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She entered the office and waited till the director was free and spent these few precious minutes breathing deeply composing herself for what she was about to do. Already preliminary reports had been sent to the central office indicating they wanted more detail. This put more pressure on her to get results. Now she was truly being put to the test. This was what spying was all about, getting answers.
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Title Page
Hurtful Pairing
Floods in the Spring
Jeremy McHarry
Hurtful Pairing / 2nd of series: Floods in the Spring / By Jeremy McHarry
Published 2023 by Bentockiz
e-book Imprint: Calkden Norsh
e-book Registration: Stockholm, Sweden
e-book ISBN: 9789198826562
e-book editing: Athens, Greece
Cover Images created via AI art generators
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Introduction
Through books we come into contact with everything important that has happened in the past, analyzing also current events and putting our thoughts together to predict the future. The book is a window to the world, acquiring valuable knowledge and sparking our vivid imagination. It is a means of entertainment and is generally seen as a best friend, or as a slave that carries together all valuable information for us. The book is a friend who stays together without demands, a friend you call upon at every moment and abandon when you want.
It accompanies us in the hours of boredom and loneliness, while at the same time it entertains us. In general, a book does not ask anything from us, while it waits patiently on a dusty shelf to give us its information, to get us out of dead ends and to travel us to magical worlds.
This may be the travel mission of our books. Abstract narration, weird or unconscious thoughts difficult to be understood, but always genuine and full of life experiences, these are stories of life that can’t be overlooked easily.
This may be the start of something amazing!
Chapter One
He entered the restaurant and noticed only four of the tables occupied, which heightened his suspicions that something had happened to scare the customers away. He continued to casually glance round until the waitress greeted him. She was a typical Javanese girl in her late teens and reminded Rere of his daughter. ‘Yes a nice quiet table for one’ then he slipped her a 500 Rupiah note into her hand. The effect was immediate and he received a beautifully smile in return. This was probably the largest tip she had ever received which meant she would personally look after him and hopefully talk.
She sat him at a small table in the corner and was about to give him a menu when he said, ‘You order for me and, I’ll have a Bintang beer.’ Rere watched her turn away and slip the note into her bra before disappearing into the kitchen. He knew she would have no choice but to keep such a large tip secret or be forced to give most of it to her boss. While he was waiting he watched the other dinners and saw they were all middle-aged couples and clearly not military types. He relaxed a little after he decided that there was no indication of undercover military men in the restaurant or outside in the street. After a few minutes the waitress returned with her broad smile, with a beer in hand and filled his glass without delay.
‘It’s very quiet tonight. My friend said this was a very busy restaurant and I would have difficulty getting a table,’ ventured Rere.
She smiled again ‘It’s been very quiet over the last two weeks’ then she turned and walked away clearly not wanting to talk about it.
Rere pulled out a 1000 Rupia note and waited for the girl to return with his meal. She returned with another huge smile on her face with a plate of Rendang with Nasi. She bent down to place the meal on the bamboo place mat so Rere discretely showed her the note. Her eyes widened with a smile instantly appearing on her face then she glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was looking, fortunately she decided no one was.
‘What happened two weeks ago to make your customers stay away?’
The girl suddenly paused, ‘you police?’ Rere shook his head.
‘If I tell! Big trouble from boss! He said we say nothing, being bad for customers’ whispered the girl.
Rere pulled out a 5000 Rupiah note and discretely showed her then palmed it away like a magician ‘If you tell me it’s yours.’
She once again she glanced over her shoulder and whispered, ‘not here. The boss is closing early tonight. Straight after the last customer leaves I’ll meet you around corner. You have a car?’ He nodded then she quickly walked off.
After he paid the bill he slipped her another 500 Rupiah as a further enticement before he left to wait in his car. An hour later he saw the staff leave the restaurant with a lone figure cautiously walking down the dark street. Rere flashed his penlight. The figure ran towards him when she reached the car she opened the door and quickly climbed in ‘Go! Quickly before anyone sees me.’
Rere started his car and did a U-turn and drove down the road for a hundred metres before he turned his lights on. ‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked.
‘Not far from here, you hungry?’ asked Rere.
She nodded. Twenty minutes later they pulled up beside a little restaurant in Matraman, which was owned by Rere’s cousin.
Foreign Affairs Office Canberra, January 1998.
Charles Blunt walked down the corridor towards the Minsters’ office and saw Brian Morris coming from the other end of the corridor. Both of them reached the door at the same time. ‘Charles I hope you have good news’ whispered Brian. The pressure of not knowing if his career was about to sink like the Titanic was finally beginning to show.
Charles just gave him a slight nod and followed the ministers’ hatchet man into the office.
The Minister for Feign Affairs looked up as the door opened, on seeing the Director General followed by Brian, he leaned back in his chair and waited for the door to close before he asked the question the only question mattered. ‘Well Charles do you finally have some news about Abdi Reza?’ as he gesture towards the seat.
Charles moved around the chair and sat before he answered with a smile ‘I have been informed that he was followed to the restaurant by BAKIN who were waiting for our agent to arrive. When that didn’t happen he tried to escape and was hit by a speeding car. He was killed. We have also confirmed that the Indonesians have no idea who he was working for and not from the lack of trying. Minster I can assure you this incident is closed. If you hear anything from the Indonesia’s it will be a fishing expedition.’
The Minister glanced at Brian who nodded back ‘Good! Now where are we up to in getting a replacement? The Prime Minster is concerned about the IMF negotiation and the possible flow on effects towards Australia. He wants to know what Suharto is thinking so I told him I would find out.’
‘Minister we’re working as quickly as we can. I have a technical team setting up a communications system for McKennzie. The rest of his team has been selected and will depart for Jakarta in a few days’ replied Charles.
Brian cut in again ‘That’s nice Charles but it doesn’t solve our problem. We need answers,’ with the Minister giving a supporting nod.
‘We have a target in the Finance Department. McKennzie has known him for some time and will begin cultivating him, but you must understand these things are delicate. Move too fast and we could not only lose our agent but this could all blow up in our faces, at which point we can all think about retirement.’
The Minister glanced again at Brian ‘we understand but we are time sensitive. What else do you have?’
‘McKennzie’s company has several agencies in the aerospace industry and is attempting to sell an inventory control software system to the Indonesian Air Force. He plans to take advantage of the situation and develop an agent in that area. If his plan works we will know the condition of every plane, weapon inventory, spare parts and training schedules. The lot’ declared Charles.
The Minister smiled. ‘The Minister for Defence has been complaining in cabinet about the Intel coming from the Indonesian Armed Forces, particularly after they bought those F-16’s from the Americans. This should shut him up. How long before you know?’
‘Few days’ said the Director General knowing Brian would be counting the minutes.
J.L.Kartikautama Pondokinah, Jakarta, January 1998.
Stuart came home early that day and hoped that the ASIS technical team had finished. It had been two weeks since he left Australia when one day when he was barely in the door three back packers arrived on his doorstep. The next thing he knew they were making his life a misery by building a false wall to create the secret communications room with the access coming from the built in wardrobe in his upstairs bedroom.
When they told him about their plan he complained bitterly as the idea of climbing through a small trapdoor and down the ladder into a room, 1½ metres wide didn’t appeal to him at all. The only compensation was the sound and electronic proofed walls with copper mess and insulation were more than satisfactory. Stuart knew from experience if the CIA, NSA or some other acronym caught a hint of his operation they would be targeting his computer and communication lines with the most advanced electronics known to man so he had to take precautions. On the other hand the Indonesians weren’t that good they would be doing simpler things like phone taps, tails and informers followed by interrogation rooms with very unpleasant people.
He walked upstairs and found one of the tech team on the lounge with another man who was enjoying his beer. ‘Well I hope you bastards haven’t drunk all the cold beer.’
They both laughed then the stranger stood and extending his hand. ‘My name’s Doug, if you’re lucky we may have missed one or two in the back of the fridge,’ he said with a grin. Stuart shook the tall skinny man’s hand as he greatly missed the Aussie humour.
‘I’ve installed your computer. Now for the next two days I’ll be teaching you the procedures,’ said Doug.
The other man stood after finished the last drop of beer and took Stuarts hand ‘I’ve got a train to catch’ picking up his backpack he walked down the stairs.
After hearing the front door close Doug said quietly ‘I was told to tell you your team left Broome this morning and Maryanne has a package for you. Now for the bad news the boss wants a report, ASAP.’
Stuart cursed under his breath. ‘You could have waited till I had a beer before you told me that bit of news. Come on I’ll show you to your room.’
‘Don’t bother I grabbed one this morning after the other two left so let’s get started’ urged Doug as he continued towards the trap door.
They climbed down into the secret room where Stuart saw his new computer on a shelf with a single office chair, which created a very claustrophobic squeeze for the two of them. The only mitigating factor being the tech team took advantage of an air conditioning duct and put some air into the narrow room. ‘They did a good job. The copper mesh does wonders at keeping out unwanted electronic signals. Let’s just hope no one puts it to the test.’
‘No arguments on that point. Now tell me about this encryption system, like how does it work?’ complained Stuart.
‘It’s simple. We have two keys, passwords in a sense, which are generated. One is your private key, kept nice and safe on your computer and not shared. The other is the public key given to each of your team. If someone wants to send something secret to you they encrypt it with the public key. The trick is that only the private key can decrypt it’ replied Doug.
‘That sounds great, but just how safe is it? If the cryptography is broken my team including myself are dead,’ complained Stuart.
Doug could see the concern on Stuart’s face. He was right lives depended on the strength of this cryptography. ‘The cryptography uses complex algorithms that has been tested extensively and attacked by our best experts. Now where were we? A text can only be deciphered by obtaining control of the private key or through brute force cryptanalysis.’
‘What’ demanded Stuart?
‘It means trying every possible combination of keys. So in this case, to brute force a 4096 bit private key is estimated by computer scientists and cryptologists that there is insufficient computing power on the planet for the foreseeable future to complete such an operation before the sun burns out. Does that make you feel a little better?’
Stuart smiled ‘A little! So the weak links are the team members or their keystrokes when typing, being seen or recorded electronically.’
‘That’s right.’ You use one encryption for your team and another for our friend down south. Hence this room and copper mesh now if there are no more questions let’s get started.’
Broome Airport Western Australia, January 1998.
Karen sat in the waiting area and stared aimlessly out the window then from time to time she nervously glanced at her watch, 9.27am. She turned to Andika and said ‘Should be here any minute.’
‘Navy guys are usually on time. Not as prompt as army but what can you expect’ said Peter with a smile.
‘I think I can see it’ said Andika while pointing towards the runway.
The dark speck in the sky grew larger and larger until they could clearly hear the sound of the engine. ‘Seahawk helicopters are good machines’ said Peter ‘I remember one time when....’
Karen cut him off ‘PETER, what have I told you! Think and act as an Indonesian so start thinking about that for all our sakes!’
Peter smiled ‘don’t worry! I’ll play my part.’
They grabbed their bags and walked to the gate and waited for a member of the flight crew to talk to them. The Petty Officer was a typical navy man that knew his job back to front. He ran them through the safety procedures and in a few minutes they were in the air crossing the Indian Ocean.
The flight was pleasant for the first twenty minutes then unexpectedly the helicopter jerked and jumped which made them all grateful for their seat belts. ‘Just got a message from the pilot we’re coming into some turbulence so it’s going to get a little bumpy. Better take these.’ He handed each of the team a paper bag.
Andika asked timidly ‘does it really get that rough in a helicopter?’
The Petty Officer smiled as the helicopter went through a few more bumps, which he could see made both the women grimace as their stomach contents stayed aloft.
