Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

Chapter 5

Lucy had been driving without a break for most of the
day. There were at least another two hours before she was due to arrive at
Alice Springs and she was beginning to wane. Her eyelids were feeling heavy and
each time she blinked, the effort required to force them back open increased.
She knew it was dangerous to be driving in this state, but was afraid to pull
up by the roadside and nap as it was not long since the murder of a British
backpacker on a similar stretch of highway had dominated the headlines.

She checked her watch - four o’clock. That afforded her
ample time to take a short break and still make it to Alice Springs before
nightfall. Her map indicated that a roadhouse was located about 15km west of
the highway. The detour would not have too much of an impact on her journey and
she certainly needed the caffeine boost. When the turnoff came, she took it.

***

Emmy
was seated with star
charts spread across her desk. The obvious question was; where to begin? The
universe is vast behind human comprehension and only a tiny insignificant part
of it has ever been revealed to astronomers. If there was intelligent life out
there, it could be anywhere.

There are many different theories about the conditions
essential to producing life, and as such, certain planetary systems had been
identified as the most likely sources. These did not interest
Emmy
, as she was looking for a different type of “life”
altogether.

‘From a scientific standpoint it would be best to return to
the site of the initial encounter,’ she said. ‘If my instincts are correct, I
do not expect this to be an isolated incident.’

‘Are you sure?’ asked Charlie. ‘If you are thinking what I
think you are
,
it may not be wise to get involved
until we have more information at our disposal.’

‘And just how are we supposed to gather said information if
we do not act?’

Charlie was frustrated by his colleague’s resolve. He hoped
to dissuade her from taking their research down this particular tangent. The
word “soul” had been freely used since the experiments began and whilst
Emmy
was merely taking that line of thinking and developing
it towards its obvious conclusion, the idea still made him feel uneasy. If she
was correct in her hypothesis, it would not be long until the next encounter.
On average, three hundred thousand people passed away each day.

‘Are you not worried that this could be dangerous? I do not
think we should mess with ghosts.’

Emmy
let out an amused, yet
somewhat immature laugh.

‘You have to be kidding me - ghosts are make-believe. If
anything, what we are dealing with here is nothing more than a form of living
energy. It’s no different to the transformation we have been undergoing
ourselves.’

‘It is completely different. You and I are scientists
carrying out experiments within a controlled environment. We are not...’

‘...dead people,’ she interrupted. ‘Is that what you were
going to say? They may not be living in the sense that you and I are, but they
are still people all the same.’

‘I just don’t feel comfortable with this. Some things should
not be messed with.’

‘We’re scientists, messing with things is what we do.
Besides, for all we know, I may have misinterpreted what I actually
experienced. Perhaps I imagined the whole thing?’

‘That,’ said Charlie, ‘is a scenario I would greatly
prefer.’

***

Lucy drove for nearly 20km and still found no sign of the
roadhouse. She pulled over by the roadside and took another look at her map. On
closer inspection, she realised that she had been looking at the wrong
intersection. Clearly fatigue was impairing her judgement, so she decided it
was best to give up on the coffee idea and just try to get to Alice Springs as
quickly as possible.

She got back in her car and performed a quick u-turn only to
find
herself
directly facing oncoming traffic. The
vehicle heading towards her was a black hummer and would have no trouble
surviving a head-on collision. Her simple hatchback would not fare so well.

In a moment of blind panic, she thrust her foot down on the
gas and swerved left, missing the hummer by just inches. Her car then juddered
violently as its underside scraped against some sharp rocks on the roadside
before coming to rest in a cloud of dust.

Well, isn’t this fantastic
, she thought.

The car’s engine stalled and the only sound she could hear
was her own breathing. Her hands were shaking and rather than trying to restart
the vehicle, she thought it best to wait until her nerves settled. She checked
the passenger seat and the urn had not been damaged nor spilled any of its
contents, which was a relief.

After taking a couple of deep breaths, she opened her door
and swivelled her legs around until she was facing the road. The dust had
already settled and apart from the fresh tread marks in the road there was no
sign of the near fatal accident, which had only narrowly been avoided. As she
thought about how lucky she had been, her mood improved and the initial feeling
of shock soon subsided.

‘I guess I have you to thank for this, dad,’ she said. ‘I
fear to think where I would be without you watching over me.’

Even though he could not answer, Lucy knew that somewhere,
her father was looking down on her and smiling.

She stood and began walking in order to stretch her legs.
She needed to keep occupied until she was ready to get back behind the wheel.
As she passed by the back of the car, she noticed the sand around one of the
wheels was wet and that this liquid patch was expanding. Crouching down on her
knees, she took a peek at the underside of her vehicle. The source of the flow
was a three inch gash torn into what she could only assume was the gas tank.

‘Looks like you missed that one, dad.’

Rising back to her feet, she returned to the front of the
car and unfolded her map onto the bonnet. The earlier lack of a roadhouse had
confirmed which road she had not taken and by this she was able to deduce,
albeit without certainty, which road she was actually on. This placed her at
least twenty kilometres from the highway.

She ruled out walking as there was no way that she would
make it before nightfall and she did not want to be exposed once darkness set
in. Instead, she turned her attention the other way, toward the direction in
which the Hummer was travelling. According to her map there was a small farm
only about seven or so kilometres away.

She took her rucksack from the boot of the car and filled it
with two water bottles, her mobile phone, the map and her father’s urn. There
was no way she could leave him behind. She then applied a fresh layer of sun
cream before taking back to the road, this time on foot.

***

Emmy
finished prepping the
equipment and was on her way to see her grandfather when she saw the vehicle
approach. She sensed immediately that something was not quite right. It was too
late in the day to be receiving visitors and the car was certainly not local.

When she found the professor’s study empty she began to
suspect what was going on and her fears were confirmed when she made it outside
to see her grandfather greeting the new arrivals. Two men stepped out of the
car, both adorned in military uniform.

‘What is going on?’ she asked, hurriedly approaching the
three of them.

One of the men’s faces lit up when he saw
Emmy
. No doubt he did not expect to find a female scientist
to be working at the observatory, especially one as young and beautiful as
Emmy
. She ignored his hand as it was offered, instead
waiting for her grandfather to provide an explanation for the new arrivals.

‘Well?’ she asked.

‘Now, now,
Emmy
,’ replied the
professor. ‘That is no way to behave in front of guests.
If
you would only show some manners, I was about to introduce you.’

‘Guests are usually invited. I was not aware that we were
expecting anyone.’

‘There are many things you are not aware of, child, but that
does not mean they are not necessarily so. I can forgive your indiscretion and
I hope for your sake that our guests can be as accommodating.’

The more forthright and
Emmy
therefore assumed, senior ranking of the two men took this as his cue to step
forward.

‘There is nothing to forgive. I understand that the uniforms
can be quite intimidating for some.’

Emmy
bit down on her bottom lip,
closed her eyes and very slowly counted to three. The alternative would not
have been quite so civilised.

‘This is Captain Mike Peters,’ interjected the professor.
‘With him is Lieutenant Bradley
Schwarzmann
. They
have come to observe our research.’

‘Observe?’

Emmy
may have been inexperienced
in such matters, but even she knew that when the military took an interest in
scientific research, they rarely contented themselves with taking a backseat
role.

‘You guys are the miracle workers,’ said Capt. Peters. ‘I
would not even consider interfering with the work you have going on here. I do,
however, think that we can learn a great deal by working together. We are here
to offer our services by becoming your first test subjects.’

‘We don’t need any guinea pigs,’ replied
Emmy
.
‘I have personally taken responsibility for the live trials. Due to the
complexity of the procedures involved and in the interests of continuity, it
would not be productive to change things at this time.’

The soldier looked to the professor for support. He had his
orders and whether this scientist liked it or not, he was taking charge of the
operation.

‘This is neither the time nor the place to debate the issue,’
said the professor. ‘I have already made my feelings clear on you subjecting
yourself to these experiments and I have decided that professionals should take
your place.’

Emmy
knew it was futile to argue
with the old man. She could usually speak freely with him in private, but in
the company of others it was neither respectful nor particularly wise to risk
insulting the great Jackson Fox. Her only option was to play along and hope
that the entire project would not be pulled from under her.

‘I apologise if I have spoken out of turn. This project is
very personal to me and I simply want to make sure that it is handled in the
best possible way.’

‘I understand,’ replied Capt. Peters. ‘I assure you that I
will give you nothing short of my best.’

He held out his hand again and this time she took it.

‘If this is going to work, you will have to trust my
judgement. I do not know how much you know about what we actually do here, but
you will not use any of the technology or techniques that we have developed
until I think you are ready. Do you understand, Captain Peters?’

‘Yes, ma’am.
Oh, and please; call
me Mike.’

Emmy
then shook the hand of his
colleague. Sure, she would play along for now, but she was adamant about one
thing; there was no way either of these men was going to be hooked up to her
machine so long as she could do anything about it.

She waited for the soldiers to unload their bags and then
went to speak to Charlie, whilst her grandfather showed his guests to their
quarters.

‘This stinks,’ her lab partner said, upon hearing the news.

Emmy
could have thought of many
stronger words to sum up how she felt, but she was still inclined to agree with
her colleague. The worst part of it was that she had been betrayed by her own
grandfather. She knew Pops resented not being able to take part in the
experimental side of the research himself, but she never suspected for one
moment that he would sell them out and to the military of all people. It was
not even their government he had chosen either, but the Americans. Could things
get any worse?

‘Why did he do it?’ asked Charlie. ‘Surely he doesn’t need
the money and if it is about recognition, he is an even bigger fool, because
once the army realises exactly what they have bought into they will take this
entire project underground. We’ll be brushed aside to be replaced by a bunch of
lab rats that aren’t even fit to teach grade school science.’

This was the first time
Emmy
had
seen Charlie lose his cool during the entire time they had worked together.
Whilst he was still very young within the profession at just thirty years of
age, he was eight years older than her and she respected him a great deal.

‘Only he can answer that,’ she replied, ‘and I will make
sure that he does. Until then, we will have to be very careful. I do not want
these Americans to know about what I saw on the moon. They are probably only
interested in using this technology for espionage, so hopefully they will not
ask too many questions about its non-terrestrial potential. The harder task
will be in carrying on with our own research without them knowing.’

‘That shouldn’t be too hard. We just tell them we are
drawing rings around the observatory. If we are really lucky, these chumps
won’t have the mental discipline to work the machine anyway.’

‘I sincerely hope so,’ she said.
‘For all
our sakes.’

Chapter 6

Lucas Black was the most senior police officer in town.
His responsibility was compounded by the fact that he was also the only police
officer in town. He lived in a small apartment at the rear of his modestly
equipped station. With very little in the way of actual crime to keep him busy,
he acted more as a surrogate uncle for the small population that he had sworn
to serve and protect. A typical day could see him do anything from helping out
with the local children’s schooling to reading the mail for Mrs Coppersmith,
the town’s oldest resident at ninety eight. Very occasionally, he would be
called on to settle a minor domestic dispute.

As always, his day had unsurprisingly, been a quiet one.
Apart from Mrs Mangle worrying that her pet dog was “not being its usual self”,
the only call of the day was from the Merrill’s farm regarding a young woman
who turned up on their doorstep after breaking down on an outback road. It was
late in the day and he managed to persuade the couple to put the girl up for
the night and then promised that he would go and pick her up in the morning.
With business taken care of, it meant he could relax and enjoy a few cold
beers. Lucas never relaxed.

At around 8pm every evening, the men of the town would begin
to gather in its only watering hole; the Sly Fox. Thursday was poker night and
with the brewery offering a prize of a seat at the state championship in
Darwin, the event was proving popular. There was only one heat left before the
final and the competition could get quite heated at times. Lucas removed his
hat and took up his usual seat at the corner of the bar, so that he could watch
the action from afar whilst supping on his favourite pale ale.

With tourists or other outsiders such a rarity, even on the
busiest of nights, there were no strangers among the drinkers. Everybody knew
everybody else, which in turn made Lucas’ job much easier.

‘Good evening, officer,’ said Mindy, the landlady. ‘Will you
be having your usual?’

Mindy was in her early fifties and possessed an attractive
figure. In her youth, she was what many would consider as beautiful and was
much chased, although far from chaste. In keeping with her reputation, she had
not aged gracefully and her wardrobe changed little in thirty years. Her skirts
shared a lot in common with her spirit measures. They were short and went down
easily.

‘Of course,’ replied Lucas. ‘And like I tell you every time
I come in here; you don’t have to call me officer when I am not on duty.’

She took a clean glass from the washer and began to pour him
his drink.

‘And like I tell you every time, officer; you are never off
duty. Do you think that I don’t know the only reason you come in here is so you
can check up on your precious citizens; making sure none of them gives in to
vice or villainy.’

Lucas took his drink, and as he allowed the head to settle,
he realised that Mindy was right. Somehow, without him even realising it, he
had let the job take over his entire life. He had been drinking at this same
bar for sixteen years. At what point did he stop being one of the regulars and
simply become Officer Black? Looking around, he could see faces belonging to
young men who were barely out of their nappies when he first started drinking
at this place. These same young men would soon leave town to pursue a college
education or take a chance on their big city dreams. Few people stayed around
once they reached adulthood and before he knew it, Lucas had found himself a
generation apart. He was now an authority figure, but one who lived to serve
not to rule.

‘Something on your mind?’ asked Mindy, noticing Lucas’s
faraway expression.

‘Nothing of any great concern,’ he replied. ‘You know how it
is with this town; people come and go, but nothing ever really changes.’

‘Would you want it any other way?’

‘I guess not.’

He took a sip from his schooner. The first taste was always
the sweetest. It was the small rewards that made his line of work worthwhile.
Lucas could never understand the people who drank to excess rather than taking
the time to enjoy their beer. He always thought that a tasteless palette was
the first sign of a shallow mind. At least whilst he stuck around the bar he
could make sure that nobody’s drinking got out of hand.

Mindy left him to go and serve another customer, but she was
soon back, eager to try and glean any interesting pieces of gossip from the one
person in town who knew almost as much about everybody as she did.

‘Have you met the newcomers yet?’ she asked.

Lucas looked up from his drink and the surprise that he
displayed was more than enough to answer her question. This also meant that she
held the most currency in the conversation, which was exactly how she liked it
to be.

‘Surely they didn’t slip under your radar?’

Again the policeman showed nothing but bemusement.

‘Now isn’t this a turn up for the books. It isn’t like you
to be out of the loop. Maybe it is time you hired a deputy.
Y’know
, to lighten the load a
little.’

‘I can assure you that I am fully capable of carrying out my
duties without the need for an assistant. Besides, I already have Val and she
would be more than capable of handling any criminals should I for any reason be
incapacitated.’

Valerie Duggan was Lucas’s secretary at the station and
unofficial housekeeper. She had served three generations of police chiefs and
knew more about the intricacies of small town law enforcement than Lucas ever
would. Occupying the position of town matriarch, she carried a great deal of
respect and the prospect of a morning lecture from Val was much more of a
deterrent for any would be lawbreaker than a night in the cells could ever be.

‘So who exactly are these newcomers that you are referring
to? It has been a long time since we got any tourists through these parts.’

‘Oh, these did not look like tourists. My guess is that they
have something to do with the Government.’

‘What makes you say that?’

Mindy shrugged and then turned to serve another customer.
Lucas knew that she was deliberately teasing him. When she returned to face
him, he picked up his hat and held it for her to see.

‘I can be a customer or I can be a policeman. Which would
you prefer?’

‘Okay, okay,’ she conceded. ‘There’s no need to put your hat
back on. I’ll tell you what I know, but it isn’t much. I only got a glimpse of
the car as it headed up towards the observatory. It was one of those big fancy
American style
utes
. I can’t
tell you who
was
driving, though, as the windows were
blacked out. Like I said; they are probably government types that don’t want to
mix with ordinary folk like us.’

Lucas took another sip. He originally planned on having a
second, but would now make this one last the night.

‘They were headed towards the observatory, you say?’

‘As far as I could tell.
I guess they
must be staying up there as well, unless they are planning on driving through
the night or camping out.’

‘If they wanted to camp they would need a permit. Since I’ve
not heard anything, I am guessing they are staying at the observatory. The
professor must have invited them, but it is unusual that he never mentioned it
as I only spoke to him yesterday.’

‘Do you think it could be trouble?’

‘No, not really.
I’ll have a drive
up in the morning just to be on the safe side. I’ve got to get up early to pick
up a stranded motorist first thing, so I should pass the outsiders on the road
if they leave early.’

Lucas picked up his drink and moved to an empty booth in the
corner of the bar. It provided him with a more discreet location to watch the
evening unfold and left Mindy free to socialise more with her customers. In a
place like this, the chit chat was just as important a part of the service as
getting the beer.

Shortly after Lucas sat down, Jimmy Johnson, a nineteen year
old kid with even less prospect of ever leaving the town than he, entered the
bar. The newcomer had a brief conversation with Mindy before buying a bottle of
beer and taking a seat at the poker table.

Jimmy was well known for his lack of intelligence. He had no
physical learning disability and was not a bad kid; he was just not too bright
either. Throughout his school days he often found himself in detention due to
the ease at which he could be talked into doing things by the other kids. His
mother raised him to tell the truth at all times and due to his simple nature,
this led him to never suspect deceit in others. What can be seen as honesty by
some is mere gullibility to those of a more manipulative mindset. Suffice to
say, the real bad kids took full advantage.

Lucas waited until he caught Mindy’s eye and then gestured
for her to approach his booth. She used the excuse of collecting empty glasses
so as not to arouse any suspicion the policeman was singling her out to get
information about any of her customers.

‘Are you ready for a top up, officer?’

‘Not just yet.’

He lifted his drink to allow Mindy to wipe down the
tabletop. As she leaned forward he quietly asked her about Jimmy.

‘Do you think it is wise for young Jimmy to be entering the
game? I have no problems with gambling, but only when those involved are aware
of the risk.’

‘You worry too much. There is a fifty dollar limit on each
round and knowing Jimmy, he’ll be out after the first one.’

‘All the same, I think he may be better suited to the pokies
than a competitive match against actual opponents.’

‘So are you
gonna
go over there
and tell the kid that he can’t play?’

Lucas had no reply.

‘I didn’t think so. If you molly coddle the kid, he’ll never
learn. Now just try to relax and maybe have another beer. I won’t let anybody
start trouble in my bar, I assure you.’

She took the empties back to the bar and placed them in the
washer. Lucas, meanwhile, sat back and tried his best to take her advice.
Besides, a poker game was the least of his worries. He was aware that Professor
Fox and his team were working on something big and the last thing he wanted was
for their work to draw too much attention to his town. He liked it just the way
it was and did not want outsiders poking their noses in, causing disquiet amongst
the townsfolk.

With his thoughts occupied elsewhere, the evening passed
quickly and without incident. The poker had been such a low key affair that it
was only as the final round drew to a close that Lucas noticed Jimmy was still
in the game. Rather than rouse suspicion by shadowing the players, he instead
returned to the bar, where
Jimbo
, a player who had
earlier lucked out, was sat consoling himself with a beer.

‘I guess your luck wasn’t in today,’ said Lucas, as he
seated himself at an adjacent barstool.

‘Luck,’
Jimbo
scoffed. ‘If only it
were down to luck, I’d probably still be in the game. Those Carlton boys are up
to something. They’ve been influencing young Jimmy’s bets all night. He got
lucky on his first hand with two pairs, but since then he’s been winning with
next to nothing. He has no idea either as he played one hand with nothing but
jack high and those two folded despite clearly having winning hands.’

‘You think they’re letting him win?’

‘Oh, he’s not winning. Every round he has scraped through
with just a dollar or two left. I think they are just milking the cow for
everything they can get. They only fold when Jimmy is all in. With the rest of
us they play it straight and they are good, I will tell you that. There is no
way a novice with a dead hand could beat those two unless they wanted him to.’

The sheriff looked over his shoulder. Only the three players
remained. Jimmy was one, along with Joey and Sam Carlton. The two brothers had
a stack of chips and Jimmy was almost down to his last. With two going through
to the final heat, the Carlton boys looked a sure thing.

‘How many rounds have been played?’ asked Lucas.

‘This is the fourth,’ replied
Jimbo
.

‘So they have taken two hundred dollars from the kid.’

Jimbo
shrugged.

‘This isn’t right,’ said Lucas, ‘and for them to have the
nerve to pull this right under my nose. They can have their moment of triumph,
but once they set foot outside of this bar, they’ll be taking a short trip down
to the station to talk poker tactics.’

Jimbo
subtly nodded his approval
and then turned away from the policeman to carry on with his drink. Lucas put
his hat back on and made a show of saying goodnight to Mindy before leaving
through the front door. There was a wooden bench fifteen yards along the
street. He sat down and waited for the Carlton brothers to leave the bar. The
pair stayed for a further half hour before exiting by the same way as Lucas. In
the dark, they did not notice the seated policeman as they walked past.

‘Did you have a good night, boys?’ asked Lucas, deliberately
drawing their attention.

‘Officer Black, I didn’t see you there,’ replied Sam, who at
twenty, was the eldest of the pair by a year. ‘It’s reassuring to know that
even at this late hour you are busy keeping the streets safe for law abiding
folk like us.’

Lucas could not suppress his smile. He always enjoyed
dealing with these two.

‘That’s what I’m here for. Tonight I am investigating a
possible case of fraud. It’s actually lucky that I ran into you guys as you may
be able to help me.’

The brothers exchanged a brief look of caution.

‘I don’t think so, officer,’ replied Sam. ‘We’ve both been
in the Fox all night. We know nothing of any fraud that may be going on.’