A horn tooted. They were a hungry lot.
“Back to the city tomorrow.” Cath handed him her business card. “But planning to come back soon. Let’s keep in touch.”
“Love to.” Walter turned and headed into the café. A minute later, he was back with his order, said his goodbyes, and was gone.
“Ninety-eight,” the server called.
“That’s us,” Cath said, and headed to the pickup window.
Jack’s thoughts turned to food. After collecting their order, they wandered over to a picnic bench near the river.
“What does an aerodynamics consultant do in a seaside holiday destination?” Jack asked no one in particular as he took a bite of his piece of fish. His taste buds thanked him.
“It’s to do with the way things move through the air.”
A red light blinked above the river and Jack realised it was a drone. Odd. He didn’t think they were allowed to fly those things at night, although it wasn’t dark yet—that would be the drone pilot’s excuse. Jack scanned the sky for other objects.
“Be good to have a chat with your friend about our friend in the sky.” As on cue, their friend in the sky appeared from behind a cloud in the evening sky.
“I’ll have a chat to Dad about it soon. I’m sure it’s getting bigger.”
Once his hunger was satisfied, the need for sleep took over. They strolled back to their accommodation and said their goodnights.
Jack couldn’t get to sleep. Too worried about aftershocks. He lay looking to the ceiling, watching the fan blades silently swirling in the shadows of the night. He thought of Sally-Anne. His chest tightened. He missed sleeping with Erica, missed the comfort of her body, missed being able to reach out and touch her. Was that what he wanted—a replacement? He got out of bed, walked over to the window, and parted the drapes. Nothing but darkness. No streetlights, no stars, no friends.
At exactly seven o’clock, he tapped on Cath’s door.
The door opened. Cath stood there in skimpy running shorts and a sweat-stained singlet, perspiration dripping from her forehead.
“It’s humid out there but it was lovely.”
“Where did you run to?”
“Along the river—about five kilometres.” She wiped her face with a towel. “Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll join you for breakfast.”
“Okay. Meet me downstairs.”
Jack found a table near a window in the motel’s restaurant. The smell of sizzling bacon drifted through the restaurant. Jack knew what he was going to have for breakfast. He must get back into exercise. He’d said that a few times now.
While he waited for Cath, he called his boss and provided an update on things and sent out a group email to keep his team informed. Jack asked the team to research secret societies in the city and surrounding suburbs with a focus on groups with a dislike for religious groups, particularly Christians. He also suggested reviewing CCTV to monitor Wiley’s movements.
Cath arrived, and they both ate without talking. Jack had observed people don’t talk when they’re hungry and the food is good. Jack’s bacon was better than good.
Stomachs full, they walked out into the fresh air and checked the resort pool. It looked inviting. Swallows swooped on small insects floating on the pool surface. He expected pool owners would be giving their pools a good check over since the earthquake.
“Spoke to the boss this morning. He said to take it easy today. No hurry,” Jack said.
“Sounds good to me.” Cath pointed to an area in the garden. “Let’s go over there.”
There was a nice outdoor setting in the garden, a large gazebo with a table and a number of outdoor chairs covered in cushions. The chairs were spaced well for both Jack and Cath to enjoy the coolness of the morning and provide some privacy while they caught up with the world through their work tools—Cath on her tablet device and Jack on his mobile. The air smelled of citronella from the torches burning around the gardens. He wasn’t used to seeing torches burning in the morning, but it made sense as mossies attacked at dawn and dusk. There was bug spray on the table, so Jack sprayed himself, adding to the citronella smell. The spray tickled the inside of his nose, but he didn’t sneeze.
A water dragon appeared from behind the barbecue. It was a good size, with its tail longer than its body. It must have strolled up from the nearby creek.
“I remember seeing lots of these at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra,” Cath said. The dragon paused, looked up at them, then turned and walked on all fours back towards the creek. Didn’t want the attention.
“Anyway, I need to call Dad. Find out how his talk went yesterday.”
“Go ahead. I’ve got more emails to check.”
Cath talked to her dad for a few minutes, then waved Jack over.
“Hi, Jack”
Cath’s dad appeared on the device. Jack was surprised by how much he had aged in one day.
20 - Classified information
“Hi Frank. Talk go well?” Jack asked.
“Hi, Jack. Yep, went well.”
“Your daughter has decided she’s moving to Noosa.”
“Sorry, Jack. No time for petty stuff.” Frank swallowed. “Sorry.”
“Best continue then.” Frank wasn’t usually like this. What was wrong?
“Our organisation had a spacecraft exploring the outer regions of our solar system. Some months back—in fact, many, many months back—ground control made some minor adjustments so we could get a close-up view of Adventus. We’ve finally got the data from the spacecraft and it’s causing major concern. At this stage, they’re not releasing it to the public.”
Frank rubbed the back of his neck and had a quick glance behind him. “The asteroid is huge. Larger than our moon. Larger than Pluto.”
Jack knew the asteroid was large, although the true size hadn’t registered even though Cath had tried hard to explain it to him.
“I’ve breached security to show you these images. I’m not sure what to do but I’m convinced now the Lord is returning, so a security breach is the least of my concerns.” He adjusted whatever he was using to communicate with Cath and his laptop computer screen came into view. His hand come across the screen holding a USB. There was some background noise as he placed the USB in the port of his laptop. A viewer opened up.
Jack watched this while still processing his “the Lord is returning” remark. How does anyone get their head around that? The size of the asteroid was bad enough. His heart told him he needed to be attentive, but something else wanted him to doubt.
Frank’s voice came over the tablet device as the first image appeared. “The surface of Adventus is transparent, almost ice-like.”
Cath leaned forward to look closer. “I suppose an ice structure would be expected, as it’s a long way from the sun.”
“Yes, but this is different. It’s thinner, crystal clear, with not too much distortion.”
Like father, like daughter. Cath had the same adventurous spirit of her father. The only ice structures he’d encountered were frozen puddles when he used to walk to school … that triggered a question.
“Is there anything behind the ice? You know, like when you look at a frozen pond and you can see beneath the ice. Do we know what lies beneath the ice?”
Frank didn’t answer. He zoomed in on an image.
