An image flashed on the screen.

“As you can see, it’s a long, long journey. Save your panicking for a few years.”

Jack thought of Cath’s dad and the images. Frank believed they were real. Interesting that the media was happy to talk about Adventus but were avoiding references to the Bible. He needed to sit down and talk about this with Erica. “The astronomers say Adventus is just another mysterious object like the cigar-shaped object dubbed ‘Oumuamua’ that visited in 2017. Curiously, Oumuamua is a Hawaiian word meaning ‘a messenger from afar arriving first’. Could Adventus be another, a messenger from afar? Oumuamua orbited the sun and shot away, never to return. It’s hoped Adventus is on the same journey.”

Oh, the dramatics of it all. But the reporter was right, Adventus was a long, long way away.

“In other Adventus news, Christian groups are being criticised for preaching that Adventus signals the return of Christ as described in the Book of Revelation. They refer to it as the second advent and say the name of the asteroid is not a coincidence. But they’re arguing amongst themselves, discussing the great tribulation, rapture, and asking about the Antichrist.”

The look on the newsreader’s face said it all. At least there was some reference to the Bible—totally negative, but that was typical for the news. What a mess. Christians needed to present themselves as a unified group. If Adventus signalled the Lord’s return, he had a lot of work to do to sort the mess the world was in. Jack shook his head. He best get into the office to do his bit in sorting out the worldly mess.

Outside, a mist hung over the sky and the roads had a few puddles. It must have rained during the night. He’d obviously slept well, as he hadn’t heard the rain, although he did have a recollection of his room lighting up at one stage.  

He was still peckish and decided to get some eats for the team brief this morning. He pulled into the local grocery store and noticed a security guard patrolling the carpark. Odd. Must be to deter non-customers from using the car park. The sign advised of a two-hour parking limit, but people didn’t obey signs. He knew that. It was all about them. A self-centred world. But he knew he was generalising. There were good people in the world, people who obeyed the laws but were there enough to stop the man in charge of the universe casting Adventus upon the world?

He entered the store and headed towards the cake shelves. The shelves appeared almost bare—also strange. They were usually filled overnight. He decided to get some bottled water. The shelves were empty. A shop assistant walked past.

Jack caught their attention. “Hi, mate. You got any bottled water?”

The assistant stopped and turned towards Jack. “Nope. Sorry. All out.”

Jack raised his eyebrows.

The assistant gave a slow nod. “Panic buying.”

Here we go again.

26 - Ticks on the moons

Jack entered the large open-plan area carrying a bag of cinnamon donuts. He passed the workstations of his fellow officers, their screens alive with video footage or covered in text as they beavered away at their keyboards. He headed into the meeting room and sensed good energy. Cath was placing images on the whiteboard. The rest of the team were seated, laughing at the clown of the team.

“No, Matt, I don’t want to hear the joke.” Jack screwed up his face.

“You know you do,” Cath said.

“Alright then, give it to me.”

Matt hesitated. Those around him gave some encouragement.

“Okay. What do you call a tick on the moon?”

Jack thought. Moon tick. Cheese tick. No idea. “Give it me.”

“A luna-tick”

Jack shook his head. “You can have the rest of the day off, Matt.”

Matt pulled his chair out and pretended to depart.

“Come on, Jack. Give him some credit. The context is good. A space feel, and we do deal with a lot of lunatics,” Cath said.

“Okay, Matt. Context is impressive. Now let’s get to work.” Jack placed the bag of donuts on the table.

“Can I get you a coffee, Jack?” Sally asked.

“Yes, please. Thanks, Sally.” He pointed to the bag. “Help yourselves.” Jack grabbed a donut and paused before taking a bite. He held it up. “See this donut? Well, it can represent what is known as the Kuiper Belt, which circles all our planets and our sun.” He pointed to one side of the donut. “This is where Adventus was first discovered. See this speck of sugar here? That could easily represent Adventus making its way through the Kuiper Belt. NASA has calculated the rock’s orbit, and it won’t track close to Earth. It will still be millions of kilometres away at its closest point, so I don’t want any of you panicking like what’s starting to take place out there. Okay?”

Nods all round.

“You had me worried there, Jack. I thought you were going to crack a joke.” Cath tapped the whiteboard, displaying several mages of Wiley. One was a sketch.

“Is the sketch from Sheila?”

Cath smiled. “Yes. Pretty good, hey?”

Jack nodded.

Cath pointed at Sheila’s sketch. “This one started doing the rounds on social media last night.”

“What’s the blank one up there for?” Jack asked.

“Judith Black.” Cath replied. “We’re having problems tracking her down and finding a picture. She doesn’t have accounts on any of the popular social media sites.”

Jack’s coffee appeared in front of him. “Thanks, Sally.”

“Was Judith Black just mentioned?” Sally asked.

“Yes, just waiting for the team to come up with an image of her.”

Sally gave a dry cough. “I followed her up as you requested. She is deceased. Just got the message while I was making the coffee. Suicide. Early last year. I was going to follow up the coroner’s report after the meeting.”  

Silence.

“Team, I think the more we dig into Thomas Wiley, the more we’re going to be exposed to a dark, dark network. I only hope this network doesn’t extend to the secret society he belongs to. If it does … if it does, I think we’ll be exposed to a sinister undercurrent we didn’t realise existed”

Jack looked around the room. Silence and nodding.

“Sally, follow up on the coroner’s report. Read it closely and look for any hints that the suicide was suspicious.”

Cath looked at Jack. “We know already, Jack.”

Jack frowned.

“Judith Black was an amber person. She was searching.”

The other team members looked puzzled. They needed to explain their theory to the group.