“We’re on our way. Over.”

“Roger, out.”

Good. The drug worked. The men had no idea what they were here for.

24 – Seeking direction

LUCAS COMPARED THE GREAT EXPANSE he now found himself in to the small plot he had been taken from.

A large granite boulder sat amongst the eucalyptus trees. It was a good hiding spot and old pieces of rusted tin roofing, timber beams, plastic milk crates and pieces of rope showed it had been used before as a cubby house or bush fort. Young kids on an adventure.

Nature had called Isabella. She returned from her short excursion and went and sat down next to Lucas. There was a sandy spot sprinkled with pebbles behind the large boulder. It concealed them well. Isabella tried to convince herself that it had been darts, not bullets she had witnessed. She gave herself a shake at the thought of Mrs Perdu—to think she had once thought she was nice.

Lucas was looking to the sky. “That tin roofing may come in handy, as those rain clouds were hanging around.”

“You’re a real boy scout, Lucas.”

“Maybe, but boy scouts would not drag a briefcase while exploring a cave.”

“Well, let’s open it and see why you dragged it with you.”

<°)))><

A smaller boulder served as a desktop. Lucas brushed litter off the boulder, placed the briefcase down, and opened it. Isabella had a peek over his shoulder. There were a few blank plastic sheets, and the wallet-type thing Gramps had used to take their photo. She watched Lucas pull out the top plastic sheet. Words started to appear.

She noticed the frown and slight movement of his head. “Have you seen this type of sheet before, Lucas?”

“Nope.”

“The ink is brought to life by drawing power from the electrical current flowing through your body. As soon as your fingers touch the sheet, words will appear.” She watched his eyebrows raise as words appeared. “If there are links in the document all you have to do is touch the link and it opens up if there’s a connection. You can also password protect the documents as well. Is it password protected?”

“Doesn’t look like it . . . words are appearing.”

“That’s good, because it would have been fun trying to guess the password. I imagine Gramps would set some good ones. Anyway, what does it say?” Isabella sat down on one of the milk crates.

Lucas took the wallet-like device out of the briefcase. “It tells us about this. It’s what zapped us. We just need to enter a GPS location and it will take us there. But it can only be unlocked by a thumb print. It’s aware of ours, as your granddad took our thumb prints from the cups we used. He’s definitely advanced the technology, and he had all of this planned. For some reason.”

“How do you know about the technology, Lucas?” She wasn’t quite sure of the relationship Lucas had with Gramps. Not that she’d had much time to explore the relationship.

“I worked with your granddad—I knew him as either the Professor or Starkey—on a project. I’m sure you remember the vanishings and people being brought back to life?”

“I do. About five years ago. I was just learning to drive, and Mum had taken me out for a lesson. She had me drive to church. It took us forever to get a parking spot—Mum said I nearly burned out the clutch. Church attendance doubled for a while, then settled back to normal after a month or so. Mum told me people were panicking but returned to their normal routine when they knew the world wasn’t going to end.” She looked to the ground.

“Yep, that’s the stuff.” Lucas picked up a loose pebble on the boulder and threw it towards the bushes. “You granddad was behind the technology, and I was on the project team. That’s why I ended up in prison. A few people died because of the technology, and I went off the rails thanks to a leaning towards drugs. But prison has been good to me. I’ve sorted myself out. No more drugs. But I’m going to be in a spot of bother with what’s happened now.”

“How come Gramps didn’t end up in prison?” The thin plastic of the milk crate was digging into her backside.

“They couldn’t find him. We all thought he’d left the country.”

“And how come you’re out of prison? Was your time up?”

“Err . . . no. Your granddad did a transfer on me.”

“What? Why?” Isabella readjusted her seating and reached over and pulled a leaf from a young gum tree.

“That’s what I’m still trying to work out.” Lucas retuned his gaze to the sheet. “He wants us to transfer to this GPS location.” He pointed to the sheet. “Are you okay about that?”

She crunched up the gum leaf and smelled it. She loved the sweet, reenergising smell of eucalyptus.

“Well, it seemed to work as it got us here. And I don’t think there’s anything amiss.”

“Maybe he’s improved things. There was a risk with the old technology.”

“What sort of risk?” She sensed Lucas was considering his response.

“What do you think happens when you die, Bella?”

“Well, I believe I’m going to heaven. What about you?”

“Well, I think I’m closer to going to heaven than I was. A man in prison runs Bible classes and I was making good progress until this all happened. But I’ll be back there soon enough so I’ll be able to continue my discovery of heaven.”

Isabella flicked the crunched leaf to the ground and watched as Lucas walked over to the clearing, checking to see if the baddies were coming. He’s a good man. She felt protected by Lucas. He gave off some inner strength he probably didn’t even know he had. But she needed to get him out of those clothes and into something that fit. They were either Gramps’s clothes or Gramps got them from somewhere, probably the latter as Lucas was a lot bigger than Gramps.

Lucas turned back to Isabella. “Do you know the way to heaven? I don’t mean the religious rules like how you get your ticket to heaven but more the direction—you know . . . where it is?”

“I haven’t really though about that, Lucas.”

“I’ve seen things, Bella. There’s a supernatural realm out there. I ended up in it because of some faults with the technology.” Lucas raised both arms. “I can’t be specific. But when you get transferred that’s what the technology uses. If a transfer is successful, you’re not even aware of the realm. But if it’s not . . .”

“What’s there? What is it? What do you see?” Isabella asked, leaning forward.

“I saw beings like out of a science fiction movie. I believed they were Angels. But then there were also creepy-looking things and I believed they were demons. That side of it was not good. You felt the evil attached to those things.”

A snap from the bushes made them both jump. They became quiet and waited for whatever it was to reveal itself. It was a grey kangaroo. It hopped off once it realised it was not alone, snapping some more twigs as it left the clearing.

“Angels . . . demons . . . That must have been amazing to see.”

“Amazing is not a word I would’ve used. Anyway, others also ended up in the realm—the ones that were brought back to life. They’ll tell you the realm is used for transporting the soul of the dead to their respective abode—heaven or hell.”

Isabella was smiling. It was all true. What her mum had told her was true. There was a place called heaven and if there is a heaven, there is also a God. She felt the tears building up in her eyes.

“Are you okay, Bella?”

What Lucas told her penetrated the veil the drugs had put up.

“I am. I’m filled with joy. But you don’t seem to be. Did you not become a believer after seeing those things?”

“Not sure. Too much garbage in my head. Like I said, I was making progress. The wiring was being untangled.”