Chapter 02

Reactions

When the shooting starts both of the other farmers in the valley look out their front windows to see what it is, then they get their families into safe places with their houses between them and the shooting while they call the police to report the battle. Being a Friday summer night with a lot of the extra holiday traffic on the road the police are very busy with lots of other activities in the area, so they have trouble breaking an officer free to drive out to the valley.

Because the call is about many people shooting the responding police car has its lights and siren on, but it still takes nearly half an hour to get to the valley from the other side of the nearest town due to it being one of the most hard to get to locations in the district. Thus the fight is over and the living mercenaries are out of sight by the time the police arrive. What the officer sees on the road makes it clear he needs a lot of help, so he reports the details of what he can see, makes a quick check for anyone still alive, and he waits in his car on the edge of the battlefield.

Based on the two citizens’ reports and the description of the site from the first officer on the scene the police shift commander phones the Area Commander at home to report the incident, because it’s too major for him to deal with as a regular incident. The result is another series of phone calls for half of the forensic staff in the Police Command Area to attend the site to start documenting things and the other half is put on notice to attend in eight hours to relieve the first group. Also, a strong request for aid is sent to the nearby military base for soldiers to help with moving the weapons and the bodies.

It’s another hour before all of the help is on hand at the site with a set of portable generator powered area lights so they can see what they’re doing and they can start to process the scene. The police photographers photograph everything in the road while they take care not to disturb anything, then the soldiers take all of the weapons and ammunition off the dead and the road to place it all in a truck they have before the police forensic officers check the bodies. After fingerprints, DNA samples, and facial photographs are taken by the police the soldiers place the dead in body bags and load them onto another truck. The only pocket contents any of the dead have are cigarettes and cheap lighters, so they’re no help with identification. After enough of the bodies on the road are removed all of the vehicles are processed by the police. Since all of the dead wore lightweight gloves the police see no reason to bother with checking the buses for fingerprints, but they do check the car and van when they get to them. After each vehicle is checked by the police an Army truck takes it away to be kept at the military base for now, as it’s the only place in the local area where so many vehicles can be in one location and kept secure.

Once the road is clear the clearance teams move onto the farm to deal with all of the dead in the fields and on the farm entry road. When they do that some more soldiers get busy using metal detectors to check the road area for any shrapnel or bullets. Due to the large numbers of finds the police decide not to list and process them, so the soldiers simply dig them up and put them into boxes to be taken away as part of the site clean up. The same is done when they’re able to move into the fields.

When access to the other farms is possible a police officer goes to get a statement from each of the farmers, but they don’t bother with any from the rest of the family members as they know the farmers have little to tell them other than when the shooting started and finished.

There’s so much work to do by the police and soldiers the dawn is on them as they finish processing the last of the attackers and prepare to go check out the farm buildings. Due to the way the burnt out farmhouse looks they know no one is alive in it, while there’s nothing of note in the other farm buildings. During the night the police and soldiers on site have all been replaced with new workers, except for the Police Area Commander who feels he needs to stay until they finish with the site.

From the initial quick check of the farmhouse the police know the two adults are dead in the front room, but they now need to check it properly to locate the remains of the two children who live there. However, they’re puzzled when they’re unable to find any indication of the children being there, despite the neighbours confirming the children were seen at the farm at dusk. Once the initial photographs and checks are made soldiers are sent in to remove the large weapons and ammunition as well as to check for more explosives and ammunition. The specialists take time to check it all and clear out the little remaining ammunition they find.

When the soldiers are loading the remains of the weapons from the farmhouse onto the back of a truck one of them says, “How the hell did a local small-time farmer get hold of two mini-guns and a chain gun?”

The Warrant Officer supervising them says, “He wasn’t always a local farmer. Colonel Owen could get anything he wanted.” The soldiers are surprised to learn the dead farmer was an Army colonel.

The Police Commander asks, “Colonel! Warrant Officer, when?”

The Warrant Officer turns around as he says, “I first knew Evan Owen when he was a Lieutenant fresh out of the academy. Soon after our first action he was transferred to the Special Air Service Regiment and I lost contact. A couple of months ago I ran into him in Rivers and we talked over old times. About fourteen years ago he was medically retired due to accumulated wounds. He was a colonel when he retired. He must have been on a fast promotion track to make colonel so fast. From what he didn’t say I gather he’d been in a few special ops he couldn’t talk about. If he thought anyone might be after him he’d take action to protect his family. It sure looks like he was right and he took the right actions for their protection, maybe just not enough of them. But, then, who’d expect anyone to send a battalion of mercenaries at someone in rural Australia. They must have wanted him real bad to spend so much to get to him, Sir.”

“Thank you, Warrant Officer, that helps me to understand this event a bit better. Now to find the remains of the children.”

“They’re alive and well, but not here, Sir.”

“Why do you say that, Warrant Officer?”

He smiles as he says, “Colonel Owen was too smart to build a fortress without a back door, so where is it? I can’t see it. The kids must’ve used it to get away. I’m not sure when they left, but they weren’t here when it ended. The Colonel was fighting a rearguard action to cover their escape, that’s why his wife was here. I’d say she died first and he stayed to inflict as much damage as he could after that. He would’ve made sure the kids got safely away.”

“Hmm. I hope you’re right! I hate finding dead children.”

They all think their own thoughts about the situation while they get on with examining and cleaning up the site. By lunchtime they know the children aren’t in the farmhouse; but they can’t find another exit, despite being sure there is one. The Police Commander finds that reassuring as it also means the bad guys didn’t find it. However, he is puzzled about it because they can’t find it with all of their people searching for it.

While it’s clear there was a major fire in the building all of the thick walls and the floor are intact, which makes the police wonder about the fire itself and how it happened. The roof is destroyed and fallen in, but after removing all of the damaged steel roof panels they realise it won’t take much work to make the house liveable again.

The soldiers are still busy removing spent bullets and cases from the fields so the place is still a crime scene, thus an officer is left on site after the forensic staff finish with the farmhouse and leave.

When the Police Area Commander returns to the station he has to give the news media a briefing on what he knows about the event. Only then does he get to go to his office and check his emails. Then he learns more about the events on the farm that night, and he’s relieved to know the children are definitely alive and well. However, he still doesn’t know where they are nor how they left the farm.

In the USA

In a high security room within one of the USA government buildings in Washington, D.C. a group of people from many intelligence agencies are gathered mid-morning on the Sunday immediately after the attack on the Owen farm in Australia. The President’s Intelligence Advisor looks at the others present before he turns to the Director of the CIA to ask, “The attack in Australia, what did you think you were doing?”

“I didn’t think we were doing anything! What happened was not an approved operation. However, it has raised a lot of questions and issues. As much as I hate to ask for it, I’ll need help from the NSA, FBI, and others to sort it out.” They all look on in shock as this man is well known for refusing to let anyone else look into what the CIA does. “It’s still early in the investigation, but there are some major issues that need to be resolved. The biggest one is we’ve evidence of a rogue group within the CIA that includes people in many divisions at high levels. We lost an expensive surveillance van, several techs, a case officer, and the station chief; yet the only official records show them all being at the Embassy for the full weekend. The tech team leader kept printouts of all his work. That’s against orders, but it has helped us because in his office cupboard we found copies of the orders he was given for ’Operation Bunyip.’ Yet we have no Operation Bunyip, and never had one. Checks of our computer records show that, and a review of the file number showing on the print copies refers to some refurbishment work at the Embassy. The data is the same for each of the weekly back-up copies of the records. However, the Langley tech I had checking the records also checked a mid-week copy they made just prior to doing some major equipment upgrades. They did the copy so they wouldn’t lose anything if there was a problem. That copy shows an Operation Bunyip with that file number as the removal of an important contract assassin living in Australia. The copy has no record of who created or approved the operation or who created the records. One of the more obscure log files shows the computer entries were made by a person with Deputy Director level access and approved by another with the same level of access, but not who they were. That log simply records the access level checked for each data entry. To make matters worse is we now know the target was a retired colonel in the Australian SAS, but his official record shows he did several years on detached duty with the US Army, yet there is no US military file on him at all.”

Everyone else at the table has a shocked look on their face because this is a major concern. To do what they’re being told happened means a large group of very senior people were involved in the deception. That problem is bigger than the one created by the fiasco in Australia.

The Director of the FBI turns to his aide to quietly give him some orders which has the aide racing from the room. The rest of the group start discussing how they’ll deal with both of the problems. It’s a long talk, so they’re still at it when the aide returns with a folder to hand to his boss who immediately opens it, he looks at it, and he gives his aide more orders which has him leaving the room again.

When there’s a short break in the discussion the FBI Director says, “I think this is a lot bigger than we realise. For various reasons we often get tasked to investigate people for security clearances. My aide just checked our files for an investigation on this Evan Owen. While there is no record in the computers the check of the physical file cards turned up this file I have here. The only document in the file is a checklist of the tasks carried out to conduct the investigation and at the bottom is the notation of him being approved for clearances at the highest level asked for. However, what is odd is it’s the only document in the file. The request, the lists of people spoken to, the copies of the records checked, the final letter of the approval to the requesting organization are all missing. In short, the file was sterilized by someone at a high level. I’ve only seen one file like this before, and it was for a member of one of the special covert operations ’Ghost Groups’ directed at the highest levels of authority.” That causes a lot of concern for them all, due to what it implies about someone wanting to eliminate past special operatives.

A little later the aide returns and goes to speak to his boss, but is told to tell them all. The man shrugs and says, “No one currently in the records department knows what that group of two dozen files is about as they haven’t been active for over a decade. I spoke to the retired head of records who was there for decades prior to retiring five years ago. He told me the section of files I mentioned, all of which are like the one I brought the Director, are what they call ’Codename Files.’ The person was investigated, assigned a codename, and all of the records except that one document were moved to the new file with no other record kept.”

One of the older members of the meeting groans before saying, “Shit! A colonel in a codename group means he must have been a team leader. We haven’t needed such teams for a long time, but the few I know about were responsible for performing some military miracles. They made most of the Special Operations Forces look like raw recruits. No wonder they sent such a large force, and then he almost wiped them out. But who sent them, and why? What did they hope to achieve?”

The Presidential Advisor looks up as he says, “The why has to be he knows something about someone very important and they’re going to all lengths to see the information never surfaces again. But who is it that they have such tendrils into the CIA, and how did they know who to go after? I see this will need a lot of work by everyone to resolve.”

One of the other members looks up and grins as he says, “From what I saw about how the farm was built and defended I think Colonel Owen was a master tactician and strategist who planned well. So he likely left a little gift to be made public if he was murdered. If so, then he may well send us a message from the grave to limit the search a lot. The down side of that is he’ll be airing a lot of dirty linen when he does. However, it’ll have to be over a decade old since he’s been inactive that long.” All of the others groan at the problems they foresee such a revelation causing.

A little later the meeting breaks up and each goes on their way to find out what they can about the incident and its causes.

In another part of Washington a lawyer is contacting everyone he knows in the intelligence community to find out what he can about the attack at the farm so he can start suing people for the wrongful death of his now deceased friend who was a client, and his friend’s wife’s death. He learns a lot, but not everything. However, it is enough for him to start to prepare the papers to sue the US government agencies involved.

The lawyer eventually gets an ex gratia payment from the CIA of five million dollars he puts in a trust account for Llewellyn and Gwen Owen.

Legal Affairs

Will Dunn very rarely works on weekends and he tries hard to limit evening work. However, he often checks his work emails of an evening and a weekend. On the Saturday morning after the attack on the Owen farm Will checks his emails, and he finds one from Llewellyn Owen with a short summary of the events of the night before which includes a list of instructions confirming what he put in his note and some attached video clips with a request to pass them along to the police.

After viewing the video clips Will forwards them to the local Police Commander as he has his direct Police email address. Then Will goes to his office to collect the written instructions, so while he’s there he checks the security camera recording and copies it. He smiles when he sees the recording shows someone Llewellyn’s size with a child in a chest carrier but the person’s face is obscured by the flashes of the reflected lights from all of the gems on Llewellyn’s glasses. While in the office Will does the paperwork he needs to lodge with the Court on Monday morning so he can carry out Llewellyn’s instructions. He then spends the rest of the weekend relaxing with his family and doing chores at his home.

Will is at the Courthouse early Monday morning so he can lodge the various applications and forms as soon as they open the doors. While not the first in the door as someone else beat him there, he is the second and he hands over the papers for the various matters he needs to have dealt with by the Court. He does request an urgent hearing on the custody hearing for Llewellyn and Gwen. The Court Registrar adds the matter to the List for the Court today.

When Magistrate Murphy enters the Court the first matter on her list is the Owen Custody as an urgent item. Magistrate Murphy reads the few papers on the matter, looks at Will, and says, “Mister Dunn, I don’t see any response by the Child Welfare Department here. Why is that?”

“Your Honour, I’m acting on behalf of the children based on the wills of their parents, the last verbal instructions the parents gave the children, and the instruction of Llewellyn Owen given on Friday night. I’ve no idea of what the Child Welfare Department wishes to do on this matter, and if this application is approved they need not waste any time with it,” is his reply. He checks some papers and adds, “Also, Your Honour, I doubt the Child Welfare Department will be able to provide a placement acceptable to the children and in line with the wishes of their parents due to the ages as Llewellyn is almost twelve years of age and Gwen is almost two years old. All in the family wish them to stay together at the same location until Llewellyn is eighteen years of age and he’s able to take over his sister’s guardianship from then until she turns eighteen.”

Magistrate Murphy looks at Will before checking a few things in the many law books around her bench before saying, “I wish to hear what the Child Welfare Department has to say before making any orders. I’ll put this aside while the staff contact them to get an officer here. We’ll come back to this matter when the Child Welfare Department officer arrives. When they do arrive you may wish to speak with them first to reach an agreement to simplify the matter.” She puts the papers to the side while talking quietly to the Clerk of the Court. Will picks up his papers and leaves the Court at the same time the clerk goes to have the Child Welfare Department notified of the matter before the Court.

About an hour later one of the Child Welfare Department officers arrives at the Courthouse to handle the matter, and she talks to Will about Gwen and Llewellyn. Will shows her the instructions he has and she says, “We have no facilities or families we can place the two together so they’ll have to be split up. There’ll be no problem with a placement for the girl and we should be able to find a place for the boy somewhere. I’ll also get our preferred public trustee down here so you can hand over the parents’ assets for them to manage.”

Will isn’t happy with her manner or the quick way she disregards the wishes of the parents and children, so he simply says, “I guess we’ll have to see what the Magistrate has to say on the matter.” The woman glares at him before she turns away to call the public trustee they use.

A few minutes later both are back in Court and the Clerk of the Court tells Magistrate Murphy both parties are in Court, so Magistrate Murphy brings the custody matter back to the bench. It’s soon clear there is a need for a proper hearing that needs to be heard today.

Magistrate Murphy looks at both parties for a moment before saying to the clerk, “Please check how busy Magistrate White is today. See if he has time to hear this matter today.” The clerk leaves to check on the other magistrate sitting today. She soon returns and talks to Murphy who looks up and says, “Magistrate White has time to hear this case today, so this matter is being passed over to him in Court Three,” as she hands the papers to the clerk. All involved with the case move to the other Court.

About fifteen minutes later Magistrate White has the Custody papers and is reading them. He looks up and asks for both parties to state their positions, which they do. He then summarises them by saying, “Mister Dunn, you are asking for custody of the children simply because this is what the parents have in their wills and what the boy Llewellyn has said. The Child Welfare Department claim a legal obligation for custody under the laws of this state. I am prepared to listen to a renewed application by you after you are assessed by the departmental staff. In the meantime the children will have to be cared for by the department. They also ask for control of the parents’ assets via a public trustee, so you’ll have to make arrangements to transfer them over.”

Will slowly shakes his head before asking, “Will Your Honour issue an order that the children be kept together in the same household?”

“No. That is an administrative issue for the department,” is the reply.

“Then, Your Honour, I advise I will be appealing this and also raising it with the Family Court of Australia as well as the NSW Appeals Court. As the executor of the wills of both Evan and Mary Owen I wish to know why the Department and the Court feel the need to have a public trustee manage the small amount of their personal bank accounts which have a combined value of three thousand and two hundred dollars.”

The public trustee stands as he says, “It’s my understanding the two parents owned and operated a farm worth a few million dollars as well as their life insurances.”

Will shakes his head no while saying, “They operated the farm which is owned by a private company neither Evan or Mary had ownership in, and the company is the main beneficiary of their insurance policies as they were the main employees of the company. The policies do have an amount of ten thousand dollars for each adult for each child with terms for the insurance company to hold it in trust until the children turn eighteen. So the money isn’t able to be transferred to anyone until then.”

Magistrate White writes on the papers then says, “Since the value of the parents’ assets doesn’t warrant the management by a public trustee they’ll be left in the hands of the executor to manage as a small trust for both children. The executor will be allowed to provide the children with a small allowance each as he judges fit, and he may not levy any charges on it beyond the standard executor charges set by the state laws.”

The welfare lady has a very smug look when she turns to Will and asks, “Where are the children so I can collect them now?”

Will has a huge grin when he replies with, “I’ve no idea. I haven’t been in physical contact with either child for over a month. I have video evidence they were at the farm when it was under attack on Friday night because there is a shot of Llewellyn carrying Gwen when he took some knives from his father’s boots, plus I’ve video evidence of him being at my offices about an hour later when he slipped a note under the door, and I’ve an email from him that was sent four hours later which appears to have been sent from a public access Wi-Fi network in Bendigo, Victoria. So it appears Llewellyn has a way of moving about very quickly, and I’ve no way to contact him as I have no cell phone number for him. How you find him and get hold of him is up to you. Meanwhile, I’ll be carrying out his instructions to the best of my ability. Also, you have to serve him with the Court Orders before you can force him to comply, and since it seems he may be in Victoria, if he hasn’t moved on, you need to get their courts to help you as well. His email did say he was going into hiding until he has valid Court Orders stating they’ll stay together, Court Orders that the Department is unable to break.”

Neither the Child Welfare Department officer or her friendly public trustee are happy with the situation as it stands. However, it seems to Will the Magistrate is having a hard time not laughing at how Llewellyn is working to see he gets what he wants, despite the bureaucrats.

Chasing Ghosts

The attack on the farm is national and international news over the weekend, and due to that the custody case on Monday is also big news. Thus Llewellyn knows of the court case result via the news on Tuesday when he reads the on-line newspapers for Rivers. He decides to add a bit of confusion factor to the search for him.

Llewellyn sets up one of the family tents in the corner of the bedroom then he sets out sleeping bags and other things inside of the tent to make it look as if they’re camping out. He places some objects behind the tent and he shines lights on them to make it look like the shadows of trees. The last touch is to set the notebook computer up facing a digital camera with it open to the news of the day on one of the Adelaide newspapers. With Gwen sitting in his lap both of them and the notebook are facing the camera when he hits the remote button to take a photograph. Llewellyn has a big grin when he sends Will an email thanking him for his efforts so far and reiterating his earlier instructions. He attaches the photograph and sets the email to show as being sent from a public Wi-Fi service in Wakefield, South Australia. Llewellyn is sure the authorities are checking the emails from him, so he hopes to confuse them as to his exact location.

When the email arrives Will immediately shows it to the police officer waiting in his office in case Llewellyn contacts Will. The police make a copy of the photograph while noting where the email originated. The officer asks Will, “Does the boy know much about camping?”

“Yes, he knows a lot about camping as well as a lot of bush craft. The family often went camping for weekend holidays,” is his reply while he thinks, Surely Llewellyn knows the police will be checking my emails. So why did he send the photograph. It’s only when the police start talking about having to check camping grounds and public park lands does Will think, I bet he’s doing this to mislead them about his circumstances and where he is. If so, how is he doing it?

Will goes to have his lunch in one of the nearby eateries he frequents while the police officer calls the information through to the welfare people and they start action to expand the search for the children.

While Will is eating the owner walks over and asks, “How goes things on the Owen front, Will?”

Looking up at the man Will replies, “Red, I’m sure you know what’s in the papers this morning,” and he gets a nod in reply. “Well, late yesterday I lodged the appeal and the request for a Family Court hearing on the matter. Just before lunch I got an email from Llewellyn sent from Wakefield in South Australia. It has a photograph of him, Gwen, and today’s Adelaide newspaper showing on his computer as evidence it’s new with them sitting in his tent in a campsite.”

Red laughs as he says, “I served with Evan and I helped him train his boy in evasion techniques. While I’ve no idea on how he did it there’s a few things I can tell you about his situation based on the photograph. He’s holed up somewhere he feels is real safe, and he’s not moving around. He’s not living in a tent, and he’s not at any campsite. I’d bet he’s set up in town somewhere waiting for things to come out how he wants them, and he has an escape route set up if they do manage to locate him.”

Will looks at Red with very wide eyes before he smiles while saying, “Damn! I’m sure you’re right. Where do you think the next email will be from?”

“It’s way too easy to close off and check traffic into and through the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Since he’s trying to make it look like he’s travelling in a vehicle of some sort he’ll probably set it up to look like he’s headed to Queensland via Birdsville or Broken Hill, but it will depend on the timing to the next email. In the next few weeks he’ll set up to show as if he’s in Queensland, Canberra, and New South Wales.” The two men laugh and talk a bit more while Will eats his lunch.

When Will returns to his office he learns there’s a nationwide alert out for Llewellyn and Gwen with a notation they’re likely in a car or van and may be camping in public parks and campsites. The alert includes notes about them having gone from Rivers to Bendigo to Wakefield and may be headed to Western Australia. There is no longer any effort to look for the two children in Rivers or the surrounding areas. Another aspect of the search that makes Will laugh is when they look for any photographs of Llewellyn as his face can’t be seen in the photograph he sent.