Recalling Destiny Read online

  “Now as we all know the government know of our capabilities upstairs, but they know something is afoot here at the installation. They have their suspicions about down here.”

  “We all know the government knows we’re up to something else, they just haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly what. My information from the thread is they believe by capturing the primary target she would’ve given them intel that would lead to us. That’s why they’ve been relentless in their pursuit thus far.”

  “Obviously they are unaware of any links, otherwise they wouldn’t have dared try to kill her. Thanks to a little village boy and the Viper though, we were able to change the thread and stop the team from capturing her. She got away and the Viper cleaned up after, only we lost her …” Marion paused a second.

  Ma’am piped up, “The attempt on her life somehow coincided with the thread stalling and coming offline, but we still haven’t fathomed a reason for this. Regardless, she seems to have managed to get herself safe and organised to escape the country. Thread lines of passengers at O.R Tambo Airport showed memories of seeing her boarding a plane bound to Sydney and that’s where Station Eight found her.”

  “Yep.” Marion confirmed.

  “I defer to ops …” Ma’am turned to Okko.

  Okko piped up, “Ops sent in a team, we cleared the path for Phase Two.”

  “Well don’t get too detailed Ops!” Ma’am seethed sarcastically.

  “Apologies Ma’am ... We uh, we sent in two teams, one to cover off any problems with immigration when she arrived. If she succeeded in exiting customs on her own we had the Viper in play, he executed his mission perfectly, allowing her to escape the airport. She fled the scene and we’re now into Phase Two.” he looked to Ma’am for acceptance.

  “I still don’t see why murdering her brother was of any use?” Marion cut in.

  “You work the threads don’t you?’ Okko looked at her confused.

  “Hmmm?”

  “And wasn’t he the one who was talking to the government, didn’t your thread thingy tell you that he betrayed her?”

  “Trust me Okko, I’ve seen plenty of worse things on the threads than what that boy did to her.”

  “Enough!” Ma’am looked at Marion, “we don’t take chances and this isn’t a bloody democracy, he interfered and changed the thread, so we took him out.”

  “That’s right.” Okko smiled, feeling vindicated. Marion only rolled her eyes.

  “Thank you Ops. I will use Stations Five to Seven to cover all bases for Phase Two. Station Four can remain searching for the boy, he is still a priority target understood?”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  “Eight, you are to split your resources across the two targets during this.”

  “Whatever.” Marion replied. “And my name isn’t Eight.”

  “Problems?”

  “Oh so many I don’t even know where to start.”

  Again Ma’am ignored her obvious displeasure, “contact has already been made and links are in play.”

  “Now, one of the links is an A.S.I.O informant so we need to play this one very carefully, if the government suspect any foul play on our behalf we’re going to be in for some real trouble. Does everyone understand the gravity of this situation? Of what it means to be discovered here?”

  Everyone nodded that they understood, except for Marion whose eyes had rolled so far into the back of her head she was like to fall over.

  “Three, have your teams ready to move on the target when ready. Keep your standby team at the ready in case we get wind of the boy.”

  “Ma’am ... he …” Mr Okko attempted to speak before Lucinda continued over the top of him, ignoring him.

  “Once we have the primary target I want a smooth transition till she gets here. Station Two, you can take over from there, make sure you are prepared for arrival.”

  “Absolutely Ma’am.” Jenny from Station Two replied enthusiastically.

  “Any other questions?”

  Silence in the room

  “Ok, second target update?”

  Marion responded, “He disappeared fro ...” she was cut off.

  “From the start!” Ma’am demanded, her head angrily pointed at the ground.

  Jenny stepped in, “Our government liaison alerted us to a hacker going by the alias Han Solo and wanted us to try and locate him on their behalf.”

  “Thank you, Station Two,“ Ma’am interjected. “Ops can continue.”

  Okko, piped up, “Our information on him is very limited. For some time he’s been a pain in the ass of the government, waging a digital war on them of sorts. He thinks himself some digital crusader, one who feels the need to inform the bloody masses of what governments and big corporations really get up to. He’s actually exposed some really insane stuff.”

  A stern look was shot at him, intended to hurry things up. He changed direction quickly.

  “So, anyway, he was the first person to discover our hacking software, the software we use to hack every digital device in the world.”

  “According to our government liaison the kid somehow got a hold of secret documents that detailed information on this installation if you can believe it. Information on the upstairs, the downstairs and on something called a device.”

  Marion stepped up at the mention of the device. “It’s basically a device that lets us digitize the threads and use them, without it the thread are basically useless. We thought there was only one in the world but this kid, somehow, he’s found another one.”

  “Correct,” Okko continued. “We responded to this information and picked up his trace as he was fleeing downtown. We lost him in the streets as two units were in pursuit, he just disappeared.”

  “Well done.” Marion muttered softly.

  “My units don’t know what happened.” Okko spoke up, “Eight?”

  “Hmmm,” Marion ignored his use of the word Eight. “We had a hold of him via a thread link and he disappeared from view from us as well.”

  “This is the second time in a day that we have failed people!” Ma’am interrupted and stared everyone down in the room, she did not like failure. “This is just some punk kid.”

  After a pause Marion continued, “Ah, we actually found him about ten minutes ago.”

  “What?” Ma’am objected.

  “Information and location was passed to Ops to follow up.” Marion deferred to Okko, her eyebrows raised high.

  Okko jumped in at the mention of his name, “Ah yes, only we can’t find him in that location Ma’am. The signal has been stationary for the past four hours hovering in Hyde Park, yet my team cannot find him anywhere.”

  “What signal?”

  “A mobile phone.”

  “And?”

  “And we have scoured every inch of that park and found no trace of him.” Okko replied.

  “Any suggestions as to why?”

  “Negative Ma’am … we’ve been thoroughly searching …”

  “Have you looked underground?” Marion stepped in.

  Ma’am turned to Okko looking for a response, he shrugged his shoulders, “Huh, underground?”

  “I would’ve thought you ops men would know your landscape better,” Marion chided him. “You have heard of the Sydney underground tunnels haven’t you?”

  Okko fumed, his cheeks starting to bulge as he tried to control his frustration at not thinking more about the possibility himself.

  “Ops?” Ma’am asked him.

  “Yes Ma’am, I’ll speak to my team.” he got up and left straight away.

  “Any other business?”

  No response

  “Very good, that will be all.” She dismissed them, Marion though, stayed back.

  “Yes Marion.”

  “Hmmm, just a question, the girl, your girl … what’s h
er name again?”

  Ma’am paused a second, taking a moment to suck a deep breath in. She exhaled deeply and answered Marion, making sure to keep her voice low. “Her name is Catlin, you know that.”

  “I know, hmmm,” she touched her hand to Ma’am’s, “just wanted to make sure you did.”

  - -

  harrison

  Harrison has just sucked the last wisps of air from the tank, his lifeline depleted as he and Smith traverse the cisterns underneath the city. He sheepishly let’s go of the mask and returns it back to Smith, who in response, promptly places the mask over his face and tries to take a breath.

  Neither of the two men can speak under the water, but Harrison tries his best to say sorry to Smith with his eyes as he looks at him through his cloudy goggles. Smith checks the mask and realises straight away it’s empty, but instead of panicking he only stares back emotionless, let’s go of the mask and closes his eyes calmly.

  Another few seconds pass and Harrison senses Smith must’ve been reaching the limits of his strength, as he soon notices him thrash and turn in a desperate attempt to fight off his instinct to breathe.

  Harrison observes the strain Smith’s under due to the lack of air, he’s struggling himself and he’s had plenty of air thus far. Guilt overtakes him despite his need for air, for surely Smith must be much worse. But on Smith’s face is a calm demeanour, as always he looks peaceful. Harrison finds himself wondering what would make a man so calm in such dire circumstances.

  Suddenly Smith’s eyes flash wide open, almost as if he senses his own fate and needs to let something out. He gets Harrison’s attention by grabbing his hand and placing them on a yellow cord that dangles from the backpack he has on.

  Harrison frowns, unsure of what is meant, but Smith taps his watch, highlighting a timer he must have activated. Harrison figures it must’ve been counting down from when they’d first jumped into the cistern. Now it read one minute and forty seconds, Harrison hopes this means this is the time remaining until they get out of this mess.

  Harrison does as Smith instructs, taking a firm hold of the yellow cord, then quickly looks back at Smith for the next direction. Smith indicates the yellow cord again and makes a pulling motion, which he follows by tapping his watch.

  Harrison quickly figures what Smith’s trying to tell him and puts his thumbs up in recognition that he understands. But when he looks back at Smith, all he gets back is a blank stare. He would’ve thought it a normal response from the man, but feels Smith go limp in their embrace.

  Harrison panics, realising that Smith must’ve given up trying to fight the instinct to breathe and sucked in a breath of stinky sewerage water. Harrison’s mystified, the man had patiently given his instructions to Harrison and then simply closed his eyes and given up.

  Had he taken any air at all during their descent? What was he going to do now? I don’t even know where the tunnel ends. Oh please let this end, I can’t hold it any longer!

  Unsure of whether Smith had passed, Harrison smacked him quickly in the stomach attempting to get a reaction and then a second time in the face when he got no response. Shit, is he dead!?? I took too much air and now he’s dead! Oh crap, what am I going to do now?

  The man was completely limp and his face devoid of any life, he was gone, dead. Harrison would have screamed in the darkness of the cistern had it not been for the filthy, watery grave he was encased in. Instead a guttural noise emanates from his throat and a small trickle of air bubbles follow.

  He would’ve paid more attention to Smith’s situation, but a burning sensation starts to take hold in his throat, a signal that his lungs are desperate to replenish themselves. He fidgets a little at first and then starts shaking violently with the effort of having to hold his breath against his natural instincts.

  He tries trickling a little air from his mouth, slowly releasing it, but he’d quickly lose control and it would burst out in a great gush of bubbles. He tries not thinking about it, without success, he even tries laying completely still. But all of it is to no avail, his need to breathe is taking over.

  How much longer? I don’t think I can make this, oh god!

  He reaches a point when dizziness starts to wash over him in waves, as if consciousness is starting to leave him, red spots appear in his vision. He knows he’s running out of fight, soon it’ll be over and he’ll be like Smith, dead and drowned in a tunnel of piss and shit.

  It’s not so bad, I’m tired anyway. Tired of running, tired of fighting this.

  Before giving up, he remembers Smith’s watch and quickly reaches over to check the time. The watch shows twenty seconds on its screen.

  Before he can think any further, the two men, bound together, are plunged into complete darkness. It’s as if they’ve entered another tunnel, only this time a much darker one than the last. Harrison soon realises he needs to find the yellow cord but can’t see it in the darkness, he anxiously grabs around at something, fumbles it between his fingers and hopes it’s the right one.

  And then panic, Harrison realises he’s done, he needs to breathe and isn’t going to make it past those twenty seconds. He pulls at the cord dangling from Smith’s backpack, closes his eyes and steels himself for whatever come’s next.

  Whooosh!

  Suddenly Harrison feels himself being pulled in an upward direction and his body is being forced off Smith’s. He opens his eyes and realises he can see, the water is dark blue, like the depths of the ocean and it’s getting clearer as the second’s pass.

  With dizziness about to take over he steals a look back at what’s pushing against him and swears he can see air bubbles appearing out of Smith’s backpack. Next to it, a large expanding mass is hauling them in an upwards direction.

  Harrison lets the air out of his lungs when he makes out what it is that pulls him and the limp body of Smith through the water, it’s an inflatable life raft. The yellow cord he pulled must’ve activated a cylinder in Smiths backpack, which in turn inflated the life raft.

  He quickly unlatches himself from the harness and climbs onto Smith’s back, avoiding the expanding rubber mass that grew by the second. If the life raft’s inflating, it’s because there’s air somewhere in the backpack.

  Air, there is air in that! Where, find the air, find the air dammit!

  Once he rounds on Smith he quickly finds the tube that’s connecting the cylinder to the inflating raft, he splits it and sucks in a small breath of cold dry air.

  It isn’t much, but it’s enough.

  He alternates his breath with the life raft, ensuring it still inflates and carries him to the surface.

  He holds the raft firmly as it ascends, clearly rising from a large depth. Eventually a bob of the raft comes as it breaks the surface of the water, signalling the end of the journey. Harrison exhales with relief as he knows the raft has hit the surface, his tunnel nightmare is over.

  Man, thought I was done for there!

  Moving quickly, he swims out from underneath the raft and breaks the surface of the water with his head, taking large gulps of air to replenish himself. He treads water there for a moment, panting, until he remembers Smith and quickly ducks his head underwater to see where he is.

  He spots him easily, dangling lifelessly from the bottom of the raft, attached by the cables from his backpack. Holy crap! he wonders. Who thinks of this stuff! What an insane thing to do!

  Harrison takes in a deep breath and swims under the raft, freeing Smith from the backpack harness and pulling on his arm, dragging him to the surface. He’s a big man but Harrison finds he comes to the surface easily, just as bloated dead bodies always float upwards. The struggle for Harrison though, is getting Smith into the life raft.

  He tries at first to push him up into the raft, but he only has the strength to get Smith’s chest onto the side of the boat. Instead, he gets into the raft itself and starts yanking at
Smiths arms in an attempt to try and haul him aboard.

  C’mon you big bugger, get in, get in dammit!

  It’s a tremendous struggle as Smith has no body hair, making him slippery to grab hold of. Harrison determinedly tugs, pulls and struggles his way through it and eventually drags the huge frame of Smith onto the lifeboat.

  When he’s done, he fell back onto the floor of the raft, exhausted from his efforts. He knows he should probably move, check his pulse or something, but the energy has been sapped from him and all he can do is sit there puffing.

  And then, quiet unexpectedly, a spout of water comes gushing out, like a vomit stream, from Smith’s mouth. A geyser of filth pours from his mouth, followed by a few gaggled coughs. And almost as suddenly as it begun, it stops and Smith is still again, laying back on the life raft.

  Harrison, also laying back on the raft, sits there for a moment mystified by what he’s just seen. A little unsure, but still intrigued, he gets himself up and slides over to where Smith lays.

  “Are you ok? Smith, are you ok?” asks Harrison, kneeling over the body and not knowing what to do next.

  “Smith?” he repeats himself. “Hey, can you hear me?”

  “Huh?” his eyes open slowly. He blinks, the pupil focuses, it looks at him.

  Harrison replies, looking perplexed, “Are you ok man?”

  Smith wipes the gunk from his face and begins to rise, “Ok, man.”

  “Are you sure? I thought you were dead man, I ... I didn’t know what to do, I, I took too much air … I …” he’s cut off by Smith.

  “Quiet.” he rests his hand on Harrison’s shoulder. “Need touch.”

  “Touch what?”

  “See as seen.” he holds Harrison’s shoulder tightly for a moment, with a strange look on his face.

  It should’ve been an awkward moment for Harrison, as the two just sit there looking at each other whilst Smith’s hand rests on Harrison’s shoulder. But Harrison can only feel a sense of serenity from him, much as he had when he’d first seen Smith back in the city streets. A wave of calm takes over again and his mind is still.