they pry, but Barry’s comment seemed like an invitation to enquire.
‘You’re not wearing a leather necklace,’ Dana said. ‘So who is your master?’
‘I’m an environmentalist,’ Barry said. ‘The planet is my master. I assume you’ve all heard of Help Earth?’
Eve shook her head, so Dana explained to her. ‘They’re a terrorist group that targets the oil industry. If you’d seen a newspaper or the TV news over the last three or four years, you’d have heard of them.’
‘I most certainly haven’t,’ Eve said indignantly. ‘The lives of devils are not my business.’
‘Haven’t you even heard it mentioned at school?’ Barry asked.
‘If they talk about things like that, I do a chant in my head to block it out,’ Eve said. ‘We mostly hang out with the other Survivors anyway.’
Barry smiled as he turned around from the hob and began dividing a saucepan of scrambled egg between four plates. ‘We prefer not to think of ourselves as terrorists. But the traditional environmental groups are constantly outmanoeuvred by corporations and governments with billions of dollars in their pockets. We can’t fight back effectively unless we’re prepared to use extreme methods.’
‘But you’re not angels,’ Eve said suspiciously.
Nina broke into a big smile. ‘Eve, darling, you know Joel Regan and his wife are extraordinarily passionate about environmental issues. The request to send you girls up here came from Susie Regan herself. What we’re going to do today will be historic. This is an opportunity for us to strike a blow for the environment as well as raising a significant amount of money towards building more Arks.’
‘Does Joel Regan know we’re doing this?’ asked Eve with excitement. ‘I mean, will he have heard my name and everything?’
Nina smiled. ‘Of course he has, sweetheart. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of reward in this. A personal presentation, maybe even a platinum bead for your necklace.’
The prospect of a platinum bead – the highest award a Survivor can receive – had Eve bouncing in her chair.
‘I can’t believe this is happening to me,’ she squealed.
Dana faked a grin and patted Eve on the back. ‘You haven’t earned the bead yet, mate,’ she said, before looking across at Barry, who’d finished dishing up and was taking his seat to start breakfast. ‘So what have we got to do?’
Barry smiled. ‘Nothing too tricky: just blowing up a couple of supertankers.’
31. TRAINING
Ernie never slowed down. James felt his seatbelt straining to one side as the truck took a hard turn off the tarmac on to a dirt track, marked out by nothing except the marks laid by vehicles that had gone before it. There was a house and a large outbuilding on the horizon.
‘You been here before?’ James asked.
Ernie nodded. ‘I drop their mail by once a week. Couple of American fellows, but it sounds like they’re shipping out pretty soon.’
‘What do they do out here?’ James asked.
‘They make paint.’
James looked surprised. ‘Why make paint in the middle of the outback?’
Ernie shrugged. ‘It’s pretty easy to get Australian citizenship if you agree to start a business in the outback. Brian showed me around once; it’s a good little business. They’re not churning out five-litre tubs of emulsion. It’s all very specialised: natural pigments and stuff for restoring paintings and antiques.’
‘How come you collect their mail for them?’
‘You’re a curious little Dickens this morning, ain’t you?’ said Ernie. ‘I think they’re friends with Susie, or something.’
‘Just making conversation,’ James said, giving a couldn’t-care-less shrug.
James realised he couldn’t push any further without seeming suspicious. It took five more minutes of Ernie’s psycho driving to reach the buildings. The house looked as if it had stood for decades, but the windowless rectangle next door was a recent addition. It was built from prefabricated sections with a corrugated metal roof.
Ernie blasted the horn, as James flung open his door and jumped out of the cab. It was getting close to the hottest part of the day and he had flies swarming around within a second of his feet touching the red dust.
‘They must be around here somewhere,’ Ernie said, craning his neck to look behind the building. ‘I’ll try the workshop, you see if they’re in the house.’ As Ernie jogged off towards the concrete shed, James stepped on to a wooden porch and rapped on a screen door.
‘Anybody home?’
He pushed the door open and found himself in a kitchen. There were a couple of suitcases on the floor and boxes packed with cutlery and utensils stacked up on the counter