Adventures of the Cosmic Woman

Chapter Twenty-Five

The streetlights below cast pools of light over the emptying roads and Infield saw the AFP car parked at Mahlia's gate. She dove down. Landed right at the gates and hammered the doorbell.

'Mahlia! Mahlia!'

The door opened. The carport light was on. Mahlia was stoic, as usual, but Infield could sense the fright in the woman that she made. She was afraid. Infield had endangered her.

'We have to leave now,' Infield said.

'No, mum,' Mahlia said. Loudly. Then she whispered. 'Run.'

'Not without you!' Infield cried. Mahlia shushed her abruptly.

'Let her in,' a voice said from inside. Madison.

There was no running now. He could have a gun to her back, Infield thought. She'd kill him, was the next thought that came. No matter who he was. She'd kill him.

'It's open,' Mahlia said.

Infield pushed through the gate. Mahlia stepped through the antechamber and Infield ambled after her. Left the front door open too. Madison stood by the circular dining table.

'I thought you'd come,' Madison said. 'Bayley thought he could charm you. I'll be getting' my cock sucked in that interrogation room, he said.'

Madison shook his head and snorted.

'I've been around a bit longer than Bayley,' Infield said as Mahlia slowly shrunk to one side. 'And I know... what I'm doing...'

Madison shook his head. 'I think you might have, back in the day. But it's not your day anymore, Darrian. Come see.'

Infield looked at Mahlia. Those big brown eyes flickered from side to side just like they always did when she was about to cry. Infield always knew when the tears were coming. Always. Whether little Mahlia had scraped her knees or just felt emotional. Infield always knew. She couldn't help but reach out and touch her daughter's arm. Instead of the soft little thing she remembered it was big and firm and felt strong. Of course it was. It had to be.

Infield stepped past Mahlia toward Madison. Her fingers were half curled toward fists and she breathed hard. Pulse pounded. Sweat tickled down her back.

Madison led them through the archway. The blueish glow of the television screen illuminated the otherwise dim living room. Infield passed Madison. The television showed a menu of news articles on a live feed that kept updating. They all had several thousand "likes" and comments. All of them were about Infield.

'What's going on?' she asked, shakily.

Madison stepped around her. He selected one of the articles by Stephen Crest. The headline read Cosmic Woman a Traitor. There was that bloated old political commentator. Images moved past his head.

'Let's the get the facts straight,' Crest said with a precise squint. 'Darrian Infield, Doctor of academia – not medicine but Marxist academia of the bygone era – comes to Australia supposedly meaning to do good with these newly and improbably acquired powers of hers. Seems alright. She busts African gangsters, immigrants, and the odd gook or boonga thug. She even stops a few terrorist attacks. All seems great. Or does it? Can her Leftist-mind comprehend the need for security and order in this modern world? Can her bleeding Greenie-era heart comprehend the threat the atheist-communist-genocidal maniacs of Africa pose to the civilized world? Would she defend the church against false accusations of child abuse? In her time even suspicion of China was condemned publicly as racist. In her time Australia's highest serving Catholic leader was imprisoned – yes, imprisoned – on nonsense charges. Needless to say, she wasn't going to be on our side for long. China came calling and Infield answered. Father Daniel Foad, murdered. Nathan Myers - a patriot and defender of white, Christian Australia - is accused of human trafficking. The United Patriots are attacked in their offices and their workplaces. And murdered summarily. An Australian naval vessel is destroyed at sea. This is the real Darrian Infield. She had brought the tyranny of Satanic-era Marxist Ideologies into modern-day Australia. The hard-working patriots of the Australian Federal Police have her as we speak in their custody. We hope, as a nation, that they have the power to break her. And confine her from public life for the rest of her days if not sentence her to the rightful punishment for a traitor.'