Meteorite Strike (7 page)

“Wow,” breathed Robert, who was lying on the other side of the fire.

“It's quite a sight, isn't it?” Daniel said from his own blanket. He'd removed the whisky bottle from his pocket and now took a swig. “At least this hasn't changed. Whatever goes on down here, the stars will shine on. See that constellation?”

They both looked to the area where he was pointing. A pattern of five stars stood out.

“The Southern Cross,” Daniel said. “You can't see it from England. You have to be in the southern hemisphere, like Australia. That makes it special down here.”

They watched for a while, enjoying the silence after the events of the day. Sarah heard Robert's breathing become heavier and across the flickering flames of the fire she saw that his eyes were closed. Getting up quietly, she placed another blanket over him.

“You're doing a good job looking after him.” Daniel was watching her across the fire. She shrugged and settled back in her own place.

“Someone's got to,” she replied, before realizing how it sounded. For once, she hadn't meant it as a dig. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” he replied. “I haven't been anyone's idea of Dad of the Year in the past. Eight years ago, when I left—”

“You didn't leave, Mum threw you out,” Sarah corrected. “I'm not stupid, you know. I heard you two arguing all the time.”

Through the flickering firelight, Sarah saw Daniel wince and take another drink. “Did she tell you why?” he asked.

“She never would. Want to let me in on the secret?”

“Another time maybe,” he responded quietly. “So, she was still angry with me.”

“Yes.”

“And now you're angry with me too.”

“I guess so.”

“Your mum and I spoke, those last days at the hospital,” Daniel said. “She told me that you've been angry a lot recently.”

Sarah fell silent. She remembered Mum's strained face, full of pain at another bad report from school.
Trouble.
That's what Sarah's last teacher had called her. That just made matters worse. In her last few months at school, Sarah had spent more time in the head-teacher's office than in class. After Mum became sick she just didn't like anyone telling her what to do.

“Everyone said she was going to get better,” Sarah said finally, trying to control her voice. “All the doctors, the teachers. Even Mum.”

“I'm sorry.” Daniel took another drink from the bottle. His voice was starting to sound a little slurred…and sleepy.

“They lied to us,” Sarah said, looking round at him, suddenly feeling angry. Angry at the plane crash and the meteorite. And angry at Daniel for lying too, keeping secrets. She almost challenged him about the diamonds, but stopped herself.

“All those months they knew she was going to die and they didn't tell us till the end,” she said finally.

“Perhaps they were trying to protect you.”

“Well, they shouldn't have,” Sarah replied emphatically. “I'm sick of people keeping secrets. And I'm sick of lies. From now on I'm not trusting anyone.”

For a while they didn't speak. Daniel seemed to pick up on the fact that she didn't want to discuss it any more and fell silent, which she had to give him credit for. She listened to him take another gulp from the bottle.

A sudden thought occurred to her and she pushed herself up on her elbows.

“You don't think that it's happening all over the world, do you?” she asked. “The sickness, I mean. The virus?”

Daniel shrugged and began to answer, but stopped short as a light flared in the distance to the south-east. They both looked round to see a pillar of fire rising into the air, illuminating the clouds and desert around it.

“Is it another plane crash?” Sarah asked, standing to see better.

“I don't think so,” replied Daniel, scratching his chin slowly. “It looks like a fire in the direction we're headed. The McKeever–Sikong refinery, most probably. One of the oil tanks must have exploded. What a mess!”

Sarah looked at the glow in the distance and shivered in the night chill. Suddenly everything in the world seemed more threatening than it had a day before.

“Get some sleep,” Daniel said, wrapping the blanket around himself. “We've got a long way to go tomorrow.”

Sarah lay down, but didn't close her eyes. She watched as Daniel worked his way to the bottom of the whisky bottle and passed out. Then she waited until she could hear him snoring, worried that he might be pretending to sleep. Finally, taking care not to disturb either him or Robert, she pulled off her blanket and stood up.

Sarah crept to the truck, opened the door and felt under the seat for Daniel's bag. It took a minute of fumbling to find what she was looking for. Unclipping the false back of the case as she had seen Daniel do in Barker's kitchen, she removed the velvet bag. Drawing it open, she allowed three of the precious stones to drop into her palm. They shone in the light of the distant oil fire as she turned them over in her hand. Judging by the weight of the bag, it must have contained another twenty such diamonds at least.

Replacing the stones, she closed the bag and went through the situation in her mind. Finally she knew why Mum had thrown him out: Daniel was a criminal and had been on the run for the last eight years. He might have come back for them in their hour of need, but that didn't mean she trusted him. The only thing she knew for sure was that he needed to look after the diamonds.

And as long as she had them, he would have to look after her and Robert too.

9

Daniel muttered under his breath. His head was stuck in the engine of the truck as it had been for the last half-hour. On waking, they'd found clouds covering the sky again and the truck unable to start.

“I thought you said you were an engineer,” Sarah said, watching him fumble with various parts of the engine without success.

“I build bridges, not cars,” Daniel replied with a distinct edge to his voice. “Why don't you two go and play for fifteen minutes while I sort this?”

“But I want to help you!” Robert protested as Sarah dragged him away.

They wandered in the dunes for a while.

In the east, a column of smoke stretched across the horizon where the fire had been the night before. The flames of the fire weren't visible in the daylight, but judging by the amount of smoke, it looked as if it was still burning.

To keep Robert occupied, Sarah got him to collect rocks that looked interesting. That worked for all of two minutes before he started complaining he was bored. Normally Sarah would have just shouted at him, but she bit her tongue. She really didn't want to argue any more.

In the distance the sound of the truck engine firing sent them running back. They found Daniel standing by the open door to the vehicle.

“You fixed it!” Robert cried, running to the door. Daniel slammed it as he got close, drawing him up fast.

“What's wrong, Daniel?”

“Ask your sister,” Daniel replied, his face dark and serious as he held up the shoulder bag in his right hand.

Robert looked round at Sarah, who managed a casual shrug.

“Lost something, Daniel?” she asked, meeting his gaze and holding it.

“I think you know what I've lost,” he said, pulling the glasses case from the bag and tossing it at her feet. “I guess I should have kept a closer eye on my stuff.”

Robert looked from Sarah to Daniel and back again in confusion.

“Sarah? What's he talking about?”

“He's not an engineer, Robert, just some kind of smuggler,” she said, taking his arm and pulling him away.

“That's not true!” Robert cried, looking back at the man. “Tell her, Daniel.”

“Sarah, it's not what you think,” Daniel began, shaking his head. “I am an engineer. But sometimes I'm paid to transport things around the world as well.”

Sarah let out a laugh.

“That's why you've got diamonds hidden in your flight bag, is it?”

“I need them back, Sarah,” Daniel said evenly. “They don't belong to me and if I don't deliver them to Melbourne I'm going to be in serious trouble.”

“And what if I don't want to go to Melbourne any more?” she said, standing firm. “What if I want to head to Adelaide? Or Sydney? Or the nearest police station?”

Daniel grimaced and reached through the open window of the truck, pulling out the keys.

“Then we'd have a problem,” he said, taking a step towards them. “Why don't you just give back the diamonds, Sarah. We can carry on like nothing happened.”

Robert turned on his sister. “You ruin everything!”

Sarah backed away in shock. “You don't understand, Robert…”

“Daniel saved us!” Robert's eyes were big and filling with tears. “Daniel helped us and you stole from him.”

“He's the thief! How do we know we can trust him? He's lying to us, just like all the others!”

Without warning, Daniel stepped between them, his hand closing around Sarah's upper arm and squeezing. His eyes bore into hers and she felt her knees weaken as she tried to pull away.

“Where are they?” he demanded.

“Buried. In the desert.”

“I don't believe you.”

“I did it last night. While you were sleeping.”

“You're lying.”

“You're hurting me.”

Daniel's grip tightened on her arm.

“I want that bag, Sarah.”

They faced each other in silence for a moment, locked in a stand-off. Finally, the spell was broken as a small rock landed against the side of Daniel's head, causing him to turn in surprise.

“Let her go!” Robert cried out, picking up a more sizeable rock and hurling it at Daniel, who ducked to avoid it.

“Bobbie…”

“Let Sarah go! You're hurting her!”

Thinking fast, Sarah reached into the pocket of her jeans, pulling out the bag of diamonds. Robert saw what she'd done, so she tossed it through the air to him.

“Run!” she screamed as he caught it. Without needing to be told twice, her brother spun on his heels and started running for the dunes.

Daniel released his grip on her arm and started after him. Sarah followed, hot on his heels. For a minute they chased one another over the sand, Robert in the lead.

Finally, Sarah launched herself at Daniel's legs, bringing him down on the sand. The two of them rolled down the side of a dune together, struggling to be the first up. The truck keys slipped from Daniel's hand and Sarah snatched for them, beginning a scramble through the sand. Their fingers closed around the keys at the same time and their eyes met, each burning with determination. Remembering her karate, Sarah pulled back her hand to strike Daniel in the neck. One blow in the right place could fell the strongest opponent…

“Please stop.”

The sound of Robert's voice, small and wavering, from a few metres away made them both freeze. They looked round to see him standing with his hand outstretched, offering the bag to Daniel.

“Whatever it is, you can have it back, Daniel,” he said quietly. “I don't want us to fight.”

There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other.

Finally, giving up his grip on the keys and breathing heavily, Daniel slumped back against the sand.

“I've made some mistakes in my time,” he said, looking at them both. “But I never thought I'd end up having a fist-fight with my own kids.”

“Welcome to being a dad,” Sarah replied breathlessly as she lay back on the sand.

Unexpectedly, this sent Daniel into a fit. He threw his head back and laughed.

“Just give him the bag, Robert,” Sarah said resignedly. “He wants it so badly.”

Robert walked over with the bag. Daniel touched Robert's cheek with his hand, but didn't take it.

“I'm sorry I chased you, Bobbie,” he said softly. “Why don't you look after those for me until we get out of this?”

Robert said nothing, but ran to sit by his sister. Daniel nodded as the boy placed the bag of diamonds in his pocket.

“So, are you an engineer?” Robert asked.

“I was, once,” Daniel said after a moment. “Then I got tempted by some…more lucrative lines of work. But when I heard your mum was sick, I promised I'd give that up. It was the only way she'd agree to let me back into your lives.”

“It didn't take you too long to break that promise,” Sarah said.

“You have to believe me, it was for us,” Daniel protested. “I owe some serious people money and this was my way to pay them off for ever – get out of that life completely. It was to give us all a new start.”

Sarah looked round at Robert and saw the tears in his eyes.

Daniel looked down at his feet. “I know I've messed up, but I'm your best bet for getting out of here. Unless you can drive a ute, that is. In Melbourne we'll talk about what we want to do. Whether you want me to be your dad or not. Until then, I promise I'll look after you the best I can.”

Sarah squeezed her brother's arm as he wiped the tears from his eyes. She wanted to tell him that it was okay, that the guy wasn't worth it, but she knew it was no use. Sarah guessed it was just a hard lesson Robert had to learn. She looked round at Daniel, her face emotionless.

“Just get us out of here,” Sarah said, refusing his hand as she pulled herself to her feet. “Go to the truck, Robert.”

Robert ran to the ute without a word. Sarah and Daniel followed after, side by side.

“There, now you know I'm not going to ditch you both,” he said. “Just make sure Bobbie doesn't lose that bag, or when we reach Melbourne I'll be the one getting dumped in the desert.”

“Well, we wouldn't want that,” she replied. “I guess.”

There was really nothing else to say.

In the distance, unseen by any of them, something glinted amidst the dunes and then disappeared, like the sun reflecting off a pane of glass.