Blood at Yellow Water

CHAPTER TWELVE

  SATURDAY MORNING - JABIRU

  At the request of Commissioner Fisher, Sam Popolo, Assistant Commissioner of the Northern Territory Police, had driven down from Darwin to Jabiru to lead the forensics investigation. He had worked through the night with the specialist forensics team trying to identify what had caused the explosions and to find evidence about the terrorists. The power had been restored in the plant and after clearing away the twisted metal, the team had been able to identify parts of the bomb that had been used to blow up the processing plant. Searching the cause of the explosion to the railway line had proved a lot more difficult. While they had set up powerful lights over the wrecked train engine and carriages, they had not identified any possible bomb parts by midnight and decided to re-start their investigation at dawn. However, they found traces of the plastic explosive C4 at the plant and they suspected that the same material had been used to blow up the train.

  Fisher had called a meeting of the Task Force for 7 a.m. He listened to various reports of his group who had each been allocated specific tasks. They had set up a Hotline to encourage anyone from the public to relay any information relevant to the bombings. They had conducted countless interviews with employees of the mine, the protesters and the participants at the opening function but to date, none of these had led to any concrete leads. Apart from the Islamic State flag, nothing had pointed to ISIS involvement.

  Sam Popolo reported to Fisher the initial findings of his team’s forensic investigation. He showed a piece of the explosive found at the mine to Fisher and other members of the Task Force.

  “This is a C4 plastic explosive, and it is the most sophisticated version any of the team have seen. The people who have made this and set the explosives are experts. Few people around the world would have access to such technology, it must be a highly organised terrorist group that set it up.”

  Fisher responded “Have you seen it used before Sam? Do you know which countries produce it or terrorists groups that have access to it?”

  “I’ve only heard of it being used once before, by the Israelis in the Middle East. But it’s possible ISIS could have got hold of it. I believe the Americans and the Chinese have the technology to produce it.”

  “Could a local group be responsible? We are holding a number of the protesters in custody as suspects, including from the aboriginal group. Would they be able to get access to this explosive?”

  “I doubt it very much. Even if they did somehow manage to get hold of some C4 they wouldn’t know how to use it, they’d probably blow themselves up. No, this was carried out by professionals,” stated Popolo with certainty.

  “O.K. we need to focus our attention on an international connection.”

  Turning to his team he asked “Has anyone mentioned seeing any strangers or foreigners?”

  A Task Force member ventured “Most of the protesters were blow-ins. There was a group of anti-uranium Japanese protesters but we’ve interviewed most of them and they seemed innocent enough. We could check them out again.”

  “O.K. do that,” said Fisher.

  “There were quite a few foreigners in the catering staff for the reception. It’s possible that a terrorist could have posed as a caterer and gained access to the mine,” opined another Task Force member.

  “That’s a good thought, can you check out thoroughly all the contractors used to set up the reception and provide food and hospitality?”

  After another half hour, the meeting disbanded with Fisher emphasising the urgency of obtaining results quickly.