“Hello,” Isabella said.

The man turned abruptly and nearly lost his balance. He reached down to his hip and pulled out a gun.

Lucas sprinted towards him and grabbed his arm. “No need for that.” He grabbed the man’s gun and threw it away. “We’re on your side. Are you okay?”

The man sat down on the verandah. He looked around. Puzzled. “Not sure what’s going on. I must have had a seizure or something. He rubbed his neck.

Isabella walked over and looked at his neck. She looked at Lucas. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“What do you mean?” asked the man.

“You’ve either been stung by a wasp, or someone had fired a dart into you.”

The man rubbed his neck. “A dart?”

“Listen. You need to contact the authorities. They’re looking for us, me in particular. My name is Lucas Fell. I recently escaped from prison.”

With that, the man stiffened. He stood up.

“Lucas, what about James? We should go and check on him,” Isabella said.

Lucas looked in the direction of James’ house. She was right. He could well be in danger.

The man had sneaked down to the lawn. “Okay, you two, just hold it there.”

They turned to see the man pointing the gun at them. He had his cell phone in the other hand.

“Okay. Don’t shoot us.” Lucas stepped away from Isabella. “What’s the signal strength on your phone?”

The man held the phone next to the gun and checked the signal indicator. “Not good.”

“Listen, there’s a chance that whoever shot that dart into you is still here,” Lucas said. “More than likely in the house behind this one. If it’s who I think it is, they’re a nasty breed. We’re concerned about the owner of that house. You’ve got a gun. Why don’t we go see if we need to help him?”

“It would be good to call some backup.” He stared at them both. “Look, I’m not cut out for this high adventure sort of stuff. I’m doing this to earn some extra pocket money. I don’t really want to get myself shot or anything like that.” He put the gun back in its holster.

“I understand that. I worked as a security guard for a while, so I understand what you’re saying. I can help you.”

The security guard looked in the direction of the other house and rubbed his neck.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

Lucas thought he could hear the sound of a vehicle.

<°)))><

Perdu needed a bird’s eye view of things.

Her car sat well concealed in a side track. Some fallen leaves that had taken up residence on the boot of the car were now sliding off as the boot rose. A clunking followed by a whirling sound came from the boot. Black propellers appeared.

Perdu stood at the front window of the shack, a moth staring at her. She brushed it off and watched as it flew over to the next window. Something wasn’t right. She looked down at her phone and watched the scenery change as her hovering bug was airborne. How was she best to handle this?

“You picking up a signal? It must have been fixed.”

Perdu turned to look at the man. She had forgotten about him, as he was no threat. She had also forgotten there were problems with signal strength and hence why she was waiting. Getting forgetful, was she? It didn’t matter as she was used to the fabric of the universe working in her favour. Not God, but luck was on her side.

“Yep. Signal is sweet.”

She was looking at her screen and saw three people heading in their direction. They had stopped and were all looking up at her hovering bug. Easy targets. But as if they heard her, the men separated and the girl started heading back to the other house.

The men wouldn’t be a problem. She navigated her bug higher to capture Isabella’s activities. Her attention was brought to a vehicle turning into the driveway. She heard movement and turned to see the man was at the front window, moving one of the window coverings to the side. Speckles of dust danced widely in the ray of light that made its way in and the moth flew off, obviously annoyed of being disturbed again.

“It’s Johnny, my cousin, and a few of his workmates. He drops in occasionally when they do some work on that tower up there. You don’t mind the additional company, do you?”

He turned. She was gone.

38 – A hiker or a messenger

ISABELLA WATCHED THE THING FALL FROM THE SKY. It hit a tree and bounced through the branches and came to rest at feet covered in hiking boots. She looked up to see who the feet belonged to. It was a familiar face but she couldn’t place it. He was dressed as if modelling hiking gear.

She stood back. “Do I know you?”

“We’ve met briefly before. I need you to trust me for a moment. Your life is in danger and you need to come with me.”

“Danger?”

He turned and started heading into the bush. He looked back and waved Isabella on.

“Please come.”

To trust or not to trust? A soft internal voice told her to go.

Isabella followed closely behind. Within moments the bush shrubbery engulfed her as if working as one to conceal.

The man stopped and turned towards the house below.

“Look.” And he pointed.

Isabella saw a figure skirting around the side of the house, looking for something. The figure heard voices and looked towards the other house. A group of men, most in yellow jackets were heading towards Gramps’ house. She saw Lucas and the other man join them. She returned her gaze back to the singular figure. They were gone. She looked towards her guide. He pointed towards the road. She saw the figure moving towards the road, looking back occasionally.

“You know her, Isabella.”

Yes she did. It was Mrs Perdu. That title no longer sounded right to Isabella. But why was she here? She looked at the man. The bus.

“You were on the bus?”

“Yes. I was sent to you again.”

She tried to get her mind around things. With so much going on she felt panic trying to gain control. The bus. Angel. Protector. God.