and storm the Ark.’
Rat considered this information for a moment.
‘That really is the truth isn’t it?’ he said, breaking into a wry grin. ‘That’s why neither of you got brainwashed, that’s why you’re both so smart, that’s why you’re both good at fighting and you know about computers and stuff. Oh man, this is totally amazing.’
Lauren was horrified that they’d blown their cover, but fairly confident that they’d get away with it: the mission was almost over, they hadn’t gone into any specifics about CHERUB and nobody would believe Rat if he opened his mouth.
‘OK,’ James said. ‘I told you, now tell us about the Evans brothers.’
‘I don’t know about brothers,’ Rat said. ‘But one afternoon I came up to Susie’s office with the letters to sign and she’s lying over her desk snogging this Brian dude. She totally freaked out. Started screaming her head off and threatened to have me killed if I breathed a word.’
‘I bet that’s it,’ James said, ‘she’s running away with Brian. When I drove in with Ernie half an hour ago there was another jet on the runway. They’ve drugged the butler and ripped the hard drives from their computers to cover their tracks.’
Rat nodded. ‘That would explain why she didn’t want me coming over with the signature book today as well. But I don’t see the need for secrecy unless they’re up to something else. I mean, Susie’s not under lock and key. She flies down to Sydney for shopping trips all the time.’
‘What else do you think it could be?’ Lauren asked.
Rat shrugged. ‘I haven’t got a clue.’
‘Has either of you heard the jet taking off?’ James asked.
‘Nope,’ Lauren said, as Rat shook his head.
‘I’ll radio Chloe and warn her that Susie is leaving,’ James said.
‘Aaagghh!’ Lauren gasped, quickly closing the door. ‘Susie and Brian – they just came into the corridor. They’ve got massive suitcases and they’re waddling this way.’
*
Nina drove the silver car briskly, but not so fast that they attracted attention. Dana kept replaying the shooting in her mind, trying to think of something she might have done differently to bring the situation under control. Although the shooting had shaken her up, she’d finally straightened out her head enough to string together a few coherent thoughts.
They’d set off from the outskirts of Darwin and within minutes they were on a stretch of open road, touching a hundred and twenty kph. They pulled through a metal gate and on to a dirt track leading to a disused stable block. Dana realised they weren’t anywhere near the coast and got seriously worried when they passed behind the stables, revealing a dirt airstrip and a twin prop aeroplane.
Eve asked the obvious question. ‘What is this? I thought we were getting on a boat.’
Dana wasn’t sure she’d have the stomach for Barry’s answer. He looked between the front seats as Nina pulled on the handbrake and yanked the ignition key.
‘We’ll be getting on a boat, but it’s moored off the Wessel Islands, six hundred kilometres from here.’
Dana couldn’t understand. John had said the only other LNG facility in Australia was over three thousand kilometres away. A boat would take days to travel that kind of distance. She looked around as she got out of the car, hoping for some sign that another ASIS unit had picked up the trail and tracked them. But all she could hear was birdsong and flies, and her view towards the highway was blocked by the abandoned stables.
Barry headed across to the small aircraft, with Dana, Eve and Nina following. He pulled a weatherproof canopy from around each engine, while Nina took the blocks out from under the wheels.
‘So,’ Dana enquired, sounding as unruffled as her spinning head would let her. ‘Is the journey going to take very long?’
‘We’ll be in the air about a hundred minutes,’ Barry said. ‘We’re meeting up with a high-speed boat. If the weather stays fine we should be able to make it across the Arafura Sea in four to four and a half hours.’
‘Oh,’ Dana nodded, wishing that she had the vaguest idea where the Arafura Sea or the Wessel Islands were.
Fortunately Eve had a better grasp of local geography. ‘So the LNG terminal is in Indonesia?’
Dana cursed in her head. John and his ASIS colleagues had only considered Australian oil facilities, but parts of Indonesia were just a few hundred kilometres across the sea.
‘It’s not that we wanted to keep you girls in the dark,’ Nina explained, as Barry opened up