The Mouse

by Lauretta Hignett

  She reappeared in front of him. “It’s not working,” she said mournfully.

  He opened his eyes slowly and gave her a half-smile. “Yeah. Well, we know why. Every time you touch my hand I lose the vibe.” He got to his feet and stretched luxuriously, like a tiger after a big meal. “It was relaxing, anyway. I feel better than I have done in ages.”

  “So, what now?”

  “I guess we head back to the cabin. How long have I got you for today?”

  “Until just before ten. Apparently, I am at Annabel’s doing homework and eating pizza and watching House of Glass.” She paused, a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Oh geeze, now I am going to have to watch the whole series, in case there are any questions.”

  “Or, you were going to watch it, but got distracted talking about boys and world domination.”

  “That’s good. I thought I was good at coming up with excuses, but you… you’re not in Intelligence for nothing.”

  They started back along the animal track. It was getting on towards seven-thirty; finally, the sun was heading down. The light was changing; it was softer and more reddish.

  “We’ve got about half an hour before the sun sets, so we better move it.”

  “Okay.”

  They were quieter on the walk back; she could tell Hunter was thinking.

  “What shall we try next?”

  “I don’t know…” He said quietly, glancing her way. “I was hoping that would work.”

  “Do you think there’s any other way of changing your vibrations?”

  “Yeah. Drugs.”

  “Drugs!” Sunny was surprised.

  “Well, yeah. I’ve been thinking about all the possibilities. Some psychedelic drugs might alter your consciousness enough to serve our purposes. But it was kind of my last resort. It wouldn’t be helpful to be off my head on magic mushrooms when we’re on a mission.”

  “That’s your grand plan, to come with me when I head to these dodgy places like North Korea?”

  “Well, yeah. It makes sense, Mouse. I know what information to steal, I understand enough of any foreign language to know what direction to head to.”

  Sunny was a bit taken aback. It was okay that she was the one that whizzed off to these dangerous places, but she didn’t know about Hunter coming with her. She could zap out in an instant, and he couldn’t. But, if they managed it, she supposed that she would just keep him with her in the Alternate, and he couldn’t come to any harm. She said as much to Hunter.

  “I hate to point this out, Mouse, but I have been in those sorts of places before. Once, as a prisoner.”

  Sunny went cold. The thought of him in that horrible place made her feel sick. “As a prisoner? In one of those awful places?”

  “Not as bad as that, and not for as long, but yeah. In East Timor I got wounded, our platoon was taken, and we spent a few days in a camp before we got traded back. I got a few scars from that one. But it was no big deal.”

  “Weren’t you scared?”

  “I guess I was, but in a bit of a detached way.” He didn’t explain himself further. Sunny sensed she was getting close to a deep hurt, so she changed the subject.

  “So drugs, huh? I could go do a run to the 7-Eleven and get some snacks if you want to try it tonight.”

  “That’s probably more for pot. I don’t think mushrooms give you the munchies.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” she told him.

  “Good,” he said, smiling at her.

  “Oh, you wouldn’t want me to be one of ‘those girls’?” Sunny was slightly annoyed.

  “I’m just glad that you’re not. People are free to do what they want; I’m just expressing a preference for the ones that don’t get off their heads all the time,” he replied matter-of-factly.

  “That’s very judgemental of you.” Sunny couldn’t put her finger on why she was feeling angry at him. “I suppose you don’t have a problem with having a few beers on a Friday, but God forbid you smoke a joint to relax instead.”

  “Beer isn’t illegal,” Hunter said flatly.

  “It probably should be. Ask a cancer patient which one they would prefer to make them feel a bit better.”

  “That’s besides the point. The type of people who smoke pot…”

  “You’re all about your ‘types,' aren’t you?” Sunny snapped.

  “What does that mean?”

  “People don’t fit into little boxes, you know.”

  “They do in my world.”

  They walked in silence for a bit; Sunny was still a tiny bit angry. It was getting darker, and they picked up the pace. It was easier on the way back, it was slightly downhill, and she was getting used to the track, so she pushed on ahead of Hunter.

  Unfortunately, the cabin was so well concealed that Sunny almost ran headfirst into it, and had to do an undignified sideways shimmy past a tree around the side of the hut to get to the front door.

  It was a warm night, and in the darkness, the shadows of the trees made strange shapes on the forest floor. Sunny shivered despite the heat, and Hunter noticed.

  “Come on inside. I’ve got some food – nothing as good as those muffins though.”

  They climbed into the cosy cabin, and Hunter turned and shut the door, and suddenly she was taken aback with the proximity to him. The room was so small, and Hunter was so big. She sat down awkwardly at the little table.

  “So…” she said, trying to hide her sudden bashfulness by making conversation, “you’ve got a big rescue mission coming up? Trying to storm the death camp?”

  “Yeah.” Hunter was occupied trying to light a gas lamp on the side table. “The ops team are going in soon. We’ve got a good idea of what to expect.”

  “But…” Sunny was surprised. “What do you mean, ‘good idea’? I’ve just given you a few details on what it looked like there a few days ago, and you’re ready to storm the building already? From what I saw, it’s almost impenetrable!”

  “We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves. And nothing much would have changed since the day before yesterday.”

  “But… what if it has? I could go and have another look…”

  “No, don’t. I don’t want you to do any more than you have to,” he said firmly, and it aroused her anger a bit more.

  “I’ll be okay. I’ve got a couple more hours before I need to be home, I’ll just go and take a quick look…”

  “No, just wait...”

  She zipped out before he could protest further.

  The sun was just creeping down beneath the horizon as she shot off to the north east. She knew her way now, and sped like a bullet from a gun in the direction of the camp. This time she took the overland route, admiring the craggy mountains and lush green vegetation on the way. She paused at a mountain range, it was so beautiful, and she could still be distracted by the burning lights of the animals below. But she became aware of something very odd in the air.

  It was a slight pulsing. A very faint throb, like a double bass string being plucked very gently. Sunny concentrated on it, and now that she had identified it, she realized she had felt it before when she was in Korea, but it was so tenuous it was hardly noticeable. It was more or less consistent, one every twenty seconds or so.

  Sunny was puzzled – what was that? She drifted for a while, back and forth past the mountains, and noticed it got faintly stronger to the north, only very faintly.

  Realizing she was running out of time, she sped off to the camp. When she got there, she was giddy with relief that she’d checked it out before Hunter’s men went in. The compound was swarming with soldiers, there were thousand upon thousand there, doing drills on the parade ground in perfect blue and brown formations, or stationed in stiff ranks around the perimeter of the buildings. Every entrance had at least five men guarding it, and the rooftops were packed, each soldier with a submachine gun staring intently into the forest around the base. Hundreds of military trucks were parked around the base and outside.

  She hovered over t
he compound, horrified at the idea of any Allied soldiers even trying to get in. Why were they all here? How could she even describe it to Hunter? She had a thought – she had her phone on her, could she take some photos?

  Still hovering, she pulled her mobile out of her bra where she’d stashed it and fiddled with the screen. Nothing happened. She tried again, swiping her finger to open her phone, again, it didn’t work. Apparently, electrical devices didn’t work the same way in the Alternate. Concentrating very hard, Sunny pushed back the vibrations in her fingertips so her hand came into reality, and the phone popped out of the Alternate too. She cringed a little when she thought of how it must look - a disconnected hand holding a mobile phone with a cute picture of Archie on the screensaver, floating in the sky above an enemy stronghold. Hopefully, she was too high up for them to spot her.

  She could unlock her phone now, and bring up her camera, and aiming it at the camp she took a few photos from different angles. She quickly zoomed down to take a couple of close-ups of the main gate and the towers of the buildings, but as she drifted up to get a shot of the machine guns that were fixed on the rooftop, her phone went dead. Sunny was puzzled. It had a full battery…

  Then she realized. The faint thrumming – it must be the mysterious Electro-Magnetic Pulse! She’d managed to take a few photos before it had killed her phone, so, hoping desperately that they remained on her camera, she took off back home to show Hunter.

  As she whizzed back high in the sky, the lakes and valleys streaking past her below, she thought about the strange machine that was creating the pulse. So far no one had been able to identify the technology that could render any electrical item useless within certain boundaries… maybe she could? If she could follow the faint throb of energy as it got stronger and stronger, perhaps she could locate the machine that was doing it, and get rid of it for good.

  The sun had set in Katoomba by the time she made it back to Hunter’s cabin, a thick layer of cloud covered the Blue Mountains. The night fell dark as a black velvet blanket on the forest. The sounds of the night creatures were magnified in the darkness, and the wind whistling through the trees was almost frightening. She reappeared outside the front door and knocked, just to be polite.

  “Who is it?” Hunter’s voice sang out from inside the hut.

  “Strippergram!” Sunny sang back.

  He opened the door, smiling, and gestured her inside.

  “I was so right,” she said, taking a seat at the table. “There were thousands more soldiers there. The place has been reinforced two times over.” She had another thought. “Oh no!”

  “What? What is it?” Concerned, Hunter rushed to her side.

  “I forgot the pizza.”

  “Oh. Don’t worry about it,” Hunter replied, confused. “Keep going about the compound.”

  “Give me a second,” she told him, and pulling out her phone she found the closest Dominos, and ordered a couple of large pizzas, pick up. She was about to order dessert when Hunter whispered to her.

  “Recyclable packaging only, please. I’ll have to carry it out of the forest with me otherwise.”

  “Do-gooder,” she whispered back.

  Pizzas ordered, she settled down to tell him about the base camp. “It’s packed with soldiers. There’s reinforcing on every entry, and all the rooftops have doubled the amount of guns. They must have realized we broke out that English guy somehow, and they’ve taken steps to protect the place.” She paused and took a breath, and remembered something. “Oh!”

  “What?!”

  “I got photos on my phone. I hope it works. Oh, of course it does, I just ordered pizza on it. Here, see these.” She brought up her photo album and passed it to Hunter.

  “Stop freaking me out. I keep thinking something is terribly wrong,” he said, flicking through the photos.

  “Something is terribly wrong. Take a look at those guns!”

  He paused and looked at each photo intently. “I had no idea that you could take pictures,” he mused.

  “Neither did I. The EMP thing broke it while I was taking them so that’s all I could get. Which leads me to my next big discovery…”

  “I still can’t understand how you took the photos on your phone. We haven’t been able to get anything to work even close to the conflict zone. Nothing electrical works, not for long.

  “Well, it didn’t work for long. But the EMP didn’t work on my phone while it was in the Alternate with me, but my phone wouldn’t work in the Alternate either. I brought it out and took the photos.”

  “Mouse! I told you not to become visible, not for any reason!” Hunter’s face darkened, he was suddenly angry.

  “Whoa, whoa, hold up partner. I’ll go get the pizza. You’ll feel better once you’ve eaten something,” Sunny said, deliberately condescending.

  It made her mad to see him get overprotective of her, like she was his little sister or something. She walked to the door, intending on leaving through it so he’d have nothing to complain about, but at the last second, just to be childish, she walked right through it.

  It took her two minutes to find the local Dominos, and she was so early they didn’t have her order ready. She waited, and got angrier as she had to stay still.

  Hunter was treating her like a little girl. It grated at her, how she should have been happy that he cared about her safety, but he’d obviously put her into the “little sister” box. It annoyed her that he was treating her as the schoolgirl that she was. He had been so judgemental earlier, assuming all well-groomed women that hit on him were high maintenance, or that all pot smokers were slackers.

  Her order was ready before she could get well and truly steamed up. She was back to the cabin in a heartbeat, and Hunter had the door open before she could knock on it. She walked in, silent, and put the pizzas on the little table.

  “So, you’re mad at me now?” Hunter raised his eyebrows. “I told you it was too dangerous to become visible when you’re out there. If anyone were to spot you…”

  “Hunter. I was hundreds of feet up. No one could spot me. And it was worth it, to get those photos. Right?”

  “Worth risking your life for?” Hunter asked grimly.

  “Like you did, when you went into those warzones?”

  “That was different,” he folded his arms, looking stern.

  “How is it different?”

  “It was me!”

  “And this is me. I know I’m doing something risky, but I think I'm careful enough to avoid detection. Just… just relax a bit, would you? I’m not a little girly girl who can’t handle herself.”

  “I never said you were,” Hunter said quietly.

  “But you’re happy to put everyone in a little box, Mr Judgemental. Talking about the ‘types’ of people you would rather avoid. You know, that pot smoker might be having chemo, and it’s the only thing that can help them eat. That girl with the nice manicure that hit on you might be a full-time carer for her grandma.” Or that schoolgirl in front of you might be someone you want to go out with, she added silently.

  “Okay. I do get it; I can be a little judgemental. It’s in my nature to assess people and make calls quickly on what they’re likely to do, so I can stereotype people.” He paused and looked a little uncomfortable. “It’s something my superiors have told me to work on, you know.”

  “Well, good.”

  “I hate to rush you, but can we talk about the EMP now?” He sat at the table and took a slice of pizza, taking a huge bite.

  “Right.” She chewed at a slice of pizza, gathering her thoughts. “I sensed it when I was headed to the compound, just a soft beat. It was slightly inconsistent, but went around about every fifteen seconds, which is pretty weird for a machine. And it was about twenty seconds from when I brought the phone out, until when it died.” She chewed thoughtfully. “And the pulse got a little stronger to the north. I think – I’m not sure, but I think – I could follow it and see if I could track it down.”

  “Uh huh,” Hunt
er said, eyebrows furrowed. “Let me think about it. I’ve sent those photos off to get analysed, I’ll talk with the commanders about what you’ve given me.” He took another slice. “I’ve got a long hike out first thing tomorrow, so I’ll have plenty of time to think,” he said, taking a bite.

  “Ha,” she snorted. “If you worked on your meditation a bit more, I might be able to give you a lift.”

  He smiled at her. A genuine, friendly, absolutely gorgeous smile. All the petty annoyances evaporated, and she shrugged off her irritability. She basked in the warmth of his smile. They sat there, grinning at each other until she started to feel goofy. She attacked another slice of pizza.

  “What time can you come over tomorrow?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. I’ve got my first play read… I mean, I’ve got to be somewhere after school.”

  “You already told me about Othello, Mouse.”

  “Oh right, yeah I did. First rehearsal tomorrow, 3-5pm. My dad is expecting me home straight afterwards. I haven’t been around much lately; we’re having a family dinner.” She winked at him. “There’s a bit of extra information for you.” She got to her feet. “I gotta take off; I’ll be late.

  “Okay. I guess I’ll be at work then. Just call me if you need to.”

  He walked her to the door and held it open for her. “Drive safe,” he said, a small smile on his face.

  Chapter 17

  The buzzing of her phone woke Sunny early. She tried desperately to ignore it, but it went off again, then again. She sighed and reached for it. It was on silent, but she didn’t need a ringtone to tell her it was Annabel. Even electronically, she was insistent.

  “Hello,” she croaked.

  Annabel’s voice through the phone croaked even louder. “Morning. Haaaaw. Haaawww. Haawwwk!”

  “Are you okay?”

  There was more coughing from the phone, and Annabel said something unintelligible.

  “Sorry. I can’t understand you, Annabel. Are you sick?”

  “Yeab. I feel awbool. By doze is aul blocked up. I won do die!”

  “Um, Annie, sorry but I can’t understand you. But, I’m guessing you have the flu or something.”