Indonesian Gold (63 page)

****

The tenants of the entire mining village came to a
standstill to observe the altercation.

‘If you're not going to pay them out, then why don't you
tell them to pack up and return to Jakarta?' Campbell directed this to Sharon, now standing with
hands on hips, her face filled with fire.

‘That'll be for me to decide,' Sharon bristled.

‘Seems to me that these guys are more trouble than they're
worth,' he countered.

‘I'm still the operations manager here. If you interfere,
Stewart, you're off the site, letter or no letter from Baron!'

‘Jesus, Sharon,' Campbell shook his head and turned to
walk away.

‘That's it?' she demanded, walking up and grabbing him by
the arm. ‘You come in here telling me how to run this operation, because you're the Baron Mining
rep and think everyone has to bend over for you?'

Campbell
winced as her nails
dug into flesh, surprised at the strength in her grip. He pulled away, angry. ‘I'm just offering
what is obviously good advice.' He looked over in the direction of the Indonesian drillers.
‘Screw it!' he snapped, ‘they're your men – you go and deal with them.' He started towards the
quarters that had been allocated to him upon arrival.

‘Fuck you, Stewart Campbell!' he heard her call, her voice
barely a whisper.

Incensed, he changed direction, deciding to do what he
could about pacifying the drillers before they wrecked the plant and other expensive
equipment.

****

Angela stood observing Stewart and Sharon from a distance
with growing curiosity, the pair acting more like an estranged couple, with their frequent
confrontations, than she cared to perceive. Stewart's less than subtle handling of an altercation
that had broken out earlier between the foreign and local drillers, seemed out of character, as
was his ongoing feud with Sharon. Angela watched him stride purposefully away from the Filipino
and was pricked with the possibility that the pair may have history.

The day before, still preoccupied with the dilemma of
Stewart's presence on site, Angela had taken one of the company fiberglass powerboats and
revisited her village, a journey she had not wished to make, unsure of what her father's
reactions might be. There, she spent less than an hour in conference with the chief explaining
for the first time, her relationship with Campbell – amazed with Jonathan Dau's seemingly, quiet
acceptance that she had feelings for the man – and his indifference to the revelation that her
beau was not only a foreigner, but one involved in the very industry which, at very least, was
partially responsible for the devastation of their traditional lands.

‘I knew from when you last visited,'
her father disclosed.

‘
How?
'

‘
Something you will learn, with time.
'

‘What if he refuses to come?'
she had tried,
‘will you abandon the attack?'

‘No!'
the chief was
emphatic,
‘there is too much at stake.'

‘I cannot desert him,'
Angela had challenged.

Jonathan Dau was prepared for his daughter's response.
‘You say that he loves you?'

‘
Yes.'

‘And that you love him?
'

‘I am not entirely sure,'
she replied.

‘You cannot marry outside the Dayak spirit,'
the chief had cautioned.

‘I know.'

‘
You would give up your power, your future, your people
for this man?
'

‘No,'
Angela had not
faltered, leaving her father satisfied.

‘Bring him here. If he is the man you say, we shall hold a
ceremony to initiate him into the Dayak brotherhood.'

Angela recalled her confusion.
‘And this would resolve
our differences?'

Jonathan had then taken Angela by the hand.
‘If he has
the spirit, then we will accept him as one of us.'

For one, ever so brief moment Angela's eyes were tempted
with tears. Stoically, she held herself tall, bowed her head and said,
‘I still have a great
deal to learn from you, father.'

Jonathan Dau's smile carried the mood.
‘Tell Stewart
Campbell that he must be here. If you ask, how could he possibly refuse?'
Angela had then
returned to the Longdamai site under strict instructions to bring Stewart to the Longhouse
village, no later than the day prior to the next, full moon.

Her eyes followed Campbell as he continued across the
well-trodden path towards where the Indonesian drillers were billeted, and engage a number of the
men there, in conversation. Angela's attention drifted back across the open field to Sharon, then
back to Stewart, conscious of the unfamiliar stirrings inside when she observed the attractive
Filipino's attention, locked in Campbell's direction.

****

‘No, I can't make payments on P.T. Kalimantan Gold's
behalf,'
Campbell
responded. The
Indonesian drillers were as apprehensive as their foreign counterparts, as to whether they would
receive their overdue wages, and whether they would still have work once the company changed
hands.

‘But, Tuan, we haven't been paid for weeks!'
an agitated worker complained.

The man's colleagues murmured their support.
‘We were
also promised bonuses,'
another contributed,
‘and guaranteed work for at least six
months.'

Sharon Ducay had ceased all drilling, citing uncertainty
regarding reimbursement of any operational expenses incurred during the transition period.
Stewart had questioned her reasoning and appealed for Sharon to finalize the company's
undertakings with its contractors. From experience, Stewart clearly understood the necessity of
maintaining crews on site during such handover-takeover periods, alarmed at Sharon's dangerous
precedent in refusing to meet existing obligations. He had pacified the expatriate drillers –
convincing them that Baron Mining would guarantee their salaries, conditional that they remain on
the site. However, when he made a similar offer to the local drillers, the mood had turned ugly,
their spokesman demanding the company pay them out in full, inferring that the drilling rigs
might be damaged, even destroyed, if their contracts were not honored.

Stewart commiserated with their predicament. These men
were not paid the same, generous amounts received by their expatriate counterparts, and for wages
to be overdue by even a few days, often created serious hardship for their families.
‘I'll see
if I can get the boss lady to change her mind,'
he promised.

‘
Tell her, Tuan, that we can't wait any
longer.
'
‘Yeah,'
one of the more recalcitrant types rose to his
feet.
‘Tell he
r

that if we don't get our money, we'll go and talk to the
machinery, instead.'

The driller waved a heavy-duty spanner threateningly, in
Campbell's face. The American reached out, angrily, grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it
sharply until the tool fell from his grasp.

‘If there's any damage to the rigs or the other
equipment, there'll be no bonuses. That's the only guarantee I'll give you.'
He released the driller's arm, annoyed that he had permitted his dispute
with Sharon to provoke him into losing his temper with the men. He left the group muttering
amongst themselves in their own dialect, less than satisfied with his own behavior.

Campbell
's anger quickly
subsided when he looked up and saw Angela standing in the near distance. He waved, and when she
returned a half-hearted response, Stewart hesitated in his tracks, sensing that this might not be
the right time to tell her his troubles.

****

Eric Baird brushed the air, the lethargic gesture
scattering less-persistent flies from the plate of greasy, fried rice – Baird cursed the number
that remained, defiantly making their own meal of his food.

It was hot – the temperature unusually high for July. He
raised a glass of boiled water to his mouth, and one of the flies camped on the lip of the
tumbler caught by the sudden movement fell into the liquid, buzzing its way around in endless
circles as Baird gazed on, mesmerized by the act. Harsh laughter from the far end of the canteen
distracted and he glanced over, warily, at the expatriate drillers sitting there. One caught his
attention and raised a finger – the peels of laughter that followed, signaling that he was the
butt of the joke.

Mardidi entered the wall-less structure; in Baird's mind,
his partner could not have picked a worse time, the raucous catcalls, derogatory remarks and
exaggerated mock-kissing noises that greeted his arrival, demonstrative of the drillers' feelings
towards them both. Fearing retaliation, Baird remained motionless in response, conscious of how
volatile the drillers could be, particularly now future employment under the new management was
in doubt.

‘Why do they always pick on me?'
Mardidi complained, taking a place alongside Baird.
‘Can't you do
something?'

‘Let it be,'
Baird
dropped his voice, and cupped a hand to his mouth for discretion.
‘We'll be out of here, soon,
once the new management team is in place.'

‘When?'

‘Two months – maximum, three.'
Christopher Fielding had informed Baird that Vancouver would not honor the bonus
commitments unless he remained until the handover had been completed. As this amount was
considerable, he had accepted the ultimatum, resigned to remaining on site to see it all
through.

‘
Eric, can I go back to Jakarta and wait for you
there?
'
‘
No. I need you
here, by my side
.
'
‘
But,
there's nothing to do but sit around all day!
'
‘
Stop complaining – you've never had it so good
.
'
‘They're becoming even more hostile than
before,'
Mardidi's eyes

flicked nervously in the direction of the drillers.
‘I'm afraid.' ‘They won't start anything,'
Baird said, less than convincingly.

‘Campbell will keep them under control.'

‘
And if he can't?
'

‘Let's just hope that he does.'
Eric Baird then deliberately selected a point on the landscape, avoiding eye
contact with the boisterous drillers. In the distance he could see Sharon Ducay standing, arms
crossed, obviously in discussion with the Special Forces pilot whose team had assumed control
over the charter flights, to and from the Longdamai operation.

****

‘I must see you!'
the
young, handsome officer's whispered entreaty was pumped with masculine urgency.

‘We can't.'
Sharon
refrained from standing too close to the
Kopassus
Captain.
‘There's much I have to think about.'

‘I will be discreet,'
the pilot assured her, casting his eyes around the perimeter to see if they were being
observed.

‘No, I don't want you to come. Not unless you are sure
you will go

through with it,'
she
warned, turning and strolling away in nonchalant stride before the crest-fallen officer could
respond.

‘I'll do it!'
he
committed, with hoarse, raspy voice as she moved away. Then, glancing in all directions to see if
he'd been overheard, waited for her response, but Sharon continued without looking back,
pretending she'd not heard.

Returning to the solitude of her quarters, where she now
spent increasingly more of her time avoiding the now daily confrontations with almost everyone in
camp, she pondered her situation. She knew that her game was becoming increasingly dangerous,
that the volatile mood evident amongst the drillers and laborers was more a result of their being
idle than unpaid, and that this situation would already have become unmanageable without the
Kopassus
contingent's presence. Her decision to cease drilling the moment Stewart Campbell
had set foot on site had been precautionary, to avoid the experienced geologist's possible
intervention in the sample recovery process. Although discovery was inevitable, Sharon planned on
disappearing well before the Baron management team assumed full control and reactivated the
drilling program, the timing for her exit now only a matter of a week, if not days. Campbell's
arrival had complicated her original plan, which now required serious adjustment to accommodate
his presence, this delay contributing to her already, severely frayed nerves.