“Be ready for what?”
“You have one hour.”
“Wait, one hour for what?”
“You have an hour before she comes to see you.”
- -
Destiny
“Who? Who is coming to see me?”
“Ma’am.” was the only reply she got before the slot slammed shut.
The hour passed and Catlin made efficient use of her time with the toiletry bag she was given. She’d clipped and trimmed her nails, washed her hair and applied a little make-up. She used moisturiser on her skin, a luxury she hadn’t been afforded in a while, and used deodorant for the first time in about a year.
She knew it was all a little self-indulgent, but after having nothing to do for days a little pampering was a pleasant distraction from the monotony of captivity. It gave her a small boost from the depression she’d been feeling since being incarcerated.
She’d been given an hour, but utilised it too well and found herself early by ten minutes. Sitting on the bed she tinkered with the amenities, deciding to store them back into the sanitary bag. The last item to go in, a stick of lipstick, remained in her hand, which she fumbled with as she sat waiting.
Clunk, the door opened and a man dressed in black fatigues stood at the entrance. “Follow me,” he said sullenly.
Not being in a position to argue, she obeyed her guard. On top of that, her body felt tired and old after being locked up inside the room. Catlin was grateful for the chance to walk down a hallway and stretch her legs, her optimism grew as she paced along behind the guard.
She noticed as they were walking, with her guard in the lead, that he carried no weapons. This coupled with the fact she wasn’t handcuffed allayed any fears she had about being here, for clearly she was no captive. If the guards weren’t armed it was because she was in a safe place.
She figured they were underground too, for no windows adorned the walls as she walked, only a long line of halogen light fixtures running the length of the hallway. The smell was kind of musty, something you’d usually associate with basement, or a lack of air ventilation.
Catlin and her guard walked to the end of the room, coming to a barred door. The guard tapped and muttered something as they reached it, soon after the door opened.
Again, another hallway, until finally she was guided into a private room. The room was well set up, much like a business conference room. Long board table, leather chairs and a bar off in the corner. At the head of the table a computer and projector had been set up, both were on, with the screen blue.
She was told to sit at the end of the table and wait.
She sat nervously, tapping the desk for a couple of minutes before a woman entered the room, carrying a large stack of papers. She came in, moved to the other end of the room and dropped her paper stack to the desk.
Catlin looked up as the imposing figure presented herself, she didn’t speak at first, she just stood there with a strange look on her face, staring at Catlin with a hand covering her mouth.
“Hi.” Catlin bubbled out unreservedly.
An awkward silence ensued between them until the older woman shook herself from her apparent trance and introduced herself. “Ms Conley, I am Ma’am, the head of this facility. Are you well? Have you been treated kindly?”
Catlin didn’t hold back, she always had a sharp mind. “If you mean treating me kindly by confining me to a dark room for no apparent reason then no. If you mean by murdering my previous captors, who were the police I might add, then no. If you mean that my brother is dead, then no. If you mean that my former partner …” she looked sternly at the woman, “no.”
“Ms Conley?”
“But on the other hand, you are feeding me three gourmet, vegan meals a day, so I guess that’s a yes!”
“It has been a very trying time,” Ma’am agreed.
“Yep, you got that right.”
“So.”
“So.” Catlin looked up as defiantly as she could.
Ma’am seemed to forget herself as she stood there, again Catlin noticed the woman had a strange look on her face.
“I’m guessing you’re the kind of person I should be afraid of, right?” Catlin folded her arms defiantly.
“Oh Catlin dear …” she shook her head, looking at Catlin in earnest. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
“That’s yet to be proven.”
A silence ensued again, not for long, but long enough for Catlin to feel awkward at the lengthy stares she was getting from the matronly lady. Catlin found herself looking away nervously, wondering why the woman kept staring at her so oddly.
“Now,” Ma’am waved her hand, exhaled, took in a deep breath and continued. “I do apologise for the delay in coming to speak to you, it’s been a rather testing time of late and I’ve been attending matters elsewhere. I knew you were safe, so I attended to other matters.”
Catlin brushed it aside, preferring not to wallow too much in the past. She’d taken more of an interest in the woman who stood before her now, observing the dark circles under her eyes as they spoke. It was a clear sign she’d been without sleep for a while, so she was probably right in saying she’d been busy elsewhere.
What Catlin hadn’t been aware of was the fallout that’d ensued because of her escape from police custody. The news had reported four police vehicles, who’d been escorting an unknown fugitive, were attacked in the Blue Mountains. Eleven police officers were reported as dead because of the attack, several others suffering from injuries sustained in vehicles that had driven over cliffs.
Such an attack on the police service had never been recorded in Australian history before. The news reported that what was even more disturbing was the fact that several of the deceased officers had died for no apparent reason, their autopsies revealing no cause of death before plummeting over the edge of the mountain.
These revelations had in turn caused the government to step up their investigations into the matter, their suspicions were the Destiny facility was somehow involved. Thus, they’d flown in a special team to meet in the buildings above the facility.
Prior to their arrival Thomas, the government liaison, had to be released from his temporary imprisonment so as not to offend the attending officials. Ma’am had protested greatly at this but Samuel had no choice, they were coming and his incarceration would be an unnecessary impediment.
Her actions in regaining the target, Catlin Conley, had far greater repercussions than Samuel had predicted. Ma’am had gone too far and the government were forcing control, trying to find answers.
And so, Samuel allowed the government to wrest a measure of control of the upstairs facility, without much fight. He was, in truth, protecting the real secret underground. The government demanded they had the power to acquire the facilities resources in a state of national emergency, which they were claiming the attack was.
Samuel had placated them, feigning assistance in any way possible. And soon government investigators had taken over the surveillance system upstairs, trying to fathom the reason for the police attack.
Ma’am’s actions had caused them to be shut out of their own facility, but Samuel’s had aided in protecting the real one downstairs.
Ma’am had at this point gone almost a week without sleep, and after another couple of days having to deal with Samuel and the government she exhausted all she had. She slept for two days straight once the fires had burnt a little lower.
Catlin’s incarceration was far longer than was intended.
“Now, I understand you must be at pains with your recent losses Ms Conley and your consequent incarceration, but I do promise that things will get better. If you’ll allow me to explain a few truths to you?”
“It’s not like I have a choice, is it?”
“Matter of fact you do, as recompense for my inability to see you sooner I
am prepared to let you go … after … I have explained a few truths about your situation. I’m sure you’ve been wondering how this mess all occurred and would like some answers?”
“Like I said, not like I have a choice.”
“Yes. You are in a pickle.”
She frowned, thinking back on the events preceding this and replied, “kindly explain to me how a photographer has any influence in this world to those that are in control?”
“What makes you think you have any influence?”
“Well, whatever. I have something that threatens someone. Namely the government, seeing as though they were the ones who came after me. And then there’s whoever you guys are, killers of government people. You obviously want me too.”
“Perceptive of you.” Ma’am pulled an envelope from the stack of papers that lay in front of her.
“It doesn’t take a genius,” Catlin replied sarcastically. “I’m not that important, but I’m guessing the photographs I took are?”
“Perhaps.”
“Why else go to the trouble for little old me right?”
“Again, I am only too happy to oblige you with some answers.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Your photographs, you discovered something, as I’m sure you’re aware.” Ma’am pulled out a set of reprints from the envelope, sliding the photos across the table down to where Catlin sat.
“Well if I did, then I have no idea what I discovered.” she said, looking over them casually. “There’s some lens smudges but otherwise I can’t see anything of importance.”
“These photographs are evidence, or an indicator, to the possible existence of something, something that’s considered very dangerous. What you recorded you sent via email, which was consequently flagged by a government intelligence agency, an agency with only one purpose, to find us.”
“Us? Why, who are you guys?”
“Let’s just say we are a little bit special down here.”
“That’s informative,” she replied sarcastically. “But we are underground that I ...”
Ma’am raised her hand to calm Catlin, “The information will come in time, but for now let’s just say that the government wanted to capture you so they could interrogate you.”
“What for, I don’t even know anything.”
“They don’t know that.”
“So, what, they acted under the understanding that I know something?”
“Yes, for a very long time they’ve had suspicions there’s a secret facility on this planet that has, well, been operating without their knowledge or consent. They’ve had an inkling about us for a very long time but have had no real evidence to prove it, so they setup an agency to find out.”
“Right,” Catlin replied. “So they setup a secret agency to find another secret organisation, and that’s you guys?”
“Yes. We call our facility Destiny.”
“Call it what?”
“Our secret facility.”
“Destiny?”
“Yes.”
“And they think that I know something about this place, and that’s why they tried to get me?”
“Correct.”
“Huh,” she rubbed her chin. “So I guess they were right?”
“Who.”
“The government.”
“About what?”
“They were right to think there was a secret organisation out there, operating under their radar.”
“Yes they are, still, we prefer to remain an unknown entity. Especially to those in power and we have managed to remain so since the beginning. We prefer to operate independent of any authority.”
“Obviously.”
“Anyway,” Lucinda tried to continue, “your photo prompted them into action, which as you observed first hand, is not to treat kindly.
“Well neither do you.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You don’t treat kindly as well, you did kill a bunch of police to get me didn’t you?”
“They take by any means necessary, even if those measures are unnecessary.” Ma’am paused a moment and retrieved another envelope, pulling another set of prints and sliding them over to Catlin.
Catlin’s head sunk to the desk as she looked at the pictures. The pictures were of Mark, dead in the arrival hall of Sydney airport.
“I’m sorry for your loss. Your brother was an unnecessary death. Their actions were unnecessary.”
“So the government, they were the ones in my village? The ones who killed my brother and the ones who captured me?”
“They are,” Ma’am replied. “They will stop at nothing to get what they want, but luckily for you my team also happened on your photographs.”
Catlin’s mind flashed back to an image of men in black who had come after her back in the mountains and then disappeared as she neared the 7-11. “Did you send men to get me?”
“We tried, they couldn’t make contact.”
“I didn’t know who they were, holy cow. I wondered why they were calling after me so strangely.”
“It doesn’t matter, we here cannot risk discovery and so had to allow you to be captured by the police. We put our secondary plan into place thereafter.”
“Yeah, what in God’s name did you do? How did you stop all those cops?”
Ma’am paused and seemed to think about a response, but unable to find suitable words, ignored it and took a seat at the head of the table. She hopped onto the laptop resting there and brought up a series of images on the big screen, Catlin recognised them straight away.
“Let me take the time to explain to you what it is that you are seeing in these images. It almost looks like something out of a telescope looking deep into space, right?”
“I have no idea.” Catlin shrugged her shoulders, unable to notice anything of importance. “I guess you don’t want to tell me how the cops died then?”
“In time, for now it is of little consequence.”
“Fine,” she agreed. “But these photos I took, they’re of no importance.”
“I assure you they’re not. What your lens picked up was the life energy of that herdsman.”
“What?”
“It’s a most unusual thing, we didn’t think it possible to visually record via a camera lens, but there it is, plain as day for all to see.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Well, it appears that you caught it.”
“Caught what?” Catlin frowned, looking closer at the images on the big screen.
“You captured the life energy of the herdsman, as it departed his body.”
“Huh?” She was totally confused now. “I thought he was dead.”
“Well yes, what you actually captured was the energy leaving him.”
“Oh geez, I think I’m dumb, honestly, I’ve no idea what you’re trying to tell me.”
“Ms Conley, let’s assume for a moment that we all have an aura, an energy if you will. That all life has an energy.”
“Yes.”
“And that energy can be seen.”
“Ok.”
“And that energy is exactly what you caught. Here, these slides, can you see the blemishes?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“That’s his life force.”
“Right. Really?”
“Really,” Ma’am confirmed. “Here at Destiny we’ve discovered that energy, to track it and to look at it just as you did with this lens.”
Catlin leaned in closer, “What do you mean track?”
“Maybe monitor is a better word for it.”
“Wait a minute, did you say Destiny?”
“Yes, that’s what we call our facility.”
“Bugger me!” Catlin leant back fully in
her office chair.
“I’m sorry?”
“Destiny, track and monitor life energy. Maybe I’m not so dumb after all.”
“Now I’m the one who doesn’t follow.”
“I’ve done a lot of travelling and met a lot of people. I’ve heard whisperings, people tell stories on the road. I think I’ve always had an interest in the wildly unusual and strange happenings on the planet, it’s far more interesting than the boring shit most people do with their lives. From pyramid teleportation to the lost city of Atlantis I’ve explored all manner of theories. Anyway, this one time at ...”
“Greenpeace?” Ma’am interrupted, knowing exactly where Catlin was going.
“What …?” she sat back stunned. “How the hell did you know I was going to say that?”
“I know everything about you Catlin.”
“Ha!” she blurted out, “I hardly think so, otherwise why in the hell would you want me here?”
“What makes you think that we want you?”
“Why else would you go through hell to capture me? If you wanted me dead you could’ve done it at the drop of a hat, but you didn’t, you rescued me instead.”
Ma’am tried to hide the smile that was creeping up on her face, “Ok, so maybe we do want you.”
“I just don’t know why.”
“You are here because you’re very special, very unique.” Ma’am looked at her again with a glint in her eye. “But, in due course. You’ll soon understand how this facility works and why you’re here, it’s not something that can be explained in a sentence or two.”
“Try me.”
“Ok. Destiny is a facility that can tap into the very threads of life, to understand them, observe and manipulate.”
“What does that mean?”
“As I said, in due course you will understand how …”
“You want me to join you, to join your team, don’t you?” It was a statement, not a question. “That’s why I’m here right? You want to recruit me?”
“Recruit you?”
“Yes, that’s why you wanted me.”
“Sure.” Ma’am confirmed, this time letting the smile leak out onto her face, something that hadn’t happened for a long time. “We would like for you to join us.”
Recalling Destiny Page 16
