Sabrina moaned, then dug her claws deeply into Janine wrist, drawing blood before scurrying off again.
“Bitch!” Janine hurried off to the bathroom, nursing her bleeding left arm.
* * * *
Sydney’s Kingsford-Smith Airport was abuzz with activity at six am. Eight international flights had arrived within an hour of each other, so the terminal was cramped with both tourists and business people all lining up at passport control.
Retinal scanning had long since replaced paper passports, proving to be much more reliable and efficient in picking up undesirables attempting to fool the powerful, global, computerized immigration system, also known as immi.
All passengers were now required by international law to be scanned at both departure and arrival points. All relevant information, including each person’s nationality, criminal record, visa and credit history and any possible links to terrorism were just a retinal scan away. The computers at the arrivals terminal were fully automated, humans now obsolete in this process. If the system picked up an undesirable, security would be instantly alerted and the relevant authorities would be summoned. The unfortunate person would be led away to a small room and immediately deported to their country of origin. Fortunately, this occurrence was now a rarity, as these passengers would have been screened out at the departure point and hence never have been allowed to board the flight in the first place.
Steve and the professor breezed quickly through security and were soon entering the arrivals hall. A tall, wiry man in his forties wearing a black baseball cap, teardrop sunglasses, a scruffy green T-shirt and denim shorts came marching up toward them. He looked to Steve more like a crocodile hunter than a scientist.
“G’day, Steve. G’day, Santa. Drew Murrey.” He beamed broadly, then scooped off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of deep-set sparkling green eyes. “Hope you blokes had a good flight over. You got any other bags with you?”
“No,” answered the professor. “We both packed lightly. What you see is what we have.”
“Anything I can get you fellas before we head off to Stromlo? Would love to show you Sydney, but I reckon we don’t have the time?”
“Well actually, I wouldn’t mind selecting a whiskey from duty free,” said the professor. “I suspect it could be a rather long day.”
“Sure. I’ll take you straight over there. Hope you still have your boarding pass with you. They’ve become ridiculously strict since moving the duty-free shop out of the customs quarantine area. What about you, Steve? You look like you could do with a drink, too?”
“I’m okay. Thanks.”
The professor grinned without showing his crowded teeth. “He had a rough ride over,” he said. “Let’s just say he might require a change of clothing before we depart for Canberra.”
“No problem. Toilets are over there,” pointed Drew. “And duty free is just around that corner. Got the old ute out front, parked illegally. I might go grab it and meet you out there say in … ten?”
Steve didn’t have a clue what the man was referring to. “A ute?” asked the professor, his eyebrows coming together.
“I guess you Yanks and Brits might call it a pickup truck.”
The two foreigners nodded, before heading off in separate directions.
* * * *
September 16, 13:04, LAX Airport
Janine raced through the busy Tom Bradley International Terminal on a desperate search for the gate to Qantas flight 1882. Being a member of the Globe frequent flyer program, she would have preferred to fly Earth Air, but Gail was only fortunate enough to find a cancellation for her on Qantas.
The airport was in a complete state of disarray, with evidence of construction everywhere. A holographic video clip was advertising cheap flights to Hawaii, while another hologram showed a cat chasing a dog, claiming the cat had gained an energy kick from a new brand of food available for felines. Janine briefly thought about Sabrina, and wondered if Gail would be able to handle her better this time. Sabrina was no easy baby.
While en-route to the gate she remembered that she had skipped lunch and decided to grab a sandwich at McDonald’s. While browsing through the menu, she heard the sound of sobbing behind her. She turned around to find a small child crying. The little girl appeared to be lost.
“Hey, honey. Where’s your mommy?” she asked tenderly, reaching for her tiny hand.
The child did not answer, instead she rubbed her eyes and snorted. Noticing her streaming nose, Janine grabbed a tissue and wiped her face. Then she walked the child over to the convenience store and bought her a supersized red lollipop and finally, the crying abated. Janine looked at her watch. Damn, I’m going to miss my plane.
“Let’s go find your mommy. Can you see her, honey?”
The child shook her head. Hand in hand, the two of them began a slow walk through the terminal, searching for any evidence of a desperate, hysterical mother or inconsolable father, but to no avail. Eventually, Janine asked an attendant at one of the gates to do an overhead intercom page. A minute or two later, a frantic thirty-something-year-old couple appeared in the distance and were hurriedly making their way over to them. As they got closer, Janine felt a sickening feeling rise from within the pit of her stomach, and thought she might throw up as she realized who they were.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The blonde-haired woman gestured to the child, who immediately perked up, grinned widely, and ran over to her.
“Adam, what an unpleasant surprise,” remarked Janine, unashamed of her own curtness.
Adam’s face colored to match the red baseball cap he was wearing. “Nice to see you, too, Janine.”
“Haven’t changed much,” she added. “Well, apart from the middle-age spread, of course.” It was true. The athletic physique and the tight washboard abs the creep had once boasted about were gone, replaced now with a five-month pregnant belly, which the tight-fitting open-necked white polo shirt didn’t do much to conceal.
“That’s the reporter in you. Always stating the facts,” he said between gritted teeth, clearly not enjoying the taunt. Janine, on the other hand, was relishing it. She knew how body conscious the man used to be. When they were together, he would regularly admire his taut muscular physique in the mirror, sometimes even pose, as if he were a competitor in a bodybuilding competition. It would really irk him that he had let himself go. She changed tack. “I see you have a daughter now? How lovely,” she added, forcing a wooden smile that would have made Pinocchio proud.
The woman picked up the toddler. She didn’t seem to notice the sarcasm in Janine’s voice. “Hello, I’m Caroline. Thank you so much for rescuing Lana. I see you already know my husband?”
Adam nodded, but even his well-chiselled features cast in shadow under his baseball cap couldn’t conceal his unease.
“Well, Adam, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” asked Caroline.
He spoke softly and timidly, like a naughty schoolboy being called into the headmaster’s office for a caning. “Caroline, this is Janine. Janine, this is my … er wife, Caroline and my um … daughter, Lana.”
Janine politely shook the woman’s hand. It was not her fault that her husband was a narcissistic louse.
“So, Janine, tell me what brings you to LAX?” asked Caroline, whose smile revealed a perfect set of pearly whites. The woman was gorgeous, which only fuelled Janine’s anger.
“I’m flying to Australia to cover a story, how about you?”
“We’re off to Acapulco on vacation, at Adam’s suggestion,” she beamed, stroking Lana’s golden locks, who seemed mesmerized by the giant lollipop she was trying to do some justice to.
Janine felt the dagger strike right through her heart. After three years, that word still cut deeply into her soul.
“Oh I see. Acapulco. How unlikely is that,” she barely managed, gawking at Adam, whose eyes were darting back and forth between the two women like some drug-crazed psychopath on a bad trip.
“Unlikel
y? Sorry, I don’t understand?” Caroline said.
“Oh, just that I spent my first anniversary there with Adam.”
The woman turned to Adam and frowned. She seemed genuinely surprised by the comment and Janine realized that she had hit on something. It was obvious that Adam hadn’t told her he’d been married before, and if he hadn’t told her that, then he certainly hadn’t told her about his despicable antics that had followed on from that.
“What’s she talking about, Adam?” Caroline asked, the color draining from her smooth, round face.
Cornered like a trapped rat, Adam forced a smile, but it was too late. He had hesitated just a moment too long. “I think she just means that she saw me there while she was on vacation with her husband. Isn’t that so, Janine?”
Caroline turned to face Janine. Adam quickly caught Janine’s gaze and shook his head, anxiously gesturing to her to drop the story. It was a pathetic sight. A man begging a favor from a person he had once almost completely destroyed. Janine contemplated her response. She could oblige him, and by doing so, save the poor woman a considerable amount of pain and intense heartache. That, however, would obviously allow Adam to save face, something he certainly didn’t deserve. Or she could divulge all and with a string of very well-placed words, seriously harm or potentially even destroy their relationship.
“Daddy, look what the lady gave me,” said Lana, interrupting, proudly showing her father the supersized red lollipop.
“That’s a lovely lollipop, darling. I hope you said thank you to the lady.”
“Thank you, Miss.”
Janine smiled. “You’re very welcome, honey,” she answered, stroking the child’s soft locks, and it was in that moment that she knew what her reply was going to be.
“So Janine, is that what you meant?” asked Caroline, her large brown eyes narrowed into tiny slits, her eyebrows angled downwards, and just the hint of a quiver noticeable on her upper lip.
“Oh, I’m sorry. What was your question again?” asked Janine, buying some time.
“Did you happen to meet Adam in Acapulco while on vacation with your husband?”
“Um … yes. Well actually, no.”
Adam’s eyes twitched wildly and his jaw dropped open. Janine looked at him and smirked. It was a deliciously thrilling moment and she decided to relish it just a tad longer before continuing.
“That was my ex-husband. I’m divorced, so actually I was with my ex at that time in Acapulco.” Technically, she hadn’t lied.
The woman took in a deep breath, sighed deeply, and the radiant smile once again returned to her face. Janine noted the relief in her eyes. Nevertheless, she had a feeling that just perhaps she may have planted the tiniest seed of doubt in Caroline’s mind, and that wasn’t a bad thing.
“Now I better run or I’ll miss my flight.”
“Bye, Janine, and thanks again,” said Caroline.
“Bye, Miss,” said Lana, her faced smeared red with candy.
* * * *
After locating the correct gate, Janine entered passport control, presented her retina to the scan and was granted permission to board the flight. Seated in economy class and squeezed in between a screaming toddler and a morbidly obese woman, this was not quite what she had in mind, but she knew this was one of the inconveniences of traveling internationally at such short notice.
She was glad to be on board. The past twelve hours had been mayhem: trying to pack, organize a camera crew to meet her in Sydney, not to mention getting Sabrina ready for Gail’s arrival. It hadn’t helped that Gail had been delayed by a flock of birds that had managed to congregate on the highway after getting themselves lost during migration. Then, after all that, bumping into Adam. How unlucky could one be? What were the statistical chances of that happening? A thousand to one? A million to one?
Now finally seated, Janine could relax. She had three hours to decide how she was going to plan her next line of attack. She switched on her phone, dialed into her home internet server, and checked that she was still able to obtain a visual and audio connection with NASA’s control room. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the familiar room come to life on her screen. She nervously glanced around, making sure the obese woman wasn’t trying to be nosey, but that was clearly the furthest thing from the woman’s mind, as she struggled with getting her seatbelt fastened over her enormous belly.
After enjoying a chicken mayo sandwich, vodka and tonic, and watching a CNNA news broadcast on the plane, Janine dozed off. She awoke to the sudden jolt of the plane’s engines kicking in, as it drifted back down from ninety to forty thousand feet. It wasn’t long before they were preparing for landing.
On arrival in Sydney just after midday, Janine entered the airport terminal. As she marched hurriedly through the glass tunnel that connected the arrivals gate with the main terminal building, she gazed up through it and was awestruck as she watched a luminous-green curtain dance its way across the sky. So that’s the aurora they’ve been talking about. How pretty. She had no idea of its ominous significance.
The line that led to the customs cubicle was swarming with people. The high-pitched screams from a child almost perforated her eardrum, while a giant in a business suit, who must have been in his late fifties, appeared to be tapping at his watch about eight times every minute, as if that would somehow make the line move quicker. Janine, too, was beginning to lose her patience, stretching her neck to see what the holdup might be. Finally she was the next passenger ready to enter the scanner.
The sliding door sensed her arrival, and slid open automatically.
An automated voice in an Australian accent asked politely, “Please step inside the cubicle now.”
Janine obeyed and the door closed, locking her inside.
“Please present your left eye to the camera ahead of you.”
Janine did as the computer asked. She had been through this process countless times before. But as she removed her eye from the scanner, something bizarre occurred.
A raucously loud siren screamed and a luminous red strobe lit up and began flashing, illuminating the transparent cubicle like a lighthouse. It didn’t take her long to realize her predicament. She was a rat in a glass cage with lights flashing, sirens screaming and a million eyes all desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the bizarre freak show.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“What the hell!” she cried, instantly feeling warm and sweaty. She peered through the glass walls, and prayed that the world wouldn’t recognize her today. That didn’t last long.
“Miss Janine Fuller. Citizen of the United States of America. You are in a code violation. You have no visa to enter Australia. VIOLATION … VIOLATION,” screamed the computer.
Three large, heavily armed Australian federal policemen arrived, surrounded the cubicle, and aimed their Taser guns directly at her. A tall, plump policeman dressed in a black tactical uniform that was at least two sizes too small for him spoke out. “Immi release lock on outward door.”
A click sounded and the glass sliding door hummed gently and then retracted back. The plump policeman who held the barrel of his Taser gun pointed directly at Janine’s forehead, said, “Don’t do anything foolish, Miss. Step out of the cubicle slowly.”
What had begun as a mere inconvenience had rapidly developed into a concerning annoyance. “There must be some mistake, officer. I’m Janine Fuller. You know … news anchor of CNNA. I think your computer has me mixed up with someone else.”
“I don’t care if you are the queen’s nanny, Miss. Immi doesn’t make mistakes. Exit slowly and place your hands behind your back.”
Janine did as she was told but decided to try a different tactic. “Officer, you don’t know what you’re doing. Do you really want to have your butt sued for a mistake a computer just made? Are you seriously willing to risk that? Now let’s be reasonable here, there has got to be some kind of error.” She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes for just a second and prayed that she had read the man correct
ly.
She was wrong. The officer grabbed her arms, snapped an electronic bracelet around her left wrist and dragged her along as if she were a rag doll.
“Now follow me. You try to run, and that wristband delivers a 1500-volt shock, something I don’t think you or your fans will enjoy very much.”
She was quickly ushered by three policemen into a small office about thirty feet away. A sizeable crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle, so Janine wrapped her scarf around her head to obscure her features. The last thing she wanted was her face all over the six o’clock news.
Acapulco aside, she had never felt so humiliated in her life. Whoever was responsible for this debacle was going to pay, and pay dearly.
* * * *
Major Graham Kennedy knocked on the general’s door.
“Enter.”
The major tentatively opened the door.
“Report, Major?” said the general. He was flicking through his electronic pad.
The major removed his cap, and quickly stood to attention. “I’m still completing my report, sir. There’s a lot of data to sift through.”
“Not nearly as much as you’ll have when the public start running amok because you haven’t managed to find and plug that leak.” The general poured himself a generous shot of whiskey, without offering the major one.
“Yes, sir. I have my people working around the clock on this. I think we’re getting close to a breakthrough.”
“At the moment all we can do is go into damage control,” the general said, downing the whiskey in one quick gulp.
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
“Let’s just say that a certain reporter may be experiencing some difficulty right now with her travels.” The general managed a broad grin, sniggered and then slumped back into his desk chair.
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