UNDERGROUND

answer any questions? That he had the right to communicate with a lawyer? That he attended the interview of his own free will? That he was free to leave at any time?

Yes, Anthrax said in answer to each question.

Sexton then ploughed through a few more standard proce- dures before he finally got to the meat of the issue – telephones. He fished around in one of the many boxes and pulled out a mobile phone. Anthrax confirmed that it was his phone.

'Was that the phone that you used to call the 008 numbers and subsequent connections?' Sexton asked.

'Yes.'

'Contained in that phone is a number of pre-set numbers. Do you agree?'

'Yes.'

'I went to the trouble of extracting those records from it.' Sexton looked pleased with himself for hacking Anthrax's speed-dial numbers from the mobile. 'Number 22 is of some interest to myself. It comes up as Aaron. Could that be the person you referred to before as Aaron in South Australia?'

'Yes, but he is always moving house. He is a hard person to track down.'

Sexton went through a few more numbers, most of which Anthrax hedged. He asked Anthrax questions about his manip- ulation of the phone system, particularly about the way he made free calls overseas using Australian companies' 008 numbers.

When Anthrax had patiently explained how it all worked, Sexton went through some more speed-dial numbers.

'Number 43. Do you recognise that one?'

'That's the Swedish Party Line.'

'What about these other numbers? Such as 78? And 30?'

'I'm not sure. I couldn't say what any of these are. It's been so long,' Anthrax paused, sensing the pressure from the other side of the table. 'These ones here, they are numbers in my town. But I don't know who. Very often, 'cause I don't have any pen and paper with me, I just plug a number into the phone.'

Sexton looked unhappy. He decided to go in a little harder.