“Oops, sorry. Not paying attention.”

“No probs.” Lucas pointed. “There’s the house. Looks like we’re coming in from the back. Wonder what he used that small wooden shed for? Let’s go look.”

Lucas walked around the side of the shed. He paused. Looked at Isabella and pointed back towards the bushes. “Go there.”

Isabella went back and stood in amongst the bushes. Things were quiet. The quieter things were, the more things she could hear. There was a noise, a creaking noise. But it stopped. Now voices coming from a distance away. She looked around and saw smoke billowing up through the trees. There was another house up from where they were. People must be talking and their voices were carried by the slight breeze. She registered that in case she needed to seek out others to help them.

Another creak came out of the timber shed. Lucas looked over towards Isabella. Creak. He turned back and moved towards the noise. At the corner of the shed he looked down. What was he looking at? Maybe footprints in the muddy grass?

Creak.

It was the door. Slightly ajar. Isabella watched him walk into the shed. She thought of shadows and darkness.

36 – Prophecies and moths

PERDU SAT SIPPING A HOT CUP OF TEA. The man had invited her back to his shack to wait for Isabella’s return. There was no hesitation on her part.

She could see the bright glow of a fine bed of coals in the pot-belly as the man had opened the stove and was poking the coals to generate some heat. He didn’t care about his appearance. He may as well have just thrown on a potato sack. Suppose you get like this out here in the bush.

She stared at the books scattered on the messy coffee table. She looked around—it wasn’t just the coffee table. They were scattered everywhere.

“You been here long?” Perdu asked as she reached for one of the books. She stared at the man. He was obviously nervous. Unlikely that a woman of her class had ever graced this place before. She shook at the thought of what she might be sitting on, if the dust on the shelves were any indication. Even the curtains looked like they have been feeding the moths for years. She returned her attention to the book in her hand. The cover had people flying up into the air.

“Been here a few years.’ He picked up a piece of wood and placed it in the stove. “They shouldn’t be too much longer.”

The moths and cockroaches must have thrown a party when this man set up abode. My I’m a nasty thing.

“That’s okay. No hurry. I’m enjoying your company.” She looked down at the book again and started flicking through the pages. Christian garbage.

“Do you believe this stuff?”

The man coughed. “Still working that out. My ex went religious on me and I’m trying to work out why she went that way. I’ve got a bit interested in what Christians call end times. You know, the Nostradamus-type stuff.”

“I have a vague recollection of Nostradamus. A French prophet, if my memory serves me correct. Whose prophecies were mostly misinterpreted.” Ava thought she felt something crawling on her seat. She sat up and checked. It was nothing but her mind.

“Yeah.”

“What do the Christians say is meant to happen?” Perdu couldn’t believe she was engaging in dialogue with this man. She shook her head, hoping thoughts of bugs and things would scatter away.

“From what I’ve worked out so far. They reckon those that believe are all going to vanish one day. I’m trying to work out if that’s meant to happen at the second coming of Christ or whether it’s a separate event.”

“Vanish?” She’s had this silly conversation before, a few times, even with Isabella’s Dad, but she decided to go along with it. There wasn’t much more to do while she waited, but she needed to watch the time regarding the security man.

“Funny thing, the technology Pop came up with had people vanishing so maybe there is an element of truth in what I’m reading about.”

Technology . . . Pop? An image of people popping dropped into Perdu’s head. A puff of smoke and people were gone—vanished.

“Maybe I’m saying too much. Pop tended to keep these things to himself. Even Isabella didn’t know about them until she experienced . . . a jump . . . transfer . . . I’m not sure what to call it.”

Of course. Pop was Isabella’s granddad. And, of course, Isabella used the technology to get here. Did she still have it?

“I’m seeing people vanishing from one spot and appearing elsewhere so I’d have to think that these vanishings they talk about in the book could be real. But something tells me it’s not the same.” He picked up a book from a shelf near the pot-belly.

Perdu’s mind was racing. Was the technology here? Her assignment notes attempted to explain the science behind it all, but there were many gaps and her employer wanted her to fill those gaps. How did they pack up a human and shoot them off somewhere? The ruffling of pages caught her attention.

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. That’s a quote from the Bible,” he said.

Ava felt something when the man read those words. She brushed the thought aside. “Let me help you decide. What’s your name, anyway?”

“James.”

“Well, James, Christians have been predicting the end of the world or Jesus returning for years and years and it hasn’t happened yet and I’m not sure if it ever will. On the humorous side, James, we’ve heard of people signing up to look after the pets of Christians after they’ve been raptured. The other one was to ask taxi drivers if they’re a Christian before you get in their cab—just in case they get raptured on the freeway. And what about pilots?”

He was smiling. “Never really thought about all that, I suppose some may believe their pets are going to be raptured too. Haven’t been in a taxi for that long . . . or a plane . . . but still, I find it an interesting subject.”

“Really, what’s interesting about it? My life will come to an abrupt end one day and that’s it. Full stop. I’ve had people offer to pray for me. I told them not to, because I don’t believe in God and all the things that flow from that belief. So I tell them, please don’t pray for me.”

“I have heard hatred can get in the way of clear thinking.”

“Did I mention the word hate?”

“No, but I sense it.”

“Really? What do I hate?”

“God, or maybe those who believe in God.”

“You seem to have grown in confidence since our conversation started. Maybe you’re a believer. Therefore my hatred extends to you.”

“That’s a bit nasty.”

It was and she’d better get herself under control.

“Sorry, spiritual discussions don’t sit well with me.” She needed to get this man back on side. “But the technology you speak about seems amazing. Have you seen it?”

“To be honest, I was curious and had a poke around in the room she stayed in. But nothing. I think she took it with her on the hike. It’s most probably in her lovely pink backpack. Don’t think she trusted me.”

Ava detected a note of resentment. “I’m sure she trusts you. Most probably a security thing, you know, like a comfort object. Maybe we can both have a peek at the device when she returns.”

37 – Wasps and drones

THERE WAS A DISTINCTIVE SMELL IN THE TIMBER SHED. Lucas knew what it was. But he was puzzled as to why. Did the old man smoke dope? He thought not. Maybe his smelling sensors were out of whack. Creak. That was a different noise. He felt a presence behind him.

Isabella stood in the doorway. “Lucas. Sorry, I didn’t like being out there by myself. I think my medication is wearing off. Can we go back to the other house?”

“Sure, Bella. Just let me check the front of the house and see if the car is there. Come with me.”

As they reached the front of the house they saw a man reaching out for a hand rail and pulling himself up.