Cold Tomorrow

[16]

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The following afternoon, Katherine gives Caden and I a lift home from school. When we reach her house, however, there is already a car parked in the driveway.

"Whose car is that?" Caden asks as Katherine pulls into a spot out front.

"Ethel's," she says with a frown. "Strange. She said she wouldn't be coming over to tutor Sarah today."

"Maybe she changed her mind?" I suggest.

Katherine doesn't say anything – just cuts the engine and swings open the door. We all get out. But we're only halfway to the house when the front door swings open and Ethel bursts out onto the front steps, her long dark hair twisting in its ponytails as its caught in the wind. Her deep blue eyes are wide with urgency.

We all come to stop, surprised by her sudden appearance. Sarah emerges from the house behind her, looking dreadfully afraid. At the same time, Ethel says simply, "Scott's back."

Caden reacts immediately. "He is? Is he here?"

She shakes her head. "No, but you'll see him soon enough. He's called an emergency council meeting."

Now Katherine speaks. "What for? We already have one organised for this Saturday – couldn't it wait until then?"

"I'm afraid not. But there's no time to tell you. We need to go. Now."

-:-:-:-:-

The council meets in the same place as last time, in the shadowed interior of a derelict warehouse. Already there's a large crowd of people waiting and most are already seated in the circular seating arrangement. But despite the crowd, the room is quiet, words spreading amongst the people as whispers. There's an air of trepidation and it circulates the warehouse, filling up my lungs with each breath. If Ethel's sudden appearance and wide-eyed urgency isn't enough to convince me something is up, this certainly is.

Ethel urges us to take a seat. "We need to start. This cannot wait." While she moves off to speak with someone else, we head towards the chairs. Caden scans the crowd for his father as we take whatever seats we can find, but when he sits, I know he hasn't spotted him.

"Maybe he's not here yet."

He looks at me. "No, he's here. I just can't see him."

The whispered conversations around us drop out abruptly as Ethel takes her place at the centre of the ring. "Hello everyone. I apologise for the short notice but this simply could not wait until Saturday. As many of you may know, Scott Jacobsen has been away for the past six months. Before he left, unfortunately, I was unable to disclose his assignment. But now that he's back, I will share with you what he's been doing since November of last year.

"Last year, we discovered an Anarkk facility that until then, we had no knowledge of. We believe it to be a relatively recent development, as we're able to confirm it didn't exist prior to a decade ago, but it is worrying that it took so long for word of it to reach us. The main reason it's so worrying is this: the facility is extensive. Think military base. There's thirteen large multistorey compounds and maybe thirty or so smaller warehouses and buildings. They've got a runway, aeroplane hangar, training grounds and are highly weaponised. The whole place is around 3000 acres and sits out in western New South Wales."

Whispers spread throughout those seated but Ethel quickly quiets them. "The reason I didn't bring this to your attention attention sooner is because I didn't want people rushing in blind before I had the chance to see what we're up against. We didn't know how long it had been operational for, what kind of facilities or equipment it had, how many people were operating from it, and most importantly, we had no idea why it was there. We needed a way to profile it, to learn it inside out. None of that would have been possible without someone on the inside. And that person was Scott."