“Go on.”
“Our initial scouting team had been hit by amnesia darts. Drone communication had been blacked out. A barn had been set on fire but was under control thanks to rain and the local fire brigade. There’s no sign of the girl and her companion. We did detect some trail-bike riders on our way in and are waiting for some feedback from the drone people on that.”
Aaron heard some background chatter.
“Hold on,” Michael said.
Aaron put the phone in load speaker mode and placed it on the desk. He rubbed his forehead.
“You there, Aaron?”
“Yep, go ahead.”
“That was the drone people. They detected the two trail-bike riders. They also detected two other bodies.”
“The daughter and her friend making a run for it,” Aaron suggested.
“Most probably, but guess what?”
“Please no suspense, Michael.”
“They vanished. Bleeps on the screen just vanished.”
Aaron closed his eyes and rested his chin in his hands.
“And the riders?”
“It looked like there was some interaction with one of the bike riders and the ones that vanished. The riders scouted around for a while then left the area.”
Aaron was concerned. Somebody else was also interested in Isabella and he wasn’t sure why. Whoever it was, they appeared resourceful.
Aaron needed to find Isabella first. Where did they transport themselves to?
Part Two – The ravens are watching
31 – An old cozy shack
CLOUDS PASSED OVER THE MOON blocking out its evening glow.
An old shack sat in a small grassy block enclosed by tea-trees, ferns, and eucalypts. The gutters of its rusted roof overflowing with litter and its surrounds boarded by an old timber post and rail fence. James Black stood on the veranda. He felt the dampness in the wood beneath him and smelt the dampness of the trees and shrubbery that surrounded him. It was his choice. This was the life he wanted.
He looked to the sky and thought of the professor. They had taken him away now—his only companion.
James tilted his head. He thought he heard a slight crackle. A small lightning bolt. Strange.
He turned and went back inside. Something was coming. He just wasn’t sure what it was.
<°)))><
The transfer didn’t involve reflective cloaks or transformation optics. Things stood still. Lucas stared at Isabella and saw a hideous being moving towards her. Isabella turned and screamed. Then they tumbled on to a soft surface. Carpet.
Lucas stood up and went over to help Isabella to her feet. A small window with a roman blind partially pulled down revealed that night was now upon them and the dim light entering the room showed they were in a bedroom with no furniture and wallpaper from another era.
“That was a pretty strange experience, Lucas. It’s like nothing happened except the people who change the stage settings—stage hands I think they’re called—have come and gone and I didn’t see them. Where have those bikers gone? Maybe they were carried out by the stage hands.”
Seeing that Isabella was okay released some tension in his chest. He’d only known her for a short time, but the thought of her being lost in the realm troubled him and it wasn’t just because Starkey told him to take care of her—Lucas wanted to.
Lucas had tried not to look at Isabella too closely. It had been a long time since he was alone with a girl and she was just such a pretty vulnerable thing. He loved the cheeky sparkle in her brown eyes, which seemed to kindle a sparkle in Lucas. But his time in prison had adjusted his desires. He knew one day he would have a lasting relationship. He just needed to bide his time and work to make himself a better person, although this situation wasn’t helping.
The bedroom door was open. Lucas signalled for Isabella to stay still as he stepped out of the room into a narrow passageway. To the left was the front entrance door, to the right, at the end of the passage, was another door which must go into a living area. It was closed and a yellow and reddish light was escaping at the bottom of the door. There was some music playing, not loud but loud enough. Lucas knew the tune as an old Beatles song: ‘Hey, Jude’. Lucas had no familiarity with the house. He walked up to the front door. It was locked from the inside.
There was a squeak as a door opened behind him. The music got louder and more light spilled into the passageway. Lucas turned to see a figure standing in the doorway.
“Hello, you must be, Lucas.” The figure moved towards Lucas. “Is the girl with you?”
<°)))><
When Lucas had entered the passageway, Isabella walked over to the window and looked out. She wasn’t fearful. Where were they? A large spotlight highlighted a shed with firewood stacked beside it. Thick bushland was only a short distance away, and the spotlight encroached to show tree trunks black from a bush fire. The house was lucky to still be here. The surroundings were similar to Gramps’ place. She noted there was lots of new growth—nature fighting back after devastation, the way it was designed to. On one of their walks, Mum had said some seeds were dependent on fire to germinate.
There was a favourite walk Mum used to take her on. It was Mum’s preferred place of peace and tranquillity, so worth the long drive. Something rare grew there. Strange. Gramps had asked her about their walks.
Sadness. No parents. Her thoughts went to Lucas.
Although she had only known him for a short time, she dreaded the thought of him going back to prison. He shouldn’t be in prison. It sounds like he was just lost and got caught up in the wrong things. She would help him work a way around going back to prison.
There was music and voices in the passageway now. She turned and walked towards the sounds.
A man stood next to Lucas. He was thin, lanky, with a bit of a belly, in his fifties maybe. He saw her. “You must be Isabella.” He walked towards her and put out his hand. “I’m James Black, a friend of your grandfather’s. He told me to expect you and your friend, Lucas.”
