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 as Roeg led the way, all the time there was the sound of confusion in the hall as the pursuers of Wallace’s recent contact became entangled with the departing audience members, who were bewildered at the sudden shutting out of the lights and were tending to mill around. Wallace was still clutching the small article in his hand. It was a computer flash drive; Wallace didn’t need to look at it to ascertain what it was.
As Roeg’s shape crystallised behind the lectern Wallace paused, bent down and slipped the drive into his sock, pushing it well down into the shoe so that it reposed under the arch of his foot. Then he followed Roeg and emerged into the corridor. There were still the sounds of running feet echoing on the concrete floors, this indicated that the man in the shirt, whoever he was, was still on the loose and had successfully made his escape from the auditorium. Wallace hoped he made it, not only for his sake, but for Wallace’s as well.
Roeg shook Wallace by the hand when they reached the foyer, the previous act in transferring the removable computer drive had been a wise one otherwise Roeg would have been mystified by what fell into his palm. There was some light here, and Roeg’s features could now be perceived.
‘Thank you for speaking to us,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘It is good for people to see someone from Australia, maybe one day we shall all be one people.’
Wallace smiled and nodded as if in agreement, frankly he could not have disagreed more strongly. The idea of thuggish looking men, presumably servants of the state, chasing citizens all over public buildings and city streets was not an endearing one. The small package in his heel was scraping his ankle every time he took a step and it was an effort not to limp.
‘What happened to the lights?’
‘It happens now and again,’ said
