The speech finally drew to a close; the atmosphere was stifling in the hall which had no air conditioning. Then he noticed that two men had appeared at the door at the top of the left hand row of seats, the same door through which the late arrival had entered. To Wallace it looked as if they were guarding it.
Wallace turned to catch the eye of Mr Roeg, the bearded patriarch who was the chairman for the day. It had been agreed that Wallace would tip him off when he felt he was running out of steam. Roeg was a realist and knew Wallace had been co-opted at short notice and that it was likely the drying up process could set in early.
In any case, Wallace had been going for over half an hour and that was as much as had been expected, with maybe three quarters of an hour the maximum. To earn $1,000 US might seem extortionate for that length of time, it was, but ASIO in the form of Bramble was either paying for it or subsidising it and for the wear and tear upon Wallace’s nerves he considered it was worth every cent. Roeg nodded, wriggled in his chair and then shuffled his papers to acknowledge that he had received the message and was ready for the winding up.
According to Major Lincoln, Roeg was a member of some government department and quite influential, a man who had a bee in his bonnet about a South Pacific Federation embracing Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and Singapore, together with a few other island states and federations in the general area. Wallace had some sympathy with the idea from an economic point of view, and probably from a security outlook when one considered the huge Asian countries to the north, but Roeg’s idea was that Indonesia should exert a dominant role in this grouping and Wallace wasn’t too sure about that.
The address finally came to an end, the applause echoed around the hall which indicated that some were still awake. Roeg stood up and proceeded to give the vote of thanks. The two men by the door were still there, one of them started to move around the top level of the seats, the man in the shirt had moved forward and down so that he was near to the front row.
Wallace began to consider that this could be his contact, he also felt adrenalin rise in his system as he realised that the other two men could have followed him to the hall and consequently Wallace himself was now at risk. Bramble said it would be nothing more than a short holiday! The way things were developing Wallace reckoned he could finish up in jail. True, the move of the man in the shirt to the front of the audience could be interpreted innocently, as the acoustics in the hall left much to be desired, but if his two shadows knew who he was and were on his tail, innocent looking moves or not mattered little.
‘Does anyone have any questions of Mr Wallace?’
There were a few, one related to Australian Rules, somebody else asked which side of the road Australians drove on. Wallace replied, saying he had often wondered that himself which drew forth a gust of laughter. Another questioner asked if Australia allowed Trades Unions to exist and nodded briefly when he replied in the affirmative, he refrained from adding a wry comment that came to mind that it was more a question of whether they allowed anyone else to exist!
Wallace was beginning to perspire freely, he felt that he had become involved in something that was becoming, no…had become…out of hand. If his contact was being followed by policemen or security police then he had led them onto Wallace which didn’t give much for Wallace’s chances if they locked onto him. He was gazing at Wallace intently and his eyes were plainly acting as a signal lamp. Mr Roeg asked again for questions and the man in the shirt stood up.
‘What is the political system of Australia? I understand that you have two Houses of Parliament. Can you explain this?’
Wallace looked at Roeg who spread out his hands and looked quizzical.
‘Why yes,’ Wallace began, and commenced to give a brief description of the duties of the two houses. His questioner interrupted and asked a further question, a long one that must have taken about three minutes. Others in the hall became restive, they didn’t want to appear rude and leave while the question and answer session was still in progress. Wallace began to cotton on to what the other was trying to do and was wondering how to impart the information to him that it was advisable for them to see each other afterwards but at this point Mr Roeg intervened.
‘We have exceeded our time, perhaps Mr Wallace can answer that one in full after the meeting is closed,’ he joined Wallace at the lectern and once again launched into a vote of thanks and they all clapped. Despite the undercurrent he felt a warm glow of satisfaction.
The man in the shirt advanced towards Wallace slowly, his two followers were still around but were at the rear of the seating area, up high. He extended his hand as he approached, gripped Wallace’s hand and pumped it up and down. He was about 5’8” tall, with dark hair, brown eyes and a day’s growth of beard. As Wallace was near to 6 feet tall he had to look slightly upwards at as they became closer.
‘Always a pleasure to meet an Australian,’ he said jovially and clapped Wallace on the back of his right elbow with his left hand, though his eyes belied his hearty manner as they went uneasily from side to side. It was as though he was trying to see behind him without actually turning his head. ‘Do all the states have an upper and lower house?’
His hand was still holding on, normally Wallace detested people who shook hands and held onto yours as though their life depended upon it. Then the irony occurred to him that in this man’s case it probably did. Wallace suddenly realised that there was something in his palm, the other man released his hand at last but turned his grip slightly before he did so that Wallace’s hand was underneath his. His middle finger dropped at right angles to the rest of the fingers on his right hand and pressed on whatever it was in Wallace’s palm to prevent it falling out onto the floor as their hands parted. Then Wallace’s hand closed upon it and his hand dropped to his side, supporting whatever it was with his thumb.
‘Why yes,’ Wallace replied. ‘I believe they do…oh…except for Queensland, I think they abolished theirs in 1922.’
‘Good, I’m glad to hear it,’ he said. ‘State premiers were John Cain, Jeff Kennett, Steve Bracks, Bjelke Petersen, Neville Wran, Bob Carr, I remember your Paul Keating and John Howard, Kim Beazley…Whitlam…!’ Clearly he was running out of conversational gambits while trying to continue the conversation, his eyes darted around, obviously trying to ascertain where his followers were. ‘Your cricketers, Don Bradman, Ian Botham, Harold Larwood, Wally Hammond, Lindsay Hassett…er…Garfield Sobers, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Dennis Lillee,’ he was obviously running out of politicians’names to continue his conversational ramble, though he was certainly confused about the nationalities of his cricketers. If his followers didn’t understand English, assuming they could hear any of the words he was uttering, it would just sound like ordinary conversation in a foreign language.
‘Bob Hawke…watch those bastards up there…Canberra! I’m going out past the lectern!’ he continued and his voice rose sharply. He half turned and pointed at the map of Java that was on the front of the lectern, probably for the benefit of the two watchers and he gave a short laugh presumably to try to mislead his followers. He broke away and headed for the first row of seats.
He commenced walking to the ground floor exit to the right of the podium, it was the door through which Wallace had entered from the rear of the auditorium with Mr Roeg and was not for general public use. This move was plainly not expected by his two pursuers, maybe they didn’t realise there was a door there as they had not made any attempt to cover it. He made for it and dived through it, as it closed behind him they began to run down the aisles between the seats. As they did so, all the lights went out.
There was the sound of shouting and heavy footsteps, then Wallace felt Roeg’s hand on his arm.
‘This way,’ he said.
Wallace could dimly make out shadowy shapes in the darkness