‘The Crosshouse.’
‘Exactly. What are the chances of someone mentioning collective unconsciousness the next day?’
‘That’s what collective unconsciousness is all about.’
‘Nah, I don’t buy it. I think we’ve been bugged. How else did he know which ferry, where we’ve been and where we’re going? I’m going down to look at the car. I’ll be back soon.’
‘You can’t go down there, it’s locked during the crossing.’
‘I’ll find a way.’
With that, Matt took off in the direction of the stairs to the car decks.
Aimee was right, the door to the parking deck was locked. He had to find a way in. If access here wasn’t allowed, it might be the only chance he had of getting a good look at the car without Hemi knowing what he was up to. He looked around for a ship employee. The perfect victim came his way.
‘Excuse me,’ Matt said to the pimply young man who looked very proud of his uniform, ‘I need to get down to my car.’
‘Sorry sir, the vehicle decks are out of bounds during sailing.’
‘I know, I understand. It’s a safety thing. But my friend is sick and needs special medication. We didn’t think to bring it up.’
‘Oh.’ The crewman looked around, panic coming over his face. ‘It’s my first week, I don’t know who to talk to.’
‘We don’t have time,’ Matt said, sounding as exasperated as he could, ‘every second counts till she gets those meds.’
‘Shit, follow me.’
He raced down a hall and around a corner before opening an unmarked steel door. Matt was hard on his heels. The door opened to a narrow staircase that led steeply downwards. Matt shut the door behind himself.
‘Go down these stairs and you’ll be on the vehicle decks. Be as quick as you can and come back up this way. If you get caught, I never saw you. I like my job.’
‘Your secret is safe with me. And hey, you just saved a life.’
The young man smiled and slipped back through the door and off to whatever task he was interrupted from. Matt descended the stairs and entered the car-deck through another steel door. He looked back at it and took a mental picture so he could find his way out.
At the car, Matt lay down in the foot-well of the driver and passenger seats and searched for a bugging device. In the movies they were always little plastic boxes, so he knew what to look for, but came up empty. The glove box, dashboard, seats, under the seats, in the pockets and behind the sun-shades — everything looked normal.
Under the car. It must be a locator device or something.
Matt climbed out and lay on his back to slide under the car. Bingo. There it was, plain as day. Quite a large plastic box with a little light glowing on it. This was just like the movies. It was secured with cable ties, impossible to remove with bare hands, but Matt never left home without his Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. He opened the blade, cut the ties, held onto the device and crawled out from his uncomfortable confines. He looked at the transmitter and thought about throwing it overboard or drowning it in the toilet, but then he had a better idea. If it stopped working, Hemi would realise something was wrong. It would be better to relocate it, as it were, and send the Maori off on a wild goose chase. The very next car was a good host candidate, a hatchback with every last inch of the back window stuffed with luggage, a baby-on-board sticker completing the image. Matt got to work and attached the bug to the hatchback.
Don’t worry, he told the driver in his head, you’re not going to notice the extra weight.
His work done, he went and rejoined Aimee to enjoy the rest of the cruise.
Greg Scowen
The Spanish Helmet
Greg Scowen
The Spanish Helmet
CHAPTER 30
Monday, October 25, 1526
I must write in this journal more sparingly, as I risk running out of space. I have few pages left here and only one blank volume available. Unfortunately, the rest of our cloth parchment, those from Xativa, and ink were lost with the Sancti Spiritus.
After leaving the harbour that I spoke of in my last entry, the coast continued along the large bay in a west- north-west direction. Some twenty odd leagues beyond the harbour, we found another much larger harbour where the coast took a sharper turn to the north-west and we skirted around a beautifully forested peninsula. The trees to be seen here covered the low mountains in a spectacular fashion, reaching heights beyond belief. We rounded the peninsula, noting a large island to the north, and crossed the southerly basin about half-way down its length. What we thought was the continued coast of the land, we discovered to be a further group of islands. To the west of these was yet another large and very calm harbour. The entrance to it was small and hid the secret of its size well. We could well have chosen to stop here for a while, but I prefer to make short stops for replenishment and then to continue exploring all that this land has to offer before setting a return course for home.
We have set up wooden crosses and laid five stones on the ground in each place we have dropped anchor. We still have a good supply of jars for leaving messages in, but parchment is in short supply and I want to keep some jars for preserving foods and samples to take home.
We left the peaceful harbour and followed the coast for a further hundred leagues north, before rounding a cape and finding ourselves on a south-east course. There are long beaches in these parts. The one almost immediately after the northern cape here is over eighteen leagues long. I expect that the cape we have rounded belongs to a large peninsula, and that we will eventually be turned to the west again, although even with the clear weather we have today, no land is to be seen on the western horizon.
Thursday, October 28, 1526
We sailed another twenty-two leagues after seeing the long beach, and found ourselves still skirting beaches and cliffs. The coast slowly turned in a more southerly direction, so I decided to steer due south, expecting that the land would remain in our sight. My presumption was not wrong. Directly in front of us a mountain rises out of the sea. We will sail on toward this landmark and again look for a harbour or anchorage where we can replenish our supplies. The men are eating well and in are superb health, such is the bountiful ocean of this land.
CHAPTER 31
Hemi didn’t know what had gone wrong with Leigh’s transmitter, but it didn’t seem to work anymore. As he drove out of Picton, the signal from Dr. Cameron and Aimee had been lost. It started with a crackle and then the signal got weaker and weaker, until it almost completely disappeared about five hundred metres up the road from the ferry terminal. He turned the car, drove back towards the ferry, and it reappeared again. The blinking icon on his receiver showed that his targets were still at the terminal. Hemi knew that if he got signal at this range but not further away, the relay transmitter he installed under the car was either broken or out of the GPS bug’s range. The second possibility didn’t bear thinking about. Now he was just picking up the GPS bug transmission itself. The five hundred metre range limitation meant that he would have to stay a lot closer to his prey. No problem at all. He waited for them to drive past.
Greg Scowen
