JonDLundyn Parker 2 #10
February 15th 2007 02:42
Chapter 10
Joe Falk and his neighbour Peters sat astride their mounts high above the valley floor in the New England Ranges. They knew that the army had scouts out and looking for the fire starters they had seen. Having fought their own battles with the terrorist fires both men had parleyed and decided to get out and do a bit of scouting themselves. From horse back they could cover a lot of ground and though there were only two of them they also knew that almost all their neighbours were doing something similar.
They moved around to an area where the first fires had broken out. Joe pointed with the handle of his coiled leather stock whip where he had seen the sparks of each fire start. They rode down into a dry gully and quickly, because they knew what they were looking for, found two of the burnt out phones. They marked the spots with red ribbon torn from a table cloth they brought along for the purpose. They also marked in GPS positions into an SMS telephone message they were preparing. Within two days of searching the men had found three more burnt out phones but what was more significant, two phones that had not been set off! They finished typing their text message into Joe’s mobile satellite phone and sent it off to Peters’ nephew who worked for the department of defence as solicitor. The solicitor quickly realising the importance of his uncle’s find rang a friend who was a colonel in the army and from there a forensic team from the national crime squad were crawling all over the scene that Falk and Peters had marked out. Perhaps Nasser’s days would be limited?
Similarly teams of bush walkers had pulled out old ordinance maps of water catchment areas throughout the country. They knew they were probably covering areas that the army and airforce were searching or had discounted but they felt it was an opportunity to do something, rather than sit and wait. They poured out in their thousands. They went as single hikers, couples, groups of up to six and many of the Rover Scout groups had also scheduled time to go searching in their vicinity. Utilising four wheel drives, dirt bikes and quads, canoes and motorised tinnies they headed into the wild and not so wild catchment areas. In all there was almost twenty thousand men and women on a professional and amateur basis searching hundreds of thousands of square kilometres ranging from rugged bushland to well worn waterside pasture. It was a country on the move.
Joe Falk and his neighbour Peters sat astride their mounts high above the valley floor in the New England Ranges. They knew that the army had scouts out and looking for the fire starters they had seen. Having fought their own battles with the terrorist fires both men had parleyed and decided to get out and do a bit of scouting themselves. From horse back they could cover a lot of ground and though there were only two of them they also knew that almost all their neighbours were doing something similar.
They moved around to an area where the first fires had broken out. Joe pointed with the handle of his coiled leather stock whip where he had seen the sparks of each fire start. They rode down into a dry gully and quickly, because they knew what they were looking for, found two of the burnt out phones. They marked the spots with red ribbon torn from a table cloth they brought along for the purpose. They also marked in GPS positions into an SMS telephone message they were preparing. Within two days of searching the men had found three more burnt out phones but what was more significant, two phones that had not been set off! They finished typing their text message into Joe’s mobile satellite phone and sent it off to Peters’ nephew who worked for the department of defence as solicitor. The solicitor quickly realising the importance of his uncle’s find rang a friend who was a colonel in the army and from there a forensic team from the national crime squad were crawling all over the scene that Falk and Peters had marked out. Perhaps Nasser’s days would be limited?
Similarly teams of bush walkers had pulled out old ordinance maps of water catchment areas throughout the country. They knew they were probably covering areas that the army and airforce were searching or had discounted but they felt it was an opportunity to do something, rather than sit and wait. They poured out in their thousands. They went as single hikers, couples, groups of up to six and many of the Rover Scout groups had also scheduled time to go searching in their vicinity. Utilising four wheel drives, dirt bikes and quads, canoes and motorised tinnies they headed into the wild and not so wild catchment areas. In all there was almost twenty thousand men and women on a professional and amateur basis searching hundreds of thousands of square kilometres ranging from rugged bushland to well worn waterside pasture. It was a country on the move.
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