Hindsight (22 page)

‘I disagree.’

‘And if I argue and refuse your leash, then what? Will I hear machine gun triggers — or the clicking of tasers if I refuse to play?’

‘Miss Chambers, please, allow me time to answer each and all of your questions. We can stand out there in the dirt if you really prefer it, however, the evening is cooling swiftly and dew will be settling soon. It was my understanding that your skin is more sensitive than usual.’

‘Not
that
sensitive!’

‘You can sense colours with your fingertips. I didn’t want to risk anything. You’re too valuable.’

Mira frowned suspiciously, but she couldn’t help being curious.

‘Stay on your guard,’ Ben whispered. He ushered her gently into the spongy comfort of a seat that felt like a leather rocker-recliner — invisible to Mira, but not weightless. The chair sank a little beneath her as the rollers pressed through the large soft rug into loose soil and ash.

Ben took position behind her with one hand on her shoulder, while Mira perched on the edge of her seat and fiddled nervously with the controls of her sunshades — and discovered that the chair was positioned almost precisely in line with the branch of a ghostly olive tree. At least she
hoped
it was coincidental. If Garland really was in command of so many resources and had been watching her by satellite for a month, it seemed far more likely there were surveillance images of the orchard somewhere that showed where all the trees had been before developers moved in — and that made Mira wonder if the chair had been positioned precisely and deliberately to ensure Mira was sitting on an ‘olive branch’.

She stood up in reflex. ‘I’d rather my own feet, thank you.’

‘No, sit,’ Ben whispered, drawing her down again and leaning low enough to let his cheek brush against hers. ‘You’re the one who deserves the throne here.’

‘Am I expected to be impressed?’

‘Open-minded is the best I can hope for,’ Garland said. ‘You mentioned
invasion
earlier, Mr Chiron. Quite pertinent, actually, because our country
has
been invaded — by a network of international crime cartels, some of which are big enough to operate their own navies and armies. In some areas of the world, their cargo planes are even escorted by ex-Russian fighters. Now consider this,’ she added as she slid into a chair facing Mira. ‘Can you please tell her how many stars I have on my collar?’

‘A constellation,’ Ben replied. ‘So what of it?’

‘Parliament can’t appoint a general with this many stars except during times of war, and make no mistake, war
has been
declared — an urban war in a battle against formidable enemies. To the layman, that just means the ongoing war against terrorists, so that’s all you’ll ever hear about in the media, aside from a few gangland squabbles or crime cartels getting busted. However, urban warfare has many faces just as dangerous and often interrelated. Some quite literally include cold war enemies attempting to infiltrate industry or subvert political parties while building their own private empires. Others include cyber-activists working to their own agendas, or common drug-runners, pirates and black marketeers. Increasingly, they’re also interconnected through their “front businesses” operating outside all moral and legal requirements.’

‘And Greppia’s little corner store is a keystone in all that?’ Ben asked, sounding unconvinced. ‘He’s scum. No argument there, but he’s small-time.’

‘Indeed,’ Garland agreed. ‘And yet little Mr Gregan Greppia has somehow managed to hook up with former-Colonel Kitching as a money launderer for his gun-running cartel. Some of Greppia’s own people now call him the Big G. But how did a little fish like Greppia hook up with a big player like Kitching, when they don’t swim anywhere near the same seas? There has to be a link — a key contact who acted as agent to bring them together. For example, gun-runners usually require an agent to source and manage many of their contacts from suppliers to buyers — as do many money launderers. Unfortunately for you, Miss Chambers, those agents tend to deal with some fairly unsavoury characters, from pimps and white slavers to organ harvesters who can dispose of any troublesome “livestock” or employees. In your case, Kitching had initially been planning to test your skills on a few jobs and renting your services to a few comrades before selling your eyes on the black market for R & D.’

‘So you’re looking for the agent?’ Ben asked.

‘We are, and with urgency, because with Kitching in custody and no known second-in-charge who can step into his shoes, his people have gone to ground with a power vacuum that’s begging to be filled and shipments of money and weapons that are both overdue for deliveries. Who better to fill the void and keep the big business running than Mr Mystery himself — or
her
self — or someone else sideways in their shadowy web of contacts? And since Gregan Greppia is one of the nearest and easiest to watch due to his lack of experience, he’s the one we need to track for our best chance at shutting them all down.’

‘He’s a civilian,’ Ben argued. ‘That makes him a case for the feds.’

Mira shook her head, apathetic either way. ‘Sounds to me like a hunt you could manage in a blink if you stopped wasting so much time and effort keeping eyes on me.’

‘On the contrary, Miss Chambers, securing your allegiance is of primary importance. National and world security would become instantly easier, cheaper and safer, and not just on this relatively small case. I’d only need to take you to locations where known terrorists, spies or other anarchists have been, in order to discover any plans they made before leaving. Imagine how many lives you could save by providing me with that level of intelligence. If you continue to sit on the fence, that’s frustrating and disappointing enough. But imagine if you were captured by unfriendly forces. You could be smuggled out of the country and tortured or brainwashed into cooperating; you could be forced to witness the spectres of government personnel entering passwords, access codes or communicating top secret data in a way that no enemy spies ever could before. And I must warn you, there are allied and other governments who wouldn’t hesitate in putting a bullet in your head the moment you become a threat to them.’

‘So we’re back to cooperate or else?’ Mira said, shaking her head. ‘Only now you’re not the only one pointing a gun at me. Fantastic.’

‘I do wish you wouldn’t keep perceiving me as your enemy, Miss Chambers. My team isn’t spying on you, per se. They’re in place to protect you
and
your privacy. None of them have been fully briefed on the details of your talent. As far as they know, you’re just a remarkable psychic.’

‘And yet your fake fishermen overheard me talking about seeing back through time this morning and in Ben’s car. How stupid do you think I am?’

‘Actually, they have strict orders to stay outside normal hearing distance, except in emergencies, like the one at Greppia’s store this morning. Otherwise, they use only electronic surveillance with all recordings transmitted automatically to me, for my ears only.’

‘Is that so?’ Mira argued. ‘And did your MPs snatch me so roughly to save me?’

‘If it’s the truth you want, yes. They feared you were about to learn how ruthless Greppia can be, the hard way. He holds nothing back, I assure you. As a money launderer, he even has the hide to own and operate actual laundromats as well as corner stores, as if rubbing our noses in it.’

‘So that’s how his corner store fits in?’ Ben asked. ‘He takes a cut from all the dirty money that he runs through his cash registers?’

‘Either that, or he’s making big money from bread, milk and other staples — big enough to handle the many millions flowing in from Colonel Kitching’s operation. Big enough to handle sales of toys like nuclear missiles and still have pocket change for all their private yachts, mansions and airfields.’

‘You’re still not attracting our sympathy,’ Ben argued. ‘If Mira was really in that much danger, you should have warned her. Besides, most people would never question if money has been dirty or clean, so long as it’s paid on time. So why bother laundering? Why don’t the cartels just bank it all, and manage their cash online?’

‘If it can be managed online, it can be traced, hacked or taxed. Crime cartels thrive best as cash economies with money that’s untraceable.’

‘… and still no sympathy,’ Ben warned.

‘There should be. I saw surveillance footage of Gregan Greppia tugging his hair at you, Miss Chambers. That’s something which had to be avoided at all costs. When Gregan Greppia tugs his hair, people turn up dead on their local beach. They’re beaten and fall off a cliff, or they’re framed for murder during armed robbery and locked away for six years.’

A nuclear bomb couldn’t have struck Mira with a bigger shockwave. Even Ben slipped off the arm of her chair momentarily, and it seemed to her as if he would have fallen off completely if he hadn’t kept his hand on hers.

‘Are you suggesting Gregan was directly involved in framing me?’ Ben asked.

‘That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. Unfortunately I don’t have proof, or I might offer it to clear your name in exchange for a few months of cooperation with Miss Chambers.’

‘If you had a heart, you’d give it to him either way,’ Mira complained.

‘Indeed I might, if I had the evidence in the first place.’

‘Yet you suspect it,’ Ben complained, ‘and
we’re
the ones who get detained? Are you sure you’re not on Greppia’s payroll? Or just plain incompetent? It’s so hard to tell from here.’

‘I can’t take him down until I’m sure I can tear down the whole network, as far as it extends inside our borders at least, and you’re only being detained for your own safety. Your Camaro is there, fully fuelled, and you have the keys — the car’s still a little temperamental, the mechanic tells me, but fit enough now to take you as far as you please.’

‘That car’s not nearly as temperamental as me,’ Mira said, suspecting Garland was suggesting that much about her anyway. Outside, she could hear Lockman and others still packing up his private gear, and part of her wished that she and Ben could go with him. At least that way, they’d be safe from any attackers. She wondered if he could hear any of this madness with Garland. She doubted it, but then realised it wouldn’t make any difference anyway. Lockman was hardly likely to rescue her from his own superior officer — again. Colonel Kitching had been a different story, caught stealing military secrets from the R & D team, while the MPs had been unknown to him.

Garland sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. ‘I can be temperamental at times too, Miss Chambers, but never where national security is concerned. You might do better to think of me as an orchardist, because where the defence of our country, the crown, commonwealth and our place in the free world is concerned, I don’t merely prune infections from the tips. It’s my duty to ensure that they’re traced and torn out by the root — and that, I hope and intend, is where you come in.’

‘As your pet or your lab rat?’ Mira huffed. ‘I’m still unclear on that.’

‘As a paid civilian contractor. I honestly don’t know how much fairer I can be than that.’

‘Still sounds like forced labour to me — and I’ll bet it’s with strict rules and guards wherever I go, just like the last ten years in psychiatric facilities.’

‘Treated with respect, this time. No medication or sedation. And certainly no forced feeding or sponge-bathing.’

Mira felt her cheeks flush hot with rage and embarrassment. ‘That’s creepy! You shouldn’t know that much about me. It’s indecent!’

‘Unfortunately, your personal likes and dislikes are well documented and files aren’t only held at Serenity. You have files also in Brisbane with the Department of Health, and partial records at every institution you’ve ever been to over the years. Confidential isn’t top secret, obviously, but it can be. I can attend to that problem, among others, if …’

‘Butt out!’ Mira shouted. ‘I’ll cope with my own problems.’

‘I’d wish you luck, but you’re not yet familiar with the biggest of them.’

‘You’re kidding?’ Ben laughed mockingly. ‘It gets worse?’

‘I’m afraid so. Gregan Greppia knows who you are, Miss Chambers. He knows your face and your value. In fact, if my team hadn’t pulled you out when they did, and if you hadn’t looked so brightly different in those glasses and clothes, he might have recognised you as the psychic wildcat he purchased from Kitching, right before the colonel was taken into custody and stripped of his rank.’

‘Back up,’ Ben demanded. ‘You said
purchased
. As in a
slave
, or for certain body parts?’

‘First one, then the other. I’m surprised she hasn’t mentioned it.’

Mira shivered at the memory, still preferring not to recall her time in Kitching’s gaol cell.

‘What the hell would Greppia want with Mira’s insights, for good or evil? Even if he
is
a bad apple, General, he’s still relatively small scale.’