He wasn’t wearing a uniform, which also struck her as odd. He was dressed as a well-groomed civilian: Dark suit trousers, a white shirt and blue tie. A small plastic ID tag attached to his shirt pocket identified him simply as Hunter Katze.
He was manly and handsome and almost throbbed with virile intensity. Sunny had to remind herself to breathe. She’d never seen a man that gorgeous, not ever. Sunny floated closer, studying him more intently. He carried on with his report to the older man, oblivious to her presence. She soon got lost in his eyes. They were flashing with the intensity of the subject of the lost soldiers in North Korea; his voice was beautiful and seductive and it drew her in like a pool of dark hot chocolate.
Suddenly feeling like an idiot, she physically shook herself and backed off. She was glad that no one could see her now, and see how stupid she was behaving. This was a mission – she needed to find the best person to guide her in her quest to help people, and to help her country. She wasn’t there to drool over hot guys.
She turned away from the mystery man in the chair reluctantly and floated out of the office.
Thirty minutes and a full journey around the three stories of the Australian Intelligence Corps later, Sunny was back in that office. She’d scouted other potentials, she’d eavesdropped and snooped and observed, but no one had come close to Hunter Katze, he just seemed right. She was intrinsically drawn to him. His colours fascinated her, and she was beginning to trust her response to the vibrations that people gave off in this alternate reality that she was in. She’d left the office twice more to make sure she just wasn’t in awe of his drop-dead gorgeousness, but it wasn’t that. He was focused and serious, but he was courteous and spoke with genuine fear for the safety of the soldiers, as well as the civilian casualties in North Korea.
She was gradually realizing that in order for her to get the information she needed to help, she would have to reveal herself to someone.
And she wanted that someone to be this man in front of her.
He was young, but he was obviously high-up enough to be privy to the classified information that she needed. And he’d be easier to relate to than a crusty old general.
She wouldn’t be stupid about it, no cameras, no names, nothing to identify herself. If it didn’t work out, she could just take off and he would never be able to find her again.
The commander was giving his final orders to Hunter Katze. “You’ll liaise with Strategics to get the final intel on the area from your unit before we draft the mission. I’ll look it over as soon as it’s complete and we’ll get it to Operations.”
“I understand this is urgent, Sir. I’ll stay here until then,” Hunter said, standing up.
Yep, he was tall. Broad shouldered, still lean but very muscular.
“No.” The commander was abrupt. “This is an unusual situation, Katze. Operations are going in pretty dark; it’s not something we can plan very well for. We only know the general area and basic details of the enemy stronghold - I need your guys to think outside the box for this one. Take what you know, and go home and think about it.”
“I don’t want to risk more of our men any more than you do.” Hunter was grim.
“Let’s get it done, Katze. Dismissed.”
Hunter turned and walked toward the door. Sunny watched him go with her mouth open, staring. She gave a start and rushed after him when she realized she should probably be following him.
He went up a level and had another meeting. Sunny tried to take in as much as she could as he talked to a couple of slightly geeky army guys, going through obscure details of an apparent prisoner-of-war camp in North Korea. He studied all the material on a tablet for more than an hour, then got up and left the office.
Sunny followed him down the lift and then out the building. He walked with purpose but apparently lost in thought, and got into a car on the road outside.
Sunny had a moment of panic – could she follow along with him inside the car? She tried for a bit but found it hard to predict the momentum of the car; she kept zipping in and out of the moving vehicle. In the end, she settled for following it from above, keeping her eyes trained on the car so she wouldn’t lose it. It stopped outside an apartment block in Coogee, two blocks back from the beach. She came back down and followed him into the building.
It was a three-story apartment building with two apartments each side. He went up two flights of stairs to the top floor, and went into what Sunny assumed was his place. She was expecting a frat house. Shabby sofas, threadbare rugs, piles of empty beer cans… maybe a slobby flatmate unconscious on the couch…
It wasn’t what she was expecting. It was small, but the floors were lovely warm wood, with thick rugs everywhere in different shades and textures – some seagrass at the entrance, a shaggy dark red rug in the lounge space, a bright woven mat in the dining area under a sturdy round table. The kitchen was quite big, with an island that doubled as a breakfast bar, and he had a massive selection of pots and pans dangling from a decorative bar that dropped down over the island. There was a huge bookshelf lining one of the walls, and it was full.
She snooped into the bedroom; there were more bookshelves, a big bed with a navy doona and a couple of pillows. He had art on the walls, all pretty random but quite tasteful stuff. To her satisfaction, she found no evidence that anyone else but Hunter lived there.
The man himself had gone into the bathroom off the bedroom, and Sunny could hear the shower running. She was so tempted to just take a peek…
But no, she couldn’t do that. She’d already invaded his privacy enough. She needed a sanctuary in which to reveal herself, and his apartment was perfect. She waited by the squashy dark brown leather sofa for him to come back.
He came in from the bedroom, wearing just denim shorts. Sunny felt the whole of her insides melt when she saw him, the strength and beauty of the hard muscles beneath that tan skin. He had some scars on his torso, two on his chest near his collarbone and a long one running down his flank disappearing down his right side into his shorts. He sat down on the squashy couch and flicked on the TV, settling on a documentary about Che Guevera.
Now was a good a time as any. Sunny positioned herself beside him on the couch, but on the far side as to not startle him. She took a deep breath, and pushed the vibrations back down from her head.
“Hi.”
Before she could even register his movement, he’d turned to her, whipped out a gun and pushed it against her temple.
“Who are you?” Hunter snarled, his eyes were blazing, he looked furious. “And what are you doing here?”
Chapter 7
“Whoa! Whoa there, just calm down a second, would you?” Sunny inched away from the gun. Hunter sat still, staring at her, silent, not moving, just breathing a little heavier. “Uh, I guess you’re wondering what I’m doing here,” she stammered, looking from the gun to his eyes and back again. She was unsure which was more dangerous.
“That’s what I asked you.”
“Um, yeah. Well, my name is…” Sunny stopped, and frowned. “Don’t worry about my name for now. Just, uh, can you just put down the gun and, you know, chill out a little?
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t. It’s not often that schoolgirls materialize in my apartment.”
“You noticed that, huh. Well, that’s why I’m here. I need your help.” Sunny paused, trying to think of how to explain it all to him without sounding completely insane. Rattled, she started stammering. “I, um, I guess I found out that I can sort of, you know, ah…”
“An explanation today would be great.” Hunter looked hard at her and pushed the gun roughly against her head.
“Okay! Okay!” Sunny started talking in a rush. “Sorry, I’ve just never had to explain this before and I don’t really know how to describe it, it just kinda started happening a couple of days ago and I decided pretty quickly that I might need a bit of guidance so I came to your office and I snooped around a little and I decided that you might, you might be the best pe
rson….” She trailed off, feeling like a total idiot.
“What started happening a couple of days ago?”
“Oh. Ah, I found out that I can, kind of, disappear. I can move through objects. I can…. Oh, damn this is hard to explain!”
Hunter narrowed his eyes. “Keep talking.”
Sunny huffed out a breath and looked around the room, mentally regrouping. She found it easier to think when she wasn’t staring into his gorgeous, intensely scowling face.
“I’ve always felt this kind of… tingling in my fingers,” she began. “Over time, it got more intense, and in the last month or so it moved to my arms and legs. Then in the last couple of days, my arms have been moving through objects while they were tingling. I experimented a little, and I found I could push the tingling all the way to my head, and when I did that, I sort of, entered another dimension.”
Hunter’s eyebrows raised in disbelief. But he still sat very still, waiting for her to continue.
“And, ah, in this dimension, I could, kind of… fly.” Sunny’s voice got smaller and smaller as she realized how ridiculous she sounded.
“Really.” His voice was inflectionless.
“Yeah.” Her voice sounded just as flat as his, but with a bit of effort she perked up. “Look, I’ll show you. Just don’t – don’t freak out, ok?”
He still had the gun pushed hard against her head, so she couldn’t move very far. Very slowly, she stretched out her arm and waved it through the armrest of the couch.
Hunter’s eyes widened, just for a second. Then he looked back at her, studying her face more carefully.
“Do that again,” he said in a softer voice. Sunny obliged.
“Okay…” He removed the gun from her head. He didn’t put it down, though. “So, tell me, why are you here?”
“Well, I figured out pretty quickly that I’d need some help if I want to be able to help people.” She paused and decided to be honest, and share something that she hadn’t even admitted to herself. “And I want someone to keep me on the straight and narrow. I could do a lot of damage; I know that. I could abuse this gift I’ve been given. So I want to use it for good. But to be honest, I don’t know what I’m doing. My geography is a bit dodgy, and I don’t speak any other languages, so I find it hard to navigate sometimes. And I don’t know who I should be helping. I need someone to guide me.” Sunny looked up and met his eyes, and lost all train of thought.
“Huh.” Hunter stared at her for a long time, then finally stirred. He sat up straighter and lifted his chin.
“Well, I’ll need a demonstration of your flying thing. I need you to go to Korea – North Korea. Have a look around and come back and give me all the information you can.”
Sunny knew he was mocking her. “Fine! No worries. I’ll get right on it,” she said airily, and she got to her feet.
“Look out for the country that is entirely blacked out,” he said. “On the north-east coast, you’ll find a big city named Chongjin.” He stood up to face her and folded his arms over his bare chest. She tried to avert her eyes and pay attention to his instructions. “Go inland from there about ten kilometres, then south another ten. See if you can confirm the location of a prison camp there, and find out what you can.” He smirked, just a little bit, it was barely noticeable, but she saw it. “And come back to report to me.”
“Fine.” Sunny raised her eyebrows and took up the challenge, unflinching. Then she looked at the clock on the counter. Her dad would be on the way home right now…
“But I gotta go home first,” she blurted out. Hunter turned back to her with ridicule in his expression. Screw him; she’d blow the hell out of this first mission. “But then I’ll go. And I’ll come straight here with all the information I can.”
He stood, and stared hard at her.
She glared right back.
“When you come back…” he said softly, and she involuntarily leaned in towards him a little. “Make sure you use the door.”
Chapter 8
Sunny was looking forward to wiping that supercilious smirk off his gorgeous face. But first, she needed an alibi for tonight. She zoomed home and made it back in time to see her dad’s car pull up, with Steph pulling out groceries and Archie gurgling in the back seat.
“Hi honey, how are you feeling?” Steph gave a broad smile when Sunny came out to meet them. Ugh, it was almost believable, she looked so happy to see her.
“A-wheeeee-yaaa!” Archie screamed and waved his fat little arms at her, and Sunny gave him a big smooch.
“I’m fine.” Sunny grabbed a grocery bag and turned to her father. “So Dad, I just got a part in the new play…”
“You got Iago?” Steph interrupted, looking excited.
“Desdemona,” Sunny said grimly. She’d forgotten about that.
“But that’s great! I know you’ll bring another dimension to the character that no one has seen before.”
“Whatever. So anyway, Dad, I was going to run some lines with some of the cast tonight, if that’s okay. It’s kind of a bonding thing, you know, get to know everyone…”
“Don’t be too late,” her father said, kissing her on the temple. “Ten o’clock, I want you in bed.”
“I’ll leave a plate for you in the fridge,” Steph called to her as she took off out the front gate.
She went into the Alternate and flew up high just as the sun settled its bottom beneath the horizon. The whole East Coast blazed like fire; it was incredible, and Sunny knew she would never get used to the pure vibrations and visual energy in this other world. She flew up and up, then headed in the directions that Hunter had given her.
She found North Korea easily – she knew the general shape of the country and the contrast between North and South Korea was like night and day – the bright lights of Seoul and the other cities, then to the north, nothing. It was eerie – and Sunny got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. For the first time, she realized that in order to be able to help people like she wanted to, she might have to witness human suffering on a grand scale.
She hoped she had the nerve for it.
She found Chongjin to the North East and went inland. She stuck close to the ground; now that she knew that no one could see her she felt more confident to fly wherever she wanted. At first, all she could see was bushland, scrub and craggy hills, with some forest scattered around. She went up a bit and had another look, but the late afternoon glare made it difficult to spot anything in the heavy tilt of the sun. She huffed out an exasperated breath – then she spotted the dull gleam of concrete, and she headed down.
She’d found it. The compound was huge. A gigantic five-sided building with an enormous parade ground right in the centre. The building itself was at least three stories high; it looked bizarre set right in the middle of nowhere. An imposing concrete wall was built all around it, with razor wire on top. There was one big iron gate, and one road leading out into the bushland.
Guards in long coats were dotted everywhere, either marching in formation or standing to attention around the gates. Their automatic rifles were held aloft as if they thought they were about to be attacked at any second.
They all looked scared.
It was strange – they were supposed to be the scary ones. But Sunny could see it quite clearly. Etched on every soldier’s face was a mixture of fear and desperation. These guys don’t want this, Sunny thought sadly. They don’t want to be here. They want to be on their farms with their families or in their offices sipping coffee or at the mall.
This was the face of war – innocent people being coerced and manipulated into hurting other innocent people. It was heartbreaking.
With effort, Sunny shook it off and tried to focus. She tried to count the soldiers, but there were hundreds around. She settled for just counting the ones at the main gates – there were twenty there, and at least two more at all the other doors leading off the parade ground to the main building.
She tried to think as if she were planning the escape
, but couldn’t see how it would be possible. The immense gate looked impenetrable, and it was guarded so heavily that nothing could sneak in, not even a mouse. The sides of the building were four stories high, and there were no windows on the outer walls of the building at all. And on top of that, a high concrete wall encompassed the whole compound.
It seemed just impossible.
Unless… maybe if you parachuted in? Sunny flew down and landed in the middle of the parade ground. Looking up, she could see small towers on each corner of the building, with two heavily-armed guards stationed on each one. The parade ground itself was almost bare of anything other than soldiers, but there were some trucks parked at one end, dull green in colour and camouflaged. Boxes were being loaded and unloaded into the rear of the vehicles.
She drifted closer to the trucks. Even the loading was done with military precision. She watched for a while as another truck pulled up and parked beside the others. A platoon of soldiers in the parade ground scrambled quickly and surrounded it, training their guns on the rear.
Out of the back of the truck, the guards pulled out a line of men – dirty, stumbling and bleeding, and chained together.
Oh God.
The men were herded, shoved and hit with the butts of guns through a grey entrance to the west of the building. They staggered, pain visible on their faces. Sunny didn’t recognise the uniforms, but they were certainly Allied troops. They were herded like cattle through the doors of the building. Screams and shouts of pain could be heard quite clearly down the long corridors within. Then the doors clanged shut.
She knew she should follow, but Sunny was frozen in place. In that building, she was sure that unimaginable suffering was taking place. Tears started rolling down her cheeks – was this what it was going to be like? Is this all that her gift was good for? To witness the worst cruelties of humankind, without being able to save anyone?
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