Chapter 23: Citius, Altius, Fortius

Opening Ceremony

Sunday, September 10^th – Friday, September 15^th, 2000

Sunday night, a bunch of us were gathered at my place, since the ABC was screening ‘Welcome to my Sydney’, the tourism promotional video that Sue had made, and which I had featured in. Of course, it had been shown earlier in the year on some Cable TV channels in the US and Europe, so as to capitalize on the people coming to Sydney for the Olympic games, but this would be the first time people in Australia had seen it. I had prepared myself for plenty of good-natured ribbing from the others, I was sure they would find plenty of examples to poke fun at me.

“Look at him on that horse!” Fiona said, during the scene at Mudgee where I was riding a horse, helping to move some sheep. “He almost looks like he knows what he’s doing!”

“Did they pay the horse danger money for that scene?” Kaz asked.

Despite the teasing, everyone thought I did a decent job, and that the show did a good job of highlighting some of the attractions around Sydney and New South Wales. Michelle said that little beach cottage at Kims, near Terrigal looked lovely, suggesting that the two of us might like a weekend there at some stage. That gave me an idea, maybe I should try to plan for something special with Michelle, once she felt she was ready.

It was a fun evening, having a bunch of others over to share the viewing experience was part of what I was looking forward to in my new life at Sedgebrook Terrace, and a good way to relax before the hectic week ahead.

“We’ve got a minor problem with the plans for O’Rourke,” Alexa said, when she met with Lori and me in my office. “That fuckwit, John Howard, has invited him to a formal dinner on Thursday night at Kirribilli House, no doubt to try and get Fox News’s support for his government in next year’s election. So, he’s going directly from the media reception to a swanky dinner, and we won’t have the chance to intercept him.”

“Fuck!” Lori swore. “So, what is our fallback position?”

“He’s going to be watching the swimming events most nights next week, we should have the chance on Monday evening, when he’s going back to his hotel at Darling Harbour after the last event. That will work out better, there will be less police action around the Olympic area, but everything else will remain as planned. I’ll make sure you two are called when it’s leaving; are you likely to be there at the Olympic Media Centre that evening?”

“Yes, I’m pretty much working full time at Homebush from Thursday,” she said. “Not that I’m doing any actual reporting or filing stories, I just need to make sure our people are covering everything, and there are no hitches. Will and I will work out how he will meet me, I will most likely be in the USA Today media rooms, that way we can leave together when you call.”

Neither Lori, nor Alexa had given me any details on how they planned to deal with O’Rourke, all I knew is that they – most likely Alexa – would kill him. As distasteful as that sounded, I really felt no remorse for him, he was getting off pretty lightly, in my book. I knew Alexa had taken a solemn vow to avenge the murder of her cousin, Sophia, and Lori needed to do this so as to give herself a sense of closure from what he had done to her, many years ago. I guess I had some skin in the game, since if he hadn’t raped Lori back in early 1980, she probably wouldn’t have left to go overseas ... but then, all the other events that had shaped my life because of that may not have happened, either.

“Great, everything is still on track, if there are any other changes, I’ll let you know,” Alexa said. “I hope all goes well for the opening ceremony, Will, you should have a great view of it all.”

“Do you think that change will make it more difficult?” I asked Lori once Alexa had left.

“No, we had always had a backup plan in place, just in case the media reception evening would prove to be unworkable,” she said. “You have to hand it to Alexa, she’s very thorough, very careful in her planning. Are you still sure you want to be involved in all this?”

“Of course, I’ll be there with you,” I said. “I made that promise to you a few weeks ago, and I’m not going to back out or change my mind. I know how important it is to you, and I want to be there for you.”

“Thank you, Will, I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you?”

“I guess I could say the same thing about you,” I said. “Now, for Thursday night, the media function, I guess I need to get my suit to the dry cleaners, so I look suitable to be seen in public with you!”

“You don’t need to dress up for me,” she said. “But it is going to be one of those boring formal affairs, I’m sure you know the sort of thing, politicians making bombastic speeches, then going around, shaking hands, making nice, polite talk to people you really don’t like.”

“Comes with the territory, I guess,” I said. “That’s the same as all of the recording industry events, album release parties, and the like; you have to suck up to the industry heavies, program directors, buyers.”

“At least we will get some food, probably finger food, and free drinks,” she said.

Tuesday morning, we loaded up the trailer, and drove across to Olympic Park, ready to set things up for the first full rehearsal. The stage for the orchestra and other musicians was interesting, it was a multi-level structure. We were at the back of the upper level, where we still had a very good view of the arena, so when we weren’t actually playing, we would be able to take in the spectacle of the opening ceremony. This rehearsal wouldn’t just be for the musicians, but the people performing in the arena – the horse riders in the opening ‘Tribute to the Australian Stock Horse’ segment, the dancers in the various choreographed segments, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Band, and a representation of the Parade of Nations, the Olympic Flag, Torch entry, and the lighting of the flame – which wouldn’t actually be lit, but we could pretend that Cathy Freeman actually lit the flame in the cauldron.

All I could say about the opening segment – the Australian Stock Horse tribute, the musical ride, with 120 horses and their riders - it was visually stunning. The music was a special version of the ‘Man From Snowy River’ theme, and the ability of the riders controlling their horses was amazing. One of the formations was the riders forming the five Olympic rings, but the whole segment was amazing. Then a huge banner of the harbour bridge was unfurled, painted by Ken Done, before James Morrison and Swing City played the opening fanfare. I was stunned, I didn’t think it was possible to play such high notes on a standard trumpet, but James did it. It was then time for the anthem, Human Nature singing the first verse a cappella, before Julie Anthony sang it in her own style, with us joining in.

It was then into the ‘Artistic Section’, which I thought wasn’t too bad – although the part highlighting Australian suburbia – with fake Victa lawnmowers was a bit corny, I thought. The next major segment – what they called the ‘Sydney 2000 Olympic Band’ – was, frankly, too much like a US College Football ‘drumline’ segment, and really didn’t represent what I thought would have been ‘Australian’. Not that they weren’t good, but it didn’t seem all that appropriate to me.

Time to concentrate on the music again, as we began the parade of nations, at least the 199 people carrying signs with the name of each country that would be entering. Once they had entered, it was backing up John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John with the games theme song, ‘Dare To Dream’. Time for a simulated ‘official’ opening, actors played the roles of Michael Knight – the President of the Sydney Games organizing committee – and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the President of the IOC; both gave ‘speeches’ before someone playing the role of the Governor-General declared the games open.

Time for me to sing again, to bolster Vanessa Amorosi in some schmaltzy tribute to the legacy of sports stars, ‘Heros Live Forever’, during which a massive white flag was unfurled over the whole field, and images of these ‘heroes’ projected onto that. Finally, the official Olympic Flag entered the arena, carried by former Australian Olympic champions, which was then raised while the Olympic Hymn was sung – in Greek – by a choir of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Australia. The Olympic Oaths were then recited, the torch was brought into the Stadium, before it was handed to Cathy Freeman, who climbed the stairs to where the cauldron was located, and mimed lighting the flame.

All in all, it was very spectacular; some kitschy parts, but I guess that was only to be expected. I guess there were so many elements that protocol required to be present in the ceremony, but I felt it could have been so much worse, with too much wanky ‘artistic’ bullshit, and everything appeared to be at least as good as previous opening ceremonies that I had seen on telecasts. Ric Birch felt that everything went well, there were no mistakes, no screwups, we would have one final rehearsal tomorrow, and then it was the big opening on Friday. We all slept well that night, it had been a busy, exhausting day.

The rehearsal on Wednesday was much the same as Tuesday’s, the purpose of the second rehearsal was to double check the timings of each section, and to make sure that the recorded music flowed well with the live action. Ric Birch – and the other directors of the various segments – felt that we were as ready as could be expected, and unless there was some unexpected technical glitch, everything should be perfect on the night.

Thursday afternoon it was time to get dressed for the big media event, that morning I went into the city, and had Angie cut my hair – I was starting to look a bit unkempt. She was glad to see me, I asked how things were going with her and Kaz, and she told me just how incredibly happy they were together.

“I feel sad that things didn’t work out between us, Will,” she said. “We had a good time for those few months together, I don’t regret a minute of what we did together. The best thing, though was finding Kaz, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life before I met her.”

“I’m glad about that, Jenny and Allison seem to be very happy together, too,” I said. “Maybe that’s my purpose in life, to be a matchmaker!”

“Well, you are very good at that,” she said. “How is Michelle doing, that was terrible about the fire at her place, at least she wasn’t hurt.”

“She was pretty upset at first,’ I said. “All she lost was the apartment and her car, we were able to get all her furniture and possessions out, and they are at my place at the moment. She still hasn’t decided what she wants to do in the longer term, but she’s happy sharing the place with us; she has her own bedroom, the one on the first floor, with the balcony and views to the city.”

“I guess you are getting ready for the big opening ceremony tomorrow night,” she said. “We will be watching on TV, and I hope we will get to see you on the screen. It was great the other night, seeing you in that tourism video.”

“I’m not sure if I will be on the TV broadcast,” I said. “It’s not like I’m one of the soloists, I’m just a backup musician, you might be able to see me when a camera pans over the orchestra, we are at the back, on the left as you look at the main stage where the orchestra is.”

“I’ll keep an eye out; on another subject, when are you meeting with Kaz and her people about the election strategy? She’s very keen to get your thoughts on some policies.”

“I’ll be talking to Bob Carr soon, and we will work on a date. How does she think her campaign is going?”

“So far, feedback is good, initial polling indicates she will have a substantial majority; I don’t really understand how the numbers people work out the poll numbers, but they all are feeling very confident. We have been going to lots of local meetings, various residents’ groups, special interest groups, clubs, and societies. She’s very good at public speaking, doing all of the PR stuff, listening to people, finding out what their problems and concerns are.”

I really didn’t understand the intricacies behind the polling that some of the party’s campaign experts did; I did know that over the years, they had continually improved their data gathering and analysis, so they had a good level of confidence in their results. If they said that Kaz was in a strong position, then I felt they were probably right. She would be the ideal person to do that grass-roots campaigning, she would come across as a local resident, concerned about local issues, capable of making things better for the area.

Angie had finished my haircut, and, as usual, she had done a very good job.

“That looks great, Angie, and I got through it without peeing in my pants!” I said.

“Well, I didn’t give you several cups of very strong coffee!” she said. “I know it wasn’t funny at the time ... but you have to admit, that all worked out VERY well.”

“It was something that did work out well for us,” I said. “As I said, things didn’t work out well for you and me, but I don’t regret anything that we did.”

“We both seem to have found happiness, if not with each other,” she said. “And we are still great friends, which makes me so happy.”

I got up from the chair, and gave her a big hug and kiss, before paying.

“I’ll look for you tomorrow night, Will, I hope everything goes well for you.”

I headed back home, spent some time up in the studio doing a few final practices before getting dressed for the evening. Lori had spent the morning in a hair salon, getting her hair done, and then had gone to a nail salon, for a manicure and pedicure; with her gown on, and makeup, she looked stunning.

“I think we make a great pair,” I said to her, as I opened the car door for her. “You look particularly stunning.”

“Well, thank you,” she said. “You look pretty good yourself, too. We do make a great pair, we always have.”

Lori gave me my pass - I already had one pass, for the opening and closing ceremonies, identifying me as one of the performers – but this one was a ‘media pass’, and that would give me full access to the media centre during the duration of the games.

“As bureau chief, I have plenty of discretion as to the number of passes that I can get,” she said. “We aren’t one of the bigger media organizations, so no one raised an eyebrow at me putting an additional name on the list. This way, when you aren’t working on your network changes in your office, you can come and see me, and watch things on the monitors we have. We have video feeds from all the venues, all the events. Not that we are adding commentary for video reports, not like a TV network, but we still need to see what’s going on so our reporters can write their articles.”

We parked in the car parking garage next to the main Stadium and headed up for the reception area for the media event. At the door, Lori gave our names to the security person, and we were directed to the main room where the dinner and reception was to take place. We wandered around, Lori introduced me to some of the people she knew or worked with, getting some drinks and snacks. Eventually, the time for the speeches came, first to speak was Michael Knight, the State Government minister responsible for the games, and head of the Sydney Olympic organizing committee, then Bob Carr, as the Premier. The Federal Government members weren’t going to miss out, Jackie Kelly, the federal minister for Sport and Tourism, and the minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Sydney 2000 games spoke. Finally, John Howard, as Prime Minister said a few words.

Nothing all that exciting from any of them, just the usual political waffling, filled with the usual platitudes about the country’s love of sports, what constitutes good sportsmanship, and how the games are an opportunity to show the beauty and best features of Australia to the rest of the world. I guess there would be hundreds more speeches like that over the next two weeks, so I had better get used to the political bullshit that was coming.

Lori and I continued to circulate, talking to more media executives, when Michael Knight came over to us.

“Will Morris, you keep popping up everywhere!” he said. “I was expecting to see you tomorrow night, at the official opening, but here?”

“I’m just here by association,” I said. “My partner, Lori Earle, is the bureau chief for USA Today and Gannett media. So, I get to accompany her.”

While we were talking, Bob Carr came over, and I had to repeat the same explanation.

“Lori, it’s great to see you again, I think it was back in 1976, at the US Bicentennial Dinner, I was at a table with you and Will.”

“Yes, I remember that,” Lori said. “You ended up offering me an internship with the Trades and Labour Council, helping to write some of their training materials. That was a very enjoyable experience.”

“Yes, and you were probably one of the best writers that we have ever had working for us,” he replied. “I’m pleased to see that you have clearly had a very successful career in journalism.”

“Well, it’s been a hard slog,” she said. “Being a journalist means you sacrifice much of your personal life; you must be ready to travel where you are needed at a moment’s notice. That killed any possible personal relationships, but at least now that I’m in charge of our Oceania bureau, I’m not likely to have to leap up to chase the latest potential story.”

At least talking to Michael Knight and Bob Carr meant I didn’t have to make nicey-nicey talk to John Howard or Jackie Kelly, which was a blessing. Eventually, Bob and Michael moved on to talk to some others, Lori introduced me to some of the people from the American NBC network – there were plenty of them, since they were the ‘host broadcasters’ for the USA. Finally, it was time where we could make a departure without it appearing to be an escape, we drove back home, showered, and got into bed. Megan asked us how the evening went, we both said ‘boring’ and ‘tiring’. We tried to get a good sleep, since tomorrow would be very busy, with the official opening of the games.

We got to the Olympic stadium just after lunch, we had to be in our positions before the ‘pre-opening’ events started. Time for a quick, final sound check, making sure the in-ear monitors worked, everything was in tune, and our instrument levels were correct. I put some fresh batteries in the wireless pickup for my guitar, it wouldn’t do for that to crap out during the performance. The main sound engineers had put fresh batteries in the wireless microphones earlier this morning, and we were instructed to keep them switched off unless we were actually performing.

“Are we going to have to sit here until everything finishes?” Fiona asked. “What if I have to pee? What will I do then?”

“Oh, Fiona, there are toilets just at the back of the stage area,” Megan said. “Go now, don’t drink too much, you will be right! I can’t believe I have to tell you that, you’re a grown woman! You should have worn an adult incontinence nappy!”

Megan’s suggestion was a good one, I took the opportunity to go to the toilet and relieve myself. People were starting to file into the arena, I wasn’t sure off the top of my head what the capacity of it was, but this would probably be one of the largest venues we had ever performed in. Megan mentioned that the stadium would be filled to capacity this evening, 110,000 people. Certainly, the largest audience we had ever played for – not that they were all there to hear us, but...

Eventually, it was time for the event to start, I think everyone was pumped up with the adrenaline because of the importance of the opening ceremony, and that we would be performing to a huge world-wide audience. When it was time for the anthem, I felt a huge rush of emotions. Not that I was usually overtly patriotic, but hearing first Human Nature, then Julie Anthony singing it – as much as I disliked her, that woman could sing – with us singing along with her, it was a wonderful experience.

Watching and playing along with the artistic segments, while they looked good during the rehearsals, the evening’s performance was at another level. Maybe because it was dark, and the lighting effects could really be seen properly, maybe because of the cheering and the response of the audience, but it was amazing being part of the performance. Eventually, the athletes entered – I was amazed at just how many there were – and the torch was brought into the stadium. Over the preceding few weeks, one couldn’t help but notice a blue line around some of the roads marking the course of the torch relay. The torch was brought into the stadium, and eventually passed to Cathy Freeman, so she could light the cauldron, which was meant to rise in a ‘waterfall’ display of fire. There appeared to be some sort of technical glitch in getting the cauldron to rise, as it stopped about halfway up. A minute or two later, the technicians had resolved whatever the issue was, and the cauldron continued to rise to the top of the stadium. Then it was time for the fireworks, however we were busy packing up our instruments and taking things down to the loading bay, getting them in the trailer so we could get them back to the studio. It was estimated that were over ten million viewers of the ABC’s broadcast of the event, just in Australia. Who knows how large the worldwide audience would have been.

By the time we got home, it was almost 1:00 am, at least tomorrow was a Saturday, and we could all sleep in. All of us, except for Lori, the games competition would be on in earnest, she would be monitoring the aquatics events in the main swimming pool, Australia was expected to pick up some gold medals in some of the events. After a good, sound sleep, we surfaced around 10:00, unloaded our equipment from the trailer and set it back up in the studio, then had a lunch before watching the telecast of the swimming events.

It was worth watching, Ian Thorpe set a new world record in the 400-metre freestyle final before competing in an exciting 4 × 100 m freestyle final. Swimming the last leg, Thorpe passed the leading American team and arrived in a new world record time, two-tenths of a second ahead of the Americans. We were all standing up, screaming, and yelling at the TV – as if the Australian swimmers could actually hear us!

Sunday morning at church, several of the other members made the comments that they had seen some of us on the broadcast of the games opening on Friday night and said what a fantastic spectacle it was.

“Certainly, a much larger audience than we have here,” I said. “It was amazing, certainly the highlight of my musical career.”

“That Greek choir was very good, too,” one person said.

“You have to hand it to the Orthodox, they are great at singing,” another added. “Considering they don’t use instruments, it’s all a Capella!”

We spent the afternoon resting – I had a nap of about two hours, just lying on the sofa in the sunroom; I guess I needed to catch up on some sleep.

A Dish Best Served Cold

Monday, September 18^th, 2000

“Come, Watson, come!’ Lori cried. ‘The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!”

“Okay, Sherlock Earle,” I said. “What’s the plan?”

Lori had just received a call, I assumed from Alexa, all she had said on the phone was ‘We will be there right away’. I guessed that was the call to say that O’Rourke was about to be ‘picked up’ by Alexa’s people, and we needed to be there for what was going to go down.

“We’re meeting her at the building site in Lilyfield, where the Ramos brothers are renovating the block where Megan and I lived,” she said.

We made our way quickly from the USA Today’s studios in the media centre to where I had parked my car. At least we had a chance to see the finals of the 200 metres freestyle swimming event; Australia’s Ian Thorpe was just beaten for the gold medal by the Dutch swimmer, in what was a world record time. I guess that’s what O’Rourke had been watching and was now leaving the Olympic venue. When we arrived at the rendezvous location, Alexa ushered us into the site office, and handed us yellow, all-body protective suits.

“Wear this, we don’t want to leave any physical evidence,” she directed. “This will protect our clothes from any contamination, too.”

I put what were really a full set of overalls on over my clothes, there were protective booties that covered my shoes, and gloves made from the same material that attached with Velcro tape to the sleeves. There was a hood that covered my head, and she passed us some clear goggles that covered our eyes. We looked like we were working in some biohazard laboratory, making sure some toxic substance wasn’t going to infect us. Visions of medical teams working on Ebola victims came to mind.

“Are you both sure you want to be involved in this?” she asked. “Particularly you, Will, this isn’t your fight. Now is the last opportunity to bow out, should you prefer.”

“No, I’m in this, to support Lori,” I said. “I’m not backing out.”

“Okay, the van will be here in a few minutes, they have picked O’Rourke up without any problems.”

A few minutes later, a white Ford Econovan pulled up, the side door opened, and we all jumped inside. Frank O’Rourke was being held by two huge guys, no doubt some of Frank’s personal security guards. He was struggling – pointlessly, of course – and looked at us, and started yelling.

“You people have no idea who you’re messing with!” he shouted. “You’ll be sorry, I’ll make you pay for this!”

“I know exactly who you are, and what you’ve done, you piece of excrement,” Alexa said coldly, striking him had across the face. “You won’t be making anyone pay for anything, in fact, it’s about time you paid for all of the disgusting, depraved acts you’ve done in your life.”

She pulled out a large knife, cutting his clothes from his body, not being concerned if she nicked or cut him. He started struggling even more, shouting abuse at her.

“Hold him tighter, boys,” she said. “I don’t want to accidentally cut him.”

He was now completely naked, and tried to cover himself with his hands, but the two security guys held him tightly.

“Do you know why I brought you here,” Alexa said. “Maybe you remember, back in the early 1980s, you had a young woman, Sophia Ramos, working for you. You had an affair with her, and when she told you she was pregnant, and asked that you marry her, you had her killed. Do you remember that? I guess there’s been so many young girls like her that you’ve used and discarded, it might be a bit hard to recall this particular girl. For this one, you had Christopher Flannery dispose of her for you ... Maybe you heard what happened to him? His body will never be found, not with it buried in the foundations of a high rise building in Burwood.”

He visibly paled, trying to explain that he had no choice in what he did.

“You had a choice, you piece of shit,” Alexa cut him off. “You could have kept your dick in your pants, acted like a decent human being.”

She slipped two sets of brass knuckles onto her fingers, one on each hand, and told the guards to hold him securely. She punched him hard – very hard – in the stomach, causing him to vomit up the contents of his stomach. Alexa didn’t let that stop her, she continued to rain blows over his body, his chest, stomach, lower torso. At some point, I thought I heard ribs cracking, it was hard to pick up with his screams. She was brutal; when she paused, his body was a bloody mess.

“Now, you are going to die for your crimes,” she said softly, her face close to his. “How many young girls have you raped? How old was the youngest? Twelve? Eleven? You are some sick bastard, but don’t worry, you will have an eternity in hell while your soul is being tormented to think over what you’ve done.”

“I wonder if you remember me,” Lori said. “I worked for you in early 1980, with the Daily Mirror in the sports section. You forced me to suck your putrid cock, and then you repeatedly raped me. But I guess I’m probably hard to remember out of the hundreds of other girls you’ve done the same to over your career.”

She pulled her face covering down and spat in his face.

Alexa had removed the brass knuckles and pulled out her thin leather garotte. I knew what was coming, I felt sickened at the thought of what I was about to witness, but I couldn’t look away. She wrapped the cord around his neck, put the two toggles through the loops, and started to pull it tight. He spluttered and struggled even harder, pissing himself out of fear. As she pulled it tighter, his face turned a reddish-purple, his tongue protruded, and his voice was cut off. He lost control of his bowels; the floor was covered in his putrid excrement; I’m sure he knew what was about to happen to him.

He struggled, trying to pull away from the two guys holding him, but that was useless. I had seen some of Frank’s personal security guys, there were all huge, strong men – they could easily pass for rugby front-row forwards. These two were bigger, stronger, and meaner than any that I had seen before. O’Rourke wasn’t a small man, but he looked like a child being held by them. There was no way he was going anywhere.