front door was locked by a padlock on the outside but there was a small access door set into the larger door which was locked by a Yale lock that could be opened from the inside without a key. Russell and Jenny found themselves outside and heading away from the building as quickly as they could.

Mr Petrelli's concern for the condition of both Russell and his daughter was exceeded by that of Mrs Petrelli who insisted that they should go immediately to the nearest hospital for treatment.

"No. We cannot go to a hospital. Even if the hospital staff don't get suspicious and call the police it will be the first place that our friends will look once they know that we have escaped. If we are kept there for even a day it will give them all the time that they need to find us and maybe do something more drastic. Once we get the Triumph, if it is still where we left it that is, I'll ring my father, he'll be able to help us, or will at least know of someone who can."

"Do you think that you can drive in your condition?" Jenny asked.

"Gear changes could be a problem but apart from that I'm sure I can."

"Why don't you let me drive?"

"Do you think that you're up to it, after all you have been knocked around a fair bit yourself."

"I think I'm in better condition than you are."

"All right."

They arrived at the place where they had been ambushed to find the Triumph still where Russell had parked it and Russell was amazed to find that the keys were still in the ignition. "Honest neighbourhood." He commented as he and Jenny followed her parent's car.

After speaking with his father for several minutes Russell hung up the phone and announced that they would meet his father at his consulting rooms in Macquarie St.

Russell's father was less than impressed with the condition of both of them. He taped Jenny's nose and applied medication to her bruised face before announcing. "You will once again be my best looking daughter-in-law in no time at all. As for you Russell, I'm going to take you home and make you as comfortable as possible until tomorrow when I can contact a colleague who will come over and set those fingers of yours. In the mean time I'll try to get the swelling down as much as possible.

The Triumph was locked away in the underground car park attached to his rooms and they travelled in the quiet comfort of the BMW. Russell's mother was awake when they arrived and fussed over them like a mother hen, making them as comfortable as possible. All pretences to propriety were forgotten as it was suggested that they should share the same bed as the single beds had not been made up for some time while the double bed in the guest room was always ready for the unexpected.

Mr French gave them both some tablets to take to help them sleep. "Neither of them will be in any condition for hanky panky once those take effect." He told Mrs French as they left the room, "They should sleep for at least ten hours on that dose."

***

Pain is a strange thing. If it is too intense the body shuts it out to the extent that consciousness is lost, but the pain can approach its threshold and be so excruciating that sleep is denied. Russell slept relatively soundly for about four hours until his sleep pattern started to plateau out having progressed beyond the REM stage. It was then that the pain took control. No matter where he put his hand it throbbed. He let it hang outside the bed covers and it seemed to weigh a tonne. He put it on the bed over the covers and the bandages seemed to weigh a tonne. He put it under the covers and they weighed a tonne. A groan escaped from his lips.

"What's the matter Darling is your hand hurting too much?"

"You'd better believe it. How is your head?"

"Don't expect too much passion for the next week or so, but it's okay I guess."

"Look love, I'm sorry if I woke you up. If you like I'll sleep on the couch in the living room."

"Don't you dare move. If anyone is going to move it'll be me." She touched her fingers lightly to her lips and transferred the kiss to his lips and made to get out of the bed.

"Hey! Where do you think you are going? The only reason that I suggested that I move was because I woke you up. If you can stand the occasional moan when the pain gets too bad then there is no reason why we can't both stay here, is there?"

"None at all, my Darling." Jenny got back into bed and careful manoeuvred herself so that she was snuggled up against him with one arm across his chest and her head resting on his shoulder. The weight of her body on his made Russell feel stronger than he had any right to feel under the circumstances, and his pain seemed to abate. The both drifted once more into a fitful sleep.

28

"What do you mean they got away!" The angry American voice screamed at the man cowering in front of it.

"They jumped me and hit me with something, when I came to I was locked in the room and they were gone. I don't know where they have gone to or how long they have been gone, all I know is that I have a sore head and they have gone."

"Why did you go in there in the first place?"

"Because he was beating the shit out of her and calling her all sorts of unpleasant names. It sounded as if he had found out that the bitch had been working for us all along. I thought I needed to save her."

"You needed to save her? I think we have seriously underestimated these two. The information that she gave us was only partly true and she was smart enough to use it to buy them enough time to fool you into letting them knock you out."

"So what are we going to do now?"

"We are going to find them. You can start by getting out to where they left their car and seeing if it is still there. If it is you get to a phone and let us know and then you sit there and watch it like a hawk."

"And what if it isn't there?"

"You had better let us know as soon as possible so that we can put feelers out for it."

"What if they have gone to ground somewhere?"

"That's a chance that we'll have to take. Everything is ready for the day after tomorrow and there will be nothing that they can do that will stop us going ahead with our plans."

29

"Do you know what you have to do?"

"Yes, but how am I going to place it in the bin without being seen?"

The two men sat in a deserted office in a building overlooking the rear entrance to the Hilton Hotel. The one obviously in charge spoke with an American accent, the other an Australian. They had been planning this moment for some weeks, ever since the American had joined the Ananda Marga sect's Australian group in Sydney. He had brought with him a self-professed expertise in 'maximum impact with little damage' expressions of opposition to a variety of Governments throughout the world, particularly in Latin American and developing countries.

The Ananda Marga was ripe for this type of manipulation. It was one of many mystical religions that proliferated in India as a result of the Flower Power revolution of the late Sixties and early Seventies. It had a political axe to grind in that its leader was being held on what it alleged to be trumped up criminal charges.

To achieve its goal, that of the freedom of its leader, it had formed within its ranks a radical element, the Proutists, which had embarked on a campaign of minor and embarrassing bombings which caused little damage to people or property and were of more of a nuisance than anything else.

His support of the Ananda Marga's push to destabilise the Desai government in India and secure the release of its leader from what it claimed to be a political incarceration and which the government insisted was a criminal matter, was enthusiastic to say the least. It was he who engineered the plan to create mayhem at the CHOGM Conference with a demonstration of the lax security precautions provided by the Australian Government. This was to be followed by an announcement by the Ananda Marga claiming responsibility for the incident and highlighting the reasons for the action.

"Don't worry about that, I have arranged for a little charade to take the guards' mind off their job long enough for you to do what you have to do."

"What if someone gets suspicious of the package?"

"No problem. I have arranged for some covering for your package. I have also arranged for the Council to ignore the bin for at least three days which will give us enough time to plan for maximum impact. Now get out of here, the balloon will go up in five minutes and you will need to be in place when it happens."

Five minutes later there was a commotion in the foyer of the hotel. "What kind of hotel are you running here? I arrange with you for the provision of special room service and someone sends this whore to my room!" The man was dragging a struggling woman behind him. She was dressed in the uniform of her profession, short skirt, tight top with a neckline that almost reached her waist, high heeled boots, fishnet stockings and a lot of makeup.

"Look mister, I didn't ask to be sent to your room. I'm an honest working girl just trying to make enough money to put my sister through university."

"Please sir. Could you keep it quiet. I'm sure that we can sort this matter out." The Manager bustled over to the two combatants.

"I will not keep it quiet! I am a man of some importance where I come from and I am here on a very important mission to spread God's word among you heathens and someone has obviously decided that I should be compromised. I will not keep this quiet. I want the world to see the depths to which the sinners in this country will stop to undermine my crusade."

"I am sure that we can solve the problem without your crusade being embarrassed by this incident."

"You might be sure sonny but I am not! Get me a policemen, I want this harlot taken into custody this minute. I can see an officer out there on the street,' He pointed down the corridor to the rear entrance. "get him in here now!"

"But sir, I can't take him away from his duty out there. There is a very important conference taking place here and he is part of the security precautions."

"If you don't call him in here right now I will make sure that this is the last conference that will ever happen in this god forsaken hovel you call a hotel." He was getting redder in the face by the minute and it was obvious to the casual onlooker that he had some considerable experience at this fire and brimstone style of getting his message across. The casual onlooker would have been wrong in that assessment for this was the first time that the man hired to play the part had actually taken on that role, and for that matter the actress hired to take the part of the whore was in no danger of being type cast. She usually played the sweet and innocent types on stage.

"Listen mister. I don't want any trouble from you, all I want is to be paid for my time and get the hell out of here."

"I am not paying you one red cent. I didn't ask for your services, I didn't partake of any service you had to offer and I am not going to pay for what I didn't get!"

"Don't blame me because you changed your mind and got an attack of conscience. I was willing to do whatever you wanted and if that meant listening to you rant about how sinful my chosen career was so be it. You pay for the service even if you don't use it. Now cough up."

"You can go to Hell!"

"Probably, and when I get there I will probably find it full of red necked hypocrites like you. Give me my money now."

The hotel manager came in with the policeman from outside. "Constable will you take these people out of here and do something with them. I just can't have them creating this sort of disturbance in the hotel right now."

"Don't you have your own internal security that can take care of this?"

"Normally yes, but for the duration of this conference I am having to put up with the local clowns from ASIO."

"Very well. Sir and, madam," He looked down his nose at her, "Would you please come with me while I get someone to help sort out you problems."

"I don't want trouble. All I want is what's owing to me."

"You'll get that, maybe not in this world but you will reap your just reward in the next, Jezebel!"

"Please Sir, try not to draw undue attention to yourself. If you just come quietly we can sort it out without anyone getting hurt."

He walked slowly towards the front door of the hotel. The casual onlooker outside the hotel would have seen a man walking down the street pause and place a small package wrapped in newspaper into the waste bin outside the hotel. Some minutes later, another man walking in the other direction placed another package in a brown paper shopping bag into the same bin. Both men walked away from the bin as quickly as possible trying not to appear suspicious. The casual onlooker, if there had been one, would not have paid any attention to this incident, his attention would have been attracted to the happenings in the hotel foyer, happenings that would soon be happening in the street.

A Police car pulled quietly into the kerb and the two players were bundled, still protesting loudly into it and it drove off. It didn't go to the nearest police station as the casual onlooker would have supposed, instead it drove two blocks down the road and turned right. Around the corner both players received their agreed very handsome performance fee and got out. Both got into the same anonymous family sedan, embraced for several minutes before driving off. They were in fact very close friends.