“What do you think?”
“Business as usual, and we need to have a chat about that.”
Wiley looked around. Business as usual. He had no qualms with that. Take your time. I could get quite comfortable here.
“Our people knew of this asteroid sometime back, but this supernatural element has caught us a little bit off guard. Some seem to see it as the return of the Lord and that it’ll draw many people to the faith. You know we don’t want this, so we need to put some huge obstacles out there—something to scare the living daylights out of them, but something that’s obviously of our doing. Don’t want people to think there’s a supernatural being. We need to deter, even eliminate, as many God seekers as we can. We can also use fear. The consequences of becoming a follower isn’t worth the risk.”
They knew of this asteroid sometime back? It made sense. There were many influential people involved with this group. He just had to look at his surroundings to know that. This place would be worth millions.
“So you involved in a local chapter?” Wiley asked.
“Yep.”
“Don’t like the Christians, hey?”
“It’s not a matter of not liking the Christians. It’s more the standards and rules they impose. They’re making the world a worse place. I suppose we can thank the media for bringing it all to our attention—they love bashing Christians as much as we do, and with good reason. And they, the media, do bring some bad things to light.”
“True.” Thoughts from the past presented themselves. He closed his eyes and wished them away.
“I was abused when I was young. By someone in church. The media exposed him—he’d been getting away with it for years.”
His openness caught Wiley off guard. He returned his gaze to Bruce and could see the hurt in the man’s eyes. It stirred up the familiar anger.
The man swallowed. “What’s your story, Wiley?”
Wiley moved around on the seat. “Just don’t like them. Never have. Too goody-goody. Hypocrites.”
“No scars then?”
“A few. But I keep them down. Keep them to myself. Don’t like talking or thinking about them.” His right leg started bouncing, and he placed his hand on his thigh to quell the movement. He’d been told it was an anxiety type thing. Leg bouncers bothered him, so he didn’t want to bother Bruce.
“I understand. There are many hurts, many scars amongst our group, our chapters. The church has done a lot of damage, closely followed by Christian parents, and Christians themselves.”
A soft voice spoke in Wiley’s head. But what about Jesus?
16 - A visit to Noosa
Jack looked at the sign showing the Eumundi Noosa Road exit was still some way off. Behind the sign, it looked like stormy weather was brewing in the north. Great. That was all Noosa needed now—a storm. But with the increasing cloud cover came the magnificent sunsets. That may make some people feel better.
They’d been travelling for just under two hours, and the trip had been a quiet one. Cath had nodded off after a brief discussion about amber people and auras. Jack had looked over at her a number of times. She meant a lot to him—good vibes. He was aware that she’d been going out with someone for a while now but kept the details to herself. Jack had yet to meet the man. He hoped Cath was able to keep the relationship separate from work. That wasn’t an easy thing to do—his own life was proof. Many others in the force had experienced the same challenges.
Cath moved in her seat and Jack looked over at her. Her eyes opened slowly as she returned to the land of the living and looked out the window to get her bearings.
“The traffic heading to Brisbane has been heavy for this time of the week—normally everyone wants to get to the coast. I would say a mild panic attack taking place. Fear of further earth tremors,” Cath said.
That was understandable. Flashing lights caught Jack’s attention in the rear-view mirror. Cars were doing the right thing, moving over and making way for the emergency vehicles. The vehicles passed, a mixture of police and army support vehicles.
“Didn’t think we were an earthquake country.”
Cath stretched out her arms and moved her shoulders around and got comfortable in her seat. “Well, magnitude 5.7 quake isn’t huge, but puts it on par with the Newcastle earthquake. That caused considerable damage and took a number of lives.” She did a few neck stretches. “Earthquakes in this country are a lot more common than you’d expect. It’s just that we don’t get the extreme ones. The damage and loss of lives in Newcastle were attributed to the soft sediment foundation the city was built on—some refer to it as a swamp—and some shonky adherence to building standards and maintenance. Someone said after the event that earthquakes don’t kill people—buildings do.”
Jack listened, impressed with her knowledge.
“One other comparison for you. The tsunami in Japan was caused by an earthquake that had a magnitude of around 9.0, and we know what a disaster that was. That’s a similar size to the 2004 earthquake in Indonesia that caused the tsunami that killed over two hundred thousand people.”
“Two hundred thousand. It’s hard to comprehend.” Jack raised his eyebrows and gave his head a slight shake.
“I know that look, Jack.”
“Yep, you’re right. How do you know these things?” He took a quick look at the in-dash navigation map. Where was the turnoff to Noosa? They seemed to have been driving forever. “I know the Newcastle quake is often brought up in emergency contingency planning, but I didn’t know the magnitude and didn’t realise the ground that towns were built on would have an impact. Not something I’d thought about.”
“Yep, the soft sediment in coastal areas intensifies the motion and shaking. I had relatives in Newcastle at the time. Thankfully, they were uninjured but they like telling stories and quoting facts about it. They’re in their sixties now, and I hear the same story every time I introduce new people to them. And just to annoy you, they’re into end times study and they talk about earthquakes being a sign of the end.”
“But like you said, Cath, earthquakes are common and have always occurred.”
“Yes, Jack. That’s what the sceptics use as their challenge to the end times believers.”
Jack detected a slight sense of aggression or frustration.
“Well, we’ll let them do their debating.” The exit to Noosa came into view with a build-up of traffic. “One would think the foundation supporting a lot of Noosa infrastructure would be soft and sandy?”
“Think you may be right there, Jack, but I think the building codes have improved since the Newcastle disaster.”
“Yes, agree. But sadly, we know people like to break the law and they don’t think about the potential consequences.”
They reached the source of the backed-up traffic—a police roadblock in the Noosa Road exit lane. Jack flicked a switch to flash the blue grill lights identifying their unmarked police car. An officer approached their vehicle.
Jack showed his ID. “Good afternoon, officer. We’re heading into Noosa to conduct some interviews. We haven’t received specific reporting on the damage the earthquake caused but we understood we could still make this trip.”
“All good, sir. There is some road damage, but you should still be able to get where you’re going. We’re just trying to stop the stickybeaks from storming the town.”
The officer waved to his partner and they moved the barrier so Jack could drive through. He nodded his thanks and continued towards Noosa and Sheila Boone. The police officer who’d met her in the park said Wiley had visited her house but had vanished, and that Sheila had doubts about him.
Cath entered Sheila’s address in her phone’s map app. “Ok, navigator, take us to our destination.”
Cath’s phone beeped to indicate a new message.
“Are you a sceptic Jack? It looks like there’s been a number of earthquakes reported around Australia and overseas. Highly unusual activity, they’re saying.”
Not sure what I am. He just wanted answers.
“Do we know any more about Wiley?” Jack asked.
“Reasonably clean background. Been a bit erratic the last few years—no fixed address. Seemed relatively stable before that. Hopefully our chat with Sheila Boone will bring something to light.”
17 - Many creature comforts
It was late afternoon and Wiley had the house to himself as Bruce attended to some earthquake business. Wiley sneaked in a nap and now stood at the large bay window overlooking the ocean. A door closed behind him, and he turned. Bruce walked into the living area, placed his keys on the kitchen bench, and opened the fridge door.
