ANTARCTIC FIRE: A Harry Crook Thriller - Conspiracy in the Antarctic by Chris Geater

Author:Chris Geater [Geater, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-05T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jeffery (Bert) Lancaster. Intelligence agents are required to spend some seasons in their home country, mainly to recuperate from difficult assignments but also to remind them for whom they exist in the first place. My home stint saw me mindlessly ferreting around Canberra chasing potential errant public servants whose foreign heritage tempted them into compromising security situations. One such fellow held a senior position in the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy, a department that grew exponentially due to the Australian minerals boom. He immigrated from Kenya a dozen or so years prior to my interaction and was suspected of supplying his old government with Australian intellectual property surrounding open cut coal mining. This IP would then be provided to the Chinese who were busily developing Kenya into a ‘Mineral Walmart’.

China who at that time were our number one customer for the never ending supply of Australian quality low-ash coal developed a back-door policy for many of these small resource rich African nations. Providing them with cheap loans to build infrastructure for resource development these countries were indebted to China leaving them predisposed to supplying cheap coal and other minerals which undercut Australian competitiveness and damaged our industry. Many other countries saw Africa as a troubling source of instability, migration and terrorism, China saw opportunity.

Our investigation revealed a concerted effort on behalf of China to turn Kenya into a total puppet nation where not only did they have access to extremely cheap coal and iron ore but they also controlled the politics and national direction.

I was dispatched to Kenya. My overt assignment as an attaché to the Australian High Commission was simple enough. Work with the High Commission to continue to win the confidence of certain accessible government ministers and high end industry leaders. Ultimately influence them and open their eyes to the Chinese end game, encourage them to increase the price of resources so that they improve revenue and more importantly Australia remains competitive, although they didn't need to know the later. This agenda consumed the Australian High Commission in Kenya, some positive results and some not so positive. My covert assignment was more devious in nature. Identify weaknesses, addictions, improprieties or corruption to use as leverage in obtaining our goal of influence. By some, this could be considered below the morals and ethics of a western nation such as ours. I consoled my conscience in the knowledge that we didn't attempt to trap people by creating tempting situations, we merely utilised weaknesses in the event they might choose to yield to their carnal nature.

Fortunately throughout the months a smorgasbord of opportunities presented themselves to us as carnality abounded. One of our High Commission attachés, a Jeffery Lancaster or Bert for obvious reasons was an old ASIS Kenyan hand with over seven years under his belt stationed in Nairobi. As my controller along with his local knowledge we accumulated a reasonable membership list of people whom we were able to coerce. Capable and confident, Bert opened doors through which I would race returning with the necessary dirt or trade deals.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.