Then a new light appeared from out of nowhere and shone directly onto him. At first he thought the professor was using a torch, but then he noticed the light was coming from the wrong direction for this to be the case. It was a car. Flick had been in Alice for a job interview and was just returning home.
Davo waved his arms to signal her, but she was distracted. By the time she saw him it was too late to brake so she jolted the wheel sharply to the left, swerving towards the entrance to the observatory just as Fox was coming out in pursuit of the man she loved.
The car pinned her father to the wall, completely pulverising his femurs in the process, rendering them forever useless. Flick’s face was buried in the car’s airbag so she did not instantly know the consequences of her actions.
Davo opened the driver side door to check that she was okay. She was all that motivated him. Fox was the least of his concerns. The old bastard could die for all he cared and he was in no hurry to prevent that from happening.
Flick was a little shaken, but unhurt. He lifted her up and carried her into the building where he set her down on a couch before phoning to report the accident. He then went back outside to see if Fox had survived the impact.
The blood looked black in the light from the car. It pooled around one of the front wheels as well as smearing the bonnet and tracing a line down Fox’s chin and neck. As Davo took a step closer his right foot snagged on something. It was the shotgun. Almost without realising he crouched down and picked it up.
‘Y-y-you going to f-finish me off?’ slurred Fox.
Davo held the gun pointed directly at Fox’s temple for just a moment. He could feel the power at his fingertips. All he had to do was pull the trigger.
He lowered the weapon.
‘No,’ he said. ‘The time it takes for the ambulance to arrive should do that.’
Fox looked down at the crumpled and bent metal that was pinning him to the side of the building. He attempted to push free, but the movement brought intense pain for just a moment and then everything below his waist went numb. He tilted his head back to face Davo.
‘Please,’ he said, ‘do not tell Felicity what I was going to do.’
‘Why? I owe you nothing.’
‘Trust me, it will only bring her heartache and she will hate the both of us for it.’
Davo nodded. Once more he would be the bigger man. He would grant a dying man his last wish even if the wretch did not deserve it. He took the shotgun and hid it in a shed around the side of the building, ensuring nobody would know what had happened that night. He then returned to Flick whilst they waited for the air ambulance. It arrived in less than half an hour. Unfortunately for him, that was just enough time to save Jackson Fox’s life.
In the weeks that followed, Flick refused to speak to him. She blamed herself for the accident, but she also blamed Davo simply for being there. Neither he nor her father would tell her what had gone down between them that night and ultimately she found herself siding with the latter. She was bound to his bedside by a daughter’s love. In her absence, Davo longed for her to return to him. He wished he could turn back the clock and stop himself from going to that ill-fated meeting with Fox. Then one day his wish came true.
Jackson called him to arrange a meeting at the observatory. It was the exact same call he had received on the night he lost Flick to the shackles of remorse. As with the first time, he agreed to go, but this time he did not keep his promise. He stayed at home.
The highway was visible from his window and he waited for Flick to pass by on her way home. On her way to a different future. Then half an hour later he heard the sound of a helicopter overhead and his chest tightened.
Had she crashed anyway?
He went into the garage to get the car but as he passed through the door he found himself stepping directly into the scene of the accident. Every detail was exactly how it had transpired previously. Nothing had changed.
That most fateful night of his life was relived again and again. Each time he tried to do things differently, but each time he was powerless to change a thing. That is until the stranger showed up.
Davo thought the Aboriginal man looked vaguely familiar. His features strongly resembled those of a young handyman and driver who Fox had recently taken on, but he was much too old to be the same person. His first thought was that it was the man’s father, but his second thought raised a far bigger question.
Why had this man only showed up now and never before?
‘Who are you?’ Davo asked.
‘You know who I am,’ the man replied.
‘No, I don’t think that I do. You care to enlighten me?’
‘My name is Samuel Namitjera, and just like you, I died at the hands of Jackson Fox.’
For a moment, Davo thought he had misheard. How could he possibly be dead?
And then the memories started to return. Slowly at first, but then in great waves of emotion. He saw it all. From the decades of watching his daughter grow up believing she was an orphan, to twice being murdered by the man who was responsible for all of the heartache in his life.
He had just one question left on his mind.
If this was the afterlife, then were in Hell was Jackson Fox?
***
Her screams were constant. Sammy was unable to tell if they were born from pain or from rage. Her wounds (if that is what you would call them) suggested pain, but the intonation of her voice was more guttural and implied anger. More than that, it was deep and all consuming hatred.
When he found that he was unable to calm or even comfort her, he turned his thoughts to the voices that had previously guided him through this second stage of being. They were now silent. It was not that they had ceased to communicate, but that he could simply no longer hear them.
Of course he could not hear them! Nothing could penetrate the prison he was now contained within. Except there was one who had. The answer to how this prisoner had achieved such an impossible feat lay directly in front of him. It continued to writhe and wail in blind agony and hatred. A hole had been torn in its midriff exposing not blood or guts, but pure unbidden energy.
When he first encountered this being he had been filled with hope. It provided him with a link back to the world of flesh and blood. Now he realised it could have led him and everyone he had ever cared about to certain doom.
‘What are you?’ asked Sammy, more to himself than the injured being at his feet.
It did not answer. It simply continued to scream, as oblivious to Sammy’s voice as he now was to the words of his ancestors.
He crouched down and reached out to touch it. Rather than recoil from him, the being seemed to pull him in toward it. Sammy’s fingertips tingled with energy, and the moment they met with the skin of the being it was as if their entities became entwined. The being’s body was not solid like flesh, but sticky and pliable like treacle. It absorbed his energy, and at the same time its wound began to retract. As it became stronger he could feel his own body becoming weaker.
‘Stop!’ he cried out, breaking contact in the process. He then staggered backwards, making sure to put himself out of touching distance. ‘Can you hear me now?’
The being nodded.
‘When you came to me you told me you were a part of Emmy. Are you still connected to her?’
This time it shook its head.
‘Is that because of your wound?’
He pointed to the still gaping hole in its stomach. Again the being shook its head.
‘What do you want?’
The being made no gesture.
‘What do you need?’
This time it did respond. It held out its hand, beckoning Sammy to take hold of it.
‘If I do as you wish, will I be harmed?’
The being nodded.
‘Could it destroy me?’
It hesitated as if the thought had not previously occurred to it. Then after a moment’s pause, it again nodded.
***
When D
avo arrived at the prison, which he and his friends had long ago created, he found no sign of a disturbance. The locks were all in place. They had each chosen a special item known only to themselves. Only when all three items were placed together could the locks be opened. He was not sure how the process worked, only that it did work. Jackson Fox had been safely contained and unable to do harm since the day they had locked him up. As always, it was Sammy and his “Dreamtime Ancestors” who had led the way.
Davo had never really bought into all of the spiritual stuff. He only went along with Sammy partly because he figured a crazy explanation was better than no explanation at all and partly because of Lucas. It was when he and Sammy caught up with the former policeman that the futility of their situation really came to the fore.
Just like Davo, Lucas had been reliving the same day over and over again, but the one difference was that the policeman was unaware of it.
‘You’re seriously telling me that I’m dead?’ Lucas had asked, incredulously.
‘It makes no difference whether you believe it or not,’ Davo replied. ‘I just thought you should know.’
Lucas looked to Sammy, but the Aboriginal remained silent.
‘And what about everyone else – are they dead too?’
The three of them sat at the bar, seemingly surrounded by people. Whenever one of the locals passed they would nod or say hello to Lucas, but ignore the other two men completely.
‘They’re figments of your imagination,’ Davo told him. ‘We are inside one of your memories. Try and initiate a conversation with one of them and see what happens.’
‘This is crazy, but I’m going to humour you anyway,’ replied Lucas.
He then raised his hand and called over Mindy. Much to Davo’s surprise and annoyance, she responded to the call and came over to the table.
‘Are you ready for a top up, officer?’ she asked.
‘Not just yet,’ he replied and then turned back to Davo. ‘Now what were you saying about nobody being real?’
His friend had no reply. Frustrated, he looked to Sammy for guidance.
‘It’s part of the memory,’ the Aboriginal told them. ‘There are plenty times you came in here for a drink and got Mindy’s attention. This is just one of them. Why don’t you try and ask her something new. Something you have never asked her before.’
Lucas rolled his eyes, but decided to play along anyway.
‘Hey, Mindy,’ he began, ‘you won’t believe this, but the three of us are all dead. What do you think of that?’
‘You worry too much,’ she said. ‘There is a fifty dollar limit on each round and knowing Jimmy, he’ll be out after the first one.’
‘Excuse me?’ replied Lucas, whilst Davo broke into a broad smile beside him.
‘So are you gonna go over there and tell the kid that he can’t play?’ said Mindy.
Lucas had no reply.
‘Told you,’ said Davo. ‘You’re just conjuring up moments from your past. You can’t change them. Hell, you can’t even interact with them in a meaningful way. Watch this.’
Davo got up out of his seat and before Lucas had time to intervene, he struck Mindy with the back of his hand.
‘What the Hell?’ shouted Lucas, but as he stood and motioned to restrain his friend he noticed that Mindy was carrying on tending to her customers completely oblivious that she had been attacked.
‘This is some sort of a trick,’ he said.
Both Davo and Sammy shook their heads.
‘No trick,’ said Davo. ‘Now you have seen, you have no choice but to believe. It may take time, but your full memories of how you died will return.’
Lucas just stood shaking his head whilst staring at the floor. Then something clicked inside. His eyes widened.
‘That bastard!’ he shouted, his outburst going unheard by all in the bar except for Davo and Sammy.
‘Chances are, he’s here too,’ Davo said.
Lucas looked across to his friend and then withdrew his gun.
‘In that case, let’s go find him.’
Finding Jackson Fox had not taken long. The events that followed were what led to the professor being imprisoned with the help of Sammy’s “ancestors”. Now Davo was back at the gateway to that prison looking for answers. What he found only raised more questions.
Chapter 39
Seeing Jimmy again was like shedding ten pounds of excess weight. Of all the faces in Jackson’s Hill, his was the one that had haunted her the most. Now the scientist could finally let go the guilt she had carried with her since indirectly causing her friend’s demise in Tibet.
When she embraced him, she held on tight, squeezing him, making sure he was real. Well, as real as could be given the circumstances.
‘I did come back for you,’ she told him. ‘I kept my promise, but you were nowhere to be found. If I’d known you were all here I would never have given up looking.’
‘I know,’ said Jimmy. ‘Don’t beat yourself up over it. Everything happens for a reason.’
She pulled back, but kept her hands rested on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes.
‘Do you still have your visions in this place? I mean, do you know if we’re going to succeed?’
He shook his head.
‘They stopped the moment I got here. It’s what I always wanted, but now the power has gone, I actually kind of miss it. It would have been a lot easier if we’d known when you were coming.’
Emmy smiled. Just being around Jimmy again made her optimistic.
‘Not to worry,’ she told him. ‘Lucas said that you guys have some sort of scenario in place. Something that can help us to get the people out of here.’
Jimmy blushed.
‘Actually, the scenario we’re using was my idea. I knew when you came it would be important for the town to believe in you the way I do. I hope you don’t mind being the centre of attention.’
‘I think I can live with it. Once Charlie has prepped everything his side, he’ll be joining us.’
‘In that case, we’ll start when he gets here,’ interrupted Lucas. ‘Jimmy, do you want to go in and wait for us? Emmy and I are going to go for a little walk.’
Jimmy nodded and then smiled uneasily at Emmy before leaving them.
‘That was weird,’ she said.
Lucas remained silent.
‘Jimmy just gave me a strange look,’ she added. ‘Did you notice it?’
‘Perhaps we should take that walk,’ he replied, avoiding the question at hand.
‘Why do I get the feeling you want to tell me something that you know I’m not going to like?’
Back in life, Lucas would often fidget and try to distract himself when placed in awkward predicaments. This time he simply stood firm and looked her in the eyes.
‘It’s time we talked about your grandfather,’ he told her. ‘You need to know what happened to Jackson Fox.’
***
For the first time since his death, Davo felt real fear. No, it was more than that. What he felt went beyond fear into something far more primal. Something that trawled depths lower than humankind should be capable. He felt as if the very fabric of his existence was under threat.
Since discovering the truth about where he was and what he had become, Davo lived for only two things. One was to keep the memory of his beloved Felicity alive. The other was to ensure that his old foe remained safely locked in the artificial prison he had helped create for him. He now realised that he had failed in one of those endeavours.
‘How did you escape?’ he asked, mostly to buy himself time to think up a strategy, but also because a part of him was genuinely curious.
‘I didn’t,’ Fox replied. ‘I was reborn. What you see before you is a new man.’
The professor spread his arms wide and as he did so his body was rejuvenated. The years and the disease slipped away until he once more resembled the man he was in his prime. An elite athlete as well as an unrivalled academic and scholar.
‘J
ust a parlour trick,’ said Davo, who preferred to remain in the stage of life at which he had died. It was easier that way. It required less mental effort and felt more natural for him to do so. He knew that he could not realistically turn back the clock and so he saw no use in trying. ‘If you think you can intimidate me, you’re wasting your time. We already know how that ends – it ends with you in a box.’
‘Is that so?’ replied Fox, who had now begun to pace a wide arc around his adversary, like a circling shark weighing up its prey. ‘As I recall, it took three of you to stop me. Where are your friends now?’
Davo thought about how Emmy had told him she was unable to trace Sammy. It was as if the Aboriginal man had vanished. Could it be that with Jackson now out of the prison, Sammy was on the inside?
‘How?’ he asked. ‘How did you do it?’
‘The same way as your friend,’ replied Fox. ‘I had a little help from the ancestors.’
To say that Jackson Fox had a plan was like saying that fire has a plan. It does not. Fire is no different to any other force in nature. It simply does what it needs to continue its existence. A flame feeds on oxygen to grow and takes the path of least resistance to spread itself. That is what Jackson Fox had been doing ever since he discovered the potential of the radiation. He was taking the path of least resistance in order to survive.
Like that night he lost his legs; it had all started with a phone call to arrange a meeting. And just like that fateful night, Davo had taken the bait.
‘Why does this all seem so familiar?’ the mechanic had asked upon entering the professor’s study.
Fox did not answer nor did he attempt to explain himself. He gestured for his guest to take a seat and then he locked the door before returning to his desk.
‘Okay, now that’s a little creepy,’ remarked Davo. ‘You aren’t going to pull out a shotgun are you? Finish the job you started all those years ago?’
‘Not me,’ said Fox, ‘you.’ He then reached around and disconnected the valve to his portable ventilator. ‘You came here, on the anniversary of the death of the woman you could never have, and you killed me. The person you blamed for keeping the pair of you apart.’
Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 86
