Indonesian Gold (80 page)

Angela and her father continued to work through their
grief without further comment, each immersed in their own thoughts – the chief, deeply troubled
by his daughter's behavior, while Angela, having now accepted that there would be no place in her
future for Stewart Campbell, felt desperately alone. With the enormity of the Longhouse carnage
weighing heavily on their minds they climbed, wearily, back into the mountains, returning to the
safety of their temporary village deep in the forest.

That night, Jonathan Dau summoned his people to discuss
their options – and responsibilities to the dead. After the newly appointed council of elders'
open debate, the entire
Longdamai-Penehing
community voted unanimously to return to what
had been their home, for the greater part of the past century. They would rebuild the Longhouse
further along the shore, the original site to become a shrine, the young men swearing to defend
their people to the last man should they again come under attack. Pens would be rebuilt to
contain wild pig and fowl, and new boats would be built to replace those destroyed. Materials
such as bamboo, twine, palm and tall timbers, would be taken from traditional sources, and the
fields replanted, Udir volunteering to go downstream to trade the gold bars for whatever food,
clothing and seed could be found. They would become the
Penehing
of old, dependent on none
but those of Dayak blood.

When the sun's rays appeared breathing life into the new
day, Jonathan Dau again led his people in prayer, their chant calling upon ancestral spirits to
give them strength to defeat their enemies, and to watch over them as they undertook the arduous
trek back down through the foothills, to a new beginning. By mid-morning they had gathered near
the falls, where the wounded were ferried across the river, the remainder swimming to the
desecrated shore – all of this, under the watchful eye of the hornbill.

****

Longdamai Mining Camp

A fire and brimstone sunset fell, the subdued quiet broken
by the plaintive wail,
‘Allah Akbar'
summoning the faithful to
Magrib
prayers
reminded Campbell of the time, and he retreated to his cabin leaving the Australian geologist
alone – inebriated, and in melancholic mood. Determined to expunge Mardidi and Kremenchug's
betrayal from his mind, Baird continued to drink, demolishing most of a second bottle before
collapsing, backwards, spilling over the rattan chair. He rose, staggered into his untidy
accommodations and dropped to the unmade bunk, wallowing in his despair.

Blurred eyes fell on the framed photograph alongside the
bed, the picture capturing some special moment of the two of them together, smiling, their arms
locked around each other affectionately. He sat there staring through drunken stupor, reminded of
those happier times. ‘Why did you leave me, Mardidi?' he asked, reaching out with loving, but
clumsy hands, knocking the frame to the floor. Startled, Baird stared down at the shattered
memory, surrendering to a flood of angry tears. He rose, unsteadily, unable to contain his
frustration and screamed, loudly, cursing Mardidi, then savagely stomped what remained of the
memorabilia with his heel.

Outside, where Baird's screams carried to others in the
camp, a group of drillers sniggered amongst themselves, aware of the rumor surrounding Mardidi
and the
Penehing
woman, Angela Dau – raucous innuendo and facetious comments halting, with
the distraction of the Bell 205's engine lifting Captain Subandi and what was believed to be
Sharon Ducay's remains, into the air.

****

Baron Mining – Toronto – Canada

Disquieted by Samuel's report, the multinational, mining
con

glomerate's chairman continued to listen intently.
‘…furthermore, Campbell could have been killed in that raid.' ‘What provoked the Indonesian
Military into such action?' ‘According to Campbell, the Dayaks claim that the attack
was

carried out by Indonesian Special Forces. Why, we'll
never know.' ‘Was he hurt?' ‘Fortunately, no.' ‘Well, at least that's something. Is there any
connection between

the village attack and the death of the Filipino woman?'
‘None at all – she'd handed everything over to Campbell and was

flying out when it happened.' ‘And the Indonesian
authorities confirm that it was accidental?' ‘Yes. Sharon Ducay was extremely unlucky.' ‘How much
damage control do we need to initiate with respect

to the instability in the province?'

‘There's no doubt that the media will attempt to connect
Baron with what's happening within our exploration area. The Indonesians have managed to keep a
lid on what's happening, so far, but that won't last. We should be ready to respond when stories
start to leak. Campbell says that the slaughter could run into the thousands and, with those sort
of numbers, we could expect something to break at any time now.'

‘When will we be ready to restart the
drilling?'

‘We're well ahead of schedule, two, perhaps three weeks.
We've taken over the rigs operating under contract onsite, and our drillers are in Jakarta
completing their paperwork. Once the army gives Campbell the green light, we could have them
onsite and working, within a week.'

‘Will Campbell stay after what's happened?'
‘I'm working on that. We've arranged another hookup, tomorrow.'
‘All right, Phil, I'll make the calls.'
Once Samuels had left the former Canadian Prime Minister's

office, the company chairman called his personal assistant
and instructed her to place a number of international calls, amongst these, to the Indonesian
First Family.

****

Longdamai Mining Camp

‘Tuan! Tuan, you are wanted over at
communications.'
Campbell
heard
someone call, breaking into his sleep. Groggy from the demands that had been made on his body
over the past days he threw on some clothes, banged his field boots upside down against the solid
bunk out of habit, finished dressing then hurried over to the radio hut.

‘Is that Mister Campbell?'
the Jakarta link-operator inquired. Once he acknowledged, she then patched the caller
through, from Canada.

‘Stew, is that you?'

Recognizing the familiar voice Campbell looked up at the
wall clock, noting that it was past nine in the evening. He'd slept for less than three hours.
‘Yes, Phil,' he confirmed, stifling a yawn. ‘What's up?'

‘Can you talk freely?' Samuels wished to know.

‘More or less but whatever's said will most likely be
monitored anyway.'

‘Right, understood.' The line fell silent for some moments
as both gathered their thoughts. ‘Stew, we've decided to move the drilling program
forward.'

Campbell
indicated surprise.
‘Sammy, this is not a particularly good time.'

‘If you're referring to the troubles, Jakarta's given an
assurance that this will be all resolved within days.'

‘Sammy, listen to me. Unless you've got that directly from
the horse's mouth, if you know what I mean, then I wouldn't count on anything much changing
here.'

‘Straight from Mount Olympus,' Samuels advised, the
reference too abstruse for third parties listening, to understand. ‘In view of which, Baron's
keen to have you remain there while the drilling takes place.'

‘I thought you'd decided to send in your own
team?'

‘We're still proceeding with the original program. The
only change is that we're offering you the position of operations manager, until the drilling has
been completed. How about it, Stew?'

Campbell
didn't require time
to even consider the offer. ‘To be honest, Sammy, I don't want the job. I'm beat. Can't you get
anyone else?'

‘Our man's had a serious accident and we need to have
someone there we can trust to do the job properly.'

‘Why the rush?'

Again, there was a brief pause as Phil Samuels carefully
selected words which would not be misconstrued in any way, without compromising the sensitivity
of what needed to be said. He understood that, if their conversation was, indeed, being
monitored, then he had to guard against the possibility of a leak to the media. ‘Stew, we need to
move quickly to verify previous data. As you know, it's standard procedure to conduct further
drilling to prove up a site. Considering what has transpired over there during recent days, and
I'm not referring to indigenous confrontations, the Board feels that it should move quickly to
establish the veracity of all information originating from site activities, whilst still under a
particular expatriate's guardianship. Do you follow?'

Campbell
understood, annoyed
that Sharon's untimely death had already started the rumor mills spinning. ‘How bad is
it?

The Canadian party responded with an audible sigh. ‘Could
damage the integrity of everything that's been achieved, to date.'

‘What's the basis for comment?' he asked,
guardedly.

‘When has the media ever needed one?'

‘Jesus, Phil,' Campbell felt in a bind. ‘It's a big ask,
even coming from you.'

Samuels forced laugh in no way comforted. ‘Baron will
demonstrate its gratitude, Stew. Come on, help an old friend out here?'

Campbell
knew he had no choice
but to agree. Phil Samuels had been extremely supportive over the years and, in this industry,
when such markers were called, the debt had to be paid. ‘Okay, Phil,' his voice faded, then
recovered with the airwaves, ‘I'll stay on until your

man recovers. Agreed?'

‘Agreed.'

Campbell
considered the task
ahead of him, and the methodology he would employ to substantiate Sharon Ducay's earlier results
– results of such significance that he was now standing on what could conceivably be the world's
largest gold deposit. ‘I'll run a parallel program to what's already been done,' he suggested,
‘and then I'm finished?'

‘We don't require a duplicate program, just a dozen or so
holes at random. We need to buy some time.'

‘When will the new drillers get here?'

‘They're in Jakarta as we speak. Should be there by the
end of this week.'

‘What about plant and equipment?'

‘That's all been taken care of in Jakarta.'

‘Sounds like you really don't need me at all,
Sammy.'

‘We've got powerful friends moving things
along.'

Campbell
now appreciated the
comment regarding Mount Olympus, even more clearly, and was disappointed that Baron had climbed
into bed with Palace interests. ‘Let's hope they remain on side.'

‘Okay, then, Stew. I'm pleased you've agreed to help out.
Anything else for the time being?'

‘Yes. I'll need bucket loads of cash here, quickly. The
drillers and laborers haven't been paid and, with what's happened downstream, without fresh
supplies and funds, it will all collapse.'

‘Can you keep it together for another few
days?'

‘Won't be easy.'

‘Good. I'll see to it that you get whatever's
needed.'

Campbell
had a sudden thought.
‘I have
carte blanche
to hire and fire as I see fit?'

‘Of course.'

‘Okay, I'll get back to you with any other
requests.'

‘Say, Stew, almost forgot to ask. How are you and that gal
of yours getting along?'

Campbell
felt a knot tighten
in his stomach. ‘Not now, Sammy – not now.' With that, he hung up, wishing he had the appetite to
eat.

Campbell
strolled outside into
the tropical night and looked up through the darkness into the starless sky, beset by a
loneliness that only lovers can feel. He surveyed the camp looking for company

– but there was no one there he cared to talk to, so he
wandered across to the canteen and requested coffee. Lights in the expatriates' cabins suggested
the drillers were most likely playing cards, and he considered going over to look in on the game,
but dismissed this idea immediately it came to mind. He expected that Baird would be asleep, his
thoughts then drifting to the Australian's companion, Mardidi, and why he had abandoned the camp,
with Angela. Campbell remained deeply concerned for Angela and worried for her safety, even
though Phil Samuels' advice indicated that Jakarta was moving to avoid further conflict in the
area. He knew it would be foolhardy for him to attempt to find her in the mountains, deciding
that Angela must return at some point in time, if not to settle things with him, then at least to
communicate with her department.

****

Jakart
a
Indonesian Defence Headquarters (HANKAM
)