Real estate agents? Lucas didn’t think so. Real estate agents don’t sneak up to properties. The barn door was pushed open. The men now had guns in their hands. Real estate agents don’t carry guns. A gasp came from Isabella. Lucas raised a finger to his lips. The tall man retrieved something from his backpack. He placed it over his glasses and started scanning the barn.

“Yep, there’s been activity in here recently. There are a number of thermal disturbances. It’s strange there are pockets of heat being shown on some of the skirting boards—would understand if there were power points there, but there aren’t.”

Lucas decided that the man talking was giving a running narrative to not only his partner but whoever else was watching this show.

The tall man looked up around the ceiling. “There are pockets of heat from a few places around the ceiling. I can only think batteries or something similar are producing these heat images. What are the batteries powering?”

“The thermal image of one of the timber beams is showing a cavity.”

The tall man walked over to the timber beam. He poked around and something popped out. He looked at his partner. “A button. Wonder what it does?”

“An underground bunker, I would suggest,” said his partner.

Lucas felt the breeze of Isabella as she dived across the room and flicked a switch.

“It’s an isolation switch. I just remembered it. The button upstairs won’t work now.”

“That’s good Isabella. But I think they’re on to us. Underground bunkers are popular now. Whether it is for protection from storms, bush fires or that thing you spoke about.”

“Tribulation.”

“Yeah, that’s it. They’ll know that there’s an underground bunker here. And they’ll work out a way to get to it. I think we may as well give ourselves up. We’re only playing a game, anyway. I’ll just go back to prison, which is fine. And they have no reason to harm you.”

“Prison. I knew you were a bank robber or something.”

Lucas raised his eyebrows.

“Well, regardless, Lucas, this has been fun. You know, Lucas, if you want we can shoot our way out.”

“How . . . are there guns down here?”

“Yes.”

“You’re crazy, Isabella.”

“Call me, Bella.” She rolled up her sleeves as if ready for action.

20 – She’s a nasty one

AVA PERDU LOOKED AT THE BACK OF THE HEAD OF THE DRIVER. If he hit one more pothole, she would clout him.

They came back from their excursion into the country side empty-handed. Again. The last time it was technology that defeated them—a mail-drone. This time, it was hard to be discreet in a country town with a population in the low thousands, compared to blending into a population of millions. And the police, they seemed to be everywhere. But not all had been lost, their monitoring activities found the girl again and it was close to home.

Ava adjusted her wireless earpiece and smiled as she listened to the communication taking place in the barn.

“A button. Wonder what it does?”

“An underground bunker, I would suggest.”

She remembered being told about the underground bunker. They were such a lovely, friendly couple.

They’d been watching the girl since her mother’s death. When the property went up for sale, the girl moved to a small apartment near the city, close to the university. Proceedings from the sale would help pay for it, Ava was sure. Nothing of note had happened of late but it looked like things were livening up. Good, because one’s patience was getting thin. Very thin.

The girl seems to be moving around. Yesterday she was in a country town on the eastern outskirts of the city and now she’d travelled some hundred kilometres to the western outskirts, back to her old home. Why there? Was she looking for something? Ava felt threatened by this girl and she wasn’t sure why. In some ways eliminating her would take away the threat. And ease some pain. And draw out her grandfather.

Death. Everyone experiences it differently. How had this girl reacted to her mother’s death? All her ‘churchie’ friends probably offered her words of comfort. If the girl came to believe her mother’s death wasn’t an accident, surely she would eventually let go and let her God punish the executor of the crime in his time. The girl’s feelings of revenge would come and go. Ava thought differently. She didn’t need to be comforted. Revenge was hers to take, and she chose not to let it go.

Maybe it was time to deal with this strong emotion that wouldn’t leave her. She had worked through them: love and revenge were the bookends of the emotion scale, each able to trigger the other. No one had the right to take a loved one away, to make them turn on themselves. She pushed away any thoughts of her conscience accusing her of the same thing. She would not let such thoughts take root. Were her thought patterns right for the task ahead?

She listened.

“This is C12, go ahead, over”

“There is a vehicle approaching, over.”

The heat from her tablet perched on her lap made her look down. The screen displayed a map with their destination a flashing red icon and other beeping items. There was a drone on the eastern side. She told the driver to pull over.

Gravel crunched as the vehicle came to a stop. Some cows in the paddock looked up at the vehicle then returned to attacking clumps of grass. The men turned to face Ava.

“We’d best get prepared. I think we’ll need to jam any further communications.” She looked up at the sky. Clouds were starting to block out any blue sky that remained. While they might limit visibility, it would still be best to obstruct communication channels.

“Also best get the tranquilising tools ready, as I don’t think we’ll want to be remembered.” She knew at this point the drone had got a quick peek at them as they came along the road but the focus would have returned to the barn.

The man in the passenger seat got out and walked to the rear of the vehicle. He opened a steel container located next to one of two trail-bikes. From a concealed apartment he pulled out a device, some pieces of clothing and some weapons. The vehicle’s number plates had already been removed and were stored in the container. He returned to his seat and threw a black balaclava on the drivers’ lap. “We may need them.”

He turned to Ava. “You won’t need one, Ava. We’ll black out communications before you get out of the vehicle.”

“Understood. Sounds like there are only two of them.” She looked in the direction of the house and felt her pulse speed up. “Let’s get into it. You may not need to use those balaclavas; I don’t think these people are going to remember much.”

The driver brought the vehicle back on to the road, just missing a pothole. He was lucky.

The house came into view. Her eyes followed the driveway as it wound down to a number of large trees, now bare as their leaves formed a carpet on the ground while the pine trees along the boundary line held their greenness. Those trees were her allies the last time she was here. She had also come another time, uninvited, under the cover of darkness. She was still uninvited, but she needed to know what the girl was up to and what she knew.

21 – Another visitor

LUCAS WATCHED ISABELLA move towards the stairwell isolation switch.

“You sure about this, Lucas? We can shoot our way out if you want. Then I can join you in prison.”

“That’s cute, Isabella.”

“Remember, it’s Bella.”

“Okay, Bella it is.” Lucas returned his focus to the CCTV streaming on the monitor. She was so sweet. He was about to kiss goodbye to his freedom but he knew it was the right thing to do.

“C12, this is Eagle Fly, over.”

Isabella had turned towards Lucas.