2023

  The eager twins stared at it. As if their favourite puppy had just been run over by a car. Which, in a sense, it had.

  Chapter 57

  We stood on the corner. Phil, Frederick and I. Frederick was grinning.

  “I... I don’t know how to thank you.” I said.

  “It was nothing. Just a bit of fun.”

  “No. Seriously.”

  “You will be fine. Just go.”

  So slowly we wobbled north. Up. We got to the top of the first rise. Looked back. As far as we could see the convoy stretched back, and forward. In and out of the trees.

  Towards, and up the great divide. Not mildly up, seriously up. The Bonang Road, towards Goongurah. Just Phil and I. Before thousands, now just us two.

  “I’ll miss them.” I said.

  “The queues for the toilet? The terrible food?”

  “Maybe not the queues for the toilets.”

  “The fighting for a piece of shade.”

  I really would miss them. The small kids riding up the hills, racing past me each morning. Grinning. Shining. The patient mothers, pedalling with a toddler on the back. Looking ahead and looking behind and seeing only an endless mottled trail of humanity.

  What would become of them? I wondered. I couldn’t hold together the image of kids on bikes together with bushfires or starvation. I just couldn’t.

  “Shouldn’t we go with the convoy? Help them?” I blurted out to Phil. Then braced for the response.

  “So the hormones have ceased to work? The great cause, the jeans?”

  “It’s just destruction. We are going to trash the place.”

  I turned away, and we rode silently for a long time. I stared out at the bush, the leaves swaying in the slight breeze. The emptiness, the pull.

  “The missiles.” Phil said. “You feel responsible.”

  “Yes.”

  The shock. The bodies. Then the horrible and certain realisation that the whole thing was dished up for our benefit.

  “You know what I’m going to say.” Phil said.

  “Sure.”

  “What would Kylie say?”

  Of course. The trump card. I found a log to stop at, to sit on. We just sat there, for what seemed like a very long time. Phil finally spoke.

  “We have a picture. A dream. A set of ideals. We’d like to get somewhere, to achieve something. Ambitions. So we set off.”

  He paused, then continued.

  “Of course it’s not like that. It’s life. It’s shitty.”

  “It’s not what I thought it would be like.” I said.

  “You have to focus on what we are trying to make happen. That’s what Kylie would say.”

  Yes, she would. Somewhere along this road was Kylie. I stood up.

  “OK.”

  So on we went.

  The familiar rhythm. Up early, grapple with the gas cooker, breakfast. Pack everything and head through misty valleys. Dew on the tree leaves. Except that this time there was not thousands of cyclists, but just two.

  The isolation gave me too much time to think. At times it began to feel like a death march. What exactly were we heading into?

  Chapter 58

  We both had to wear the glasses now. It wasn’t enough to be vaguely aware of the drones. Even from a distance if they sighted us then it would be all over very quickly. So we had early warning systems. We had to scurry for cover at the first alarm. Luckily out here there was plenty of cover. We only got jumpy when we got to isolated ridges, or open spots. Old logging sites, and abandoned towns.

  ‘We will find you?’ How? How would we know when we had gone too far?

  I tried not to think about what we were doing, or Kylie. I tried to think of nothing, just to pedal. We were in the punishing small hills. You rode to the top, thinking that this is the top. Once you got there, there was another climb right in front of you. Phil handled it well. He liked the fact that in this territory he didn’t fall behind.

  “Where’s the bloody top?” I asked.

  “Do you really want to know?” Of course the glasses would tell us, with a beautiful 3D view.

  “No.”

  “Know anything about the camp?” I asked Phil.

  “No. A camp, that’s all they said. Although how the hell you hide a camp from the drones beats me. Obviously not on top of one of these ridges.”

  I looked at the map of the road ahead in the glasses. We were still headed towards Bonang. Ahead there was a branch in the road. It went West and East. Which way? I guess we have that conversation when we get there, I thought.

  It levelled out just a bit. We could cease the dancing, standing on the pedals, and just turn the pedals over normally. We were turning to the left slightly. The road arced around. We could see a few hundred meters ahead.

  Something was wrong. A person standing beside the road. We slowed, so cautious. It was a woman.

  Then, all of a sudden, I recognised who it was. I yelled out “Kylie”, threw the bike down and started running. Whooping and yelling, in her direction.

  Like a football tackle. I grabbed her, we rolled to the ground in a heap.

  It all rushed over me. The tension. The relief. The sheer joy of the moment. So tight. Just holding each other. We looked into each other’s eyes.

  “How did you find us?” I asked.

  “We have surveillance on the road. It’s the only way in or out of here.”

  “You fine?”

  “Fine.”

  Chapter 59

  So I described how we got through. The drones circling day and night. The crowded ride, the rise and fall of the tents. Just the whole mystery of it, the sheer might of humanity. Finishing with Frederick and the miracle of the successful hack.

  Alice and Max lingered at the back, waiting and watching. Phil chatted with them. Politely they waited for Kylie and I to move.

  “So where do we go?” I asked. They looked at each other, then consulted the scanners.

  “This way.”

  Off the road we went. Onto a small track. Almost an animal track, I thought.

  “How did you escape the city?” I asked Kylie.

  “It was carefully planned. Staging posts, leading to here. All taken care of.”

  We were climbing now, towards a ridge. No signs of a camp. Maybe it would be evident when we got to the top. Much scanning going on.

  “I missed you.” I blurted out. Kylie stopped and looked at me.

  “I missed you too. You idiot.”

  At the ridge, another of those endless views. Ridge after ridge. You looked all the way around and no matter where you looked there was absolutely no sign of human habitation. No wonder people had trouble grasping climate change. We were like dots on a landscape.

  “Where is the camp?” I asked. I couldn’t see any sign of it at all.

  “We are near.”

  Max at the front, then Alice, Phil, with Kylie and I at the rear. I couldn’t help but wonder. Here we are on an animal track in the middle of nowhere. Are we going to hide in a tent in some deep gully? The tension and worry started to dissipate as we descended. Now it was darker, and cooler. I could see the creek at the bottom. At least there is water, I thought. Really large ferns clung to the side of the hill. Huge wave like fronds. At times they formed a canopy and almost cut out the sunlight altogether. Deeper and deeper. I stopped. Did a complete scan of my surroundings. Realised I was alone. Where had they gone?

  Then Kylie stepped out from behind a large frond.

  “Come on. Are you going to stand out there all day?”

  I followed her into the dark. Into the side of the hill. I was stepping into a doorway. Into a tunnel.

  “How? What?” I said. Kylie just smiled.

  “Wait until you see the rest.”

  I had to stoop in the tunnel. It opened up into a full size room. I blinked. It was brightly lit. The walls about four metres high. Stretching back for at least ten metres. People coming and going. Most of them I didn??
?t recognise.

  “Time for the tour.” she said.

  On we went, down a long corridor. To the left was a workroom. Electronics, people huddled over equipment. On the right was a set of rooms closed. I looked across at Kylie.

  “Sleeping rooms.”

  At the end we went through a door. A mini wall of lights. Monitors, computers. People.

  “Operations.” I said.

  I just stood and stared at the whole thing. One minute we are on the trail, just gum trees and wombat trails. Next I’m standing in this complex. Incredible.

  “Our rich and powerful friends?” I asked.

  “Yes. They had this built quite a while ago. It’s been sitting here waiting.”

  “How is it powered?”

  “Geothermal. Some solar, but it’s hard to hide the panels.”

  “Communications?”

  “Narrow band satellite. So nobody can snoop in on it.”

  I slumped into a chair.

  “Rest up.” Kylie said. “We’ve got a welcome party for you later.”

  Chapter 60

  I slept right through to the next morning. All of a sudden there was a hand on my shoulder. Shaking me awake. It was Max.

  “Training. Five minutes.”

  Kylie was grinning. She knew what was coming. We stumbled out the door I had come in yesterday, straight into the bush. Along a narrow track. It was hard for me to get my footing, but I wanted to keep up with the others. I was physically strong from the riding, but not tuned into this sort of thing.

  Kylie and Alice were ahead. Looking back and laughing. Max smiled also. It was good to be here, despite feeling like I was struggling.

  We climbed towards the ridge line, with the sun peeping over the top. About 10 kilometres of running, my legs told me. At least I could still see the others ahead as they slowed. As we drifted back towards the bottom of the gully, I thought it was all over. In the side of the hill was a makeshift staircase. Steps cut into the hill. It was huge. It reminded me of those huge escalators you see in railway subways. Except that they carried you up. This was just stairs.

  I looked across at Max.

  “Ten times up. Ten times down. You have to be able to run up in less than fourty seconds.”

  I looked at it. Looked at Max. My only consolation was that Phil was slower. Kylie and Alice took off.

  “One minute five.”

  So exhausted we drifted back towards the door. I could only wonder why it was so important that I could sprint up a flight of stairs.

  “Need for speed Andrew.” Kylie said, and smiled.

  In the meeting room, Max began with the summary. Graphs. Slides. Asymmetric warfare. All the usual stuff. Then Phil gave an update on the hack. He was making real progress.

  My thoughts kept drifting. Down the mountain, down the road. To the convoy. Where would they be by now? Three days more, about another 150 kilometres further. A lonely stretch of road that - I had ridden it years ago. Now it would be alive with people.

  I caught sight of Max watching me. So I quickly made as if I was following every word. Phil had a 3D representation, an animation up. The younger members were closely watching it.

  Now that I had delivered Phil, I was feeling redundant. I was meant to be excited, getting ready for the final push. Maybe I was suffering from a hangover from the incredible effort to get here. I drifted over and sat at the periphery of Phil’s group. He was expounding.

  “This is a representation of the keyspace for the whole day. You can see that if it was perfectly random then it would look like this (shows a 3D display), but it looks like this (another 3D view).”

  They were hanging on every word. It continued on. Yes, it was important, but it was impenetrable to me. I waited until the last follower had drifted off, and moved up the front.

  “Very fancy. Will it get us through the front door?” I asked.

  “Not yet. It is only a matter of time.”

  “I sure hope so.”

  “The inverted pyramid of the modern city. One small push and over it goes.”

  “I detect a note of cynicism.”

  “Since when were you a true believer?”

  He smiled. Yes, we had come a long way. All the way to this surreal installation inside a mountain.

  “It’s been a hard road.” Phil said, as if he could read my thoughts. We had, after all, known each other a very long time.

  “Too hard, maybe.” I said.

  Chapter 61

  Everyone was tiptoeing around me. They sensed the pain, the grief. I kept coming back to the arc of that missile snaking across the sky. Stuck in a loop.

  As I walked past operations, I could see over Alice’s shoulder. I thought I could see a chat session with Peter. When she saw me coming she quickly killed the window

  “Busy?” I said.

  “Not really. It’s great to have you back.”

  “Great to be back. Anything I can help with?”

  “Not really. Max says you are to rest.”

  “I know, but it’s boring.”

  “I would have thought you could do with a bit of boredom.”

  Late in the afternoon I drifted up to the highest point in the cave. There you could just sit and observe the outside world. It was high enough to get a view across the ranges. The trees waving in the slight breeze. Birds flying past. As the sun lowered over the ridge, I just watched the colours changing.

  I put the glasses on. Now I could browse anywhere, with the forest as the background. There were surveillance points on the highway I could tap into. I tried a few, and eventually found one that had a good view.

  There they were. The cargo bikes. The slow progress. I couldn’t recognise anyone, but I imagined them all there. Maree. Frederick. I just watched the cavalcade. Then I was startled by movement on the ladder. Kylie got to the same point on the ladder, then sat directly opposite me.

  “We missed you at the briefing.” she said.

  “No you didn’t. I’m just there to make up the numbers.”

  She looked concerned.

  “Anything important you’re scanning?”

  Important to who, I thought. Not important all. Just people.

  “The convoy.”

  She put on her glasses, and I locked them so we were watching the same thing. You could do that, directly synchronise them.

  “You miss them, don’t you.” she said.

  I hesitated.

  “Yes.”

  “Phil told me how you reacted.”

  What else did he tell, I thought. Is this an assessment?

  “It’s not about that.” I said.

  She reached across. Our hands met. Just touched, finger to finger. A long silence.

  “A life. Didn’t you ever want a life?” I said. “Grow vegetables. Watch the kids play. Nothing earth shattering. Just …..”

  Now there was an even longer pause. As if I’d been sitting in church and just launched into a discussion of pornography.

  “Life.” she said.

  Our hands were still touching.

  Kylie continued. “You didn’t just come along for the ride. I didn’t persuade you. You had already made up your mind.”

  “You think so.” I said.

  “I know so.” she said.

  “Too much death and destruction. In my dreams....”

  Yes, in my dreams there were missiles. Kids playing, then craters. Bodies and dust.

  “I just struggle with the bullshit.” I said.

  “It’s bravado. You know that. Inside we are all shaking. All of our dreams are the same.”

  Our eyes met.

  “But.” I said.

  “You’re going to ask me to give it up. To ride down the mountain and join the convoy. Grow vegetables. Grow babies.” she said.

  Was I ? Yes, I guess I was. Except that part of me wanted to ask, and another part already had the answer.

  “Bit late.” I said.

  “No, it’s not
that.”

  “What then?”

  “Neither you nor I could just sit and grow vegetables while it all goes to shit.”

  Yes, of course. She was right.

  “No. I guess not.”

  So, slowly, we both climbed down the ladder.

  Chapter 62

  The next morning at the early ritual of running up and down the stairs, I wasn’t so reluctant. My head wasn’t as heavy. I could even manage a smile as Max stood with the stopwatch.

  “Still 20 seconds too slow.”

  Slow for what? I thought. He wasn’t going to tell me. Not yet, anyway.

  Then practice with the dirt motorbikes. We had to ride them through an obstacle course. It was strange to work with something petrol powered again. The roar of the engines was so strange out here. Balancing along a narrow board. Then jumping. Kylie was very good at it, so I resolved that I was going to get to her level before we left here.

  Shooting practice. A bit confronting at first. The recoil of the weapon. I was really hopeless at it, but I was improving.

  In the afternoon all theory and strategy. Now that I was bit more engaged it wasn’t so hard. How to capture a middle sized western city for beginners. At least I didn’t drift off. All fine in theory, I thought.

  Chapter 63

  Colin liked the drive to work now. Hardly any traffic on the road. All this infrastructure, just for him. Well, just him and millions of cyclists. It only took him about twenty minutes from Middle Park to Collins Street. He waved goodbye to the kids, with the armed guards, on their way to school. Off he sped down St Kilda Road. Under the tree canopy. On the way he would get the overnight briefings relayed to him. Since Orbost he’d gone a little easier on the team. He needed them to recover.

  As he got to the bridge over the Yarra, he looked to the left, down past Southbank. From this distance, if you didn’t look too hard it looked like it always did. On the Eastern side of the bridge it was all tents.

  He stopped at the pedestrian lights opposite Federation Square. Even the slightest stop irritated him now. Trucks. Why were there two trucks parked right outside the train station? People swarmed around them as they came out walking towards work. He was staring at the trucks, when he started to get shouted instructions.

  “Code 9. Reverse and drive south down St Kilda Rd.”

  A code 9 meant imminent attack. He didn’t hesitate, spun the car around. In the rear vision mirror he could see the size of the explosion. He kept driving.