2023

  “How did wife number two find out?”

  Phil was not exactly stupid. He know how to hide his tracks.

  “If it hadn’t been that, it would have been something else.”

  I paused. Phil had never expressed a political thought. I couldn’t even recall him paying attention to the news. I stumbled on.

  “It’s a joining up type of thing.”

  “Save the planet? Protests. Marching up and down. Grabbed and sent to the camps?”

  “No. More serious.”

  “W4?”

  “No. They want a new energy system. Not obliteration.”

  “I see.”

  Of course with Phil he had already meditated on all of this. Probably the first time I mentioned Kylie. For all I knew he had a disk full of data on Kylie and her group.

  “So let’s get this straight. You and I are going to become eco-terrorists just so you can get into Kylie’s jeans?”

  “No. Not really. Sort of.”

  I was helpless. Didn’t know what to say. I looked across. He smiled, sipped on the beer. A half grin.

  “Absolutely. Sign me up. At least we won’t be bored.”

  Chapter 11

  After days of staring at screens all day, you don’t really take it in. It becomes a blur. But all of a sudden I was wide awake, with every neuron firing. A message from ‘Susan Nguyen’. A name that meant a lot to me. A name that I hadn’t seen for twenty years. I looked at it: maybe it was fake? But after all this time, who would think to fake it? I had an instant recollection of Susan in the kitchen. Talking about not so much, then going off somewhere. Never returning. Susan smiling. Then going through the door. Memories of the pain kicked in - the overwhelming feeling of loss.

  I played the message. It could have been a room anywhere. There were signs of damage. I could hear explosions in the background. Then, the camera turned to face Susan. She was clearly injured. Only a one sentence message:

  “Your daughter needs you.”

  I played it again. Then again. What daughter?

  Slowly, like the cogs slipping into place, it all made sense. To disappear without a trace. One compelling reason.

  Chapter 12

  Births, deaths, marriages. First stop. I had the mothers name and an idea of the date. It only took a few minutes and there it was. Alice Nguyen, born July 5, 2008 in Melbourne. I stared at the entry for quite a while. Now, after all these years, it finally made sense.

  Getting more was going to be difficult. Just as well she had an anglo first name. There are many Nguyens on the planet.

  Schools? Or just a broad search? Maybe she is famous and only I haven't heard of her? Still, there were a few Alice Nguyen's. Back to the schools. Location? I'd asked a lot about Susan over the years and got brushed off with misinformation.

  I went for a walk at lunchtime. Up towards the Exhibition gardens. Children running around, playing. Smoke coming from campfires. Traffic on Victoria St mostly bicycles or electric bicycles.

  A red sports car running a red light clipped the back of a bicycle as it went through. It imparted enough momentum to push the cyclist over. The cyclist got up, shaken. I stopped and watched. I couldn't hear what they were saying. More cyclists stopped, then more. The motorist's hands were waving. Then he looked up and realised he was surrounded by about 20 cyclists. Just standing there, waiting. I smiled as he reached for the wallet and started handing bills. Very sensible.

  Lost lives. Had I wanted to be a parent? Obviously Susan decided I wasn't cut out for it.

  Web archives. Trawling for school dates. Newsletters. There she was. School sports day. Alice Nguyen, winner of 100 m sprint. Did she look like me, or was I projecting?

  I rang Phil.

  "Found her. Not hard. School sports. A runner."

  "Look like you does she?"

  "I think so. Have a look."

  “Definitely."

  "I've still got no idea what this is all about. Can't trace anything about the message."

  "Any more messages?"

  "No."

  The wall of lights was quiet. I stared into space. News feed was chattering away about food riots. Looked fairly tame, but I guess it was a sign of things to come.

  High school. Awards night. That face smiling out at me. What am I supposed to do? Why do you need me? I struggled to remember Susan as she was. It was all over in three months. Just vanished. No real goodbye. Just gone. I was devastated.

  Just having the school photo didn't help me much. I needed help to go further. I walked along the street outside the wall of lights and glanced at the newscreen. Smoke, demonstrations. Again.

  I struggled with the wall of lights. Didn't seem that important anymore. I rang Phil and arranged a meeting.

  "Not like you. I thought you were addicted to the wall." he said.

  “I'm sort of over it at the moment.”

  So I quizzed him about how to get further in the search for the long lost daughter.

  "No, its not hard to get more. But are you sure you want to do this?"

  "Why?”

  "Sounds like she's been told that you were dead. Or something like that."

  "So?"

  "She may not want to be found."

  The wall lit up. All around Flinders St station. I looked at the surveillance camera feeds. Lots of people on the platforms. It was hot. What was the problem? A localised power failure. No trains in or out. But this didn't stop people entering the station. As I watched horrified it was just a slow motion crush. Newsfeeds already picking up on it. “Station crush. Fifteen dead.” I hated that the news worked so fast and nothing else did.

  Chapter 13

  Colin was hunkered down, going through traces. It was mostly automated. Anything that fitted within the scenario models just went straight through. He could just watch it only paying half-attention.

  The analysis paused. A long shot of Federation Square. Various individuals identified and followed. Little figures with their labels as they mixed. All assigned by the image recognition software. There was Kylie. There was 24 hour tracing on Kylie. But who is that guy? No label.

  Colin clicked on the image. Moments later he had Andrew’s life history. It didn’t fit. None of it fitted. He fast forwarded it all. There he was again. Colin made a mental note to tag this guy and learn what was going on.

  Chapter 14

  Traces beyond High School were harder to find. I tried deep searches that went beyond gateways. Larger databases. Student databases.

  Phil was helping.

  "What do you know about her?"

  "Nothing."

  "What about her mother?"

  "Some sort of social worker, I think."

  “Sounds like we have to follow the mother and track out from there."

  "Where was she?"

  “No idea"

  "This is not going to be easy."

  Susan Nguyen. I started with news. Regional news. Only found a single news item. "Opening of cultural centre. Great new initiative for Horsham." A photo. Definitely her. Flashing that smile.

  A government department. Got it. Getting into the department's systems was not too hard. Not a tough target. I put a trawling program onto it to grab everything. Random stuff.

  “Just launched my first serious hack.”

  "Good for you."

  Phil laughed at the thought of me as a hacker.

  All the hacking in the world won't get you far without a bit of insight. By late afternoon I had Susan's personnel file. Not that interesting. It showed that she had left the department three years ago. Resignation. No reasons given.

  On the off chance, for no reason, I thought of court records. Why not? Easy to search. Public. There it was. Convicted of assault. Demonstration. It gave me a couple of addresses I could use in searching for Alice. But the trail was quite cold. Universities? Some cracking required, but I soon had a list of records. Addresses made it easier. Eventually I had the academic record. Now I had a graduation date.


  Just of the off-chance I searched all images. Bingo. Another photo. Older. Staring back at me. Looking more confident. Coalition for combatting climate change. Demonstration of some sort. Alice giving a speech. Now I had a thread. Not so much the needle in the haystack.

  I glanced up at the newsfeed. Politicians on about ‘not surrendering to blackmail’.

  "Got a stronger lead." I messaged Phil.

  "How recent?"

  "About five years ago."

  "She's rich?"

  "No, she's in politics."

 

  Chapter 15

  In the mid-morning it was eerily quiet. Marcus and Steve were staring into space. As Kate swung into view they both sat upright and tried to look as if they were busy. She just grinned.

  “Got a conference for you. New investors. Very interesting.”

  Steve replied.

  “New lords and masters?”

  “You got it. Gilbert Fong, Shanghai Millenium and Vaikom Basheer, Chennai Mutual.”

  “Looking for ?”

  “Not the usual thing. They want to not only shake the tree, they want to burn down the forest.”

  Marcus interrupted.

  “Clean energy, of course. But exactly what angle?”

  “Together these two have about 40% of the sector across India and China.”

  “Surely they need a banker, not a trading house?”

  “They want to do a large trade. An unusual trade.”

  So later in the afternoon they all gathered in the virtual meeting room. Very flash. All 3D and holographic projection. If you sat really still you had trouble working out who was real and who was virtual. Gilbert, Vaikom and their entourage were all virtual. The technology had really improved in the last five years.

  Gilbert began.

  “Let me be direct. What is the point of saving the planet if there are powerful forces set on destroying it anyway?”

  Kate replied:

  “None whatsoever. I thought your investments would more than guarantee the future of our planet”

  Marcus rarely saw Kate in ‘cosy the client along’ mode. It was entertaining.

  “The business imperative. Our customers are sick of being under cut by competitors fuelled by Australian coal supplies. We want it stopped.”

  “The usual negotiations.” Kate began.

  “Have produced lots more negotiations. ”

  “I’m not sure how we can help with this. You have things in motion?”

  “It will become apparent. You don’t need to trouble yourself with that aspect. “

  “Which brings us to ?”

  “Naked shorting of CoalGen.”

  Marcus now was paying attention. Naked shorting wasn’t technically illegal. Just frowned on a lot. It essentially amounted to taking a gamble that the price of something would be much less in the future than what it is now.

  “A very risky trade.” Kate said.

  “The future is better predicted in hindsight. In this case we intend to make the future happen to suit our purposes.”

  Kate looked at Steve and Marcus. Clearly this was not only technically illegal, it was highly illegal.

  “Of course.” she said.

  “We will make our own connections. I simply want you to place the trade.”

  “Of course.”

  Marcus and Steve were watching Kate closely. They were all thinking the same thing. Years in gaol versus becoming instantly rich. How rich? Enough to never work again, that was for sure.

 

  Chapter 16

  “Bike ride. Bayside.” I messaged to Kylie

  “OK. Meet you at Crown.”

  So outside the casino, we headed towards Port Melbourne, the shipping terminals. Winding in and out across and back following the tram route. Almost an air of normalcy here. But always every open space filled with tents.

  At the beach we slowed. It was about to get dark, the sunset. Propped the bikes and sat on the seawall. Watching the sun descend.

  “The blockade?” I asked

  She looked at me with those eyes. So dark. I felt as if they were pools that I was about to get lost in. She smiled, to acknowledge my hungry look.

  “Old world. New world. It’s fundamental. No compromise really possible when you think about it.”

  “How did you come to join your group?”

  “One too many of those demonstrations. Too much tear gas. Too much of the naked power of the state. You feel hopeless, powerless. Then you get the approach.”

  “When?”

  “About two years ago. Back then we were not much. Now, the force to be reckoned with.”

  She grinned.

  “I’m thinking of signing up.”

  For a moment she looked concerned. Then looked out to sea. Sun sinking in the water. Our eyes met, again. ‘Just do something, Andrew.’ I thought. But I hesitated for a moment too long.

  “Race you back to my place.” she said.

  I turned on the fastest burst of speed I could muster. But even at that I could only just keep up with her.

  Down back across the bridge, up past Southern Cross station. In the long straight stretch I managed to actually get past. But I was into oxygen debt. I laughed as she passed me again.

  I had only a vague idea of where her place was. Down next to the railway line, I thought. I slowed and followed. The race was over, with a clear winner.

  We pulled up and stowed the bikes inside her garage. Climbed the stairwell to the top. A very small flat, with a view across the railway tracks. Now dark, with the lights of the city visible through the windows. I was momentarily transfixed by the view. I looked around, and Kylie wasn’t in the room.

  I caught sight of her in the bedroom. As she lifted her t-shirt above her head she said:

  “You are so slow, Andrew.”

  We fell onto the bed laughing. First me pinning her to the bed, then her throwing me over and pinning me. The strength, the long line of her thigh. Those eyes.

  As first light glinted through the uncovered windows I had a moment where I wasn’t sure where I was. Then I looked at Kylie stretched out full length across the bed. I knew I was on a train, on a long trip to somewhere.

 

  Chapter 17

  Phil had decided to seriously distract me. So I got lots of messages. I had to see it. It was the distraction to end all distractions.

  "Car dogging." Phil had a quiet grin.

  "What's that?" I said.

  "That would be telling. It's better seen than explained. You have to experience it."

  He had what looked like a small sized suitcase. Except it was metallic and had antennas attached to it. It didn't look like anything I had seen before. So for that I was intrigued.

  "OK. Where do we do this?" I asked.

  "My favourite spot is the Yarra boulevard. Scenic. Like an arena."

  So we loaded up the equipment onto the bike trailer and towed it up the hill. Up at the boulevard he stopped on the top of a hill. Downhill with a slow left turn. A serious hill. Over to the right it was bush down to the river.

  "OK. What do I do?"

  "We set up. And wait."

  "Where?"

  "Out of sight, over there, up the hill."

  So we scrambled up into the bush on the high side of the road. We were close to the road, but out of sight.

  "You sure this is going to work?"

  "Absolutely. It's great entertainment."

  I was a bit sceptical. It all looked a bit rag-tag to me. But he was convincing. Time seemed to really drag now, as we waited. Presumably for the right vehicle to come along.

  "Now?" I said, as a small red Ford went past.

  "No."

  It took a while, but large blue four wheel drive came around the bend.

  "Here we go." Phil said.

  "What?"

  "Watch."

  He hit the button, and nothing happened.

  "Nothing happened."

&nbs
p; "Watch and learn."

  The car rolled to a stop.

  "Impressive." I said.

  "Wait for it."

  The driver got out, wandered around the vehicle. Totally confused of course. Why had the car stopped? He headed towards the bonnet.

  "Now."

  He hit the off button, and the car lurched forward. Straight ahead of course. Slowly at first, then gathering speed. Down the slope it went, jumping and bouncing towards the river.

  "Yes!" I said.

  We were both laughing and jumping. One less car.

  "How?" I asked.

  "Huge electromagnetic pulse. Disables the onboard computer. When it fires up again, just kick it over slightly and off we go."

  "Impressive. Truly impressive." I said

  Chapter 18

  It was as if I had spent the night drinking, except that I hadn’t. The overnight temperature so hot. Just stretched out in a pool of sweat. It was still, no wind, and I lay there struggling to sleep. Thinking about Kylie, of course. I couldn’t message her at that time of night - or could I? I wasn’t sure.

  It was almost slightly cool as I began the ride to work. Early, about 6am. Might as well go to work. Too hot to lie here. Almost reminiscent of my days of dedication, the worship of the wall. When did I stop worshipping? I couldn’t remember. I was just going through the motions now.

  Turning north, it hit me. Like being punched in the face. The North wind. I had an instant feeling of dread. Bad day. Very bad day. The newsfeeds along the highway all had the warnings running. Catastrophic fire warnings. Evacuation procedures.

  I struggled against the wind. Not many companions on the road. We naturally bunched together. I sat at the back for a while, then took my turn at the front.

  Inside, at the wall, it was cold. Eerily quiet also. The wall itself showed not much. Normally at this time there would be a bit of bustle. But today almost nothing. Everyone filled with the same quiet, chilling, dread. About ten of us in the room. I looked at the traffic feeds. Yes, there were people moving, but only a small fraction of those that would be moving on a normal day.

  Through the day, it all operated on a hair trigger. Small fires were attacked very quickly. One near Ballarat, another just south of Colac. Nothing dramatic. The wind had died down a little, but the forecasts indicated that it would pick up, and that it would get hotter. We were sitting, and waiting.

  First came the wind. It raced up to nearly 100 kilometres per hour. All of a sudden. Like somebody turned on the fan in the oven. I looked at the air temperature: 47C.