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Finally, Wednesday evening arrived. I sat through a quiet meal with Dorothy. It was already getting dark as I sat looking through the picture window in the lounge-room, sipping my coffee. The lights were twinkling from houses down in the valley below. The depression between the hills continued through to Port Phillip Bay some miles to the south. During the evening, after a hot day, a cool breeze originating from the large volume of water, would find its way up to the house on the side of the hill. A welcome relief.

It was not that form of relief I was seeking however. Reluctantly, I collected my small tool bag which contained the instruments necessary to do the job, and walked up the hill to meet Alec. Halfway up the incline I stopped and looked back across the gardens and down to the roof of the house and pictured the family inside. My reluctance to embark on this escapade welled up even more.

 

I could see Alec's car parked on the service road, but no Alec. He soon appeared however from the General store on the corner with a double-header ice cream which was already running down the cone, on to his hand. It was a stupid thought taking into account the severity of the evening, but I was saying to myself, "that ice cream will be in his lap before we have driven far." The average person would have been exuding nervous tension but Alec's nonchalance was really off-putting.

 

They pulled into the very spot where I had parked on my previous visit. I looked through the trees towards the house. "Damn!"

"What's the matter?"

"There's a light on. There must be someone in the house."

"Could Paul have got things wrong?"

"No.  Perhaps one of the family has arrived home early."

 

They both sat gazing out into the darkness. My thoughts were split right down the middle. On the one hand aborting the mission would have been a relief, on the other I knew it would be better to get it over and done with, rather than postpone it. Alec was reaching for the door handle. "I'll go and have a look around."

There was no point in asking him to be careful. This was his stock-in-trade and I watched him until he finally disappeared amongst the shrubbery. It seemed forever, sitting and waiting, expecting any minute to be questioned by a police patrol, but nothing happened until the light in the house was suddenly extinguished. I sat bolt upright in my seat, leaning forward to try and get a better view through the windshield. I expected Alec to appear, and in a hurry, but when he eventually hoved into sight it was more of an afternoon stroll. He opened the door and reached inside for his bag.

 

"What are you doing? Didn't you see the activity in the house? Someone is in there, they turned out the light!"

"There's no one in there - that was me! I thought it best to turn it off before I left." I swallowed hard. He had already broken in and had a look around. In contrast to me, his nervous state must have been hovering around Zero. I followed Alec into the grounds and through the door at the end of the driveway, where Paul had let me in. Once inside, my nerves rose a few more notches, unlike the last time I was not a visitor.

 

Alec spoke in a whisper. "Show me the way to the safe."

The silence seemed absolute as they made their way through the house. Their footsteps were completely dampened by the deep pile of the carpet, but the mere movement created a faint rustling sound, which seemed to get amplified in the mind as the seconds ticked by. I opened the door and walked into the room with the large viewing window. It was emanating an eerie light which gave the objects in the room a silvery hue. Alec watched as I went through the motions to uncover the safe. He was shining his pencil torch and the reflected light on his face revealed the increasing excitement, peaking as the safe door finally came into view.

 

Alec was smiling. "I thought it would be this type. There'll be no difficulty opening it. Get rid of those electronic devices for me Will."

It was a simple request, but it presented the ultimate challenge. One slip and the affair would result in bedlam and panic. I pulled out the excess wiring from behind the paneling. When I had finished, my repair work would be hidden, and hopefully not detected.

 

Alec focused the light as I removed a surgeon's scalpel from my bag, together with previously prepared jumper wires. I stretched a portion of the wire over the wooden frame in the wall and prepared to cut the insulation along it's length. Beads of sweat appeared as if by magic, running down my face and into my eyes. I pictured a nurse dabbing the surgeon's forehead with a pad. I could have done with that right now as I wiped my eyes on my jacket sleeve, getting them back into focus.

 

The cut was successful first time and I slipped my finger between the insulation and spread the wires across my hand. Red, black, green, yellow, orange, as per the information. No snags so far. Any electronics engineer worth his salt would have paired the red and black to his detriment, but in this case it would be red and green. The second matching pair, black and yellow, with orange as a dummy wire, to add to the confusion. I quickly stripped a small amount of insulation from each wire and fitted the jumper. The time that I had been dreading had arrived and I felt my body start to shiver.

Alec looked down. "Have you finished?"

"Yes. Take hold of the magnets and twist them. They'll pull off, but if the alarm goes, get that door open quick smart!"

Alec nodded and proceeded as instructed. My body jumped as I heard the micro switch’s click. The milliseconds period before the alarm would normally sound, seemed stretched out in time.  I realized that it was not going to happen.

 

"You're a genius Will," was Alec's brief remark as he began to tackle opening the safe. He didn't need the counting device, only the tumbler amplifier. About a dozen turns of the dial was enough before the heavy clunking sound of the door handle preceded the swinging open of the door.

Alec retrieved a letter size, soft leather container, housing no more than fifty documents. He passed them to me and then closing the safe door repositioned the magnetic devices. The connecting wires were secreted once again, behind the paneling, and the covers replaced.

 

The whole episode had now taken on a more menacing aspect. Before, if caught, it could have been mistaken for a simple burglary but in possession of the documents the outcome would be far worse.

After rechecking that nothing had been left behind they made their way back through the house towards the secluded entrance. Everything had gone without a hitch and I couldn't come to terms with it. Every step I took I was expecting something diabolical to happen. They hesitated in the foyer of the entrance.

"You go first Alec. I'll reset the alarm and make sure the door is locked.  See you back at the car."

The act of setting the alarm took only seconds and I released the lock on the door and pulled it closed. The clicking action of the door interrupted the still night, but it also seemed to provoke a violent, noisy reaction, in the driveway. Shouts and scuffling continued for a few more seconds as I froze in the doorway behind the shrubs.

 

I stared down the driveway only to see Alec wrestled to the ground by three men. They were not in police uniform, probably from a private security firm. As I watched they started to kick him and stomp on his back. I could feel every impact as my mind flashed back to the beating I had received from the military policemen in Chesapeake Bay. I felt the overwhelming impulse to go to Alec's assistance but the sudden realization that I was also in danger descended on me. The activity, as they began to secure Alec, was coming to an end and one of the men had started to look around.

There was only one way to go and I took off in the direction that would take me to the back of the house. Tightly gripping the small document pouch, I precariously made his way over the rocky beds that had been purposely placed there to prevent the soil from eroding down the steep incline. Skidding, and sometimes falling to my knees in an endeavour to get away, trying to control the panic that was taking over.

 

The rocks unexpectedly changed to flat concrete and I realized that I had stumbled on to a porch with low brick walls on two sides. I stood looking for an exit that would take me out of harm's way, but at that moment the lights from the windows above flooded the area.

Pure instinct and the desire to survive made me leap over the wall into the darkness below. It could only have been a few seconds but it seemed much longer as I felt the sensation of falling. There was even enough time to conjure up the thought "if I fall much further I'm dead" before my body hit the ground amongst the beds below and rolled uncontrollably down the steep incline into the cover of a large Rhododendron bush.

 

Lying there, bruised and battered, but thankful to still be in one piece I looked through the leaves to see two of the men leaning over the brick wall scanning the area below. They must be private security. The police wouldn't have keys for the house, but how did they happen to be on the spot at precisely that time? There could only be one plausible answer.

 

Somewhere in that house they must have tripped an alarm that was connected back to the company. Something that Paul obviously didn't know about. The lights above went out and after a couple of minutes it felt safe to painfully make my way back towards the road where Alec's car was parked. Before leaving the security of the trees I looked across towards the roadway to see a car pull out of the rear driveway.

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They would have Alec in there, and he would probably still be receiving the treatment. I felt for Alec, although under normal circumstances and considering what he did for a living the thought did not feel right, but at that moment it seemed appropriate. They had no need to beat him up like that. Alec was a real passive type.

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