Identity (A Short Story)
Chapter 6.
Martin drove the agents van the short distance, may be one and a half km’s, to the Police station, where he parked it just down the road from the Police station. He then walked towards the Post Office and as he walked pasted the Police station he dropped the van keys in the entrance so that they could not be missed by anyone entering the Police station.
At the Post Office, Martin sent all the padded envelopes via overnight carrier to ASIO Head Office, he also purchased an extra large padded bag, he placed his lap top and portable hard drive in it and addressed it to himself and sent it by snail mail. He also posted an envelope to his old school friend. He then walked home where he found the two agents had tried to escape but they were unsuccessful, all they achieved was to crawl a small distance across the lounge room.
“Don’t worry guys it’s just about over,” said Martin, as he picked up the land line phone and dialled the Police.
“Hello, Police hot line,” said a voice on the phone.
“Hello, I would like to report a break in,” said Martin.
“Go to the web site and fill in form A9B, Sir,” replied the voice on the phone.
“OK, but what do I do with the intruders, I have them gaffer tape up on my lounge room floor,” said Martin.
“Give me your address, I will send a car around,” replied the voice on the phone.
Martin gave them his address and hung up the phone.
Well, let’s see what happens now,” said Martin.
Martin then noticed the bullet hole in the floor, so he went into the spare room and returned with a carpet rug, which he placed over the bullet hole.
“There you go all fixed,” said Martin.
It did not take long before the sound of a Police siren approaching broke the normal sound of a suburban street. Martin opened the front door and went outside to greet the Police. Two Police cars pulled up outside Martin’s house and four uniformed officers approach him.
“Are you the house holder?” asked one of the Police Officers.
“Yes,” replied Martin.
“You have detained some intruders?” asked the Police Officer.
“Yes, there inside on the lounge room floor,” replied Martin.
“You should not have done that,” said the Police Officer.
“Well I did, just go inside and take them away,” said Martin.
Two of the officers walked, somewhat tentatively, towards the front door.
“My goodness, their gaffer taped together, they can’t hurt you,” said Martin as he walked into the house.
The two officers followed Martin into the house.
“There they are,” said Martin.
One of the officers knelt down and removed the tape from the intruders moths and started removing the gaffer tape as well as trying to untangle the cargo net. The other officer talked on his radio, telling the two officer who stayed outside to come in and assist.
“You should not have detained them, you have left yourself open to be charged with unlawful detention,” said the senior officer.
The other two officers came in to the house and started helping with removal of the gaffer tape and untangling the cargo net.
Having removed the gaffer tape from the intruders moths, one of the officers asked, “What are your names?”
Both intruders did not reply.
“There is a motion activated camera at the back door, do you want the video?” asked Martin.
“Yes,” replied the senior officer.
Martin went to the back door and removed the camera from the wall, he returned and gave it to the senior officer, who placed it in an evidence bag.
“Aren’t you going to have a look?” asked Martin.
“Later,” replied the Senior officer.
The two intruders were freed from the gaffer tape and cargo net, then they were hand cuffed. As they were being lead away, one of them said, “you will regret this.”
“Regret is a waste of time, so I want regret anything,” said Martin.
“Take them away,” said the senior officer, who then asked Martin, “tell me everything from the start?”
“Well, I was in the bedroom, making the bed when I heard someone opening the back door, then I heard someone fall over,” said Martin, who then stopped and said, “can you give me say half an hour, I come into the Police station and tell you everything then.”
The senior Police officer was reluctant but agreed.
With all the Police gone, Martin sat on the lounge and took stock, he had so many questions. Why were ASIO watching him? What had he done? He was in a bit of a no win situation, he knew that, so all he could do was let it play out and hope. He knew that he did not have much time, once the ASIO agent got to the Police station and made their phone call, well, they would be back.
So Martin walked the one and a half km’s to the Police station, he walked in and said, “hi I’m here to make a statement.”
A Police officer took him to an interview room and said, “wait here please.”
The interview room was a bit non descript, grey walls, a table in the middle of the room with tape recording equipment at one end of it. Martin sat at the table and waited, knowing things were about to get difficult.
After a few moments the two ASIO agent walked into the room and sat opposite Martin and one of them said, “here we are again, but the shoes on the other foot now.”
Martin just looked at them and said nothing.
“You were in London a few weeks ago, who did you meet with?” asked one of the ASIO agents. He said it with some aggression and Martin quickly realised that they were about to play, ‘good cop, bad cop.’
“I met a lot of people, mostly tour guides and fellow tourists as well as Hotel employees,” said Martin.
“Now Martin, it will be a lot better for you if you tell us the truth,” said the second ASIO agent, confirming Martin’s thought that they were playing, ‘good cop, bad cop.’
“We know who you met with, Abdul Carn,” said the first ASIO agent, while hitting the desk.
“He’s a terrorist, do you guys think I’m a terrorist?” said Martin.
“We know you are,” said the first ASIO agent.
“My goodness, the total incompetence is beyond belief,” said Martin.
The second ASIO agent took a picture from a file and pushed it across the table and then asked, “is this you?”
Martin looked at the picture, which was a bit grainy, as if it was from a video, it looked like it was from Heathrow Airport. After a few moments he said, “there I am standing at the ticket counter,” he pointed at himself in the picture.
“No, there you are, right there,” said the first ASIO agent, while pointing at a different person in the picture.
“My goodness, is all this just a case of mistaken identity, your incompetence just get worse and worse. You blocks need to use your eyes instead of relying on some computer face recognition program. Have you actually looked at this photo?” asked Martin, as he pushed the photo back across the table.
The first ASIO agent reacted to something said to him through his eye piece and said, “we’ll be back.”
Both ASIO agents left the room, Martin just sat there, he closed his eyes and tried to think about happy things.
About half an hour pasted before both ASIO agents returned and sat at the table, they said nothing for a while, they just stared at Martin. Martin just sat there with his eyes closed, ignoring them.
“What have you done with our van?” asked the first ASIO agent.
“Last time I saw it, it was parked outside, I saw it as I arrived,” said Martin.
“Where are the keys?” asked the second ASIO agent.
“Why don’t you ask the coppers?” replied Martin.
The second ASIO agent got up and left the room.
“You are in so much trouble,” said the first ASIO agent, he then added, “you will be transported to head office for further questioning.”
“Isn’t there some sort of time limit before you have to charge me with something?” asked Martin.
“Under the terrorism act we can hold you for thirty six hours, even then we can apply for an extension,” said the first ASIO agent.
The second ASIO agent returned and said something to the first. The first agent then said, “transport has arrived so you will now be taken to head office.”
Martin was made to stand, he was hand cuffed and then lead out through the Police station to a black car parked outside the station.
As Martin was being lead through the Police station he said to one of the Police officers, “make sure my solicitor knows where I am when he rings.”
The drive to head office took just on two hours, mostly on freeways, which made for a boring trip. As Martin sat in the car he looked out the window, just watching the other cars, watching everybody going about their daily lives. He found himself wondering how things came to this, one minute he was going about his normal life and due to some sort of mistaken identity, here he was on his way to be interrogates at ASIO head office. There but for the grace of God.
They arrived at ASIO head office, which was underwhelming, it looked just like any other multi story building, no signs saying, ‘ASIO’, nothing that would indicate what went on inside.
The car drove down a ramp into an underground car park that had a guard and roller door preventing access, the driver showed his ID and the guard opened the roller door. After parking, Martin was taken to an interview room, he was still hand cuffed, and left there.
Interview rooms seem to be the same weather they are in a Police station or in ASIO’s head office, grey walls, table and chairs in the middle of the room, recording equipment at one end of the table. One difference with this room was that there was a large mirror on one wall, Martin took this to be a one way window and that he was being watched. He would of waved but he was hand cuffed to the table, so he just smiled instead.
After a while two ASIO agents came into the room and sat opposite Martin, they were in their mid thirties, well dressed in good quality suits, clean shaven with short hair. Put a brief case in their hands and they would of pasted as business men.
One of them removed Martin’s hand cuffs and said, “there that should be a bit more comfortable.”
Here we go again, thought Martin, good cop, bad cop.
“Tell me Martin,” said one of the ASIO agents, who paused for a moment before continuing, “what did you download from our data base?”
“Haven’t your tech people checked yet, I didn’t down load anything, I just pretended to, so as to wind up your two agents. You have checked?” Martin looked at the agent’s faces, before adding, “My goodness you haven’t, your incompetence just keeps giving,” said Martin, his voice full of joy.
The two ASIO agent just continued to look at Martin, then the second agent asked, “who did you send the portable hard drive to?”
Martin just looked back at them before saying, “so what’s this? Some sort of evil stare technique, in want work you know.”
The agent repeated the question, “who did you send the portable hard drive to?”
“You blocks need to check your deliveries,” replied Martin.
“What have you done with our agents guns, ID cards and wallets?” asked the first ASIO agent.
“Just go and check you deliveries, you guys are really setting the bar high for total incompetence, if incompetence was part of the Olympics, you blocks would be gold medal winners,” said Martin, who was not trying to hide his amusement.
“What did you upload to the internet,” asked the first agent.
“Nothing, I was just playing with your agents, check my lap top,” said Martin.
The second agent looked around at the mirror and then back at Martin.
“Someone is going to check the deliveries are they, good move,” said Martin.
The two agents then just looked at Martin and said nothing.
“Enough with the staring technique,” said Martin, before adding, “why have you guys stopped asking about terrorists? Has something happened? Did you finally do the checks on me that you should of done before putting me under surveillance? Have you found out that I am not a terrorist?”
The two agents just continued to look at Martin, so Martin just looked back at their faces and said, “has the real terrorist been court?”
The second ASIO agent looked away for a moment and Martin said, “that’s it, the real terrorist has been court, who court him? The Yanks, the Poms, that’s it, isn’t it, my goodness, how embarrassing for you.” Martin smiled and laughed just a little, before saying, “sorry guys, it’s just a classic.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, you should take this seriously,” said the first agent.
“Arr, come on guys, what have you got, gaffer taping up some intruders, you might get me on sending you some packages, you would be hard pressed getting me on moving a van. Now you could fit me up without much trouble, I don’t know about that, I’m sure you know more about that sort of thing than me,” said Martin.
The first ASIO agent put his hand to his ear and then looked around at the large mirror and nodded. Both ASIO agent then left the room, so Martin smiled at the mirror, closed his eyes, sat back as best he could and thought about something nice.
Martin spent the next few hours trying to look like he didn’t have any problems in life, he put his head on the table and pretended to sleep, he sat on the floor and imitated Steve McQueen in the Great Escape, throwing an imaginary ball against the wall and then catching it.
Eventual the door to the interview room opened and an older man walked in, he was in his late fifties, he wore an expencive suit, he looked like someone in charge, someone in orthority. Martin got to his feet and said, “time for the big guns.”
“My name is George,” said the man as he put his hand out and shook Martin by the hand, he then added, “take a seat.”
“Well Martin, what am I going to do with you?” said George.
“I think we should shack hands, put our bat and ball away, and call it a draw,” said Martin.
“Bad light stopped play,” said George, he paused for a short moment and then added, “You’ll notice that I am not wearing my hat.”
“I hadn’t noticed, it must be a hypothetical hat,” replied Martin.
George just smiled before saying, “of course we would have to be sure that all the bats and balls were accounted for.”
“I think my Solicitor might have a ball that I hit for six,” said Martin, he smiled at George before adding, “I’m sure he will give it to you.”
“He already has,” replied George.
“A crowd catch,” said Martin.
George stood up and put his hand out so Martin stood and they shook hands.
“Your Solicitor is down stairs, I’m sure he will give you a lift home,” said George, he then gave Martin a steady stare before adding, “I could use someone like you.”
“It’s been interesting, George,” replied Martin.
An ASIO agent then excorted Martin out of the building.
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Identity
Chapter 7.
With Martin home and with the ordeal hopefully over he relaxed, he sat on the lounge and wondered if it was all a dream. After a while he logged onto the internet and onto his face book page and posted, ‘sorry I have not posted for a few days, been a bit busy, all good and back to normal.’ He also wrote, using the old snail mail system, to some old friends, tell them that all was good and that he hoped to visit them soon.
A few months pasted before Martin embarked on a road trip, four weeks of travelling around visiting old friends and places from his past. About three weeks into this tip Martin visited and old school friend, the same old school friend he had sent a flash drive containing video of his encounter with ASIO.
Martin’s old school friend lived an alternate life way out in the bush, he did not even own a computer or mobile phone. After catching up on old time they went for a walk in the country side.
Martin’s old school friend asked, “do you want your flash drive back?”
“No, you keep it, and if anything odd happens to me, well, just send it to the media,” replied Martin.
They did not talk about it ever again.
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Jim Pope Copy Right 2025