by AA Bell
‘It doesn’t help to know my freedom is only as long as the leash you allow me.’
‘Please try to appreciate the bigger perspective,’ Garland replied. ‘How much freedom can society and justice afford for you, when there are people out there who don’t play by any boundaries or laws? Remember, I could have taken you any time it suited me, but I didn’t, even as his people made their first moves for you. I’ve respected your space as best I can afford; and how glad I am now, for your sake, that I did. Imagine how poorly we’d be getting along now if circumstances had forced me to deny you the freedom of the past fortnight?’
‘Freedom?’ Mira nearly choked at the idea. ‘I’ve been on your leash the whole time, even when I couldn’t feel it!’
‘We all have our leashes,’ Garland persisted calmly.
‘Easy to say that when you’re holding them!’
‘You misunderstand. We’re all leashed to our families and friends, our employers, countries and religions. The freedom is in being able to choose which friends, countries and so on. Unfortunately for you, your choice of friends virtually boils down to us or them. There’s not much room for safety in between.’
‘Oh, great. Now I’m just a bone between two rabid dogs.’
‘Savage or tough in my case, as required, but hardly rabid. Please notice I’m not trying to bully you into a decision. If you choose to continue as a fence-sitter, I’ll respect your decision as much as national security will allow. I’d much rather strive for an arrangement that’s mutually rewarding, however. In addition to payment, I’m willing to offer the position of team leader in R & D with your two favourite medical scientists, along with security enough to keep you safe from every mobster on the planet, and a roomy, air-conditioned home away from Serenity. Isn’t that more than just a win-win situation for you? Seems more like a win-win-win to me.’
‘Oh, perhaps if your idea of a roomy air-conditioned home wasn’t deep underground in a military facility way out in the central desert?’ Mira shuddered. ‘Under a gibber desert, no less, with nothing but red rocks in every direction above ground, including backwards until time began.’ She drew in a long breath and sighed. ‘Until you can sit there with your eyes closed, feel the breeze and imagine living most of your life without the shifting scents of a garden or forest, you’ll never understand. Personally, I’ve already served ten years in air-conditioning — the worst of it in a straitjacket and a room without so much luxury as a window.’
A long silence followed, and Mira wondered if the general was trying to imagine just how important her surroundings could be — or if Garland could guess how important it was for Ben to stay part of her life; but that was a weakness that Mira didn’t dare to confess to anyone.
Behind her, she heard the sounds of Lockman’s tent coming down, which suggested he’d be ready to leave in barely a few more minutes, and now she wished more than ever that she could be leaving soon too, if only with Ben.
‘Okay, so I admit that situation is far from ideal,’ Garland said, ‘but how different might your choice be now if your friend’s life depended on it?’
‘Is that a threat?’ Ben asked, shifting his weight uncomfortably.
‘Against you, yes, but not from me. You’re an ex-con who befriended a handicapped client from Serenity. Who do you think is being set up for her disappearance?’
Mira cringed at the thought and Ben fidgeted again at her side.
‘At the risk of sounding repetitive,’ Garland said, ‘I suggest we cooperate.’
Twenty minutes later, Mira was pacing nervously in circles around the invisible chair, wishing she could hide her feelings better. Her legs told her to run, her hands clenched from claws into fists and back again, ready to fight anything, but her heart told her that she had to stay and finish working out the terms of her cooperation, for Ben’s sake now that she could see how his life and career were under threat again because of her. She only hoped he didn’t think she resented him for it.
‘You can’t appreciate how important freedom is to her,’ he said, pacing his own circles nearby. ‘I’ve spent six of the past seven years behind bars, but every day was a sunny shade of blue by comparison.’
‘Then name your terms,’ Garland said, having shifted to the sidelines. ‘I have extensive resources and she’s obscenely wealthy, so surely we must be able to come to some agreement between us?’
‘If I must have security,’ Mira said, coming to an abrupt halt, ‘it’ll be for Ben’s sake — and if it must involve more than one guard at a time, I want them all within physical reach of me. No more tasers. No more skulking around or spying on me from a distance. I also reserve the right to tell them to back off occasionally and give me space — and they have to work with me, take orders from me, and they have to call me ma’am or miss, or Miss Chambers.’
‘You’ll need at least six to maintain around-the-clock surveillance,’ Garland agreed. ‘I’ll round up my best dozen or so and you can pick your own team from them.’
‘Top of the list is him.’ Mira pointed blindly over her shoulder through the invisible marquee to the ghost of the invisible now version of Lockman’s truck, which revved to life, ready to leave. ‘I want him in charge of the others, so you’d better stop him.’
‘His rank isn’t high enough to command the others,’ Garland argued. ‘Nor is he qualified to be responsible for such a critical assignment.’
‘I hesitate to agree,’ Ben said. ‘I doubt he’s up to it physically. He didn’t sleep much last night, and I’ve seen him hugging his chest sometimes when he bends or sits in one place for too long.’
‘Top of my list,’ Mira repeated, folding her arms. ‘Do I need to hold my breath and stamp my feet? He’s already bested his betters. You said so yourself, General. And I’ve worked with him already. That’s as close to trust as you’re likely to get from me.’
‘Base grade officer then.’ Garland gave the order, causing heavy boots to bolt after Lockman. ‘Do you want them to stay too; the MPs who took the initiative to whisk you to safety this morning?’
Mira shook her head determinedly. ‘No way!’
‘May I ask why? They’re far more familiar with your little ways of doing things than Lockman has had the time or opportunity …’
‘Duh! Because they’ve been stalking me! It’s too creepy! They know too much about me.’
‘I’d argue the opposite. Remember, they’re as much in the dark about your special little secret as Lockman — despite all they’ve witnessed and overheard, which is patchy at best anyway because we couldn’t keep line-of-sight on you the whole time with the long-range eavesdroppers, especially at the beach house. You also have to admit, it took a lot to convince you of your own talent, even though you’ve lived with it every day for a decade. How easy do you think it’s been for them to guess what’s really been going on with their limited education and colourless imaginations? They’re trained for far less fanciful situations.’
‘Either way,’ Ben said, ‘if anyone is going to work closer to Mira, they’re probably going to figure it out eventually. Maybe it’s best to keep up and reinforce the pretence that she’s only psychic.’
‘No need to tell any of them anything,’ Mira agreed. Especially those two MPs. Just ditch them.’
Ben strode closer to Mira and leaned until his lips brushed her ear. ‘I feel that way too,’ he whispered, ‘but you have to admit they whisked you to safety efficiently enough — at least until Lockman interrupted.’
Mira gaped at him, momentarily dumbfounded. ‘Do you really want them?’
‘Better the devil you know.’
‘If you say so.’ She huffed and folded her arms. ‘But they’ll have to take orders from our boy scout, regardless of rank or experience, and I can’t imagine that contributing very well to a pleasant working relationship — the young buck and the old farts.’
‘Ordinarily,’ Garland said, ‘I prefer to engage teams who already work well together, or assign team leaders
with the task of hand-picking their own people.’
‘Then let Lockman have the final say on them,’ Ben suggested. ‘If nothing else, that should be entertaining.’
‘Entertaining isn’t the word I’d use,’ Mira said. ‘Ambushed is more like it, but okay.’ Secretly, she did relish the idea of punishing them for their cruelty to Ben by stinging them a few times with their own taser — and being in charge of them, if only for a day, might serve her with the perfect opportunity. She’d be able to order Lockman to look the other way.
‘So we’ve reached agreement on security,’ Garland said. ‘Now let’s discuss levels of cooperation. For my part, I’m willing to dance the whole jig and provide you with whatever background information, police reports, tech support and other resources you may need in exchange for your full cooperation in backtracking Greppia’s activities. Can we agree on that, or must we negotiate on anything?’
Mira shrugged. ‘That depends on the end-date to this arrangement. I say that when we get the goods on Greppia for you, that’s our pay day too. If he hasn’t ever made direct contact with Mr Mystery that’s your problem. We’ll never need to see each other again.’
‘I have to be honest,’ Garland confessed. ‘It’s my hope you won’t feel the same way when you achieve success that far. Life is a drug, Miss Chambers, and the more exciting it gets, the harder it can be to give up.’
‘I’m done with drugs,’ Mira said, turning her back. ‘I can’t be rid of you soon enough.’
PART FIVE
Revelations
Time will bring to light whatever is hidden
Horace
THIRTEEN
Garland left with a promise of returning at dawn with her dozen best security specialists, from which Mira would choose her final team — none of whom, Lockman warned, were likely to relish the thought of taking orders from him.
‘Most will be corporals or sergeants,’ he explained, ‘and I didn’t earn this promotion the right way.’
‘Ability should command its own respect,’ Mira said, ‘just as Ben earned my respect in the beginning.’
‘You’ve earned it from her, too,’ Ben said, ‘and that’s no easy feat.’
Lockman stayed quiet for a long moment, tapping a stick to the tune of the crackling campfire. ‘For her sake, I should have declined.’
Ben stirred his coffee, keeping close to their campfire.
‘Why didn’t you?’ Mira asked.
‘It’s not every day a general asks someone like me for a personal favour.’
Mira hugged the joey and settled in her own camp chair, having already impressed upon Garland that she wouldn’t have Lockman or anyone else ordered to work with her against their will or even against their personal irks, if they had any, about working with blind people.
‘You can go any time,’ she assured him.
He answered her with silence again briefly. ‘Sorry, ma’am. I keep forgetting you can’t see. I was nodding just now, and if I can’t keep track of a glaring little detail like that, what use can I really be?’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment, Lieutenant.’
‘You shouldn’t. Garland might have bumped me up two ranks with another field commission, but then in the next breath she left a whole company of spec ops boys to secure the perimeter. It’s so thick out there, they could hold hands — which is either a measure of her lack of confidence in me, or the scale of trouble she’s expecting.’
‘Both, probably.’ Ben slurped the froth off his coffee. ‘Overkill either way, if you ask me.’
‘Let’s hope that’s all it is. Last time I saw so many muzzles on a perimeter, the American president was in town. How big is this place anyway? A hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty acres?’
‘Hundred and twelve,’ Mira said, ‘but that’s just this clearing. The property runs for another two hundred acres over that hill to a ghost town, and three hundred up that ridge behind me.’
‘View would be spectacular for a house,’ Lockman said. ‘Thirty or forty of them probably.’
‘Per street is the plan, I think. Developers bought it from my estate.’
‘You’re here anyway?’
‘Greenies. Injunction, and I needed to see it.’
‘Why’s that? You’ve been paid big bucks, I expect, whether the buyer makes money or not?’
Mira shrugged. ‘You can’t understand. For soldiers, land like this is only good for war games and blistering your feet.’
He chuckled and tapped a brief beat on the ground again with his stick. ‘Oh, I can think of a few other things. I own twelve hundred acres myself — inland. Not worth more than a roo’s tail, but it’s home when I need one.’
‘Okay, so maybe you might understand. My poet trees were just over there.’
‘Sorry, did you say poetry?’
‘Poetry. On. Trees. Embossed in gold Braille, actually. My house was perched in their branches, one room per tree — only saying it like that is so empty of atmosphere. You had to be here — feel the words yourself and hear the leaves sing in the breeze.’
‘Sounds nice.’
‘Nice?’ She laughed. ‘I spent a decade trying to get back here, and by the time I did, it was sold out from under me, and the buyers were dancing a jig in their bulldozers.’ She leaned forward to poke the fire blindly with a sturdy branch, not so much for the sake of the fire, but because it gave her an excuse to turn her oh-so-readable face away from him. ‘Bad luck like that haunts me, Lieutenant.’
‘I had noticed that, actually.’ Something in his voice warned her that wasn’t the only thing he’d noticed about her.
Mira chewed on her tongue, wishing she could also explain how her luck always U-turned for the better every time he appeared, even if he wasn’t always directly responsible. However, she couldn’t do that without mentioning how valuable the sunshades had turned out to be, and how he’d been there as the guard in the hall on the first day she’d met the medical scientists and the day they’d figured out what she could really see. And the day she’d escaped Kitching. And now also with the two MPs.
‘So why did you accept the job?’ Ben asked, still pacing with his coffee. ‘Were you really on holidays?’
‘Ha! Not anymore.’
‘So why did you let us think it might be a cover story?’
‘It’s what she wanted to hear. Sorry, ma’am, but you seemed convinced I was part of a conspiracy, so I thought if I let you nail it on me, you might relax a little — and you did. Only I didn’t realise at the time that you had every reason to worry.’
‘You didn’t tell Garland about the gift you brought me?’
‘Irrelevant. A private gift on a private errand. Sounds like she guessed where it came from anyway.’
‘I notice you’re still avoiding the prime question,’ Ben said, his voice still heavy with suspicion. ‘Why did you take this job with Mira? Even if you were keen to play soldier instead of fisherman? Your mates are all out there in the forest next door, playing shadow games. More fun to be with them than us surely?’
‘Ah, but you have the campfire, and I have two bags of marshmallows.’
Mira laughed. ‘Of course you do — and spiked sticks, no doubt, all cut and trimmed to a safe length.’
‘I just finished shaping the tips.’ Lockman sounded astonished, and Ben laughed.
‘You know what this campfire is still missing?’ Mira said, longing for a little more normality. ‘Music.’
‘I can fix that,’ Lockman said.
Mira expected him to break into song, but instead he walked to his truck and shuffled through his gear.
‘Guitar?’ Ben said. ‘But that looks electric?’
‘Yep. Rigged through an inverter to the spare car battery. The amps aren’t great, but volume isn’t the aim when I’m camping anyway.’ Returning to his stump by the fire, he plucked a few squawky notes, then proceeded into the most passionate and lively improvisation of Beethoven’s fifth symphony — second only to th
e version Mira had heard earlier that day in his truck, with backing from other instruments.
‘You play in a band?’ she asked.
‘Occasionally with mates, but mostly I play with myself.’ He chuckled. ‘That didn’t come out right. I use recording software so I can play each instrument separately, and then overlay.’ He finished with the ee-i-o notes from Old Macdonald’s Farm. ‘Not what you’d expect in a campfire song, I guess, but you can’t beat Beethoven for a good beat. He was rocking before rock was rock.’
‘Oh, I love Beethoven!’ Mira said, unable to contain her smile, ‘and Mozart, and Pachelbel and Bach. May I have a go, please?’
‘You play?’
‘She plays anything,’ Ben said. ‘Piano, drums, flute, violin. At Serenity, she played them all from memory. Totally amazing, and all by ear. No lessons.’
‘That’s not exactly true, Ben. My mother taught me a few things. Since then, I was rarely allowed.’
‘Okay, watch the power cord,’ Lockman warned as he settled the instrument in her lap. ‘Sorry if it’s a little uncomfortable. It’s a leftie and I notice you’re right-handed. The strings will be upside down to what you’re used to.’
‘Then I’ll play left,’ she said, turning it again. ‘I can play either way so long as I feel the music inside me. It’s been a while, though, so my finger-strength might let me down.’ She familiarised herself with the shape of the instrument first — unusual in itself, since it felt like it had been manufactured deliberately into the shape of a machine gun — then she plucked the first few notes of her mother’s favourite: Ode to Joy.
Electric! The notes came to life in her hands and she swiftly became one with the music, tickling the most beautiful sounds into the crisp night air, and going wild at the end.
‘Wow,’ she said when she was done. ‘This thing speaks to me. Hard to keep it slow — like keeping a wild dog on a leash. A whole wilderness!’