Divine Madness (27 page)

dollars have vanished over the last five days.’

‘So what’s that got to do with me?’ Susie yelled.

‘My father and I were the only ones who had access to those funds. Now, Lomborg Financial are draining it.’

‘Why don’t you ask your father before accusing me?’

‘Don’t bullshit me Susie, I wasn’t born yesterday. I know you gave my father grief until he let you have control over that account. He’s a sick man and you’re abusing his trust.’

‘Arnos Lomborg has made us a
 
lot
 
of money,’ Susie shouted back. ‘You don’t mind when it comes rolling in, do you? Your precious Ark in Nevada would still be a blueprint if it wasn’t for me. Japan and Europe would be pipe dreams.’

‘But where does this miraculous ability to make money come from?’

‘Investments.’

‘Pull the other one, it’s got bells on. I’m no financial whiz, but it doesn’t take one to know that two hundred per cent returns on a three-week investment aren’t legitimate.’

‘Just count your money and shut your mouth,’ Susie snapped. ‘The only reason you don’t like this is because
 
my
 
people set up the contacts with Lomborg. What did the Survivors have before I started taking an interest? Vending machines, collection tins and red bills from the electricity company. Joel nearly bankrupted us trying to turn this godforsaken stretch of desert into some pathetic copy of Disneyland.’

Rat grinned at Lauren and shrugged, as if to say
 
I don’t understand any more of this than you do
. He had no reason to suspect that Lauren understood the implications of every word: Susie Regan was behind the links between Help Earth and the Survivors; Joel was too ill to make decisions and The Spider was out of the loop.

‘Besides,’ Susie said, ‘all this talk about your precious father, when did
 
you
 
last spend a night looking after him? When did you last even visit him?’

‘I can’t get near him without you standing two metres away trying to score points off me.’

‘Get out of my face, Spider,’ Susie said, sounding exasperated. ‘Haven’t you got a service to conduct, or some stupid little beads to hand out?’

‘Devil,’ Eleanor screamed. ‘It sickens me that my father takes to his bed each night with an unbeliever.’

Susie chuckled, ‘Oh no,
 
here
 
we go. Your daddy didn’t meet god, Eleanor. He invented the Survivors as a way to make a bit of cash.’

Rat broke into a huge grin when he heard this blasphemy. Lauren pretended to be shocked.

Eleanor sounded genuinely upset and gave a big sob. ‘My father is a great man. A prophet. God
 
will
 
punish you for what you’ve done to us.’

Lauren knew all about the power struggle between Susie and Eleanor, but only now was she realising how different the two womens’ opinions about Joel Regan and being a Survivor were.

‘I’m not even interested in arguing with you,’ Susie said finally. ‘Piss off out of my way.’

The Spider pounded angrily on the door. Lauren and Rat scurried back towards the desk, half expecting her to come into the room, but after a few seconds’ silence they realised Eleanor and Susie had moved on.

Lauren gave Rat a relieved smile, followed by an excuse about having some photocopying to do. She dived off to lock herself in a toilet cubicle, grabbed the radio out of her trainer and called Chloe to tell her about Susie and Eleanor’s conversation.

‘What you say about Susie confirms the picture ASIS have been getting from other sources, including your brother,’ Chloe said. ‘But we didn’t realise that Eleanor and the other devout Survivors knew nothing about the links.’

‘Did Susie have anything to do with environmental groups before she came to the Ark?’

‘Not really,’ Chloe said. ‘The only thing the Americans turned up was that Susie refused to wear fur when she worked as a model, but a lot of models insist on that. We’ve got no idea if Susie cares about the environment, or if she’s skimming the proceeds to line her own pockets. Whatever the case, she’s definitely been using Survivor money to fund Help Earth.’

Lauren hadn’t been in touch with James since the morning run, so Chloe brought her up to speed on everything that was going on, including James finding the laboratory and the latest news from Dana.

‘Do you know where your brother is?’ Chloe asked.

‘I expect he’ll go for dinner and evening service as soon as he gets back from his delivery run,’ Lauren replied, keeping her voice really low because one of the admin staff was washing their hands on the other side of the cubicle door.

‘Right, do you think you’ll be able to ditch your schedule and meet up with James as soon as he arrives back?’

‘I guess,’ Lauren said warily. ‘This office is right next to the vehicle compound, but the teachers at the boarding school keep close tabs on us. We’ll get asked questions if we disappear for long and skipping a service is a paddling offence.’

‘OK,’ Chloe said. ‘Try not to worry about that. ASIS would prefer to wait while you guys and some of their other operations gather more evidence, but the Australian government now know that a Help Earth attack is imminent. If the public found out that the government knew in advance and didn’t warn them, the political implications would be enormous.’

‘Right,’ Lauren said. ‘So what does that mean for us?’

‘The Intelligence Minister will make a televised statement at eight-thirty this evening, putting the country on its highest state of alert. Every oil facility is going to be evacuated of all but a few essential staff. Dana and her terrorist buddies are going to be picked up when they try to set off in their boat. The Ark is going to be stormed and all the senior personnel will be detained for questioning.’

‘Stormed by who?’

‘The Australian military have had their Tactical Assault Group training for a surprise raid on the Ark ever since the link with Help Earth was first uncovered. They’re afraid that information will be destroyed, or that there’ll be a siege situation if they move in on the Ark by road. So they’re using a small airborne force: four helicopters, sixty TAG commandos and a dozen back-up personnel from ASIS. The aim is to land troops inside the Ark’s perimeter and take control before the Survivors can do anything to stop them.’

‘Sounds dodgy to me,’ Lauren said, grinding her palm against her forehead. ‘They’ve got armed guards in all six watchtowers, Rat says there are heaps of illegal weapons hidden inside the compound and there’s
 
nothing
 
going on around here. You’ll hear the choppers coming in from miles off.’

‘They’re experts, Lauren, we have to trust in their abilities. I’m sure they’ve put a lot of thought and training into it, but I’d still rather you and James weren’t around when it kicks off. The assault team’s ETA is around eight p.m. this evening, just after it gets dark. That gives you and James a little over two hours to get out.

‘I want you to meet up with him as soon as he gets back with the post. If you think it’s safe, I’d like you to try getting into Susie Regan’s office and making copies of any interesting looking data first. She’s bound to start destroying evidence when the helicopters approach.’

Lauren thought for a second. ‘I’ve only been up to the residence one time …’

‘Talk it through with James. If you think it’s too risky, don’t do it. My number one priority is to get you two out of harm’s way. Steal a car, bluff your way out through one of the turrets, or whatever, but
 
get out
. Radio me before you leave and I’ll pick you up somewhere nearby.’

‘Right,’ Lauren said, as the magnitude of what was going to happen over the next few hours began sinking in. The commando raid on the Ark and the links between Help Earth and the Survivors would be the top story on every TV news in the world.

‘I’ve never tried to get out before,’ Lauren said.‘But I don’t think it’ll be hard. There’s only a couple of guards on each turret. They’ll be easy enough to take out if we sneak up on them.’

‘Great and remember, safety first.’

‘Gotcha,’ Lauren said, taking a quick glance at her watch. ‘I expect I’ll be seeing you in a couple of hours.’

*

A cherub usually carries a few basic computer hacking tools, but the strict rules on personal possessions inside the Ark made it impossible to bring anything with them. As the end of her shift approached, Lauren sneaked into the stationery cupboard. She grabbed a spindle of blank CDs and headed into the post room with them.

‘You wanna head back to the school with me?’ Rat asked, giving Lauren a start as she turned to leave.

‘Haven’t you got to take the signature book across to Joel Regan?’

Rat shook his head as he picked up and inspected the spindle of CDs. ‘Apparently the old man’s taken a turn for the worse. Susie reckons he’s in no fit state to look at any letters.’

‘Right,’ Lauren said edgily.

‘What are these disks for?’ Rat asked.

‘Oh,’ Lauren said, stumbling for an excuse that she realised she ought to have thought up in advance. ‘I was supposed to take them to one of the accountants.’

‘Which one? I can run them over for you if you’re doing something in here.’

‘No, no,’ Lauren said, as she reached out to grab them back. ‘He’s gone off for the day now, anyway.’

Rat broke into a big smile. ‘You’re up to something, aren’t you?’

Lauren tutted. ‘Give over, I’m not up to anything.’

‘You can’t pull the wool over my eyes,’ Rat said. ‘Did I ever tell you that I have an IQ of one ninety-seven?’

‘Hmm, let me think,’ Lauren grinned, putting a finger over her lips and scowling as though she had to think hard. ‘I think you might have mentioned it thirty-six or thirty-seven times over the last couple of days.’

Rat looked offended as he put the tub of CDs back on the table. ‘Well I’m off for some grub. I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.’

‘Not if I see you first,’ Lauren grinned.

She felt sad as she followed Rat out of the post room and walked off, pretending to have one last task to perform. Rat was fun to be with and she’d probably never see him again. She took a left behind a wooden partition and gave Rat a few seconds to clear off before doubling back to the post room.

There was a window set high in the wall behind a franking machine and she had to go up on tiptoes to look down into the vehicle compound below. The truck must have pulled up while Lauren was gone, because James and Ernie were already heading away. Lauren panicked as she realised that her brother would be out of sight by the time she walked down the corridor, through the fire door and down the metal staircase. There was no way she’d be able to contact him once he got into the school area, which was strictly segregated by sex.

Lauren grabbed the CDs and crammed them into the pocket on the front of her shorts. As she turned to run out, she remembered the chute used to drop bags of post down to the truck. The flap made a racket as she pulled it open, and she clambered on to a polished metal ramp that looked like an oversized playground slide.

The chute was dark, except for a few streaks of light breaking through the fat rubber strips dangling at the bottom. Nobody had bothered smoothing out the joins in the metal for the benefit of mail bags and Lauren’s bum juddered over each one as she clattered down. After pushing through the warm rubber strips, she sprinted into the subdued light under the canopy and yelled out:

‘James!’

He was a couple of hundred metres away, walking across a stretch of dirt alongside Ernie.

Lauren waved her arms and sprinted off towards her brother as he looked back curiously.

James realised Lauren probably had some information that wasn’t for Ernie’s ears, so he said a quick goodbye before jogging back towards his sister.

‘Hey,’ James grinned. ‘Are you OK? What’s going on?’

Dana helped Nina make vegetarian bolognese for dinner, but everyone was on edge and Barry was the only one who managed to eat more than half the food on his plate. Eve enthusiastically volunteered to do the washing up, but Barry just smiled.

‘Heroes don’t wash up,’ he grinned. ‘And we won’t be back here, so why bother?’

Nina reached out for the hands of the two girls sitting on either side of her. ‘I think we should all say a final prayer.’

Eve held out her hand to Barry and grinned at him. ‘Come on, and your other hand with Dana’s. Let’s make a circle to ward off devils.’

Barry looked unenthusiastic, but they all squeezed hands tightly and closed their eyes.

‘We thank you, Lord …’

Dana felt like she was floating as soon as she closed her eyes. She shut out Nina’s prayer and tried to calm herself down.

She’d radioed John from her bedroom before sitting down to eat. He’d said that ASIS would be tailing every move they made. They’d managed to sneak a tracking device underneath the Subaru and there were police officers stationed at every major harbour along a thirty-kilometre stretch of coast.