Chapter 01

Fifteen Years On

Eight years after Melissa’s university graduation EC Investments is a billion dollar operation due to very good management and investment choices as well as royalties and sales of Ernie’s work. Melissa’s personal wealth is now a few hundred million, but few know this. With the birth of her seventh child the previous year the doctors advised Melissa to not have any more children due to concerns for her health. Emily is on her eighth pregnancy. The family has outgrown the Cable House, as it’s now called, and the older children live with their Great Aunt Mary in the house behind them. Melissa and Emily agree for Emily to stop at ten children and the remaining sperm will be made available to anyone else in the Cable Company who wishes to have a child by Ernie.

In the mid-semester school holidays Emily is at home with all of the children under ten years of age while Melissa has the rest with her on a visit to a small African nation with Tom, Vanessa, Pearl, Nancy, Jenny, and other well known members of the Cable Company. For the last several years the Cable Foundation has been spending money to research a cure and treatments for a major illness that’s had a serious effect on the African nation by killing many of its people. They’ve had some success and a treatment project has been going on for the last two years that’s sponsored by the World Health Organisation and is heavily funded by the Cable Company. It’s now drawing to a close with the last of the known infected people being treated and the last of the population being vaccinated against it. The Australian visitors are there to take part in a ceremony welcoming the end of the dark shadow this disease has been over the country. Of the twenty-five official adult guests in the party twenty-one of them are Australians and the rest represent the United Nations as well as the USA, UK, and Holland - the other contributors to the project. Melissa brought along five of her and Emily’s children with thirty other children from The Cable Company families, including the older children of those in the official party.

The party arrives several days before the ceremony to do some sightseeing and learn about the country first hand. The morning of the day before the ceremony the whole group is in the country’s capital city and they’re getting ready for the day. The children are scheduled to spend the morning visiting a local orphanage to give them boxes of toys and educational materials they’ve brought along, while the adults will go over what they’re doing during the ceremony tomorrow to make sure everything goes just right. This is the first time the children have been separated from the adults, and since the adults are staying in the special compound made available to them by the government Melissa is sending all five of her personal security guards, who are all ex-Australian SAS soldiers, with the children as a boost to the small group of local Army soldiers assigned as security. The security is needed because there’s still some inter-tribal violence that occurs in the country and no one can be sure when or where it will break out because old hatreds die hard.

While the children are getting ready and carrying the boxes of gifts out to load on the buses Melissa is watching a short altercation between the Captain who’s been in charge of their security until now and a Major from another unit, a unit she knows of from briefings by the Australian Embassy staff. The Captain isn’t happy when he’s handed written orders and he reads them. He calls his troops over and has them form up to leave and return to barracks. This worries Melissa because she’d seen a small group of generals arguing earlier, and on spotting her they entered an office. A few minutes later the group left, short one general. She’s wondered about that since it happened.

Warnings

The replaced Captain approaches Melissa to say, “Missus Cable, I’m sorry I won’t be able to watch over your children like I promised. I’ve been ordered off this detail and a new unit is taking over.”

Melissa smiles at him while nodding her understanding as she says, “Don’t change your expression at all. I think we’re in the middle of an attempt to change the government by force. Take your men and leave, then get as many men as you can trust to obey you and go to the orphanage to protect my children, please. We’ll manage here, somehow, but the children must be safe because they’re our future.”

Although shocked by her words he smiles while he acknowledges them and he promises to ensure the safety of the children. On leaving the compound he directs half of the vehicles to go to the orphanage and the rest to trail the children’s convoy while he races off in a car to organise extra troops and spread the word of her suspicions to those he trusts.

Melissa’s concern is a very real one because the country has several different tribes in it and the two major tribes have been jostling for power since the Europeans left, over sixty years ago. The country has many natural resources which it sells for international currency; but so much has been spent on rebuilding following the many revolutions and wars it’s still in deep poverty. The President and the Captain belong to the same major tribe while the troops replacing them belong to the other major tribe. This sort of pre-placement of troops around potential International hostages would be just what a group of rebelling generals would do whenever they can. The Captain must warn the President and get extra troops for the children, like he promised.

She approaches her own security people and has three of them help her to bring down six more boxes for the orphanage from her room, but not until after she shows them the guns and ammunition she placed in the bottom of the boxes just a little while ago.

Melissa walks over to the buses taking the children and has them form up beside the buses. She addresses them, saying, “Now I want you all to take a special note of how things are different here to at home. I also want you to pay very close attention to all those local people you’ve come to know so well who’ll be giving you protection on this visit.” This is confusing to them because they’ve all just changed and none of those they know are going with them. The confusion ends for most with her next statement. “I know you all have your ounces with you, and I want you to use them wisely, understand?” Many heads nod in agreement when all of the members of the Cable Company get the hidden meaning in her talk while the few non-Cable Company children don’t understand it, nor do the locals. The children, and those going with them, board the buses and leave for the orphanage.

The Major in charge of the new security detail approaches Melissa, and asks, “What was that thing about ounces about, what’s it mean?”

She smiles, “In my country we’ve many old sayings from the pre-metric days that use ounce to indicate a very small common measure. Ones like, ’An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.’ It means to take small reasonable precautions and care to avoid a lot of trouble fixing something later, like washing your hands well before eating in a dirty or new environment. Another is, ’An ounce of common sense is worth a pound of apology.’ Meaning to take the time to think about what you’re doing before you do it, so you don’t have to spend lots of time apologising for an avoidable mistake later. Our cultures are different and we’re in your country, so I was reminding our children of that, and that it’s up to them to conform to your way of life here. This is the first time they’ve gone off on a visit without the adults along to see they behave properly, so I was making sure they remembered to watch themselves and to pay attention to your people.” The Captain nods in understanding because it’s a wise warning that appears to have been given in a colloquial Australian way, and it should make the children more responsive to orders from the local military with them.

What he doesn’t realise is it was a warning delivered in a specific Australian colloquial way, one specific to the Cable Company as it refers to a line from a song they all know, The Impossible Dream - ’Still strove with his last ounce of courage.’ It’s an oblique reference to the whole of that verse and for them to prepare to fight with all they have. All of the Cable Company contingent are well versed in martial arts, and the group includes five black belts with four others studying for their black belt. Also, the five security guards Melissa sent along are armed and all are ex-Army, they’d served with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment and retired when minor wounds had them downgraded from fit for combat service. They were all recommended to Melissa when she found she needed personal security, and she’s found them to be very good at their work. Unknown to just about everyone with them her guards are armed, despite them having handed over their weapons at the airport on arrival. Within two hours they were armed from weapons Melissa had arranged to be smuggled in because she saw no reason for her to have unarmed security guards, so she acted to protect her people with the best weapons she could get hold of that could be smuggled into the country in the short time she had to make the arrangements.

Walking toward the main building with the Major Melissa pulls out her mobile phone and calls a friend at the Australian Embassy, an external member of the Cable Company. She speaks without saying who it is or where they are because she knows the phone frequencies are probably being monitored and she needs to be very careful in what she says. When the other person answers she’s very quick to say, “Hello, Steve, I’ve been studying and thinking about that business proposal again. I’m very concerned about it because it’s like the bank deal that went wrong on Ernie. Can you please do some more background research on the minor principals and try to organise some good insurance for us. This is clearly a case of an ounce of prevention beating a tonne, and not just a pound, of cure.”

The man she called is someone she went to school with and is in charge of the Australian Embassy security arrangements. He recognizes she’s using a simple code and she believes her current location to be under the control of armed criminals or the like, knowing this country it’s likely rebels and they haven’t made their main move yet. He gets this from the references to the bank and Ernie’s death. He also notes she wants him to warn the others, thus the insurance, and to look into the minority powers in the local government, confirming it’s most probable it’s rebels. He also understands there’s nothing he can do for her or her group and she realises that. After taking a deep breath he replies, “OK, Ma’am, I’ll get onto that without question or pause.” She disconnects and puts her phone away, knowing from him quoting from the song he’ll now do all he can to protect the rest of the foreigners in the country.

At the embassy Steve leaves his office after he tells his subordinate to go to the top security alert level and start warning Australian nationals resident in the country they expect imminent armed unrest. He dashes upstairs to interrupt an important meeting between the Ambassador and the local Minister for Health while they finalise some aspects of the ceremony due tomorrow. He bursts in while saying, “Excuse me, Sir, but I’ve just had some very disturbing news. An extremely solid source has just warned of a rebellion that’s about to launch today.”

Both politician go very pale and stare at him. He says, “The source couldn’t give a time line, but they expect action within the next hour or so. The source is as impeccable as they get, and more reliable than seeing people with guns racing down the streets around the embassy.”

Both men believe he’s serious so they grab for phones to warn people while Steve grabs another and starts calling his counterparts at other embassies, starting with those likely to be of the most use to the rebels.

Back at the compound Melissa goes to her room and gets changed for the meeting, she puts on a large leather skirt with a sturdy vest and carries her briefcase with a lot of papers and things. Since all of their luggage was inspected on arrival the security detail knows no one in the group is armed. But they don’t know Melissa, and she used local contacts to get plenty of arms after they arrived; most are now on the bus, and the rest are now on her or in her briefcase.

Back downstairs she gathers all of the adults together to talk about the ceremony. Instead of going straight into the dining room, where they were planning to talk until lunchtime and have lunch served there, she takes them across the compound to the fitness gym. This has fewer windows and thick, more secure, doors, with a wide open area to cross when approaching it. When asked about the change of venue she tells the Major she feels the talk will be disrupted by the staff preparing the dining room for lunch, so they’ll talk in the gym and move to the dining room when it’s ready because that’ll waste less time while it allows them to concentrate more for longer. At the gym the Major has a platoon set up on the outside of the gym with troops spread out at each of the three exits from the building.

Once inside the building Melissa starts to talk about the ceremony while the Major checks the building before leaving. When he leaves she moves to the two emergency exits and makes sure they’re secured in the proper way because she saw the Major open them a little. While talking she waves a couple of people over to move heavy objects in front of them and to tie them to the release bars on the exits with the nearby skipping ropes; thus making them very secure. The external Cable Company people just do as she indicates while the others stand around and wonder what she’s up to. A few more heavy objects are used to block three of the four doors at the main entrance and are tied to the doors, with some more heavy items handy to block the last door when they need to. Things to stand on are placed near the windows because they’re above head height, so this will allow them to see out and fire out the windows. The oversized one room brick building is soon as ready as it can be to withstand the expected armed attack by rebel troops.

With all else ready Melissa walks to a table in the middle of the room and takes off her large leather skirt. When she flips it onto the table they can see it’s lined with one hundred throwing knives, eight pistols (Glock G31Cs), and forty spare magazines for the pistols. Opening up her briefcase she pulls out two more Glock 31Cs and several boxes of ammunition for the pistols. Looking up at the shocked look on the non-Cable Company people, the Company people aren’t surprised she’s prepared for trouble because it’s typical of her, she says, “We had a change of security personnel despite a promise the guards would never be changed. I think it’s because we’re about to be in the middle of an armed revolution. I don’t intend to be anyone’s hostage. Now I know many of you and I’ve suitable weapons for those I know have the knowledge to use them, the rest of you I’ll ask to help out by reloading magazines as we need them, and to tend to any wounded. If any of you know how to shoot and we get spare weapons turn up, feel free to use them on the rebels.” The people indicated come forward for the pistols and magazines. Turning to Vanessa she says, “Sensei, please assign combat teams.” Vanessa knows the martial arts and weapons skill levels of the Cable Company people present, so she starts assigning them to three person combat teams so they can work to cover each other in the coming combat.

Orphanage Offensive

Melissa’s ex-SAS guards are assigned two per bus and one in the car with the local Army security detail leader. There are only two local Army soldiers on each bus as they’re armed with M16 combat rifles and only have kids to worry about. The lead security car is well ahead of the two buses which have a truck of troops in front of them and another behind the buses.

The car arrives at the orphanage to find the relieved Captain there with his platoon of troops already set out to provide security for the visit. The orphanage children are still in the building. The rest of the Captain’s company is out of sight while all are set and are ready for full combat.

The car stops and the Lieutenant with the replacement unit gets out while two more trucks of troops from his company pull up. This second platoon was told to meet them here to help take the whole orphanage hostage with the western children. Max, the security guard in the car, activates his concealed radio Melissa got for them and says, “So many troops as security for one orphanage, what’s the issue here.” The other security guards go on the alert and are very careful while they draw their concealed pistols. Max approaches the Captain, along with the two officers of the new unit - one for each platoon. They start arguing with the Captain in their own language. When he sees one of the new unit Sergeants start to direct troops to get ready for combat and climb out of the trucks Max triggers the radio and says into his lapel microphone, “Scorpion, scorpion,” while he places his left hand around the Glock in his left trouser pocket.

Max’s call is heard by all four of his other guards and Melissa. On the buses the four guards are quick to raise their pistols and shoot the Army guards on the buses. The drivers jump with the fire, but continue driving as the buses are still several minutes away from the orphanage. The guards know the drivers are loyal to the President because they’ve been driving them about since they arrived and they got to know them very well. The senior guard on each bus stands and says, “Company people with firearms training, prove.” Some hands go up on each bus, eight on the front bus and five on the back bus. The guards hand out Glocks and spare magazines from the boxes Melissa gave them to those who know how to use them, and have those people move to the front and the back of the buses. This leaves a few weapons left over, but it’s better to have extras than let unskilled people have them. Luckily for them three people on each bus know how to use rifles and hand guns, so the two best shots are given the M16 rifles and the spare magazines from the dead soldiers. The buses are soon ready to enter the combat zone with the unarmed children being briefed on how to drop to the floor when the shooting starts. The senior guard on each of the buses gives a simple status report on the radio of, “Bravo clear,” and “Charlie clear.”

At the compound Melissa jerks up at Max’s warning, but settles down when she hears the responses from the buses. She gives her people the nod the action has started elsewhere.

At the orphanage Max moves away from the officers while he readies to fire. Then the Sergeant yells something and several soldiers lift their rifles to shoot the Captain and the squad with him. On hearing the Sergeant’s order they hit the ground, and Max follows suit because it seems like a good idea. When the Lieutenants draw their pistols Max shoots them just before a solid wall of rifle fire comes from the orphanage windows to rip the troops at the trucks apart. In less than twenty seconds of fire the combat is over and all of the new soldiers are dead or dying. More troops rush out of the orphanage to throw the dead onto the trucks before moving the bullet riddled trucks out of sight while others pour dirt over the spilt blood and pick up the expended rounds.

The Captain approaches Max and says, “I know you were disarmed at the airport and I have no idea how you came by that, but I’ll not ask how. Thank you.” He turns and sets his troops to be ready for the trucks and buses due to arrive.

Max follows him while saying, “My men on the bus already have them under control and we’ve several armed people on each bus now. That’s sure to be a big surprise for the bad guys when they get here.”

The Captain stops and smiles at him, “That’s good to know, because our biggest worry was how we got the soldiers on the bus without hurting the children. The bad guys, as you call them, are the Leopard Regiment and the personal troops of General Marundi. He’s the senior chief of our country’s second largest tribe, and I think your boss is right in thinking he’s staging a rebellion today. I and my troops are from the Lion Regiment and we’re all members of the same tribe as the President. I wish we could get past the tribal loyalties and past blood feuds to move on, but it seems we can’t.” He turns to pass orders not to fire at the buses under any circumstances because they’ve armed friendlies on board, while Max passes a detailed situation report to his people.