4 comments/ 10022 views/ 3 favorites The Queen of the Night By: Cromagnonman She was a good kid. She could have had everything but she wasn't satisfied with everything, she wanted more. I would have given her everything, I loved her that much. Stephanie stopped being a good kid at around the same time that she stopped being a kid, at around the same time that she lost the kid's innocence that I had fallen in love with and became a woman and realised that she had a control over men that would give her more, much more, than I could give her. I have known her parents all of my life and we had sort of grown up together and it was our parents' wish that we should marry when we were old enough. For a while it looked as if that wish would be granted. I sprung a surprise on everyone at my twenty-first birthday by, during my speech I asked her to come and stand by me. Taking a ring box from my pocket I, with great ceremony produced the ring and asked her to marry me. She accepted and that should have been the beginning of the happiest time, but alas it wasn't to be. Don't get me wrong, for a time there life was very good, we both had good jobs and we spent every minute, apart from when we were at work, with each other. From the outside looking in we were, to all intents and purposes, the perfect engaged couple, but, as they say, looks can be deceiving. At first I suspected nothing, but she began to work late on a more frequent basis, cancelling dates at the last minute and being reluctant to commit to dinner engagements until the last minute. That I wasn't immediately suspicious was largely due to my trusting her and not believing that she would betray me, but I eventually began to suspect her of infidelity. I pushed my trust aside long enough to wait outside her work after hours to see if she was working late. She emerged from the building with a man I knew to be her boss and she was obviously on very good terms with him because she was laughing and smiling at him and they had their arms around each other. They hailed a cab and disappeared from view taking my life with them. I deferred my part-tine Engineering studies and resigned my job. I had been accepted on graduating high school into Officer Training at the Defence Force Academy Duntroon so I contacted them and arranged to begin Officer Training at the next intake which was in three months. In the mean time I sold my Mercedes and bought a real 4 wheel drive and headed bush. It was the right time of the year, October, the end of the dry and before the wet set in big time, to tour the Top End which was as far from Sydney as I could get, so I headed North up the coast and headed West through Kakadu and into the Kimberly. I explored the country with its gorges that had not yet begun to hear the roar of the wet season floods, the parched landscape providing little shelter from the searing sun but I pressed on, through the Bungle Bungles with their layered stone beehive formations towering out of the flat scrublands until I hit the Kimberly coast. Here my journey paused while I experienced the wonders of the tidal races where ten metre tides had to squeeze through narrow gaps in the coastal cliffs forming a horizontal waterfall. One tour company with high powered boats would actually take pleasure seekers through these rapids, it was one hell of a ride. Soon the dark monsoonal clouds began forming in the North so I headed down the coast, pausing to feed the dolphins at Monkey Mia before heading to the Margaret River wine country to try their excellent reds. A week of wine tasting passed quickly and I was on the road again, across the Nullarbor Plains with their hundreds of Kilometres of flat desert countryside skirting the coastline with its hundred metre high limestone cliffs from the top of which I witnessed the migration of the Southern Right whales that moved into the shallow waters to calf and mate. The whale population has increased dramatically since whaling was stopped many years ago so most side trips resulted in sightings. I avoided Adelaide, travelling instead through the Barossa Valley onto the Sturt Highway through the Riverland with its kilometre on kilometre of irrigated farmland until I reached the start of the Hay Plains, several hundred kilometres of flat, featureless countryside, mostly salt bush with the occasional area of crops before joining the Hume Highway that took me north to Yass where I turned east to Canberra and my destiny. I checked into my accommodation and took my mobile phone out of my bag and put it on the charger. I wasn't looking forward to checking my inbox because I knew pretty much what was waiting for me. I scrolled through deleting everything from Stephanie and replied to one from my parents telling them not to worry about me and that I was okay. I decided not to tell them where I was and what I was doing because they would probably pass the information on to the bitch, and I wasn't ready to face her just now and probably never. I graduated as an officer in the Australian Army and it was assumed that I, with my engineering background, would go into the Engineers but I had other ideas and had been working up to this decision, I wanted to join the SAS, I wanted to be in the thick of action and, if I stopped to think about it, I wanted to increase my chances of being killed in action. One thing, one of many things, that I learned during the three years of intensive, brutal, physically and mentally demanding training was the SAS was about avoiding getting killed by being the best there is. We were taught to second guess the enemy in any situation, and with the emphasis in the current World political climate, that would have to be Afghanistan. It was a case of travel light, travel fast, hit hard and get away. It was hard up there with the heat and the dust, not knowing where the enemy was most of the time and trying to think like him. The Taliban had a completely different mind-set when it came to fighting than we did, he wasn't above using civilians as a shield for his operations and if our intelligence proved to be wrong and we hit civilian targets it appeared as if by magic on the Web, as a result we tended not to use third party intelligence, choosing to rely on our own. We, for once, found ourselves having to mount an operation based on third party intelligence and we were discussing the best plan of attack. We had been advised that a Taliban group was based in a small village about fifty kilometres away, but something about this information set the alarm bells ringing loudly. We had satellite images of the village and there was evidence of some sort of military activity but that wasn't what we were worried about. To get to the village we would have to travel down a valley and about five kilometres before the village the terrain was perfect for an ambush, it passed through a narrow ravine with plenty of rocky cover on either side. We had been ordered to mount the raid for the next day. Again the alarm bells, why had we been asked to wait. A decision was made to do what we do best. A patrol would be sent out in the morning but it would stop well short of the ravine, out of rocket range, and wait. Another patrol would set out at dusk this evening, conditions were in our favour, no moon, and using night vision glasses we would travel half the way in APCs and the rest of the way on foot arriving in the early hours of the morning in time to set up in the high ground looking down from either side into the ravine. As the sun rose we could make out about a dozen men leave the village and set up either side of the ravine with their rocket launchers. Another group went along the road setting up IED's, (improvised explosive devices) they really meant business, we would be lucky to survive. As soon as they saw the dust cloud from our decoy patrol approaching several men ushered a group of kids and a herd of goats down the road toward the ravine. Their plan was to block the road with the goats forcing our patrol to stop in the ravine in a position that left them vulnerable to attack. Any effort to turn and run would be stopped by the IED's. The patrol stopped at the same time as the goats entered the ravine and this caused the enemy some concern, they couldn't understand why the patrol had stopped, bends in the road meant that the patrol couldn't see into the ravine and there hadn't been any radio warning. Curiosity got the better of them after half an hour by which time we had a fix on them. Our radio scanner picked up a message from the waiting group to someone. We expected to see someone come out of one of the houses but instead a man emerged from the entrance of a cave some fifteen hundred metres from where were dug in and about five hundred metres the other side of the village. A fix was made on the entrance to the cave and when the order was given three rockets were launched simultaneously. Two struck the men on either side of the ravine while the third followed the man as he ran back into the cave. The result was total devastation, particularly the rocket that hit the cave. It must have been the main munitions stockpile for this group because the explosion was much greater than we would have expected from the rocket. There was a smaller explosion near the entrance to the cave that caused a rock-fall that blocked the entrance. This was followed by a much larger explosion that caused the whole hillside to erupt in a cloud of smoke, rock and dust. As soon as the dust settled the patrol on the road moved in led by the mine clearance boys and they were soon in the village surrounded by kids and older people. We followed them in and our interpreter began to gather information from the residents. We had managed to complete our mission without the loss of one civilian life. It transpired that they had been forced to comply with the orders given by the Taliban leader who had also set up a camera team that hoped to get vision of our forces firing on the villagers as well as the fighters. They had been holding the village women in one of the houses but the guards had run as soon as we had attacked and the women escaped. One disturbing piece of information that we managed to glean from the people was that, the day before, a helicopter had landed near the cave and a westerner had got out and spent about an hour inside before flying away. What did this mean? Was there someone, one of our own, working against us. It didn't take long to find out who the real enemy had been in that operation. Someone had leaked information to someone else that we were preparing to move on poppy fields, and that someone else didn't want a reduction in production because there was good money to be had from high grade heroin in the US. When there is money involved, in this case shit loads of money, lives no longer matter, not even friendly lives. I was at the debriefing copping it from the brass; "Captain Forrester, why had you disobeyed direct orders? "With all due respect sir," I looked directly into the eyes of this jumped up seppo (Seppo is Aussie slang for American; seppo, septic tank, Yank, you get the drift) officer who had ordered the operation, "We felt that there was something wrong with the Intel, so we had a second look at it. The op had ambush written all over it so we used a tactic that started in the jungles of PNG in World War 2 and worked for us in Vietnam, and that was to outflank the enemy, and that meant to not do what the enemy expected us to do, and in this case that meant disobeying your orders. The result was a successful op with no collateral damage and no loss of life on our part. In military terms sir, (there was a sarcastic emphasis on the 'sir') a very successful operation all round." The attention of the review team was now deflected to the officer who had ordered the op and I left the room while he was trying to explain how it was that the Taliban had foreknowledge of our planned attack and were ready for us, and how it was that he was prepared to sacrifice troops belonging to an allied force. There were two further results of this outburst. I received a medal for my efforts and a posting to a training position back in Oz. I thought that the whole unit should have been rewarded for what was a perfect team operation, and I definitely wasn't happy about my redeployment. My feelings were that heavy influence had been brought to bear on our command to get me out of the country to minimise the risk of this ever seeing the light of day. My flight back to Sydney was uneventful, I was flown to Hong Kong and then on to Sydney and, out of uniform I blended in, almost, with the other economy class passengers. Obviously no expense was being spared on me. I called in to see my parents who were both surprised and pleased to see me but, because of the nature of my career, I was unable to tell them much about what I had been doing over the past four years since I had graduated from Duntroon, they had assumed that I was in an Engineering Battalion that was overseas doing some humanitarian work. I did nothing to dissuade them from that notion. Mother asked about my personal life and I told her that I had none, no wife, no kids, no girlfriend, just me and the Army. "Whatever happened between you and Stephanie, one minute you were just about married and the next you were gone. You never mentioned her whenever we met you, it's almost as if she doesn't exist." "That's right, as far as I'm concerned she doesn't exist, let's leave it at that shall we." On my second day back I was walking down George Street looking for a menswear shop that I used to get my clothes from only to find it wasn't there any more when I bumped into a fellow Duntroon graduate. "Forrester, what the fuck are you doing here? The last I heard you were in Afghanistan." "Hi Pete, good to see you. Yeah well, I guess I was surplus to requirements and got sent home." "You still with SAS?" "No, I've been transferred to a training posting. I have a couple of weeks leave before I take up my new posting." "Ouch! You were so keen to join the SAS I would have thought you'd be with them for the duration." "So did I, believe me, so did I." "What are you doing tonight?" "Nothing planned, why?" "Do you remember Julie Simpson, that gorgeous blonde at Duntroon, well I'm meeting her tonight, it's beginning to get serious between us, anyway she's got this really smashing looking cousin, why don't I give her a ring and see if she can convince cuz to come and meet a real life war hero?" "I don't know, I only got in yesterday and I'm still a bit jetlagged." "Bullshit, you've been trained to be always ready for action, maybe tonight you'll see some." "Okay, but don't get angry if I fall asleep at some time during the evening. What does the cousin do? Is she married and looking for action on the side, because if she is I don't want any of it." "I don't quite know, all that I do know is that she's often in the society pages and goes to all the A list functions, so she must be someone important, or know someone important. Where are you staying?" "The Hyatt. The Army flew me home cattle class but put me up in 5 star accommodation, I haven't worked that one out yet." "Great, I'll pick you up at seven, put on your best gear we're going up-market tonight." Seven o'clock and my phone rang. "Good evening sir, it's David from reception, there is a Captain Tolhurst waiting for you." "I'll be right down, thank you." I looked at myself and considered that I passed inspection and left. Pete was standing in the foyer with Julie who looked better than I remembered. I breathed a sigh of relief, at least I was appropriately attired. I gave Julie a hug and she kissed me on the cheek. "We're picking Steph up on the way, she lives a Rushcutters Bay." The name Steph set alarm bells ringing until I rationalised that there must be at least half a million Stephs in this world and the chances of it being one in particular were extremely remote. I was just about to say something stupid. I had got out of the car and was holding the door for when I recognised her walk and as she got nearer I recognised the face. I would have said something stupid then but she put her finger to my lips and then kissed me. "Hi Jimmy," her voice was soft and low and very sensual, "don't say anything, please. I'm told that you are vey good at winging it, so let's not spoil the evening, I mean to enjoy myself and hope that you will to. I'll explain it all later." "What are you two whispering about back there? Don't tell me that you know each other." Pete looked at Julie who just smiled at him. "All right I won't tell you." I slid in beside her and she leaned against me in exactly the same way that she did so long ago, the same way that would have me with a raging hard-on in minutes. This moment was no exception and she was aware of it. "Still the same randy bastard I see." Her hand was there, over him, caressing him, what was I to do? Play it cool, I told myself, don't spoil it, I told myself, then I told myself to shut up. I leaned toward her and kissed very softly on those luscious lips of hers. "Please, you don't realise what you're doing to me, it's been a long while." I whispered, removing her hand. She put it back. "How long has it been?" "When was the last time that we made love?" I saw her eyes open wide at that, she was trying to work out if I was angry or not. She didn't answer me. "That was the last time for me and if you don't take your hand of it he'll spoil the evening for me. There's at least four years of frustration down there waiting to explode." "Jimmy, I'm sorry for what happened back then. I don't know why you left, you just disappeared and I couldn't find you. Could we please forget about it for the time being and enjoy this evening and I promise we'll discuss everything later, okay?" "Okay. Sorry if I was acting weird but I was caught on the hop and didn't know how to react." "I thought that you SAS heroes were trained to react to the unexpected." "War zone unexpected is a far cry from this unexpected and there's no training that can prepare you for that. You obviously came prepared for this meeting." "Yes. When Julie asked if I wanted to make up a foursome I was going to say 'no', but when she told me who my blind date would be I had to say 'yes'. I wanted to see you again so very much, to see what you were like, to see if you were still the wonderful man that I was in love with or whether the SAS had taken that away. I'm glad that I came." What was this? She wanted to see me? What possible explanation could she have had for her behaviour back then? I was tossing up whether to call the whole thing off and go back to my lonely hotel or play along and hope that there was some sense in this charade. We arrived at the restaurant on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, known for its fine dining and, if you happen to be a well known, reasonable prices. I didn't think that Pete or Julie would have racked up frequent diner points, I didn't know about Steph, if she wasn't then this would be an expensive night. It became obvious by the way the staff treated us as we entered that Steph was a client in very good standing, they couldn't have been more obsequious if they tried. We were seated at the best table and the Maitre D hovered to make sure that we were comfortable and that the waiters were in no doubt that they had to be on top of their game tonight. A bottle of excellent Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc was produced to assist us in our meal selection, the menu was as spectacular and I had problems choosing. "Jimmy," Steph took my menu from me, "I know you like steak so you must try the fillet, please, allow me to order for you." Pete was looking at me with a strange expression on his face. "Very well, I'm leaving it up to you." It wasn't the challenge that Pete was expecting, it was me giving in to her. The Queen of the Night Ch. 02 I finished the first part of this story where I did because that was where I wanted it all to end, but feedback from readers and reality told me that it simply couldn't end there. There had to be permanent closure. There are several incidents mention in this part of the story that are of historic importance. These are not figments of my imagination, they are based on Commissions of Enquiry held at, or soon after the events took place, and are on public record. * Life for us was pretty simple, there was no TV, not because we couldn't get reception, we just didn't want it. We didn't even have a radio so the only news from the outside world was to be had once a week when my mate Ted dropped off our supplies. When I stayed here before I'd installed solar panels on the roof to provide lighting and power for the few appliances we had and to power the pump that pressurised our water system. A solar hot water heater combined with the stove to provide plenty of free hot water. Life for us revolved around relaxation away from the pressures of the city. We slept a lot, we walked a lot through the rain forest, the only downside to this activity being the leaches and the paralysis ticks which, if you don't get them out whole early on can make you very sick. And then there was the loving. We had well and truly moved on from the first couple of frantic sessions to pure enjoyment, to sex in its most loving form. It was slow, it was thoughtful and it was spontaneous, it just happened, often. We had drifted in this life for three months and were sitting at the kitchen table reading the latest newspapers when Steph sat upright. "No, it can't be true." She was reading the entertainment pages. "What can't be?" "You know Ronnie Bowden?" "The rock star?" "That's the one. Well he's one of my regular clients, and it seems that his wife is divorcing him, and get this, she's claiming that he had been having an affair with me whenever he was in Australia. It's not true of course." "I don't pay much attention to the gossip columns, they're all a load of rubbish." I trusted her implicitly. "I'm glad because this has got to be a media beat-up, after all I know that he wouldn't cheat on her, he loves her too much for that, plus the fact that it would cost him a fortune if she divorced him and he's nothing if not tight with his money." As far as I was concerned that was the end of the story but unfortunately it wasn't to be. The following week we read that yet another of her clients was being sued for divorce, also on the basis of an alleged affair with her. "This can't be happening." She was really concerned now. "Why would these women be doing this, I know that their husbands don't cheat on them, certainly not with me, so why this all of a sudden, and who's going to be next?" We didn't have to wait long for an answer. The following week there was yet another pending divorce, this time an American politician's wife was suing for divorce alleging an affair with Steph. Something was not right about this. I knew Steph well enough by now to trust her when she told me that she had never had anything other than a business relationship with these men. Someone very high up in the food chain was pulling strings, but why? "I've got a horrible feeling that it has something to do with me." "What do you mean?" "Who were you seen with just before we disappeared?" "You." I could see that she was thinking along the same lines. "And we both suddenly disappeared at the same time and because we were engaged before it has been assumed that we are together now. To flush us out they are using these scandals, thinking that I'm not about to let them rest, after all my job is based on my untarnished reputation. Without that I'll never work again." "And they know that I can't let that happen. They'll be waiting for us to come out of hiding. You and I are going to take our time and work on a strategy to overcome this. We can't do anything until Ted comes again, so that gives us a week to come up with a plan." "Do you have any idea who's behind this?" "I have a very good idea. The same people that set up the raid on that village that was supposed to have my squad killed. I'm sure that the officer that I had the run-in with isn't the only one that they use. What we need to do is to find out who is actually pulling the strings." "Are you sure that you want to take on these guys?" "What else am I going to do, I can't stand by and see your reputation dragged into the gutter." Suddenly our peaceful existence came to a juddering halt and became one of extensive situational analyses, going over what we knew, what we assumed, and working out what to do when our assumptions became facts. We needed help from people we could trust so a list was compiled. Pete and Julie I knew that I could count on, Ted was another and of course our parents but we had to assume that, apart from Ted, they would all be under close watch. We had to contact them without the opposition knowing about it. I had a list of instructions for Ted, they involved the purchase of several pre-paid mobile phones and directions as to whom he should have them delivered. Each of them would have programmed the number of one that he would bring back to me with instructions for them to call when they had received them. I would then text further instructions. I was working on the assumption that those close to us would already be under surveillance and was working on methods of getting around this. The next step was how to get back into Sydney without being seen, public transport was out of the question, as was driving back, given that they didn't know where we were so would have all major roads covered. I hit upon a devious plan that would require some outside assistance. It involved the purchase of a yacht and making sure that people knew where we were heading. I drove into Ballina and bought a Sparkman and Stephens design that had sailed in several ocean classics with moderate success, she was sound and had a current survey for ocean sailing. We arranged for Customs clearance and told the authorities that we planned to sail to Cairns before heading into the Pacific stopping at Fiji, Hawaii before sailing for Panama and on to Europe. The weather forecast was perfect, clear sailing as far as Cairns with a warning to keep an eye on a system developing just south of Noumea that could turn into a tropical cyclone of some magnitude. We carried an inflatable life raft, life jackets, flares and an EPIRB. What we didn't tell the authorities was that the EPIRB that was registered for this yacht wasn't the one that we would be carrying, it would be on another vessel, along with some substantial pieces of superstructure from a wrecked identical yacht. The vessel, a fishing charter boat, would sail as far as was safe into the impending storm, dump the flotsam overboard along with the EPIRB and then advise the Maritime Safety Authority that they were responding to a mayday from a stricken yacht. The MSA would have already picked up the signal from the EPIRB and give the co-ordinates, which will confirm those given in the mayday signal. A search of the area will find nothing for some time but eventually wreckage will be sighted. We set sail at around noon and as we lost sight of land we were heading in the expected NNE direction. As the sun set we changed our heading to the South this would see us well out to sea when we reached Sydney's latitude. As soon as we were out on a southerly heading I set the auto pilot and we relaxed. Steph was snuggled against me and her hand was stroking him awake again. "You know when I said that I was giving my body to you? Well it's not just my body that you're getting, it's me, its my life. I thought after you left me that if I found myself alone with you again I wouldn't be able to forgive you, ever. My resolve disappeared the moment I saw you and the more that I'm with you the more that I realise that I had never stopped loving you, I'll never stop." There was something about the movement of the yacht that enhanced our lovemaking, stretched naked on a bunk with the stars overhead and the gentle sound of the bow slicing through the almost dead flat sea, the rocking keeping time with our movements, or was it the other way round? Whatever the situation, our passion for each other washed any thoughts of what lay ahead from our minds, at least for the time being. It was a difficult job, hanging over the stern changing the name of the yacht. It took several attempts before I was satisfied with the outcome, painting a name upside down isn't easy, but by the time we were ready to head towards the coast she was, to all intents and purposes, the 'Aquila' from San Diego. Under cover of darkness we entered Broken Bay then steered south up Cowan Creek to moor at Appletree Bay. As we passed the Barranjoey light I sent a text message to Pete and he was waiting for us at the boat ramp in a rental car. "You look pretty fit for dead guys. The search for you was called off late last night after wreckage was found that was identified as coming from a yacht the same as yours. No life raft has been spotted and the EPIRB has stopped transmitting, all hope for your survival has been abandoned. You were right about the surveillance, they've been watching Julie and I as well as Steph's place and your parents' homes. It's going to be hard to move around without being seen." "Did you send the messages as I asked?" "Yes and the waves are spreading all the way from Afghanistan, your squad has approached the brass and told them that, unless the harassment of you stops they will tender their resignations and make public their reasons. The lines of communication between Australian and American commands are running hot. The indications are that Australian command is behind you one hundred percent. The Americans are scared of further embarrassing leaks of sensitive information and have asked for time to resolve the issue. I fear that their idea of a resolution may be detrimental to your health." "Well, we'll just have to stay one step ahead of them. Now the next phase of the operation is to let them know that we are aware of their activities. What I want you to do tomorrow evening is to get Julie give her watchers the slip and visit my parents to deliver a message telling them that we're safe, she's not to hide her identity, and I want the guys watching my parents to follow her. What I want you to do is to go to a hardware store and buy a packet of 25 millimetre stout clouts, they're rough galvanised nails with a thin flat head used to fix wall sheeting. While they are distracted by Julie's visit you will sneak up to their van and place one in front and behind each of the rear wheels so that it doesn't matter which way they drive one will be lodged in the tyre, the added beauty of these nails is that the head will wear off quickly and the body of the nail will be pushed further with each rotation . It will take some time for the tyres to deflate so Julie will have to drive around in circles for a while to allow that to happen. You will be following them and, when they stop ring her phone, allow it to ring three times and then hang up, she'll know that it's safe to go home." "What are you two going to do?" "We'll drop you off somewhere and you can take a taxi home and we'll drive to Steph's. We have work to do and people to contact and a box of mobile phones to use. They won't be able to trace our calls unless we want them to, so we won't be using the land-line any more than necessary." We didn't attract any attention as we drove into the car park of Steph's apartment building, it was just another anonymous vehicle entering the building. Steph turned on her computer and accessed her emails, scanning through them quickly and ignoring any from un-known sources. One stood out in particular, it was from a client in the States who wanted to know what was going on, it seems that his wife was approached by someone from the government and offered obscene amounts of money if she were to file for divorce on the grounds of his affair with Steph. When she refused there were threats of harm to an unspecified family member. This has scared him and he and his wife have gone to ground until notified that the coast is clear. "So that's why there's this spate of divorces." She was concerned that marriages were being broken up because of her relationship with me. "What can we do? I don't want any of this to happen." "I think that it's about time we set up a Facebook page that questions why so many of your clients are filing for divorce and letting the world know that you will be going after the person that approached the wives in question and giving them the totally false information of the alleged affairs. I know that you've kept impeccable records of your business dealings with these men, I want you to catalogue everything and we'll send it directly to them, proving the evidence of an affair to be false and removing the leverage from whoever it was." "But won't they be able to trace the Facebook entries to us?" "No, we'll use a third party and change ISP's on a random basis so that they can't home in on us. That should keep them busy." I made a call and half an hour later Stefan, an IT geek friend, arrived and swept the apartment, not surprisingly finding bugs and cameras in several places. He held his finger to his lips to silence us until he'd pressed a button on his machine. "You can speak now, this has a white noise generator that blankets all sound at normal speech frequencies. They must have accessed the neighbouring apartments to plant these, the listening devices are on the other side of the plasterboard so you can't see them and the cameras are so tiny that you'd miss them unless you were using some form of detection." He pointed to what looked like a fly speck on the wall, it was a camera lens no more than three millimetres in diameter. "That will have at least a ninety degree angle so there are not many places to hide. They were very patient drilling that hole without there being any plaster dust on this side of the wall, they would have had to remove the plaster right up to the paper backing and then push the hole through. Time to make them blind as well as deaf." He took a small spray pack and squirted paint over the lens. He did this to three other cameras in other rooms. His efforts had a profound effect on the two men in the van across the road. "What the fuck's happening, we heard them come in and no-one has left so we know they're in there, but now we can't hear anything and the cameras aren't working." He was scanning radio frequencies hoping to find one that would restore sound, none did. While they were trying to fix the problem another problem was in the process, a friend of my bug zapper was emptying a whole can of gap-filler foam up the exhaust pipe of the van. When it set the van wasn't going anywhere and it would require a complete new exhaust and possibly, depending on how far the foam reached before it began to set, a new muffler and catalytic converter. This would tell them that they weren't playing with amateurs. On second thoughts, the fact that we didn't blow the crap out of them while we had the chance would tell them that we were not that serious, we might have to resort to more violent responses to their actions. As we left the building Stefan activated a radio jammer that would have blown their eardrums so that they couldn't radio their controllers that we were on the move but they couldn't follow. By that time that they had given up on the radio and used their mobile phone we were out of sight and free to move around as long as we didn't go near the other sites that they were monitoring. I needed to contact friends in Army Intel Corps to get a line on who was doing this to us. He wasn't able to help, being bound by restrictions on any activity outside his area of expertise, but he did speak to a friend who worked for Defence Signals Directorate and asked if there were any unusual radio or email traffic that originated from the US that could shed some light on our predicament. Off the record, and because of what had happened to my squad in Afghanistan, he decided to give us the information we sought. Now that we knew for sure who the enemy was we were able to work on a plan to combat this threat. The conference in my hotel, not my old room, but another booked in another name for me by the concierge in response to my tale of media harassment and a generous tip. "Why are the Americans after you?" Pete asked. "Our forces in Afghanistan were planning to move on the poppy fields and the people that are benefitting most from the trade weren't happy about it so they leant on their military colleagues to teach us a lesson. It didn't work and, because it was me that had recognised the danger in the operation that we had been asked to carry out and took steps to thwart their efforts, I was removed from my posting. Our command weren't happy about being coerced in this way but went along with it." "I can't believe anything like that would happen." Steph was having a problem getting her head around that concept. "Oh you'd better believe it." Pete cut in. "There's a long history of political and military pressure being used to stop us from interfering with drug operations going back to the days of the Vietnam War." "Really? Tell me more." She was obviously intrigued. "Well back in the days when the US troops were coming into Sydney on R&R leave. They were being used as drug mules bringing heroin and hashish in with them. It was part of the world wide distribution conduit. Because of pressure from above their bags were not searched by Customs on arrival, merely counted and checked against the manifest. After collecting their bags the men would head for the Cross (Kings Cross, a well known red light district in Sydney) and to a bar run by an associate of one of the partners in a merchant bank, where they would exchange the packages for title deeds to property. Those that survived the Vietcong and collateral damage, and went to claim the land, found that it didn't exist." "Surely something could have been done to stop this." "No, while it was commonly known that this was happening, and there was evidence to support that, nothing could be proven and when someone was getting too close he was 'removed'. Believe me their influence is strong, it has even been alleged that they were instrumental by leaking information to the opposition that precipitated the blocking of supply, that led to the deposing of the then government in 1975. It is just an allegation, nothing has been proven. Another allegation was that they were involved in some way in the bombing at Sydney's Hilton Hotel in 1978, again nothing has been proven but there were many inconsistencies that should have been investigated and weren't." "Now I'm really getting scared, can't we go somewhere where they can't find us?" "I wish we could. No, we have to fight fire with fire and I'm afraid that it might get a little messy. I want you to head back to the cabin and wait for me, you'll be safe there. I'll contact Ted and let him know that you're coming." "Damn you Jimmy! I want to stay here with you and I want to be somewhere safe and I know that I can't be in both." "The decision is no longer yours, I want you safe, and waiting for me when this is over, not here where I'll have to worry about your safety all the time." "When do you want me to leave?" "First thing in the morning. I want you to buy a day trip ticket at Central and catch the inter-urban to Lithgow but get off at Strathfield and catch another train back to Central. You will then catch a train that goes up the coast. You'll get off at Mullumbimby and Ted will meet you there and take you to the cabin. There'll be enough food for at least a week, if I'm not finished he'll bring more to you." The Queen of the Night Ch. 02 Pete and Julie left and Steph and I prepared to spend what could be our last night together. Unfortunately for us the stresses of our current situation was such that neither of us were interested in sex, we spent the night in each others arms whispering endearments to each other and promising each other a long and glorious life together. Neither of us was certain that we'd have to honour those promises. I saw Steph off first thing in the morning and asked the valet guy to fetch my car. "Wait, I'll come with you." He led the way to the valet park and showed me where the car had been parked. As I approached it I got this feeling that something was wrong and crawled under it. My fears were realised, I had a close look at the device before calling my mate in Intel. "Hi, it's Jimmy Forrester, I have a small problem, there's an explosive device under my car, can you organise someone to come and have a look at it?" I gave him details of where I was, he said that someone would be there within the hour. The bomb disposal expert took a quick look at it. "Fuck, whoever planted this really means business." "Not your normal, run of the mill, car bomb then?" I was scared, as it turned out I had every right to be scared. "Have you ever heard of a 'French kiss'?" "I see why you said 'fuck'. I'm glad I didn't start the engine or else I would have been vaporised." "Yeah C4 and phosphorus will do that, you must have really pissed the 'Firm' off for them to do this." "You could say that. Can you extract it and make it safe without blowing yourself up?" "Not a problem. What do you want me to do with it?" "Leave it with me, I have a plan." "Just be careful with it, I'll disconnect the detonator so that it can't be set off by whoever it is that wants you dead. By the way, there's a five minute delay on this, he wanted you to go up in public, the collateral damage would have been huge, a city block minimum." "Thanks mate. The fall out from this will have repercussions far bigger than a city block." "I don't know what you have in mind, but good luck and watch your arse." "Sure thing." I had people to contact and work to do. This was coming to a head much sooner than that I'd predicted. A meeting was called with representatives of DFA. They were suitably angry but not entirely surprised. "This is too much, we'll not stand for it. I just hope the Minister has the balls to do something about it." "If he values his career he's going to have to act on this information." They went off to confer with Canberra. I'll give them this, when they are pissed off they suddenly develop balls. Nothing hit the media, which was part of the deal, but later that day the Ambassador was called in to the Minister's office. "We've put up with the bullshit from you for far too long. There is a part of your government that has interfered with the running of this country for at least fifty years, they have used this country as a drug conduit, financed various illegal enterprises in this country and recently forced the removal of a dedicated soldier from his position. As you must be aware we have protested in the strongest possible terms to your government about this affair but it seems that you won't listen to us. This final act is the last straw, an attempt has been made to, not only kill this soldier but to kill him in a most spectacular fashion. Our experts have told me that this is supposed to be some kind of a warning, but let me tell you that a warning that has the potential of killing hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people is something that we will not stand for." He took the bomb and placed it on his desk. "My experts tell me that this device is so horrendously powerful that it would vaporise anything within a fifty metre radius and kill or maim anyone within a hundred metre radius. I think that you have to agree that this is a little over the top even for you. I have here a list of people working in your embassy as military or trade attaches who are not what they appear to be. I want them removed immediately," he threw the list in front of the Ambassador, "and sent home, or this government will sever all diplomatic and trade ties with your government and go public with their reasons." "Furthermore, any threat to Captain Forrester and anyone associated with him, including his former squad in Afghanistan, will be met with similar diplomatic force." "You can't do this! Just who do you think you are? You're nothing, do you hear me nothing. If it wasn't for us in World War 2 you'd all be speaking Japanese! I won't stand for this!" "You don't have much say in this, I have here a communiqué from the White House to our Prime Minister fully supporting our actions and I seem to recall seeing in it a mention of your tenure in this position and what you'll have to do to remain here." The Ambassador snatched the paper from the Minister's hand and skimmed through it. He didn't say anything, but a chastened and apologetic Ambassador gave his promise of compliance and left. Given the existing diplomatic climate, the Ambassador, after consultation with his superiors, had no option other than to comply with the demands. I waited a couple of days to see if there was any resumption of activity before deeming it safe and heading north. Steph must have heard my approach and was hiding, expecting the worst but, when she saw me, the door flew open and she launched herself from the veranda into my arms with such force that I ended up on the ground. "Is it over?" "Yes, it's all over." By the time we were finished I was totally knackered, covered with love bites and cum and had grass burns on my arse, but I was happier than I could ever remember. The second order of business was to gather up all of the mobile phones, destroy the SIM cards and chuck them in the creek. We didn't want to be disturbed, and we weren't for at least three days until we went into town to make a couple of calls. Steph spoke to her parents, telling them that she was fine and with me, which pleased them no end. I spoke to mine and told them much the same, that I was fine and with Steph. Mum demanded to know where we were and when we would be visiting. I was non-committal on that one, just telling them not to worry and we'd see them soon. The next, and I thought last, call was to Pete, he was pleased with my news and full of some pretty wild stories that were going around about me and a certain piece of ordinance. He also gave me a number to call. It was the office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. "Captain Forrester, first let me congratulate you on your heroic efforts in exposing this operation that had threatened the lives of our troops. I can assure you that those involved have been severely cautioned and have given an undertaking that you will not be harmed in any way. My other reason for wanting to speak to you, is that I want to offer you a diplomatic posting, one that would rub salt into the diplomatic wounds, in Washington. That is if you're interested?" "Sorry Sir, I have to decline, I have my wife and family to consider and I don't want them placed in a position of danger." "Forgive me, I didn't know that you were married." "I'm not, yet, that is. But my answer is still the same. I intend to relax and enjoy life, I've had enough excitement for now." "Who were you talking to for so long?" Steph asked as we drove back to the cabin. "The Minister for Foreign Affairs, he offered me a diplomatic posting in Washington. I told him I wasn't interested because of the potential threat to my wife and family." I looked at her as my words sank in. It was all I could do to prevent an accident as she launched herself at me. I stopped the car so that I could concentrate on her. It wasn't the most comfortable of sexual encounters, there was a gear shift that kept on getting in the way, but it was great. Also great was the sex we had on the veranda, (splinters in my arse) the living room floor (carpet burns to go with the grass burns) and finally on the bed. No couple in the history of loving couples could have made love with the passion, enthusiasm and stamina that we demonstrated, a 'French kiss' could have gone off under the cabin and we probably wouldn't have noticed, merely putting the vibrations down to our passion. Stephanie soon to be Forrester was indeed the queen of the night, and day. The Queen of the Night The waiter was ready to take our orders. Pete ordered fresh oysters in their shells for himself, followed by lobster, Julie went for an entrée serve of calamari followed by Moreton Bay bug (this is similar to a lobster only with a weird shaped head), Steph hardly glanced at the menu, "Two serves of Samosas with chilli dipping sauce followed by two fillet steaks, rare, you know, whip off its horns, wipe its arse and chuck it on the plate, and salad with your own balsamic dressing, and we'll have a bottle of the 2002 RSW Shiraz." The confident way that she ordered the dishes and wines had me wondering how often she came here. The meal was excellent, the wine brilliant, both bottles, and the coffee to finish was strong without the bitterness that comes from inferior beans and roasting. All in all it was a pleasant evening made even more so by the conversation that covered just about every topic without touching on the one that I knew Pete was itching to address, did I know Steph and, if so, how. Pete dropped Steph and me off at my hotel and as soon as they had driven off she approached the valet parking attendant and asked him to find us a cab. She didn't ask me to go with her, she just assumed that I would. We sat in the back of the cab, she had her hand back there but this time I didn't try to remove it, this was exactly how I remembered her from my past. "Steph, I noticed that the bill for the meal wasn't presented and you didn't ask for it, how come?" "The meal was part of a contra deal I have with the restaurant. You see, in my job I have to entertain high profile people, not all of whom want to be seen in the regular eateries, so I take them there. I put enough business their way to allow them to give me freebies from time to time. It cuts both ways and I don't think that they lose by the deal." "And what is your job?" "We're almost home, I'll tell you all in a minute." Did she 'we're almost home'? The cab pulled up outside her building. After negotiating the security systems and before getting to the lifts she pulled me to one side. "Come with me, I want to show you something." We went down into the basement car park and she led me to a car gleaming despite the dull lighting. As we approached it I recognised it, it was my old Mercedes. "I saw it in a car auction not long after you disappeared so I had to have it. I don't even drive it, it's been sitting here, waiting for you to come back." This was getting weird, if she was having an affair with her boss why did she go and buy my old car, and why was she so sure that I'd be coming back to her? I walked around the Merc admiring it and remembering back to when we would drive out into the country in her and spend a romantic weekend ensconced in some country hotel, not moving from our room except for meals. Steph grabbed my hand and dragged me away, back up the stairs to the lobby and into the lift. She pushed the button for her floor and turned to face me. "I've so much to tell you and I want to know all about what you've been doing. Julie told me that you are a genuine hero and something of a legend in the SAS. I knew that you'd become famous." "Yeah, famous for all the wrong things." "What? What are you talking about? I can't imagine you doing anything wrong." We had reached her door and she ushered me inside. Another surprise, I stood and stared at my old, well not all that old, lounge room furniture right down to the HiFi and TV. She pushed a button and our favourite music wafted around the room. Before I knew it she had her arms around my neck and her tongue in my already open mouth, and I couldn't even push her away even though that was what my mind was ordering me to do. Whatever made me do it I don't know, but I found myself disobeying orders again. This was getting to be a habit. "I think an explanation is in order, but first, why exactly did you run away?" "Because you were having an affair behind my back. I was very angry and decided that if I confronted you with it I'd lose my temper and do something I'd regret." "I wish that you had confronted me with it, because I wasn't having an affair at all, we were short staffed and I was just working very hard. I can understand now that it might have looked like it because you must have been wondering why I was always working back late and cancelling dates at the last minute, and that made you so jealous that the slightest bit of evidence that confirmed your feelings was enough for you to do what you did." "But I saw you coming out of your building with your boss, and you had your arm around his waist." "Oh that, that was a harmless charade. You see, one of the other girls in the office had a huge crush on him and was making life miserable for him, even calling his wife and telling her that she was pregnant to him and that they planned to marry. He discussed it with his wife and we cooked up a plan to get her to believe that he was having an affair with me and to make her jealous. It worked because, when she saw us, she packed her bags and left. I had another job lined up and left not long after she did." I stood there not saying anything. Could I have been wrong about her all along, had she been faithful to me? "My new job was to act as a temporary Personal Assistant to visiting VIP's. I was to do all the things for them while they were in Australia that their normal PA's did for them back home, like keeping an eye on their schedules and making sure that they made appointments on time, booking theatre tickets for them and arranging both corporate and private dinners. It pays very well and the tips are most generous. I now have a regular clientele that I keep in touch with and look after whenever they're in town. They depend on me and treat me as a friend rather than an occasional employee." "Do any of them, you know?" "Oh, do you want to know if my duties include having sex with them? No. Some have tried but I refused politely but firmly." "So you've never had sex since I left." "If you'd asked me if I'd made love in that time I would have been able to answer no, but, as you've asked if I'd had sex I will have to say yes, on a few of occasions I relented and allowed a date to have sex with me. Don't get me wrong, in some rare cases I actually enjoyed it, while it lasted that is, but after he'd snuck off into the night I felt bad about having been so weak. I can honestly say to you that the last time I made love to a man was the last time that we made love. Do you believe me?" "I wish to God I could, but right now I'm confused, I don't know what to think." "Now you know how I felt when you left. I didn't know where you were, your parents didn't know or weren't telling me, your boss didn't know any more than we did. I even rang all the hospitals in the vain hope that you'd had an accident and didn't know where you were. We contacted Missing Persons and they couldn't find you, I don't know how hard they tried. In the end I gave up looking, I gave up pestering your parents but I never gave up wanting you to come back into my life. Now that you're back I'm never going to let you go even if I have to chain you to my bed." "I'm sorry for my stupidity, sorry for hurting you like that, I guess that I just wasn't thinking straight. If it's any consolation, I didn't contact my parents until I was at Duntroon and I swore them to secrecy. Even if you'd contacted them you wouldn't have found out where I was." "What made you choose the SAS? As I remember it you wouldn't even hurt a fly." "In my warped way of thinking I rationalised that, because they were the only unit that were consistently involved in front-line action, I would have a better chance of being killed in action. I was too chicken to commit suicide but had no problems with the concept of dying in action, I guess that made me more willing to take risks, which was pretty much what I did when I accused this stupid fucking, pardon my French, officer of setting my squad up to walk into an ambush. I might have been mad at the time but I sure as hell wasn't stupid, my SAS self-preservation training over-rode any thoughts of death I might have had. We soldiers always think of our mates before ourselves and I wasn't going to risk the lives of the men in my squad, whatever the orders told us to do." "So you became a hero, and your insubordination got you transferred back home, home to me. Yes, I do believe that there is a God. What you've told me about Afghanistan is pretty much what Julie told me, what she also told me is that you're something of a legend in the force, something to do with keeping up the ANZAC tradition of not taking any bullshit from stupid officers." Author's note: The ANZAC tradition began in April 1915 when a force of Australian and New Zealand soldiers who were supposed to secure the strategic Dardanelles found that they had been put ashore by the British navy at the wrong place. They endured the next 9 months under a constant barrage from the strategically and numerically superior Turkish army led by Kemal Ataturk. Their opinion of the British officers in particular was formed in that battle and confirmed on the Western Front in places like Fromelle, where thousands lost their lives in often futile infantry charges into the teeth of superior German firepower. The things that set these troops apart from others was the spirit of mateship, the valour with which they fought and the ingenuity that they used. They also chose not to salute British officers. The tradition continued through the Second World War and Vietnam only in Vietnam it was the Americans they ignored. Jungle warfare tactics learnt and refined in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War worked very well for them in Vietnam. "Yeah, and look where it's got me, back here in some training posting when I'd rather be back on the frontline with my mates." The look on her face made me rethink that last remark, maybe being back here wasn't so bad after all. "Though it does have its compensations." I hastily added. No sooner had I said that than she was in my arms, kissing me and crying and laughing. Eventually she stopped, she looked me in the eyes while she gathered her thoughts. "All right, enough of this small talk, you and I have a lot of work to do getting our lives back on track and it starts right here and now." She literally attacked me, tearing at my clothes, ripping them from me until I stood, naked, in the middle of a pile of rags. Her clothes followed although I did notice that she was a little more careful how she took them off. I stood there watching in amazement as more and more of her was revealed and when she too was naked I figured that it was time I went into action. I remembered the things that she liked me to do to her way back when, so I tried them, and was pleased to find them still effective. In no time I had her writhing on the floor clawing at him and trying to force me to push him into her sopping wet pussy, but I was stronger than she was and I was going to stretch this out for as long as I could. By the time that I relented and pushed into her she was a jibbering mess. She surrendered to me and I used just enough force to bring her to yet another orgasm before four years of frustration poured from me into her. I stopped moving then and just held him inside her until he eventually subsided. Her eyes snapped open as if she was suddenly aware of where she was and what had just happened. "My God that was good, you are good do you know that. I suppose that you're going to tell me that the SAS taught you to fuck like that, it's not something that you would have learnt from books or watching porn, unless of course you've been lying to me." "I haven't lied to you, the SAS had nothing to do with that and I haven't been watching porn. Let's just call it instinct. Half the time I didn't know what I was doing or why, it just felt right and good." "It felt more than good. Do you realise that I'll never make love to another man, nor will I want to. Anything after this will be an anticlimax so you'd better keep making love to me." She stood up and held out her hand to me. I took it and she led me to her bedroom that was dominated by my old bed. After I'd climbed in I remembered that it wasn't very comfortable, but then it felt different, and better. "I bought a new mattress for it, the old one was disgusting, I don't know how you ever got any sleep because I couldn't sleep in it." "I seem to remember I had problems with it myself, I just never got around to doing anything about it. Now I probably wouldn't have had any problems sleeping after the uncomfortable places I've had to sleep in." "Let me remind you that sleeping isn't the only thing we'll be doing in this bed tonight." Her hand was exploring the possibilities of a repeat performance. He was rising to the occasion but the possibility occurred to me that at some time soon I would crash and nothing that she could do would wake me. Strength and endurance was something that I needed badly. He performed very well if I may say so, but no sooner had I rolled off her and kissed her goodnight than I was dead to the world. The last thing I remembered was her arms holding me to her and a contented sigh escaping from her. The phone jarred us awake sometime late morning. Steph picked it up and grunted something at it. She listened for a couple of seconds before handing it to me. It was Pete. "Wake up Mate, times a wasting. Get you lazy arse out of bed Julie and I will be there in five minutes and we're going to show you a good time." "Fuck off!" "Now don't be like that, where's that fighting spirit that you're famous for?" "Dunno, now leave us alone, I for one need my beauty sleep." I pushed the kill button and put the phone down. Steph was just getting comfortable against my body when there was a banging on the front door. "Open up! We know you're in there! Let us in before we kick this door down!" Then I heard him mumble an apology to one of the neighbours on this floor as I walked to the front door. I realised as soon as I saw the astonished look on Julie's face that I had neglected to put on any clothes, not that any of them were worth wearing after Steph had ripped them from me last night. Oh well, they've probably seen worse. I pointed to the sofa and, grabbing my jocks from the floor, the only serviceable item of apparel left, I went back into the bedroom. Steph had scrambled into her panties and wrapped a robe around her body and handed me one to put on before going out into the living room to talk to them. "I won't ask what you two have been doing. I called by the hotel this morning to invite you to a game of golf only to be told that you'd left with 'the lady' after we'd dropped you off." I didn't like his emphasis on 'the lady' but I let it slide. "So we thought we'd come around and invite you to breakfast before golf. We tee off at eleven so get your skates on." "We can't, sorry." "Why not?" "Because I don't have any clothes that are fit to wear." I pointed to the pile of rags that they'd walked past when they came in. "I need you to either go back to my hotel and pick me up something to wear or lend me your clothes so that I can go back and change, what'll it be?" "Looks like I go to your hotel. Have you got a car Steph?" "Yes, why?" "While I'm gone why don't you and Julie go down the road and get some breakfast. If worst comes to worst you can always go to Harry's." Author's note: Harry's refers to Harry's Café de Wheels that is something of an institution in Sydney. It started life as a caravan parked on the wharf at Woolloomooloo where all night revellers could ease the munchies on their way home. It's most popular dish was a meat pie topped with mushy peas which, in the cold light of sobriety didn't look all that appetising. They left me there to ponder my fate while they set off on their various errands. What had happened? Here I was back in Sydney with no real plans other than to enjoy my leave when I'd been confronted by a blast from the past, and what a blast. The woman who I'd loved more than life itself and who had betrayed me was back in my life telling me that I'd got it all wrong and that she hadn't betrayed me after all. Not only that, but she seems to be obsessed with me as evidenced by the car and furniture. Was she back in my life again and everything would be perfect, or was I going to find a pet rabbit bubbling away on my stove? What made it worse was that my early warning system wasn't working. Breakfast was coffee and croissants, we chatted about not a lot while Pete was trying to convince the girls that they should make up a foursome, for golf that is. They eventually agreed, and what we thought would be a quiet game of golf turned out to be anything but. For whatever reason we attracted a bigger crowd then Tiger Woods, not really but it seemed like it. There was a media contingent that wanted to know all about me and how I came to be playing golf with one of the most eligible women in town. 'No comment' didn't cut it and they kept pestering us until I was just about ready to tell them all to fuck off. Steph stepped in and called a halt to the festivities. "Guys, if I tell you what is going on will you leave us alone?" There was a general mumbled agreement. "We are four friends trying to enjoy a quiet game of golf. I don't know who put you up to this but the big scoop is that there is no scoop. Peter, James and Julie know each other from Duntroon, Julie is my cousin and I agreed to make up a foursome. That is all. If you're looking for some sordid sex scandal going on you should look elsewhere. End of story." "Captain Forrester, isn't it true that you spent the night with Miss Benson?" Stephanie stepped in again. "That is true. As you may or may not be aware, Captain Forrester has recently arrived back in this country after a long tour of duty in Afghanistan. The four of us had dinner last night and he very gallantly accompanied me home. I invited him in for a cup of coffee," this bought sniggers from some of the reporters, "we had no sooner got inside my apartment when jet lag hit him and, as it was quite late, I suggested he stay the night. He accepted." "So the two of you didn't sleep together?" "When you say sleep together, do you mean did we sleep in the same bed, or did we have sex?" "I suppose it would be too much to expect you to admit to having sex, wouldn't it?" "Yes. Next question?" "Will you be seeing each other again?" "Another stupid question, open your eyes, here we have an extremely handsome man, a war hero even, and I'm a normal warm blooded woman with perfectly good eyesight, of course I'm going to be doing my best to see him again, but if he doesn't want that then I won't." "What do you say to that Captain Forrester?" "Please, I'm not in uniform and I'm on leave so I won't insist on formality, the name is James, Jimmy. As to the question, I too am a normal warm blooded human being and this woman, you'll have to agree, is a very beautiful young lady. I would like to get to know her better and to do that will mean I will invite her to join me at sometime in the future, and no, I am not going to tell you the where or when of it, and if that leads to a closer relationship then so be it, but if it doesn't then that also will be it. Now can we please finish our game of golf in peace?" We finished our game of golf and none of us are willing to broadcast our score because, after the interruption we just couldn't concentrate. We thought that would be the end of it. We were all wrong. Someone must either have a good source of information or else a nose for a story because the evening magazine section of the TV news on the commercial channels were all running the story of how Steph and I had been engaged and had split up before I joined the army and how fate had brought us together again. Then one channel broadcast a 'Facebook' page that suggested that Steph was not the person she claimed to be. It called her the 'Queen of the Night' and portrayed her as a scheming bitch who had several affairs with married men that had broken up their marriages and who she subsequently dumped. The Queen of the Night Steph sat through this with a horrified look on her face. "The bastard, that's it he's dead meat." "What's this all about?" I was really worried now. "A couple of years ago this guy was pestering me for a date, ringing me at work, sending me text messages proclaiming his undying love for me, and I didn't even know him. I was contemplating going to the police when he cornered me as I left work and created such a fuss that I promised to go out with him once if he promised to leave me alone. I kept my part of the deal but he obviously had no intention of keeping his. After the date he kept pestering me and I kept ignoring him, so he created this Facebook page in which he pretended to be his wife and accusing me of seducing him and breaking up his marriage. All this came out in court when I successfully applied for and got an AVO . Now he's at it again, I don't think that I can handle it again." "We have to go to the police with this, and now." The police were very helpful, they located the original AVO application and got his name and address and promised that they would call on him first thing in the morning. We went home and spent a miserable night, Steph kept on telling me to 'go away and leave me alone' in her sleep and when I woke her she cried until sleep overtook her again, only to go through it all later. As it turned out the police' first thing wasn't early enough. There was a banging on the door and when Steph answered it she was confronted by another media scrum. "A man was found dead this morning and his apartment was plastered with pictures of you, what can you tell us about it?" "I know nothing about this. Now will you leave me alone!" One of them caught sight of me in the background and pounced, shoving past Steph and thrusting a microphone in my face. "Do you know anything about this?" Before I had a chance to answer this question another was hurled at me; "You and Miss Benson were seen at the police station last night, did this have anything to do with the death of the man this morning?" I was as angry as I've ever been and I decided that I was going to let them have it. "Which of you vultures followed up on that Facebook story and went to see this man last night after the story broke?" There was no reply but one of the reporters from the channel that broke the story had a guilty look. "That person and not us is responsible for this man's death. We were prepared to allow the police to follow up on our complaint, but oh no, one of you saw a big story here and hang the consequences. Well whoever you are," I looked directly at the woman with the guilty expression, at least she had the decency to lower her gaze, "You have blood on your hands and I hope that, when you come to realise that there are consequences to your actions, you will be able to crawl out of the journalistic gutter you currently infest and get your life back on track." "So you accept no responsibility for this?" "Okay, that's enough! We know nothing about the death of this man, and we've told you that. I suggest that you take this matter up with the police. We have nothing more to say to you about this or anything else. I'm asking you bottom feeders to leave us alone and leave now." I started to usher them towards the door. A couple of them tried to ask one more question but I held up my hand to forestall them. Steph came into my arms in tears. "Oh God, I'm so sorry that you've become involved in this." I held her to me and when I thought the time to be right I lifted her face to mine and kissed her, not the kind of kiss that was involved two nights ago, not a lustful, I want to fuck you so bad kiss, just a kiss that told her that I understood what was happening and was there to help her. "Right, pack some clothes, we are going off for a holiday." "What, where?" "You and I are going right away from here, and we are going off on our own to get some peace and quiet. Get packing while I set about getting some more appropriate wheels." I went down to the car park and drove the Merc out into the sunlight, she had got to go, I didn't want to be constantly reminded of the fool that I'd been in the past. She was traded for a second hand Range Rover that had some wear and tear about it but went well. I bought some clothes for both of us from one of those outdoor shops along with back packs and hiking boots. I dropped the suggestion that I was headed for the desert and a trip down the Birdsville Track. Steph looked somewhat aghast at my choice of wheels but had to admit that it drove better than the old Merc and was quite comfortable. I stopped by home and made a phone call to arrange accommodation through a contact I'd made when I was on my previous trip. We spent the night at Pt Macquarie before heading for our final destination, a cabin in the hinterland behind Brunswick Heads not far from Mt Warning. It was quiet except for the noise of water in the stream that ran past the cabin and that would be the source of water for the duration of the stay. "This is nice and quiet and remote, no-one will find us here." Steph was looking around the cabin while I was lighting the slow combustion stove on which we would cook our meals and which would provide heat and hot water. I took a container down to the creek to get some water and returned with dinner, two large fresh water crayfish that were in the shallows and couldn't get away quickly enough. They tasted great with a salad and some wine. We climbed tiredly into bed not long after the sun had gone down. I held her to me expecting her to go to sleep straight away, she had other ideas. Her mouth found mine with the same passion that she'd shown that first night, I was glad that I hadn't worn clothes to bed because they wouldn't have lasted more than a minute. In between the telling me she loved me and the apologising for the misunderstanding those years ago she kissed me and her hands grabbed me in an iron grip and she fed me into her waiting, desperate body, and all I could do was to go along with the urgency until I found myself caught up in the same frenzied passion. This was love making at its most basic, no subtlety, no finesse just the sheer unadulterated passion of two people who were once in love and had lost that love only to find it again, two people who would never make the same mistake again. The next afternoon, as we sat on the veranda watching a couple of brightly coloured parrots going through a courting ritual in the tree tops, and a wallaby come out of the bush and hop, unafraid, right up to us to graze on the grass not two metres away, I reached for Steph's hand, "This is the life, isn't it?" "Yes it is, I could get used to this." She looked at me, I had a grin on my face. "What? What are you planning?" "I had a text message from the brass wanting to know when I would be travelling to Canberra to take up my new posting. I told them to stick it up their collective arses and that my resignation would follow." "You what?" "I told them to stick it. I'm retiring and I want to live a quiet life in a place like this in the country with you. What do you think?" "This is sudden. I'd love to." "Great! In that case, Stephanie, Darling, welcome to your new home." "What, how?" I kissed her to keep her quiet, lifted her out of the chair and carried her inside to our bed that was still unmade from last night's passion. I stripped the top sheet off and lay her onto the bed before stripping my clothes off and joining her. She helped me to take her clothes off and when she was naked she opened her arms to me and I entered her embrace. This time it didn't have the same violent passion of the previous times that we had made love, this time we enjoyed the slow languorous passion of two people who were attuned to each other. He entered her and moved in and out of her pussy, savouring every moment and making sure that her pleasure was not forgotten. Whereas in our previous lovemaking the orgasm approached with the speed of an express train, this time it crept towards the crescendo, but when that was reached, it exploded with the same force as before. "I've dreamed about this moment for years and now it has arrived I'm in no way disappointed. I love you so much." I would have replied immediately but found it difficult to talk with her mouth covering mine. It was several minutes before I looked her in the eyes. "I have never stopped loving you."