“You’re making me blush, Tag . . . where does she hide her dope? . . . just joking.”

“You’ve already found it.” Tag walked over to the window. “Have you worked out what we’re going to do with the technology? Is there a way we can use it to make money?

“I’ve hit a brick wall with it, Tag. The boss was going to use it to ‘relocate’ law breakers, the theory being that they would be so ‘inconvenienced’ it would deter them from breaking the law again.”

“Do you think it would have worked, Lucas?”

“What’s that?” Lucas had forgotten what they were talking about.

“Inconveniencing people.” Tag walked back towards the door. “Let’s continue this discussion later. Could you stay away from the dope? I want to have a proper discussion with you soon. I have to go and get my sister’s dog from a neighbour—they can’t look after it any more. I think it may have attacked one of their dogs or chooks.”

“Make sure you keep a low profile with them. Where are they?”

“Nearest neighbours around here, Lucas, are about half a kilometre away and these are another couple of kilometres further.”

“What sort of dog is it?”

“Pit bull.”

“Aren’t they a bit violent?”

“He’s okay. Just feed him and he’ll love you.”

He watched as Tag pushed his hands into the hanging door strips, separating them and then headed back inside the house. Lucas watched the plastic strips as they jostled with each other, fighting to get back into their positions. He pictured Mackenzie standing behind the strips. Yes, love, I will come and get you soon.

<°)))><

Lucas climbed out of bed, opened the curtains and looked out into the paddock. The grass and fallen trees were all wet from overnight dew. He saw the dog walking around, leaving his paw prints in the dew. His mother was standing in the paddock wearing an apron and collecting daisies, waving to him. He shook his head . . . where did that image come from? He could barely remember his mother.

He went back and sat down on the bed. He didn’t want to look at the window just in case his mother was still there. Instead, he stared at the devices sitting on the floor. What am I going to do with you?

Here I am, in the middle of nowhere. He got up and walked into the passageway and into the spare room. A single bed. He walked over to the window. No curtains. His mother had gone. This room needed to be made secure. He needed to go buy some things.

He found Tag in the kitchen. “Your sister won’t mind if we make the spare room more secure, would she? He walked over and saw Tag was making himself some eggs. “Could you make me some of them?”

“Scrambled okay?”

“Sure . . . I have a bit of a plan coming into my head. We could relocate a rich kid here. Hold them. Get a ransom.”

“Go on.”

“Use the technology to zap a rich kid, get the money dropped off somewhere, zap the money, return the kid. A bit tricky, but I reckon we could do it. Maybe go for a million, and then get out of the country.”

“Is a million enough?”

“Are you getting greedy?”

“No, Lucas, but think about it. That’s only half a million each. But it sounds like an idea. Another one could be to sell it to some criminal mob and then get out of the country.”

“That’s a good idea, Tag. That could be a better one, cleaner. Just pass the technology on to someone else and get out of the country. Maybe we’d be safer if we just stay in the country. The airports may have alerts on us.”

There was a renewed enthusiasm at the kitchen table that morning.

<°)))><

Tag sat in the white car with a briefcase open next to him. He had the image of a biker on the screen.

There was a bit of confusion when the bike fell over. Tag would have been confused too if he saw someone vanish.

They chose this biker because he was well-known for having connections with all the local criminal elements.

<°)))><

Lucas was glad he had the shotgun. Biker Bill sat on the floor, with his helmet in his hand, staring at Lucas.

Lucas smiled inside the mask because he realised how stupid the old man mask looked. He moved the gun barrel towards the bed. “Please stand up and take a seat on the bed there.” He watched the biker stand up and sit on the edge of the bed. “I know you may be somewhat confused with things, but I know you are a person of authority so I wanted you to have first-hand experience with a product that is up for sale.”

Biker Bill just stared straight at Lucas.

“Go on,” Biker Bill said.

“Although it’s been some weeks, maybe months, I’m sure you’ve come across the media coverage of the vanishing people and associated goings-on.”

“I have.”

“We are the owners of that technology and would like to put it up for sale.”

“Wouldn’t it have been easy to put it on eBay?”

Lucas laughed. “We’re looking at two million dollars. There’s a piece of paper with a number on it on the bedside table there. I’m sure you would consider the technology a good investment. If you would like to pursue the investment, leave a message at the number on that piece of paper in three days’ time.”

Lucas waited for him to grab the piece of paper. “Put your helmet on. This technology’s really easy to use and I don’t want you to hurt your head.” Lucas walked backwards with the gun still pointing towards Biker Bill. A device sat on a table near the door. “Real easy.” He pushed a button. Biker Bill was gone.

Lucas felt that three days gave them enough time to think about the benefits of the technology. It also gave him time for another activity he wanted to pursue.

Chapter 32

AARON HAD GONE INTO protective mode with Mackenzie. His daily regime involved a bike ride from the city to Mackenzie’s place and joining her on a train ride back to the city. He completed the regime with a bike ride back to the city after he got her home safely. She had finally convinced him that he didn’t need to do it every day; they settled on just every second day. He tried to use the excuse that he needed the exercise. She had laughed at that.

He was on protective duty today.

Aaron looked around the train carriage. Everyone was stained, covered with spots of sin—some with a few, some with many.

Aaron reckoned he had worked it out—well, most of it. There was no connection to God, no relationship with God, because of his sins. He was stained. But he hadn’t quite worked out what he was meant to do about it. The stains needed to be covered and he knew it had something to do with Jesus. The Rev referred to Aaron as a dead man walking. Aaron had laughed and asked how a dead man could walk.

The Rev told him that in the scheme of things man was going to live forever, but sin through Adam brought an end to that. With sin came death, which we were all born into, hence the term dead man walking. We are all born dead, spiritually dead.

“Thinking about something, Aaron?”