Derek read through his notes while they waited for Alf Martin and his lawyer. ASIO had supplied them with a concise background briefing on Martin. He was forty-three, had served as an officer in the Special Air Services Regiment, doing two tours of Afghanistan, where he’d commanded several of the men he’d recruited into 4 Freedom, including Bragg and Broderick, before he took a voluntary discharge in 2014 and returned to Ballarat, Victoria, where he’d lived before enlisting.
Divorced, Martin was estranged from his teenage children. He operated a business specialising in mountain bikes in Ballarat, and had come to the attention of ASIO when he’d started recruiting veterans to participate in anti-government protests.
The door opened. Alf Martin, wearing the clothes he’d been arrested in, a
