The Delta Chain

by Ian Edward

  ‘It gave me a legitimate reason to deploy another consultant for an indefinite period.’

  ‘And you didn’t even let Betty in on any of this?’

  ‘No one else knew. It ensured everyone and everything played out naturally.’

  ‘So you sent me in to troubleshoot. I was part of your devious little plan.’

  ‘You’re the savviest person I’ve got, Kate. I knew you’d smell a rat and make enquiries of your own, which in turn would help me. And ultimately avenge Rhonda. And I know you’re cautious. And you’ve got that sunny disposition. No one was going to suspect you of snooping around…’

  ‘I suppose you monitored all my calls to Betty.’

  ‘I know you’re offended, Kate, but I’m going to ask you to be bigger than that. It may sound totally immoral right now but I did this, all of this, to get to the bottom of Rhonda’s death, so that I’d have something to take to the police.’

  ‘And Melanie Cail?’

  ‘Institute security, and the police, knew Melanie leaked that lab document and were close to proving it. Like everyone else, I was shocked by her murder. I’ve no idea what happened. But she was gone, Kate. I had to come up with a solution to the virus, I’d kept it going as long as was feasible. As you know, Westmeyer was about to call in someone else to deal with it. I saw an opportunity to “solve” the problem, ‘fix’ it and lay the blame on Melanie. She was no longer around to be harmed by it, and she’d be accepted as a likely offender, given that she’d already played saboteur.’

  ‘Okay. But even so, you still don’t have any leads about the real cause of Rhonda’s accident.’

  ‘Not yet. But there’s far more going on here than any of us suspected. Once one of these dominoes falls, Kate, they all will, including Rhonda's murderer.’

  Yes, Reardon was right. There was far more going on than he knew, but she couldn’t reveal to him the full extent of what she knew. The Task Force investigation had to be kept under wraps.

  It occurred to her, however, that Reardon knew more than he was letting on. She was certain now that he knew about the croc hunters being traced to the Institute. ‘You enabled remote access, for yourself, to the Landscan 111, didn’t you? So you could keep tabs on what I was up to?’

  ‘Guilty.’

  ‘So you know the croc poachers were tracked as coming here, to the Institute.’

  ‘Yes, Kate. As I said, far more going on here than we could have imagined.’

  ‘So why’d you make it possible for me to get that prototype and go charging off to the Territory when you wanted me here, in Northern Rocks? You didn’t know about the link at that stage. None of us did?’

  ‘Surely you don’t think I’m a total monster, Kate. I care about you. I knew how much it meant to you to assist the police in finding your brother’s killers. I didn’t know you were going to take it all in your own hands and go off into the swamps like that. You scared the shit out of all of us, me included. And you’re right, I had no idea the croc gang would be tracked back here. That was pure ass, believe me. Some of this outcome I might’ve planned for, Kate, but most of it I didn’t. The connection with this place is as much a surprise to me as to anyone.’

  For a moment Kate felt compelled to tell him the full extent of the police investigation – the task force mobilising in the town, the connection with the drownings and Westmeyer’s boat and the “suspected” religious cult, but O’Malley had sworn them all to secrecy. And now she had more pressing matters. She was worried about Adam and she needed to inform O’Malley about the conversation she’d overheard.

  ‘At least that explains a few things,’ Kate said. ‘Look, James, I’ve got to rush, I have to get together with Adam and Brian Markham. But would you do something for me, a favour, without asking any questions?’

  ‘You’ve got it.’

  ‘Leave here now. Don’t ask why…’

  ‘Leave?’

  ‘Go back to your motel room or go to the police station and I’ll meet you there later. Just don’t stay around here.’

  ‘You know something. What…?’

  ‘No questions, you promised. Please, will you do it?’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘I’ll catch up with you later.’ She was on her way out of his office. ‘I’ll call you on your cell.’

  ‘Kate…’He was on his feet, concern turning to alarm. But Kate was already gone.

  Kate found Markham where she’d left him, in the second floor entry area. He was pacing in front of the visitor chairs, talking quietly on his cell phone. He ended the call as Kate approached.

  ‘Adam…?’

  ‘He hasn’t been back,’ Markham said. ‘I’ve just been on the line to O’Malley.’

  ‘It’s longer than planned. I’m going down there-’

  ‘No, Kate. Leave it to O’Malley’s men. They’re moving in, without delay. Apparently they’ve had a report from Kirby about a seemingly unrelated matter, a kidnapped boy that Adam knows something about…’

  ‘What’s that got to do with this?’

  ‘Your friend Jean Farrow phoned it in to the police. The kidnap victim has been brought here.’

  ‘Here? Now?’

  ‘To the rear dock, just minutes ago.’

  ‘Brian, there’s more. These visiting investors aren’t investors. I’ve just overheard them with Stephen and Westmeyer. They’re setting up now to demolish the building. They seem to know they’re about to be raided.’

  Before Kate had finished the sentence Markham had pressed redial on his phone. On the other end of the line O’Malley answered.

  Once the order has been signed by a Federal judge, a “seize and arrest” can be undertaken by a police team. They are empowered to move on to the premises of the stated organisation, arrest management, detain staff for questioning, freeze all activities and finances and occupy the building and grounds with guards, restricting movement, arrivals, and departures.

  ‘Okay, people,’ O’Malley said, slamming down the phone, ‘our seize and arrest just escalated. We have an officer out of contact and a bombing with imminent flashpoint.’ The team was a blur of activity as he gave his orders. ‘Megan, have every available patrol in the region head for the Institute, get Arthur Kirby to help you co-ordinate them. Mike, alert the SES people who are on standby for immediate mobilisation. Wal, get on to Regional HQ for extra backup, including the bomb squad and as many disaster recovery units as they can muster.

  ‘I’ll be damned if I’m going to be beaten off now from occupying that Institute and collecting the evidence we need. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose Adam Bennett or anyone else in there.’ He knew, even as he roared, that the clock was ticking out of control and they had no way of knowing exactly how much time they had left to them.

  Who in God’s name were these “investors” who’d arrived, ready and armed to do such damage? It had to be the breakaway U.S military men responsible for funding Westmeyer. How had they known the task force had gathered enough evidence to move in?

  But of course he knew.

  ‘Seems the guys that back Westmeyer have been on to us, Ron,’ Wal Hester commented. ‘If they’re in town primed for action they must’ve had surveillance that alerted them to our progress.’

  ‘Which means they’ve been infiltrating “secure” police communication systems.’ O’Malley spun in the direction of Mike Stanley’s partner, Brian Kavanaugh. ‘Brian, get us patched through to Canberra. I need the Defence Minister.’

  Asquith wasn’t a man who liked changing his plans on the run. He hated having to take drastic action or to cut his losses. He rarely displayed temper. After taking the call from Bethesda however he hurled the phone against the wall of Hunter’s office, where it shattered.

  Hunter flinched. ‘What on Earth…’

  Ignoring him, Asquith whirled to face Renshaw. ‘That was Surveillance. O’Malley’s team is moving in and they’ve got State and Federal back-up.’

  ‘We’re an hour or so away
from laying the final blasting caps.’

  ‘But we’re seventy percent there?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘It will have to do. The destruction will be near enough to total to hinder any evidence gathering. Have security evacuate the staff with a story that a terrorist bomb is believed to be on the premises. The demo team are to take up their positions and begin. No delays. Make that clear to all. No delays for anyone or anything whatsoever.’

  Renshaw was already on his cell.

  Asquith turned his attention to Westmeyer and Hunter. ‘Most of the data has been transferred,’ he said, ‘but we’ll have to close off before clearing every file.’

  ‘Then there’ll be set-backs,’ Hunter said.

  ‘And clearly we won’t be moving the blood units either. They’ll have to be replaced. Erickson can bring in more reptiles without too much trouble.’

  ‘Further delays, but we can deal with it,’ Hunter commented.

  Asquith glanced at Westmeyer. The scientist hadn’t moved or even visibly reacted. He was pale, his expression that of the proverbial stunned mullet, an expression Asquith loathed for the weakness it implied. He knew that the urbane, self indulgent and pseudo-sophisticated William Westmeyer did not have the stomach for the dark side of their operation – certainly he was out of his depth when faced with discovery by police and the destruction of his beloved premises.

  ‘Snap out of it, William. You and Hunter will travel with me. We’ll be out of the country by this evening. We’ll make sure it’s known you’d left the Institute for the think tank seminar, before the crisis broke here. Now let’s move.’

  Erickson clicked off his phone and jammed it back in his belt holster. ‘Demolition’s now, immediate evacuation.’

  Donnelly’s mouth dropped. ‘What…? Why?’

  ‘Events up top have gone to hell so we’re out of here. This final experiment is aborted. Apparently you’d already been told to close down and move out of here, anyway Donnelly, so what’s the deal?’

  ‘The deal is I set this all up and I know what I’m doing. Got that?’

  ‘Yeah, well fuck you too,’ said Erickson.

  After entering the chamber with Tannen in tow, and “surprising” Adam, Erickson had ordered the detective to drop his gun on the floor and to kick it away. Tannen and Donnelly had then pushed Adam forward and in to the water tank, locking him inside with the girl.

  ‘I don’t see any reason,’ Erickson had said to Donnelly, ‘why we shouldn’t enjoy the meddlesome detective drowning alongside the girl while you conduct your final observations.’ He gave the nod to Joe Casey. ‘Start the water.’ It was then, as the water rushed from the pipes and down through the tubes that he’d taken the call from Renshaw.

  ‘What about them?’ Casey asked as he gathered up a few items to take with him.

  ‘Let them drown,’ Erickson said.

  ‘Surely we can wait a few minutes to watch Bennett take his last breaths,’ Donnelly protested.

  ‘Believe me, I’d love to. But we go right now.’

  ‘At least you have the satisfaction,’ Tannen observed, ‘that they’ll never find the bodies underneath all the rubble. Drowned and then buried under tons and tons of shit. It’s like he dies twice.’

  ‘Dies twice,’ Donnelly repeated with some satisfaction. The group left quickly. Erickson gave a single backward glance, a maniacal glint in his eye. Before turning toward the lift area, Erickson flashed Donnelly a look. ‘Tell Asquith and Westmeyer I’ve taken the rig-’

  ‘I had the impression that when this moment came, Asquith wanted everyone together, that itineraries had been planned-’

  ‘Since when do you actually give a rat’s ass what Asquith wants,’ Erickson shot back. ‘They’re panicking because they’re not used to being in the field, in crisis situations. This is the way the real men live, Donnelly, on the edge – and I’m not leaving my truck down here to be buried along with everything else.’

  ‘Asquith will-’

  ‘I can deal with Asquith. Tannen, you and the others go with Donnelly. Maybe that will keep the Nexus creeps happy. You can tell them I’ll be heading north, away from the town and any likely action, then cutting across state and into the country. Contactable on the mobile.’ Then Erickson left, crossing the chamber to the far passageway, the quickest route back to the dock.

  Since he’d arrived back at The Institute, he’d been thrust into one drama after another. He deserved a little R and R and he was looking forward to spending some quality time away from the whole damn operation.

  CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR

  The First Keeper knew that a top level Nexus team, including the detestable Logan Asquith, was in Australia. There had only ever been one other relocation, to Vender’s knowledge, and that too had been Westmeyer’s Institute.

  What Vender didn’t expect was the personal call he received from Asquith. ‘There’s a strong chance your escapee Daniel has spoken to others, revealing enough that your location could be found,’ Asquith said. ‘And the boy’s now been linked to the Institute.’

  ‘How can that be-’

  ‘Listen, Vender. Your Keepers have been compromised, as has the Institute. The Institute will be demolished in the next 30 minutes. In the meantime, you are to personally oversee evacuation of The Com, to the back-up locale you know as Shelter B.’

  ‘It will be closed up, without power…’

  ‘Full resources will be in place there by this afternoon. Move quickly. There’s a task force charging about and all sorts of Federal agencies getting involved-’

  ‘I understand.’ After the call he sent an instruction for Senior Keeper Warren Fay to join him. ‘Arrange for Ethers and the others in Northern Rocks to head immediately for Shelter B. Ethers knows where it is. Then have everyone here gathered in the main hall for an urgent address. We’re evacuating.’

  ‘Trouble…?’

  ‘Yes. Now let’s move.’ His words were calm but firm. Behind them he felt frustration and sorrow. He’d feared trouble ever since Daniel had slipped through the fingers of Ethers’ team. And then, learning of William’s problems, he’d sensed impending disaster.

  Ten minutes later, swept up by the unfolding drama, Vender addressed his assembled people with the fervour of a self appointed spiritual statesman, the obsession that had driven him all his adult life.

  ‘I have always warned you that we would be persecuted by the outside world if they knew of us, that we would all suffer terribly at their hands,’ the First Keeper told them. ‘There is no need for panic, but there is some possibility of trouble, so I am leading you, now, to another place.

  ‘You all know our vision, our purpose, God’s will for us. Now, as we prepare to take flight, it is a good time to briefly reflect on that, to remind ourselves, to recall Moses’ own flight into the desert. From time to time I’ve instructed you in our own history, the story of The Keepers. Perhaps this is the time to tell you a little more, to reassert the importance of our lonely cause.

  ‘In my younger years I was troubled that the churches of the world had got the message, God’s message, so terribly wrong. Many of them misinterpreted the Lord’s will, so many rewrote God’s rules to suit themselves. But try to tell them this and they group against you, ridicule you, shut you out. I came to see that none of them were true houses of God. They’d been diluted, ravaged by the Devil’s games, the people misled and therefore doomed.

  ‘Jesus said there was room for all in His Father’s Heaven, but I began to realise that of all the billions of human souls through history, twisted by this world and the hypocrisy of the churches, very few would actually go. Perhaps no one. No one! An empty heaven…

  ‘The only way to be a true child of our Lord was to remove oneself totally from the rest of this rotting society, to be completely isolated so one could become truly pure. A child isolated from the outside world and raised in a truly pure, closed community would have the best possible chance to be one of God’s chosen, more so than even
the followers of Moses.

  ‘From a young age I felt our Lord’s call, only I did not understand what He was saying. I heard Him whisper in the night, I felt His presence on my travels around the world, and during my time in Vietnam. It was after this I came to understand my mission. I had always had a sense of isolation. I was unable to find my true voice in the churches of hypocrisy. And so it came to make extraordinary sense. I was meant to start my own, private, secret community for God. My followers and I became dedicated to this most holy project, our Keepers Of The Faith, raising the children who are the only ones truly worthy of Heaven.

  ‘You are those children. You are worthy. You and your humble Keepers and Carers. And those of you now old enough, and in training, to become Keepers and Carers yourselves. Our second community, our Com, was in America and as you know we retain that as one of two homes. We were a small, poor group back then, without the visions, the laws, and the infrastructure we have now. But you need to know, to never forget, that we are not the weirdos the outside world will make us out to be. We are not crazies. We are the true Chosen of our Lord, untainted by sin, as pure in spirit as is possible in this world, as Man was meant to be when he was first given life in the garden of Eden, the first Com.’

  CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE

  Markham insisted Kate wait with him in the second floor entry area.

  ‘How long before O’Malley and his back-up teams are here?’

  ‘Minutes, Kate.’

  ‘It’s already been minutes. Adam could be hurt…’

  They were both startled by the sudden crackle of the little used PA system. A security man’s voice filled the air. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have an emergency. I repeat, an emergency. We need to effect an immediate and orderly evacuation of the building. Please, there is no need for panic, our security officers will assist, but all staff are ordered to leave the building now as a bomb threat has been received.’