Rogue Element Read online

  David A. Rollins is a former advertising creative director and copywriter who lives with his wife and three children in Sydney. He is currently working on his next novel.

  David’s website: www.davidrollins.net

  ROGUE

  ELEMENT

  DAVID A

  ROLLINS

  First published 2003 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited

  This Pan edition published 2004 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited St Martins Tower,

  31 Market Street, Sydney

  Copyright © David A. Rollins 2003

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  National Library of Australia

  cataloguing-in-publication data:

  Rollins, David A.

  Rogue element.

  ISBN 0 330 36464 2.

  I. Title

  A823.4

  Typeset in 10/13 pt Birka by Post Pre-press Group Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  Author photograph: Samantha Rollins

  These electronic editions published in 2003 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd

  1 Market Street, Sydney 2000

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

  Rogue Element

  David A Rollins

  Adobe eReader format 978-1-74197-039-5

  Mobipocket format 978-1-74197-441-6

  Online format 978-1-74197-642-7

  Epub format 978-1-74262-590-4

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  Visit www.panmacmillan.com.au to read more about all our books and to buy both print and ebooks online. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events.

  For Sam

  Contents

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Glossary

  Prologue

  Indonesian air space, 35 000 feet, 1840 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  NSA Pacific HQ, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 1843 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  Sulawesi, 2015 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  Bali, 2036 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  NSA Pacific HQ, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 2050 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  Sydney, 2150 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 2155 Zulu, Tuesday, 28 April

  Central Sulawesi, 0130 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Maros, Sulawesi, 0350 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Exmouth Gulf, 0455 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  NSA, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 0457 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, 0500 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 0500 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Central Sulawesi, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Denpasar, Bali, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Sydney, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Sydney Airport, 0600 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Central Sulawesi, 0635 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  NSA, Helemanu, Oahu, Hawaii, 0705 Zulu, Wednesday, April 29

  Parliament House, Canberra, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, April 29

  Hasanuddin Airport, Maros, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, April 29

  Central Sulawesi, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Central Sulawesi, 0730 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Sydney, 0900 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Central Sulawesi, 0915 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  NSA HQ, Fort Meade, Maryland, 1210 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Jakarta, 1210 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 1325 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Central Sulawesi, 2200 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Sydney Airport, 2200 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 2200 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Hasanuddin Air Force Base, Sulawesi, 2305 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  NSA HQ, Fort Meade, Maryland, 2330 Zulu, Wednesday, 29 April

  Central Sulawesi, 2330 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 0436 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

  US Embassy, Canberra, 0530 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

  Jakarta, 1005 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

  Central Sulawesi, 2136 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

  Parliament House, Canberra, 2145 Zulu, Thursday, 30 April

  Central Sulawesi, 0155 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  East Timor, 0155 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 0230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Jakarta, 0230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Sydney, 0420 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Parliament House, Canberra, 0425 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  US Embassy, Canberra, 0510 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Dili, East Timor, 0515 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Parliament House, Canberra, 0515 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Dili, East Timor, 0530 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Jakarta, 0600 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Timor Sea, 0605 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Jakarta, 0655 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Sydney, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Java, 0745 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Somewhere east of central Sulawesi, 0745 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 0758 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 0834 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 0930 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Central Sulawesi, 1010 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Parliament House, Canberra, 1010 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  1500 feet AGL, Banda Sea, 1040 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Parliament House, Canberra, 1100 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Jakarta, 1100 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Sydney, 1230 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

  Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

  Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

  Jakarta, 0235 Zulu, Saturday, 2 May

  Sydney, 2315 Zulu, Wednesday, 6 May

  20 000 feet, Eastern Australian airspace, 2032 Zulu, Tuesday, 12 May

  Sydney, 0800 Zulu, Monday, 18 May

  Author’s note

  Acknowledgements

  This novel is a work of fiction, written to sound like fact, the line between the two blurred so that you don’t twig to where one stops and the other begins. Of course, whether I’ve succeeded in that is up to you, the reader, to decide.

  I’m not a social scientist, a historian or a military specialist. Much of the material contained in this story was found in the public domain. That said, I did call on the services of a number of experts where the available information was either inadequate or when good old-fashioned experience was required. I would very much like to thank those people publicly, because they only get two rewards in this business. One is the satisfaction of knowing that, where their specialty is concerned, at least accuracy has been maintained. Two is acknowledgement that they’d probably rather be out playing golf than sitting on the phone to me, or correcting the manuscript yet again.

&nb
sp; And so . . . Thank you Andy Bates for taking me on the wildest 747 ride ever. Thank you ‘Woody’, former USAF F-16 fighter pilot, for your patience and enthusiasm. Thank you Gideon Marshall for showing me one end of an M16 from the other. Thank you Neville Farley, SASR veteran, for making sure I wasn’t completely off the planet. Thank you Chris Sherwood for the ins and outs on the Black Hawk. Thank you Mr Yuwono for the guided tour of Sulawesi. And thank you Bob Buick, Vietnam veteran and Military Medal winner, for your contacts and for your astonishing bravery under fire.

  Also, thank you Patricia Rollins (me mum) for your tireless editing, suggestions and encouragement.

  Glossary

  ACI Airborne Control Interception

  ADF Australian Defence Force

  AFB Air force base

  AGL Above ground level

  AIM-9 Air-to-air heat-seeking missile

  AMRAAM Advanced medium range air-to-air missile

  APC Armoured patrol carrier

  ASIS Australian Secret Intelligence Service

  ATC Air traffic control

  AV-8B Harrier Jump Jet –vertical/short take off and landing aircraft

  AV-TUR Jet fuel

  AWACS Airborne warning and control system

  BVR Beyond visual range (missile)

  C-130 Hercules transport aircraft

  COMINT Communications intelligence

  COMPSTOMP Computer Security, Tasking, Observation and Manipulation Protection

  Cray XI Super computer

  CSAR Combat Search and Rescue

  DIO (Australian) Defence Intelligence Organisation

  DIGO Defence Intelligence and Geospatial Organisation

  DOD (Australian) Department of Defence

  DPRD Dewan Perwakilan Rakjat Daerah – Indonesian Parliament

  E&E Bay Electronics and Equipment Bay

  EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft

  ELINT Electronic intelligence

  ETFOR United Nations peacekeeping force, East Timor

  EW Electronic Warfare

  F/A-18E Super Hornet Fleet defence aircraft

  F14 Tomcat Fleet defence aircraft

  F16 Fighting Falcon fighter

  FIR Flight Information Region

  FMC Flight Management Computer

  GPS Global positioning system

  H&K MP5SD 9 mm sub-machine gun

  H&K USP 9 mm pistol

  HE High explosive

  HE 463 High explosive M203-launched grenade

  HUD Head up display

  Huey UH-1D helecopter

  IAE Intelligence Assimilation Executive

  INTERFET Peacemaking force, East Timor

  IRS Inertial Reference System

  KC-135 Air-to-air tanker

  LM Loadmaster

  LSA Lowest safe altitude

  LZ Landing zone

  M16 A2 Military assault carbine

  M203 Grenade launcher

  M26 AI Anti-personnel hand grenade

  M34 Willie Pete white phosphorous hand grenade

  M4 Military assault carbine

  MAG Mobile Assault Group

  Minimi Light machine gun

  MLP Marine landing platform

  NSA National Security Agency

  NVG Night vision goggles

  OSCAR Open systems core avionics requirement (weapons/stores computer)

  PE Plastic explosive

  QNH Area air pressure at sea level

  RAAF Royal Australian Air Force

  ROE Rules of engagement

  RV Rendezvous

  S70 A9 Black Hawk helicopter

  SAR Search and Rescue

  SASR Special Air Service Regiment

  SBS Special Boat Service

  SEASection South-East Asian Section

  SIGINT Signals intelligence

  SRS Special Recovery Squadron

  Super Pumpa Helicopter

  TACBE Tactical beacon (radio transceiver)

  TNI Tentara Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian army)

  TNI-AU Tentara Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Udara (Indonesian airforce)

  UH Ultra high frequency

  V22 Osprey Tiltrotor vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft

  VHF Very high frequency

  WAC World Area Chart

  Zulu Universal Coordinated Time/Greenwich Mean Time

  Prologue

  General Suluang shook a toothpick from the holder. He dug out a piece of chicken that had lodged in the canyon left by a filling broken long ago. The waitress cleared away the meal eaten by the men hunched in the circle of dim light over the table. The general looked up when her scent reached his nostrils. She smiled. He admired the young woman’s body, momentarily diverted from the discussion.

  ‘Kalimantan is troublesome again,’ said Lanti Rajasa, the head of Indonesia’s security police. ‘We kill the terrorists but the burnings persist.’ His lips were stretched tight across yellow teeth, giving him the appearance of an animal baring its fangs.

  The general nodded, relieved that the annoying piece of chicken had finally been dispatched. This was his favourite restaurant in Jakarta. The food was acceptable, the decor a mishmash of jungle themes and Indonesian mythology. The music softly piping through the restaurant’s speakers was a popular melody played on a continuous loop. The general found the familiarity of it reassuring. The room, though large, was dark and private. Thick brown carpet swallowed conversation and the muted light encouraged anonymity. It was the kind of place businessmen took their mistresses during the day, but it was one o’clock in the morning now and the last of the paying customers had long since left. He especially liked this restaurant because the owner was his cousin, a retired army major from a good regiment, so he didn’t feel that he had to guard his conversation.

  Rajasa continued. ‘Aceh is worsening. The police chief there is missing. We don’t think we’ll find him alive. Several government buildings have been torched. The army is on the streets, but the looting, as you know, goes on. The students are the worst. The people no longer wait for the soldiers to turn their backs before they steal. The army doesn’t seem to be an effective deterrent any more.’

  The general again nodded thoughtfully, ‘Perhaps we should have had our men remove their red berets way back in the beginning. It would have been helpful having supporters in the area working behind the scenes. We’ve let things get out of hand. Lack of respect is a disease, Lanti, and it spreads. Aceh, Ambon, Kalimantan, Irian Jaya.’

  ‘You mean West Papua, General,’ said Colonel Javid Jayakatong, commanding officer of a mechanised infantry regiment. ‘I still can’t believe the government caved in to pressure from a few natives waving spears and allowed the place to be renamed.’

  ‘They can call it what they like, Colonel. It’ll always be Irian Jaya to me,’ said Suluang.

  ‘Even Bali is proving difficult,’ said Rajasa, snorting in disbelief.

  ‘Yes, it has never really recovered from those fanatics,’ said Jayakatong, ‘The Balinese resent us. They think we allowed it to happen because they’re Hindu, rather than Muslim. Fools. Don’t all of us here have assets there that rely on the tourists? Why would we hurt our own investments? Still, there is a bright side.’

  ‘And that is . . .?’ Rajasa was intrigued.

  ‘The number of Australian flags burned across the country in support of the attacks,’ said Jayakatong.

  The men laughed heartily.

  The general waited for the laughter to subside and let his face assume a hard, conspiratorial mien. He leaned forward. ‘It started with East Timor. Now, every other island and province with the vaguest historical grudge against Java is moving towards secession. There are racial tensions, religious pressures. Gentlemen, we are sitting on the complete disintegration of Indonesia, nothing less.’

  Blood flushed into Colonel Jayakatong’s head at the mention of East Timor. He had been chased through a jungle trail there, humiliated by Australian soldiers, and he hit the table with a closed fist. ‘Austral
ians! Asia’s white trash! They are to blame for so much unrest within our country.’

  Lanti Rajasa spoke in a low voice, ‘Many Indonesians feel as you do, Colonel.’

  Suluang was pleased to see the anger on the colonel’s face. That was good. It fed his resolve. He glanced quickly at Rajasa and received an imperceptible nod. ‘We all know why we’re here. Indonesia needs a strong hand. Together, united, we have the means at our disposal to act in Indonesia’s interests.’

  Rajasa’s eyes flicked from Colonel Jayakatong to General Kukuh Masri, the man known as Mao, for his striking resemblance to the late Chinese leader. They’d all been thinking the same thought. Indeed, it had been whispered often enough in barracks throughout Indonesia since Australia’s invasion of East Timor. The impact of that blow was still echoing throughout the country, with each subsequent month seeming to bring a further diminution in the power and authority of the country’s armed forces. Finally, someone had put the idea on the table and neither Jayakatong nor Masri had flinched.

  General Masri had been silent, Rajasa noted, nodding occasionally but hardly the strident advocate of military intervention they were expecting. They needed him. He commanded a powerful regiment of crack paratroopers. ‘Yes, it’s time to stop killing our own people,’ he said at last.

  General Suluang raised his empty glass and saluted Masri’s sentiment. ‘You are absolutely right, Mao. We might be the shepherds, but our flock is wandering off. We need to regather them if Indonesia is to survive.’

  The men looked at each other a little nervously. After the initial bluster, each man knew the course they were on was a dangerous one. ‘And,’ said Suluang after a pause, ‘I have an idea that will almost guarantee there’ll be no blood-letting on Indonesian soil.’

  ‘What of the Americans? How would they react?’ said Colonel Jayakatong. ‘They are an unpredictable quantity.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Suluang, ‘the Americans.’ He seemed to be placing the question under scrutiny as he took another toothpick and examined its point. ‘They do not want to see Indonesia disintegrate. They will appreciate the benefits of a strong hand holding the archipelago together. And we’re not terrorists, or religious fanatics. We have a legitimate concern for our country’s stability. If we say the right things about trade, promise a return to stability. Free elections, of course . . .’ The general shrugged dismissively.