23
Nashy had possessed the foresight to stock the heavily converted Mitsubishi High Speed Vehicle with an abundant supply of headache relievers. Furn washed them down with a whole can of ice cold ginger beer. With Riley at the wheel they were flying down the Hume Highway. Melbourne was still at the bottom of the list of destinations on the shot out street signs, but the kilometres were being shed. Visibility was clear. Sunlight would accompany them to the state border. Fairfield Military Hospital was reachable by midnight.
Wragg Dokomad, sharing the backseat with Furn, had reverted to the quiet ways he had shown when handcuffed to the picket fence back in the Rocks. Until his medication took effect, Furn was happy to leave it like that. In the back of his mind, however, thoughts of the global positioning bug he swallowed continued to churn. They could force feed him laxatives until his system cleared the way his conscience probably never would. And time would bring their enemies, whether they were headed for their doorstep or not.
Towns were ticked off with their road signs flashing by and new ones were promptly announced. Only Canberra bore any significance to Furn. Somewhere amongstits wide leafy streets, where politicians resided in every second house and rented off the rest, was the abode carrying the names of Azu Nashy and Michael Durant on the same telephone answering machine. A place with workout equipment and pets. And a mat to wipe your feet before entering. All those things that made a house come alive. It was just too bad that excitement, travel and freedom were the things that brought a relationship alive. Furn couldn’t see how such things might coexist. Or was it simply that once a relationship had boiled all that was left was for it to simmer. Going past Canberra gave Furn a nagging feeling of unease.
He eventually shook it off with a glance at the man beside him, the living, breathing vindication of the RIP. No one in responsibility would speak favourably of the unit, would want to see it continue, would even return its calls, but the paychecks would keep rolling in every month and the assignments would keep being whispered into ears in back corridors. Furn would use his next paycheck to get a nice, big mat for wiping feet on. Then he would meet someone with muddy shoes to vindicate that.
Wragg Dokomad was the one who broke the silence, somewhere during the endless kilometres of brown paddock between Goulborn and Albury, some four hours into the journey. ‘You really should let me go,’ he said.
Riley was consumed by the white lines of the highway. I
‘Go ahead and explain yourself,’ Furn snapped instead. ‘I’ll weigh it up against the two mates who got shot looking for you.’
‘The Sapiens are coming to rescue me,’ said Dokomad. ‘You may be of a mind to blow their heads off. The only problem with that is they’re innocent.’
‘Innocent?’
Furn’s eyes narrowed into a glare and Riley’s head tilted fractionally away from the road.
‘Everyone was so shocked by her memoirs about her gangster dad that they didn’t realise it was actually intended as a tribute,’ continued Wragg. ‘It’s ironic that it brought her the trust, respect and, most crucially, the complete submission necessary for deep hypnosis.’
Despite his scruffy appearance and eyes that blinked as though there were a tax on it, he spoke articulately and levelly. Even ashtrays could be made of crystal.
‘Those Sapien signatures mean more than you might think. They were written by Dr Pei’s subjects during deep hypnosis. As a kind of graduation ritual. Only those who have most readily succumbed to her treatment have earned the privilege.’
Furn laughed scoffingly. ‘You’re saying she’s turned her patients into killer zombies willing to do her bidding?’
‘Programmed to do her bidding. If you consider the kind of person drawn to psychiatric assistance in the first place; the mentally unstable, those who strongly believe there is something wrong with the wiring in their heads and are receptive to doing something about it.
‘That phone you took off me was the means to signal Dr Pei that we had been uncovered. The pill, as you correctly suspected, was so that she knows where to find me.’
Furn frowned. ‘Why are you being so forthcoming? We haven’t even poked you with a stick and you’re telling us all this stuff. Is it because you want to scare us? Well, if we wanted idiotic diatribes about all things calamitous, we’d tune into talkback radio.’
‘If you’d like. But you would only find they are talking about Dr Pei too. The moment I gave the signal on my phone she activated the Sapiens to put on a final big show. She intends to sell her expertise in South America or perhaps Asia. This will be a demonstration of the kind of service she can provide. Complete mind control.’
‘And they’re coming to rescue you?’ asked Riley, a hint of concern in his voice.
‘That is highly likely. Dr Pei is a criminal genius and ruthless but we have also had personal relations and I think she will take care of me. If she wants to get me out, she could certainly arrange it. But the majority of Sapiens are probably preoccupied right now knocking off their company accounts, daddy’s safe, and maybe a jewelry store thrown in; basically, doing Dr Pei’s bidding. They’ve been programmed to drop the taking off at designated points, then go to a cafe for a couple of cappuccinos before turning themselves in to the police.’
‘If you’re right, I suppose I’ll get to read about it.’
‘Yes, you will. Dr Pei is a head space pyro-technician and she’s rigged up quite a show. The daughter that out did her father, that’s what she wants the world to know. She has no interest in hiding.’
‘We’ll see,’ said Furn. ‘But you’d better brace yourself. Some shadows are too big to walk out of. You’re a victim of that.’
‘Ted Bundy, The Boston Strangler, there are plenty of cases in which hypnosis has been used to help solve a crime,’ Riley chimed in. ‘But it is only the Jim Joneses of the world that have effectively used covert mind control to commit a crime. And you’re saying that Dr Pei has been effectively keeping up with the Joneses?’
The tone of voice reminded Furn of his childhood family road trips when they were just reaching the point of turning sour, which inevitably they always did.
Dokomad seemed pleased that he had drawn both cops into the conversation. ‘I don’t know what buttons she pushed to get people to do what she wants them to do. Did you know she works for Military Intelligence?’
Furn glanced at Riley and then back to Dokomad. ‘How did she get her hooks into you?’
‘What drew me to her? She’s a palmist. All good psychiatrists have a psychic bent.’
‘Isn’t it the other way round?’
‘The first time I met her it was through my brother. She offered to read my palm and it was the first thing she said that won me.’
‘Yeah? What were they?’
‘She said, “You’ve got potential”.’
‘Congratulations. But it’s not all good news as the government feels the same way.’
‘The government is just a thing. It’s the people that get the nightmares. Only the most eminent and innocent Sapiens will have qualified as my rescuers. This being a vehicle borne operation she will have had a pool of ambulance drivers, traffic cops, racing car drivers to call on. The most dangerous are probably female. Dr Pei has significant appeal amongst them. These things I wasn’t meant to be telling you. At any rate, not if you were regular cops. I was supposed to merely sit back and wait to be plucked from whatever predicament I happened to be in. But you guys are the RIP. You don’t have a friend on the force and you’re exposing yourself all the way to Melbourne. You’ve got me, but are you really willing to do what it takes to keep me? Are you really going to try killing your way through to the guilty?’
Furn pulled out his pistol and let it set between Wragg’s eyeballs. ‘I won’t recoil as much as the pistol. Did you know in an Indonesian firing squad only one shooter is issued a live round? The rest are firing blanks. That way everyone and no one is the killer. Even if your friends are coming out of Melbo
urne to intercept us, you have an hour or two to convince me my round is the live one and the condemned doesn’t deserve it.’
‘How do I do that?’
‘Tell me about your brother.’
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