Freedom Incorporated (23 page)

Esteban wished he had a
cigar and cursed the sensitivity of the smoke detectors. UniForce
had dotted sprinklers across the otherwise white ceiling and he
knew from experience that a cigar would set them off.

He had long-term plans
for Dan Sutherland’s demise. But they weren’t finalised yet, there
was ample room for a poetic twist to complement his demonic
scheme.

*

Thursday, September 16,
2066

19:54 Albury,
Australia

Dan yanked on the
handbrake and unbuckled his seatbelt.

“
Why are we
stopping here?” Jen didn’t entirely trust him
yet
.

“
My parents
place is about five kilometres from here, just over that hill.” He
pointed into the darkness. “I don’t want to park a stolen car in
their driveway.”

“
Oh yeah.” Jen
hadn’t thought of that
.

“
It won’t take
us long,” Dan said while reaching for his coat that he’d tossed on
the back seat. It was a warm September evening so he folded it
across his arm. “Are you cold?”

Jen wasn’t wearing much,
she’d portaled from Tweed Heads directly into the climate
controlled mall, never giving much consideration to what the
weather might be like in the lower half of Australia. A warm
sirocco-like breeze crawled across her flesh. “No, I’m
fine.”

“
Let’s go
then.” Dan was nervous about seeing his parents again. He hadn’t
even phoned them for six months and now he was about to knock on
their door with a cantankerous ex-target in tow.

Jen stumbled after him,
uncomfortable with her limited choices. She’d never been to Albury
before and had no clue where to find the centre of town. Dan had
painstakingly driven around the bubble of activity on the main
street, which dissected the highway, preferring to avoid the prying
pole-mounted cameras designed to make the streets safer. As far as
Jen could tell, they were in the bush – a eucalyptus haze hung
thick in the air and made breathing difficult for her sensitive
lungs.

A twig snapped
under Dan’s heavy feet, causing fear to ping through Jen’s body.
Her eyes were wide but
she could see little
the
gloom.
I’m
following a man I don’t trust into the bush.
It reminded her of a horror movie she’d seen in a recent
horror-binge. She stayed a dozen metres behind him, his silhouette
barely visible against a backdrop of twisted scarecrow branches and
sparse leaves. At the first sign of danger, she was ready to turn
and sprint for the car.
Not that I can
start it.
It was another disturbing thought
to add to the growing list.

There was a
rustling of leaves to Jen’s right. It came from somewhere in the
undergrowth and she decided
that
Dan might not be the scariest thing
in the bush
. Common sense
told her that
nothing was
dangerous in Australia.
Other than snakes and spiders.
But
fear had firmly settled in and she was beginning to lose her
nerve.

Snap out of
it!
She mentally slapped herself.
He saved my life today. If he wanted me dead, he
would’ve let the Raven do it. Besides, he can’t be all that bad, he
caught my grandfather’s killer.
It was only
after they’d been walking for another ten minutes that Jen realised
she had no way of knowing whether the Raven was shooting at
her…
or at him.
And
what proof did she have that this man was really Daniel Sutherland?
He could be anyone.

She stopped,
confused.

Dan heard. “What’s
wrong?”

“
You… how do
I…
what proof… It’s difficult to trust you.
You are, after all, leading me into the bush.”

Dan mentally
groaned and thought,
I thought we’d passed
all this?
“You know, you’re right. You don’t
have to trust me. In fact,” he snorted a laugh, which sent shivers
dancing the length of Jen’s spine, “you can stay here if you
want.
I’m
going to
my parent’s house. We’re getting close. We’ll reach a road if you’d
care to follow me for another 50 metres. And, unless I’m mistaken,
there’s also a streetlight or two.” He recommenced trudging into
the gloom and left Jen to whatever decision she was going to
make.

She listened
to him
leave
and
wished she were back in her apartment.
She
doubted she could blunder her way to town i
n the dark, so unless she
followed
Dan she’d have to stay
in the bush
until dawn.
“Shit!” she said through clenched teeth and, reluctantly, hurried
to catch up.

True to his word, they
emerged from the trees and Jen’s boots cheerfully gripped the
bitumen.

“
You see,” Dan
said, pointing to a streetlight on the top of a rise. “There’s a
sign under that light, you can’t quite read it from here, but it
says Thurgoona Park. We go left there and we’re back in
civilization.”

Jen,
comforted, quickened her pace to walk next to him. In times past
the road would have buzzed with cars, all with too much engine
under the hood and not enough brain behind the wheel. But since
PortaNet had inundated
society with
instantaneous transportation, the Roads and
Traffic Authority had left the roads for the weather.

The
temperature was dropping and Jen
vigorously
rubbed
her bare arms
,
trying to keep them warm.

“
You want
this?” Dan offered his coat.

She nodded and said,
“Thanks,” then gratefully wrapped it around her body, feeling as if
she was swimming in the oversized garment.

A few minutes later, they
turned onto Bennett Road and Dan jerked his head at a solid brick
house. “That’s it.”

Jen used her
imagination to picture the brown tiled roof and mottled bricks with
beige guttering and trims. The twinkling starlight made it
difficult to determine the precise colours, but she could see it
had once been a majestic home.
And
big.
Although it was narrow at the front, it
stretched a long way towards the rear of the sizable block; she saw
it as she crunched across the gravel driveway. Towering pines lined
three sides of the property, providing privacy from the street, and
Jen could smell flowers – thousands of them. The sweet perfume
reminded her of a florist. And the flower garden’s intense array of
orange and crimson practically glowed in the dark.

Automatic
lights illuminated the veranda in a sudden flood
,
luring moths and making Jen wince
from the stab of pain on her retinas. She slapped at a sting on her
neck, cursed the mosquito she
’d
smeared across her palm, and then
scratched at the lump that was already emerging from her irritated
skin.

Dan rang the
doorbell
.
G
one were the days he could waltz on
in. Jen thought she could hear a muted argument from within as
Dan’s parents quibbled about who’d get the door. Eventually it
cracked open and a man in his sixties stuck his nose out. He
recognised his son immediately and swung the door wide.
“Dan!”

“
Hi pop,” Dan
said, looking embarrassed when his father shakily descended the
steps and clasped him in a bear hug that belied the older man’s
age.

“
Dan! Hey
Marie, it’s Dan!” He heartily slapped his son’s back before holding
him at arm’s length and gauging his health, and then hugged him a
second time.

Jen thought she saw a
thickening to the sheen in the man’s eyes.

A moment later, a buxom
woman bounded to the door and completed the family reunion by
bursting into a joyful bout of sniffles. “Come here,” she ordered
tearfully.

Dan dutifully ascended
the steps and embraced his mother, presenting her with a kiss on
the cheek that every good son should bestow on his mother after
such a long time apart. He eventually extricated himself for long
enough to conduct proper introductions. “Mum, Dad, this is Jennifer
Cameron.”

“
Hello
Mr
and
Mrs
Sutherland,” Jen said, holding out
a hand for each of them to shake. “Please just call me
Jen.”

“
Only if
you’ll call me George,” Mr Sutherland replied, eyeing her
approvingly. He winked and, rather than making her feel
uncomfortable, it helped put her at ease. Because at that point,
Jen finally accepted that Dan wasn’t going to dismember her in a
grisly murder and then dump her body in a dam for some poor farmer
to find two weeks later when the stench of her bloated corpse
finally attracted his attention. But she still wasn’t exactly
comfortable with her circumstances.

“
And me
Marie,” Mrs
Sutherland said, sidling past
the hand Jen was offering to welcome her with a brief squeeze and a
firm kiss on each cheek. She’d decided that anyone travelling with
her son deserved a proper reception.

Dan caught his parents’
insinuations and decided to correct their misapprehension right
away. He hadn’t found someone after Katherine’s death. He never
would. “She’s a business associate. We were in the area and thought
we’d drop by.”

George Sutherland made a
show of scouring the driveway. “How’d you get here?”

“
Taxi,” Dan
lied easily, delivering it with a smooth smile and a slap to his
father’s back. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“
Well you’ve
done that.” Marie was wearing a floral dress. She wouldn’t have
been caught dead wearing one as a girl but she thought it
appropriate now that she was edging into her late sixties. “Come,
come. You’re letting the insects in.”

“
Wait a
second,” Dan said seriously. “We’ve got something toxic on our
boots.” His parents knew better than to ask how
that
ha
d happened.
They’d learned that lesson repeatedly in less amicable times.
“We’ll ditch our shoes and meet you inside.”

George waved to the
garage. “You know where everything is.” He beamed a smile, showing
his white teeth. They were too white – obviously fake. “It’s good
to see you again, son.”

“
It’s good to
see you too, pop.” Dan swatted at a moth that was trying to sneak
inside with the smaller insects. “Go on, we’ll be in
soon.”

Marie and George
retreated into their warm nest while Dan tugged Jen by the sleeve
to the far side of the house where some kind of vine was holding up
several sheets of rotten lattice. “Take off your boots,” he said,
already slitting his laces with a knife. “They have nanotoxin in
the soles.”

Jen mutely obeyed,
somewhat stunned by how normal his parents seemed. She wondered if
they had any idea what he did for a living. They tossed both sets
of boots into the garbage, quickly following them with Dan’s coat.
“We’ll have to chuck the rest after a shower.”

“
Then what
will I wear?” Jen resisted the urge to run a hand through her
unruly hair. She knew stray shards were lurking just beneath the
surface.

“
We’ll find
you something,” Dan said, sounding calm. He guarded his tumultuous
thoughts well. It was more discomforting than painful to face his
parents again. They reminded him of long summer evenings sprawled
on the patio with a mug of Marie’s glorious coffee, and innocent
conversations about their goals and aspirations. Of course,
Katherine was a star performer in those memories and it was
difficult to be back in Albury without her. It amplified his
emptiness. He’d become good at barring his personal feelings
at work
, but Jen had
unwittingly torn down his defences and he felt unprepared for the
psychological war he was waging.

“
Come on.” Dan
courteously held the door open and let Jen enter first.

Marie and George were
waiting for them at the kitchen table. But Marie stood as soon as
they entered and said, “Can I get you anything to
drink?”

Dan knew he couldn’t
leave immediately, that would just be cruel. And he hoped Jen had
the good grace to behave while they were there; the last thing he
wanted was to expose his parents to the harsh reality of his daily
life. He wanted to shelter them from all that.

“
I’d love some
coffee.” Dan couldn’t stop a smile as he turned to Jen and said,
“She makes the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. And I’m not just
saying that because she’s my mother.”

Jen’s social instincts
kicked in. She erased her cardboard expression, smiled, and
replied, “Then I’d be delighted to try some, thank you
Marie.”

Dan felt needle-like
itches crawling across his skin and couldn’t bear the torment any
longer. “Do you mind if we take a shower? We’ll need some fresh
clothes too.”

George nodded. “Of
course, go right ahead. Your old clothes are still where you left
them.” He frowned at Jen, gauging her size. “I think some of
Christine’s things are there too. You might be lucky and find
something to fit Jen.”