CHAPTER 3

THE PLOT THICKENS

I paced around the lounge room, waiting for everyone to get in. It all made perfect sense, how could I have missed it? Daniel and Tamara were on the couch, mucking around, poking each other. Larry was still in his seat, still hunting down information. Graham was missing. I kept pacing.

"Sheesh, I just pull up outside this guy Dobson's house, all the way out in Pakenham mind you, and I get a call, telling me to come straight back. What, have we solved the case already? What's going on?"

"Sit down Graham, Bec's worked something out, we were waiting for you to get back."

"What, I couldn't have just listened to her tell you guys on speaker phone?"

"Nope. You had to be here. Now sit down."

He sat. I kept pacing.

"There was something bugging me before, when Daniel found out we were being pulled off the investigation."
"What??"

That was Graham. I'd forgotten he hadn't been here.

"Oh, yeah. Daniel called Munro, told him what we found. Munro told him the NCA had cancelled the investigation. So the NCA is prepared to let the case go, let Celgro do all the law-breaking they want. Something about that wasn't right.

It hit me, when I remembered the Celgro company memo Larry dug up on the computer. Larry, what did the memo say?"

"It said that information had been leaked onto the net, and whoever was responsible for it would be charged with… oh, I get it… no way, that's impossible…"

"What's so impossible about it?"

He only shook his head. I stopped pacing, and turned to face everyone.

"The memo said whoever was responsible would be charged with treason. So somehow the government's involved. Coupled with the sudden and bizarre cancellation of the entire investigation, I'd say it's a fair bet that the Australian government are the ones paying Celgro for their research."

Tamara gasped. Daniel starting swearing his head off. Graham was shaking his head.

"Nuh-uh, no way, you're kidding right?"

"No, I'm not."

"But… you're talking about the government creating a new breed of human!"

"Can you come up with a better explanation?"

He thought for a moment.

"Maybe the NCA received some new information, so they think Celgro's all clean."

"But Daniel rang them just before, told Munro all the stuff we found, and they didn't want to listen."

He fell silent. Larry was nodding grimly.

"It makes perfect sense. But damn…"

He jumped up and started pacing around the room, talking more to himself than anyone else. I took his seat.

"Okay, let's think about this. We have to prove it, first of all. The use of the word treason pretty much explains everything, when you think about it, but we need some rock-solid proof. Say we do find proof, which we will, I'll sit at that damn computer until I find some. How the hell are we supposed to stop Celgro if they've got the government behind them? Shit, this is going to turn into a second Mitochondria war, we can't stop the government, and the government don't realize the full power of neo-mitochondria… they're crazy… we're in big trouble, guys, big trouble…"

"Larry, sit down." That was me.

"No, I have to work this out."

"Larry, sit down."

He sat. Silence ensued.

"Is there any chance of us dropping this investigation?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, so the NCA isn't investigating anymore, are we going to keep looking into it, and try and stop Celgro?"

"Yes. Oh, yes."

"Of course."

"Hell yeah."

"Okay."

I checked my watch. It was 2.45pm.

"Well, here's what we need to do next. Larry, you've got the meeting with Dobson at four, yeah?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Well if you're going into the city, you're going to have to get going fairly soon. Daniel, you can keep hacking into Celgro's stuff, see what else you can find, see if you can come up with some conclusive proof that the government is actually behind this whole operation. Tamara, call Munro back, use those feminine persuasive devices you have in abundance to see if you can learn anything new."

She poked her tongue out at me. I kept talking.

"Graham, surveillance on Dobson is pretty pointless if he's going to be meeting Larry. Take the profiles Munro gave us, see if you can find some names of other members of Project Stella. Start looking into them."

"What about you, Bec?"

"I need a break. A nap, more like it. I'm stuffed."

"Sheesh, you knock me out, but then you get to laze around sleeping all day."

"Heh, there was nothing personal in that and you know it."

"Yeah, but still…"

Daniel shrugged his shoulders.

"You watch what you're saying buddy, or I'll dish up a lot worse. Oh, you know I will."

I grinned cheekily while everyone got going. When they were all gone, I walked slowly to my room and flopped down on my bed. I tried to relax, but I couldn't. I was wound up too tight. My mind was clicking, clicking, clicking, it wouldn't stop and give me a moments break. All this talking about neo-mitochondria and Golems had brought up some nasty memories. From the war. Jade Columbia, my old friends. I didn't think about them often, and when I did, they weren't particularly nice thoughts. I wondered if they were still alive. Their bodies were never found after the Battle of Camperdown, although not a lot of bodies were. I had a sneaking suspicion they were alive, although I had no idea how it could be possible. I remembered some stuff JC did during the war. I remembered a lot of things I hadn't thought about in a long time.

My thought processes were interrupted when I detected someone standing in the doorway. I rolled over to see who it was. It was Daniel.

"Huh? I thought you were working."

"I couldn't concentrate. So I thought I'd come check on you."

He crossed the room and sat at the end of my bed.

"You seemed kinda dazed before."

"I know."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

For a moment we sat in silence.

"I've been thinking about JC."

"Those bastards?" Daniel hated JC even more than I did.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"It's just all this stuff with neo-mitochondria today, it's got me remembering the war and everything that happened… JC… Talleja… the Battle of Camperdown…"

"Don't think about it, Bec. Don't. The war is over. Jade Columbia are all dead. It's all over, forget the past, concentrate on the future."

"But it's so hard… I keep remembering what they did…"

"Don't think about what they did. They committed crimes against humanity, that's all there is to it."

"Daniel… you were there… you know the circumstances."

"The circumstances don't matter. What they did was wrong."

"I know… sometimes I wonder what they're doing right now…"

He turned to face me in surprise.

"Bec, they're dead. You know they're dead. What are you talking about, what they're doing right now?"

"I get the feeling sometimes that they're alive. That they survived."

"They didn't, and you know it."

"I know…"

A long silence. I was too deep in thought to notice.

"Well, I'd better get back to work. Got information to dig up, projects to stop, governments to take down, you know, the usual. Get some rest, Bec. Try not to think about JC. I'll be back to check on you soon, I promise."

And he left the room.

I lay there for a while, trying to think of ways to stop Project Stella. I tried not to think of JC. It didn't work.

Eventually, I had had enough. Zombie-like, I got up and walked straight out of the house. Graham and Tamara called after me, but I just kept walking. I drove my yellow Suzuki Ignis to the local shopping centre, where I decided to drown out all my depressing thoughts in one very large iced coffee.

Sitting there, at the shopping centre, with my iced coffee in my hands, thinking of nothing but the war. The war had been over for nearly a year and a half. Life had returned to normal. The Liberal government had retaken control of the country. Little remained of the war period. Both Highpoint and the Leura had been completely destroyed. Yet I still reminisced. Over time, I became vaguely aware of someone behind me calling out my name. It was a familiar voice, but I couldn't place it.

I turned around, searching for whoever was calling out.

"Rebecca… Rebecca!"

All of a sudden I recognized the voice and my mouth went dry. My heart skipped a beat, and I spotted him. He was standing just a few metres away, but there were people milling all around in between us. I panicked, and I started searching the crowd around me. I saw no-one else familiar. The owner of the voice slowly approached me, and even at a distance I could see a glimmer of hatred in his eyes. Hatred, but there was something else there too. Was that… excitement? Anticipation? Nervousness? I couldn't tell.

After an eternity it seemed, he stood beside me, and he took a seat at my table. I had completely lost the ability to speak. The man smiled, but it was a cold smile.

"Of course, you remember me, Bec, you know who I am, right?"

"Ph-Ph-Phil?"

Phil raised one arm and clicked his fingers, suddenly four other familiar faces appeared around the table. I took each of them in in turn. Matt… Buffy… Brett… Mike… the Jade Columbia. They were all here. All alive. I fainted.