Sword of Allah

Australian Federal Police HQ, Canberra, Australia

The knock on the door didn’t penetrate Jennifer Tadzic’s concentration. Not the first time, nor the second. When she was focused on something, the world shrank away to background noise. But it wasn’t just one thing clamouring for Tadzic’s attention. Indeed, her desk was swamped with files and reports relating to various ongoing investigations. It was at times like these that she felt overworked and underpaid. She wished she had at her disposal a small fraction of the funds available to the organisations and individuals she was up against. Then, perhaps, she’d be able to make a difference. Just once.

‘Federal Agent…?’

The sound found it’s way through Tadzic’s brain, finally, as an annoying distraction that had to be dealt with. She glanced up, the crease between her eyes a deep furrow. While Tadzic didn’t know the woman standing at her door, she’d seen her around. But there was something in her face, something that told her she shouldn’t snap.

‘Sorry to bother you, Federal Agent. The name’s Rachael Ying, legal. We haven’t met, not officially, anyway. I worked on that aircraft hijack thing of yours.’

‘Yeah, I remember,’ said Tadzic. That was both true and false. She remembered the bust, though she didn’t recall anyone by the name of Ying connected with it. But that wasn’t entirely surprising. The AFP was a big organisation and a signature on the bottom of a few forms wasn’t exactly a formal introduction. ‘How can I help you, Rachael?’

‘We’ve got a mutual friend, Federal Agent.’

‘Call me Jenny. Who’s that?’

‘Angie Noonan.’

Yep, Tadzic knew Noonan well. They went to the same Pilates class. Noonan was the super-fit type, a gym junkie. Nice kid, though. Forensics. Good at her job, too. ‘Sure, come in, Rachael, take a seat.’ Ying was young and pretty, and from the accent — or lack of it — second-generation Chinese Australian, with blue-black hair held in a tight ponytail. She wore comfortable jeans and, like Tadzic, no make-up. A no-bullshit type. Ying was Angie’s buddy and her alarm bells were ringing.

‘Okay,’ Ying said, sitting. ‘Basically, the problem is Angie’s late back from holidays. Should have been back at work three days ago. I rang her home, no answer. No joy from her mobile either. She told me you two hit the same gym and I thought maybe you could —’

‘Didn’t she go to Thailand?’

‘Yes.’

‘With her boyfriend?’

‘That’s right.’

‘You don’t think she just decided to, well, extend?’

‘No. You know her. She’s like totally committed to this place, her job. No way would she just decide not to front for work. And especially not without at least calling in.’

That was true, thought Tadzic. Angie was the keen worker-bee type. The enthusiasm was a bit nauseating sometimes, maybe, but there was plenty of time for the job to knock that out of her.

‘I called the boyfriend’s work,’ said Ying. ‘He’s an architect, works for a small firm. His father’s the boss. He hasn’t heard from his son either. The man’s worried. He’s made a report. I promised I’d try and bump him up the queue.’

‘Have you heard anything from Angie at all?’ Tadzic was thinking she might have to get the Department of Foreign Affairs onto this. No, maybe immigration first, run a passport check and see whether they’d at least made it back into the country.

‘Yeah, got heaps of postcards. Got one every second day there for a while — her way of laying a trail, maybe. You know, doing a Hansel and Gretel? Then they just stopped coming. At the time I thought the silence had more to do with the mail than anything sinister.’ Rachael placed a small stack of postcards on Tadzic’s desk. They pictured golden Thai temples, water buffalo, the hill tribesmen — the usual tourist fare from a holiday in Thailand.

‘I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation.’ Like she met someone new then ditched the boyfriend, who then went to Bangkok to shag away his sorrow…‘Do you mind if I borrow these — bring them back later?’ Tadzic asked.

‘Sure, no problem.’ Ying stood. She hesitated for a moment. There was more she felt she should say. ‘Jenny, this is not like Ang. She doesn’t do this sort of thing…’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Tadzic as Rachael Ying began to walk slowly from her office. ‘I’m sure it’s all pretty innocent. I’ll catch up with you later and let you know what I’ve found out.’

Missing persons wasn’t exactly Jenny Tadzic’s forte, but getting an official inquiry underway smartly was the least she could do. Tadzic sifted through her files for a map of Thailand and pinned it to her wall. According to the postcards, the last place Angie visited was a town called Sop Huai Hai. Two young girls in colourful clothes smiled toothily at the camera. Tadzic arranged the other cards according to the dates Angie had thoughtfully written on each: Mae La, Noi Khun Yhun, Mae Hong Son and, lastly, Sop Huai Hai. Checking against the map, the pattern was obvious. It was a trail heading to Myanmar, and Sop Huai Hai was the last stop before the border. Tadzic knew that Angie had been gathering information on a drug lord on the Nam Sa River, thirty kilometres or so inside the border. A certain General Trip — a seriously bad motherfucker. ‘Angie, you’re a silly girl,’ Tadzic said quietly, the cold reality of messing with people like the general well known to her. She accessed the AFP’s information file on General Trip and skimmed it. A recent American DEA agent, she saw, had also gone missing two months ago in the same vicinity. Maybe it wasn’t all pretty innocent after all.

Well, thought Tadzic, that was the morning shot to shit. She’d have to make a report to Foreign Affairs, ASIS, and contact the United States DEA to see if their agent had turned up. Tadzic knew the likelihood of ever seeing her friend again, dead or alive, was remote if she’d trekked up to the Shan state and begun sniffing around. The jungle would swallow her and her boyfriend with nothing more than a handful of water-stained postcards to mark the point of disappearance. An image popped into the federal agent’s mind of an eddy swirling momentarily on the surface of shark-infested waters where, just moments before, a swimmer had been splashing. Tadzic shivered.