“No,” Roger replied. He didn’t
want to phone her. He was sure she would say he had to come home.
At that moment Constable Widmark
walked in with a carton full of take-aways. Inspector Sharpe turned to
the boys.
“You boys have your shower first,
then
eat. Roger, you phone your parents.”
“Yes Sir. I’ll just get my
clothes out of the washing machine so someone else can use it,” Roger replied.
Then he groaned because as he got up he found all his muscles had gone stiff.
He had to hobble across the room and down the stairs.
Graham was in the laundry in
shorts and T-shirt. “I’ve just chucked your stuff in the dryer Rog, to make
room for mine. Has Captain Conkey arrived yet?”
“No. But the food has,” Roger
replied. He turned and made his painful way back upstairs, followed by Graham.
They got their hamburgers and went over to the sofa. Roger hadn’t realised how
hungry he was and he devoured the two hamburgers in a few minutes. Then he sat
back and wiped his mouth and fingers with a paper napkin.
“Ah. That’s better!” He leaned
back and closed his eyes.
It was a horrible dream. The vines
in the jungle kept reaching out to grab at him, to trip him up and to slow down
his frantic flight. The men in black were getting closer. He ... He woke
up to find Captain Conkey, dressed in civilian clothes, sitting opposite him.
Roger rubbed his eyes and sat up.
“Good sleep Roger?” Captain
Conkey asked.
Roger blinked and looked around.
Peter sat beside him reading the History of Kosaria. Graham and Stephen were
seated at the table, heads together and writing. All the police had gone except
Constable Widmark who also sat at the table, pen in hand.
Roger looked around for a clock.
“What time is it? Have I been asleep long?”
Peter answered.
“A couple of hours.
It’s getting on for nine O’clock.”
Roger turned to Captain Conkey.
“Have you been here long Sir?”
“Only half an
hour.
I’ll
just wait till you’ve all been interviewed and for the Inspector to get back,”
Captain Conkey answered.
“Where’s he gone Sir?”
“To Atherton to ask some
questions I think.”
Constable Widmark came over and
sat in an armchair, notebook on knee. “OK. Roger is it? I’ll get your statement
now if I may.”
“Can I have a drink and go to the
toilet first?”
“Sure.”
It took Roger over half an hour
to make his statement and even then it was just a bare recounting of the facts.
Captain Conkey listened attentively, half-horrified and half-pleased. He then
said, “You lads have done very well;
but
CSM
...”
“Sir.”
“Didn’t you promise to keep out
of trouble?”
Graham looked crestfallen. “Yes
Sir. Sorry Sir. We did try.”
“It’s Roger’s fault Sir,” Stephen
offered. “He kept crawling around the jungle finding things.”
By now Captain Conkey had heard
the full story. He shook his head in wonder. Graham turned to him. “Can we go
on with our hike Sir?”
“How far have you got?”
“About half
way.
We’ve
got about fifty kilometres to go. We can do that in two days. We did half that
much after lunch today.”
“I’ll ask the Inspector what he
thinks. If there are more of these characters it could still be dangerous.”
“How Sir?
We will go our own way now.”
Stephen spoke up. “You’ll have to
ask my mum Sir. She isn’t very happy about all this.”
At the mention of mothers Roger
felt a twinge of guilt. He had avoided phoning his parents and he didn’t want
to.
Captain Conkey tugged at his chin
for a moment then asked, “Are you sure you want to go on?”
Graham nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes Sir, we do; don’t we?” Graham cried, looking around at the others for
support.
Peter spoke up at once. “I do.”
“Steve?”
“Yeah.
May as
well.
If Mum will let me.”
“Roger?”
Roger would have dearly loved to
say no. His aching muscles and tiredness all called on him to say so - but his
pride would not let him. Even the moment’s hesitation had brought the
beginnings of a sneer to Stephen’s lips.
“Yeah.
I can do it.”
“Good on yer!” Graham commented.
Headlights flashed on the front
windows and a car pulled up. Inspector Sharpe and DS Crowe came in.
“You got all the statements
Constable?” Inspector Sharpe asked.
“Yes Sir.”
“Good. You can head off home.” He
turned to the table. “How’s your translating going?”
“Bit slow Sir but we are getting
there. It says
..”
Graham began.
Inspector Sharpe held up a hand.
“Tell me when you’ve got it all.” He turned to Captain Conkey. “They’ve been an
enormous help these lads, especially young Roger here.”
Roger flushed with embarrassment.
Inspector Sharpe then turned to Peter. “Do you mind if I have a quick read of
that book?”
“Here Sir.
It’s quite fascinating,” Peter
said. He passed the History book to the Inspector who sat down in an armchair.
He said, “Get us some coffee Crowe. Do you want some Captain?”
“Thanks. Yes. Then I’d better be
going if you don’t need me anymore. I’ve got to drive all the way to Cairns,”
Captain Conkey replied.
“Are you happy your boys are OK?
Do any of the parents want them to come home?” Inspector Sharpe asked.
To Roger’s surprise Captain
Conkey said no. He said he had spoken to them all on the phone, even Roger’s
mother, and assured them the boys were all safe. “The boys want to know if they
can continue with their
hike?
”
Inspector Sharpe rubbed his chin.
“They should be safe enough. I mean, it’s hard to imagine how there could be
any more problems - involving them that is.”
“OK then. I’ll call all the
parents again to see if that is alright,” Captain Conkey replied. He got up and
went to the phone.
Roger struggled painfully to his
feet and went to the kitchen. “I’ll make the coffee sergeant,” he offered.
“Good lad. You can help. See if
there is sugar in there.”
They made coffee and carried it out.
Roger joined Graham and Stephen at the table. Graham had printed out the German
message in ink, in block letters, using every third line as they’d been taught
to do in cadet signal training. On the second line he was printing in pencil
the translations.
Stephen was thumbing through the
dictionary and muttering to himself. “Wegweiser, Wegweiser. Umm
..”
He read what it said, “Signpost.”
Graham wrote it down then said.
“OK. ‘
Nahe zu das Strassenknottenpunkt’.”
“Strewth! What a mouthful. No
wonder they lost the war. It took them so long to get their orders out,” Roger
quipped.
Stephen sat up and spoke in a
mimic of ‘War Comic’ German. “Ve did not lose der War! Ve came second!”
“That’ll do you idiots,” Graham
laughed.
“Nahe zu das!”
“Near to; near to the; near the
...now what the devil is a Strassenknottenpunkt?”
Roger leaned over to watch.
Stephen turned the pages to ‘St’ and ran his finger down the column. “Strassen
- Street. No ‘Strassenknottenpunkt’.”
“Don’t forget German often puts
different words together,” Roger suggested.
“Shut up Roger. We know that.
We’ve been at this for over an hour.
Now, ‘knotten’.”
Stephen began flicking over pages.
Roger felt a bit hurt. He was
only trying to help. He looked up. Graham met his eye and smiled. “Here Roger,
read this. It’s about the KSS.”
Roger took up the two page
document and read it quickly, only half hearing Stephen saying “Street -
Knotting - Point.”
“Road Junction,” Graham replied.
Roger turned the page and saw the
second sheet was a page of diagrams of the KSS badges. He quickly scanned it
and caught his breath.
“Inspector Sharpe Sir.
That old
man, his rank badge says ‘Standartenfuhrer’. That’s a Colonel. He must be
important.”
“You’re right Roger. We think
he’s right up near the top. And our mate with the glasses, Mister, or I should
say ‘Herr’ Jablonski is an ‘Untersturmfuhrer’, a 2nd Lieutenant. I think he is
a Special Action Team Leader.”
“So why is the Colonel here? Are
there more than one of these Action Teams at work?” Captain Conkey asked,
coming over to look at the diagrams.
“Possibly, but I suspect not,”
Inspector Sharpe replied. “From the information I have, their organisation is
probably under strength. The Kosarian Embassy told me an hour ago that
Klotovitch was a colonel during World War 2.”
Peter chuckled. “So he hasn’t
been promoted in well over half a century,” he said.
“I hope I get promoted faster
than that,” Roger said.
They all laughed. Inspector
Sharpe went on, “It probably means they have just begun to rebuild their
organization.”
That puzzled Roger so he asked,
“But why Sir? What are they doing here in North Queensland?”
Inspector Sharpe took a sip from
his coffee then said, “I wish I knew. Perhaps you can all spot a clue for me.
I’ve just read bits of this.” He held up the History book, “and I don’t know if
it’s important or not. I’ll read some of it to you and see if it rings any
bells.”
Inspector Sharpe settled back and
turned a few pages of the book. Captain Conkey finished his coffee and looked
at his watch.
“If you’ll excuse me Inspector.
It’s
ten thirty and I might just be home by midnight.”
“Certainly.
Thank you for coming. I hope I
won’t need to bother you again.”
Capt Conkey rolled his eyes. “So
do
I
! Well, goodnight kids. Now this time, keep
out of trouble!”
“Yes Sir,” the boys chorused.
Captain Conkey went out into the
night and Inspector Sharpe
began.,
“I won’t read this
word for word. It’s too long and boring. I’ll just pick the main points. Now,
you’ve all found Kosaria on the map? There’s the Atlas. You’ll find it wedged
in there near Albania and Greece. It’s only a little place, about 100 km
North-South and 150 km across. About one point two million people live there.
90% are Slavs, 8% are Greeks and 2% are Turks. 92% are Eastern Orthodox
Christians, 5% are Roman Catholics and 3% are Moslems. Most speak Serbo-Croat,
which is the official language. German is the second language and is taught in
most schools - hopefully better than it’s taught here.”
Graham and Stephen pulled faces
but said nothing at this little dig.
Inspector Sharpe went on, “It’s a
poor country, all mountains and forests. Most of the people are peasant farmers
and the capital city is only about half the size of Cairns – a population of
about 65,000. It’s a primitive place. It still uses steam locos on the railway
and mules and horse drawn wagons are common. Kosaria is the poorest country in
Europe and has the last Communist Government in that part of the world - which
doesn’t help the economy. But then you kids wouldn’t remember the Communists
and what a threat they were when Russia had a Communist government.”
“Yes we do Sir. We learn about it
at school,” Roger said.
Graham spoke up.
“Peter’s grandparents.
They were Russians and had to flee
the country so the Communists wouldn’t shoot them.”
Inspector Sharpe eyed Peter with interest.
“Is that so? Are they still alive?”
“Yes Sir. They live in Brisbane.
Grandpa’s eighty and Omma’s seventy nine.”
“That’s good. Now, let’s get back
to Kosaria. The place used to be part of the Byzantine Empire. They were the
last country in the Balkans to be conquered by the Turks. Apparently they
withstood several attempts at invasion. I’ll read this bit.”
“Prince Theodore was prepared to
submit, to the Turks that is, in 1457, but the Archbishop Joris persuaded him
to fight. The small Kosarian army met a huge Turkish host in the Field of the
Black Crows. The Turks attacked and quickly broke the Kosarian Centre. The
Kosarian Standard Bearer was cut down and the Kosarians began to lose heart and
give ground. Seeing this, Archbishop Joris rushed forward and picked up the
flag. The Turks slashed and hacked at him with their scimitars. A terrible blow
severed his right leg and he fell, but managed to keep the flag aloft.”
“Inspired by his example the
Prince led a counter-attack. The Prince’s horse was killed and he fell heavily,
losing his sword. The Turks closed in for the kill. Theodore seized the first
thing which came to hand as he scrambled to his feet. It was the leg of Joris.
With this he flailed the enemy and held them off.”