E-Branch - Invaders Part 37

The pilot glanced back though his window, looked from face to face, shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Suit yerself, Miss, fellers. I'm to accommodate yer as best I can, so whatever yer say is okay with me.'

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At which Liz craned her neck and looked for confirmation fro m David Chung where he sat behind her ... only to find that the locator's attention, indeed his concentration, seemed rapt on something that no one else could see. With his jaw hanging slack, he gazed as if transfixed eastward, out across the open sea. It lasted for a single moment only, then Chung started as he became aware of Liz's eyes upon him, the unspoken question that was written in them.

His gaze met hers and he half-nodded, half-shrugged, then said, 'I... I don't know. I can't be sure. It was so faint.'

They were settling fast towards a small airport. The locator snapped out of it, put his headset on, and asked the pilot, 'What'

s out there? I mean east, er, the sea?'

'Exactly, mate,' the other's tinny voice came back, seeming to vibrate as the pitch of the rotor vanes changed to landing mode. 'The sea, a handful o' little rocks, and stretching a thousand mil es to the north, the Great Barrier Reef And then a laugh. 'Sorr y, but all that's way out o' our itinerary...'

They freshened up, drank ice-cold beer out of gla.s.ses dripping with condensation, ate prawn sandwiches and barbecued chicken, and talked while they waited for their pilot to call for them.

They were in a private Skytours suite that overlooked the small airport through a soundproof panoramic window. While eating they had watched a handful of planes coming and going, not said too much, been glad of the overhead fan that struggled O OO.

to waft a stream of warm, sluggish air around the room.

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But eventually curiosity had got the better of the military men.

Liz was aware of it but didn't find it intrusive, and anyway they were all members of a loose-knit team.

And the fact was that apart from Trask's briefings - and that these men had been ordered to accept all Branch members as voices of authority here - there hadn't been and could never be a great deal of understanding of E-Branch's role. Not to disparage the military, but it would have proved extremely difficult for entirely military minds to grasp the concepts, motivations, and operating practices of an ESP-oriented intelligence agency. And, indeed, they weren't required to. But now, here in the intimacy of a much smaller grouping, these young soldiers had been presented with an opportunity to dig just a little deeper.

On the other hand and on behalf of E-Branch, both Liz and Chung were sworn to a modified version of the Official Secrets Act, and so had to be be circ.u.mspect in what they revealed.

'You're a psychic, right?' one of the Warrant Officers, a slim, well-muscled, crew- cut redhead in his early thirties asked of David Chung. 'I mean, don't take offence, but isn't it a bit strange, using - what do you call it? Parapsychology? - against b.l.o.o.d.y awful things such as that nest we burned out in the desert?'

'No offence taken,' said Chung. 'But you'd do well to remember that I'm the one who found those b.l.o.o.d.y things out in the desert! And I've been dealing with such things on and off- but mercifully more off than on - for some twenty years.

Currently, however, we're definitely on again, and like,most of the others in E- Branch I'm getting past my sell-by date. Oh, we're recruiting young blood all right, such as Liz here, but the years take their toll. So on a job like this we're obliged to call in different kinds of "experts". We like to be sure there's plenty of muscle behind the mind.'

'Like us?' said the other.

And Chung nodded, smiled, raised an eyebrow and said, 'No offence?'

'But a psychic? I mean, how can you simply think the location of these creatures?

Like, you read their thoughts or something?'

And though he was polite up front in his talking to Chung, Liz couldn't help reading that he was more than a little sceptical. She read one or two other things, too, such as: Never kid a kidder, Mr Chinaman. Old Red isn't buying it! Red: a nickname no one had used since his teens, and one which he wouldn't accept from anyone 420.

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else despite that it f itted him so well and was how he continued to th ink of himself.

So before Chung could answer Liz told herself to h.e.l.l with the rules and said: 'Whether you're buying it or not, my friend Mr Chung here - who is in fact a fourth-generation Brit, despite that his roots are oriental - isn't kidding, Red!'

The young soldier jerked in his seat, instinctively touched a hand to his crew-cut, and stuttered: 'Er, my hair, right?'

But Liz shook her head. 'Your thoughts/ she replied. 'And Red, the next time I walk into a place ahead of you, please try to remember I can't help how I walk, and find somewhere else to look... okay?'

f.u.c.k me!!! thought the other.

And Liz said, 'No, thanks. I'm spoken for.' 'J-Jesus, I'm s-s-sorry!' the other gasped.

'It's okay/ Liz told him. 'But maybe we should change the subject now? And yes, you're safe: I promise not to peek.'

'What's going on?' asked the other soldier, genuinely puzzled.

'Nothing much/ Liz told him. 'I was reading your friend's thoughts, that's all. Yours, too, if you like.'

'Oh, really?' The second W.O. was older and less inquisitive.

But he did have something on his mind.

'In the chopper/ Liz said, 'just as we were landing. You were wondering what was wrong with David. Like me, you noticed the way he was looking out over the sea, his expression.'

'You saw that?' the W.O. said.

'No/ said Liz, 'I overheard it, "Joe" - in your head/ And Joe accepted that she had, because they had only ever been introduced as Warrant Officers Bygraves and Davis!

'Let me have one of your maps/ Chung said, deciding that Liz had gone far enough. 'This area, and small-scale. Covering as much ground as possible/ 'Red' Bygraves spread a map on the table, and Chung began poring over it. While he searched he explained: 'I'm a kind of bloodhound. It's nothing weird/ (though in fact it was) 'just a knack, sort of instinctive. But sometimes I can sense where these things are hanging out. In the helicopter, I got a feeling that there just might be something ... out there!'

He stabbed his index finger at the map, their current location, then drew it in a straight line east and a little north. 'In that direction, anyway. And you know, it's still there, but so very faint ...' Chung shook his head, narrowed his eyes in a frown.

'What we could use, really, is a little triangulation/ 'Now that I understand/ said Red. 'Let me see the map/ They let him jostle into position, watched him point out a location: Sandy Cape on the northern tip of Fraser Island. And: 'We can't ask the pilot to fly us east and out to sea/ he went on, 'because that will add a ir miles and run him low on fuel to get us back to B risbane. But there's no reason why he can't fly us over Fraser Island, which lies south of here. He did suggest a coastal route, right?'

'Good!' said Chung. 'And as soon as we get over the northern tip of the island, I can - well, do my thing, take a bearing north - and see if we come up with something/ .

Red looked at Liz. 'And you'll do what? Or does this part include you out?'

Now Liz saw the error of sa ying anything at all. But since it was too late now: '.

If David senses anything, I'll try to, well, hitch a ride on his probe/ she said. 'But since this looks like a long-distance thing, I really can't be sure 111 get a reading/ And Joe asked Chung: 'Did this talent of yours really lead your people to that Gibson D esert nest? I mean, we haven't seen you around until today - a nd you weren't out there - so ... ?'

'Bruce Trennier had a very powerful aura/ Chung answered.

'But as a comparative newcomer among these creatures - even as a lieutenant - he wasn't too good at h iding himself away. When he slipped up, myself and some other E-Branch people, we picked him up from London. Since when the rest of them se em to be masking their presence - a kind of mental camouflage, you know?

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So I came out here to get a little closer to the action. Well, and now we might have found some.'

'You picked Trennier up from London?' Joe said.

The locator nodded, and thought, Yes, like a dense bank of jog on a sunny day. Fog that's there one minute, gone the next.

Minasmog! But out loud he only said, 'Yes, we did.'

To which there was no answer, and the two W.O.s could only look at each other and shake their heads in wonder ...

In the other helicopter an hour later, Jake Cutter was lost in his own thoughts, somewhat moodily enjoying the mountain scenery, when Lardis Lidesci reached across the narrow aisle, jogged his elbow and said something.

'Um?' Jake murmured a response: He had long since removed his headset, and so had Lardis.

'I said, what's that?' the Old Lidesci said again, pointing out of the window on his own side of the aircraft.

'Why not ask the pilot?' Jake grumbled. 'How am I to know what something is?' But, loosening his belt, he stood up, leaned across and looked anyway.

lan Goodly was seated in front of Lardis. Feeling the movements, he looked back, saw where the others were looking.

They were on the return trip, cover ing different mountains than on the ou tward-bound leg. A thousand feet below, a ma.s.sive geological 'wrinkle' in the Macpherson Range had left a tightly angled dog-leg fold. In the west-facing lee of the fold, a saddle or roughly oblong-shaped false plateau maybe two and a half by four acres in extent stood out in stark contrast to the surrounding heights. For it wasn't naked rock. Anything but.

At an elevation of almost three thousand feet, someone had built ... a small town? No, not a town but a complex of sorts: with gardens, pools, fountains, a monorail, tennis courts, bowling greens, even a small ski-slope up against the mountainside, and terraced chalets to house the guests. The walkways between concentric rows of red-tiled chalet accommodations radiated out from a roughly central location: a circular garden surrounding a great, silver-s.h.i.+ning bubble of a structure, with windows on three levels and a smaller dome on top.

Lardis was lost for words; he found it too fantastic. But Jake only grunted and said, 'You should see Las Vegasf While in his own mind he wondered: A holiday campp A fantastic hotel complex for the jet-setters and beautiful people? Or maybe- 'An aerie!' sighed Lardis. 'Now wouldn't that make a wonderful aerie? Er, without all this sunlight, of course.'

The precog was still wearing his headset, and he had been conversing with the pilot.

Now he put a hand over the mike and said, 'Xanadu, and the centrepiece there ... why, that can only be Kubla Kahn's pleasure dome! Put on your headsets. The pilot knows some stuff Jake and Lardis complied, heard the pilot tail off: '... There were some private homes here, hence the road up the mountain. But after the fire some kind of tyc.o.o.n bought up the land and built this place. He's a philanthropist, uses the money from this for other "good works", allegedly. Huh! A typical tax gimmick, if you ask me. All of these fat-cat rich b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are the same. Xanadu, yeah, that's what it's called. The dome's a casino, all three floors of it.'

'The fire?' said Goodly. 'You mean the Brisbane Fire?'

'Nah, not the Great Fire,' said the other. 'This was back in '97, an earlier El Nino. The place was a tinderbox, and the fire must have started in one of the weekend homes. They were simple timber cabins, holiday homes, you know? Went up like so much kindling.'

'Take her lower, can you?' The precog was plainly interested.

'So what's on your mind, boss?' With a chuckle, the pilot leaned his machine into a descending spiral. 'You want to wave at the girlies around those pools?'

'Er, something like that,' said Goodly. And certainly the girlies were there, and sun-bronzed fellows, too. There were three pools situated equidistant from the central 424.

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dome; they glittered like dazzling blue jewels in Mediterranean settings, and were surrounded by low windbreak walls and mosaic-paved sundecks. The sundecks were dotted with chairs and sunbeds. And sure enough, as the chopper circled lower, the girls were sitting up, tilting their mirror-shades at the furnace sky, waving lazy arms at their imagined aerial 'admirers'.

'That's low enough/ Lardis muttered, nervously. 'The next thing you know, I'll be swimming!'

And the Major said, 'Mightn't we attract a little too much attention?' He was on the headset and the pilot heard him.

'So what's the problem?' he inquired. 'Are you worried the people who run th e place will complain? Nah! It's good free advertising, and we do this all the time. Tourists who can afford it sometimes take time out after they've seen it to come up for a few days'

relaxation - though how anyone with red blood in his veins could relax up here is beyond me!'

Then the precog said, 'That ... that's enough. We'd better get on our way now.' And there was a certain edge to his piping voice that had Jake looking at him across the aisle.

He saw that Goodly's face was suddenly drawn, and noticed how his hands gripped the armrests of his seat...

PART FOUR.

The h.e.l.l Of It 426.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

Here Be Vampires That evening at the safe house, when Trask's people had eaten, he got them together in the Ops Room to debrief them and start them working on the correlation of their findings. For he knew by then that they had been partially successful - or at least that they'd detected something out of the ordinary - and that a lot might soon depend on their observations.

For instance, the military contingent: it was most likely that the siting of the SAS back-up teams would be based on the as yet unproven suspicions or 'hunches' of Trask's espers. And in just two days' time those men and vehicles would start arriving and moving into harbour areas whose locations were as yet undecided. Time was of the essence.

After Trask had settled his people down, David Chung described his temporary contact with something during the landing at Gladstone, and went on to talk about the system of triangulation that they had devised.

'Taking Gladstone as the centre of a clock face,' the locator said, 'the first reading would see the minute hand at some thirteen minutes past the hour, or a few degrees north of east.

As for the second reading, over Sandy Cape, that would be about twelve and a half minutes before the hour, or north- west.' Chung stood before an illuminated wall map of the area and used his index finger to point out the coordinates, then traced 429.

the directional lines to their junction some sixty miles out in the open sea. 'Which puts it - whatever it is - right there/ he said. But staring at the map, he could only offer a baffled shrug. 'The last place on Earth that we'd expect to find a vampire or vampires. Right in the middle of an ocean, with nothing but water and lots, I mean lots of sunlight, for miles around!'

'But you got readings,' said Trask. 'You got mindsmog. So, how do you explain it?'

The locator looked at him, frowned and said. 'Explain it? But if it wasn't for Liz here I'd probably simply ignore it! A glitch, something out of kilter in my head ... a headache? The evidence of the map, the location, it's all against us. I mean, what would a vampire be doing out there?

Also, we know that in the past we've puzzled over similar effects from other espers, from talents outside E-Branch giving off vibes they don't even know they've got! So but for Liz I'd probably settle for someone on a s.h.i.+p out there - maybe a cruise liner? - using precognition to place bets in the casino, or maybe telekinesis to drop the ball on his numbers at roulette. Someone who's extraordinarily "lucky," who doesn't even know he has a skill - who thinks he has a "system" - but who's nevertheless been banned from half a dozen mainland casinos. That's what I'd be tempted to think, except ...' He paused and looked at Liz. 'Liz doesn't think so. But there again, no matter what anyone thinks, nothing can change the fact that it's sixty miles out to sea.'

Trask said, 'But so were those Russian nuclear submarines, and you haven't been wrong about those. And I remember the time when a certain Jianni Lazarides had just such a s.h.i.+p, The Lazarus, out on the Mediterranean. Yes, but his r eal name was Janos Ferenczy! He was Wamphyri, too, one of the very worst. And remember: just because there's a lot of sunlight, it do esn't mean our man has to go out in it.'

He turned to Liz. 'David says it might be nothing. But he also says you don't think so. So what do you think?'

Liz looked anxiously from face to face, bit her lip, and said, 'Ben, are we right to place this much faith in my talent right now? I mean, at that kind of range, riding David's probe ... I could easily be mistaken. I'm not really sure that-'

'No, no, no!' Trask cut in, waving his hand dismissively, impatiently. 'Just tell us what you got and let us try to figure it out. It isn't the first time we've done this, Liz. And it isn't as if we're vying with one another to see who will be first to find these d.a.m.ned things! But while no shame attaches to being in error, still we do have to find them. Which means anything is better then nothing. So whatever it was you sensed out there, let's have it.' Liz, Trask and Chung were on their feet; the rest of the team were seated. And now Liz sat down, too, and thought about it for a moment. Casting her mind back, she asked herself exactly what it was that she had experienced when the locator took his second reading from the helicopter as it circled high over Sandy Cape.