I’m out of the moon boot! Yeahhhh!
I’m supposed to get the OK from the doc before driving, but it feels OK so I reckon it is OK. I’m very diligent in my physio exercises, and I’m confident that I can slam on the breaks if I need to. I’m still basing myself in the city for now, but I just had to get out. Not only for my sanity, but, you know, for the weird arse energy crime shit going on.
So yesterday I went back down to Mornington for the first time in… almost two months. I spent some time just driving around, passing the cop shop, driving in and out of the pier carpark, and just cruising around to see if there would be anything of interest. Nothing yet.
I took a bit of a risk and went to my fav cafe, Coffeefolk. Aside from wanting coffee, this was a strategic visit.
I wanted to make an appearance in the community. Show my face. Let it be known that I’m around, I haven’t disappeared, and it’s business as usual for me.
Not that anyone really knows me here. But the staff know my face, a few people recognise me, and if the local cops were to ask around, it would definitely be confirmed that I was here, drinking an espresso by myself, which is my very regular normal thing to do. Nothing to see here.
Then of course, I also wanted to eavesdrop on conversations. See if anyone was talking about anything interesting, if anything new was happening in Mornington. It’s a small town. People talk. If anything was happening, it would be heard. Anyway, I heard nothing of interest.
But I made my appearance, and then I left. Drove down to the park near the pier, and made myself invisible.
I got out and took a walk up to Main Street. Full stealth mode. Invisible. Just to have a look.
Now, the police station is at the bottom of the street, right near where I was parked. So I walked right up to the front door and peered in. Couldn’t see or hear anything unusual. Of course, I wished I had the power to phase in and out of matter so I could walk through the walls, but that wasn’t an option, so I couldn’t go inside.
I stayed invisible, and walked up Main Street. Looked in all the cafes and restaurants. Got to the end of the main shopping strip, crossed the road and walked back down. Everything seemed like a regular Wednesday evening, so I continued down to the park, and further down the road to the pier.
As a weekday evening, you’d think things would be pretty quiet, but it was warm and clear, so I would’ve expected the fish and chip shop here to be quite busy. People like to go for a walk, bring their families for some food, and maybe go to the park or beach. But this evening was very quiet. In fact, the fish and chip shop was closed. This seemed really weird to me. Early autumn, mild evening, and a fish and chip shop missing out on paying customers?
I walked closer to the shop. All the lights were out, but I could hear voices. Billy. The ex cop I wouldn’t trust with my life, John. And two others. Maybe the shop owner? And… hmmm someone else.
The voices were muffled so I couldn’t work out the details, but soon enough there was a loud thud of… furniture?
“Fuck!” Billy shouted.
Oh no.
Well, I couldn’t go in, because then it’d be me shouting too.
There was a scuffle. And Billy stormed out towards the carpark.
“Go after them!” John shouted.
The fish and chip shop owner ran out after Billy and grabbed them on the shoulder. I ran after them to listen on their argument.
Billy said they weren’t in it any more. It didn’t seem right. Mr Fishnchip said they had no choice. The cops rule this town and they rule this city, and Billy’s a cop so they should know that. Billy shrugged him off and kept walking towards their car.
Mr Fishnchip threw his hands up in frustration and ran back to the shop.
I ran towards Billy’s car to get there first. They got in the car. Immediately I made myself visible, showed myself at their passenger side door, and knocked.
“Let me in!” I said.
Poor Billy looked so shocked, but they unlocked the car.
“What the fuck?” they said at me.
“Shh,” I said. “Just drive.” I made myself invisible. “Fast.”
Billy took off up the hill and through Main Street.
“Can you make yourself visible, Anja? This is kind of creepy.”
“What’s creepy is you trying to kill me a couple of months back.”
They went quiet after that.
I waited until we were well past the shopping strip, and said, still invisible, “You’re in over your head, Billy.”
They nodded.
“Keep going along this road. I’ll show myself once we’re out of here and into Moorooduc.”
They nodded.
We drove in silence until we got past the freeway entrance. Then I showed myself.
“I’m sorry about before,” Billy said. “About, you know, running into your car and stuff.”
“It doesn’t matter Billy. You know you’re on the wrong side here, don’t you?”
They nodded.
“You wanna do something about it?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“You wanna work with me?”
“Yes.”
“You wanna take them down?”
“Hell yes!” Billy broke out into a smile.
So did I.
As we drove towards the other end of the peninsula, Billy caught me up on everything they knew. I told them… not quite everything (they didn’t need to know I was on a specific mission from both HQ and ASIO)… but about as much as I knew.
And we agreed.
Billy would keep working for them. Undercover. They would gather intel. I would try to get some kind of secure communication device to Billy so we could stay up to date. I would be living “away from Mornington” (they didn’t need to know exact details). And together we’ll be gathering as much info as possible to, you know, save the city and probably the whole country too.
We arrived at Hastings.
“Where to now?” they asked.
“I’m really hungry, and so exhausted. Do you think you could dash into the fish and chip shop and we can share some chips on the way back?”
So that was yesterday. Very fruitful indeed.
I got home (am I calling it home now?) to my safehouse in the city, fed my cat, and went to sleep. Cleo woke me up at 6am to get her breakfast, then I went straight back to sleep, and only just woke up now at midday.
I find this super sleuthing kind of fun and interesting. But my powers make me so tired, sometimes I wonder if it’s really worth it.
I’m going to make coffee and breaky now, then walk down to HQ.