Big White Lies

by Jay Darby

Porter was about to call out, then stopped himself. Did this KA6 bloke’s voice sound familiar? If he’d given him the phone tip-off and was helping…Why? Or, was he the enemy, who’d used Amber to lure him into a trap?

  FORTY THREE

  Porter’s guts churned as he watched Amber. She sat on a marble bed in the cavern’s sacrificial pit and sobbed, her eyes wide and fearful.

  KA6 swiveled in his purple robe, towards the row of guards around the pit. “Dan Porter,” he cried out, “come forward now.”

  Porter took a deep breath, then let it out through gritted teeth. He threw a hand up. “Here,” he shouted. “We’re here.”

  The black mass spun towards him. Hateful snarls filled the cavern.

  “Guards, let them through,” KA6 ordered.

  The guards looked to KA1, who dipped his head, then parted to allow Porter and Lionel into the pit.

  Porter ran to hug Amber, then sat and took her trembling face in his hands. “It’s okay, sweet, we’ll get you out of here.”

  She nodded. Lionel stood beside the bed.

  Porter removed the mask, hooded black cloak, and gloves. Lionel did the same, and they were left wearing black t-shirts and cargo pants. A murmur of intrigue spread throughout the KA soldiers.

  KA6 pointed to the bed. “Don’t touch them,” he told the guards.

  Porter glanced towards the platform, saw that the other high council members had vanished. Beyond the platform, in the far corner of the cavern, a caged elevator ascended into the mineshaft. Some of the men inside it wore purple costumes. If those KA bosses managed to escape, would they then sacrifice their army to protect themselves?

  The blue-clad KA7 stood on the edge of the pit. “KA6, what do you hope to achieve?”

  “Put the gun down, KA6,” KA1 said, “I do not understand, why do you betray your brothers? It is the ultimate sin…”

  KA6 stepped towards him. “Standing by, while you and these other demented fools destroyed countless lives, that’s been my greatest sin…My miserable shame.” He stopped two meters from him.

  KA1 scoffed. “You wish to kill me? Then at least remove your mask, reveal yourself to our soldiers…” He swept a hand over the black mass. “Show them who dares to harm their leader.”

  KA6 kept the pistol aimed, removed his hat and dropped it to the stone floor. He ripped the white mask off and threw it away.

  Shockwaves ran from Porter’s head to toes. He stared at the Secretary’s wrinkled face. The face of Inspector George Barrett.

  The black mass snarled as one.

  “How wonderful, to be free of that hideous disguise…” Barrett said, then eyed KA1. “And now, for you to reveal yourself...”

  KA1 mocked him with a condescending snigger.

  “As you wish...” Barrett aimed the pistol at KA1’s head, his finger hovered over the trigger.

  A thick-set high council member stepped between them. “Stop, KA6…Have you lost your mind?”

  Barrett raised the remote control. “Come no closer, KA2. All of you, stay back, or I’ll blow this place apart….” He retreated a few meters, then turned to Porter. “Come here.”

  Porter swooped Amber into his arms and carried her to him. Lionel followed.

  Barrett leaned close to Porter and whispered. “The door to the left, past the platform. See it?”

  Porter’s eyes scanned the area. He saw a wooden door, thirty meters away. A path led to it from the pit, between the platform and a high metal fence. “Yeah…”

  “I’ll distract them. When I do, go through it into the tunnel. It’s your only way out of here.”

  “Knew you’re an alright bloke…”

  “No, I’m the same as these others, a monster…” Barrett said with a frown. “Will you promise something?”

  “What?”

  “Expedite to my house. My wife will give you what you need, what you’ve been searching for…And then get her to safety.”

  A tingle of hope ran along Porter’s spine. Did Barrett refer to the Cumal files? “Will do…”

  “Now get to the door and wait for my word…” Barrett glared at KA1, held the remote control above his head. “Let them through, or we all die.”

  KA1 made a hand signal. Guards parted to clear the path from the pit to the door.

  “Go!” Barrett yelled.

  Porter carried Amber from the pit, then ran towards the door. Lionel followed. The path narrowed between the platform and the metal fence. Soldiers spat, shouted obscenities, and started to climb the fence.

  “Get down…Harm them, your leader dies,” Barrett yelled. The soldiers dropped back to the ground.

  Porter reached the door. He sucked at damp air, tried to ease the burning sensation in his chest. Lionel stopped alongside him.

  Amber opened her eyes. “I’m okay, Dan.”

  He put her down, steadied her, then spun to watch the platform.

  Barrett stood on the edge of it. “KA1, why don’t you come join me up here?”

  “Very well…” A minute passed while KA1 shuffled from the pit to the top of the platform.

  Barrett leveled the pistol at him. “Remove your mask, or I shoot you dead now.”

  KA1’s laughter echoed throughout the cavern, his frail body shook. “You, cannot demand such a thing, of me...”

  “Ah, but Aboriginal spirits, the rightful owners of this land, they demand it. I’ve failed their daughters, and your deaths will be my redemption. It is them I must appease, not you…”

  “Black spirits? Redemption?” KA1 scoffed. “You are insane...”

  “Madder than a meat-axe, some used to say…” Barrett waved the remote control above his head. “Reveal yourself, and save your army. Or are you too much of a coward?”

  Gasps of dismay from the black mass.

  “Very well, I will show myself,” KA1 said in his regal tone. “But I do it for my loyal brothers, the Knights of Alba, so you will spare their lives…And not, dear Secretary, because the imaginary torturers of your soul demand it...”

  Porter frowned, unsure if he’d heard correctly. Had McKinlay called his soldiers…Knights of Alba? He’d never heard of them, but that had to be what the KA stood for? If so, Alec Ferguson had been correct, the ‘organization’ did have another name. He kept his eyes on Barrett, stepped backward and placed a hand on the door handle.

  “Do it now, KA1…” Barrett yelled above the soldiers’ jeers. “Who is this tyrant, hiding behind the mask?”

  KA1 sighed, then removed his high hat. He had a head like a chihuahua, covered in white hair. The cavern fell silent as the crowd hushed. He lifted the mask from his face, slow and upwards, and revealed his true identity.

  The black mass gasped in unison, then buzzed like bees in indistinct chatter.

  Porter squinted, tried to focus on KA1’s face. “I recognise him…From where?” he said to Lionel. “Fuck, who is that bloke?”

  “McKinlay?” Lionel’s voice shook as he shouted. “Charles McKinlay?” He pointed an accusatory finger at KA1 and marched forward. “Your resistance to Carinya makes even more sense now…You despicable, corrupt, son of a bitch!”

  Porter ran after him, grabbed his arm, and hauled him back to the door.

  Retired judge Charles McKinlay, the Knights of Alba’s Supreme Leader, turned towards them. “Roberts, you naïve fool…” his voice was loud yet calm. “I gave you enough hints, and opportunities to quit, and you should have taken them. You will never beat me, or the system…” He shifted his gaze. “And you, Porter, are far from blameless in all of this. You have been fortunate thus far, but have taken too much, and will not get out of here alive…”

  “Enough!” Barrett advanced, his pistol leveled at McKinlay’s head. “Your time has come...” He turned toward the door. “Go, Porter! Now!”

  Porter kept one eye on Barrett and nodded to Lionel, who pushed the wooden door open. Amber rushed through the doorway, and Lionel followed.

  “Run. Fast,” Porter shouted.

  “Kn
ights of Alba…” McKinlay yelled from the platform, then pointed at Porter. “Set upon them!”

  The black mass roared. One group swarmed up the platform’s stairs towards Barrett. Another group headed for the door.

  Porter ducked into the tunnel. As he turned to shut the door, a gunshot sounded from the cavern. He peeked toward the platform. McKinlay crumpled to the ground, his hands clutched to his chest. A frenzied pack of KA soldiers ran at Barrett, who fired into them. Three more gunshots boomed, men screamed, and the pack retreated.

  Porter slammed the heavy door shut. He picked up a wooden bolt and dropped it into place between steel brackets. He gripped the bolt’s iron handle in both hands, then jammed it to the left. Secure…Men shouted, and pounded on the other side of the door.

  Porter sprinted along the dank tunnel over a cobblestone floor. Candles mounted on sandstone brick walls flickered and showed him the way. When his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw Amber and Lionel in front of him. They’d slowed to a walk.

  He pictured Barrett standing on the platform, the remote control held high above his head. Explosives inside the cavern could blow any second. When they did, would the tunnel collapse too?

  “Keep running,” he yelled. “Don’t stop.”

  He caught up to Amber, looped an arm around her waist and urged her on. They ran up the slope, the light in the tunnel got brighter. He saw Lionel waiting twenty meters ahead, and stopped to listen. Were those footsteps behind them? Getting louder?

  “There’re stairs, an exit,” Lionel yelled. “Hurry, they’ll be cha--.”

  The explosion whooshed through the tunnel; a giant, flaming bowling ball. Porter tumbled over the floor like a battered pin then crashed into a wall. He staggered to his feet and searched for Amber through smoke and dust. Grit in the air tickled his throat and made him cough, and searing heat stung his face. More explosions. The tunnel shook, the Earth rumbled, and the ceiling began to fall.

  Porter rushed to Amber. She groaned and stood, then brushed dust from the cloak, her eyes dazed like those of a shell-shocked Syrian child. They ran up the slope together, shielded their faces from falling debris, and wheezed in thick smoke. They came to a wider section of tunnel, with a higher ceiling, and stopped.

  Lionel stood atop sandstone stairs, ten meters above them. “Hurry, there’s a hatch door.” He shoved it open. Moonlight beamed through the opening and illuminated the tunnel in shades of silver. “These stairs are starting to break up. Hurry!”

  Porter pushed Amber up the stairs ahead of him. She stumbled and squealed. Lionel leaped down and stopped her from falling. Earth shook, the tunnel’s walls threatened to collapse. Stairs wobbled and cracked under Porter’s feet. He picked Amber up in a fireman’s lift and carried her towards the hatch door.

  Lionel released her, then leaped to the highest stair. He grabbed the hatch door’s timber frame with one hand and used it as an anchor while Porter pushed her towards him. Lionel hauled her upwards, she scrambled over his back and through the opening, then he followed her out of the tunnel. They peered down at Porter, a look of dread on their dust-caked faces, arms outstretched towards him.

  Porter swayed, then tried to balance on crumbling stairs. As the tunnel ahead collapsed, he jumped to the highest point. Rubble cascaded towards him, pounded the stairs, and threatened to sweep him along the tunnel with it. He reached for a beam in the timber wall frame and gripped it. The stairs fell away beneath him. He hung from the beam one-handed, high above the ground, still two meters from the hatch door.

  Muscles in his forearm bulged, veins in his neck threatened to burst. He reached for another beam higher up. The timber wall frame splintered, his grip on the beam slipped. He strained and extended his arm, as far as he could. His fingers felt for the hatch door. Fuck, can’t reach it…

  He gazed up into Amber’s tear-streaked face. She told him to find strength, but he weakened, and his hand slipped. He closed his eyes and saw Jane. She kissed him, and told him to keep fighting. He opened them and saw the tunnel collapse around him. Sorry babe, can’t hold on…

  “Dan!” Amber screamed. “No…!”

  FORTY FOUR

  At the peak of survival mode, a rush of adrenaline flooded Porter’s body, and a tingling sensation rose from his feet to throat. He gasped as he shook, then relaxed, like a junkie after a shot of heroin. He beckoned all strength, clung to the last remaining timber beam, and growled as he climbed.

  The beam splintered and began to slide away. He swung in the air, then lunged for the hatch door’s wooden frame. He gripped it with his fingers and hung high above a dusty chasm. The frame cracked under his weight, and he glanced down, ready to fall.

  Lionel grabbed under his armpits and heaved him upwards. He dragged him through the opening, and out into the moonlit night.

  Porter slammed the hatch door shut as the tunnel imploded below. He rolled away from it, then lay on his back on dry leaves and watched stars in the clear sky. Amber and Lionel collapsed beside him. All three of them panted, wheezed and let out high-pitched sighs. After a minute they sat up and laughed.

  Cool air soothed Porter’s face. He hugged Amber and told her Jane would be okay, then turned to Lionel. “What the hell just happened down there?”

  Lionel wobbled his head. “Amazing events, beyond insane…”

  “Not wrong…Can you believe Barrett was KA? And who else belongs to their high council? They’re the blokes we’ve been looking for, the ones’ writing the cheques to Interpol, and so on…”

  “Yes, you’re right. And Barrett’s involvement shocks me too…” Lionel snarled. “But not as much as Charles McKinlay’s…And there’s hundreds of others buried down there, whose identities we’ll never know.”

  Porter stood and helped Amber to her feet. McKinlay’s speech echoed in his head. “What you reckon he meant? McKinlay, when he said I’ve taken too much?”

  Lionel frowned. “I’ve no idea, but he made it sound as though he’s intent on retribution against you, rather than the entire Police Force. Why?”

  “Dunno, I’ve never met the bloke. And you’re spot on, it seemed personal. Strange…”

  “What’s even stranger, is why did he allow Carinya to proceed? Considering his organizations’ foothold in Crooked River and the risk of us exposing it…”

  “Maybe the arrogant old fool didn’t reckon we’d find anything?”

  “Without Shirley’s emails, I doubt we would have…”

  “Don’t reckon Rothwell gave McKinlay any say about whether you got your investigation or not…But McKinlay’s done everything in his power, as leader of KA and as a retired judge, to put an end to it…”

  “In his power, and more…” Lionel smiled as he stood. “But he failed.”

  Porter remembered his conversation with Barrett and the promise he’d made to protect his wife. He checked his watch. 6.33pm. They had much more to discuss, but expediting to Barrett’s house took priority. He’d heard footsteps behind them in the tunnel…Were their pursuers trapped when it collapsed? Or had they found a different exit, and were out in the bush searching for them?

  “Let’s go, gotta move fast,” he said. “Which direction’s the car you reckon?”

  Lionel ran and gazed at the sky. “It’s this way…”

  Porter supported Amber’s weight, and they followed him through dense bushland. After a few minutes, he signaled them to stop and lowered himself to the ground. Porter did likewise and pulled Amber down with him. Wheels spun on gravel nearby.

  Porter crawled to Lionel and whispered, “What’d you see?”

  “The roadblock’s just up ahead. I counted five guards. Three are still here, and two have walked to the left, towards the dirt track where we hid the car. A dark SUV just turned right and took off down Bull Cart road.”

  “Don’t reckon they’ve found the Landcruiser yet…We’ll cut back to our left, get ahead of the guards, and hopefully come out of the bush near it.”

  They crawled back th
rough the undergrowth for ten meters, then stood and dodged mulga bush as they ran. They’d covered a few hundred meters when a sharp crack pierced the still night.

  Porter froze, felt the dead branch under his boot. Amber squeezed his arm. Lionel stopped up ahead.

  Excited voices called from the road, got louder, then faded away. They waited for a minute then started to run again. Five minutes later they came to the dirt track.

  “Bloody hell, it’s still here...” Porter sprinted towards the Landcruiser and pulled Amber with him. “Get in, sweet, quick.”

  He leaped into the drivers’ seat while Amber moved into the back. Lionel sat in the front passenger seat, then grabbed the Glock and cell phones from the glovebox.

  Porter snatched the Glock from him and dropped it in the center console. He accelerated, the Landcruiser fishtailed as its’ wheels spun in the dirt then gripped, and it sped forward. He squinted, guided only by moonlight, and increased speed as the dirt track crossed over Bull Cart road.

  “Shit,” Lionel shouted above the roar of the diesel engine. “They’re onto us.”

  Porter rammed the accelerator to the floor. “Who? Where?”

  “It looked like the damaged SUV from the homestead. Was coming down Bull Cart road towards the intersection when we went through it.” Lionel turned. “Faster, they’re behind us.”

  Porter pushed the Landcruiser to its’ limit. He told Lionel to phone Lyn Foster and have her send navigation coordinates for the Barrett homestead. After five minutes, the pursuing SUV had fallen far behind and out of sight.

  Lionel turned back to the front. “Well done, we’ve lost them.”

  “They weren’t gunna keep up for long with that damage…” Porter glanced to the back seat and saw Amber asleep. “We’re nearly at Crooked River road, which way do we turn?”

  Lionel played with the Landcruiser’s bright Navigator screen. “I’ve entered the coordinates that Lyn sent…Wait…” A pause of five seconds. “Okay, turn right onto Crooked River Road, then follow it for five k’s. Why are we going to Barrett’s place?”

  “Remember what McKinlay called him?”