Dave was shocked. "You're talking to other people? How are they? Where are they?"
"I should have worded that in a more subdued manner. All that we've achieved was to get a basic communication network up for the DOA members to use. It's just voice and only for for a hour or so at night. Its range is terrible. If you want to communicate a long distance then you have to send a message by word of mouth."
"Doesn't sound very secure and if you are relying on memory then there's a good chance that the message will get scrambled."
"I don't think that I'm been too arrogant when I say that the DOA people are some of the most trustworthy people around. If you wanted to send a message to someone on the other side of the country then you could trust the message to remain secret even though a few dozen DOA operatives would be involved. Obviously if you want a message delivered accurately then you'd keep the message short."
"How far can you communicate?"
"Honestly I don't know. I know that there are only a few DOA people scattered about this city and neighbouring area."
"That doesn't sound like too many."
"It gets a little messy when we try to communicate outside this city area. From what I gather there's one person north, one south and no one west. Oddly, there is someone east. It looks like they are on a boat, which explains how they survived. So we can sort of communicate outside this city region, but with just one person at either end I fear that it would be too easy to have an accident and lose them."
"Could you send some people to help."
"That would take people from the city area. We were understaffed before this happened, and we're in a woeful state now."
"Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you keep it a secret so as to provide hope?"
"If I was talking to someone else, then I probably would keep it a secret. But I have another reason. Do you remember how I was talking about how we've been setting up a basic communication network? Although that communication network is a bit fragile at the moment, we've had some rather interesting discussions. You might be surprised to hear that a lot of those discussions are about you."
"I am surprised. And perplexed."
"I've said it before. The way that you're trying to understand what is going on is completely unique. Obviously our communication network isn't very big and the operatives within that network haven't really explored that much. But so far we've come up empty. You are the only person who even has a hint of a plan. To all of us in DOA this is very special."
Dave looked down at the tea cup in his hands. He gave the dregs a swirl. He then looked up at the sky as if trying to find some answers.
"I've just felt that I've been blown along by events," said Dave. "I can't possibly say that I was working to some sort of plan. I know that I realised that I've been a useless moron all my life and that only now am I motivated to do something about that. But I've not got any answers. I can't see the way forward. I still can't shake that sense of uselessness that is within me."
Jane nodded. "I've heard this about people in the middle of major historical events. When people are in the middle of a time that gets remembered in all the history books, those people often don't fully realise the significance of what they are doing. You're too caught up looking at trees to notice that there's a forest."
"Surely you're talking about people who are a part of something major. Like a soldier who is a part of a huge army. He goes and does something heroic and that becomes a turning point in that war. But if he hadn't been the hero he was still surrounded by a whole army with other men who could have stepped into that role of hero had the original hero not been there."
"I know that you are the hero. Because you are the only person actually trying to do something, no matter how small you think your efforts might be. There is no army of alternatives."
"Come on," said Dave sitting back. "You are a part of DOA. It looks like DOA is the only organisation left in this country."
"That might be true, but DOA has an intentional structural defect that stops DOA from even trying to take control."
"What is the defect?"
"It's not really a fault. Oddly it's a feature."
Dave laughed. "I worked in software development. We'd use that phrase a lot."
Jane smiled. "DOA stands for Defenders Of Australia. It was understood that in order to truly defend this country that the organisation needed some sort of militia ability. And a militia could be misused to create a tyranny. To avoid such an outcome the DOA was stripped of all political leanings. If you had any political view point then you couldn't join the DOA. By keeping political motives out of the organisation it was hoped that the members of the DOA would always serve the people and do all that they could to protect them."
"That sounds challenging."
"It was. It really slowed down the hiring of staff and resulted in our weakened state right now. A surprisingly large proportion of DOA members survived to today, but since there were so few to begin with our numbers were just too insignificant to matter when we were needed the most."
"Earlier you were singing my praises. That just felt annoying. I've not achieved anything that deserves praise."
Jane grinned. "That's because it was a test."
"Huh?"
"Although we had decided to help you, this contact between you and me was a test. We wanted to see what happened if we stroked your ego. We were curious how you'd react."
"It was
