Another hope dashed. Benjamin carried extra fuel in the forty-four gallon drum on the back of the Land Rover. Defeated and crying, Katherine reluctantly climbed back into the vehicle, sat on the passenger seat with her back to the driver’s side and opened her blouse to feed Carolyn. The baby seemed to be aware of the distress and suckled intermittently, looking up at Katherine’s tear-stained face between sucks. After a while Benjamin leaned through the open driver’s window and put a bottle of lukewarm water on the seat next to Katherine. No words passed between them and Benjamin did not look at her. He walked a short distance into the bushes, turned his back and relieved himself, making no effort to hide from Katherine. She looked down at Carolyn and wondered how this was going to all end. All she knew was that somehow she must make contact with one of the trucks that she could hear as they roared past the rest-stop, ignorant of the drama taking place.
Benjamin returned to the ute and said, ‘We’re leavin’ now. If ya wanna piss, go now ‘cause our next stop’s at Yalata Roadhouse an’ that’s a coupla hours drive.’
Katherine felt she could hold on that long. Apart from the embarrassment of being monitored by Benjamin she felt at Yalata she might be able to have an excuse to go to the toilets and somehow get help. Surely he would have to refuel there before crossing the Nullarbor? She knew the roadhouse was the last stop for fuel and water before the West Australian border.
She gave no reply, but violently slammed her door behind her, slumped into the se
at and held Carolyn close, thankful that her feed had quietened her. Since her sobbing episode she’d been relatively quiet and good, comforted by her mother’s embrace.
In the offices of Spinifex Exploration N. L. in North Kalgoorlie Petri had finished submitting and discussing his latest work with the management team. General Manager Fred Cooper smiled beneficently at him. ‘Well done, Petri. Yes, a good job well done. Once we finalise the budget next week we’ll be able to allocate funds for both our gold and our nickel projects. The last capital raising was very well supported by the market and our results have been good.’
Petri had found it was not as easy being a consultant geologist as he had hoped or believed possible during the four years after leaving AGO. The boom in mineral exploration that started with the exciting nickel discoveries was continuing. Geologists found employment easily within larger company structures but consulting geologists found themselves competing for the smaller jobs with the junior companies. Once projects were complete there were commonly delays for payment as the companies conserved cash.
Apart from a few smaller contracts, Petri was fortunate to have his long-term retainer with Spinifex Exploration through which he received regular payments. It worked well for him. Not only did he have a good relationship with the manager and other professionals of the company, affectionately known as ‘Spex’ amongst both the geoscientists and the stock market, but also his payments were prompt and generous. Charl du Toit made sure of that.
Petri smiled at Fred and wondered if this was a good time to raise the subject of his new ideas. After all, it was his modelling of the relationship between the unusual ultramafic rocks and the fault structures that had led to Spex taking out title over the most prospective areas. Latecomers surrounded the Spex Prospecting Licences and even AGO was knocking on their doors looking for possible joint ventures.
‘Thanks, Fred. Can I talk to you about some of my ideas for chasing gold in areas that have been ignored to date?’
‘Of course. You always seem to come up with novel concepts. The success we had at Golden Girl has proved they are worth looking at. Charl is really very pleased with our progress and so he should be with the share price almost tripling in the past six months. Come on in to my office.’ The General Manager opened the door to his office and paternalistically put his arm around Petri’s shoulder as he ushered him in.
The offices at Spex were located at the northern end of Brookman Street, the extension of the infamous Hannan Street. Locals joked that it was sex in the south and Spex in the north. The small but adequate offices showed no sign of wasteful expenditure. It was something visiting shareholders and analysts were pleased to see. Too many of the successful, or apparently successful, ‘no liability’ companies spent more money on fancy offices and directors’ benefits than on discovering the minerals they claimed to be the target of their activities.
‘Petri, what’s on your mind?’ Fred Cooper rarely wasted time on pleasantries and got straight to the point.
‘Well, I’ve been thinking about new areas for our gold exploration. All the gold found so far has been associated with the greenstone belts and nearly all the ground has been pegged.’
‘Let’s have a look at the maps.’ Cooper pulled out a map roll and spread it out on the desk. It showed the geology of the goldfields and the patchwork pattern of licences scattered over the area.
‘Well, look at these elongate outcrops of greenstones.’ Petri traced the stripes of green on the map with his index finger.
‘A deliberate choice of colour by the geologists, I should think,’ chuckled Cooper.
‘It really makes them stand out against the pink of the surrounding ancient granites of the Yilgarn Block.’
‘Go on, tell me your idea. You’re not going to suggest that we go and explore in those granites, are you?’
‘No. No. Not at all.’ Now it was Petri’s turn to laugh. ‘But those greenstones have been exposed and eroded for many millions of years yet they are still gold-rich. Rich enough to host big mines.’
‘Yes, I heard that recent dating indicated that they are some of the oldest rocks in the world, more than three and a half thousand million years. So, what are you getting at?’
Petri nodded. ‘That’s right. So if the rocks were eroded over a large chunk of that time, where did all the gold go?’
‘You mean deposited somewhere else, like the South African and Canadian placer deposits?’
‘Exactly. The gold must have been transported to somewhere as the rivers eroded the host rocks. We know the west was very much wetter and the rivers more vigorous in the past, even the recent past, than now.’
‘So, what, exactly, is your point?’
Petri sat down on the opposite side of the desk and unrolled another map showing the geology of Western Australia and also the ancient drainage patterns of rivers long since dry.
‘Look here,’ he said and he started to explain his theory.
Alec woke very early on the Tuesday morning. His eyes, thickly encrusted with sleep from dried tears, felt scratchy and uncomfortable. He found it impossible to come to terms with how his life had changed so suddenly and dramatically. As he lay in dark, he tried again to convince himself that he had done everything in his power to find his vanished wife and baby.
He went over and over the events leading to his present predicament. Angry that he had been in such a hurry to start his research, he cursed himself for the risks taken, risks that endangered the most important people in his life. During his brief conversation on the phone yesterday his mother-in-law had listened in silence to his description of the events. When he finished and told her that he was still unsure of Katherine and Carolyn’s whereabouts she simply said that she was sure they would turn up. The words were supposed to be reassuring but her voice was steely cold. Alec did not know how to respond, other than with platitudes. When he heard the beeps indicating his timed call was about to end he told her that he had no more change. She was still talking when the line went dead.
The weak morning sunlight was penetrating the thin curtains of the caravan and making the unfamiliar shapes inside identifiable.