Icefall

by Hallowes, Guy

  There was a crew of doctors and nurses waiting as Tanya touched down on the nearby sports ground that served as a landing pad for the hospital. 'I can pick you up in the morning,' Tanya said to The Settlement doctor. 'I'm sure they'll need you here for the time being and I can't wait. They'll want this place for other emergencies.'

  'I'll call on the mobile when I know what's going on.'

  The following weekend David quizzed her about the escapade with Demetriou. She told him what she had told Chloe and in view of their relationship he asked no further questions. He was vaguely aware of an animal attraction between the pair, but now that Demetriou was out of the way perhaps any issues would disappear.

  Tanya asked about security and the amount of explosives purchased. On horseback, they went to the site of the planned fuel depot. 'Why did you buy so much? Clearly it has attracted the attention of ASIO. They probably think we're a bunch of terrorists.'

  'I didn't even consider ASIO. I got a good price and the bureaucratic rigmarole I had to go through to get the order accepted was such that I thought that I would buy all we might need for now and the future. If properly stored they don't deteriorate.'

  Securing the horses at the site, David proudly indicated a wooden door cut into the rock. He started fiddling with a large bunch of keys, but before he had found the right one the door swung open. David looked puzzled. 'Did you open that or was it already open?'

  'I opened it,' she waved a piece of wire at him.

  'Where did you learn that?'

  'My misspent youth. I learnt all sorts of useful things when I was a wild teenager.' She grinned at him.

  David shook his head. 'Well you won't have any trouble with the next one; it's the same type of lock.'

  Behind the wooden door was a very substantial steel cabinet. David was right, Tanya fiddled for a few seconds and the steel door swung open. 'Quarter-inch steel,' said Tanya admiringly. 'How'd you get this in here? It must weigh several tons.'

  'Your friend Charles, or Demetriou, helped. We couldn't have done it without him.'

  'He recommended the locks I suppose?

  David scratched his head. 'Yes, I think so.'

  'Well he certainly has free access to all these explosives. He taught me how to pick locks in the first place. This security is worthless now. When we get back to the village we'll need Joe to get us something better.'

  'Are you sure Charles is what you say he is? He seems a perfectly decent person to me and he is very competent.'

  'Oh, I'm sure he's competent; he's very smart and an expert in certain fields. We know about his ASIO connection. He has also been involved in drug dealing, prostitution rackets, and a couple of unproven murders,' said Tanya.

  David stood there with his mouth open. 'Murders, how do you know all this?'

  'My contact. Have you been able to get anything out of Fred about the Smiths?'

  'No, he has avoided all my questions.'

  'I'll bet he has.'

  'Why would ASIO employ a crook like that? Surely they have done their background checks. They would know what you know?' asked a puzzled David.

  'I suppose it suits them to maintain their leads into the underworld.'

  'Don't they think of our security? Making appointments like this could compromise us,' said David angrily.

  'ASIO thinks of The Settlement as a potential security threat thanks to the purchase of this very large quantity of explosives.'

  'Why don't they just come and ask, instead of this elaborate charade?'

  'Just put yourself in their shoes. They would hardly go blundering around asking daft questions with a potential Al-Qaeda threat, would they?'

  'But … ' David started to understand. 'I know I'm not a terrorist threat, I am white skinned, but I can now see some of the things we do, including the military training, could create suspicions.'

  'Brown skin, white skin has fuck-all to do with it,' said Tanya aggressively. She glared at him.

  'No, no, I suppose not,' he said quietly. He wished he hadn't said that. He guessed Tanya had suffered her fair share of discrimination because of her origins.

  David carefully checked the quantity of explosives, nothing seemed to be missing. With Joe's help he arranged a very elaborate electronic security system, supported by solar power, which would certainly foil the skills of the Cabramatta lock pickers. He, Joe, Mark, and Tanya were the only people who held the security codes.

  The following weekend, having dropped Mark, the children, and their nanny at The Settlement, Tanya flew to Canberra airport and refuelled. Standing with Jonathan she noticed an attractive lady officer, sporting Captain's pips.

  'Captain Virginia Andrews. You must be Tanya.'

  Tanya shook her hand and looked her in the eye, causing Virginia to blush slightly. Suddenly, it dawned on Tanya. This is the famous Captain Andrews. All the references Mark had made suddenly made sense. Tanya's mind raced. The bastard has been shagging her on his trips to Canberra. She immediately felt a whole lot less guilty about her tryst with Demetriou.

  Having no idea of the drama playing out between the two women, Jonathan said, 'I could have arranged for you to come to the military facility, but I think you have attracted too much attention already. I didn't want to exacerbate the situation.'

  'What do you mean?' asked Tanya sharply, as they walked towards the aircraft.

  'The purchase of explosives and ASIO's interest. Thankfully, there has been no mention of our cadet program. I have heard their agent met with an unfortunate accident and is now recuperating in a military facility here in Canberra.'

  Tanya glanced at Virginia, who appeared not to be listening. 'Must be more than an informal agent if they have moved him to Canberra. I suppose they have taken the opportunity to fully debrief him,' Tanya observed anxiously.

  'Yes, there are also some other issues. It seems that Mark's bank is somehow involved in money laundering.'

  Tanya looked at him disbelievingly. 'Does Demetriou know anything about money laundering?'

  'I believe so. He needed some outlet for all the money he handled from the drug trade.'

  'If he made a lot of money from the drug trade what the hell is he doing at The Settlement?' asked Tanya.

  'I don't know the answer to that.'

  That evening the Bower family had one of their now quite rare family dinners. No business was discussed, they simply enjoyed each other's company. Virginia had wisely accepted an invitation to a meal with a group from The Academy, but Tanya noticed Mark kept popping out for a few minutes at a time, she presumed to check on Virginia. To her relief, no one else had noticed anything amiss.

  'There will be a meeting at ten tomorrow morning for family and spouses,' announced David at the end of the meal.

  'I was going to go for a ride,' said Patricia.

  'Too bad,' said Tanya brusquely. 'All family members must attend.' Tanya was still sensitive about her apparent mishandling of the business with Harold, particularly that the rest of the family had only been involved after it was over. She was determined not to repeat the mistake. 'It's critical you are there, I will explain why tomorrow.'

  Patricia nodded. Although she trusted Tanya, she was sometimes irritated by her forthright manner.

  David opened the meeting. 'There have been some serious developments.'

  'Not more people leaving, having come to their senses,' said Chloe, more as a statement than a question. Everyone understood Chloe was still skeptical.

  'Not this time. It's more serious than that.'

  He now had everyone's full attention.

  He explained about the explosives. 'Not unreasonably they have put us in the potential terrorist category. There is an ASIO agent here, Charles Smith, a man with a criminal record as long as your arm. His real name is Demetriou Smith.'

  'Charles Smith?' asked Joe. 'Are you certain? Before his accident he was very helpful with a lot of technical stuff.'

  'We are quite certain,' said Tanya. 'I have explained my rather wil
d youth. He was part of the group I belonged to and the reason I left. We have tracked him via our sources and he has a long criminal history. How did he help you Joe? We think he is creating opportunities for sabotage and probably blackmail, linked to his ASIO role or privately. If he left ASIO, technically he could still stay here. He is self-funded, as far as we know.'

  Tanya looked around the well-known faces in the room; her family now. She wondered what they would think if they knew anything about her recent encounters with Demetriou, including the forest race and his accident. It didn't bear thinking about. She had always been so careful around them, suppressing her wild side. However she felt about the short, renewed affair with Demetriou, her only objective now was for The Settlement to be rid of him; anything else would spell disaster.

  With the rest of the family open-mouthed, David explained about the inadequate locking on the explosives store, now fixed.

  'How did you tumble to the locking devices scam?' asked Chloe.

  'In the dim, distant past Demetriou taught me how to pick locks,' said Tanya.

  Everyone silently thanked their lucky stars for Tanya. They could see themselves being blown sky high, never mind the Ice Shelf.

  'I have learned more from ASIO,' said Jonathan. 'The Government is concerned about the growing number of communes. They are aware of about forty.'

  'Forty?' said David in disbelief. 'Are they all worried about the Ice Shelf?'

  'No, none of them. Some are religious, others growing marijuana, or just wanting the Government to let them alone. They are all regarded, including us, as part of a lunatic fringe needing to be shut down. They all have or will have an ASIO plant among them.'

  They all looked at each other uneasily. None of them had ever fallen foul of the law except for the occasional parking ticket. To think they were regarded so negatively by the authorities was upsetting as they had always believed that laws and governments were there to protect them and their communities.

  Jonathan continued, 'There is another threat. They believe Mark, or more specifically his employers, are involved in extensive, large-scale money laundering. They are claiming this place has been constructed using illegal funds.'

  'Bollocks,' said Mark.

  'Maybe,' said Jonathan. 'But we need to put all our efforts into disproving it.' He hesitated. 'Perhaps Demetriou has been informed and is putting himself in a position to blackmail us if we manage to prove we are entirely legitimate. They didn't realize my connection to this place at first. Now they do, so we need to get after it otherwise we are in for big trouble.'

  'How many companies or anything else has your bank registered in its name?' Tanya asked Mark.

  'Five hundred or so I expect, why?'

  'Can you get me a list of those names, correctly spelt within the next few days?'

  Mark nodded.

  'Anything else?' asked David.

  'There have been a few, I thought, inconsequential issues, or pinpricks, from the authorities recently. I thought they were unrelated, but they may be part of a campaign to undermine our efforts here. I have only realised the potential relevance based on Jonathan's input,' said Tanya.

  'Could you be more specific?' asked Joe.

  'Questions regarding water rights, after the new dams were built. The original deeds are quite specific and the query was quite unnecessary. And somebody has been scratching around checking boundary markings. The person wasn't very thorough and didn't find that we have fenced in additional land. We have never had forestry department interest before. There have also been a few tax queries, which I thought were routine. I think it all fits.'

  'The police were here a week or two back,' added David. 'They wanted a list of residents. They mentioned harbouring known criminals, but wouldn't respond to further questions.'

  'We will handle the serious threat of the money laundering first,' said Tanya. 'Everyone please report anything untoward to me or David. We need to have a complete picture.'

  The meeting broke up in a very thoughtful mode.

  Tanya and Mark participated in Virginia's training exercises over the weekend. Jonathan had decided to stay on at The Settlement for the week, so Tanya took Virginia back to Canberra on her own. Both women were wary. Virginia broke the ice, mentioning the trumped up charge and the punishment Tanya had endured. They both laughed.

  'I do at least two sessions similar to that each week in Sydney,' explained Tanya. 'Now it is a matter of honour that they accept the punishment and deal with it.'

  They chatted about family and backgrounds. Tanya even found herself enjoying Virginia's company.

  On the way back to the mountains, Tanya thought about what David would say or do if he knew about her and Demetriou. She almost wept. Everything she had built up over the past fifteen years would be in jeopardy if any of that came to light. And why did I mention that shirt, still there where I left it? That will certainly come back and bite me on the arse. She shuddered at the thought.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Settlement, Continued

  2016

  Determined to make up for what she recognised as a relic of her juvenile infatuation with Demetriou Tanya now saw it was her duty to rescue the Settlement from the accusation of using illegal funds for development and then to get to the bottom of what Demetriou was actually planning.

  Tanya spent days searching through the names Mark had given her. She then asked him for the accounts and annual registration details of eight of the companies. They all had peculiar names, not easily noticeable, where the order of certain letters had been changed. Only one of the companies had undertaken any significant activity in the past five years.

  She called George with her theory that she suspected the names had been changed slightly so they could be used as vehicles for substantial money laundering activities. The "new" names were not registered anywhere and when the authorities started to look, all they could come up with was the names of the companies in the portfolio of Mark's employer.

  'It is a form of identity theft,' Tanya said. 'Demetriou must be involved and has specifically targeted us.'

  'You will have to leave all the details with me. Phone back in three days.'

  When Tanya told Mark, he was truly shocked. 'I will have to brief management.'

  'But they can't do anything yet. If they start to deregister some of these companies ASIO will see it as evidence we are trying to hide something.'

  George was all business. 'It is what you suspected. Someone has moved a few letters around in these names and used them to launder large sums of money. They have made it appear that the companies in question, belonging to the bank, are the so-called money launderers. I'm posting the information to you.'

  'Did you find any companies that I haven't mentioned?'

  'No, there are thousands of names. It would be impossible.'

  Tanya breathed a sigh of relief. She could now see a way out of this particular problem.

  'You never told me what you did with the information I gave you on Harold Monckton,' said George, interrupting Tanya's reverie.

  'He left and we haven't heard from him since.'

  'I need to know what you did with the information?' George persisted.

  She told him about her phone call with Nicholson and the eventual outcome as far as The Settlement was concerned. She did not tell him anything about her subterfuge regarding the newspapers. 'Do you know what happened to him after he left us?'

  'No, nothing, but I will follow up.' George was unusually reticent.

  'Is anything wrong?' asked Tanya.

  George hesitated, before answering, 'My brother died two days ago. I have to go to the funeral today.'

  'I am so, so sorry,' said Tanya. 'Is there anything I can do?'

  'Not really, we always knew he would die young, he was so crippled. There are others like him in that home though.'

  'I know, I will continue the donations.'

  'Thanks. I knew I would be able to rely on you.'

  Ta
nya waded through all the information that arrived the next day. Within a week she had all the evidence she needed. She called Jonathan. 'I've got to the bottom of the money laundering malarkey,' she told him. 'I need to confront ASIO. Can you make an appointment to see them?'

  Jonathan attended the meeting in Canberra with her, but remained silent. She went through all the facts twice, needing to repeat her story to two senior staff.

  'How did you come by this information?' she was asked.

  'I know it is accurate. I have no obligation and no intention of compromising any of my sources.'

  'It seems to be very thorough and, subject to our own checks, appears to be accurate,' the man conceded. 'Is there anything else?'

  'There are some procedural things you can help me with. Firstly, my husband's employer will want to deregister all these companies. They are waiting for clearance from me to avoid arousing suspicion. Can you e-mail me the names and the fact that deregistration will not result in any further action on your part?'

  The man nodded. 'And your other question?'

  Tanya smiled. 'Are there any companies we have missed that still arouse suspicion on your part?'

  'One,' a piece of paper was pushed across the table with a name on it.

  'What do you want me to do about this? I can do what I did for the other companies or I can leave it to you.'

  'You need to do it all, and then the matter will be closed.'

  Tanya silently retrieved the piece of paper. She was just about to leave, when the senior man asked, 'How well do you know Charles Smith?'

  Tanya hesitated for a few seconds before answering, 'I have only just become reacquainted with him since he moved to The Settlement. I knew him many years ago when his name was Demetriou.'

  'He says you were responsible for his horse riding accident.'

  Tanya laughed and did not rise to the bait. 'Sounds like his style. Anything else?'