LUCAS WONDERED WHO THE VISITORS WERE.
The men rang the door bell and stared unknowingly into the camera. They were both dressed casually. Some kind of casual uniform, jeans and navy blue jackets. One man was tall, the other shorter and carrying more weight. The tall man had on a smallish backpack. They both wore digital glasses which Lucas knew would be recording their activities and acting as a communication device with a built-in microphone and an earpiece.
They knocked on the door, loudly.
The tall man spoke into the collar of his jacket. “Hello Eagle Fly, this is C12, over.”
“This is Eagle Fly, go ahead, over”
“Do we know if occupants are still here? Over.”
“Yes. They moved into the barn. They must have seen you approaching. There are two of them, a male and a female, over.”
“Roger, out.”
Both men walked away from the front door and headed around to the barn, the hidden cameras capturing their movement for Lucas and Isabella.
The tall man stopped and looked up in the sky.
“Checking out the weather?” asked his partner.
“No, I have a thing about drones. I like to try and locate them. The thought of being watched by something I can’t see doesn’t sit well with me.”
Lucas smiled at the tall man’s comment. If only he knew, but Lucas was happy that he didn’t.
Isabella gave a nervous giggle. “They’re heading our way. It’s going to be okay.”
Lucas wasn’t sure if Isabella’s assurance was for him or herself. Maybe both.
Isabella pointed to the headphones next to the monitor. “Maybe we should put those on.”
Lucas nodded and grabbed the set of headphones from the hook next to the monitor. “Just remember, people speak louder when they wear head phones.”
“Oh, I know that. Mum would tell me it’s all to do with neural feedback adjusting the speaking volume.”
Lucas stared at Isabella. An interesting family: her dad built an underground bunker with lots of electronic gadgetry inside and out, and a mum who talked about neural feedback. Must be the brain stuff Starkey mentioned. Isabella had turned back to look at the monitor. Her side profile was pleasant. Lucas started pondering their age difference when a voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Hello, anyone in there? We are hoping to talk to someone about the sale of the property.”
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
