by Ian W Taylor
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SUNDAY MORNING- MATARANKA
Jake woke about 3.a.m feeling sore but a lot better after a deep sleep. The bullet wound in his calf muscle was deep but had been cleaned out and stitched up. There had been no damage to arteries and veins and according to the surgeon his leg would heal quickly. He still had several intravenous drips connected to his body but was assured that subject to a medical check, these would be removed in the morning. There was a huge bandage round his lower leg and bandages on a number of places on his head and body. He had to use the toilet and made his way on crutches to the bathroom pulling the mobile drip stand with him.
He was in the process of drying his hands when he heard the fire alarm go off. He shuffled out to the door of his room and poked his head into the corridor. The two police guards were still outside Koshi’s room looking down the hallway where there was a wisp of smoke coming from under the door of the elevator. An orderly rushed down the corridor stopping at each room yelling
“Fire, fire, everyone evacuate immediately via the stairs.”
Jake cried out to the policemen “Quick get the Prime Minister out of there.” One of the policemen rushed in to Koshi’s room while the other remained on guard at the doorway.
A shocked Koshi was in the process of getting out of bed, when the policeman hurriedly wrapped a dressing gown around him.
Jake could hear the siren of a fire brigade in the distance. The smoke was now starting to billow out from under the elevator door. He shuffled back into his own room, removed the I.V. drips and his gown and quickly threw on some clothes. He went out into the corridor and saw two firemen coming from the direction of the stairwell checking the patients who were being ushered towards the stairwell. He sensed something wasn’t right. They were both dressed in uniforms that looked too large for them and neither was wearing boots. With a jolt he realised that the faces were Chinese. He warned the guard standing outside and rushed into Koshi’s room yelling to the other police officer
“This is a trap to kill the Prime Minister. They are Chinese terrorists not firemen. They’re coming down the corridor looking for him. We must get him out of here.”
The policeman looked stunned and rushed to the door to join his colleague in the corridor. Jake pushed Koshi through the connecting door to his own room.
The police officers had their guns drawn but hesitated momentarily when they saw two uniformed firemen coming towards them. It was a fatal mistake as the Chinese pulled out their hand guns hidden under their coats and shot each of them in the chest. One of the officers tried to get up but was shot in the neck by the Chinese and crumpled to the floor.
Jake heard the shots and knew the Chinese would soon work out that Koshi had moved into the next room. He looked around and saw that their only means of escape was through the small window on the outer wall of his room. He wrenched it open and looked out. They were on the second floor and it was too far to jump to the ground. There was enough moonlight to show that there was a flat roof over the first floor about three metres below them surrounding an air conditioning unit. They had no choice but to jump for it. Jake went first and landed with a roll onto the roof, wincing as his injured leg hit the metal roof. He then waited for Koshi to squeeze through the window and jump. He hit heavily but Jake was able to cushion his fall to some extent by grabbing his shoulders and stopping him pitching head first into the roof.
Jake chanced a quick look upwards and saw one of the Chinese looking down at them through the window. He ducked when he heard a shot which narrowly missed Koshi and they scurried around the air conditioning unit out of sight. There was a maintenance room next to the unit with an outside door which fortunately was unlocked. They climbed down a ladder and found themselves in a storeroom on the ground floor. A passage led them to an emergency exit which came out onto the street. They limped across the road to the comparative safety of the Town Hall directly opposite the hospital. Smoke was billowing out of the hospital which was a scene of turmoil illuminated by the flashing lights of fire brigades and police cars. Firemen were hosing down the basement and ground floor of the building and were containing the fire. The fire had started underneath the elevator shaft where the terrorists had set fire to a huge pile of cardboard boxes. Patients were being herded out of the hospital by staff and escorted across the street and seated in the ballroom of the Town Hall.
The police had sealed off the area around the hospital and had set up roadblocks on the Stuart Highway both north and south of Mataranka. As soon as the firemen gave the all clear, the police started a room by room search at the hospital looking for the terrorists.
In the Town Hall, Jake and Koshi sought out a police officer and asked to be directed to John Fisher. After a few minutes Fisher and Williams strode into the Town Hall. Fisher was clearly relieved to find them unharmed and quizzed them about the attempt on their lives. They had yet to find the Chinese assassins. The two policemen who were shot were wearing bullet-proof vests but the one shot in the neck was in a serious condition and had been evacuated by helicopter to the hospital at Darwin.
