Читать книгу Choices - Jeff Edwards - Страница 12

Dan

As I made my way down the Hume Highway I mentally calculated when I would arrive in Canberra and decided that making my presence felt would have to wait till tomorrow. Even an organisation that operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and three hundred and sixty-five days a year does not ordinarily appreciate visitors who arrive outside of normal business hours. Even police headquarters locks its doors at night and allows access only to those with a special pass. I felt a moment of shame as I realised that mine would never allow me access ever again.

I thought about whom from amongst my old mates from the army I could call on to give me a bed for the night, but decided that visiting a friend would only bring that unfortunate person under suspicion from the officers behind me.

At Goulburn I stopped for a break, and to make sure that the Holden and its occupants were still with me. I need not have worried. The woman in jeans had given her partner a rest and was now doing the driving.

As I continued to drive south I made sure I was clearly visible to my followers and took the off-ramp to the Federal Highway and headed for Australia’s capital, Canberra.

At the outskirts of the capital I turned off the highway and randomly selected one of several caravan parks that lined the road. There I pulled in and booked an overnight van. With no luggage to drop off I simply drove around to locate the van site so that I would be able to find it again in the dark. Then I left again and continued on my way into the city proper, closely followed by my new friends in their Holden.

I led them to a hotel that I had often frequented in the suburb of Civic, and pulled into the car park. Once inside, I ordered myself a beer and took up a position beside a window from where I had a clear view of my car.

As expected my pair of followers soon appeared, and I was able to get a look at the male for the first time. He appeared to be the older of the two officers and the one in charge. I gathered this from the way he had of speaking down to his companion, apparently ordering her to maintain a watch while he made a cursory inspection of my utility.

I saw him lift a corner of the tarpaulin that covered the rear tray. Nothing in there but a wetsuit, towel, and surfboard, I commented to myself, unless it’s my LPG cylinder that you’re after. Maybe you think I’m a terrorist and that the gas tank is a bomb in disguise.

The officer closed the tarpaulin and was about to try to pick the lock to the front door when he was alerted by his partner that a pair of drinkers had left the hotel and were headed in their direction.

While they were busy watching for another chance to continue their search I took the opportunity to slip out of the hotel by the door to the main street, and set off to find myself somewhere to eat.

I selected a notorious fast-food restaurant a block from the hotel, not for its food but because it had large windows on all sides, allowing me to see who was approaching from some way off.

It didn’t take long for my watchers to realise that I was no longer in the bar. I saw them split up as they emerged from the hotel’s main door. The girl headed in my direction, and I saw the male disappear around a corner. As she reached the restaurant’s car park I slipped into the toilet, and waited there for five minutes.

She was gone again when I came out, presumably heading further up the street, so I returned to the hotel, ordered another beer and sat down to wait.

After much searching, and with the light now failing, I saw them return. The male spoke sharply to his companion and the scowl on his face told me he was not a happy man.

I decided to either make him a little happier or much angrier by finishing my drink and walking straight past them as I left the hotel. In doing so I tried to act as though I didn’t have a care in the world, but my knees were shaking wildly and I was glad to climb behind the wheel of my car.

I wasn’t sure what I should do next and elected to think about my next move while slowly driving around the city and renewing my knowledge of the capital. With no plan in mind I let my instincts take over, and after a few turns and roundabouts I found myself outside my former place of work in the suburb of Russell.

This was familiar territory for me with the offices of the defence department and the department of the army facing one another across Blamey Square, with both buildings being overshadowed by the towering memorial that stands in the park between them.

Reaching to the sky is a tall slender column topped by a large globe on which sits a stone eagle, its wings standing upright behind. This is the Australian‒American Memorial commemorating the co-operation between our two countries in past conflicts.

I parked my car and took the opportunity to walk slowly around the memorial while remembering the times I had passed here on my way to work. Craning my neck backward, I looked up at the eagle atop his column and recalled the jokes.

With its wings erect behind its body and seen from various angles around Canberra, the eagle looked more like Bugs Bunny with his ears erect than the fearsome eagle that it was supposed to be. In fact the entire area is sometimes referred to as Disneyland by those people who work here and the antics that sometimes went on behind closed doors in the surrounding offices made the name seem accurate.

I glanced over to find the Holden parked not far from my own car, and decided to give its occupants a guided tour of their nation’s capital. It was something that I had never bothered to do when I lived here even though my friends and I had often promised ourselves that one day we would.

From Russell I led them across Lake Burley Griffin to Capital Hill, passing around Parliament House several times so that they could see it all, then on through the streets of Yarralumla, passing the many embassies there, and then back to the shores of the lake, where we drove up and down streets that separated the many government departments, courts, libraries and museums. I then led them back the way we had come, past the war memorial and on up to the top of Mount Ainslie.

For the entire day my body had been operating at a manic level, pushed on by vast amounts of adrenalin and it was beginning to have an effect on me. I knew I had to slow down and rest. Tomorrow was going to be crucial, and I needed to have my wits about me.

No longer caring whether my watchers were behind me or not I drove back to the van park.

I considered turning my phone on to see if there were any messages, but decided against it. I’m not in any mood to talk to anyone, I said to myself as I flopped onto the bed.

Completely drained, both physically and mentally, I was soon asleep.