“Maybe . . .” But Lucas didn’t have a good feeling about the lady and he hoped James’s doodling didn’t include sketches of her. Some doodlers sketch the things they place a high value on.
“She was a strange one, exotic in her own way.”
Meaning she intoxicated him. He hoped not. “I noticed you had a device in your bag. It looked like Bella’s.”
“I do.”
“Which device is it?”
“I think it’s just some kind of storage device.”
“Can I look at it?”
“Sure.”
While James went to locate the device, Lucas took a quick peek at James’s doodling. It wasn’t a random thing—it was a sketch of a bird. James must already be missing the bush.
He heard James return and looked up to see him carrying the black device, which he handed to Lucas.
Lucas flipped the device on its side, and noted it needed a cable to connect to the TV or tablet device. Lucas went over and checked the ports available on the TV. He tried to turn on the TV but found no manual controls. Everything seemed to be controlled by smartphones or remote controls these days. He rummaged around and found the remote. Pressed a few buttons. Nothing. Dead batteries.
Lucas stood there with remote in one hand and the device in the other. “I’ll go and try and find some batteries for the remote, and hopefully a cable for this.” He raised the device in the air.
He poked around in the pantry cupboard and found a clear plastic container with bits and pieces of everything. Strips of black pressed against the sides, either liquorice straps or cables. He removed the lid—cables, and lots of them. There were a number of items at the bottom of the container as well. He moved the cables to the side but no batteries, just USB flash drives. What was stored on those drives?
Something white tucked in the side of the container caught his attention. It was a photo of Isabella as a child or early teen, with two older women and another girl, perhaps the same age as Isabella. One of the women looked like Isabella—her mother? The photo was taken at their property, as Lucas recognised the barn in the background. He stared at the other lady. A different hairstyle, but he knew it was the woman at the car accident, the woman that liked setting fire to barns. What transpired that this lady would now want to kill Bella? He turned the photo over and saw scribbled on the back: Bella, Mum, Ava, Madeleine.
He looked at Bella. Her eyes seemed to be looking at Lucas. He touched the image of her. She affected him, did something to him, had given him vitality. He sensed her in his thoughts constantly, sometimes in the forefront, other times just receding back to allow other thoughts a turn. But she was always there, jumping back when space was freed up. He missed her and wondered where she was.
When Lucas returned, James was doodling into his notebook again. Lucas walked over to the TV and placed the plastic container on the floor and went digging for the right USB cable. He found it and plugged in the device.
“Any batteries?” James looked up and asked.
James brought him back to reality. “Huh . . . not yet. Check out this photo.” Lucas handed him the photo.
James looked at the photo. “The family. I’ve seen pictures of Pop’s daughter and granddaughter before. Wonder who the others are?”
“Look closer.”
With eyes strained he looked. “It’s not is it? It’s the lady. She’s only gotten better with age.” He flipped over the photo. “Ava. Nice name. French, maybe? Must be her daughter—they have the same Mediterranean look about them: dark olive skin, dark hair, nearly Spanish looking.”
Lucas left the photo with James and returned to his search for the batteries. He found an old shoebox. James’s feelings for this lady worried him. Maybe once James saw the recording his appetite for her would change. He shook the box. Things rattled. He held a full shoe box full of batteries, dead batteries, but some would have enough life in them.
The TV displayed the content of the USB device. Lucas sorted the video files in date order from the most recent down.
“Okay, let’s see what we have.”
His thoughts again went to Bella, remembering how she grabbed the device before they scattered from the shelter. He missed her and again wondered where she was. But he had the device and that would make her happy.
44 – Getting to know Gramps
ISABELLA SAT WITH GRAMPS. His beard needed a trim. She really didn’t know too much about her Gramps—he being some kind of fugitive limited the physical contact between them during Isabella’s teenage years. But she had fond memories of earlier years. Isabella had many questions. What’s going on Gramps? Why are we here? And she thought of Lucas.
She expected a big large mirror like in the movies, but there wasn’t one. There were CCTV cameras, so she was conscious people were watching, but Gramps wasn’t at all concerned. He just wanted to talk and tell her things as if they’d never meet again.
They’d been left alone. A strategic move, maybe.
“My dad was a scientist who worked for a number of well-known companies, even with the Department of Defence.”
Isabella imagined heads behind the monitors looking at each other and saying, “Yep, we know that.”
“He was a wealthy man, with the wealth being passed down through the generations. I loved my dad and was fascinated with what he did. He shared all his secrets with me—some I didn’t grasp initially but in time I did. He also passed onto me a dislike for bureaucracy.” He looked up at the CCTV camera.
Isabella smiled. He knew the game they were playing.
“I was more of an inventor. When Dad died, I spent months exploring the notes he left behind and started designing things using principles he discovered. I also spent a considerable amount of the fortune left behind on my inventions. Some worked, some didn’t.”
Gramps moved around in his chair. Picked up the glass of water and had a sip. He raised his glass to the CCTV camera.
Yep. Definitely knew what they were up to.
“This is what I discovered, Isabella. Someone described it like packaging up an email attachment and sending it on. It involves placing an energy field around an entity or entities. We could call the energy field an attachment. This package is pushed into an invisible realm and transported to an identified location. I’ll not bore you with the detail.”
“It’s amazing. I’m so proud of you, Gramps, because I know it works.”
“Yes it does, and well. The technology works even better now. But I’m afraid my thinking isn’t as clear as it used to be. I destroyed all the notes as I didn’t want the technology to get into the wrong hands. And I’m not sure if I could ever build it again.”
Isabella got up from her chair and walked over to her granddad. She gave him a hug. He looked up at her, his eyes watery.
“You know, people laughed at me, Isabella. I approached a prominent entrepreneur and he laughed at me. Spoke about me in a demeaning manner. I was angry. But thankfully, someone I trusted gave me the opportunity to implement the technology.”
“Who was that?” Isabella didn’t care what the behind the mirror people were seeing or hearing or thinking—they probably knew anyway—but she wanted to know as much about her granddad as she could. She sensed there might not be many more opportunities like this.
“A government official. I was vulnerable at the time, needed money, and his strategy was flaky but I suppose we both believed we were helping society. It was simple. We used the technology to inconvenience law breakers. They impounded vehicles for traffic offenses, the theory being that the inconvenience would change behaviour. We believed a better way of inconveniencing people would be to impound the person. Our first project involved impounding people who disobeyed pedestrian signals. Anyway, it was successful. Well, sort of.”
“Sort of?” Isabella sat down and leant towards her gramps.
“I wasn’t keen on your mother working in the pharmaceutical industry. You see, I lacked confidence about the realm because I wasn’t really sure what happened there, and then I started to see the realm was already in use.”
“What? Someone else had invented the same technology?” Isabella wondered what this had to do with Mum’s choice of career.
“No. It’s a spiritual thing, Isabella. I know you’re a believer. The realm is used by God to transport the souls of the dead to their place of rest. People who were transported on the realm spoke about angels and demons, heaven and hell. Things started getting out of hand. The technology was faulty, and there were some deaths. I went off the radar. Can’t remember what I did, but I eventually ended up in the bush somewhere. I ignored the technology for a while, but once an inventor always an inventor. I brought out version ‘2.0’, which you have and need to destroy.
“Why weren’t you keen on Mum’s choice of career?”
He had another drink of water and again raised the glass to the mirror.
“I wasn’t sure about the angel-demon thing but believed things from the realm could influence people’s lives, particularly if the people let these things into their life. You know, like letting your guard down. Drugs let the guard down. Drugs take away what control we have. My observation is that when controls are taken away, the negative thoughts—demon whispers, if you like—seem to take control, to dominate.”
