choose the marks tonight, so what I say goes. No arguments.”
“You’ll get no argument from me Nats,” said Grant with a cheesy grin. “As long as you give me an easy one that is. Maybe give me some fat guy so I won’t have to walk too far or too fast because I’ve been on my feet all day.”
“Ok, I’ll see what I can do. You can go first since you volunteered.”
They all turned their gaze to the crowd walking past on the footpath outside the bar. Natalie closely scanned their faces and attire, looking for someone interesting or someone who looked like they had a secret. A young woman walked past the bar and instantly caught Natalie’s eye. She stood out from the crowd who were mostly office workers dressed in dark colours and large coats as she was wearing a tie died cotton dress, a big green duffel coat and red cowboy boots. She carried a large hessian-like bag on her shoulder and strode out with purposeful steps. Natalie smiled. “There you go Grant. She looks like an interesting person. Go and see what you can find out about her. Maybe you’ll fall in love or something,” she said, giving him a playful smack on his rump as he got up to leave.
“Why can’t I follow her?” complained Craig. “She looks right up my alley. And I’d like to look right up her alley.”
“Charming as always Craig,” Natalie responded, still smiling. “Wait your turn.”
In quick succession Natalie sent Jen and Bryce on their two hour time limited stalks. Jen was sent after a teenage boy carrying a skateboard, wearing an Ipod and scruffy jeans. He seemed like just another kid but Natalie’s sharp eye had been drawn to a small package he was carrying in his waistband and appeared to be trying to conceal. Much to Bryce’s chagrin and Natalie’s amusement he was sent out to follow a gay male couple holding hands and chatting animatedly to each other as they walked past. The older male was dripping with expensive looking jewelry which made Natalie think they might be worth following.
Craig patiently waited his turn while he finished off his third beer for the evening. Normally he tried to wait hold off on his drinking until after the game was completed in case he won and received free drinks courtesy of the other members of the group, but tonight he hadn’t been able to hold out.
“Well it’s just me and you now princess. How about we skip my stalk and just stay here and get to know each other a little better? I’m feeling a bit tired tonight, I worked five shifts this week and two of them were doubles.”
“Oh no you don’t. Just wait a moment longer and I’ll find someone for you.” She continued to scan the crowd passing by the bar and checked her watch. “It’s still early, plenty of time for you to head out. There!” she exclaimed, indicating a man walking down the street. “The one with the baseball cap who is about to cross the road. He’s all yours. Off you go!”
Craig drained the remainder of his beer in quick time, got up and quickly headed out in pursuit of his mark without further complaint.
“Good luck,” she called after him.
“Can’t get a look at his face because of that stupid baseball cap he’s wearing. Who the hell wears a cap at night time? He’s moving with purpose, in a straight line, looks like he’s definitely going somewhere. He never looks back or to the side, preoccupied maybe? Doesn’t suspect anyone is following him. I’m too good for that.”
Craig followed at a safe distance, wondering where his mark would take him. He tried to blend with the crowd, just another regular guy with a couple of beers in him looking for some entertainment on a Friday night.
“Nothing special.”
The mark headed west along Market Street as he took a call on his mobile, before turning left into George Street and heading south. After five minutes he turned into the Town Hall train station. Craig inwardly groaned, foreseeing an hour long ride to the western suburbs, but followed him anyway, trying to stay within reasonably proximity of him through the morass of people heading home for the long weekend.
As Craig took the escalator down to the platforms he saw a train on the Bankstown line quickly filling up. He realised what was about to happen almost too late as his mark made a late dash for the train that was about to leave. In near panic, Craig pushed his way forcefully through those below him on the escalator and ran madly for the train. He squeezed through the door just as it closed, one carriage behind his mark.
After regaining his breath and composure he moved forward toward the carriage that he saw his mark enter. Through the doors that separated the carriages he could see the familiar baseball cap sitting in a seat in the other carriage, just a few metres away, facing forward. Craig exhaled in relief, grabbed the overhead hand rail and got as comfortable as he could while he waited. He checked his watch and decided that he would follow his mark for a maximum of forty minutes before giving up and returning to the city.
Within twenty minutes Craig was relieved to see his mark alight at the St Peters station. Craig disembarked at the latest possible moment and casually followed. He watched the mark as he crossed King Street and headed into the park that was once a brickworks, a tip, and now presented itself as Sydney’s third largest park, Sydney Park. The mark moved quickly and purposefully along the pathways, moving in an easterly direction. The main trails were reasonably well lit and Craig passed a few energetic souls exercising their dogs and a pair of oblivious young lovers holding hands, gazing up at the stars. Off the paths, the light gave way to increasing dimness until the darkness became absolute in the copses of trees that were dotted around the park and also fringed it. Craig followed one hundred metres behind his mark, walking well off the path so that he would be near invisible to a casual backward glance. He passed close to a group of trees and jumped out of his skin when he almost collided with an old homeless guy wearing a battered trench coat who appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
“Watch where ya goin will ya,” roared the homeless guy.
Craig ignored him and felt certain that his mark must have heard the noise but he showed no sign of it and continued to walk briskly through the park toward its eastern edge without so much as a look back. He then veered off the main path and across the grass toward the trees.
“Now where the fuck are you going you shit crazy bastard?”
Several rows of gum trees marked the eastern boundary of the park. The mark slowed down and Craig placed his body behind a trunk to observe, certain the inky blackness of the shadow concealed his position. A worn track threaded itself through the trees. Recent rains had muddied it and the mark carefully picked his way through, alongside the path, displaying admirable athleticism as he leapt from rock to tree root to patch of grass.
“Pansy doesn’t want to get his shoes dirty. What are kids coming to these days?”
Craig cautiously followed, wanting to ensure the mark had actually passed through the fringe of trees and wasn’t just waiting for him on the other side. When he reached the place in the trees where the mark had passed through, he could faintly see him about thirty-five metres ahead in the shadows, moving slowly into what appeared to be an industrial area. He followed along the worn path, ignoring the mud that his hiking boots made short work of.
Despite the coolness of the evening Craig noted that he was now sweating and a damp patch was beginning to form at the base of his spine. He felt his heart pounding and his nerve ends tingled with anticipatory excitement. Instead of trying to calm himself he savoured the feeling and took in deep breaths of the cool night air that touched him deep inside his lungs. He was enjoying the hunt, perhaps more so than any other stalk he had undertaken even though he still knew nothing about his mark. Initially he and Bryce had started surveilling and stalking people to field test the equipment they were selling at their employer Carmichael’s Security. They would plant GPS trackers on cars and follow them, testing the range of the signal. They put listening devices in locations where they could overhear people’s conversations, in cafes, phone booths and under park benches. Over time however, the surveillance took a back seat to the heady rush of adrenalin they experienced when they stalked someone, seeing how close they could get to them and how much they could learn about them without them knowing. It was exciting and exhilarating to tiptoe along the line that separates right from wrong and occasionally cross it. It made Craig feel alive for just a moment when the rest of his life often seemed dead and without meaning.
Craig remained in the shadows in the trees as he observed the vague outline of his mark ahead who had stopped at the rear corner of a small warehouse. There was a loading dock at the rear of the building and parking for cars, but due to the lateness of the hour it appeared devoid of workers and activity. To Craig’s fascination the mark got down on his hands and knees and slowly crawled along the ground to the other rear corner of the warehouse, further away from where Craig was observing him.
“What the hell are you up to now?”
