Leopard Dreaming (35 page)

She nodded to herself, preferring to recall the joy of watching each birthday or marriage, and the pain each time she attended one of their funerals — a death ceremony for ghosts, which seemed less strange now than it had then. ‘One time there was a sick baby; Lukey. Just a toddler, really. He died of colic. Do you know what that is?’

‘Sure, it’s a painful abdominal obstruction, with spasms or inflammation, but I’ve only heard of it being lethal in horses. Didn’t they try any old remedies, or soapy fluids?’

‘That only made him worse. He swallowed his sister’s string bracelet and his intestines twisted up trying to pass it. His mother tried to save him with a knife while his father held him down. They had no painkillers. I
did,
in my parents’ first aid kit, but all I could do was watch them. I couldn’t even hold him or sing to him — and don’t think I didn’t try. I’ve never sung so hard in my life.’

Lockman cleared his throat, as if it affected him too. ‘Was the town too small for a doctor or surgeon?’

‘Doc MacFarlane was inland at the time, doing rounds of the bigger farms and stations. Our blacksmith galloped to fetch him … I mean,
their
blacksmith.’ He reminded her a lot of Lockman, now that she thought about it. ‘He galloped his best horse to death through the night and still couldn’t fetch the doc back in time.’

She bit her lip, remembering the sight of the small coffin lowering into its final resting place.

‘I know it must sound silly to get attached to people who lived over a century ago. Especially when I thought they were ghosts. They could have lived to be a hundred and still died before I was born.’

‘Not silly at all. Explains why you’re here. Why you can’t walk away until you know your friends are safe. I admire that, Mira. It goes deeper than friendship. You’ve lost everyone you ever knew as a child, and yet you’re out trying to build a new life with new relationships when most people I know would curl up in a ball and shut their doors. Or turn to drink, drugs or some other self-destructive crutch.’

‘I suppose that makes you my crutch.’

‘If so, you won’t hear a complaint. I’ve been using you as a crutch too. We’re more alike than you could possibly know.’

‘How?’ She laughed. ‘You’ve got your family. Your sisters — and didn’t one of them have baby twins? You have a whole battalion of friends, probably.’

‘Don’t bet on it. I can’t go home without putting my sisters at risk. Like you, I’m lugging baggage from the past. Stuck in a cycle that’s preventing me from moving on. And I have people I love who could die if we mess up today.’

She stopped, realising he was serious.

He stopped too — by yet another fallen tree which had grown too tall to withstand high winds while its roots were bedded mainly in sand. Seemed
appropriate to her, since the ground seemed unstable beneath her too.

‘If Kitching ever learns of my sisters, he’s likely to use them against me, just as he’s used Ben and Maddy to get at you.’

‘So what’s the worst he can do? Force you to back off.’ She shrugged. ‘I’d be no worse off than before I met you.’

‘Unfortunately, it’s not just about you any more.’ He paced away and back again, sounding frustrated. ‘Makes me wish I hadn’t used family names for the bike or hotel after all.’

‘You said it wouldn’t matter after tonight.’

‘Not a big enough barrier, Mira. Kitching and I go back further than the death of my sergeant. Further than I realised myself until I spoke to Garland this morning. He hasn’t only got your matron, and my fingerprints on the gun that killed my sergeant. A dozen years ago, he was the lieutenant colonel who charged my father with murder and cowardice over an incident in Iraq. Had him court-martialled for abandoning his unit and shooting two drivers to sell a truckload of weapons to the enemy. A school bus got caught in the crossfire … Living in a small farming community, you can imagine how shunned that made our family.’

‘Another frame job.’

‘The first in a long line. My father pleaded innocent at the time Kitching arrested him. Next day my mother’s car was found at the bottom of the spillway at Wivenhoe Dam. Kirby was barely out of nappies, I was new to high school, while Helen was just about to graduate. So Dad confessed. To protect us, I guess. Perfect scapegoat, since he’d already been suffering stress, depression and fatigue, along with all the symptoms that made it hard for him to keep working as part of a team. Also made him look like a ticking time bomb. So he went to jail for three years until his
early release for good behaviour. Died with the stink of shame still hanging over him.’

‘If your dad only took the fall to protect you and your sisters, why didn’t anyone protest or try to clear his name?’

‘Oh, we did. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop him bearing the guilt of how it affected us at school or in town. We couldn’t buy groceries or find work after school, so he made me enlist under my mother’s maiden name so I’d be free of it. He wanted me to use the army to earn back some of the respect we’d lost from our town and wider family. Unfortunately, my first posting overseas landed me in even deeper trouble. In East Timor.’

‘With Kitching?’

‘As fate would have it, yes. He sent my recon unit to patrol a border between disputed territories. Sacrificial lambs, apparently. Not meant to come back, so the public outcry would trigger reactions to destabilise the delicate peace treaties throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and force additional police actions by the UN or US. Not unlike the civil protests springing up in neighbouring countries now, if you’ve had a chance to hear the news lately. As if the colonel has finally managed to trigger the same repercussions, so he’s in business — literally.’

‘Back up. He tried to kill your whole unit?’

‘At the time, I did suspect a setup, but I didn’t know Kitching much at all, so I had no idea he was behind it, or why. My commanding officer back then was a different general. A real stand-up guy who covered my arse when I should have been court-martialled.’

‘For surviving?’

‘Basically, yeah. That’s part of the old story with my father that I didn’t want you getting mixed up in. It also involves a dead arts minister and a crystal coffin that formed part of the murder weapon, but suffice
to say, the short version is telling enough: Kitching worked for the general too, and seized the chance to send my unit into a situation that should have made it easy for rebel militia to do the killing for him, so he could be rid of the “MacLeods” for good.’

‘That figures. He never seems to get his own hands bloody. What’s the punch line?’

‘Ambushed. Luckily or not, I got separated from the others just before they were captured. I called for help and was ordered to pull back, but if I had — if I hadn’t stayed and done what I did under the cover of night — the rest of my unit would have been executed. The UN committee in charge used to take a week just to get out of bed, let alone decide if they needed to send in a negotiator or extraction team. Any counter-action could have triggered a war in that situation, and by the Geneva Conventions, there needs to be a thirty-day cooling-off period before declaring a war or initiating retaliation.’

Mira heard him shift about restlessly, as if the long version was still eating at him. It made her worry that he might try to kill Kitching out of revenge before she had a chance to find and retrieve Maddy Sanchez.

‘You’re not planning on something you might regret later, I hope.’

‘Too late for that.’ His voice sounded haunted. ‘My unit had the latest satellite maps and GPS, while rebel militia had only compasses and atlases they’d stolen from schools they’d looted during their retreat to the border. As a poor country, their reprints hadn’t been updated in two hundred years. That’s since the Portuguese last surveyed the islands. So when they ambushed us in rugged jungle, they honestly believed we’d crossed illegally into their territory. Except none of that came to light until the cleanup, when General Garland’s team came in and discovered the problem. She organised a truce and issued the enemy with
updated maps and GPS to prevent it happening again. Accidentally or otherwise.’

‘So both sides thought they were right?’

‘Worse than that. None of them needed to die.’

She didn’t dare to ask how many. She could already hear how heavily their coffins weighed on his shoulders. She could almost feel them herself, knowing she expected him to add more for anyone who got between her and Maddy Sanchez.

‘This is different.’ She felt an urge to hug him, feeling more akin to him now than she ever had to her parents. ‘We’re the home side, and they’re the invaders. The line is black and white in bold, Braille and italics, and they crossed it.’

He paced away and back again. ‘I shouldn’t have burdened you with my side of it. It’s all classified, so even I shouldn’t know most of it. Except there’s going to come a time later today when I’ll need you to trust me.’

‘But I do already. I thought we covered that.’

‘I mean
really
trust me … deep down, soul to soul. You need to know I’m as loyal to you as my own flesh and blood.’

Mira didn’t know how to answer him. She felt the same but had no words to express it. Without any living relatives of her own, she couldn’t return the sentiment without making it sound empty. ‘Sounds like you’re planning on leaving me?’

‘Not willingly. It’s far more likely you’ll feel the urge to ditch me at the last minute, and to be honest, I wouldn’t blame you. In your shoes, I’d do it without question. But I can do this, Mira. I know in my gut I can get her out for you.’

‘From a submarine?’ She laughed. ‘I must have missed finding your gills, if you think you can swim after it.’

‘There’s more than one way to get a sub to surface. Easier in Moreton Bay than anywhere else
in the southern hemisphere, because there’s only one main channel between the mainland and islands. Unfortunately, first I’ll need to act as if I don’t give a rat’s arse about her. Or you. So I need you to know now that I’m every bit as committed as you. Otherwise, I fear it will be too big a leap of faith for you then.’

‘I’m already wearing the bug, and that’s a huge leap of faith.’

‘Dead bug. Doesn’t count in comparison. The things I’ll need to say will make it hard not to really hate me.’

‘Me, hate you? Tsk, tsk. Who’d ever believe that?’

‘Yeah. What was I thinking? We should get moving. I’d like to hit the beach below the hotel by ebb tide.’ Yet he came and crouched at her feet like a knight pledging his life. ‘You up to that?’

She hesitated, wondering if he really was giving her the final word. To offend or defend. Either way meant putting more lives at risk. ‘How many lives do you think the matron would say her life is worth?’

‘None.’ He clasped her hand, his touch warm as he rose and led her away. ‘But she’d be wrong.’

Mira nodded, accepting the responsibility that next time he drew his sidearm, she’d virtually be pulling the trigger with him. Much like Ben had felt responsible for everything she’d done after she’d opened up to him. And the thought that he’d suffered that way because of her too made her heart heavier.

‘I feel like I’ve had therapy.’ Her mind felt so weary she followed the narrow, fading trail almost blindly.

‘I was thinking the same thing.’ He dropped her hand and went ahead. ‘I’ve never confided so much to anyone in my life. Must make a nice change for you to be the one taking notes instead of staring at the ceiling.’

‘Actually, I think I’m only qualified for the couch.’ She laughed. ‘I can’t believe I just said that.’

He didn’t reply, and she soon noticed she couldn’t hear him at all. No squeaky sand as the giveaway. No soft shuffle of boots in leaf litter either.

Turning about, she also realised she’d lost all sight of the trail. Overhead, the canopy seemed a little thinner, and the trees wider and further apart. Otherwise the forest looked virtually the same in every direction. Short or tall, straight or gnarly. All the flora seemed to meld into a ghostly blur; every plant a speckled shadow of its neighbour.

In a heartbeat of panic, she spun about again, lost without him.

‘Lieutenant?’ she called softly. ‘Where are you?’

‘Over here.’ Dead ahead in the direction she’d been before turning. ‘We must be getting closer to Gabby’s boat. She’s the only one who’s passed this way.’

‘How can you tell?’

She heard his clothes rustle as if he’d been crouched inspecting the ground.

‘The soles of her shoes are treaded with the paw prints of kangaroos.’

‘That figures.’

A few minutes further on brought them to a shallow creek. Narrow enough for Mira to jump across, if she were so inclined, and water so clear she could see yesterday’s crabs on the sandy bottom. Through the ghostly trees, she could also see the estuary widening and snaking around to its mouth. Choked slightly by a small isle of mangroves. She also saw the semi-submerged log leading out to it.

‘That must be it.’ She stopped again anyway. In the still air, through the haze of yesterday, it looked eerie enough to give her the creeps.

Lockman stopped too, falling silent as if he could also sense something off about it.

To her left, she heard the grass rustle.

Across the creek, a metal click.

Oh, no.

Sounds sprang at her from every direction, and Lockman swept her sideways against a tree.

General Garland leaned across Lasso and pointed to a blip in the forest, roughly three clicks west of her temporary command post in the penthouse.

‘What’s this lone signal over here?’ she asked. ‘It’s moving this way.’

‘A glitch, sorry, General. Not a virus, just a pain.’

‘Clarify?’

‘A civilian, I think. Fast hiker or slow jogger with a music or video download buffering each time they pass between black spots. The device must be malfunctioning to put out a signal that happens to match ours so closely. Nothing to sweat over, though. I’ve been watching it for half an hour.’

‘Zoom to verify.’

‘Tried that already.’ He did again to demonstrate the problem. ‘Forest’s too thick. It could just as easily be a bower bird or wallaby that’s made off with a camper’s music stick.’