Indonesian Gold (82 page)

‘I thought that might happen,'
Baird said, unhappily.

‘
So, I wasn't going to raise this now, thought it might
be better to wait until you get back.
'

‘Raise what, Pak?'
Baird could feel a familiar knot growing in his gut.

‘I'm going to retire, Eric.'

‘What does that mean?'
Panic gripped him again.

‘
It means I'll be closing the company down. I want you
to return and finalize what is due to me from the BGC arrangements you promised to put into
place.
'

‘
But, Pak…!
'

‘No, no, Eric, best to leave the rest of our discussion
until you return. Now, hurry back and we'll talk it all through,'
with that, Subroto hung up leaving his junior partner numbed with shock. With Mardidi
out of their hair, there was no reason for Baird not to return to Pipi and, with the company
closed, his niece would have her wish, to accompany her husband to Australia.

****

Baird had never considered the possibility of a future in
Indonesia without the protection of his sponsor, AVM Subroto, and the companionship of his lover,
Mardidi. Now, in the space of just two days, he had lost both. And, he expected that Subroto
would hold him personally responsible for the monies Kremenchug had swindled. In a daze, he rose
slowly to his feet and started to leave, the operator reminding him with a tap on the shoulder
that he was still wearing the headphones. Baird stared at the man blankly, then in a pique of
temper, threw them down angrily onto the console with a loud clunk. ‘Stick them up your arse,' he
snapped – the surprised technician reared back, the vitriol lost on the native speaker. Baird
stormed out of the small building and stood in the open air, fuming, lost, bewildered by how
quickly his life had changed, and the unfairness of it all. Without Mardidi, he had no wish to
return to Jakarta – without Subroto, there would be no sponsorship. His world had imploded and he
had nowhere to turn.

‘Eric?' he heard his name called and looked in the
direction of the mess. Spotting Campbell, he waved half-heartedly then made his way over, sitting
down with the American as breakfast was served. ‘First real meal for almost three days,' Campbell
broke the silence. ‘Are you going to eat?'

As if on cue, Baird's stomach growled and Campbell
couldn't help but smile. ‘Suppose I should.' He beckoned one of the staff and ordered toast and
coffee.

‘Bad news?'

‘Something like that.'

‘Tell me to mind my own business if you want, Eric, but
you should cut back on the sauce. You look like hell.'

Baird placed his head in his hands and leaned on the
rickety table. ‘It's just that lately, everything I touch seems to turn to shit.'

‘Subroto?'

‘Yep. Just told me that he's closing down the
consultancy.'

‘Did he tell you why?'

‘Yeah, sure, Baron's getting its own offices.'

‘And you don't have any other work?'

‘Nah, been too preoccupied with what's been happening
here.'

‘You've had a good run,' Campbell inferred.

‘I know. Maybe I should've got out when I had the
chance.'

‘Got any plans?'

‘Don't know. Try and see if I can pick up something when I
get back into Jakarta. There's plenty of work around, it's just not the sort of work I'd planned
on doing at this stage in my life.'

Campbell
watched the other man
closely. ‘What about Kremenchug, can't he get you something?'

Baird snorted. ‘He's an arsehole of the first order.
Bastard gypped me on our last deal. Half of the money due to me was earmarked for
Subroto.'

‘Ouch. I'm sorry to hear that.' Although he wasn't,
Campbell felt obliged to say it anyway, pleased somewhat that Kremenchug was out of the picture,
something he wished to ascertain before making Baird an offer. ‘How would a couple of months
working here with me, sit with you?'

Baird heard the words and stared in surprise, his hand
holding coffee, frozen in time. ‘Seriously?'

‘Sure.' Campbell dug deep and found another smile. ‘I was
only offered the position by Baron last night. It wouldn't be long term, just enough to verify
the last program's results, then we'd handover to another team.'

Baird sipped his coffee, contemplating the offer. Mardidi
had to return, sometime, and when he did, Baird would be waiting. With a legitimate reason to
remain onsite he could also delay the inevitable with Subroto – and Pipi. He screwed up his face
with a twisted response, baring neglected, tobacco-stained teeth. ‘If the offer's real, I'm
interested.' His face cracked on one side as he attempted a grin. ‘To be honest, at this
particular moment in my life I don't give a shit about anything, much. But, if you want me to
stay, I'll give it a go.' They both waited for their coffees to be topped up and the cook's
assistant to move out of earshot, before continuing. Baird thought it worth the shot and asked,
‘What am I gonna be paid?'

Campbell
scrutinized the
Australian across the eye-leveled rim of his mug. He needed to have someone qualified, onside,
and onsite. This man's in-country experience was invaluable, his knowledge of the deposit's
geology, second to none. ‘Five hundred a day.'

Baird raised his eyebrows – a natural response. ‘Laborer's
pay!'

Campbell
's laugh was natural.
He leaned back and shook his head, ‘Seven Fifty.'

‘Make it a grand and you have a deal,' the Australian
pushed, brazenly.

‘Jesus, Eric, ten seconds ago you had nothing. Now you're
bargaining?'

Now it was Baird who turned on the smile. ‘You wouldn't
have asked if you didn't need me.'

Campbell
considered his
options, then agreed. ‘Okay, a thousand it is.'

‘What are we gonna do about them?' Baird indicated the
expatriate drillers sitting around lazily filling in time. Campbell looked over at the men,
parked under a tarpaulin tied between two silent generators, playing cards.

‘They'll be gone before you know it.'

Baird showed his surprise. ‘What then?'

‘Baron's drillers will be here in the next couple of days.
Their superintendent will be carrying funds to pay this lot out, and cover anything outstanding
to the laborers.'

‘Supplies?'

‘Essentials will be air freighted from Jakarta to
Samarinda today. There'll be increased chopper support starting tomorrow. We'll have a couple of
barges bring the rest upriver to the Tiong Ohang river station, and break the shipments down for
the smaller longboats to

carry the rest of the way.'

‘All of this in less than a day? I'm
impressed!'

‘Baron's been mobilizing over the past month.' Campbell
decided it wouldn't be smart to tell Baird too much – that Sharon's death had raised doubts as to
the veracity of the find, and Baron was moving quickly to damage control.

‘What do you have in mind for the drilling?'

‘I thought we'd run a series of random holes parallel with
what you guys have already drilled.'

Baird shrugged. ‘That won't be a problem. The data's all
here. We can start work whenever you're ready.'

‘No time like the present – why don't you get some food
into you first, then we'll meet in the office in, say, an hour?'

‘Fine by me.'

‘Okay.' Campbell extracted long legs from under the table
and made to leave, hesitated, sitting sideways on the seat. ‘Don't you think Angela and Mardidi's
departure was just a little too spontaneous?'

Baird avoided the other man's eyes, staring into space.
‘I'd wondered about that, too.'

‘And Mardidi never mentioned anything at all about going
off into the hills?'

‘Not a syllable,' Baird said, sourly, recalling the
events. ‘Big day for everyone, huh?'

Campbell
's mood toppled into
darkness again. The morning before had started badly enough with the discovery that Angela had
left. Sharon's death had then overshadowed everything else – the image of her bloody remains
would be etched into his mind for the rest of his life. ‘They took her body away to Samarinda,
last night.'

‘By chopper?'

‘Yeah,' he confirmed, distracted by another, worrying
thought. Sharon's briefcase would have contained her passport and other personal travel documents
without which, Indonesian red tape would make it extremely difficult for the body to be
transported back to the Philippines.

‘She was really good at what she did,' Baird said, ‘and
tough.'

Campbell
smiled sadly as
memories triggered, and started to flow. ‘Yes, she was all that, and more.'

‘She took those bastards on single-handedly,' Baird looked
over at the tough bunch of drillers, ‘kicked one of them in the balls, she did.'

Campbell
's slide into the
past came to an abrupt halt. ‘What?'

The Australian related the incident. ‘Couple of them gave
her a hard time back on the original site before we moved up here. After that, no one bothered
her again.'

The reflection reminded Campbell to ask. ‘Tell me, Eric,
straight up. Why didn't she continue with the drilling there? What on earth encouraged her to
suddenly pick up the entire operation and move it here when there was already sufficient evidence
of a viable mine?'

Baird blinked with nervous alarm. ‘Sharon could be bloody
minded when she wanted to be.'

‘But, based on the results one would have thought it would
make more economic sense to establish a mine there, first?'

‘One would have thought so, yes,' Baird agreed,
evasively.

‘Then why didn't she?'

Eric Baird faced Campbell. There was no longer any reason
for him to conceal what had happened, Sharon was dead and he had lost out financially, in the
end. ‘The last holes drilled showed that the deposit was an isolated pocket. Sharon ceased
drilling when she knew that the results would be detrimental to Dominion's offer to farm-out the
property to BGC.'

‘Jesus, Eric!'

‘Yeah, I know. At the time Kremenchug seemed to be driving
the deal, I just went along for the ride.'

‘Then, how did it come about, that she selected this
particular site for further drilling?' Campbell's intuition warned that the answer may be
unpalatable, and he braced himself for the Australian geologist's response.

‘I was commissioned to walk over the area some years
back.'

‘Go on,' the American urged.

Baird decided to let it all out, now unconcerned as
Sharon's decision to drill here had been vindicated by the incredible results. ‘This

has to be off the record, okay?'

‘Let's hear it first.'

‘No, Stewart, I'll need your word, up front.'

Campbell
was reluctant but
something told him that whatever Baird was hiding, might be paramount to Baron's safe tenure over
the mine. ‘Okay, shoot.'

Baird then went into elaborate detail as to what happened
during his first visit to the Longdamai site, the deaths of the two
Modang
river men, and
how he had simply filed a ‘general report' without really carrying out any
investigation.

‘After all, I knew more about the geology in the area than
most, and Kremenchug was desperate to get his hands on something worthwhile, to acquire equity in
the Canadian miners.'

‘Then, how did Sharon come to move the operations
here?'

‘Ironically, Kremenchug encouraged Dominion Mining to take
up the concession. That's how P.T. Kalimantan Gold was spawned.'

‘But, you've just said that there was no original survey
conducted. Why, then, would she want to start here?'

‘There
was
a survey report,' Baird explained, ‘it's
just that it wasn't a survey of this site.'

Campbell
's shock was evident.
He sat stunned, the blood draining from his face. ‘It was all a scam?'

Baird jumped to his own defence. ‘No, it wasn't. That's
the beauty of the whole thing. Don't you understand? Sharon's discovery was a sheer
fluke!'

‘Who else is aware of all this, Kremenchug?'

‘No, Alex was not involved,' he said bitterly. ‘Once
Dominion Mining sold its position to BGC, the closest he came to any of this was to fill his
pockets at everyone else's expense.'