Seven Days Grace (A Grace Rose Novel Book 1) (20 page)

What is with these people?
She wanted a measly two minutes with the Minister. How important did this guy think he was not to see a journalist from
The Sydney Star
for a quick comment? Grace frequently wondered why people treated the media as contemptuously as they did. They wanted you when they had something to say
,
and needed the publicity
,
and the rest of the time you were treated like a leper. Yet
,
most people watched the nightly news
,
read newspapers and talked about
60 Minutes
in the office at work over the water station. They were all pious.
Hypocrites.

‘
Ma
’
am
,
please?
’

Grace
,
who was still standing
,
secured her bag over her shoulder and headed to the front doors.
So much for the Minister agreeing to see me.

Her feelings of him being a nice guy when she ran into him on Monday at JJ
’
s were obviously wrong. And Nick was wrong
,
too. She held the stare of Tight Face who now looked like the cat who swallowed the canary – a motionless face with a supercilious grin. Black Suit followed her into the lift and escorted her down to the ground floor and made sure she left the building. As the automatic sliding doors closed
,
he stood on one side
,
arms folded and waited for her to climb into her car. She could see him standing there in her rear view mirror as she drove away.

‘
Right
,
this is war
,’
Grace declared.

22

‘
If everyon
e
could please watch this demonstration then you can all fit your safety harness appropriately. Thank you
,’
a young-looking pilot said to about a dozen media who were settling onto the benches immediately behind the cockpit of a Hercules.

The group complied and within moments were buckled up and prepared for their joy flight as the crew readied the plane for take-off. All were given a headset to wear so they could hear any information or instructions the pilot needed to convey to his passengers. Grace noted there were no internal speakers like in a domestic plane and the hull of the aircraft was noisy.

The plane began its taxi down the runway. The reverberation inside the plane
,
even with the earphones secured
,
was deafening. The whole sides of the plane were vibrating with such intensity she wondered if the screws would start to come lose and panels of the plane start to fall onto the tarmac.
Don
’
t be ridiculous.

A scratchy noise came through the headsets indicating someone was about to speak to the group. Grace pressed them hard against her ears.
‘
This is Flight Lieutenant Adam Burns. I would like to welcome you to this flight and I trust you will enjoy yourselves today aboard this media trip.
’
His spiel continued for about a minute. Grace
’
s ears pricked up when he said
,
‘
You will be free to carefully move around the plane when we have finished our ascent and you
’
ll also have the opportunity to sit in the cockpit to see the latest technology installed onto your air force
’
s aircraft. We are the first aircraft in Australia to have this system.
’

The news I
’
ve been longing to hear.  

The press conference had run longer than expected and the flight had been delayed due to windy conditions. Despite the fact she knew Nick would not be happy having his precious car back late
,
she stuck around to take the joy ride.

‘
I
’
ll remind everyone to switch off your mobile phones
,
lap tops and any other electronic devices for the duration of the flight. Thank you. For now
,
sit back and relax. I
’
ll be speaking to you again soon.
’

Once they were flying on the level for about fifteen minutes
,
Flight Lieutenant Adam Burns turned on his headphone speaker set and asked for attention.
‘
If you look out the left side of the plane
,
you
’
ll see one of the most glorious coastlines of the world. I
’
m sure the view will keep you busy as you each take your turn in the cockpit.
’

He called out the first name. It wasn
’
t Grace. And neither was the second or the third or even the fourth name. By the time the fifth name was called out and it wasn
’
t her again
,
she wondered if she would have her five minutes in the cockpit with the cute Adam Burns and his impressive RAAF title.

The plane was approaching the south side of Sydney Harbour National Park and there were glimpses of the city out to the left. Grace walked around the cabin a little and was grateful she had chosen long pants and comfortable boots for the flight. The floor was not carpeted and there were grooves
,
pulleys and all sorts of equipment in odd places to be wary of when navigating the walking surface.

She found a small window in the door they had all entered through. She gazed out at the city as her mind drifted to Jake
,
The Voice
,
Nick
,
Sleen
,
Jock and a dozen other thoughts that came one after the other without waiting. Grace had become obsessed now with uncovering what was behind The Voice
’
s mystery case and felt she was wasting time on this joy ride when she could be researching the life of the now dead man
,
Michael Crow. It had to be him who was killed. It made sense and Grace knew her gut instinct would not fail her on this hunch. However
,
the million-dollar question was
‘
why?
’
Why kill a minister? Why would they need to get rid of him? What did he know?
Murder in politics
,
nasty business
.

Jake was right
,
she should be careful
,
although
,
she would not back off. She wondered how much longer this joy ride would last. They were now headed to the beaches on the north shore and it wouldn
’
t be long before they turned to make their way back to the RAAF.

Then a young man dressed in uniform tapped her on the shoulder and said
,
‘
Last but not least.
’

She thought those were the words he mouthed though couldn
’
t be sure and he recognised her confusion. He turned and then looked over his shoulder at Grace as he moved his pointer finger in the familiar
‘
come this way
’
signal. She wondered why her name wasn
’
t called like everyone else.

‘
Hi Grace
,’
the head pilot said as she entered the cockpit.
‘
We
’
ve kept you till last so you can ride all the way home with us. And we have a special surprise for you at the end
,’
he beamed.

‘
Thanks
,
Captain.
’

The Sydney Star
journalist was as excited as a child who was about to have her first rollercoaster ride.

‘
It
’
s Flight Lieutenant but please call me Adam.
’
he insisted.
‘
Now
,
take a seat there
,’
he pointed to where a small seat was secured on the inside of the cockpit
’
s door.

An adventurous streak had been part of Grace
’
s nature even before she could walk. Over the years
,
it had turned into a coping mechanism when covering such stories as Antonio de Silva because occasionally these stories would get her down. The cumulative effect of tiredness
,
a short temper and feeling overworked on hard news stories she covered eventually took their toll. This was the release she needed. Her prior thoughts of wasting her time on this flight had vanished.

There were two others in the cockpit
,
a co-pilot
,
adjacent to Adam
,
and a young man in uniform who sat perpendicular to the two pilots
,
along a desk housing instruments and state-of-the-art displays. Grace hadn
’
t seen anything like this before in her life. She felt like she was on a set of the latest blockbuster movie and about to uncover a plot to help save the world. The technology man was intent on keeping his eyes riveted on the controls.

‘
Grace
,
Pilot Officer Banks is going to show you how our newest technology works
,’
Adam said.

Pilot Officer Banks raised an arm without looking up and waved Grace over. With little space for more than one step in each direction from the inside of the cockpit door to the crews
’
seats
,
including the pilots
,
it was one swift move before Grace stood behind the desk and peered over his shoulder.

‘
Currently we are forty kilometres north of Sydney on the coast. You may be able to recognise several famous landmarks if you look carefully
,’
Pilot Officer Banks said.

‘
There
’
s Palm Beach
,’
Grace said as she looked through little oval shaped windows underneath the pilot
’
s feet. You could see straight down to the ground without the need to look out the windows over the pilot
’
s controls. Palm Beach was Sydney
’
s most northern beach. It appeared unspoilt and pristine.

‘
Grace
,
hang on as we make a quarter left turn here and then head back to base
,’
Adam said.

Following instructions
,
Grace sat down until the turn was made. Shortly
,
the young man in his early twenties waved her back to his desk. The desk was a large
,
glass computer screen. It was flat and about sixty centimetres wide and forty-five centimetres deep. Above his head were an array of switches and controls. Grace dared not even hazard a guess as to what they were and made sure she stayed away from them.

The young man
’
s hands moved with agility and experience across its surface. Without speaking he brought up different maps
,
pictures
,
weather patterns
,
graphs and symbols that were unidentifiable to Grace
’
s untrained eye.

‘
It
’
s mind blowing though I have no idea what you
’
re doing
,’
she said.

‘
Right now we
’
re flying over Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. We can zoom in and see the waterways
,
roads and a few houses. At the moment it looks like a picture of what you can see through the window though up close. If I lay these maps over the top
,
it shows the geographical heights and depths of the hills giving us vital information in knowing where the highest peak is located and also where the lowest one is located
,’
he said.

Grace was impressed.

‘
And if seeing it in this format is too hard on the eye because you can
’
t focus on the grid lines then you
’
re probably too busy looking at the photographic style of the landscape
,
right?
’

‘
Right
,’
Grace said.

‘
You can change the format of the picture making it appear as if it
’
s a map now
,
not a photograph
,
and immediately you can see the grid lines clearly. It will also capture data in a 3D style. There
’
s a multitude of tasks CASPer can perform
,’
Pilot Officer Banks looked like a proud father.