Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, leaned back in his chair and let out a long melancholy sigh as he glanced down at the pile of documents on his desk. He had been reading them very intently for the past couple of hours and they disturbed him. Greatly.
They were all Confidential Reports from various intelligence agencies, both from Australia and the United States concerning one particular Chinese corporation. The Shanghai Hangyang Corporation to be precise. The corporation had received funding from the Chinese Government to the amounts of $US 76.8 million in 2010 and $US 92.4 million in 2012 for "overseas development and research." Suspicions of very close links between the corporation and the Chinese Government were further evident in that the current Chairman of the Shanghai Hangyang Corp. had previously worked for the Chinese military in a high advisory capacity between 1996 and 2008. Investigations by both Australia's and the United States' intelligence agencies pointed to very strong ties between Shanghai Hangyang and the Chinese military and intelligence services. The upshot of all the investigations pointed to a very strong recommendation to the Australian Government that any involvement with the Shanghai Hangyang Corporation posed "a serious concern for Australian security."
Prime Minister Turnbull shook his head. Of critical concern to the intelligence agencies was the actions of the Cairns Regional Council who were attempting to sell a large parcel of land to the Shanghai Hangyang Corporation. However, the reports just didn't end there. The ASIC agency had been investigating corporate bribery and money laundering activities involving a Hong Kong businessman who had been revealed as the son-in-law of one of the Councillors and Deputy Mayor on the Cairns Regional Council, Councillor Horseman. ASIC advised that at the stage of their report they just did not have adequate evidence to bring the matter to Court.
Turnbull mulled over the reports and thought back a few weeks when it was the same regional Council in Queensland which had almost caused a major international incident when it was revealed they had elected as a Councillor, the worst child killer in Australia's history. He recalled the anger of the Indonesian President and the quieter but equally livid stance of the Vietnamese President. On that occasion Turnbull had acted decisively and without hesitation and sent a team of Federal Police to Cairns to arrest and escort Mr Bud Yarrow to Indonesia for trial.
Abruptly, he picked up his telephone. The issue with the Shanghai Hangyang Corporation also required quick action as the intelligence reports indicated the local Cairns media were inciting the people of Cairns to force the Council to rescind a previous motion voting against the sale of the property on Mt Whitfield to the Chinese corporation.
Within minutes he had arranged for a certain high ranking public servant to contact the Mayor of Cairns, Colonel Ken Cush and request he cease with Council's moves to sell Australian land to Shanghai Hangyang. Briefly, as he finished his call, and looked at another pile of papers waiting to be read on his desk, he wondered just how long this Colonel Cush would remain as Mayor of the Cairns Regional Council. Not too bloody long, he fervently hoped. He had had enough of Colonel Ken Cush.
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Sitting on the Cairns Esplanade at his favorite diner, Colonel Cush was again in his element, reading the complimentary editorial in "The Cairns Post" concerning the Council's plans to sell a large tract of land on Mt Whitfield to the Chinese Shanghai Hangyang Corporation.
"RESCIND THE VOTE, COUNCILLORS!" Cush loved it, and laughed out loud.
He had read all the on-line comments in "The Cairns Post" that morning and been immensely cheered by the support his Council was receiving. Oh, the people of Cairns were making it plain, he thought, they just wanted jobs. He was very optimistic the Councillors like Lovelady, Piper, Bomboniere, Dunnysmore and that turncoat Buttonsworth would come back to Council dragging their tails between their legs, with hang dog looks at their mongrel faces. The people of Cairns would chase them right back to rescind the vote.
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Councillor Skye Lovelady had been riding her bicycle home to her unit at Smithfield when she felt a hard shove in her back and all she could then recall was flying in a fuzzy sort of slow motion through the air and landing with a painful crash at the side of the road. Seconds later her bike came tumbling after her.
For a sew seconds she could not see properly but then reality hit with pain and a strange looking person, bald headed and covered in tattoos, standing over her. "Are you alright?" asked the strange looking person, whom Lovelady could not make out if it was male or female.
Skye stood up shakily. No bones broken! However she was badly gravel rashed, and her legs were bleeding. "I'm OK," she stumbled.
The strange person had picked up her bicycle and was looking at it. "I think your bike is alright, no damage done there either. Are you able to continue riding it?"
Skye looked at the bicycle and felt her legs tremble. She thought she would be fine in a few minutes. "Yes," she replied. "Thank you for your help. I'm Skye Lovelady and I appreciate your kindness to me."
The strange bald headed person nodded. "I know who you are. I've been a big fan of yours since you were elected. I'm Berri Honniston and that is my partner, Heather, and our children Monsoon and Yasi in the car up on the road."
Skye looked up at the road and saw a woman there holding a baby and a little girl intently looking out the passenger window. Gingerly, she walked over, and introduced herself to Heather, admired their little baby boy, Yasi, thanked Berri again, and continued her ride home.
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Councillor Dom Piper was furious. He had been receiving filthy threatening anonymous phone calls all morning and during the previous evening. He had phoned the Police and lodged complaints.
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Councillor Brad Buttonworth found himself driven off the road and into a ditch where his car stalled, as he drove home to Port Douglas. The driver who had forced him off the road actually had turned around and came back to yell obscenities at him. "Ya fucken cunt," the driver had roared, "you couldn't give a shit about those of us without jobs hey?"
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Councilloy Doug Dunnysmore arrived home to his modest unit at Mt Sheridan to find a contingent of angry constituents waiting for him. It was only because of the presence of his brother Teddy, that Dunnysmore avoided being physically attacked. He was so shaken by the confrontation that he smoked several cones one after another.
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Councillor Enzo Bonbomiere found himself on the end of an abusive tirade by his brother-in-law, an unemployed electrician. "Yeah, you've got money coming in," yelled his brother-in-law,
"you're alright Jack, alright Jack, so you don't give a stuff about anyone else!"
Guido only quietened down when his sister Maria intervened.
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It was early evening when Councillor Skye Lovelady painfully rode her bicycle up the driveway of her unit and leaned the bicyclee against the wall outside the kitchenette. She looked around for her pet cat, Monty, who almost always came running when Skye appeared. However Monty was not around outside. Skye shrugged, not concerned. Monty also loved to wander the neighbourhood.
She opened the back door leading into the kitchen and froze. There, lying in a pool of blood on her small dining room table was Monty, his throat cut so severely his head almost decapitated.
A roughly drawn poster resting beside the cats body had the words, "THE BIBLE SAYS YE SHALL NOT SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE AND YOUR TURN IS NEXT!"
To be continued................
