Matt Eaton - Blank

It was time.

“We need to get out of the car. Mel, keep the camera rolling.”

The white radomes of Pine Gap were painted yellow by the fading light of late afternoon, almost as if they were glowing from within.

The motorbike that had been tailing them appeared on the track about 100 metres away as it rose up from the creek bed. When the rider saw them the bike ground to a halt.

Luckman turned toward the camera. “It would seem someone is following us.”

His final words were drowned out as the two largest radomes at the defence base exploded into a ball of flames.

“Holy hell, someone just blew up Pine Gap!” yelled Bell.

Luckman turned around to see for himself, smiling inwardly. “That is not good,” he offered, aiming to keep his response short and sharp. He was no actor.

When a third explosion took out the smaller of the radomes, the motorbike began moving down the track toward them.

“Everyone back in the car,” Luckman ordered. He tapped Mel on the shoulder and waved his hand in a circle to indicate he wanted her to keep filming. She nodded.

“Where to now?” Bell asked.

“We’re going through the portal.”

“I was really hoping you weren’t going to say that.”

Luckman threw the 4WD into reverse until they hit the T-junction, then threw the car forward toward the loop in the road.

At the apex of the loop the desert disappeared and the sky turned a deep emerald green.

As the desert twilight reappeared in front of them, Luckman spotted a woman standing on the road directly ahead of the four-wheel-drive. She raised a pistol and fired. The bullet thumped into the front door pillar. He recognised the shooter – it was Maxine Warrington. She didn’t have a chance to fire twice. The car hit her a glancing blow and she was catapulted sideways, the gun flying out of her grasp.

Luckman slammed on the brakes and leapt out of the car, not so much concerned for her welfare as he was worried that she might still be deadly. She was barely conscious when he knelt down in the dust beside her.

“You’re supposed to maintain a discreet distance when you tail someone,” he told her.

“You broke my arm,” she complained.

“Sorry about that,” he said, not at all sure he meant it.

He was dimly aware of Mel moving around behind him in a state of agitation.

“I remember, Luckman!” she told him. “I remember it all.”

He, on the other hand, remembered none of it. He wanted to hear more but dared not take his eyes off Warrington. She still had one good arm and undoubtedly another gun stashed somewhere within reach.

“Mind telling me why you want to kill me?” he asked.

“Shearer’s orders,” said Warrington. “You blew up Pine Gap. You’re a terrorist.”

He wished he was more surprised. “You saw for yourself, I was nowhere near the base when it exploded.”

Captain Warrington tried to smile but it became a grimace. “You’ll need to do better than that to survive a court martial.”

Mel started to scream. For a moment he thought it was in response to Warrington’s threat. Then he realised something else had happened when the scream was suddenly cut off. He turned around briefly and saw Bell and Pat pulling on Mel’s legs, seemingly in a tug of war with an unseen foe. The top half of her body had disappeared. Someone was trying to pull her back through the portal.

Mel’s video camera fell from her hand and hit the ground. Her hand dangled uselessly by her side and vanished briefly before reappearing as it swung back and forth through the portal. Bell began throwing punches into the gap. One of them must have connected because eventually the assailant let go. Mel, Pat and Bell collapsed to the ground, momentum throwing them clear of the portal.

Luckman roughly searched Warrington for concealed weapons and found her second pistol. “Stay here,” he hissed, brandishing the weapon at her. As he stood up he grabbed her other pistol for good measure.

Bell and Pat rolled away from Mel and sat up slowly. She remained face-down in the dirt. Luckman handed the guns to Bell and glanced in Warrington’s direction. “If she makes any sudden moves, shoot her,” he ordered as he sank to the ground and helped Pat gently roll Mel onto her back.

Her eyes were open and she was breathing. But she wasn’t moving.

He touched her face. “Mel? Can you hear me?”

She stared back at him vacantly. She offered no indication she understood. He touched her face again.

“Say something. Are you all right?”

She opened her mouth and closed it again, almost as if in mockery. But her eyes were devoid of all recognition, intelligence or personality. She stared at him with a dull and inhuman expression he had seen too many times before.

He leant forward and cradled her in his arms, feeling as if the world itself was conspiring against them. It was the strangest thing, because the warmth and smell of her were no comfort. It felt more like he was hugging a corpse. He put his arms around her waist and lifted her out of the dust knowing she wouldn’t be able to walk. He whispered to her that everything would be OK, and tried his best to believe it.

Bell helped him lift her into the back of the car. “What’s wrong with her?” the pilot asked.

They strapped a seatbelt around her waist and Luckman patted her reassuringly on the cheek then climbed back out of the car. He still had Warrington to consider.

Bell looked haunted. “She’s gone Blank, hasn’t she?” Luckman closed his eyes in silent acknowledgement.

“How is that possible?” Bell wanted to know.

“Must’ve had something to do with them trying to drag her back. You and Pat saved her but she was stretched out over that portal in two worlds at once. My guess is that was enough to fry her brain.”

As if she knew they were talking about her, Mel started wailing like a frightened child. She reached out of the car, grabbing him by the hand and forcing him to sit down once more beside her. He sensed pulling away would only agitate her further. She stroked him on the cheek then lifted his hand to her face indicating she wanted him to do the same to her, as he had done moments earlier. It was as moving as it was pathetic. It could have been nothing greater than instinct, but it also seemed a distinctly knowing gesture.

He turned back to face Bell. “You two get Warrington into the back seat next to me, but you’ll have to keep her covered from the front. She’s dangerous. And pick up Mel’s camera. We might still be able to salvage something useful from it.”

Bell nodded.

No phantom tsunami awaited them in the creek bed. Likewise no howling banshees assaulted their ears, for which Luckman was enormously grateful. As he had suspected, the psychic defence system had emanated from Pine Gap. Blowing up the base had shut it down.

“So how’d you do it?” Warrington asked him, as if reading his thoughts.

“Do what?”

“Complete your mission.”

“He had help,” Pat told her from the front seat.

“Funny thing,” said Luckman. “Someone pointed out to me the other day that some fellas can get around in this town like they’re bloody invisible. Couple of blokes like that can come in real handy when you want to blow some shit up.”

“The portal – where did it take you?”

“That’s a long story.” One he had no intention of telling her. “Did you know it was here?”

She avoided his gaze. “We suspected.”

He grabbed her by the arm. “Was it always Shearer’s plan to set me up?”

Warrington looked out the window. “It’s nothing personal, Captain. You are a blunt instrument. We are trying to prevent a nuclear war. General Shearer can’t bring his plan to fruition if he’s locked up as a traitor.”